[guncannon109]

3rd Revolution: Departure, a New Adventure Begins

Trey ran down the late night streets with a large fully packed red knapsack swung over his shoulder. He turned into an alleyway where Syd was leaning against a steel garage door waiting for him. She looked over to him with a grin.

“You get everything in order?” she asked curiously.

Trey nodded, “I told my folks I was going on a camping trip with a friend of mine.”

“Good, then I’d say it’s about high time we got moving,” she turned around and pulled up the garage door, she bowed to him, “ladies first.”

Trey ignored the remark and stepped inside the pitch black garage, “I’m guessing you still have a bit of packing to do?”

“Not exactly,” she pulled on a lever as a million bright lights switched on revealing a chrome interior that gave the impression of a dome, a control panel sat in the center of the room.

The interior was sleek yet gave the impression that it was fairly worn out, with several exposed wires jutting out from busted wall panels The twin swords, crossbow and staff that Jayd had used in battle hung in glass cases along the wall on one side along with a pair of violet daggers which Trey did not recognize on the very end.

Syd stood next to him and placed her hands on her hips, “Welcome to the Annex Trey.”

“The Annex…” Trey stood in awe of his new surrounding, “so… this is where you guys live?”

“For the most part,” Eli called out from the gem on Syd’s gauntlet, “The Annex acts as our base of operations and safe heaven. It’s reinforced so that no Gate Keeper can enter no matter how strong they are.”

“It’s our mobile fortress,” Jayd said as a small chirping sound erupted from a pile of broken panels as a mechanical owl like creature flew up from the clutter and dashed over to Syd. Syd laughed a little, “Hi there Torchwick, you miss us?”

The owl made small clicking noises and nodded, “Yes! Yes!”

Syd smiled, “We missed you too.”

Trey jumped back, “GAH! The heck is that?!”

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot,” she held the robotic owl up to Trey, “This is Torchwick, he acts as the anchor and navigator for the Annex. He keeps it running but sadly his systems got fried he can’t control where we go… I’m still working on it.”

“I see…” Trey looked around for a moment then turned back to Syd, “So… how exactly does this thing move?”

Syd snapped her fingers and pointed to the terminal in the center of the room, “Right over there,” she said hopping over to the control board grabbing a large lever. She looked back to Trey, “You might want to hold onto something.”

Trey raised an eyebrow, “Wait, why?”

Eli spoke out, “Turbulence.”

Syd shrugged then smirked, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

She flipped the lever down resulting in the entire room shaking knocking Trey off his feet and onto the floor. The primary lights of the Annex shut off as dull neon green ones took their place as a drowning electronic whine filled the room.

“Oh, almost forgot,” Syd spoke up pulling the lever back up bringing the Annex to a halt, the lighting remaining the same, “there’s something I want to show you.” she said jumping over to a small hatch on the wall.

Trey picked himself up off the ground and made his way over to the hatch. Without saying a word Syd opened the hatch revealing a glass window that looked out to a neon green void filled with what looked like cables made of neon light of various colors.

Trey’s jaw dropped, “What is this?”

“This is the network, my world,” Syd smiled, “network riders such as myself use this subspace to travel all across the world to get to where they need to be. Oh, there goes one now!” she called out pointing to an orb of light travel down a violet colored path at a speed that was almost impossible to see.

“Whoa!” Trey jumped back, “You can get halfway across the world in a matter of seconds from here?”

“Yup,” Syd returned leaning against a wall, “Beautiful isn’t it? Such a shame that you can only see it for an instant… though most good things in this world rarely last forever.”

Trey looked at her, “Syd… who exactly are you?”

She looked back at him and smiled, “I’m just a wandering network rider,” she said poking him on the nose, “that’s all you need to know.”

{Insert Opening Theme - “Rinbu Revolution” by Chihara Minori}

Selias hung upside down from a steel hoop swing above a bit of dusty old bones surrounded by several pale blue flames. She spun herself around in the air as her puffy orange pigtails hung down over her face letting out a small sigh.

“Man, what is taking Many Faces so damn long!” she moaned, “He should know better than to keep me waiting!” She pulled herself up and leaned against the hoop with one leg up against one side and the other hanging off the edge of it, “Man I’m bored… I hate that.”

Just then, a bright sapphire blue flame ignited behind her.

“GAH!” Selias screamed nearly being knocked off balance, “What’s wrong with you!” The blue flame crackled angrily at her, causing her to raise an eyebrow, “Status report?” she slumped back down on her swing, “Kind of crap, the girl has gotten a new friend on her side.”

The flame crackled once again as if it was asking a question.

Selias nodded in response to it, “It would appear so. Not sure what’s so special about him though, he’s just an average fledging.” Another crack from the blaze erupted this time causing her to raise her voice, “I JUST SAID THERE WASN’T ANYTHING!”

The flame grew warmer as a soothing coo sounded from it.

“I know I know, geez this is such a pain… how are things going on your end?” The flame responded to her causing her to roll her eyes, “Oh my, aren’t you so lucky.”

The flame seemed to laugh at her.

“Easy for you to say, you’re sitting on your ass while I have to do all the work!” After another response she raised both her eyebrows in disgust, “It’s always the girls with you! What is it about them that get you in such a hot tizzy anyway?”

The flame laughed once again.

“Yeah yeah whatever. Anyway, by the looks of things the wanderer and her friend will be arriving in their next location shortly. I should get back to work.” The flame made a small crackle that sounded like a kiss being blown before going out in a burst of ember. Selias rolled her eyes and sighed, “I love you too.”

“Excuse me my lady,” a deep booming voice called out from one of the blue flames around her, “I’m in position and awaiting further instruction.”

“Many Faces…” she glared at the flame “you’re late. Surely you know the punishment for those that disappoint me.”

“I’m sorry Lady Selias,” a slithering voice beyond the flame pleaded, “it shall not happen again.”

“I should hope not,” she said maintaining the disappointed glare.

“Now then my lady,” a raggy old woman’s voice called out, “what are my orders?”

Selias rolled her eyes, “just… do whatever you want.”

“As you wish,” the slithering snake voice call out once again, the blue flame quickly going out as soon as it was done speaking.

The orange haired seraph fell down on her swing hanging upside down once again before letting out a sigh, “honestly… what is even the point of all this?”

---

Syd switched off the Annex as it’s primary lights switched back on as the rubble settled down until only a relaxing hum could be heard throughout the rooms interior. Syd hopped down and went to pull open door on the side of the large garage one.

“Alright, I wonder where we’ve ended up now,” Syd said with a grin out of anticipation pulling the door open as daylight rushed into the confides of the Annex. She looked over to Trey, “You might want to come see this.”

Trey stepped over to the door and looked out, his heart stopped for a moment as the bustling streets of London England filled his vision, “Unbelievable… I never thought I’d be this far away from home in my life.”

Syd smiled at him, “You can go anywhere you want to if you set your mind to it, you just need to take the first step out the door.” She slapped Trey on the back, “Now then, how’s about we look around and see where the beasts are hiding?”

Trey looked back and nodded, “Just one question, where should we start?”

Syd patted him on the shoulder, “That is just one part of the fun.” A small growl erupted from Trey’s stomach. Jayd laughed a bit closer her dull green eyes, “First off, why don’t we get you something to eat.”

Trey looked off to one side and smiled with a look of embarrassment in his eyes, “Yeah… that sounds like a good idea.”

“Alright then come on!” Syd instructed stepping into the streets of London, “There’s a place I know not too far from here, follow me and I’ll show you.”

---

In an elementary school across town, a group of kids made up of three girls and five boys had gathered kicking a soccer ball in the field just outside the main building. One of the girls kicked the ball over to one of the boys who in turn kicked it so hard that it flew over the fence.

“Aw nice going Will!” cried out a larger boy, “That’s the fourth time you’ve done that! Honestly, why do we even bother playing with you?”

“Hey! Leave him alone will ya Ronnie!” Shouted back the girl who had passed it to will in the first place. She had short brown hair along with deep violet eyes and wore a red t-shirt and navy blue shorts along with heavily worn out running shoes.

The older boy crossed his arms and scoffed at her, “not my fault he sucks.”

“Oh just shut it!” the girl yelled back at him, “I’ll just get it okay?”

Will raised his hand, “It’s okay Jill… I’ll get it.”

“A-are you sure?” Jill asked raising an eyebrow.

Will nodded back, “Yeah, it will only take a sec.”

The small boy ran over and placed one foot into the chainlink fence and slowly but surely climbed up to the top. Once there, he swung one foot over it and looked down to the ground which from his perspective felt like a hundred miles below him. He looked over to the ball which had landed in a gutter then gulped before climbing down to the other side.

He picked the ball up from out of the gutter and threw it over the fence to the other side.

“FINALLY!” Ron shouted from the other side of the fence.

Will walked over to the fence and grabbing onto it with both of his hands. He let out a small sigh then leaned his head against the links, “Why do I always do this?” he whispered to himself as a tears began to form in his eyes, “why do I always fail?”

A ghostly blue thread like beam appeared onto his back and ran down to a sewer grate as a tear in reality ripped open from the grate. The thread fell down into the rip and wrapped around the finger of a humanoid lion like creature with a goat's head stuck to his shoulder, red bat wings jutting off his back and poison green snake in place of his tail.

The lion’s head cackled, “Well well… looks like we’ve found one.”

The beast’s snake tail slithered up his back and hissed, “Lady Selias will be pleased.”

“After Grak’nar’s failure, I don’t it will be hard to do so,” The goat’s head smirked, “let the hunt begin my brothers.”

“We’ll wait until he’s alone,” The lion’s head snarled sniffing the thread, “then we’ll break him apart from the inside out.”

“I love the way you think,” the snake called out licking his lips, “Ashura of Many Faces.”

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

Syd and Trey sat at a white circular table atop the roof of a cafe. Trey tapped his fingers on the glass of the table’s top looking out to the horizon while Syd aligned her five dice in the order of green, orange, blue, violet and red from the left side of the table to the right.

“Alright, let’s see if we have this right…” she called out to Eli whose gem sat in the middle of the row of dice on the table removed from Syd’s gauntlet, “We have five at the moment, but not much info on how they all work. How much do you think these guys will be able to handle?”

“Analyzing,” Eli announced with a quick spark in his gem, “ D6: Emerald, Classification: Striker, Uses: 14 of 20. D6: Amber, Classification: Hunter, Uses: 9 of 20. D6: Sapphire, Classification: Caster, Uses: 1 of 20. D6: Violet, Classification: Stalker, Uses: 3 of 20. D6: Crimson, Classification: Finisher, Uses 19 of 20.”

“I see,” Syd returned raising an eyebrow, taking both the red and green dice into her hands, “we should probably set a bit of jayd aside to make new Striker and Finisher dice… Torch is not going to be happy about this. Oh well,” She shrugged and put them back down on the table where they were, “Guess there isn’t much we can do about it now, is there?”

“With every choice comes sacrifice,” Eli announced, “You of all people should know that by now Syd.”

Syd sighed, “I know I know… still doesn’t make it easy,” she looked over to Trey who was still staring off into space with somewhat of a long face. “Trey?” she called out to him, “is everything alright?”

“Oh? Yeah, I’m fine,” he said turning to her forcing a smile, “Everything is a okay.”

She raised an eyebrow, “You sure?”

“Of course,” Trey nodded, “why do you ask?”

“Oh, no reason,” she returned sliding back into her chair. She looked up to a big white ferris wheel that towered over them, “Hey look!” she called out pointing to it dawning a smile, “the london eye! Photos sure don’t do the thing justice, am I right?”

Trey shrugged still with the same smug expression, “I guess…”

Syd frowned, “is that so…” in less time that it took to blink she raised her arm into the air and brought her splayed open hand down hard on the boy who sat in front of him.

“OW!” Trey shouted grabbing the top of his head where Syd had struck him, “What was that for!”

Syd cross her arms, “Maybe if you were paying attention that wouldn’t have happened.”

“Well I’m paying attention now!” Trey yelled back.

Syd glared at him in silence, keeping the boy in the dark. After a few moments, she slapped him again.

Trey shouted in agony, “What did I do that time!”

Syd bursted out laughing, “I just felt like it that time.”

As the two quarreled, a waiter with long slicked back black hair wearing a formal black shirt and a pair of neatly pressed black dress pants approached them. “Excuse me… I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

“Oh no, we were just-” Syd began speaking only to be silenced once she caught a glimpse of the man’s face, “... what are you doing here?”

“Why I work here,” the waiter said with a grin, “don’t you remember my flower?”

“How could I forget?” Syd pouted crossing her arms, “is there something important you came over here for?”

“Why yes, that would be your order,” the waiter said with a smile placing two plates from the tray he carried onto the table. A chocolate and strawberry sundae with sprinkles and hot fudge sauce along with a cherry on top in front of Syd and a chicken club sandwich in front of Trey, “Please enjoy your meal, I’ll be back once you’re finished.” the waiter said before walking off.

Trey raised an eyebrow, “Uh… mind me asking what that was about?”

Syd shook her head, “Just forget about it.

Trey asked once again, “You sure?”

Syd nodded, “He’s not worth the time,” she picked up a silver spoon that had been placed into the strawberry side of the sundae, a smile quickly appearing on her face, “this on the other hand is.” She picked up a small spoonful of ice cream and brought it to her mouth only to stop halfway and place the spoon back into the bowl, “Whoops, almost forgot.”

“Forgot what?” Trey asked as Syd pulled off one of the filled vials attached to her belt and cracking it open, pouring a bit of it into the ice cream and mixing it with her spoon, “Uh… is that really a good idea?”

Syd completely ignored him and shoved the spoon into her mouth, “Hmm, sweet momma that’s good stuff!” She shouted with glee as her dull green eyes seemed to brighten up with every bite becoming a dazzling emerald like color.

“Wait, you mean you can actually eat that stuff?”

“You got it,” Syd returned, “you wanna try some?”

Trey thought for a moment, then nodded, “Sure, I don’t see why not.”

Syd grabbed a glass that was meant for water and poured a small bit of the green liquid into it before passing it over to Trey.

“Here ya go,” she said with a somewhat sinister smirk.

Trey looked into the cup for a moment watching as the bizarre substance bubbled inside the glass, he took a small gulp then brought the class to his lips taking a small bit of it into his mouth. Upon contact the liquid sent a sharp burning sensation to the inside of his mouth causing him to spit it right out on to the ground.

“BWAHAHAHA!” Syd laughed, “I can’t believe you actually did that!”

Trey grabbed his chest and panted, “How can you eat this stuff!”

“Silly boy,” Syd grinned patting Trey on the head, “only network riders like myself can consume jayd.”

“To the average person it’s highly corrosive,” Eli explained, “that’s why over time, the network navigators devised a defense system to neutralize the effects. There are even a select few amongst the Network’s highest ranking riders that have proven able to use it as a source of nourishment.”

“Is that why you collect it?” Trey asked somewhat taken back by this new information.

“That’s right,” Syd nodded back to him, “though most of us just use it to power our weapons. It’s a gatekeeper’s own life force that is used to destroy them, rather ironic don’t you think?”

“That’s certainly one way to put it…” Trey thought for a moment then gasped, “speaking of, don’t you think we shoul-”

“SYD!” Eli shouted alerting the two, “A gatekeeper has emerged not too far from here!”

Syd smirked, “right on schedule.” She quickly finished her ice cream them grabbed her dice off the table and placed Eli’s gem back onto her gauntlet, “You might want to take notes this time around Trey my boy, you’ll surely learn a heck of a lot more that way.”

---

Back at the school, the kids had finished up their game and were making their way home as the sun began to set on the once crowded schoolyard. Will picked up his bag up from where he had set it down by one of the imaginary goal posts wiping a bit of sweat off of his face.

“Here,” Jill called out handing him a bottle of water.

“Oh… thank you,” Will returned taking the water from her and cracking it open, taking a few sips before closing it once again.

“Sorry about Ron… he gets a bit too competitive when it comes to things like this.” Jill looked at him with her brow furrowed, “You alright?”

Will nodded, “Yeah… I’m okay.”

Jill smiled back at him, “That’s good.” As she spoke, a cherry red car drove up to the curb, “Well, that’s my ride. I’ll see you on monday okay Will?”

Will nodded once again, “Yeah… see you then.”

Jill ran over to the car and opened up the rear door before climbing inside and closing it behind her, waving Will goodbye from the window as the car drove off. Will waved back to her, his heart beginning to race a small bit.

“Aw, how touching,” a voice hissed from behind the small boy.

Will’s heart skipped a beat as he quickly turned around. His eyes shot open as he stood frozen in horror at the sight of Ashura who now stood directly behind him, the beasts crimson red bat wings covering any source of light making him appear as a mere black shadow with a single blood red eye visible to the boy.

The beast’s snake tail broke off and constricted around the small child making it impossible for him to get away. “Such a cutie… don’t you think brother?” the snake hissed looking will in the eye, “should we eat him now?”

“HE IS NOT FOR EATING!” the lion roared pulling the snake’s head away from the child’s face but still leaving him wrapped around his body, “His pure threads must be corrupted, once he has given birth to a gate keeper you may do as you wish with his husk of a body.”

“Is that so?” another voice called out.

Ashura turned around to see Syd standing on the field a few feet away from him with Trey standing just behind her.

Trey began to shake a small bit, “Syd… what exactly is that?”

“A chimera,” Syd returned, “a gate keeper made up of all sorts of different creatures with each one of their minds fighting for control. Seems that the lion is the most dominant in this one’s make up.”

“The wanderer…” the beast’s goat head spoke out, “we were wondering when you would show.”

“I’ve been awaiting the day I could crush your head within my jaws,” the lion’s head growled licking its lips, “though I’ll admit… I wasn’t expecting a girl.”

Syd rolled her eyes ignoring the beast’s comment, “Eli, you ready?”

“Always,” Eli returned, “when you are.”

Syd smirked and pulled out her emerald striker gem and her driver slapping it onto her waist, she then pulled up her hood and slammed the die into her belt, “Mihara, Lowe, Sharza, Kuwa, Grune, Nago. Ancient spirits bind this beast and grant me you power. Through me unleashed! she called out before spinning the dial the buckle, “Henshin!”

“Game Start!” her buckle shouted as she spun the dial and pulled her hood up over her face, her coat changing from blue to green as a mask formed in the hood along with light medieval style armor throughout her outfit and two swords formed on her back, “STRIKER! Piercing Saber Arise!”

“Nameless beast of rage and hate!” Syd called out in the combined voice of both her and Eli, “Your soul is forfeit and thus we have come claim it!” She pulled both her swords off her back and aimed one at the beast, “Now… repent foul beast!”

The lion head snorted and turned its full attention to Syd, “You claim my soul?... Mere mortal, I am but a construct created to give life to those similar to myself and bring death to those that attempt to slay me,” he narrowed his and sharpened his eyes at her, “I have no soul.”

Syd gritted her teeth and tightened her grip around her swords, “Trey, get back.” she ordered him, he following her instruction and backing away as far as possible.

The lion growled and charged at Syd clawing at her with all his might, she blocking his strike with one sword then slashing at him with the other, his emerald blood gushing out of the wound as she did so. This however didn’t phased the lion in the slightest as he proceeded to ignore the pain and jump down to the ground and kick Syd in the gut with his horse like legs knocking the wind out of her causing her to drop her swords.

Syd panted as she did her best to ignore the pain and make her way back to feet, however Ashura simply grabbed her face and slammed it into a nearby tree.

“SYD!” Trey shouted taking one step forward.

“Stay back!” she called back to him snapping her fingers resulting her both her swords shooting back to her hands. She then reached her arms behind her back and sliced both her swords at the beast’s arm slicing it clean off freeing her from his grasp. She turned on her heel and aimed her sword at him once again, “You’re stronger than the others… my mistake for underestimating you.”

The lion chuckled, “that makes two of us,” the snaked unraveled itself off of Will and reattached itself to the beast’s tailbone, “tell you what wanderer, we shall leave you and the fledgling be for now. But come this time tomorrow we shall aim to corrupt the fledgling… and we will kill you.”

Syd gritted her teeth a small bit then muttered, “... deal.”

Without another word, the chimera clawed at the air in front of him with his remaining arm causing a rip into the network to form in front of him and with one strong leap he dashed into it as it closed after him leaving his severed arm behind.

Syd pressed down on the button on the top of her driver ejecting the die from her buckle returning her to normal. She sighed then kicked the beast’s severed arm across the field, “Man, I can’t believe we actually let him get away!”

“There was nothing we could have done Syd,” Eli called out to her, “you know that.”

“yeah I know,” Syd sighed, “you don’t need to remind me.”

Will fell to the ground and began to tremble before breaking down and bursting to tears. Syd turned to him then gave a warm smile and knelt down in front of him.

“There there little one, it’s alright” she cooed wrapping her arms tightly around the small child patting him on the head, “that monster isn’t going to hurt you…I’ll make sure of it.”

Trey watched from the other side of the field keeping his distance. He felt that even though both him and Syd were very much human, she seemed to be from a completely different world then he. Of course he suspected this since he first met her, but now is was all the more true when now, even though they were only a few feet away, the distance to him felt far greater.

---

Deep within the cables of his network, Ashura dug through a pile of bones and dismembered body parts as if he looking for something.

“Looking for this?” a voice called out from the shadows, “Many Faces?”

Ashura looked over to see the same man with slicked back black hair that Syd and Trey ran into earlier standing just outside the mouth to his lair. He held in his hand a glass jar with the arm of a dragon like creature with pale white scales and long blue claws.

“Maestro…” Ashura growled, “where did you get that?”

“Scavenged it from the corpse of another lion much like yourself,” the black haired man proclaimed tossing the limb over to the beast, “I figured you might get better use of it then it’s former owner… poor thing never was all she was cracked up to be.”

The goat’s head raised an eyebrow, “what’s the catch?”

“No catch,” Maestro returned, “so long as you bring in yours.”

The lion broke open the jar and attached the arm to his gritting his teeth from the pain of the nerves connecting, “With this there will be no problem of us securing our prey

“I should hope so,” Maestro leaned against the mouth of the cave looking up at the ceiling, “mother is already irritated, you best not disappoint her younger sister much longer.”

Ashura snarled, “We don’t intend to. We’ll capture this fledgling and destroy the wanderer... without fail.”

Maestro looked back to him and smirked, “music to my ears.”

{Insert Ending Theme - “Kyoukai no Kanata” by Chihara Minori}

Next time on Kamen Rider Jayd:

Oh boy, things are really heating up now! How are Syd and Eli going to get out of this one? With Ashura on the prowl with new drive and power there’s no telling what dangers our heroes face! But you’re just going to have to wait and see when Kamen Rider Jayd continues with it’s 4th Revolution: Crossing Over, A Reason for Being!