[guncannon109]

4th Revolution: Crossing Over, A Reason for Being

Maestro sat atop the mouth of a large crater within the web of cables, watching carefully as the chimera Ashura slashed away at mindless masses of human shaped cables that Maestro control via threads of light attached to his fingertips.

Ashura got to the point where he began to get frustrated as once he would tear one of the dummies a part, two more would take it’s place. Ashura growled and roared at the top of his lounges erupting in a wave of ear shattering sound which sent all the dummies against the walls of the crater.

“MAESTRO!” he growled glaring back at the man who looked down on him from above, “WE GROW TIRED OF YOUR GAMES!” the snake tail hissed, “WHY DO YOU CONTINUE TO WASTE OUR TIME!”

Maestro, retaining his devilish smirk, shook his head and rose to his feet, “I am not ‘wasting’ it as you so gently put it, I’m merely allowing you kill it.” he flipped his haired and snapped his fingers causing a wine glass to appear in his left hand along with a black bottle with a severed grey hand with long black nails, “it was you who set the timer, have you forgotten that already Many Faces?”

The lion’s head growled while the goat spat back, “No we haven’t! WE are simply-”

Ashura then grabbed the goat head by it’s mouth and began pulling, “learn to shut your mouth Elda… this is my body, not yours.”

The goat pleaded, “Sorry master… I didn’t mean to-”

“Didn’t mean to what?” Ashura growled glaring at Elda with hungry eyes, “Speak on my behalf without permission once again?”

Elda began to shake, “It won’t happen again… I swear it on my life!”

Ashura snarled, “I know.”

In one fell swoop Ashura ripped the goat’s head off from his shoulder as red threads quickly healed the wound left open from her removal on his body. Elda began to shake even more as her eyes shifted around rapidly, “Brother please… DON’T DO THIS!!!”

Before the goat could say another word, Ashura crushed the poor defenseless thing within the paw of a single claw reducing her to an unrecognizable pile of threads and human bones.

Maestro smirked as he swirled the wine in his glass, “now that’s the beast I worked so hard to create,” he whispered to himself, taking a small sip from his glass, “Oh Syd my dear, you’ll certainly have your hands full with this one.”

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

Trey and Will sat on a park bench just a small ways away from the school field. Syd was over by an ice cream cart picking up something for the two kids and herself.

“Okay… let me think,” Syd thought for a moment looking over the selections that were available, she then snapped her fingers as her usual grin appeared on her face “Okay got it, I’ll have to fudge pops and once Tasty Nugget Gobber Fire Cracker please.”

“Alright miss,” the man at the cart nodded reaching into the freezer and pulling out what Syd had asked for before handing them to her and reaching out his other hand, “that’ll be sixteen pounds and forty-six pence.”

Syd nodded and finished out a hand full of blank pieces of paper and metal and handed them to the vender as they transformed into the currency she needed, the vender not seeming to notice.

Syd looked at him with a smiled, “Have a nice day!” she said taking the ice cream from him and skipping away back to Will and Trey on the bench.

“You too!” the cart owner returned with a smile of his own and a wave.

Once Syd had made it back to the bench, she handed each of the boys one of the fudge bars she had bought, “here you go kids.”

“Thank you,” the two returned taking the bars from her.

Syd sat down on the bench beside Will so that the boy was directly in between her and Trey, “So then… Will was it?” the boy nodded as Syd unwrapped her frozen snack and took a bite into it chewing it slowly before swallowing, “what’s your story? Why do you think that creature was after you?”

Will began to tense up a bit, “I-I really just don’t know…” he dug his nails into his jeans as tears began to fall down from his cheeks and onto his hands, “it all happened so fast… I was grabbing my bag, then next thing I knew…”

Syd frowned then placed one hand on the boy’s back, “there there Will,” she cooed wrapping her other arm around him, being careful that none of her popsicle get on him, “Sorry for being so pushy, you don’t need to tell us if you don’t want to.”

Will sniffled, “thanks,” he whimpered wiping the tears from his eyes. Trey then handed Will his fudge bar, Will simply took it, unwrapped it and then proceeding to eat “just who are you guys away?”

“I’m just a girl with a dream and no home,” Syd smiled, she then pointed to Trey, “and this guy is just tagging along… he’s not important.”

Trey sat straight and spat out the fudge bar that was in his mouth, “WHAT DO YOU MEAN NOT IMPORTANT!”

Syd laughed a little, “Silly boy,” she chuckled flicking Trey in the nose, “for a former high school student you must have not taken the class on how to take a joke.”

Trey’s eye twitched, “... well I wouldn’t need it if they weren’t so personal.”

Syd shrugged, “I guess you’re right… ah well,” in a few short bites she finished her popsicle then eyed the bag that Will had just below his feet, “So Will… you play sports?”

“Well… football on occasion…” Will sighed hanging his head, “but I’m not very good at it… I should probably just give up on it”

Syd raised an eyebrow as she turned her attention to the back of the boy’s neck as a ghostly pale blue thread began to grow noticeably darker. She jumped to her feet then patted the boy on both shoulders.

“Nonsense!” she exclaimed with a smile looking deep into his eyes, “I’m sure with a little work you can be great!”

Will shook his head, “I can’t… there’s no point.”

She sighed then stood up straight, “Alright, if that’s how you wanna be,” she pulled out a dull grey die and threw it up into the air, “we’re gonna need to do this the hard way.”

The die burst into a cloud of black smoke before transforming into a hovering clown face with an analog clock wedge within it’s mouth.

“Gah!” Will shouted jumping back a bit, “What is that thing?”

“You’re training buddy,” Syd returned with a smirked, “Now, we don’t have much time so I’ll be brief.” She pointed to the clock which currently had both it’s hands on the zero at the top, “This clock will count down sixty, that means you have one hour to complete your training for today.”

Will’s eyes shot open, “TRAINING! What do you mean training!”

“Simple,” she raised her hand pointed to a race track just down a set of step “I want you to run one hundred laps around that track in under an hour.” she then pointed over her shoulder to the clock, “otherwise, chucky over there won’t leave you alone,” an evil smirk appeared on her face, “and he’ll haunt you for the rest of your life.”

Both Will and Trey’s jaws dropped, “You serious?”

“Tick tock Will,” she smiled tapping her wrist like a watch, “we haven’t called all evening.”

“Alright alright, I’ll do,” Will then sighed as he hopped off the bench and proceeded down to the track, Trey and Syd watching him from the top of the stairs.

“Syd, are you sure about this?” Trey asked concerned for the child’s well being, “Doesn’t this seem a little bit harsh?”

“Hush,” Syd returned placing her finger overtop of Trey’s lips which felt rather cold probably due to the ice cream she had been eating, “I’m curious to see how this goes.”

Trey stood looking at Syd in silence for a moment, a bit taken back from how quickly her mood changed. He then looked out to the field where Will was running and kept his focus on him.

After a full half hour of running, Will finally collapsed onto the track after only doing about ten laps. Syd then sighed and rose to her feet before making her way down the steps and over to Will.

She knelt down and placed her hand on his shoulder, “Tired?”

“Yeah…” Will panted trying to force himself up but only managing to get up onto his knees using his hands as support, “I can’t walk another step…”

“I see…” Syd thought for a moment, “Well, how about you run another four laps then take a break for a bit?”

Will’s eyes shot open once again, “You’re kidding right?! There’s no way!”

“Oh come on, it’s just four laps,” Syd frowned, “once you’re done I’ll let you rest and then you can finish tomorrow. How does that sound?”

Will looked over to the clock which was twenty minutes away from reaching zero, he gulped then rose to his feet and without another word took off down the track. Within five minutes he had finished the laps and had made it back to Syd.

“There…” he panted resting his weight on his knees using his arms as a brace, “happy now?”

“Very,” Syd smiled, “Hey, come to think of it that was your fastest time yet, how about you go for another three laps?”

“OH COME ON!” Will cried, “You said tha-”

Syd slapped the boy on his back, “it’s just three laps, you’ll be done before you know it.”

Will sighed then ran around the track three more times with the same time as it took him to do the five from earlier. This time he stood up completely straight and was barely panting at all. “THERE! Can I take a break now!”

Syd tapped her finger against her cheekbone then looked back to the boy, “Oh? Sorry, I was else where. Would you mind doing those three laps again?”

“WHA-” Will was about to burst but then swallowed his frustration and just took the three extra laps. Once he had finished them he felt like he was about to drop, his legs felt heavy and he could just barely lift his arms. Once he reached Syd he fell to the ground on his backside, “That’s it! I’m not doing anymore!”

“That’s fair enough I guess,” Syd said with a smile before snapping her fingers dismissing the clown like clock at the top of the hill, “though I am curious about something… You ran a total of eleven extra laps when you claimed you couldn’t take another step, why do you think that is?”

Will looked up to her confused at her question, “You forced me to!”

“I suggested you run more laps, but never did I say you had to run them,” Syd stated crossing her arms looking down to the child, “You were the one who could have simply said no but you only did that once you had only run the eleven extra laps. You claimed you were down after running just twenty, but somehow you managed to run eleven more. So explain yourself kid, why do you think that was possible?”

Will was stunned speechless at what the woman before was saying then hung his head and looked down to the ground, “I… I honestly don’t know.”

“Well, then perhaps I can explain it to you,” Syd said giving the boy a warm smile and kneeling down to his level, “It’s because people naturally doubt their own abilities as well as their limits, but when they’re required to they can find the strength they need. That’s part of what makes being human so special.” She extended her hand, “Now then, let’s get you home. I’ll buy you another ice cream on the way if you want.”

Tears began to fill the boy’s eyes as he was absolutely stunned by the woman’s kind words.

“Ms… who exactly are you?”

“Syd’s the name, and I’m only a wandering network rider,” she said as she scooped the boy up and placed him onto her back, “that’s all you need to know.”

“Thank you Syd,” Will smiled back to her, “for everything.”

Syd frowned for a second, the thought of what might happen to this poor boy if she should fail tomorrow crossing her mind. She shook her head getting those thoughts out of her head then regained her warm smile, “Don’t mention it kiddo!”

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

Maestro sat above the crater where Ashura was still at work batting away at the cable dummies as a clock in the mouth of a bat slowly ticked away before finally reaching twelve as a pair of loud bells rung from the bat’s wings.

Maestro smirked, “Times up… let’s see if it was enough.”

Ashura growled as the targets finally backed away from him and merged back from the walls that they had originally spawned from. He then turned to a recently stitched up hole in the side of one wall and ran the claws of his newly acquired reptilian arm and sliced through the wall opening up a rip in reality leading to the human world.

“We’ll be back later,” Ashura growled as he stepped through the rift, “try not to be here once we return.”

“Oh, I don’t plan on it,” Maestro returned, “just be sure that you do return.”

Ashura snarled and said nothing else before stepping through the tunnel as it closed behind him.

“Oh my,” Maestro grinned pretending to wipe a tear from his eye, “they sure do grow up fast nowadays don’t they?” he grabbed the collar of his shirt with one hand, “Perhaps I should change into something a bit more formal, I do like to look my best at funerals afterall.”

---

Syd stood in the field of Will’s school after the bell had already rung dismissing the students for the day. Trey and Will stood a good few feet away from her as a pair of claws tore through the air in front of her, she instantly pulling out her driver and slapping it onto her waist.

“Keep Will close to you okay Trey,” she instructed as she pulled her hood over her face as the tear infront of her began to widen, “if things go wrong I want you two to run, you got that?”

Trey remained silent and simply nodded, placing one hand onto Will’s shoulder.

“Here he comes Syd,” Eli’s voiced echoed in Syd’s head as the beast’s claws began tear open the rip further, “you ready?”

Syd smirked under her hood as she reached into her coat pocket and pulled out her green striker die, “always.”

At that moment Ashura tore through the rift in front of Syd and stepped through it, snarling at her. He sniffed the air and looked over to Will then back to Syd, “you actually brought him?”

“I keep to my word,” Syd returned looking at him with a great fire in her eyes, “even if it’s to a beast like you.”

Ashura snarled, “admirable… for a human.”

Syd ignored the beasts comment choosing not to respond to it. She looked to the creature’s newly acquired arm, it’s bone white scales glistening in the amber hue of the setting sun. “Alright… let’s do this already,” without another word Syd slammed the die into her belt, “Mihara, Lowe, Sharza, Kuwa, Grune, Nago. Ancient spirits bind this beast, and have your power be 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!”

Without much delay, Ashura charged at Syd at full force readying the claws of his reptilian arm to slash her to pieces. Syd raised one of her swords in preparation for the beast’s attack leaving her second blade by her side as the chimera finally reached her. However, instead of clawing at her, Ashura instead forced all of his weight into his shoulder and rammed into Syd pinning her into a nearby wall.

Syd laughed, “That all you’ve got?” she flipped the sword in her left hand so she held it with her backhand before delivering a powerful strike to Ashura’s chest knocking him back a few good feet, a high amount of jayd beginning to spew out from the wound. “Because I’m just getting started!”

She slammed her fist down on the button on top of her driver popping out her striker die before quickly replacing it with a deep violet one.

“You haven’t used that one in a while,” Eli pointed out, “what’s the occasion?”

“Figured I’d mix it up a bit,” Syd returned giving her belt a good spin.

“REROLL!” Her belt shouted as the die came to a halt, “STALKER! Descending from the Shadows!!” a ray of light covered her swords shifting them into a pair of curved daggers with violet accented hilts, her coat changing from green to purple.

“It doesn't matter what color you are,” Ashura snarled, “We’re still going to kill you!”

The beast slashed at Syd only to have her vanish in less time that it took to blink. Ashura looked around rapidly trying to find her, the bright yellow eyes of Syd’s mask flashing in front of his own for a second only to disappear as if they weren’t even there to begin with. The beast then felt a sharp pain in both of his sides as Syd reappeared behind him with both her dagger japped into the beast’s thread like flesh.

“GAHHHH!” the beast roared swiping at Syd resulting in her jumping back, just then his heart began to slow down rapidly as he was brought to his knees, “What… what did you do to me you cur!”

Syd pulled out two more daggers from a pouch on the back of her belt, “poison tipped blades, super effective in taming wild animals.” she explained before throwing both of them into the lion’s forehead and left shoulder, “in a few moments you won’t even be able to speak, let alone move.”

“Like hell…” Ashura growled trying to force himself to his feet.

“I better finish this quick,” Syd said to herself as she popped the violet Stalker die out of her driver and switched it with the red finisher. “FINAL ROLL!” She spun the dial on her belt spinning the die before it came to a halt as a white five appeared on it, “FIVE! CRITICAL STRIKE!”

Syd pulled yet another dagger from her pouch, this one glowing bright red, and threw it at Ashura. The blade split into five smaller blades as the chimera grabbed the snake forming his tail just before all five hit him simultaneously engulfing him in a shroud a violet flames and black smoke.

The red finisher die cracked, turning to grey dust as it fell out from Syd’s driver. As the smoke cleared, Ashura was revealed to still be standing with a human skull still attached to it’s spinal cord in his claws and the snake tail ripped from his body.

Syd’s eyes narrowed as she realized what just happened, “he sacrificed a part of your own collective mind to survive the attack… clever, yet far too cruel.”

Ashura snarled at the rider then set his sights on Trey and Will, his eyes narrowing once Will entered his sight. He scrapped his horse hoof leg against the ground before pulling out both of his claws and charging straight at the boy, letting out a fearsome roar as he did so.

With not much time to switch forms, Syd jumped in front of Will and swung her arms out to either side as Ashura swung his claw at the three of them, not carrying much who he struck.

“SARAH STOP IT!” a voice echoed in the beast’s head as the imagine of a crying blue eyed girl with long red hair flashed over Syd in his eyes before fading just as quickly as it appeared, resulting in Ashura stopping dead in his tracks as his eyes began to fill with tears.

“Who is Sarah?...” Ashura growled, he grabbed Syd by her neck and looked into her eyes, “ANSWER ME!”

Syd gritted her teeth, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Ashura snarled then threw her to the ground, “LIAR!” he then raised his horse hoof and kicked Trey square in the face knocking him to the ground, “No matter,” he continued to growl as he raised his claws to Will, “I’ll simply take what I need from this one!”

In one fell swoop he slashed his claws across Will’s chest as a massive rift formed over top of him, Ashura quickly jumping into it and sealing it behind him. Syd and Trey jumped to their feet and ran over to Will.

Trey began breathing heavily holding the boy in his arms. Will then began to shift around making painful grunting noises as small blue cracks started to form on his skin, the color of which quickly fading to a dark purple.

“Come on Will!” Trey shouted slapping the boy a bit, “Stay with me! Don’t let this guy get to you, fight back!”

“That’s not going to do anything Trey,” Syd put bluntly reaching into her pocket and pulling out a pair of black dice with one with a gold trim and the other a silver. “These are the only things that can do any good.”

“What are they going to do?” Trey asked holding the boy tight.

“Lay him down flat on the ground,” Syd instructed, Trey immediately doing what he was asked. Syd placed the silver trim die on Will’s forehead and the gold on his heart, she then closed her eyes and pressed her thumbs down on the two of them. “Mihira of Shadow, Lowe of Light. Banish the beast from this pure heart,” she called out as the dice began to glow and phase themselves into the boy, “Ready your hands of godly might, and send me forward as your dart!”

Syd’s armor then shattered to pieces while her eyes shot open shining brightly for a split second then faded into a dull soulless grey, remaining open and staring blankly at Trey.

“Oh Syd?” Trey called out to her reaching his hand out to her.

“DON’T TOUCH HER!” Eli called out from the gem on Syd’s gauntlet, “If her vessel is moved her mind not be able to find it’s way back.”

Trey raised an eyebrow, “Her… vessel?”

Deep within the depths of Will’s inner network Syd walked through a cavern made up of bright blue cables still donning the robes of her Stalker form. She stumble through a few tunnels before coming upon a large sapphire blue crystal set on a pedestal in the middle of a clearing with a bright azure flame burning strong within it.

“So that’s the boy’s flame,” Syd smiled placing her hand against the crystal, “I always knew he had a strong one.”

“Don’t touch it,” Ashura snarled as he jumped down behind her, “I was told make that flame burn red with hatred, and I’ll tear down anyone who gets in my way of that.”

Syd laughed, “That’s funny, because my job is to hunt down creatures like you and bring in their blood as proof.” she announced as she pulled yet another pair of daggers from her pouch, pointing one of them at Ashura smirking under her mask as she did so, “and I’ve never fail an assignment.”

“You dare mock me?” Ashura snarled, “Do you know who you’re even dealing with!”

“I’ve killed plenty of gate keepers just like you, they all boasted about how powerful they all were but in the end… they turned to dust in my hands,” Syd disappeared from in front of Ashura and reappear directly behind him, “AND YOU’RE JUST THE SAME!” she threw her two daggers at him then kicked him to the ground, flipping off him and landing on her feet just a few feet away, “I am Network Rider Jayd, and I’ll protect the innocent from creatures like you!”

Ashura cackled as he rose to his feet as if he were in a zombified state, “How can you protect… when you cannot protect yourself?”

Ashura dashed over to Syd clawing her coat resulting in the sleeve on her right forearm ripping a bit as well as making a gash in small plate of metal underneath it which. Syd grunted and grabbed her forearm as if it were her own skin that had been damaged. Ashura however didn’t stop and slashed open a few cables behind him as a red fluid began to spew out it.

Ashura then quickly turned on his heel and threw a punch at Syd who quickly turned herself to block it with the same forearm that had been damaged by the beast’s previous strike. She held it there for a moment but the metal under her coat continued to crack forcing her to pull her arm back and throw her other one out in it’s place.

Ashura saw this coming so as soon as her fist and been thrown the beast grabbed Syd’s arm and used it as leverage to pick her up and slam her into a wall, Syd simply gritting her teeth a bit as it barely even hurt.

“Nowhere to run you filth,” Ashura snarled, “any last words?”

“I have a few,” Syd said with a smirk under her mask as she ran her hand along the wall covered in the red fluid, “for you.”

Before Ashura had time to react, Syd grabbed the another dagger with her free bloodstained hand and jabbed it into the elbow joint of the reptilian arm which the chimera was using to pin her down. She then grabbed hold of the beast’s wrist with her other hand once he had released her and force her dagger upward ripping the beast’s new arm clean off of his body.

“AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!” Ashura roared out of pain grabbing the stump, “That’s twice you’ve removed this arm! You’ll pay for this!”

Syd panted heavily looking down at her closed blood filled fist as she swirled it in her hand, “Sorry Will, I’ll need to power this,” she thought to herself, closing her fist tightly around it as the blood began to glow before transforming into a new red finisher die, “you’ll thank me for it later.”

Ashura charged at Syd for one final strike as Syd placed the new die into her driver. “FINAL ROLL!” She spun the dial on her belt spinning the die before it came to a halt as a white three appeared on it, “THREE! FATAL STRIKE!”

“Game over,” she said to herself before throwing one final dagger at the raging chimera, this one glowing bright red before splitting into three smaller blades and striking Ashura on various parts on his body engulfing him in a cloud of violet flames. As the smoke cleared, only a pile of human bones covered in red thread remained with a fair amount of jayd covering them.

Syd knelt down and grabbed one of the viles from off her belt and scooped some of it up, swirling it around to inspect it before screwing the cap on and placing it back onto her belt. She looked behind her as the tear in the wall began to slowly but surely repair itself from the damage that was inflicted onto it, Syd smiling under her mask in the process.

Back outside the network, the cracks on Will’s face faded away as he began to regain consciousness. Syd’s eyes then regained their emerald green color as the gold and silver trimmed black dice removed themselves from Will’s heart and mind.

Will’s eyes shot open as he began to breath heavily, “Where did the monster go?! It didn’t hurt anyone did it?”

Syd smiled and simply shook her head, “and it won’t be able to hurt anyone else ever again,” she looked to him with the same warm eyes as before and grabbed hold of his hands with her own, “and it’s all thanks to you Will.”

Will gulped, “Really?”

Just then, a cherry red car drove up to the curb and came to an abrupt halt. Syd then quickly stood Will up and grabbed Trey by his wrist, pulling him behind a tree.

“Syd!” he whispered “What are you-”

“Hush you,” she interrupted, “I wanna see where this goes.”

The driver side passenger door then slammed open as small girl with short brown and violet eyes dressed in a red t-shirt and blue jeans came running into the school yard, stopping once she noticed Will.

“Jill?” Will asked brushing dirt off of his pants, “W-what are you doing here?”

“Oh, I uh forgot my bag,” Jill said a bit embarrassed by the whole thing, “what are you doing here?”

“Oh I… I forgot mine too,” Will returned quickly, “I came back to get it but now I can’t find it... Isn’t that funny?”

Jill burst out laughing, “Yeah! It kind of is!”

“I think I might have left in the classroom,” Will scratched his neck, “Would you like to come with me to get it?”

Jill smiled and nodded, “Of course, I’d love to.”

“Great,” Will smiled beginning to blush a small bit, “shall we get going?”

Jill nodded and the two ran off towards the main entrance together. Syd then came out from behind the tree with a smile on her face, “Aw, I sure do love happy endings don’t you Trey?”

Trey smiled back, “Yeah, I suppose so.”

“So Trey my man,” Syd spoke back turning back to Trey, “shall we get on our way?”

Trey nodded, “Right behind you.”

“Excellent, with more gate keepers being born everyday there’s no telling what awaits us on the road a head,” she said grabbing him by the wrist once again and looking up to the sky, “but then again, isn’t that only a small part of what makes an adventure fun?”

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

Next time on Kamen Rider Jayd:

Our heroes find themselves face to face with yet another fledgling with a gate keeper on their tail, but this one seems to be putting up a fight and doesn’t want their help. What’s up with that? Why can’t people just get along when lives are one on the line? Well, you’ll just have to wait and find out when Kamen Rider Jayd continues with it’s 5th Revolution. Stubborn, The Self Loathing Fledgling.