Ka~Puu/CHANGE! Double Henshin Blasts the Heart with Sisterly Feelings!

by Jsyrin

First published 27th of March, 2015

Two sisters in Kamen Rider form kick ass and take names, and maybe find the value of friendship along the way.

When twin sisters Haruka and Natsumi went to 'Con, neither expected to see a man dressed as Kamen Rider Eternal selling merchandise.

Of course, buying said merchandise was just the first mistake either of them would make.

"Henshin!" "Henshin!"

"Kamen Rider Kiva-la!" "Kamen Rider Larc!"

Now they fight their way from a cautious (yet curious) Celestia and an irate (but reasonable) Luna, in hopes of finding some place where they can just be left in peace for two seconds, goddammit!

Episode One: Twin Sisters Proclaim Their Ability to the Moon! Freedom is Abound with Glorious Henshin!

A quiet breeze flowed through the gardens of Castle Canterlot, the silver moon high above illuminating the statues down below. Two figures were distinctly unlike the rest of the statues. Though both were as much stone as all the other creations in the garden, both were not of pony make. No, these two figures were bipedal, possessing features not unlike a very strange ape. The differences continued from there, however. Both statues were carved in the likenesses of strange armor, one design calling forth the imagery of a bat due to its eye-lenses’ strange shape- curving up into points like bat ears, and coming down as if creating a fanged mouth. The second one was much less clear when it came to design inspiration. For one, there was the large ‘A’ stamped upon the figure’s chest, along with the ‘A’ shaped lenses forming another pair of pointed ‘ears’ upon its head.

The breeze blew away, instilling a stillness upon the silent garden that would be difficult to match on any other day. A quiet crackling dispelled the stillness, however. The cracking increased in scope as a faint violet glow filled the garden. And with a great big CRACK, a massive burst of violet light filled the garden as a statue fell from its pedestal and flopped to the grass, heaving for air, even as its armor dissipated and left a barely conscious human girl on the ground, and a tiny, white bat-like creature fluttering weakly around her.

Stillness returned, if only for a few minutes. As the girl caught a second wind, she stood shakily and braced herself on her partner statue, looking up at the armored form’s aggressive stance.

“Haruka… You awake?” She whispered, grabbing the tiny white creature in her hand and placing it in her pocket. No reply save for another tiny breeze. Then, a brief flash of red from the stone figure’s belt caught her attention.

‘Well, I wasn’t until you woke me up by pelting me with your stupid marble crust. Why do you get marble? Obsidian sucks!’

“Haruka… your armor is black. Now would you hurry up? The guards are probably gonna come soon.” The as-of-yet unnamed girl whispered urgently, eyes darting back and forth.

‘Yare yare, Natsumi… or should I say… Natsumelon?’

“Will you shut up about that stupid nickname!?” Natsumi hissed, grabbing the bat-thing out of her pocket and raising it aggressively, “Don’t make me Henshin and Sonic Saber your card-themed ass!”

Another flash of red formed into a large rectangle and slid over the obsidian statue, shattering it and releasing a red and black figure, one that promptly dissolved into another human girl with a startling similarity to the previously released Natsumi.

“Ohhhh that hurts….” The second girl whined, grabbing at her midsection and attempting to catch her breath.

“C’mon, Haru, we gotta go.” Natsumi helped her shorter haired twin to her feet, already preparing to leave the premises as fast as possible.

Said twin stood up and dusted herself off, noticing her leather riding jacket, ‘Fuck You’ t-shirt and bell bottom jeans. “Oh man it’s been forever since I saw these!” She spun around and hugged herself, not caring that her sister- who was clothed in a simple set of hoodie and jeans- was trying frantically trying to get her to calm down.

“Haruka, calm down! You’re gonna get us in-” “HALT” “-... trouble…”

“Shit. My bad.”

Bright floodlights destroyed the serenity of the moonlit gardens as scores of guards armored in golds and blues filed into ranks, pinning the two sisters down on all sides.

“Haruka?” Natsumi deadpanned, arms already raised into a combat position.

“Yeah, sis?” Came the reply, her sister mirroring the pose.

“For the record, I blame you for all of this shit.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time, o’ 12 second older sister of mine. Now, should we show them why we were called the baddest bitches of the age?” Both sisters smirked at each other, preparing themselves for the battle ahead.

“Try not to fall too far behind this time, little sister. As I recall, my superior strategies won me the battle quite a bit more than your reckless charges.”

“Fuck you!”

“Not even if I was an incestuous lesbian. Henshin!” A dazzling light filled the air as Natsumi held her tiny companion aloft and her armor formed around her, the tiny bat fading out of existence.

“Okay, one: Ew. Two: Henshin!” Haruka cried, inserting a card into her belt, generating another red rectangle that slid over her form, leaving behind her armored self, ‘A’ motifs and all.

“Kamen Rider Kivala!”

“Kamen Rider Larc!”

The ‘Baddest Bitches of the Age’ stood back to back, Natsumi raising her saber and Haruka readying her Larc Rouzer.

Haruka muttered to Natsumi, “So… escape plan B?”

“Yup.”

“Great.”

At some unseen signal, the pair leapt onto a high up terrace, dodging javelins and crossbow bolts in midair. Backhanding one of the guards with her saber, Kivarra beat off another pair, snap kicking the unlucky unicorns into some of their navy-armored pegasi comrades.

Larc spun on her heel, swiping several pegasi out of the air with a flaming kick, using them to springboard herself onto the nearest rooftop, her sister following directly after.

Both saluted jauntily, waving their arms and giving a semi-flirtations pose.

“Bye boys~” They called in stereo, leaping out of the castle and Canterlot faster than the guards could follow.

Back in the garden, Captain of the Guard, Shining Armor dropped his head into his hooves and set his lance down in exasperation.

“Princess Celestia is not going to like this… it’s worse than Discord…” he muttered, tail lashing in irritation.

The wounded guards around him slowly stood and limped their ways to the infirmary, supported by their healthy comrades and their own iron will.

In a hidden cave about halfway down the mountain that Canterlot rested upon, our two heroines rested, still low on energy after being freed from their prisons.

“Oi, Natsumi, why’d you think tonight was the night we got free?” Haruka idly wondered, scratching lightly at her belly.

Her sister leaned against one of the cave walls and sighed, “I got nothing, maybe this world really likes the concept of nice, round numbers. It’s been two thousand years, y’know?”

“You’ve been counting!?”

“Yes. Why wouldn’t I? I mean, considering that this place has magic, and that we spent a good three years wandering around the place and learning bits and pieces, I figured that there’d be significant numbers- just like in most earth fantasy series.” Natsumi stood straight with a wince, cracking her spine. “Now help me seal up the entrance a little. We don’t want to get caught while we sleep, yes?”

“Fine fine….” Haruka mumbled, already half asleep.

In the rural little town of Ponyville, seven residents assembled in a large, crystal castle, five normal ponies, a newly crowned princess, and a tiny dragon. The topic of discussion was two statues that had gone missing and the mysterious appearance of two beings that immediately followed.

“Alright girls, Princess Celestia just sent me a letter detailing the situation.” Twilight spoke, pacing back and forth to keep her nerves in check. “We have two unknown beings somewhere out there, both of which have some sort of special transformation that grants them unique armor, weapons, and abilities. The Princess wants us to just hold down the fort for now and notify her immediately if we see either of them.”

“Uhh, Twi? What exactly do those two look like?” Rainbow asked, leaning back in her throne.

Twilight started, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly, “Ah, right! Well, these two are tall, about twice as tall as the average pony, which puts them at about the same size as Princess Celestia-” “Those are some tall ponies…” “-They’re not exactly ponies, Rainbow. These two are bipedal, resembling hairless apes more than anything, and appear to be female.”

Rarity’s eyes quietly sparkled as she thought of the fashion opportunities.

“And,” Twilight continued, raising a hoof, “they’re also very dangerous with their weapons- their armor is also very difficult to get through. That’s why we’re being held in reserve; we may be needed to use our Rainbow Power on them.”

Uneasy looks went around- just what was so special about these two beings that had Princess Celestia so worried? And if the Princess was worried, what would that mean for them?

In a cave deep in the Everfree forest, two mechanical beetles glowed within their stony confines, trapped within the cave’s stony embrace.

Two whispers carried across the wind, leading to the sisters high up and far away.

‘Change… Beetle’

‘Change… Stag… Beetle’

Author's Notes:

HENSHIN!

Haha... what am I doing.

In all seriousness, this came to me due to the fact that a lot of the authors I associate with on a regular basis seem to feel like creating opposite gendered OCs, ergo, bandwagoned.

And I've been doing a lot of Kamen Rider research lately (Don't ask), so these two were my first ideas... well, okay, I woulda chosen different ones IF THERE WERE MORE FEMALE KAMEN RIDERS.

Episode Two: Freedom is the Right of All Sentient Beings! But You Still Gotta Fight for Your Right!

The sun dawned bright and early the next morning, shedding glorious golden light upon the joyous inhabitants of Equestria. Within their mountainside cave, our twin heroines awoke at about the same time, Haruka rising as if from the grave, groaning and grumbling like the zombie her sleep addled mind so accurately resembled. Natsumi, on the other hand, sprung up with a sort of energy that only morning people could have.

Haruka found it disgusting, personally. At least Natsumi was quiet about it.

“Haruka, stop doing that stupid zombie impression and help me unblock the cave!” The slightly elder sister commanded, shifting rubble around and occasionally tossing pebbles at her unresponsive corpse of a sister.

“MhhhhfuckoffNatsumelon…. lemme sleep…” Haruka grumbled, but nonetheless complied and rose unsteadily to her feet. The pair were a tad scuffed up from last night’s impromptu getaway, and sleeping in a cave with nothing to eat had only exacerbated their disheveled states.

Natsumi had the least of it- her clothes were always chosen to be the most comfortable and practical clothes she could find, and the outfit she’d had prior to the pair’s unfortunate journey was no different. Even so, her red hoodie was covered in a thin layer of dust, the blouse underneath was rumpled, her jeans were much the same, and her sneakers had definitely seen better days.

Haruka… was a mess. Jacket in disarray, T-shirt rumpled, jeans lightly frayed, combat boots scuffed and worn, and all this topped with a generous heap of dust.

Neither of them had seen their preferred hats in over two thousand years. Natsumi still cried about her missing beanie in her sleep. Haruka always slapped her and told her to stop crying over a cheap piece of fabric that literally only cost five dollars.

Sighing to themselves and futilely attempting to calm their grumbling stomachs with promises of food later, the sisters unblocked the entrance to their little hidey hole and leapt out…

Directly into a horde of guards, headed by a pair of irate pony princesses, one tall and white, the other slightly shorter and blue.

A moment of silence as both twins stared at each other.

“Natsumi?”

“Yeah?”

“How boned are we?”

“If we don’t escape, quite a bit.”

“I see.”

A beat.

Then a twin call of “Henshin!”, two blasts of light that blinded every pony for a split second, and then the twin call of, “Later losers!”

When the irate ponies finally cleared the spots, the two girls were gone, bounding down the mountain at nearly ridiculous speeds, hampered only by the terrain and their own hunger.

Even so, once they reached the base of the mountains, they disappeared into the surrounding forest faster than the eye could track.

“Sister?” Luna twitched, teeth gritted and hackles raised.

“No Luna, you can’t burn the forest down. Besides, Vampire and Ace left without killing or wounding anyone. Maybe something’s happened to them, caused them to change. For now, we must only attempt to capture so that we may learn more of this situation. Even if they were Discord’s favored soldiers… Discord changed, so why couldn’t they?” Celestia turned on her hoof and took back to the air, leading the small regiment of pegasi back up the mountain.

In the forest at the base of Canterlot Mountain, Natsumi and Haruka rested in the shade of a large tree with a hollowed base, munching on berries and hoping desperately that there was a nearby water source- both of them had gone two thousand years without a bath, and their clothes were still dirty from the night prior.

“Ugh… this sucks…” Haruka muttered, fiddling with her belt and card holder. The belt gleamed, brushed steel with a green and red buckle, an attached card holder, and, hidden behind the buckle’s sliding portion, a brilliant ‘A’ shaped ruby, set directly into the belt.

Natsumi continued to pick berries; they’d need more for the future, and neither knew how many sources of food were in the forest after two thousand years of the worst Snoop Dogg impersonation the world had ever seen. “Of course it does, Haruka, but we’re basically stuck like this until we can find some way to not get arrested and/or executed.”

The two continued, unconsciously heading toward a small cave all the way on the opposite end of the country, near a small town known as Appleoosa. Fortunately for the residents of the Wild-West styled town, a different setting would take the brunt of the twins’ chaos for a good long while: Ponyville, chaos central of Equestria.

Discord sneezed as he tended to Fluttershy’s little garden, sending draconequus parts scattering across the whole of the butter yellow pegasus’ back yard.

Perhaps backyard is a bit tame- it was, after all, about as big as a few city blocks, hemmed in only by the Everfree forest.

Back to the chaos lord, he reformed with the clicking of ball joints snapping into place, appearing for a split second to be an abnormally large and well articulated action figure.

“Hmm… someone’s talking about me. Bah! I’m sure it’ll all sort itself out. Now…” He grumbled to himself- Fluttershy had, after all, given him commands detailing that he was not to cause any sort of chaos while he was tending to her flowerbed. Daisies were unfortunately susceptible to changes in their environment, especially those of the chaotic kind.

“Would someone explain why the Lord of Chaos and former ruler of Equestria is weeding a flower bed!?” He cried, startling some of the animals around him.

Angel glared from where he sat on the back porch of Fluttershy’s house. The rabbit never liked Discord- he’d been turned into a long legged jackalope when the chaotic being had first freed himself from imprisonment. Thusly infuriated, he bonked Discord on the back of the head with a carrot (He hated carrots usually) and chittered angrily at the now-irate draconequus.

“Rrgh! Darn rabbit! I don’t know why someone like Fluttershy keeps an annoying little pest like you around!” Discord shouted at Angel, though the lack of dramatic effects showcased the lack of real anger. Angel stared back impassively, as if to say ‘Right back at you’.

The two glared at each other, metaphorical sparks dancing between the two. All of Fluttershy’s animal friends either retreated to safety or made bets.

This was the scene that said timid pegasus came upon as she returned from a cheerful day with friends. As she came around the corner, balancing a grocery basket on her back and humming a cheerful tune, she noticed the pair of headstrong males glaring daggers at the other.

“Oh my! Angel! Discord! What have I told you two about your hostility!?” She shouted, though her natural volume hindered her efforts- neither male heard her, so focused were they on making the other back down.

And then the pair devolved into a brawl, Discord thankfully using enough restraint to not use his abilities on the pugnacious lagomorph.

Episode 3: The Dawn Turns to Dusk! What Happens When Night Falls On Unsuspecting Prey?

In one of the many caves in Equestria (And seriously, there were hundreds of random caves in the oddest places) a monster burst forth from a rift in the air. Standing nearly seven feet tall and resembling a horrific mix of man, spider, and–oddly enough– stained glass window, the creature known as the Spider Fangire came once more into the world after its two thousand year banishment. However, while it had indeed been a fearsome creature back when Discord reigned and order was a thing of imagination, it had not aged gracefully, nor had it borne the weight of two millennia very well.

In short: what was once a psychopathic, obsessive, yet strangely coherent and functional spider monster, was now a snarling, drooling beast capable of only basic communication and was a slave to its instincts.

And now, its instincts told it to feed.

Snarling and groaning, the Spider Fangire loped off into the depths of the swamplands, filling the air with a sense of dread.

Natsumi and Haruka woke in the hollow of a large tree. Said tree was easily over a hundred feet tall, and about twenty feet wide (31 meters by 6 meters). Natsumi woke with her characteristic energy, while Haruka trailed behind, once more disguised as a flesh eating undead corpse.

“Honestly Haruka, you really need to learn how to wake up better.” Natsumi chided, already on her feet.

“Fuckoff….” Came the reply, Haruka stumbling from the hollow while scratching her backside.

Natsumi turned and dragged her twin to a nearby river, dumping the near-comatose woman in, clothes and all.

“Ack!” Haruka spluttered, flailing about in a waist deep section. Natsumi stripped down, tossing her clothes to the side for later, and jumped in as well, tackling her sister with a malicious giggle.

“Natsumiiiii!”

Several hours of play fighting later, Natsumi and Haruka hiked through the unnamed forest, still slightly damp, even after drying off in the 75+℉ sun.

“I still hate you for pushing me into the river.” Haruka grumbled, wincing at the uncomfortable wetness in awkward places.

Natsumi made no reply, instead opting to fish a flustered Kivala out of her pocket. The tiny bat-like creature unfurled and took to the air with a light whistling noise, lightly bopping Natsumi on the head.

“What’s the big idea keeping me in your pocket for so long!?” She cried, fluttering angrily around Natsumi’s head.

“Sorry! Sorry!” Natsumi panicked, usual intelligence fading away at her partner’s anger.

Haruka stood back and giggled at her sister’s antics, that is, until a loud growling overtook the clearing.

“Sis? Was that you?” Haruka asked, slowly spinning around.

“...Nope…” Natsumi circled around until both sisters were back to back, Kivala resting in Natsumi’s palm, ready to henshin if necessary.

The growling echoed through the clearing, seemingly coming from multiple sources. Natsumi, raised Kivala in worry, prompting Haruka to hold her henshin card near her belt.

“Natsumelon?” Haruka prompted, causing Natsumi to reply with a quick, “Yeah?”

“On a scale of one to ten… how close are you to full power?”

“Two and a half. You?”

“Three.”

“Shimatta.”

“Mhmm.”

Then, loping from the bushes, came a whole pack of timberwolves, each wolf approximately five feet high at the shoulder. Snarling and growling, the entire pack circled around the two nervous sisters. Said girls spun around each other, trying to keep all the wolves in sight.

“Haruka? I think we should…”

“Henshin? Let’s.”

Twin cries of “Henshin!” rang out, two dazzling displays of light filling the clearing. When the light cleared, Kamen Riders Kivala and Larc stood, weapons ready.

The timberwolves charged, wooden paws clattering against the ground, filling the air with a dizzying cacophony of wood against dirt.

Natsumi and Haruka spun into action, beating away the wolves as they came with a fierce flurry of punches and kicks, Natsumi taking the occasional slash against the wolves with her saber, Haruka taking potshots when she could.

Five minutes of attrition fighting later, seven wolves out of a pack of thirty lay dismantled and both Kamen Riders were perched in the highest branches of the tallest nearby tree. As they gasped for breath, Haruka turned to Natsumi and reverted back to normal.

“Seriously… this… hah… this sucks…. We used to be able to take on the princesses for chrissakes!” She panted, drenched in sweat and barely clinging to the branches.

“Hah hah… hold it together, Haruka…. we’ll be back to normal before you know it! Just need to outlast these stupid wolves.” Natsumi tried to reassure her sister, but her own disheveled demeanor betrayed her exhaustion.

“Right… just gotta outlast these fucking wolves….” Haruka muttered, trying to keep still. “Like that’s really going to work on a bunch of living sticks… and the sun’s going down too… shit.”

The sun slowly descended, turning the blue sky into a brilliant orange.

The timberwolves kept circling around the tree.

Night fell.

The tiny town of Roanikstead boasted a population of one hundred and five ponies, enough to run a general store, a post office, a small hospital, a few farms, and a small inn. It was, unfortunately, located approximately two miles from the cave the Spider Fangire was freed from. The creature crept into the hamlet as the sun fell, ponies returning home from their jobs tired and unwary.

Night fell.

The Spider crawled off of the thatch roof it had hid on some hours prior, descending into the home of Alfalfa Green and his family.

Their bodies wouldn’t be found until the next morning, when Alfalfa’s friend, Iron Plow, realized that Alfalfa hadn’t shown up for work.

The town of Roanikstead descended into a panic, never noticing the unobtrusive white-coated and brown-maned hobo living in an alley.

Princess Celestia tossed and turned in bed. In her own tower, Luna stared out over Equestria’s sleeping citizens. She felt the pervasive worry filling her sister, and resolved to find some way to reassure the primary diarch of the land.

“Sister… What ails you so?”

Author's Notes:

I'll just leave this here.

Episode 4: Birds Fly, Sun Shines, and Grass Grows! But Me and My Sister? We HURT People

The night passed slowly, the timberwolves circling around the base of the twins’ tree for hours. As the wooden beasts circled, Natsumi sighed to herself.

“Why couldn’t we have gone as Decade and DiEnd?” She whined, taking a moment to make sure her sister wouldn’t fall in her exhaustion.

Haruka muttered out a tired, “Because you didn’t want to hear me constantly shout ‘ONORE DIKEIDO’ at you whenever you did something dorky.”

“Oh yeah…. Dammit. It still would have been a better option than Kivaara and Larc. Seriously, we have like… no powers! Denpa Ningen Tackle had more powers than Decade’s Kivaara! Larc only showed up for like… two episodes! And she only really used like two cards!”

“Yeah, but you’re the one that wanted us to have opposite colored costumes… I swear, even going as Blade and Glaive would have been fine. At least the male riders don’t die as often…”

The twin sisters grumbled angrily to themselves until Natsumi shot up, nearly unbalancing herself.

“Oi! Haruka!”

“What is it?”

“We didn’t buy just Kivala and your Larc Rouzer at the convention!” Natsumi exclaimed.

“We didn’t? I don’t remember any of it… mou~ It’s been almost three thousand years…” Haruka whined mostly to herself, picking idly at the tree bark.

Natsumi was beside herself with glee, “Yeah, remember? We bought those two Double Drivers and the whole set of Gaia Memories!”

Haruka gave a little gasp of realization, which then turned into a frown, “Didn’t we lose those as soon as Discord turned us into his foot soldiers? I distinctly recall him burying them in the middle of nowhere.”

Natsumi pouted, “Crap.”

They waited out the night in tired silence.

The wolves left around dawn, leaving both sisters to collapse onto their branches in tired silence, passing out immediately after.

Princess Celestia tossed and turned all night, visions of death and destruction filling her mind as she slept. Memories of Discord’s chaotic reign mixed and tumbled about visions of a ruined and burning future, monsters of the likes none had ever seen filling the landscape in scores.

Through all this, Celestia’s dream self strode in mute horror at the sight of her beloved ponies laying strewn across the landscape like so much chaff. The stench of blood roiled through the air like a thick fog. The screams of her subjects echoed through the hellish landscape, backed by the howls and trills and Giiiii!s of the monsters swarming through the land of corpses. The sky burned red. No vegetation withstood the river of blood.

And through it all, the pitch black sun soared high above, a white, double headed eagle printed on its face. What this meant, Celestia knew not, but she did know that the symbol was to be hated and feared. Two female voices rang out through the continuous background screaming.

“ONORE DIKEIDO!”

Celestia awoke in a cold sweat, two minutes before she was due to raise the sun for the morning.

“What…. was that!?”

Natsumi and Haruka awoke simultaneously again, this time both of them shot wide awake and stared at the other.

“Did you–!?” Natsumi started.

“I dunno, did you–” Haruka replied.

A beat.

Then, both of them cried simultaneously, “What the hell was that!?”

Luna burst into Celestia’s room with a cry of, “Sister! Are you alright!?”

Celestia shot out of her luxurious bed, tangling in her sheets and landing on the carpet with an unceremonious whump.

“Uugh… Luna? Why are you in here?” Celestia wondered, disentangling herself from the confines of her 100% pure Zebryptian cotton cocoon.

“We hath sensed thine discomfort while thou slept. It was readily apparent that thou was having some sort of vision as thou slept. What didst thou see, sister?”

Celestia cringed, “Well, it went like this….”

And so Luna’s eyes widened in horror at the grisly images provided.

“I...see…. then, what shall we do about this vision of yours?” she asked, half hoping for a positive answer.

“Nothing we can do but wait, Luna. You know that as well as I do.”

“Curses.”

Roanikstead had dropped off the map over the course of almost a single night, the Spider Fangire feeding in insane rates in order to return to its full power. The once quiet, yet happy, town of Roanikstead was now a ghost town.

The Spider Fangire then did something unexpected: It stood in the middle of the emptied ghost town and concentrated its stolen life energy. The glowing orb of energy grew and grew, a whining screech filling the air. The ground cratered beneath it in the shape of a twin headed eagle, filling the air with dust.

With one last screech, the orb exploded, dousing the swamplands around Roanikstead with a harsh light, a poisonous light that drained the life out of every living thing it touched and fed it back into itself.

A mist filled the area, and when both mist and light cleared, there stood an army of monsters. Fangire, Undead, Dopants, Worms, Mirror Monsters, Greeed, Orphnochs, even the strangely useless missile minions that Dai Shocker loved so much.

The ones that went “Gigi!” and jumped like monkeys, that is.

Coming in last was a white-tuxedo wearing, elderly man with a red and black cape.

“Dai Shocker is gone! From the remnants rose Super Shocker, but that too has fallen! Now, from the ashes, Ultra Shocker has risen! We shall take this world for our own, and then we shall take all the worlds for our own! I, Professor Shinigami, shall lead our new organization to a new age of glorious evil!”

Raucous cheers filled the ghost town, even as two more figures silently stood behind Professor Shinigami in support.

“Ambassador Jigoku, Colonel Zol, come. We must establish a reliable base of operations.” The squid monster in human form turned and strode off into the forest, leaving the rest of his army to scatter into the swamplands.

The two sub-commanders saluted and followed their de-facto leader into the swampy forest.

Roanikstead burned.

Author's Notes:

Ara ara.... looks like things are really heating up around here, ne? I wonder what'll happen now...

Chapter 5: Desert Winds! Childish Confusion Rips the Land with Rider Kicks!

“Natsumi?”

“Yeah?”

“How the hell did we move from a massive forest to this barren wasteland…. in only SIX DAYS!?”

“Now that you mention it….”

“WE WERE IN THE MIDDLE OF A HUGE AS FUCK FOREST. HOW THE HELL ARE WE IN THE MIDDLE OF A DESERT!?”

“Yare yare, Haruka-chan. You don’t have to yell.” Natsumi muttered, irritably fanning herself under the shade of a convenient rock.

The desert stretched out before them, great and sandy and surprisingly bearable. Natsumi just thanked whatever deity allowed for this sand infested crap-sack of a desert to remain in the upper seventies instead of the lower hundreds..

As the pair continued to trudge through the sandy wasteland, they spied a train track leading off into the distance, the faint sound of wheels-on-rails reaching them from the other direction.

“Oi, Natsumi… you think we could hop the train and get to some form of civilization?” Haruka asked, kneeling behind a large rock as the train barreled ever closer.

Natsumi shrugged, tracking the train as it came. “It’s worth a shot, methinks. Sure, why not. We’ll only just have to ride it the other way if we don’t find what we want.”

Thus, our plucky heroines hid behind a pile of rocks and when the train came thundering by, they leapt from behind cover and landed easily on the roof of the train– being brainwashed by Discord might have been terrible, but at least some of their Rider powers carried over even after the power boost had been removed.

The two now stood on atop the train, riding it to a destination they knew not. The wind whipped across their faces as they kneeled, gripping the roof tightly so as to not be ripped from the train. Six minutes and several miles of desert later, the train slowed, then stopped, having reached the end of the line. Natsumi and Haruka silently watched six mares descend from the train, taking note of the lavender alicorn. As the train slowly began to reverse– what the hell was up with that anyway, Haruka wondered– the two jumped off some distance away from the mares, and on the opposite side of the train, sprinting into another pile of rocks to avoid detection.

“Seriously, I don’t think we’re doing any better at this rate than we were before. There isn’t a town in sight!” Haruka grumbled, dumping the sand from her boot as the pair rested against their cover.

“True, but if those six mares came here, then there’s definitely some sort of civilization around here. We just need to follow them.” Natsumi shielded Kivala as the tiny bat slept in her pocket, completely oblivious to the current happenings.

Quietly, Natsumi and Haruka began tailing the six mares, taking extra care to not be spotted by the pink one– she seemed to be the most likely to find them, for some reason.

Inside the town, the group of six mares, heretofore referred to as ‘the Mane 6’, found something decidedly off about this strangely laid out town.

Namely, the fact that everypony had the exact same Cutie Mark and that every single pony had an incredibly wide smile plastered across their faces.

Fluttershy found the town quite pleasing, to be honest. Everypony just seemed so happy.

Far away, on top of the roof of one cottage, Natsumi and Haruka knelt and took in the scene with a shared look of distaste.

“Okay, this is just creepy,” Haruka muttered, “Nobody should smile that wide for that long. It’s just plain unhealthy.”

Natsumi tsked, “Looks like some form of mind control to me. Hey… are all their Cutie Marks… equal signs?”

Haruka took a closer look, “Eeyup. Sounds like a classic case of Stalinism going on here.”

“I thought I was supposed to be the smart one.” Natsumi pouted.

“You are, just not when it comes to the history of politics.”

“.... How the hell did you even manage to stay awake in that class?”

“Learning about all the ways the governments fucked up was really funny.” Haruka giggled. Her favorite memory just had to be the idiocy of Kim Jong Un.

“.... My sister is insane. Good to know.” Natsumi returned to her observation of the curiously laid out town, shielding her eyes from the desert sun with her hand.

Kivala was out on a scouting mission already, tasked with observing the town from closer range.

Haruka’s stomach grumbled. “Oi, Natsumelon, we still have any food?”

Natsumi checked her makeshift bag, opening the crudely woven mass of leaves to check the contents.

“Nope! Fresh out!”

“Fuck!”

Thusly irked, Haruka did something somewhat reckless: She jumped off the rooftop, snuck out behind a building, in through the door, and managed to make off with a tray of muffins. As she re-vaulted to the roof, a very confused Sugar Belle staring confusedly at their previous position. Then the earth pony shrugged. It wasn’t like they were better than the next batch or anything.

Back on the roof, Haruka took a bite of her ill gotten gains, too hungry to care about their unappetizing appearance. Then the taste hit her tongue.

“Oh jesus fuck this is terrible!” She spat, not noticing Natsumi’s frantic hushing.

And then something slammed into the house on the far end of town, inciting a relatively small explosion and completely totalling the house and its sole occupant.

Natsumi and Haruka were both too stunned to react.

Then, the rubble shifted and a humanoid thing popped out, rubbing its head. And then it backhanded an armored man and turned into….

“Kamen Rider Ichigo!?” Natsumi shrieked, confused and terrified at the same time. “What the hell is the first Kamen Rider doing here!?”

Haruka stared in shocked silence, observing as the two figures burst into frenzied battle, even as the distant Kamen Rider shifted forms.

“....” Haruka stood upon the slightly shattered rooftop, watching the combatants below. Beside her stood Natsumi, both disheveled, both staring in stunned and slightly envious silence.

“...Why can’t we do that?” Haruka muttered, staring at the utter devastation below.

“Well, it’s becau-DAMMIT!” Natsumi pulled Haruka down again, just in time for a massive ball of energy to sail over their heads and explode against a nearby mountain. The girls slowly got back to their feet, though this time they chose to stay on their knees and observe from a slightly lower and safer vantage point.

“-It’s because neither of us went as male Riders and only went as female Riders, who, as you know, are rather prone to being fairly useless and dying quickly.” Natsumi finished, pointedly ignoring the dirt in her hair.

“Natsumelon… look…” Haruka pointed dully at the battle taking place, the Kamen Rider below changing forms with surprising speed, even as it beat upon the armored man to no avail.

“Wait… is that…. Faiz?”

“Looks like it, Natsumikan.”

“Why is Fai- Duck!” Natsumi shouted, pulling Haruka down as a torrential breeze passed over them and the town fell apart, flying towards the seemingly invulnerable man at the center, even as a barely distinguishable blur sped around the man and smashed more things into him.

“....” Natsumi glared at Faiz, never noticing the breeze that passed by and replaced her crude leaf-bag with a messenger bag and a note. “Stupid male Riders… Why can’t more female Riders be in existence?”

“Because Japan is a really sexist country, Natsumelon.”

“Dammit. Why is it you’re giving me smart advice? I thought I was the smart one!”

The sisters bickered until the realized that the battle had shifted from the slowly unwinding and devastated town, to the nearby mountainous area, not more than a few miles from their position.

At this point, Kivala came back from her now unnecessary recon, slightly woozy from the wind that smashed her into a wall.

“Oi oi…. where ya two goin’?” she slurred, falling down into Natsumi’s lap.

“Haruka, you think we should go scout out those two?”

Haruka nodded, then looked around for her sister’s crappy bag and spotted the new, practically untouched bag with its note on top.

“Oi, Natsumi.”

“Yeah?”

“I think that Kamen Rider guy did something with your shitty bag.”

“What!?” Natsumi spotted the note, immediately diving for it and reading it out loud.

“Dear Larc and Kivala:

I happened to notice your plight as I was attempting to beat the ever-loving shit out of my pal Gilgamesh here, so I decided to gift you with some provisions (About a year’s worth of non perishable food) and supplies (Everything you need for an extended camping trip plus extra). There’s also two of my special smartphones in there if you wish to contact me. The details are inside the boxes the phones come in, so don’t worry about that.

If you’re wondering why I did this, well, us Kamen Riders have to stick together, yeah?

Your friend,

Aaron Heibai
Proprietor of the Emporium of Everything and Anything
Eldritch Abomination
Part time Kamen Rider”

Haruka was the first to react, “Well, he seems like a nice guy… for an eldritch abomination, that is.”

Natsumi said nothing, only digging through the surprisingly spacious messenger bag and coming out with a shocked and slightly dulled, “He told the truth. There’s enough canned and refrigerated food in that bag to last us a whole year, maybe a year and a half if we’re sparing with it.” She also withdrew two white boxes, handing one over to her sister.

“.... Is this a shitty knock-off iPhone 6?” Haruka questioned, staring dubiously at the black and white phone.

“Apparently it’s indestructible, has an infinite battery life and storage system, can download and play any file no matter what it is, can also project a holographic computer, and has connection no matter where we are.” Natsumi read off the information brochure inside the box, noting the lack of power cable and SD card. “It’s also pre-programmed with the guy’s number, apparently.”

“What.”

Natsumi merely motioned for Haruka to read off her own brochure. “It’s all in there, Haruka.”

Haruka’s reply was cut off as a massive explosion shook the earth, a pillar of flame rising from the nearby mountains.

Natsumi stared in shock, a slight grin stretching over her face. “Well, looks like someone is really…. bringing the heat.”

Haruka facepalmed and punted her pun-loving sister in the side, trying desperately to rid herself of the shame.

“Ow! Dammit Haruka! You suck!”

“No, you suck. I’m the lesbian, remember?” Haruka retorted to her bisexual twin.

“.... Bad joke, Haruka. Bad joke.”

“No worse than your stupid puns.”

At this point, the pair had snuck behind a large boulder, observing the clash of titans from a safe distance.

“Oh. My. God.”

“Holy shit….”

Beyond their cover lay a sea of Kamen Riders, from humble Ichigo to Drive, and every permutation of each of the 119 riders possible, including the female Riders and each separate form.

Natsumi and Haruka nearly wept in jealousy, wondering why the hell they couldn’t be that badass. Then the Rider Kick came, and the twins were nearly blown away by the sheer force of the massive explosion, a crater digging its way into the earth nearly three hundred meters deep.

At this point, the twins were visibly weeping with jealousy and rage, eyes scanning the resulting dust cloud like a pair of hawks. As the dust settled, they saw that all the Kamen Riders had disappeared, the armored man had been laid out and severely wounded, and a shadowy figure was hauling said man onto its shoulder.

“That… was the coolest thing… I have ever seen…” Haruka mumbled, peering around the boulder with wide eyes. Natsumi silently nodded, staring more at the shadowy figure below.

Said shadowy figure nodded once in their direction and disappeared, leaving a note to drift by on the wind.

“What.” Haruka muttered, staring blankly at the note while Natsumi read from over her shoulder.

“Well, depending on what it is, it could either be something really cool, really useful, or both.” Natsumi turned and began rifling through the bag once more, taking just the slightest of moments to admire its sleek, black construction.

Then, she paused and turned shakily to her sister. “H-haruka?”

“Yeah?”

“You gotta see this.”

Haruka kneeled by her twin as Natsumi drew out two mechanical insects, one green, one brown, both styled like grasshoppers.

“Is that…?” Haruka asked, wide eyed.

Natsumi nearly jumped in manic glee, “Yes! It’s the Hopper Zecter, split into the Punch Hopper and Kick Hopper sides!”

“Holy shit…” Haruka whispered, reverently taking up the brown Punch Hopper Zecter. “This… this is so much more useful than Larc… Except for the ranged option, but still…”

“A proper Rider Kick… I finally get a proper Rider Kick….” Natsumi mumbled, hugging the Kick Hopper Zecter to her chest.

The two sat there in joyous, slightly manic silence for a while longer, not hearing the crunch of gravel as the townsponies +5 outsiders and +1 alicorn princess came around the bend.

A synchronized gasp from all the assembled ponies startled the two into wakefulness, the twins leaping into a combat position best suited for covering each other’s blindspots.

“Henshin!”

“Henshin!”

Change: Kick Hopper!

Change: Punch Hopper!

Two female Kamen Riders stood back to back, one green, one brown, both ready for combat.

“Who are you-” Natsumi began, ready to jump.

“-And what do you want?” Haruka finished.

Author's Notes:

[DRAMATIC CLOSING MUSIC]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUkoT12Sk1M

Chapter 6: Shock! Strange Allies From Far Away Help With Gaining a New Image!

“Who are you-” Natsumi began, ready to jump.

“-And what do you want?” Haruka finished.

The alicorn stepped forward and cleared her throat, announcing, “I am Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria. Under my authority, I ask you this: Who are you, what are you, and are you connected to these two beings?” She held up two images depicting-rather crudely- Natsumi and Haruka’s Kivara and Larc forms, respectively.

Natsumi and Haruka looked at each other and backed up, Natsumi picking up her bag and slinging it on. The townspeople gave a unanimous murmur of suspicion, Twilight stepping forth and leveling her horn at them, “You are, aren’t you? If not, you should answer right now.”

Natsumi cleared her throat and raised her finger, suddenly pointing behind Twilight with a startled gasp of, “What the hell is that!?”

The the assembled ponies whirled around at once, Natsumi gathering Haruka into her arms and activating her belt with an announcement of,

“RIDER JUMP!”

The sisters sprung away, clearing an unimaginable distance with a single bound and leaving the confused ponies to sputter in anger.

Far, far from the town they had left behind, Natsumi and Haruka touched down at the mouth of the cave, undoing their transformations and collapsing against the walls with a sight.

“Damn that was great, but damn if jumping that much isn’t fucking tiring,” Natsumi groaned, rubbing her legs.

Haruka grumbled and held her stomach, not liking the feeling of moving through the air at someone else’s mercy. She shuffled against the sand, her hand hitting a keychain in the dirt. “Hey, what the-?” She held it up against the light, showing off to Natsumi, “Hey, Natsumelon, check this out.”

“What the hell is that?” Natsumi asked, moving to get a closer look.

Just as they looked closely at it, a strange noise rang out and dumped a girl into the sand at their feet, causing them to leap back, startled.

“Fucking piece of… just what the hell-” The newcomer turned to stare at the two, clearly just as confused as they were. It looked like a girl with really long white hair, a yellow jacket and jeans on. The half of her face that wasn’t covered by her hair showed she had red eyes and teeth like daggers. “What?”

Natsumi and Haruka backed up, not having expected a girl to just appear out of nowhere. “Who the heck are you?” Natsumi asked, hand hovering over her belt warily.

“Who am I? Who the hell are you?” Soul pointed at the two of them. “And where the hell am I?”

Natsumi coughed and elbowed Haruka in the side, the both of them standing and posing strangely while announcing, “Natsumi and Haruka Miwa! Twin Kamen Rider Sisters and Allies of Justice!” Haruka sat back down as Natsumi continued, shaking some of the dust from her hoodie, “I’m Natsumi, and that’s Haruka… and uh…. you’re in a cave somewhere. We were running from a bunch of hostile ponies earlier and then Haruka found your keychain somewhere in the back of the cave and… yeah.”

“Keychain? What keychain? Lemme see it.” Soul held out her hand.

Haruka tossed over the keychain, groaning and rubbing her back, “Man, I don’t know how we’re gonna get outta this one… the Princesses already hate us enough as it is…” Haruka didn’t however expect for Soul to completely miss the keychain, hitting her in the chest. Soul grumbled for a moment before leaning down and waving her hands along the floor before seeming to find the keychain right in front of her.

Haruka shrugged, “Found it in a pile of sand near the entrance. Why?”

Soul growled for a moment before sighing, relaxing for a moment before throwing the keychain against the wall. “MOTHER FUCKER!!! The piece of shit continues to mess with my fucking life even over a thousand years later!”

Natsumi and Haruka blinked and stared, “.... wut.” Natsumi shook her head, “Anyway, I really hate to ask, but do you have any abilities that might make some way for us to, well, not be attacked on sight?”

“And why should I help you?” Soul glared. “You two drag me out to the middle of god knows where to deal with a bunch of ponies, when I’m not a diplomat or someone who gives a shit about them. I’m more likely to go and scare the shit of them because it would be fun to than make them your friends.” Soul crossed her arms. “What’d you even do to piss them off?”

Haruka blinked, “Uh…. be horrible, hypnotized mass murdering monsters in Discord’s army about some two thousand years ago?”

Natsumi snapped, “Well, we could use that willingness to scare the crap out of them. Kamen Riders are supposed to fight monsters, after all.”

“You want me to go out and scare them so you can attack me and look like the heroes? Do I look like I’m made of metal?” Soul deadpanned before blinking. “Actually, nevermind that question. I just realized how stupid I sounded.” She thought for a moment, glancing around at the cave before grumbling. “Fine, but I better get sent back for my trouble. Now how the hell do we get out of here?”

Haruka sweatdropped at Soul, “.... The entrance is right there….” She pointed to Soul’s left, tilting her head, “What are you, blind?”

Natsumi smacked Haruka, “Don’t just ask people that!”

“Yep. I’m blind.” Soul said rather simply before slowly walking toward the exit, shoving her hands in her pockets.

“.....Oh.” Natsumi and Haruka followed Soul, transforming as they did so.

* * *

Twilight Sparkle, recently crowned Princess of Equestria, led a group of townsponies and her friends around the arid desert wastes, her horn glowing as she searched for the two strange beings that Princess Celestia had warned her about.

“Be careful, everyone,” she called out, “we don’t know what those two beings are capable of and I’d rather not have anyone get hurt.” The ponies continued to walk about the mountains before they heard a sound echoing, metal grinding against stone. It set them on edge, causing them to look around in subtle fright for the source of the noise.

Fluttershy flinched back, slowly backing up towards a rocky outcropping, “O-oh my… w-what was t-that…?” She tried to hide, not noticing the looming shadow behind her.

“Hello~” A growling voice spoke, the sound of metal stopping as the creature that stood over her ceased grinding one of the many blades protruding from its body into the stone wall next to it. Its mouth was open in a sinister grin that dripped with drool and filled with sharp teeth. Long, white hair blocked most of its face except for one red eye that seemed to glow slightly.

Fluttershy yelped in fear, the sound alerting the rest of the ponies, making them whirl around and spot the creature. Twilight reacted immediately, calling, “Watch out Fluttershy!” and firing a pink beam of concussive energy directly at the creature. In response, it rose an arm, a blade reflecting the blast and sending it off at a random angle.

“I’m… hungry… for… SOULS!” The creature growled before swiping at Fluttershy, the little pegasus just ducking before running.

“Oi!” a voice called out dramatically, its source being a familiar green armored figure standing atop a rocky spire. “If you want souls that much, then why don’t you feast on my fighting spirit!” The creature looked up with the ponies to see the two sisters standing there. The ponies were thankfully distracted enough to not notice the deadpanned look the creature gave these two, almost as if to say “you’ve got to be kidding me.”

The armored being was joined by another familiar being, this one in brown before both of them jumped impossibly high into the air, descending upon the blade covered creature with a dual cry of, “RIDER KICK!” Their legs burst into flame as they descended, the twin drop kicks slamming into the sword creature with enough force to send it smashing through another pillar of stone and out of sight.

The green being saluted at Twilight, calling out, “Sorry about running earlier, we weren’t exactly notified of anything being in the general area.” Both beings leapt off in the direction of the creature, the sounds of combat ringing out as a cloud of dust formed, obscuring the view.

In the fight, Soul gave a less monstrous growl at the sisters as she muttered. “For fuck’s sake, you didn’t have to kick me THAT hard. I only got knocked off a building a few days ago.”

Natsumi winced slightly, “Sorry about that- we were trying to hold back as much as we could so you wouldn’t just detonate into a small fireball.” She kept up her kicking, just barely missing Soul with each kick and slamming her feet into the blades jutting from her body rather than Soul herself.

“Right, ‘holding back’.” Soul rolled her eyes, giving another swipe of her arm before tackling Natsumi, only to be thrown off by her sister. “I can’t believe I agreed to this shit.” She grumbled before jumping back to avoid another punch.

Haruka shrugged before reaching down to her waist, “We’ll try to make it up to you later. By the way, you might want to duck these next attacks.” She flipped the legs of the device on her belt, her arm starting to crackle with energy as Natsumi did the same, her leg crackling like Haruka’s arm.

“RIDER PUNCH!” “RIDER KICK!” Soul leapt to the side, an explosion going off as their blows hit the stone where she had been standing two seconds ago. This sent her flying to the edge of a nearby cliff, stopping just short of falling off.

She got up, shaking her head and cursing under her breath. “Fuck… holding back my ass.”

Natsumi held her hand out to Soul, “Yeah, when a single kick is usually capable of destroying a small house, that really is holding back. Sorry about that. But, you might wanna run before the dust clears…. I wonder how we send you back…”

Soul seemed about to say something before making another monster growl and glaring at something behind the sisters. Haruka whirled around and spotted the ponies standing there and shouted, “Get back! It’s still dangerous!”

The ponies stepped back, but kept watching wanting to see how this turned out. Natsumi looked to Soul and muttered a quick, “I am so, so sorry about this,” and kicked Soul off the cliff with a fierce kiai and a dramatic flourish.

Natsumi turned back to Twilight and saluted, “Situation resolved. It’s safe now.”

Twilight nodded, a frown on her face, “That may be so, but you shouldn’t have ran off like that earlier.”

Haruka shook her head, “If we hadn’t run off, that sword monster we were tracking would have gotten away.”

Rainbow Dash zoomed over, getting up in Haruka’s face, “Oh yeah? How do we know you’re not lying about that?”

Applejack spoke up, grabbing Rainbow and pulling her away, “Easy there, pardner. Ain’t no reason to be all suspicious-like when those two clearly saved Fluttershy’s hide.”

Fluttershy nodded and shivered, “I-it was sc-scary, but you two saved me… thank you…”

Haruka and Natsumi nodded and reverted back to normal, both Hopper Zecters jumping into Natsumi’s bag along with Kivala. “No problem at all, miss,” Natsumi saluted.

Haruka walked forward, hands in her pockets, “So I guess you all have some questions, yeah?”

Natsumi stepped forward in front of Haruka, “Ask away.”

Author's Notes:

UUUUUUUUGGGGHHHHH

This would have been out a long time ago, but TrombonePlayingPony, bless his soul, still had to work on his fic before he could cross it with this one.

Ah well, c'est la vie.

Episode 7: Blast! What Evil Lurks in the Hearts of Men!?

Natsumi sighed and ran her hand through her hair as she sat on one of the upper balconies of Princess Twilight’s castle. “Who would have thought that this would happen…?” she muttered, standing up and leaning on the railing. As she looked out over Ponyville, she contemplated recent events.

Just who exactly was that mysterious eldritch abomination/Kamen Rider? And why did he just so happen to take an interest in her and Haruka?

Behind Natsumi, Haruka huffed and leaned back in her chair, loudly groaning, “Mou, Natsumi! Lighten up already! We’re here, we’re not arrested, and we might even get a chance to go scott free!”

Natsumi blinked and turned to Haruka, sighing to herself and nodding faintly, “.... Yeah, I guess you’re right. No point dwelling on the past when we should be moving forward.” With that, she plopped back down in her own chair and leaned back, relaxing in the midsummer sun.

Doctor Shinigami sat back in a makeshift throne and stroked his impressive mane of hair. “Hmmm…. Colonel Zol!” he barked, turning to the well dressed military man. “How go the preparations for our new army?”

Colonel Zol saluted and began his report, “The preparations are nearly complete, Doctor! Within the next twenty four hours, our new army of evil will be unleashed upon the foolish denizens of this world!”

“Excellent…” Doctor Shinigami murmured, stroking his hair thoughtfully. Standing and turning dramatically, he pointed off towards the distance and shouted, “Tomorrow! This world will fall to Ultra Shocker!”

At his feet, the combined forces of Ultra Shocker’s army cheered as one, the swamps around Roanikstead echoing with the shrieking howls of hundreds of monsters.

Discord hummed to himself as he strolled through Ponyville’s marketplace, casually ignoring the looks some ponies still gave him as he shopped. “Let’s see here…. got that, got that, check, check check….” Discord tapped his chin and stroked his beard, going down his list and crossing off everything he had gotten so far.

“Oh hello, what’s this...?” he mused, taking a closer look at the bottom of the list, “Random exceedingly violent blast from the past…? I didn’t write that down, did I…?”

Looking up, Discord suddenly went pale as he spotted Natsumi and Haruka across the street from him. “.... Oh dear…”

Natsumi growled and stepped forward, pointing at Discord, “You! You got a lot of nerve showing your goddamn face again after what you did to me and my sister!”

Haruka nodded and cracked her knuckles, “Natsumi, I think we should teach this fucker a lesson, don’t you think?”

“Gladly.” Natsumi snarled, pulling an equally livid Kivaara out of her pocket and holding her out.

“Now now ladies!” Discord backpedaled, holding his hands up in surrender, “We can talk this out, can’t we? I’m changed now! Really!”

Haruka snorted, “Enough talk! Natsumi, let’s do this! Henshin!”

“Henshin!”

”Ka~puu!”

”OPEN UP!”

“Oh dear….” Discord muttered, bracing himself.

As the assorted townsfolk of Ponyville began running away from the strange creatures now facing off Discord, Natsumi and Haruka rushed forward, both weapons brought to bear and gleaming in the sun.

Discord flew off down a side street, groceries forgotten in his haste while he muttered curses to himself. “Oh dammit! This wasn’t supposed to happen!” he groaned, slipping into an alleyway and hiding under a dumpster while Natsumi and Haruka ran past, the both of them screaming for Discord’s blood.

“Whew… that could have been dangerous…” Discord muttered, crawling out from under the dumpster… only to immediately flinch back under it as a powerful bolt of energy slammed into the ground right where his head was before. “Yipe!”

“Die you snakey son of a bitch!” Haruka roared, ripping the brown Hopper Zecter from her Rider Hammerspace™ and activating it.

”CHANGE: PUNCH HOPPER!”

With a beastial warcry, Haruka leapt down from the roof she stood on and slammed her fist into the dumpster, flattening it downwards in a massive shockwave that blew through the walls of the alley and into the buildings around it. “DIE DIE DIE!”

Discord, thrown through several more walls from the impact, woozily looked around at his new position, noting that he was now at the center of town, with half his body embedded into the fountain taking up the very center of the town square.

“Yo,” Natsumi greeted, stepping down on next to Discord’s head in her new Kickhopper form. Flicking the legs of the green Hopper Zecter and snorting derisively, she muttered, “Rider Kick.”

”RIDER KICK”

Grinning ferally beneath her helmet, Natsumi struck forth at Discord’s head, only to hit nothing but air as the draconequus finally remembered he could teleport and thus disappeared from the area with a brief flash of light.

“.....” Natsumi stared at the spot where Discord had been not a second ago before quickly throwing her head back and releasing a scream of rage loud enough to rattle every window within a mile radius.

“Care to explain why you destroyed three buildings, a fountain, and several gardens while attacking Discord unprovoked?” Twilight raised an unamused eyebrow at the shackled forms of Natsumi and Haruka from where she stood outside their cage in Ponyville’s police station. Discord was, strangely, cowering behind Twilight, much to everyone’s general consternation.

Haruka scowled and glared daggers at Discord, pointing directly at his shivering form, “He’s the bastard that mind controlled us into destructive monsters two thousand years ago!” The sheer vitriol in her voice stunned Twilight, who had never heard such hatred in her life.

“W-what…?” she mumbled, turning and fixing Discord with a glare of her own, “Is this true!? Did you really do that to these poor girls!?”

Discord winced and nodded slowly, shuddering at the glares all three females were shooting at him. “Well to be fair, I was a total jerk back then…” he muttered, smiling sheepishly.

“That’s no excuse!” Natsumi shouted, slamming her fists against the bars of her cell and rattling them from the force, “Do you know how many ponies died because of me and my sister!? Do you know just how many lives you made me ruin with my Saber or her Larc Rouzer!?”

Discord flinched back, “W-well… er… Oh how in the name of Tartarus was I supposed to know what would happen?! I was a jerk two thousand years ago! At least I’ve changed, okay!” He threw his mismatched forelimbs in the air and ranted angrily for a few minutes, finally culminating in a very agitated, “So I’m sorry, okay!?”

“....” Natsumi, Twilight, and Haruka stared in shock, none having expected to hear such a long winded and heartfelt rant from Discord.

Natsumi was the first to recover, “... Apology accepted. Not forgiven, but apology accepted.”

“Now can we get out of these cells!?” Haruka interjected, “these things are cramped as hell!”

“You still caused massive property damage,” Twilight pointed out coolly, her expression flat once again.

“... Shit.” Haruka muttered.

Episode 8: What's This!? Enemies Abound! What to Do!?

“Professor Shinigami… the preparations are complete… the new army is ready…” Colonel Zol murmured ominously, saluting the named Professor as he enjoyed his morning tea.

Professor Shinigami smirked into his teacup, “Excellent… tell whoever made this tea that they’ve been pulled from the front lines. Also, begin sending in the new army… I believe a good first place to attack would be the town of… Ponyville.” He sneered at the childish name, clearly dismissing it as a threat.

“At once sir! The Rider Army will move out immediately!” Colonel Zol saluted once more and raced off, cackling under his breath as he ran to unleash the army of Evil Riders.

In the pale light of early morning, not a thing stirred in Ponyville.

Except all the early risers.

That is to say, basically everyone.

Disregard the first statement. Pretty much 90% of the town was awake and moving about their morning preparations at this point.

This was not good for any of them.

It started at about eight in the morning.

At first, everything seemed to be going well. The sun was shining, children were laughing on their way to school, the adults were setting up shop for the day. All seemed well, really.

And then the first explosions rang out.

Amid the screams and confusion that pervaded the smoke filled air, three figures stood out, tall, male, and armored.

One in blue, one in red, and one in yellow. All three of them with an insect motif.

”CLOCK UP”

”CLOCK UP”

”CLOCK UP”

The three figures sped away in a haze of motion, a trail of explosions following their wake as they punched, kicked, and blasted through the various buildings and structures of Ponyville. All around Kabuto, Gatack, and TheBee were the screams of the dying and the roaring of flames.

Creaking wood and shattering glass followed the three Riders’ wake as they tore a path through Ponyville, directly to the holding cells off the side of the police station.

“Natsumi?” Haruka asked.

Natsumi nodded, “Time to go.”

“Let’s kick some ass!” Haruka cheered, punching the air and sliding her Hopper Zecter into her Rider Belt.

“You know it, sis,” Natsumi agreed, doing the same.

“Henshin!”

“Henshin!”

“CHANGE: KICK HOPPER!”

“CHANGE: PUNCH HOPPER!”

“Hm?” The leader of the three attackers, Kabuto, turned towards the police station as it exploded outwards in a blaze of power.

Gatack, turned as well, drawn by the sound. TheBee, on the other hand, continued leading in the army of kaijin that had been deployed with three Riders.

“Oi!” Natsumi shouted, pointing at Kabuto, Gatack, and TheBee. “The hell do you three assholes think you’re doing!?”

Haruka followed Natsumi as they stepped out of the ruins of the station, “You better step the fuck back or we’ll kick the shit out of you!”

All three of the evil Riders began chuckling, amused at the gall of the two females before them.

“Girl… you have a lot of nerve to stand up to the three of us…” Kabuto spoke, brandishing his Kunai Gun in its kunai form.

Gatack snorted, “You think two pathetic female Riders alone can stand up to the three of us? You must be fools.”

Natsumi and Haruka turned to look at each other, then slapped their respective Clock Up systems and dashed into lightspeed with a delayed call of, “Clock up!”

Kabuto and Gatack snorted and Clocked Up as well, meeting Natsumi and Haruka at the halfway point and launching their attacks, Kabuto throwing a straight punch and Gatack slashing with his Gatack Double Caliburs.

Natsumi caught Kabuto’s punch while Haruka slid under Gatack’s Double Caliburs, the four of them engaging into a lightspeed fistfight.

From the very beginning, Natsumi and Haruka were clearly outmatched, Gatack and Kabuto easily driving them until they were back to back with each other. Natsumi panted quietly, Haruka doing the same behind her while Kabuto and Gatack circled around them, contempt clear in their body languages.

“Don’t you underestimate us…” Haruka muttered, activating her Hopper Zecter and drawing her fist back for a punch.

“... You’ll regret it…” Natsumi finished, flipping back and directly into the path of Haruka’s straight Rider Punch, flinging her at Gatack with a mighty cry and a shout of “RIDER KICK!”

Gatack screamed as Natsumi’s boot collided with his chest, the tachyon charged kick piercing straight through his armor with an explosion of power. Natsumi stumbled to a halt and turned, rushing back at Haruka just in time to duck a punch from Kabuto and send Haruka into the air with a well timed Rider Kick.

“Gah!” Natsumi cried, the time she took to launch Haruka putting her squarely in the path of Kabuto’s own Rider Kick, throwing her to the side and through a building. “Uuuhhhh…” she groaned, de-transforming and lying in the rubble, battered and bruised.

“Natsumi!” Haruka shrieked, flipping in midair and leveling a steely glare at Kabuto, who stared back defiantly.

The smug smirk was plainly visible, even with a helmet obstructing his face.

“That’s fucking it!” Haruka snarled, cocking her fist back and flicking the legs of her Hopper Zecter. “Rider Punch!”

”RIDER PUNCH!”

”ONE TWO THREE! RIDER KICK!”

With an explosion of power, Haruka’s fist met Kabuto’s foot in an earth shattering impact. The shockwave that ensued threw up a dust cloud that obscured both figures from view even amidst both of their screams of fury and the sounds of armored fists impacting armored bodies.

When the dust cleared, Haruka was on her knees, one fist twisted painfully back in Kabuto’s grip and the other pinned under his boot. “Bastard…” she muttered hatefully, straining to no avail against the iron grip of the red Rider.

“Fool. You should have run like the worthless women you are,” Kabuto snorted derisively, lashing out and kicking Haruka back.

”CLOCK OVER!”

”CLOCK OVER!”

And so Haruka rolled to a halt, Hopper Zecter popping free as she tumbled and landing her in a heap of rubble without so much as a single piece of armor to protect her.

Kabuto advanced slowly, assured in his victory. “I admit, it was a decent distraction. Perhaps I shall take you for myself.” As Kabuto chuckled darkly and shook his head, Haruka panted quietly, desperately trying to work up the energy to do something, anything, that would let her escape with her life.

“But… loose ends and all. So you’ll have to die like that other pathetic fool.”

Kabuto savored the moment, taking his time to charge his Rider Kick.

“Die.”

”ONE TWO THREE! RIDER KICK!”

”RIDER CUTTING!”

“What!?”

Episode 9: New New New! New Strengths! New Attitudes! New Locations!

.”RIDER CUTTING!”

“What!?”

Haruka stared wordlessly up at Kabuto, then down at the massive blue shears latched around the red Rider’s waist.

“N-Natsumi…?” she whispered, looking past the thrashing form of Kabuto as Kamen Rider Gatack lifted him and slammed the shears closed, detonating Kabuto’s form into an explosion and neatly depositing Kabuto’s Rider Belt around Gatack’s hands, with the Zecter seemingly content to hover around Gatack.

As Gatack then turned to regard Haruka, the transformation dropped, revealing the weary and battered form of Natsumi, a tired smile upon her face. “Hey sis…” she murmured, plucking the Gatack Zecter from her belt and handing both items to Haruka. “I think the little guy likes you better.”

Haruka wiped a tear from her eye and sniffled, “You mean you just want to be the red one, don’t you.”

“... Shut up and help me kick some more kaijin ass before the entire town gets burnt to a crisp,” Natsumi muttered.

Haruka reached for the Gatack Zecter before pausing and looking up at Natsumi, “... Wait, how the hell did you even transform anyway? Don’t Zecters actually have to choose the wielder?”

“...” Natsumi shrugged, “Hey, I’m pretty sure a hero’s Zecter would rather be attached to a hero than an artificially created Kaijin Rider.”

“Point. Alright, let’s go kick some ass!” Haruka stood and attached her belt.

”HENSHIN”

”HENSHIN”

Both sisters stood stock still as a web of hexagons raced over their form, leaving gleaming heavy armor over their bodies, Natsumi’s having red highlights with a blue visor, Haruka’s having a mostly blue torso with cannons on her shoulders and twin protrusions coming off of the chestplate to frame her head in a pair of opened stag beetle jaws.

“Ready?” Natsumi asked.

Haruka smirked beneath her visor, “Always.”

“Cast off!”

“Cast off!”

”CAST OFF: CHANGE BEETLE!”

”CAST OFF: CHANGE STAG BEETLE!”

Robotic whirs filled the air, matching the volume of the crackling flames and crumbling rubble, while the heavy armor exploded off of both Haruka and Natsumi and left behind sleek, shining armor. Natsumi’s was red, edged in white, and had a rhinoceros beetle’s horn flip up to separate her visor into a pair of large, oval shaped lenses. Haruka’s armor revealed a slightly bulkier set of blue armor armor edged in gold with large swords attached to its shoulders, while a pair of stag beetle jaws flipped up to frame her faceplate and give definition to her red lenses.

“Ikuze! Clock up!”

“Clock up!”

”CLOCK UP!”

”CLOCK UP!”

With a sharp crack of thunder and a loud, persistent whooshing noise, both sisters vanished in a haze of lightspeed travel, seeking out the monsters that had attacked the town.

TheBee cackled maniacally as he shattered the limbs of another screaming mare, tossing the crippled pony back into the flaming building he had dragged her and her family from. As the building burned, TheBee decided to speed up its collapse by slamming a Rider Sting into its supporting walls.

This was the scene Natsumi and Haruka came upon- flaming rubble crumbling into a heap upon a family of ponies; a mare, a stallion, and two foals. Screaming with fury, Haruka dashed into the flames without regard for her own safety, kicking away the falling rubble as it moved in extreme slow motion, and picking up the family in her arms as best as she could, then dashed off to get them to safety.

Behind Haruka, Natsumi engaged in a frantic duel with TheBee with the burning remains of Sugarcube Corner collapsing slowly in the background.

Natsumi ducked under a thrown punch, using the momentum of her dodge to sweep out TheBee’s legs. Unfortunately, as soon as her legs contacted his, TheBee jumped and flipped backwards, dodging the kick with little effort and retaliating with a bone shattering kick to Natsumi’s ribs.

“Gah!” Natsumi yelped, rolling back and cradling her injured chest.

“Pathetic….” TheBee muttered, stalking slowly up to Natsumi and staring contemptuously down at her. “I don’t even understand how you could have killed my partners.”

“Fuck off…” Natsumi hissed, trying to muster the energy to stand back up and fight even through the pain of her fractured ribs.

TheBee snorted, “Juvenile.”

“You can take that high and mighty attitude… and shove it!” Natsumi suddenly surged forward, her second wind letting her get the drop on TheBee and tackle him to the ground. As they tumbled, Natsumi managed to, completely on accident, slam the horn of her helmet into TheBee’s crotch, prompting a shriek of pain as the yellow Rider doubled over pathetically, giving Natsumi just enough time to slam a Rider Kick into his face and destroy him even with his retaliatory strike to her face.

“Suck it!” Natsumi cheered, then doubled over from the pain and collapsed to the ground, letting herself drop out of Clock Up mode and de-transform.

“Ugh…” she muttered, head spinning and ribs aching. “That sucked… oh gods…..” Silently, she stared up at the destruction around her, knowing that she had to get up, to move, to save someone, anyone.

“Just… a few…. seconds….” Natsumi murmured tiredly, eyelids drooping tiredly as sensations began fading away, her vision flickering black, hearing dropping, touch numbing away. Such was the state of her unconsciousness that she didn’t even hear or feel Haruka rush over to her and shake her frantically.

“Natsumelon! Wake up! Come on we gotta fight!”

“Natsu! Come on this isn’t funny!”

“Natsumi!”

“Natsumi….!”

“Na...mi!”

“Na…!”

“....!”

Haruka shook Natsumi’s shoulder frantically, terrified at her twin’s lack of response.

“Oh no no no no no, this can’t be happening shit!” she shrieked, finally deciding to just haul Natsumi over her shoulders like a sack of potatoes and drift off to place Natsumi down with the rest of the assorted townspeople she rescued.

“Come on Natsu, stay with me!” Haruka cried, shaking Natsumi repeatedly as soon as the both of them had cleared the edge of Ponyville’s border. “I can’t do this alone! Come on Natsu! Wake up! Please… wake up….”

No response from Natsumi.

“Dammit Natsumelon…” Haruka murmured, her armor slipping away as she held back tears. “... O-…. O-…. ONORE NATSUMIKAN!”

“.... How many times…. do I have to tell you…. not to call me that….?” Natsumi murmured weakly, eyes fluttering open as she groaned. “How long was I out…..?”

“Long enough, lazy bones,” Haruka spoke tearfully, a wide grin on her face despite the circumstances. “Now come on, you gonna help me save what’s left of the town or what?”

Natsumi hauled herself to a stand, wincing in pain as she felt her fractured ribs creak under the strain. “Y-yeah… I think I’m still good….”

“... Obviously not,” Haruka muttered, shaking her head and looking out over the kaijin infested Ponyville. “Good news, none of the kaijin in the town can clock up. Bad news…. the town is full of kaijin and ponies are dying all over the place.”

“Shit…” Natsumi hissed, gently raising her hand to catch the Kabuto Zecter once more. “Damn… this is gonna suck…. Ready sis?”

“Always.”

“Henshin!”

“Henshin!”

”HENSHIN”

”HENSHIN”

“Cast off!”

“Cast off!”

”CAST OFF: CHANGE BEETLE!”

”CAST OFF: CHANGE STAG BEETLE!”

Natsumi sighed in relief, the natural power of her Rider transformation healing her side faster and allowing her a freedom of movement that wasn’t normally possible with fractured ribs.

“Ah, much better… tcheh, still stings, though…” Natsumi rolled her shoulders and neck, stretching out the kinks and limbering up. “I think I’ll be okay though… as long as I don’t take too many hits…”

Haruka shook her head, “Just try not to die, doofus.”

“Yeah yeah, laugh it up.”

“Always. Clock up!”

“Clock up!”

”CLOCK UP!”

”CLOCK UP!”

Twin sisters sped off once more, this time sticking together as they blazed a path through the burning wreckage of Ponyville.

“Come on!” Natsumi shouted, leaping into the air and flipping around as Haruka came up underneath her.

“Has anyone ever told you that your plans suck?” Haruka muttered, grabbing Natsumi’s arm as Natsumi flipped over and bodily flung the two of them at a street full of Kaijin as a spinning, Clocked Up, wheel of death.

”RIDER KICK!”

”RIDER KICK!”

All that the marauding kaijin had time to see as their reign of terror ceased was a whirling disk of red, blue, black and piercing lighting. As the disk passed through the street, every kaijin it smashed through exploded into a burst of blue fire, harmless but for the noise and light each detonation produced.

”CLOCK OVER!”

”CLOCK OVER!”

Natsumi and Haruka screeched to a skidding halt, both sisters panting heavily as they de-transformed.

“Well… that’s about half the town cleared…” Natsumi sighed, feeling the aching in her ribs fully now. Healing though they may be, the effort she was exerting wasn’t doing her sides any favors.

“Yeah, well, and the rest of it’s still burning…” Haruka muttered, re-transforming and rushing off.

“O-oi! Wait for me dammit!” Natsumi cried, following suit.

Hours.

Four hours of constant fighting, rescuing, and running.

But it was worth it, in some small way.

Though the town was an uninhabitable wreckage of ash and debris, there were startlingly few casualties.

Relatively speaking, that is.

“Too many…” Haruka murmured, staring off into space with dead eyes, mindlessly taking up the shattered body of another pony- one of the flower sisters, Daisy- and handing it over to Natsumi, who wordlessly sped off to the rapidly growing mortuary to the west of town.

Still, the small joy she had in finding survivors mitigated the worst of the effects. Such was the small smile she had when she handed a living, mostly uninjured foal over to Natsumi, who sped off to the refugee camp off to the east.

“Any deaths are too many…” Natsumi muttered, graciously accepting the towel handed to her by Discord.

Haruka shook her head and took a seat on the rubble, “I think that’s everyone…”

“Yeah…” Natsumi sighed, dropping down and staring up at Discord, “Where were you this whole time anyway? We could have used your… help.”

Discord sighed, “I’m afraid that I can’t tell you that. Old Celly has my lips sealed.” He zipped his mouth shut to demonstrate his point.

“Great.” Haruka muttered, kicking a loose chunk of stone as she stared down at her dust covered, bloody hands, “... Being a Kamen Rider sucks sometimes…”

Natsumi nodded, the strain of travelling at lightspeed for so long finally catching up to her, rendering her too tired to speak.

Leaning back, both sisters stared at the curiously clear sky, the bare throes of afternoon finally seeping into the sky amidst the noonday sun.

“.... This isn’t right…” Haruka muttered, “Something like this doesn’t deserve a blue sky…”

Natsumi nodded tiredly, leaving both sisters and Discord to sit and stare at the sky, mulling over the strange turn their fates had taken.

Author's Notes:

Eugh. So the next chapter was actually written before this since I was feeling too lazy to actually write out this piece of shit.

Whatever.

Episode 10: Friends From Beyond Space and Time! Three Monsters Down, Who Knows How Many to Go!

Natsumi wiped the sweat from her brow, leaning heavily on her shovel as she filled in the last of the graves and carved a short inscription into the wooden grave marker before her.

Apple Fritter- Beloved Cousin

“God….” she muttered as she collapsed to her knees and stared out at the ruined wreckage of what had been Ponyville. “.... This shouldn’t have happened…. this shouldn’t have happened and it’s all my fault for letting it happen….”

Haruka plopped down next to Natsumi and sighed, “It’s not our fault. Not entirely, maybe. We could have been faster, fought harder, but… there were still monsters everywhere. We’re only two Riders, Natsumi. We can’t be everywhere.”

“I know we can’t… but so many are dead because of this…. and… even more are injured… Even with Twilight helping out, even with Discord somehow being nice… it’s still going to take time to fix this mess,” Natsumi mumbled, burying her face in her knees and letting out a muffled sob.

“Hey, it’s okay, Natsumelon,” Haruka patted Natsumi’s back, barely holding back tears of her own, “All we can do now is just help out where we can and try to fix things. And once we’re done with that, we track down the bastards that did this and make them pay!”

Natsumi looked up, bleary eyed, “You think we can really do that?”

“Hell yeah we can!” Haruka shouted, leaping to her feet and extending her hand, pointer finger reaching high into the sky. “We’re Natsumi and Haruka Miwa! The Kamen Rider Sisters! As long as there is evil in this world we can’t die! Remember the words of Kamen Rider Ichigou! Remember this, Natsumi! We’re Kamen Riders! Inheritors of the title that Ichigou started! Waza no Ichigou! Let’s Go!”

Natsumi smiled shakily, “You stole that from Gaim.”

“That I did, now come on. We still have more graves to dig,” Haruka extended her hand out to Natsumi, just in time for a strange, white hexagon to fall out of the air and land in her outstretched palm. “.... Eh?”

As Jack and Twilight exited the wormhole they looked towards each other in confusion. Jack asked, “Twilight, what just happened?”

Twilight shook her head and replied, “We were just pulled through a wormhole of some sort- by all rights we should be dead right about now.”

Jack looked out the window to see what looked like a destroyed town along with what appeared to be the remains of a large structure of some kind. Jack then looked back to Twilight with a worried look, “Whatever happened here, it must have been big… This definitely isn’t our world.”

Twilight stared back at Jack in surprise then shouted, “How is this not our world!?”

“I think we were just pulled to another Displaced’s world, similar to what happened with Sun when he came to ours,” answered Jack.

“So we’re in another world, with no way to get back?” Twilight asked fearfully.

Jack smiled, “There will be a way back… but we may need whoever it was that Displaced us to help.”

“So land the ship so we can find them and get home!” Twilight hastily shouted.

“I’m on it, just relax and I’ll get us down,” Jack muttered as he slowly brought the ship to land near the remains of the large structure.

“Natsumi?” Haruka mumbled, staring off into the distance.

“Yeah?” Natsumi asked idly, still examining the odd hexagon.

Haruka pointed out to the remains of Twilight’s castle, “.... Spaceship.”

“Spaceship?” Natsumi looked up and towards where Haruka pointed. “.... Huh. Spaceship.”

“Yeah… so… wanna explore?” Haruka smirked, hand already sliding the Gatack Zecter into her belt.

Natsumi nodded, affixing the Kabuto Zecter to her belt, “Make sure it’s not more monsters.”

“Ikuyo! Let’s Henshin!”

“Saa, showtime, da!”

HENSHIN

HENSHIN

With a burst of speed, both Haruka and Natsumi sped away in a blur of reds and blues, woes and troubles long forgotten behind them.

As the ship finally landed and the ramp extended the purple anthro-unicorn was the first to step out of the ship. “This place looks like a warzone… Jack have your Prizmod on standby, we don’t want to be ambushed!” she called back towards the ship.

“I’m already ahead of you Twilight.” Jack replied as he carefully surveyed the area around them.

Wreckage. Nothing more than smoldering wreckage with the occasional lump of misshapen, somehow unburned rubble to round out the collection. Far in the distance lay a vast swathe of billowing white fabric- likely a camp of some sort. Behind the ship lay the ruins of what appeared to be a crystal castle, great chunks of material still flaking and sloughing off from the larger mass.

Jack then turned to Twilight and said “I think our best bet to figure out what happened would be to go to whatever those tents are for over there… there maybe some people there who can help.”

Just then, a pair of beings slid to a halt before Twilight and Jack, both feminine, one with red armor, the other with blue. The female in red had a horn much like a rhinoceros beetle while her blue companion wore the horns of a stag beetle.

“Who are you, and what are your intentions?” the red one asked, smoothly moving into a defensive crouch. The blue one remained silent, mirroring her companion’s position.

“I’m Jack and this is Twilight, I am a Displaced, we think someone found my token and called us here.” Jack said calmly.

“Oh my gosh! an unknown species of alien!” Twilight gushed.

The blue one tilted her head, “Token? Displaced? The hell is that?”

“Haruka!” the red one snapped, smacking her companion on the shoulder.

“Ow! What’s your problem, Natsumelon!?” Haruka hissed, rubbing her shoulder.

“Stop calling me that!”

“Do you want us to wait for you to deal with whatever argument you are having?” inquired Jack.

Natsumi halted, “Oh, shit, right, sorry. Um…. Wait, you said her name is Twilight?” She pointed at Twilight hesitantly, not quite sure what to make of an lavender anthro-unicorn.

“Yes, my name is Twilight. Why do you ask?” Twilight said, snapping out of her excitement.

Natsumi shook her head, “Because there’s already a Twilight living in the refugee camp past the wreckage… and she’s a three foot tall lavender unicorn with wings.”

“My sister here was just wondering why you didn’t have wings,” Haruka spoke up.

“No I wasn’t!” Natsumi insisted, stomping her foot in a fit of petulance.

Jack sighed then grabbed his Prizmod from his arm and asked, “Did you find an object that looks like this?”

Natsumi held up her own Prizmod and gave it a little shake, “Yeah, just fell out of the air. What is this anyway?”

“My Token, it’s basically a calling card for Displaced, we’re humans who were send to another reality.” explains Jack.

“Ooohhhhh,” Haruka made a noise of realization, then elbowed Natsumi. “Hey, we’re humans too. What happened to you? We got dropped two thousand years ago after buying some shit from a convention.”

Natsumi nodded, “It really, really sucked.”

“Well... I went to a gaming convention, and then once I won the tournament that was based on Spectrobes I was given a letter by a strange man. Next thing I know, me and my girlfriend got sent to our reality,” explained Jack.

Haruka tapped her chin, “.... Maybe I’m just looking at a ridiculously small sample size here… but do most Displaced end up being Displaced at a convention of some kind….?”

Jack shrugged his shoulders then replied, “To be fair I don’t know I’ve only met one other Displaced and I think he was Displaced at a convention.”

Natsumi nodded, then rolled her neck as the metal beetle on her belt flew away. As her armor dissolved into shards and flecks of energy, she extended a hand. “Well, regardless, it’s nice to meet you anyway.”

“Darn… they're just humans... maybe I can learn more about their species?” Twilight silently muttered to herself.

Haruka’s armor did likewise, the blue stag beetle flying off to join its red rhinoceros beetle companion in the distance. “Say….” she muttered, “How the hell does one actually make a Token anyway?”

“Well if I remember correctly you need to find an object that relates to you, with me it was my Prizmod, and then you’d usually add a message for anyone who finds your token to identify it as yours,” explained Jack.

Natsumi sighed, “That might be a problem…”

“We have like nothing to us except our transformation items, our clothes, and our phones,” Haruka finished.

“You won’t need to worry about that, when you go to send your tokens out you keep the original… you think I would have chosen my Prizmod if I didn’t get it back?” replied Jack.

“Why don't they try making something that represents them?” Twilight suggested.

Haruka snapped her fingers, “I was just about to say that myself!”

“No you weren’t,” Natsumi back-sassed.

“Shut up I totally was!” Haruka protested.

“Guys focus, you’re acting like a pair of spoilt children.” sighed Jack disappointedly.

Haruka rolled her eyes, “Well excuse me for having an annoying twat for a sister.”

“Pot, meet kettle,” Natsumi muttered.

“I’ll be on the ship if you need me...” Twilight sighed before putting up her notebook and walking back into the ship.

“She seems disappointed,” Natsumi noted.

Haruka shrugged, “Maybe she needs to use the bathroom? Anyway, what do you think we should make, Natsumelon?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

“No, she’s disappointed… human’s are myths where I come from, we’re supposed to be smart and then she sees the opposite… would you be any different?” asked Jack sadly.

“.... So you think we’re not intelligent because we argue like normal sisters….?” Natsumi stared coolly at Jack, an odd twitch coming to her eye.

Haruka shook her head, speaking in a dramatic tone with her hand pressed to her forehead, “No no, of course the beings you’ve known for less than ten minutes can’t be at all smart because they squabble with each other.”

“That's not what I meant… she’s comparing you to my girlfriend who reverse engineered a Prizmod in less than a day… she expected that we were smart, creative and mostly above acting like children. As I said she expected the myths to be accurate for every human, which I know isn’t right, but she doesn’t.” Jack explained.

“Wow, your Twilight is kind of an idiot,” Haruka muttered.

“Be polite, Haruka,” Natsumi sighed.

“She more or less implied that we’re idiots- wait, did it ever occur to her that she’s in a separate fucking dimension, so the myths don’t fucking apply?” Haruka’s face contorted into a delightful mix of indignation and confusion, along with a heaping mix of condescension and surprise.

Natsumi was silent for a few telling moments until, “.... Yeah, she kind of is an idiot if she didn’t take that into account.”

“You do realise she thought that the whole thing was impossible… we came through a wormhole and she’s a scientist. She didn’t think it was possible to survive that, at most she thinks we’re in a separate solar system, where the myth would still apply,” admitted Jack.

“..... Idiot purple one aside, Haruka, what should we make?” Natsumi poked Haruka in the shoulder, prompting a shrug and a quick noise of indecision from Haruka.

“How the hell should I know?” Haruka asked.

Natsumi tapped her chin, “Hey, how about the Kamen Rider Scouts medal?”

“... I barely even remember what that looks like,” Haruka muttered.

“Well, we could- Duck!” Natsumi shouted suddenly, dragging Haruka and Jack down as numerous explosions went off around them, throwing up a wave of dust and smoke.

“The fuck was that!?” Haruka coughed, trying to peer through the dust clogging the air.

“Those bastards from yesterday must have had backup!” Natsumi answered, finally spotting their assailant through the dust.

Jack then look towards the assailant nervously before asking Haruka, “Friends of yours?”

Haruka looked over and groaned, “The fuck do you think?”

“Shit, that’s Tiger-Roid…” Natsumi whispered, staring at the tiger-man with shock.

“WHO CAUSED THAT EXPLOSION!?” Twilight screamed as she hurried out of the ship.

“Get the fuck back now!” Natsumi shouted, covering her head as more explosions rang out, courtesy of the massive cannon growing out of Tiger-Roid’s back.

“Gwahahahaha!” the tiger-man cyborg cackled, launching more explosive bullets from his artillery.

“Oh? You think scaring me half to death is FUNNY!?” Twilight shouted at Tiger-Roid, her eye twitching.

“Only half? I’ll have to fix that!” Tiger-Roid cackled, bending over and aiming his cannon right at Twilight, its barrel filling with an ominous crimson light.

“Pathetic insect, you messed with the wrong scientist,” Twilight hissed as she teleported into the ship before whirring and clanking noises began sounding out. Moments later, two panels folded away from the top of the ship before a turret rose out of the hole and turned to aim at Tiger-Roid.

Jack then glared angrily at Tiger-Roid before shouting, “You will not shoot my ship!” His Prizmod opened and a large creature that looked like a samurai wearing purple and red armour appeared beside him.

Tiger-Roid simply roared out his challenge and made to fire, that is, until an arcing bolt of blue energy slammed into the ship from behind the rubble.

“Oh what the fuck now!?” Haruka screamed, slamming down her Gatack Zecter and transforming.

Natsumi paused halfway through preparing her own transformation, “Wait… was that a…. Rider… Shooting…?” With a panicked look upon her face, she rushed through her own transformation, leaving her and Haruka back in the same armor they had come in.

The turret fired a shot at Tiger-Roid before spinning around to see who fired on the ship, and prepared to fire on them also.

There stood a figure in blue and white armor, distinctively dragonfly themed, with a very odd gun leveled at the ship. With a palpable smirk, the figure pulled back the pull tab on the back of his gun and, strangely enough, disappeared as soon as it slapped a button attached to the side of its hip.

Moments later, an explosion went off inside the barrel of the turret, as the same figure appeared atop the cockpit of the ship.

“Shit, it actually is Drake!” Natsumi shouted, turning to Haruka and rushing off with a blur of red and vanishing.

Haruka cursed and shook her head, until she too vanished with a, “Clock up!”

Hissing angrily, Tiger-Roid began firing his own barrage at Jack, having easily dodged the plasma shot and uncaring that his backup had gotten into a brutal two-on-one fistfight at lightspeed.

Jack then began to flinch away, however just before the barrage hit him the samurai jumped in front of Jack protecting him from the blast before running towards Tiger-Roid.

“Graaah! Die die die!” Tiger-Roid roared, his barrage becoming more and more intense, with each bullet becoming larger with each shot.

Exceed Charge

A quiet, mechanical voice rang out as a purple bolt of energy raced out from behind a pile of still smoking rubble, directly at Jack.

Jack then quickly turned around, but only noticed the bolt seconds before it struck him whist being unable to avoid it in time. Immediately, a massive purple cone of energy formed around the impact point, holding him in place and allowing Tiger-Roid to walk up behind Jack and jam the barrel of his cannon right into the middle of Jack’s back, a loud whine building up as the tiger-man charged a shot.

“Well well well… another human….” a new voice called out, a man in black and white, delta themed armor stalking into view. “Too bad you were just a momentary distraction before I take out those two bitches currently giving my partner a hard time.”

“Get away from Jack!” Twilight shouted as she stepped out of the ship, covered in soot and her hair all over the place, before she started firing her blaster at Tiger-Roid and the new guy.

“Hmph!” the new man darted back behind cover while Tiger-Roid released the massive bolt of energy he had charged up at Twilight, running away as the cone sticking out of Jack dissipated into harmless sparkles and faded away.

Jack then quickly grabbed his sword from his side and spun backward as he struck one of Tiger-Roids cannons before he shouted, “Samurite now!” Jack jumped out the way as the Spectrobe struck him three times with the blades on it’s arms.

Tiger-Roid stumbled, sparks flying as Samurite slashed him, then tucked into a sideways roll and leapt behind a pile of rubble. Immediately after, Kamen Rider Drake all but flew out of thin air and slammed into the ground, sparking wildly with crackles of electricity until he exploded, his gun and Drake Zecter flying into Haruka’s outstretched arms.

“Score!” she crowed, holding up her loot with utmost victorious joy.

Natsumi slid to a halt beside Haruka and looked to where Delta and Tiger-Roid had disappeared behind the rubble, “We’re not done yet, sis. We still have two more to go.”

“Damn, I know Tiger bastard’s still there, who else?” Haruka slipped both items into the peculiar Rider Hammerspace behind her back, then searched around for any signs of movement.

“Delta,” Natsumi muttered, eyes narrowed behind the lenses of her helmet.

“Shiiiit….” Haruka sighed.

Natsumi turned to Jack, “Hey, you alright?”

“Thanks to Twilight,” Jack then pointed towards Delta, “Is that other guy one of you?”

Natsumi shook her head, “If he tried to kill you, no. The only time Kamen Riders attack innocents for any reason is if they’re brainwashed or evil. Well that, or if said innocent is another Kamen Rider… funny how that always happens….”

“Well do you want to deal with him and we’ll handle the Tiger?” Jack joked.

Haruka nodded, “That’d probably be for the best. Kamen Riders are best fought by other Riders.”

“Be careful,” Natsumi warned as both of them sped away to search for the errant gunman, leaving Jack and Twilight to deal with Tiger-Roid.

“Well, this should be interesting?” Twilight said as she limped over to Jack.

“Twilight I know I said we’d do this, but pass me your gun and then stay in the ship. You're injured and won’t be able to dodge his blasts,” ordered Jack.

“I’m not leaving, I have a dissection lined up for that insect!” Twilight all but screamed before going into a coughing fit.

“You try to fight him, he will kill you Twilight. Get into the ship, that’s an order! If you want to help, use the turrets, but trying to fight him will get you killed!” shouted Jack.

“The main turret is offline, remember?” Twilight deadpanned as she grudgingly gave Jack her blaster and started to limp back in the direction of the ship.

Jack then turns around to look for Tiger-Roid and muttered “Now then, let's do this.” Seconds later Windora appeared beside Samurite as he held his sword in his right hand whilst holding Twilight's blaster in his left before he shouted, “Windora, blow away the rubble!” Seconds later small tornadoes appeared in front of Windora and headed towards two separate piles of rubble blowing the pile away instantly before turning towards a separate set.

Immediately, Tiger-Roid popped out from behind a still intact pile of rubble and fired a barrage of energy projectiles into the air, causing them to rain down around Jack while Tiger-Roid himself ran in for close combat.

Jack then shouted “Samurite!” before the Spectrobe charged towards Tiger-Roid once again before attempting to slash at him, whilst this happened Jack’s hand that was holding the gun began to shake uncontrollably as he attempted to hold it level.

Tiger-Roid took the hits, each slash resulting in a spray of sparks, then returned with a set of fierce slashes with his claws, all the while charging a massive attack in his back artillery.

Jack then noticed this and yelled, “Windora Voltronica!” With that Windora turned around then proceeded to charge towards Tiger-Roid using the jets on its arms to quickly propel itself forwards before hitting Tiger-Roid head on.

“Gwargh!” Tiger-Roid roared, releasing its attack early and sending a massive ball of energy into the air, along with shredding its back cannon. As the energy ball reached its apex, it exploded, raining burning plasma down upon the wreckage of the town.

Jack then glared at Tiger-Roid before Samurite charged towards Tiger-Roid. The Spectrobe swung both its blades towards Tiger-Roid at the same time.

Tiger-Roid stumbled back from the blow, sparking intensely until he finally fell backwards and exploded, roaring one final time as he died.

Natsumi and Haruka sped around the ruins, searching high and low for the wayward Delta. After a few moments passed, they split up and searched in different directions.

Delta, meanwhile, had taken to moving around every few moments. While he couldn’t see Natsumi and Haruka past vague blurs, it was still enough to let him dodge detection.

That is, until he took a step too early and received a generous heaping dose of fist-to-the-faceplate.

“Grah!” Delta stumbled back as Natsumi slid to a halt in front of him, fists raised threateningly.

“Two options here: You either surrender and go back home to your creators, or I kick your ass until you tell me where you came from and how to get there.” Natsumi cracked her knuckles loudly, obviously wanting the second option.

Delta shook his head and snorted, “Tch! Or the third option where I-”

Exceed Charge

“-kill you!”

A bright beam of energy lanced out at Natsumi, striking her in the chest and locking her in place while a purple cone of energy formed.

Delta stalked forward, oozing smugness as he prepared to leap into the cone and end Natsumi’s life. “You were an interesting diversion, I must admit. Still, I have better things to do than leave you alive. Di-gah!”

Haruka suddenly replaced Delta, the other Rider rolling head over heels until he hit a column of rubble. “You’re not touching my sister, bitch!” she cried, flashing back into lightspeed and slamming a Rider Kick into Delta’s face, then de-transformed and switched to her Hopper Zecter so she could slam a Rider Punch into Delta’s crotch.

With an absolutely pathetic whimper of pain, Delta exploded, dispelling the cone of energy holding Natsumi in place and allowing her to catch the Delta Driver and its accompanying belt.

“That… was too close….” Natsumi muttered, sliding both items into her Rider Hammerspace while panting.

“Yeah…. let’s get back to Jack, see how he’s done,” Haruka stretched out and blurred away, Natsumi following along a second later.

“Hey, you alright?” Natsumi called out to Jack, sliding to a halt in front of him.

“I’ll live,” admitted Jack before slowly standing up, “He was a bit of a pain to deal with though.”

Haruka rolled her shoulders, “Kamen Rider villains tend to be like that every once in a while.”

Natsumi nodded, “So, that’s done with minimal property damage to what’s left. Now what?

“Well, I don’t know… maybe check that everyone in the camp is okay?” proposed Jack.

“Makes sense. Let’s go, Haruka,” Natsumi waved Haruka over and the both of them sped off, leaving a trail of dust behind them.

“Bye~!” Haruka called back as she left.

Jack then sighed as he recalled Windora and Samurite before shouting, “Twilight, you want to head to the camp?”

“Cant! Fixing the ship!” Twilight called back in a slightly annoyed tone.

Jack sighed before walking into the ship and placing her blaster on the side, saying, “Thank you for letting me borrow it.” Jack then turned around and walked back out of the ship as Leo appeared beside him, bowing his head.

Jack walked over to him, “Let's go to the camp, buddy.”

Leo nodded his head as they ran towards the camp in the distance.

“Natsumi!? Haruka!? Are you alright?” Twilight asked worriedly, fretting over both twins until she was satisfied with their continued health. “What were those explosions? What happened to you two?”

“Don’t worry about us, Twilight,” Natsumi shook her head and ran her fingers through her hair, “Is everyone else alright? There wasn’t any more damage from the explosions?”

Twilight nodded, “Thankfully, nothing even came near us. Now, mind explaining exactly what happened?”

“Yeah!” Kivaara called out, flapping over to fly agitated circles around Natsumi’s head, “What were you thinking, running off without me!? I was your first henshin system, ya know! You can’t just toss me aside like that and run off! I was worried!”

“Yare yare, Kivaara….” Natsumi muttered, idly catching the tiny bat-creature and patting her head, “I’m just keeping you safe from getting hurt. No sense in letting you get battered around.”

“Mou, but I’m a henshin system! I’m supposed to get into fights!” Kivaara protested fitfully until Natsumi finally gave in and let Kivaara sit in her breast pocket.

“Fiiine,” Natsumi huffed. “Anyway, Haruka and I found visitors from another dimension, the four of us got attacked by two more Riders and a Kaijin, and we won. I don’t think this place is safe anymore, by the way. All of you might want to move on.”

Haruka nodded, “No sense in letting the townspeople get caught up in our war after all this has already happened.”

“Right. We’ve already been making plans to move. The rail station up in Clopton is only a few hours away walking, so we’ll head there and then get to Canterlot,” Twilight unfurled a checklist and looked it over a few times. “You should come with us, make sure the Princesses know that you saved us.”

“Actually… speaking of coming with someone….” Haruka muttered, then looked off towards the ruins, “.... we forgot Jack.”

Seconds later, Jack appeared riding on what appeared to be another Spectrobe before it stopped in front of everyone and he jumped off its back while asking, “Was everyone here okay?”

“Yeah, they’re all okay,” Natsumi replied, then waved over at Twilight. “Twilight, meet Jack. Jack, Twilight.”

Haruka chuckled, “Play nice.”

Jack then sighed before saying, “It’s a pleasure to meet you Twilight.”

Twilight stuck out her hoof and smiled up at Jack, “The pleasure is all mine, Jack. So, you’re from another dimension, correct? I’d love to know what that’s like- would you mind me asking a few questions?”

“Yes, that is correct. And I’ll answer your questions depending on what you ask,” replied Jack inquisitively as he wondered what she wanted to know.

“Excellent! Come with me, please!” Twilight smiled brightly and began walking away towards one of the larger tents in the camp.

Jack then recalled his Spectrobe before slowly following Twilight.

Twilight levitated a clipboard in front of her as she prepared to take notes, “Alright, please state your full name, gender, age, species, and occupation, please.”

“Jack Burgin, male, eighteen, human and I’m a patrol officer for the PPP,” Jack replied calmly.

“Excellent! So, what’s your dimension like? Is there an Equestria? Are all of the inhabitants there like you or are there ponies as well?” Twilight began rattling off questions with abandon, clearly already having prepared a checklist beforehand.

“Well, yes there is an Equestria but it’s not like this; from what I’ve seen of it since my arrival it mainly consists of the headquarters for the PPP, all of the inhabitants look similar to me but I haven’t seen any ponies that look similar to you… although I have met my version of you,” explained Jack.

“You keep saying PPP…. what exactly is the PPP?” Twilight questioned, arching a brow with interest.

“ The PPP stands for ‘The Pony Planetary Patrol’ were basically a police force that looks after the civilians in our solar system,” Jack replied calmly whilst trying to remember the required information.

Twilight blinked, “Your dimension has colonized your solar system!? Amazing! What level of technology do you have?”

“Well did you see the ship that was in the sky earlier on?” asked Jack hopefully.

Twilight stared, “.... There was a ship?” Then she shook her head, “Never mind that, what was this about an alternate version of myself?”

“Ah yes, The alternate version of you is a Unicorn and is one of the top scientists in the PPP,” clarified Jack.

“So she’s still a unicorn…” Twilight muttered, scribbling down notes at a feverish pace. “Describe to me everything you can about your ship, please.”

Jack smiled, “It would probably be easier to show you.” He then grabbed his communicator before speaking, “Twilight would you be able to bring the ship nearer to the camp?”

“You sure? We don't want any civilians to panic,” Professor Sparkle responded over the communicator.

“Well considering they saw the explosions from the fight and I’m guessing the ruins we’re parked by was their town… I doubt it could be much worse.” admits Jack.

“Fine, but any panicking civilians will be blamed on you!” Professor Sparkle snorted before the communicator shut off.

Jack turned to Twilight, “Once we’re finished with the interview my ship should be nearby, I’ll show you around it.”

“Really!?” Twilight’s eyes sparkled with manic scientific glee, her mind already running wild with thoughts of what could be on the ship.

“Shall we continue with the interview?” asked Jack hopefully.

Twilight shook her head, “Right, yes, um, next question…”

“Hey Haruka?”

“Yeah, Natsumi?”

“Why’s Jack’s ship coming over here?”

“Probably because Twilight wants to see it.”

“Good point.”

“Always.”

The pair watched Jack’s ship slowly rise and settle down near the edge of camp, prompting curious and suspicious looks from many of the townsponies, but not much else other than a general air of tension.

Twilight had poked her head out when the sound of the ship’s engines reached her ears, and was currently rushing towards the ship, dragging Jack behind her.

Natsumi and Haruka, both being curious, decided to examine the ship as well.

Once everyone got inside the ship, Twilight let Jack go as he muttered, “You didn’t have to drag me here, I can walk.”

“Yes, but you were being too slow and- ooh, what’s this?” Twilight immediately darted over to the nearest piece of technology she didn’t recognize and began poking at it to see what it was.

Behind her, Natsumi and Haruka giggled and walked up to Jack. “Hey, how do we even make Tokens? We have an idea of what we wanna make,” Natsumi asked, quirking an eyebrow at Jack.

Jack sighed before muttering, “One second.” He then pulled out his communicator before saying “Twilight, would you mind looking after this world's Twilight for me.”

“Coming!” Professor Sparkle shouted as she ran over, “Where is she? I have so many questions for her!”

Jack then smiles as he points towards one of the machines near the wall before chuckling “over there… play nice.”

Twilight then ran over to her winged counterpart and shut the door behind her.

Jack then turned back to Natsumi and Haruka before saying “Sorry about that… anyway what do you have in mind to use as your Token?”

Natsumi held up two wooden fragments, “Well, we were planning on carving these into little tablets with our symbols on them.”

Haruka nodded, “Sort of like a club pin or whatever. It’s cooler than it sounds.”

“I bet it does, anyway once you’ve got them ready you need to add a message or phrase into it to tell others who you are and how to activate it,” explained Jack.

“Right…. Hmm….” Haruka shot a sneaky look over to Natsumi, who grinned back and snickered.

“Oh yeah, there’s a really good phrase that we’re using….” Natsumi barely held back full blown laughter as she and Haruka wandered away into the depths of the ship for a bit of privacy.

Jack then shook his head in disappointment before saying, “If you’re willing to joke about her not knowing what to say, you’d better have a phrase planned already.”

A few minutes later, Natsumi and Haruka walked out, each bearing a metallic medallion with a gold border on each one. The internal surface of each medal was a reflective red, with a symbol embossed into each one, a batlike symbol for Natsumi, with a stylized A for Haruka. On the back of each medal was a full color picture for each medallion, a different one for both Natsumi and Haruka.

“We got it!” Haruka crowed, holding her medal aloft in victory.

Natsumi nodded and held hers up, “And they’re totally awesome.”

“... Now what?” Haruka asked.

“Well as I said before, you need to think up a phrase for each of you, like you likely heard from mine,” explained Jack.

“Well we have that part down,” Natsumi muttered and tossed her medal at Jack. “Give it a listen if you don’t believe us.”

Jack caught the token and heard Natsumi’s and Haruka’s voices announce, “Koko kara wa oretachi no stage da! We are the Kamen Rider Sisters, defenders of Justice! If you wish our aid, take the pose upon the back of this medal and shout HENSHIN! Let your voice be heard across the world and never falter in your course of Justice!”

Natsumi shrugged, “It’s basically how Kamen Rider handled things. Same way we do it.”

“And yes, the ham is necessary,” Haruka nodded sagely, “It powers our fighting spirit.”

“And sounds really cool when you do it right,” Natsumi added.

“That it does,” admitted Jack, “Anyway now you both have a Token with a message transcribed. You need to send it out into the Void and then you’ll get a copy of the Token back.”

“.... Getting it back is kind of useless,” Haruka muttered.

“Yeah, not like we’d get much use out o- well, unless there’s some way of getting an OOOdriver….” Natsumi tapped her chin and shrugged, “Eh, whatever. How the hell do we send the Tokens to the Void anyway?”

“To be honest with you the guy I met who taught me didn’t explain that bit,” replied Jack whilst scratching the back of his head.

“... Well shi- whoa!” Haruka suddenly let go of her medal as it flew through the air, joined shortly by Natsumi’s medal.

Natsumi stared as the medals twirled, then slammed into each other and disappeared into a shower of dull grey coins. She muttered a quick, “What the fuck?”

“... Well that was awfully convenient,” Haruka murmured.

“That it was, I… really wasn’t expecting it to work like that,” exclaimed Jack in surprise, “Anyway while you here would you like a tour of the ship?”

Natsumi shrugged, “Alright.”

“Sure,” Haruka agreed.

“Okay then… anything in particular you're interested in seeing?” asked Jack.

“Eh. Not really. Anything really cool, I guess,” Haruka looked around, then muttered, “Then again, that’s pretty much everything…”

Natsumi chuckled, “Well, I guess we’ll just have to see the whole ship, then.”

“Well we’re nearest to the lab… it’s where we awakened the Spectrobes… that’s if you're interested in that sort of thing?” asked Jack.

Natsumi shrugged, looked to Haruka, then turned back to Jack, “Eh, sure. Might as well.”

“Might be educational,” added Haruka.

“Okay then… and if you’re interested we could sort you out with your own Spectrobes… you do have a Prizmod after all.”

“Eh,” Haruka shook her head, “We prefer fighting by ourselves.”

“Not that partners wouldn’t be appreciated, but we prefer fighting without needing to command anything but ourselves,” Natsumi made an apologetic face and shrugged again

“That’s fair enough then. Follow me,” With that Jack began to walk towards one of the nearby rooms before he beckoned Natsumi and Haruka to follow him inside.

As they got into the lab Jack walked towards a nearby computer before Jack said “This is the ship's main lab, I don't really stay here much if i’m honest, but we basically use this area for awakening our Spectrobes.”

“Fascinating…” Natsumi murmured, looking around at the lab with awe on her face.

Haruka tapped her chin, “Y’know, you keep mentioning Spectrobes n’ stuff, but like… what even really is a Spectrobe?”

Jack then tapped his chin and asked, “Well do you remember the creatures that I was fighting alongside earlier?”

“Not particularly,” Natsumi admitted, “We were a little busy with our own thing.”

“Yeah, apparently fighting at lightspeed gives you hella tunnel vision,” Haruka chimed in.

“Okay then, fair point,” Jack admitted as a small, yellow and blue bird appeared on his right shoulder as he continued, “This is a Aoi, he’s one of my child level Spectrobes.”

Natsumi blinked, “.... It’s a yellow and blue bird-”

“-And it’s name is Aoi?” Haruka finished. “That literally translates-”

“-To ‘Blue’....” Natsumi stared at the Aoi with a frown. “.... Did you name these things or…?”

“No, Aoi was the name he was dubbed in the English version of the game, I chose not to change it because it was simple to remember,” conceded Jack.

Natsumi and Haruka made faces of realization and spoke in unison, “Ohhh… that makes sense.”

Jack walked over to the side of the room before returning with a fossil in his hands, “This is a fossil of a Spectrobe… specifically Ryza.” He placed the fossil into a nearby screen that it disappeared into almost like the screen was made of water.

“So… what’re you doing with it right now?” Natsumi asked. Haruka was leaning in closer to see just what Jack was doing.

“Well, this is the process to awaken a Spectrobe,” He explained before a low pitch whistle could be heard and until seconds later when a small blue cat like creature appeared in a flash of light from where the fossil was only seconds before.

“Whoa!” Haruka exclaimed, rushing over to the creature and examining it from all angles.

Natsumi chuckled, “Don’t smother it, Haruka.”

Jack smiled as he walked back towards the other side of the room. He returned carrying four green rectangular minerals, saying, “I need to feed him these minerals, then he’ll grow into his next evolution.” Jack slowly fed Ryza the four minerals and the Spectrobe began to shine before being surrounded by what seemed like an egg. A moment later he pulled out something that resembled a pen.

“Eh? What’s that?” Natsumi asked.

Jack asked inquisitively, “Are you referring to the egg or the pen?” as he carefully placed egg back in the computer.

“The pen,” Natsumi answered.

“The egg,” Haruka piped in at the same time.

“.... Both, I suppose,” Natsumi acquiesced.

“Okay. The egg is the form Spectrobes go to whenever they evolve. There are three stages: child, adult, and evolved. The pen is used when they are in the computer to open the egg and complete the transformation.” Jack explained as he traced a line down the centre of the egg, causing it break open as a large blue panther with large black metal wings that pointed backwards appeared on the screen before disappearing only seconds later.

“Huh. That explains that.” Natsumi nodded resolutely and went back to looking around the lab.

Haruka, meanwhile, checked her watch and stifled a curse, “Oi, Natsumi, the camp is gonna be moving soon. Didn’t Twilight say she wanted us to help with that?”

“Oh yeah, we gotta do that…” Natsumi muttered.

“Well then it sounds like we’ll need to cut the tour short… anyway it was a pleasure to meet you guys,” declared Jack whilst he held one of his hands out.

Natsumi and Haruka shook Jack’s hands, then, as Haruka left to go drag Twilight back to camp, Natsumi asked, “.... Wait, how the hell are we supposed to send you back to your home?”

“Well the only other Displaced I met just opened portal himself so I’m not really sure,” admitted Jack.

“.... Great…. hey, I wonder what’ll happen if I…” Natsumi fished the Prizmod Token out of her pocket, then tapped her chin. “Hmm….”

“What are you thinking?” inquired Jack.

“.... What would happen if I just asked for you to go home?” Natsumi inquired, holding up the Prizmod as if it contained all the secrets of the multiverse.

Immediately after Natsumi asked her question, another amazingly convenient coincidence occurred, causing Jack and his ship to simply disappear in a flash of light while leaving Natsumi, Haruka, and their Twilight standing right where the loading ramp would have been had the ship still been there.

“.... Okay, how many amazingly convenient things are going to happen to us today?” Natsumi muttered, watching Haruka set Twilight down so that the lavender princess could go organize camp movements or whatever it was that she was doing.

Haruka shrugged, “I dunno, do you think every Kamen Rider henshin item will just fall down in front of us and give us the abilities to transform?”

Silence from both Natsumi and the world around them.

“... Well, it was worth a shot.”

Author's Notes:

Gahhh, so this chapter actually was written and finished before Chapter 9. Crossover with this.

Also yes, those are Core Medals for Tokens. And yes, they can be used separately to call either one or in conjunction for both sisters.

And yes, they will work in an OOODriver. Kivala is an Arm Medal (Middle slot) because of her sword, Larc is a Leg Medal (Third slot) .... that strangely creates an effect meant for an Arm Medal (Well, they're like the Kangaroo Medal, but they only do one thing and- yeah it's complicated). Also, the Scanning Charge for the Medals also summons Natsumi and Haruka, though it's only for the completion of the attack rather than for any meaningful conversation.

Episode 11: Traveling Across the Land! Who Knows What Lies Beyond!

Haruka sighed quietly as she looked around at the scenery rushing past, “.... Natsumi?”

“Yeah?”

“How come we gotta stand on top of the train?” Haruka asked, nearly shouting over the wind.

“Because if there’s any trouble we won’t have to run through a big crowd of people,” Natsumi answered, similarly almost shouting back.

The wind howled loudly, then became a roaring cacophony as the train entered the tunnel to Canterlot station.

“Ears!” Natsumi shouted, slamming down a pair of earmuffs and slapping her hands over her ears for good measure.

Haruka did likewise, throwing in a, “Goddammit I hate this part!” just because she could.

With an earsplitting shriek of metal on metal, the train slid to a halt at the Canterlot station and opened its doors, allowing the hundreds of assorted refugees to disembark and spill out onto the platform.

“Ghaa…” Haruka muttered, digging a finger into her ear as she hopped off of the train and leaned against a nearby wall. “Stupid train brakes… wouldn’t have had to worry if we were inside, but noooo…”

Natsumi snorted, smacking Haruka upside the head, “Quit whining. That was the last train for the day. Now come on, her royal whiteness is waiting for us and I’d rather not be hunted down again.”

“Don’t forget her royal blueness,” Haruka added.

“And the purple one.”

“And… uh, are there any others?”

“Who even knows? Whatever, let’s just keep moving,” Natsumi shook her head and continued on, walking the streets of Canterlot on a direct course for the highly visible palace in the distance.

“Yeah yeah… wonder what they want…”

“I’ll state this as simply as possible: there are other cities all across the country that are being destroyed by monsters. Most of the time they’re driven back, but lately there haven’t been as many successful repulsions of those… creatures.” Celestia stated her point with all the solemnity it deserved, head hung low in despair over how many of her beloved subjects had lost their lives.

“Wait… no… no no no… you mean…?” Natsumi shook her head, clutching her hands over her ears in blind denial, “It can’t be…. No no no… How… how many…. How many are gone…?”

Haruka stood in shock, hand clutched against her heart as she slowly shook her head, “This isn’t right…. It’s not just us… this…. This…”

“This is the work of an organization,” Princess Luna spoke up, striding into the room with all the authority she could hold.

Celestia sighed in quiet relief, “Sister… you’re late.”

“I was making preparations for the ceremony later on,” Luna replied. “Have you told them yet?”

“Told us what?” Natsumi asked, curiously scratching her hair underneath her ever-present beanie.

Celestia shook her head, “Not yet, Luna. I was waiting for you and Twilight. Speaking of Twilight, do you know where she is?”

“Nay, I do not, sister. I believe she was coordinating the movement of the refugees last I saw her some three hours ago,” Luna replied.

Celestia nodded and turned to Natsumi and Haruka, “V- Natsumi, Haruka, would you mind terribly bringing my student here? We’ll tell you everything once she’s back. I think you’ll like this surprise.”

Natsumi frowned and crossed her arms, “You were about to call us Vampire and Ace, weren’t you?”

Haruka raised an eyebrow and scowled, “At least get it right. It was Kivala and Larc.”

Celestia coughed and looked away, “I apologize. Old habits tend to flare up sometimes, you understand.”

“Yeah yeah, just don’t do it again. C’mon Haru, let’s go,” Natsumi turned and strolled out of the throne room, waving jauntily over her shoulder as Haruka followed along behind.

“Citizens of Equestria!” Celestia announced from the stage whereupon she, Luna, Twilight, Natsumi, and Haruka stood. “Today I bring both grave news and a solution! As you know, there have been numerous attacks upon our beloved country as of late. As current information dictates, this is the work of a terrorist organization. However! Thanks to the efforts of the two beings behind me, and my sister’s and student’s work, we have provided now a solution to this plight!”

Luna looked a Twilight, then winked at Natsumi and Haruka, whispering just loud enough to be heard, “Play along.” With that, Luna’s horn flared blue and a banner flared into existence above and behind the stage, bearing the sun and moon of the Royal Guard, along with an emblazoned fist crossed over a hoof.

Luna strode forward and took the microphone from Celestia, “Citizens! We are proud to announce to you the Royal Guard’s new Rider Corps! These brave and loyal guards are the best of the best, and will protect Equestria from any threat that attempts to harm our beloved nation!”

As Luna spoke, several guards clad in blue armor, almost like motorcycle gear, landed on the stage and struck simple combat stances. Their armor gleamed in the sun and brought to attention the strange, almost exhaust-pipe shaped belts at their waists.

“Natsu are those…?” Haruka murmured, nudging Natsumi with an elbow and surreptitiously pointing at the belts.

Natsumi nodded, “Yeah, those are MP Mach Drivers.”

Luna finished up her speech while Natsumi and Haruka quietly discussed the implications of the presence of the MP Mach Drivers with a flourishing wave, “- and now, a word from the two most gracious ones who have agreed to be the personal trainers of the new Rider Corps!”

“Wait what?” Haruka blinked in surprise, as did Natsumi.

Celestia winked surreptitiously from the side and mouthed out ‘play along’.

“Oh that-” Natsumi whispered as she stepped forward to the microphone and flashed her most winning, powerful smile. “Greetings Canterlot! I am Natsumi Miwa, a human, and I am proud to have been selected as one of the elite trainers for the newly instated Rider Corps!”

Haruka sighed to herself, then stepped up as well, “I am Natsumi’s sister, Haruka Miwa! I swear to you all that my sister and I will do our utmost best to keep the Rider Corps as the very best of Equestria’s defenders!”

Both sisters waved and smiled out over the crowd as even the stuffy upper class citizens broke composure and cheered, with the loudest cheers of all being from the refugees even now still pouring into the square.

“You really think we can do this?” Haruka quietly whispered into Natsumi’s ear.

“No way in fucking hell,” Natsumi responded.

“Thought so.”

“Alright, recruits! You know exactly why you’re here!” Natsumi paced back and forth among a line of stoic faced ponies of various race, color, height, build, gender, and even economic status. “You’re here not because you’re the best of the best, but because you are uniquely compatible with the Rider systems! This means that you have a very pressing responsibility to be the best goddamn Kamen Rider you can hope to be so you can keep your country safe and sound. Do you all understand!?”

“Ma’am yes ma’am!”

“Good! Now seeing as I’ve never had to do this before, the first thing to do is to pick up your respective belt systems and practice transforming! Remember, it’s not about efficiency, it’s about style, and intimidation! The Rider is not just a soldier or a guard, the Rider is a hero, and heroes must be visible!” Natsumi pulled out the Kabuto Zecter from her bag and held it out into the air. “Observe! Henshin!”

As she tossed the Zecter into the air, it flared to life with a mechanical buzz and flew in a loose orbit around Natsumi before settling down at her waist and locking in place. This prompted a wave of hexagons to build and form along her body, thus leaving her clad in the familiar bulky silver armor of Kamen Rider Kabuto’s Masked form.

Natsumi struck a suitable pose, one finger extended and arm raised, pointing at the sky, “While it may seem counterintuitive to combat, the hero’s prerogative is first and foremost to inspire the populace when all seems lost! Now…”

Haruka wheeled a crate into the expansive training room, popping it open and revealing the shrink wrapped, plastic sealed belts within.

“Recruits! All of you have your names on the packages! Please grab only yours and suit up! The instructions have been provided along with the belts and the activation keys!” Haruka announced, already suited up in her Gatack armor.

The assembled ponies lined up and individually retrieved their belts, standing at attention without even a hint of undisciplined action.

Personally, Natsumi found it a tad eerie with how focused the recruits were, even the civilians. Still, she didn’t let that deter her as she picked up her own demonstration belt and placed the Kabuto Zecter back into her bag, letting her armor dissipate in a flash of crumbling metal.

“Alright everyone! I’m sure you all know how to read the instructions, but I’m going to give you a practical demonstration anyway! Observe!” Natsumi held up the simple, key shaped Signal Bike as she attached the belt to her waist. “Let’s…. Henshin!”

SIGNAL BIKE!

RIDER! MACH!

As Natsumi struck a simple pose, bright wheels and lines of magic formed around her and collapsed inwards, forming the standard motorcycle-padding themed armor of the production line Mach Driver. She scratched at her faceplate briefly, then lifted the visor to reveal her face. “Remember everyone, you may think of yourselves as soldiers, but that’s not the point. The point is, we’re making heroes, and heroes need to inspire the people. That’s why the transformation is so flashy, if you were wondering. Now, form up into rows and begin practicing! It’ll be straining at first, so make sure to take breaks wherever you can!”

“Ma’am yes ma’am!”

“We’re not gonna make it,” Natsumi muttered as she flopped down into her bunk that night, sore and exhausted from repeatedly using the MP Mach Driver she had been given. “They’re good, but none of them are combat ready yet.”

Haruka snickered from above Natsumi, where she was already lying in the top bunk. “Have faith in them, Natsumikan,” she said, idly waving her hands for emphasis even though she knew Natsumi couldn’t see. “We weren’t combat ready at first and we did fine!”

“We were mind controlled by Discord and our bodies were piloted by what was essentially combat programs, idiot,” Natsumi shot back, face buried in her pillow and muffling her words. “The only reason why we can do anything now is because we still remember what our bodies were doing.”

“.... Touché…”

Natsumi sighed, “Come on, let’s get some sleep. We’re gonna need it for tomorrow.”

“Night, Natsu.”

“Night, Haru.”

Approximately three weeks later...

Manehattan mornings were always brilliant in the urban areas. High rises catching the sunlight as it shone from the east and reflecting it across the skyline so that the entire city glowed a soft pink, the peaceful tranquility as the city that almost never slept just awoke from its slumber, even the cool, green onion scent that the dew covered windows and decoratively placed trees emitted.

Of course, as always, early morning is perhaps the worst time of the day in any city in Equestria.

Explosions broke the early morning quiet and turned what, for most ponies, was a normal morning into a disaster scene as strange, green, insectoid creatures crawled from the ground in Thymes Square amidst a legion of even stranger, stained glass seeming creatures. The green monsters had large hunchbacks, were bipedal, and more or less acted like zombies as they clawed down everything that came too close. The stained glass creatures seemed to have no definitive theme beyond being bipedal and looking like a moving church window. They swarmed about with great speed, tackling ponies and stabbing them with bat wing shaped fangs of energy, draining the unfortunate citizens until they themselves shattered into piles of clear glass.

At some point, a fire had started in somepony’s haste to run, and the blaze spiraled out of control as Thymes Square lit up in an appropriate hellish landscape to match the appearance of the monsters.

Rubble littered the streets as the creatures poured from the ground in endless numbers, corpses and piles of glass along with the rubble and small rivers of blood flowing across the cracked and burning pavement.

Amidst the panicking crowd fleeing from the horde, two figures stood strong.

Then two more.

And more.

And more.

Until there was a line of fourteen ponies from all walks of life standing unbroken across the largest entrance to Thymes Square, resolute in expression and posture, strange belts gleaming in the sun. As one, they shouted above the roar of the flames:

“LET’S! HENSHIN!”

And magic flared with such intensity that even the flames burning the city were snuffed out from the sheer force.

Across the nation, all the way in the still dark town of Fillydelphia, a similar scene took place during the early morning hours- monsters pouring from the ground in droves, the city set ablaze, and an exact number of fourteen, white armored ponies appearing to do battle.

The same happened in Nebrayska City.

Detrot.

Dodge Junction.

Appleloosa.

San Franciscolt.

Sacramentoat.

Hayston.

All across Equestria, cities and towns came under attack, only to face resistance in the form of 14-pony squads, with Royal Guards taking up the slack everywhere else. And though Equestria was under attack, the populace felt hope.

Hope for a better tomorrow.

Hope that the monsters would fall under the forces of the heroes.

Hope that they too could help strike down the menace ravaging their land.

Baltimare burned.

Natsumi and Haruka had arrived far too late to stop the initial rush of Worms and Fangire, but had already donned their armor- Kabuto and Gatack- to begin the extermination of the monsters plaguing the citizens of Equestria.

All was well in the long run, they thought, until both red and blue Zecters faded to gray and flew back into the bags which held them, dropping both sisters from Clock Up to zero in the span of half a second and leaving both with a nasty case of road rash.

Natsumi groaned and rolled onto her side, face bloodied and twisted into an expression of sheer confusion.

“What… the fuck was that?” Haruka asked as she pushed herself to a kneeling position, rummaging through her bag until she found her Gatack Zecter. “It’s… all greyed out…?”

Natsumi blinked and held up her Kabuto Zecter, staring at it intently, “I think… somehow… they ran out of charge? I mean we’ve been using them a whole lot….”

“Well, at least we ha- DODGE!” Haruka suddenly rolled to the side, dodging an energy blast and leaping to her feet with the Drake Zecter and gun in her hands already.

Natsumi slid to a halt behind Haruka and held up the TheBee Zecter, dodging a few energy blasts coming her way and stopping to a suitably impressive exploding backdrop. “Ready? Henshin! Cast off!”

“Henshin! Cast off!”

CHANGE: WASP

CHANGE: DRAGONFLY

“Now that’s more like it!” Haruka whooped as she sped around the burning wreckage of Baltimare, bullets hitting the marauding Fangire and Worms with complete accuracy and leaving nothing behind but piles of ash and shattered glass.

Natsumi nodded as she spun in place, delivering a devastating roundhouse kick to the creatures around her and setting off a chain of dramatic explosions as they died. “Oh yeah, I could get used to this!” Natsumi chuckled and sped off as well, racing past wreckage and ruined buildings as she sliced apart hapless Fangire and rescued civilians still caught up in the destruction.

“Thirty four!” Haruka called out from the top of a still standing skyscraper, gun flashing with energy as she let off multiple Rider Shootings in quick succession, the blue, beach ball sized orbs of light striking with precise accuracy and mowing down all that stood in their paths.

“Forty!” Natsumi called back, punctuating her words with a vicious stab into a Fangire’s chest, then kicked the creature off and struck a pose as all around her, the energy upon her wrist stinger’s tip activated and caused all twenty of her most recent kills to explode with an intensity such that Michael Bay would have wept tears of joy.

Haruka stared, blue visor not showing even a trace of emotion as she facepalmed. “Okay… how did you manage to get more kills than someone with impeccable aim and rapid fire!?” Haruka protested, not even looking as she idly shot and killed another three Worms approaching from behind. “That makes no sense at all!”

“Because I’m just tha-” Natsumi froze in place as her armor shattered into golden fragments, leaving her in her civilian outfit as her grayed out, wasp shaped TheBee Zecter flew back into her bag. “.... Oh for fuck’s sake.”

“Haha! Ran out of juice didja!?” Haruka laughed, then groaned as the same thing happened to her, the gray dragonfly that was the Drake Zecter disappearing into her bag as well. “Oh COME ON!”

“Well… at least we have a few more?” Natsumi shrugged, kicking away at the Worms around her for more room as she activated her Kickhopper Zecter. “Henshin!”

“Henshin!”

CHANGE: KICK HOPPER

CHANGE: PUNCH HOPPER

Twin shockwaves blasted away the Worms and Fangire as green and brown covered the twins, grasshopper themed armor gleaming in the flames as Natsumi and Haruka sped off again. Kicks and punches rained down across the city while ponies caught in the rubble suddenly found themselves on the outskirts and very confused.

“Rider Kick!”

“Rider Punch!”

The twin cries rang out over and over, explosions marking their path as they fought and bounced their way to the center of Baltimare in an effort to stem the seemingly never ending tide of monsters heading their way.

Unfortunately, being only human meant that, even in the relatively short span of time that the sisters had been fighting- that being about half an hour total despite how many kills they had made- they were still human. And this meant that Haruka slipped up against a Worm that matched her speed and took a devastating punch to the face, sending her spiraling into the air only to slam into Natsumi.

“Gyah!” Natsumi cried out, cushioning Haruka as best as she could even as they both fell into a tangle of limbs and shattering armor. “Oh no… outta juice again!”

“Shit… ow…. You okay, sis?” Haruka asked, wincing as she stood and prodded the forming bruise on her cheek. “We- we still got our initial forms, and the Delta Driver… we can still hold off the Fangire…”

“Asking me if I’m okay when you took the punch to the face…” Natsumi snorted, gently pulling Kivala from her bag and nudging the small bat awake, “We’re still fucked against the Worm. Oi, Kivala, wake up. It’s time to kick ass.”

“Then we pray that backup comes, or the Zecters charge fast.” Haruka sighed, sliding the Ace card into her Rouzer and pulling the switch.

“Maa maa, so little faith in how awesome I am?” Kivala teased as she fluttered around Natsumi and began the transformation sequence.

“Nah, just not a lot of faith in general. Henshin!”

“Henshin!”

OPEN UP!

“Ka~Puu!”

Twin flashes of light blared out once more, Natsumi’s white and violet armor sealing around her in an effect much like a stained glass window shattering in reverse, while a crimson rectangle of energy soared from Haruka’s belt buckle and bashed several Fangire into more stained glass as the girl herself rushed through and clothed herself in her black and red armor. The stylized As glowing in the sun along with Natsumi’s blade as energy arrows and violet arcs of light carved swathes through the approaching Fangire and slower Worms, until a motion blurred behind both sisters and knocked them to the ground, shattering their armor once again and sending Kivala into convulsions from the rapid impacts.

“Dammit!” Natsumi groaned, looking around for the source of the motion as Haruka slowly pulled herself to her hands and knees. “What was that!?”

Haruka’s eyes darted around the battlefield, taking in the still massive hordes of enemies, the burning wreckage, and the portal swirling from a hole in the ground nearby. “I don’t know… but I saw a flash of white… and it was definitely a Worm…”

“Spiky with a claw?” Natsumi asked fearfully, standing back to back with Haruka as she gently cradled Kivala in her arms.

“Golden tips with a female-ish lower mouth too…” Haruka murmured, Delta driver and belt already poised for a transformation, the handle held steady and ready to be plugged into the side holster at any moment.

Natsumi sighed, tears welling up as she gave Kivala’s unconscious form a gentle squeeze. “W-we can’t do anything against the Uca Worm… she’s an executive Worm and… well… we’re only human right now.”

“Not like Tendou fucking Souji or Kadoya fucking Tsukasa…” Haruka muttered bitterly. “I guess… this is the end. We failed.”

“We tried, at least,” Natsumi hugged Haruka close and sobbed, both girls collapsing to the ground without a single ounce of fight left in them as the Uca Worm strode slowly towards them.

“I had thought you two would be more of a challenge, considering you took out most of my forces alone, with borrowed powers that are barely compatible with you. You had even managed to destroy several of my higher end subordinates,” the Worm spoke, voice feminine though distorted with an alien warble. “But no, you- AGH!”

“A-agh…?” Haruka questioned, looking up at where the Worm once stood, only to be faced with…

“Discord? Where the hell have you been?” Natsumi asked, sighing quietly in relief at the sight of the remaining enemies turning to dust, while the Uca Worm lay on her side a few meters away, smoking and groaning in pain.

Discord merely smirked, serpentine body waving through the air as he floated over to Natsumi and deposited a silver briefcase in her arms, “Just finding some old garbage I thought I’d thrown away. Turns out it aged pretty well, even if it’s a little slow and out of date- oh by the way, you would not believe how many scorpions there were in that little buried treasure trove I had! One of them even had a sword!” With a flourish, Discord tossed a long, black katana with a purple handle into the ground, upon which rested a hissing metallic scorpion of the same coloration. “See! What kind of scorpions have swords!? I mean, other than mine of course, but that’s different. By the way, one of you might want to start wearing a fedora… and the other is gonna have to brace themselves because whoo-wee is Mother Nature angry about all this-” he gestured around with his paws and claws “- happening on her turf. So, which one of you is gonna play host to all the knowledge found on the planet?”

“Wha…?” Haruka blinked, having lost attention when she saw the Sasword Zecter and Yaiver impact the ground in front of her. “Wait- what?”

“Excellent!” Discord crowed as he dropped a fedora on Haruka’s head and then whipped around and punched Natsumi right in the face with a glowing fist marked with a green G, prompting a loud, masculine call of “GAIA” to echo out of nowhere.

“What the fu-!?” Haruka screamed, then cut herself off as a red and silver belt appeared on her waist, left slot already filled with a black, translucent stick as Natsumi disappeared and formed into a green, translucent stick in her belt’s right slot. “... Oh you’re shitting me.”

“No if I were, you’d be smelling a lot worse now. Tata~ I have other deliveries to make!” With that, Discord disappeared in a poof of dust with the words ‘Deus Ex Machina’ floating in the center.

“Okay….? Double will have to do, I guess?” Haruka murmured, setting the briefcase down and popping the Double Driver open into its iconic W shape. “Just until I can get Natsumi back for Sasword… Henshin!”

“CYCLONE!”

“JOKER!”

Across the city, a wind blew.

It was a swift wind, a gentle wind at first. Slowly turning anemometers and filling windsocks until it began howling with power, with righteous justice and with the burning fury of a warrior who has seen injustice. Accompanied with this wind came a quick flurry of electronic notes followed by an orchestral finish, announcing to Baltimare the presence of a new player upon the field.

Where Haruka stood was now a warrior of wind and skill, green on the right, black on the left, with a silvery muffler hanging from behind the right shoulder. Crimson lenses gazed upon the Uca Worm’s still recovering form as one hand pointed directly at the white, spiky creature.

Twin voices, nearly identical, rang out at once, speaking a phrase that struck terror into the hearts of evil.

“Saa… Omae no tsumi wo… kazoero!”

Lashing out at the Uca Worm with a fierce kick, the form of Kamen Rider Double cut an imposing figure, enhanced further by the roaring shockwave that tore from the impact point and sent the Uca Worm flying into the sky along a cyclone of green energy and wind.

“You may be faster than us… but you’re wounded! And now… we’re stronger than you! Together, as one! Two in one hearts! Kamen Rider…. Double!” Haruka and Natsumi called as one, racing along the rubble and leaping, assisted by more wind, into the air, far past the Uca Worm’s trajectory.

“How is this possible!?” it cried, flailing in mid air as it desperately tried to find a way out of its current predicament. “You shouldn’t be this strong! Not from just that!”

“You’ll never understand the strength that comes from hearts aligned with justice!”

“LUNA!”

“JOKER!”

Lashing out with their now golden right arm, Double wrapped the length of their limb around the Uca Worm’s torso, stretching and extending as they spun in mid air and flung the Uca Worm into the ground with earth shattering force. As the ground cratered, two more Gaia Memories were slotted into the belt, one of fire, one of steel.

“HEAT!”

“METAL!”

“Take this!” shouted the twins, voices crying out over the city as they descended, the red and silver form of their combined body bearing a large staff with flames roaring on both ends. As they impacted, they swung forward, transferring their momentum and force into the back of the Uca Worm with devastating force and a massive explosion.

When the dust cleared, there was no sign of Double nor the Uca Worm, only the unconscious forms of Natsumi and Haruka, arm in arm, lying at the bottom of the crater. Both were scorched and bruised, but ultimately victorious. The sky cleared, smoke drifting away in the calming wind of justice that the twins brought. And though there was much destruction, there was even more hope.

Author's Notes:

I'm really sorry this took so long to post up, so I decided to go about four times my normal chapter length as an apology. That said, things are really heating up here... and they're only gonna get hotter.

Stay tuned for the next episode of Ka~Puu/CHANGE!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dmY48fFi48

Episode 12: Cross Country Movement! How Far Will Enemies Travel!?

“Do you think we should interfere, Hongo-san?” asked a young figure garbed in colorful, yet worn and ragged clothing.

“No. Not yet. The battle on this world has yet to truly begin, and these sisters have yet to prove themselves to their Rider Spirits,” replied an older man dressed in motorcycle leathers.

“Maa maa, seems a bit harsh, ne?” into the scene came a purple figure, somewhat draconic, though humanoid and childish in behavior.

Another man scoffed, pointing to the nonexistent sky, “It matters not if it is harsh enough, they have proven themselves worthy of my Zecter. As I see it, they are fit to rule over everything as we do.”

“I think Hongo-san is right,” spoke another figure garbed in black and magenta, hair feathered and with a camera in his hand, “they seem like they can still hold their own. If Ultra Shocker makes larger overtures into this world, we need to interfere, but as it is, we have our own hands full elsewhere.”

“You’re full of crap, Kadoya,” muttered a man dressed in a black and red trenchcoat, a banana held lightly in one hand. “We all want to go down there- at least those of us who aren’t complete assholes, and even the alternates of the ones who are assholes. So why don’t we?”

“Yeah! We should go down there and show those Ultra Shocker bastards our flaming hot friendship!” came a hotblooded voice off to the side, whom was promptly ignored despite his very noticeable pompadour.

“No!” the motorcycle gear clad man put his foot down and crossed his arms. “We must prioritize worlds without an active Rider presence! Remember, all of you! All of you saved your worlds with only your own skills to rely on! They can too, and they have an army with them. In time, they will grow into their own roles instead of copying Kadoya-kun.”

“Oi!”

“He’s got a point, though… even if it feels terrible, they’ll probably be fine on their own. Considering where they are… yeah, we should keep fighting. Us over there would probably be redundant.”

Murmurs of assent rippled through the assembled crowd, which then dispersed into the blackness between worlds to fight on.

“Hey, Haru, ***, you wanna go to a con?”

“Huh?” Haruka asked, looking up from her issue of Televi-kun to stare Natsumi in the face, “which con?”

“Any of them- anything where Kamen Riders will probably be,” Natsumi answered, still looking at Haruka and ******* expectantly.

“I dunno, will we even have time to make cosplays?” ******* asked, tapping her chin and fiddling with her shoulder blade length hair.

Haruka shrugged, “We should. There’s not a lot of cons this time of year and we still have spare parts from other cosplays that we could repurpose.”

“... Okay, but I’m not going as a Rider again. Those suits are way too hot…” ******* chuckled and clicked around on her laptop, bringing up a few pictures of the female monsters from the various Kamen Rider series. “Maybe Virgo?”

“Won’t that costume be even hotter?” Natsumi asked curiously.

“Not if I make the dress lighter and use lightweight stuff. Kamen Rider suits cover everything and they’re tight, too. And the way we make them, they’re just so heavy…”

“You got a point…”

“Why do we make them so durable anyway?”

“Because we also use them as paintball armor, remember?”

“Oh yeah….”

“So, Virgo eh? Does that mean you’ll also crossdress as Tachibana?”

“Wha- ehhh…. Nah. Too much hassle to make two cosplays for one character. Better to just stay as one costume and not worry about changing.”

“Fair enough.”

A pair of weathered, old, tired eyes opened in the forest.

Concealed behind the full helmet as they were, this gave nothing but the impression of an alien being watching through the round yellow lenses with complete apathy. The figure’s blue jumpsuit stood out in the gloomy forest, as did the silver of his helmet and jetpack.

“.... Interesting…” the man muttered, tapping his chin and looking around. “This is not… not… hmm… I cannot remember where I was before. Concerning.”

A sudden noise from behind caused the man to spin around and raise his hand reflexively, the forest stilling once more as the man beheld the silver dart clutched between his fingers. “... Already in peril. This is not a good time to be a researcher…”

The man moved on, activating his jetpack and ascending to the sky, leaving behind a single, somewhat confused Roidmude sitting a few miles away, staring down the scope of his sniper rifle with as much of a slack jaw as it could manage.

“.... Brain is going to want to hear of this….”

Baltimare was reconstructed quickly, all told. Sure it was in the form of hastily erected shacks built from rubble and spare material, but it was still there, and there were plenty of supplies to keep the city going for a little longer, at least until the area around the Canterhorn base was cleared out for a refugee camp. Fatalities were low as well, comparatively- barely two hundred dead out of a population of nearly one million. Staggering odds, made possible only by the intervention of Natsumi and Haruka.

Speaking of the twins, every spare inch of their hospital room had been covered in thank you cards, bouquets, gifts, even money pouches as the residents of Baltimare and beyond praised them for their heroism.

Similarly covered was the official front base of the Rider Corps, where the entire lobby was covered in drawings and cards praising the ponies’ heroic actions. Sorting eagerly through his portion of the mail was one Orange Slice, formerly a young orange farmer and occasional dancer.

Not searching for anything specific, Orange Slice was merely separating his mail into organized stacks, every single heartfelt expression of gratitude making his heart soar and his conviction of the cause even more ironclad than it had been before.

“Sorting through your mail still, Orange?” came a smooth, cultured voice, the owner of which came striding around the corner with his undersuit still on. “You know everyone else has already gone home. Why are you still sorting?”

“Because it feels like I have to be extra careful with it, or I’m just tarnishing their feelings, Treasure Sniper. Why are you still here?” Orange asked, neatly smoothing out a stack of children’s drawings and lifting them in his magic to plaster them to the walls of his bunk room.

“Extra practice,” Treasure replied, brushing his hoof against his chest. “I believe that being more in tune with the belt will aid me in further combat. I have also been piecing together a more useful style of martial art to aid me against these monster incursions.”

“Huh, that’s really cool, Treasure! You’ll be super strong in no time!” Orange grinned brightly as he picked up his vest and headed for the door. “Anyway, I gotta go meet my sister for dinner. Seeya later, buddy!”

“Indeed, Orange.” Treasure nodded, retreating to his own bunk for a quick power nap.

Haruka sat up with a strangled gasp, clawing for air as she ripped out her IVs and various monitoring devices and gazed about wildly. “A-akihana!”

Natsumi bolted upright immediately after, hand clutched to her heart and eyes wide. “W-what was that…? Who- who were you calling for?”

“I- it was-! I… I can’t remember…?” Haruka frowned as she calmed down. “Weird…. Wait… where are we?”

“Hospital, I think,” Natsumi replied, ignoring the sound of frantic hoofbeats coming towards the room. “I think we fainted after we kicked that Worm’s ass.”

“... Okay, but how the fuck did we even do that? Last I checked, the Uca Worm could still Clock Up, and Double… can’t. Hell, why didn’t one of us just use the fucking Sasword Zecter?” Haruka wondered, then nearly leapt out of her skin as the door slammed open and the room was quickly flooded by panicking doctors and frantic nurses.

“You ripped out all your instruments!?” one exclaimed in shock. “Do you have any idea how stupid that is!?”

“And the IVs! Do you know how much damage you could have done to your blood vessels!?”

“Please lie back so we can examine your health, miss.”

“You as well, miss.”

Natsumi deadpanned at Haruka, “You just had to rip all that shit out, didn’t you.”

“S-shut up!”

Several hours of thoroughly embarrassing check ups later, Natsumi and Haruka stood before Princesses Celestia and Luna, both of whom were dressed in wartime regalia- full enchanted plate armor done in a similar style to their courtroom regalia, with helmets molded with crown-like crests.

“You’ve done exceptionally well,” Celestia began, a warm smile contrasting with her imposing attire. “You saved Baltimare, if not the city itself, then what truly mattered- its population. And for that, you have our thanks.”

“Indeed, you two have done well… however, it does seem that you two seem… inconvenienced at times?” Luna spoke plainly, gazing towards their bags with a critical eye. “T’would appear that you have trouble finding anything within those voluminous bags of yours.”

“... It’s a problem, yeah,” Natsumi admitted sheepishly.

Haruka shrugged, “Not like we have a better option at the moment.”

Luna smirked mysteriously and chuckled, prompting Celestia to roll her eyes good-naturedly.

“I think you actually do have another option, at least, though you weren’t aware of it,” Celestia began, casually drawing a massive golden zweihander out of thin air and gripping it with her magic. “You two can be excused for not knowing this, but some powerful mages tend to keep their belongings in a rather complex section of folded space known as a subspace pocket.”

“Indeed, it is very useful for carrying large amounts of objects in an organized fashion,” Luna nodded. “If you two wish, we can cast the spell on you two and allow you to utilize subspace pockets for ease of use.”

“Whoa, really?” Natsumi asked, eyes wide with confusion and interest. “We’d really be able to hold as much as we want?”

“Wouldn’t that take a lot of magic to maintain, though?” Haruka asked, curiously tapping her cheek as she pondered the implications. “Neither of us have magic- at least, none that we can freely use.”

Celestia shook her head, levitating forward a brush and an inkpot, “Not at all, actually. The spell itself draws a minute amount of ambient magic from Equus’ leylines normally, and even a normal mage could sustain one on their magic alone for years on end without any ill effects. However, the most difficult part is actually the casting, which also requires that you disrobe so that we may inscribe the runes.”

“The runes simply provide an access point and an anchor, by the way,” Luna interjected, “the spell itself is self sustaining even without the runes. That said, you should choose the location wisely, for an improperly placed gateway may end up making the pocket more inconvenient than is worth.”

Haruka and Natsumi looked at each other for a brief moment before sighing simultaneously and nodding. “Yeah, we’ll go for it,” Natsumi shed her jacket and tossed it to the side. “Though, I think we should probably set all this up somewhere other than here?”

“Yeah, a training area isn’t exactly very… private.” Haruka looked to the side and blushed softly, “I’d rather not be seen naked by any random pony that just so happens to walk through the doors.”

“Fair enough,” Celestia nodded and turned to the doors. “Come along. We’ll do this in my personal chambers. I trust that will be private enough to suffice?”

Celestia poked her tongue as she painted runes along Natsumi’s lower back. The girl herself was deeply unconscious to prevent any sort of fidgeting that might upset the formation of the delicate runes.

“I don’t understand why you’re putting so much thought into this, sister,” Luna muttered, already putting the finishing strokes upon Haruka’s back with an artistic flourish, “it’s not like the matrix will even be visible when it’s activated.”

“I don’t want to mess up, Luna. Everything must be precise and perfectly arranged to ensure proper energy flow,” Celestia replied, inking lines upon Natsumi’s back with surgical, nearly robotic precision, the ink of her brush coming in unnaturally straight, clean lines.

“... Now I know where your prized student gets it from,” Luna rolled her eyes and gently pushed Celestia out of the way, despite her older sister’s protests. “Just let me finish this. You always take so long with runes that you always forget that putting an artistic touch often helps.” With that, she unceremoniously wiped off all of Celestia’s hard work with a wet cloth, and swiped out a much more artistic looking matrix in less than five minutes. “Honestly, you make it look so difficult when it only takes five minutes for even an apprentice mage to sketch one of these out.”

“Well excuse me for liking precision over scribbling around willy nilly!” Celestia sputtered indignantly, a light flush settling across her cheeks at being shown up so readily and with such casual actions. “Some of us still remember when runes had to be exact and precise.”

“Yes, and some of us learned how to be efficient while retaining effectiveness. Now come, we need to activate these runes before they wake up,” Luna shot back, sauntering over to Haruka and tapping her horn against the runes placed in a continuous band wrapping around her hips. A brief flash of light burst from the runes as space warped and the runes faded, leaving nothing but bare skin with the slightest hint of a kaleidoscopic shimmer running through certain areas.

“Hmph!” Celestia huffed, activating Natsumi’s runes with the same flash of light. “There. Done.”

“You know, Hongo-san… I hate leaving people to suffer, and I get where you’re coming from.. But I can’t just… this is more than just a city, Hongo-san. This is an entire country being attacked at once! We can at least help them!” a man cried out, pointing the crimson drumstick in his hand at his predecessor and informal boss.

“I said no!” said boss replied, arms crossed and a mighty glare upon his face. “Those th- two are strong! Stronger than some of us even as we are now! If they cannot find their true Rider Spirits and gain their own power, they will fail! Us helping them will only cause them to waffle about, content in their own bare minimum! It is callous and cruel, yes, but ultimately it will only make their world all the safer from their strength!”

An uneasy murmuring broke out amongst the gathered men and few women assembled, much of it being a general lack of surety on how to proceed. None wanted to leave the pair to suffer, but if it meant that they came out all the stronger and more able to protect others? That changed things.

Silently, one member of the crowd stepped forward, silencing the whispers with his raised hand.

“I object to and reject that. If anyone wants to join me, I’m going to go help out those poor sisters.”

“Ooh! This is so much more convenient!” Haruka gasped appreciatively as she withdrew her Delta Driver and clipped it around her waist. “It’s like an invisible gun belt but better!”

Natsumi nodded, quickly drawing the Sasword Yaiver from behind her back and replacing it. “Mhmm. This’ll really help. Thanks, Princess Luna, Princess Celestia.” She quickly sketched out a bow, followed by Haruka.

“Yeah, this was really nice of you!” Haruka sprung back up and did a few stretches, “That said… now what? I mean, I know we’re gonna have to go help out with reconstruction for a while, but what after? Just keep responding?”

Celestia shook her head, “None of that, actually. Due to the mounting threat, we have decided to open up the Canterhorn and the base plains to refugees. In essence, we are compressing the entire country into a safer radius. This folds neatly into our secondary point- you two, along with the rest of the Rider Corps, will be searching out the headquarters of the organization attacking our nation so as to, despite what I have taught my student, destroy them once and for all.”

“Equestria does not tolerate terrorist organizations very well,” Luna mused mostly to herself, “though singular villains, that seems to be the exception.”

“Wait, so we’re just going to be, what, wandering around the country and fighting monsters for who knows how long?” Natsumi protested, a look of annoyed aggravation flashing across her face. “We don’t even get any downtime?”

“I know the country’s in danger and all, but that… sounds kinda cruel.” Haruka muttered.

“Of course not,” Luna scoffed as she stepped forward. “You two will be deployed next month, while the Royal Guards and Rider Corps organizes the evacuation and integration of the refugee mega-city. I suggest that you two also patrol around the city should you feel the need- the sheer amount of ponies incoming will likely lead to a large amount of conflict.”

Celestia nodded, “You will officially be off duty, but will still carry the full weight and authority of the Rider Corps generals. I suggest you use your time wisely- packing might take some time.”

“Once more into the breach, then,” Haruka muttered, spinning her Delta Driver’s main walkie-talkie grip in her hand.

Natsumi snorted, “Always a fight to be had.”

A figure in black and green armor stepped away from the smoking corpse of the monster that had attacked the small town he was currently upon the outskirts of. “Hmph. The kaijin here… they’re stronger than normal. Haruto-kun could probably tell me more about this- it all reeks of some kind of magic,” the man shook his head as he released his transformation, showing off his weathered face and leather riding outfit. He sighed and adjusted his jacket, the golden “RX” decal stenciled across the back of his jacket glinting in the light of early morning.

“Oh well. It will have to wait.” With that, Kotaro Minami- Kamen Rider Black RX- disappeared through a distorted wall of gray. “There are other worlds to save beyond this one.”

He never noticed the figure in blue dart out from the trees and steal the corpse from its crater, never once laying eyes upon the figure in blue even with all of his precautions.

“Interesting specimen…” the man in blue murmured, pulling a set of delicate tools from seemingly nowhere as he started carving away at the monster’s corpse to see what lay deep within its genetic structure. “I must study this phenomenon closer.”

Deep beneath Roanikstead, the base of Ultra Shocker was bustling with activity as hundreds of kaijin and soldiers went about their various duties. Within a large laboratory on sublevel 4, a tube of liquid stood at the center of the room, reaching from floor to ceiling and nearly four feet in diameter. The liquid inside was dark, sinister. It reflected no light and seemed almost like smoke, rather than any normal fluid. Streaked through this strange non-liquid were veins of turquoise energy, pulsing and wrapped around a figure in the center. At the base of the tube, large pipes ran along the floor to a console holding a strange red object- a switch that pulsed black in time with the veins of energy in the tube.

The Shocker Minion Scientists assembled worked calmly around the room, most of them preoccupied with other, smaller tubes that held seemingly empty suits of Rider Armor, while the few that held their attention on the tube muttered quietly to one another as they adjusted the dials and switches of their consoles to ensure that the creation in the massive tube would emerge in perfect condition.

Upon the button of the switch pulsed a single symbol, marred with scratches and pits, though slowly repairing itself.

“Hey Natsu?” Haruka asked as the twins walked through the “suburban” part of Canterlot, craning her neck to look around at the nearly mansion sized houses on either side of the street.

Natsumi for her part was simply fiddling with her phone, frowning in confusion. “Come on… come on… you’d think that weird reality warper made phones would give a better catch rate for stuff but nooo…. Stupid Silcoon, you don’t even have the movement capabilities of breaking out of a fucking pokeball…”

“....” Haruka sighed and shook her head, “Natsumi, I know you like future Pokemon Go a lot, but for god’s sake can you just tell me what the hell we’re shopping for and why we have to be in this area to get it?”

“Well, we’re going to be staying in public lodging for a while, y’know? I figure we might as well rent a house here with our advance pay. I doubt anyone will really object, what with us being heroes and all,” Natsumi stated plainly as she pulled up the map application on her phone and quickly scouted out the nearest house for rent. “And look, there’s one not far from here.”

“... Can we even afford it?” Haruka asked, exercising her common sense for once as she looked at the lavish surroundings, “And hell, why would we even need something in this neighborhood? Judging from the surroundings, it’d probably be way too big for the both of us.”

Natsumi shrugged as she stopped in front of one of the smaller houses, picking up a flyer from the “For Rent” sign staked into the lawn as she made her way to the door and knocked. “Figure we could repurpose some of the rooms to make things cooler, like having a training room or something.”

“... You realize that we’d have to take it all down when we move out ri-” Haruka was cut off by the door swinging open and a rather unlikely mare to come staring out with a dull expression of confusion on her place. “.... The DJ mare from Ponyville? She owns this place?”

The mare, Vinyl Scratch, nodded and smirked, adjusting her glasses and waving the pair in before clearing her throat and speaking in a voice that spoke of long hours of screaming and hyping up crowds, “So, what brings you to my temp pad up here in the big C?”

As Natsumi quietly facepalmed in the background, Haruka spoke up, “Well, apparently my sister thought it’d be a good idea to rent a house or something. I dunno, she just led me here without much in the way of explanation.”

“Yeah, we’re on leave for a month on account of everything happening, so… we kinda need a place to stay since we’re technically not allowed to even be in the Corps building right now,” Natsumi explained, taking a look at the flyer. “Not sure how we’re going to pay for this, though… Princess Celestia hasn’t discussed much on the topic of pay, not that we’ve remembered to ask. Haru, can you go ask her real quick to see if we can afford this?”

“How come I have to go ask? Do it yourself.” Haruka crossed her arms and huffed, clearly more interested in flopping down on one of the bean bag chairs in the living room. “You could use the exercise anyway.”

Natsumi sighed, “Just go. I’m going to try and work out an acceptable deal here, Haruka.”

“Euuugh, fiiiine… Just make sure we have a place to stay before tonight ends, alright?” With that last parting remark, Haruka dashed out the door and transformed into her Gatack form, speeding away in a burst of Clock Up.

“Now… about us moving in…” Natsumi followed Vinyl into a side room containing a table and several forms to be filled out.

Celestia sighed quietly to herself as she took her afternoon tea in the Canterlot Gardens. She’d recently commissioned an artist to fill in the blank spots left when Haruka and Natsumi finally broke free of their prisons, but the statues wouldn’t arrive for another day or two.

A small part almost wished that they wouldn’t come at all, leaving the space blank as another reminder of how her mistakes had hurt someone that hadn’t truly deserved it.

Her musings were cut short by a short burst of wind and the form of Haruka sliding to a halt in front of her.

“Hey, Princess? I got a question I need to ask about finances,” Haruka cut right to the chase, barely even giving Celestia time to react before she sat down at the table and folded her arms across her chest. “How much do we get paid, and how do we access our funds? Natsumi is trying to rent a house for the two of us.”

“I- wha?” Celestia spluttered elegantly, taking half a second to regain composure before clearing her throat, “Ahem, well, the answer to that is simple. The two of you combined make a total of forty thousand bits per month for your services, and though it isn’t the end of the month yet, there has already been advance pay dropped into your account at the Canterlot Central Bank, a branch office of which actually operates on one of the castle’s public floors. That said, my sister and I were planning on telling you this at the end of the month, but I suppose circumstances have pushed this forward.” Chuckling to herself for her small error in timing, Celestia then teleported a scrap of paper and scribbled out a few lines upon it, stamping it with her insignia via a flash of magic. “Here. This will allow you to access your funds for now, but please do get a more secure method, perhaps a blood seal if you wish.”

“Uh huh. Right, so… forty thousand combined, that’s like… enough to rent a house, right?” Haruka held the slip of paper in her hands, then folded it and put it away in her pocket, “Because Natsumi is, like I said, trying to rent a house right now.”

Celestia nodded, “It’s definitely enough for almost everything up until the aristocrat quarter. Though, I must ask, why exactly is she trying to rent a house? I thought the two of you would have just stayed in the Corps barracks?”

“Wait, we’re allowed to do that?” Haruka asked, blinking in confusion, “I thought that we weren’t supposed to stay in the building since we’re on leave for the next month?”

“Oh no no no no,” Celestia chuckled, waving a hoof around as she covered her mouth with her other. “You’re perfectly allowed to stay in the Corps building- as a matter of fact, I half expected you to anyway- though I suppose it was a little ambiguous. That said, if you wish to rent a house, I shan’t stop you. To be completely honest, my intention was more along the lines of you two taking it easy- you had taken quite a few injuries during your… deployment, and I would rather you take the time to recover, which, I think, would have been rather poorly affected if you were in an environment with so much training equipment.”

“You have a point there. So…. I guess that’s everything?” Haruka waffled indecisively, quite unsure of how to properly leave quickly without being rude.

“I suppose it is,” Celestia nodded, idly waving Haruka off. “I believe you had something to tell your sister?”

“Oh, right… well, uh…. Seeya!” Haruka waved quickly, transformed, and raced off again.

Between the layers of reality, she dreamed.

Beneath the realm consciousness, she stirred.

She, who was the herald of the void.

Her mission lay bare before her, details etched in her mind.

Destroy.

Her mission was to destroy everything, and oh how she longed to go and complete it, to see the world as naught but a smoldering ruin and all signs of life either destroyed or enslaved. To let the earth run red with rivers of blood, the sky turn black with smoke.

But she couldn’t.

She was still weak, though growing stronger. She was still growing, though she was almost done.

A name slipped from her lips and echoed within the roiling tube of Cosmic Energy she was born in.

“.... Virgo….”

Upon the pedestal which held her broken switch, a light pulsed as the switch’s symbol finally repaired itself, the stylized M representing her glowing with harsh, violet light.

Within the depths of the Ultra-Shocker laboratory, she readied herself to destroy and enslave all.

In a cave deep within the nameless forest in which he stayed, the blue suited man wiped his hands of gore and smirked internally. “I see…” he murmured, “combining different genetic traits and supporting the rest with a network of cybernetic augmentations… Fascinating… I should very much enjoy seeing more samples… Though… Hmm…”

The nameless man in the nameless cave in the nameless forest tapped his chin and thought back to the strange figure he had seen disappearing through a wall of scintillating gray. “I wonder… just what kind of power it is that allows such… power,” he finished lamely, almost lamenting the fact that the scientific knowledge in his mind was useless for poetic descriptors. As he looked out of the cave to discern the time of day, he was stricken with surprise yet again, this time at the beautiful sight of the stars shimmering in the night sky, the pale moon full and illuminating the world with silver. Beyond the twinkling, he identified potential planets, the faint light of an aurora in the distance, and the vast clouds of nebulae defining the wondrous band of dark and light that was the galaxy at large.

Something welled within him, and his arms raised unconsciously in praise.

“Praise the night,” he murmured, “for it brings visions of the heavens beyond, and of the beauty of deep space…” Almost involuntarily, he basked in the moonlight with his eyes closed, whispering words of deep reverence that came unbidden.

“Uchuu… Kita.”

“.... I’m grateful for this whole building and all, but seriously, I will never get over the fact that the two of us have a private bunk room with king sized, luxury beds while the rest of the corps just gets normal twin size bunks… Feels a little like favoritism or something to me…” Haruka muttered, hands laced behind her head as she stared up at the ceiling from where she lay on her aforementioned bed.

Natsumi snorted from where she sat across the room, sitting at her desk and reading through volunteer applications, “Well, we’re technically generals, so it’s pretty fair- and not like the useless kinds of generals back home that sit in the back and yell orders into a radio. At least we actually go out and kick ass too, even if we keep getting our asses kicked at first.”

“Yeah, but still. Everyone in the corps risks their lives for this kind of thing and we get better stuff just because we’re leading?” Haruka shook her head, “I feel guilty just laying here…”

“Well don’t- if you really wanna go back to a twin size bunk bed, you can sleep in the barracks or draw up a petition for everyone to get a better bed. If not, go to sleep or something. Not much else to do right now.” Natsumi returned back to the applications, alternating between stamps that read “Denied” or “Accepted”.

“.... Yeah fine, I guess,” Haruka sighed and turned to her side, swiping her phone to activation and browsing through what the strange piece of technology called Voidnet. “Hey, why are you even still working through those apps anyway? It’s like two in the morning and we’re supposed to take it easy.”

Natsumi shrugged, “It’s easy work, just have to make sure they’re qualified and remember which stamp I’m using. Plus, we used to stay up far longer than this, remember? God what happened to us? Did we get old?”

“You’re two thousand and twenty four- you tell me,” Haruka shot back.

“.... Touché.”

Deep under the Crystal Empire in the far, Frozen North, a swirl of magical light illuminated the glacial cave system that lay long unnoticed by all, the owner of which was a mare- a crystalline blue mare with a curly mane swept over her left eye in a darker shade of blue with stripes of pale green- surveyed the tunnels with a practiced sapphire blue eye, searching out the treasure which she had buried here long ago, long before Sombra’s curse had taken her and the empire above into temporal stasis.

“Ah… there it is…” she whispered, her voice echoing through the tunnels in a ghostly way. With a boot covered hoof, she cleared away the light layer of frost covering the ice in which a single, metallic briefcase had been buried- silver in color with a flaming snowflake decal upon it, just like the mare’s cutie mark. “Time for the Snowflame Rider to make a reappearance… and just in time too…”

With a flourish, the mare known as Winter Heat drove a lance of heat into the ice, melting it instantly as she withdrew the briefcase and placed its contents into their proper spaces- a tight fitting leather choker marked with a blue and red hexagon around her neck, a bracelet of red around her left forehoof, another of blue around her right, and lastly a simple belt with another red and blue hexagon for a buckle cinched around her waist.

Old Neighponese words came flowing back to memory, half forgotten teachings in mysticism and martial arts skills clicking into place almost audibly as she crossed her forehooves in front of her necklace and shouted,

“HENSHIN! RIDER SNOWFLAME!”

A burst of heat and freezing wind accompanied her transformation, and gone was the simple crystal pony that had entered the caves, replaced by an armored alicorn shaped figure streaking off into the distant sky southward- half red, half blue, soaring along on wings made of flaming snow.

Within the deepness of the night sky, ships flew in erratic patterns, of various make and model and of intents both benign and malevolent. The one thing they had in common was their destination, Equus, for the planet itself had called out in distress and as such the universe had deigned to answer for better or for worse.

One such ship was a large, red pirate galleon, sails emblazoned with a strange symbol of a pair of crossed cutlasses under what might have once been an extremely stylized skull.

It had clearly seen better days, and in fact, though it was at the head of the race, it was almost limping through the emptiness. Holes pockmarked the sails and rigging, with hastily formed patches covering dangerous holes. The captain himself was of a similar state, though perhaps his uniform got off lighter than the rest of his ship.

“Natsumi… Haruka… who are you two and just why is it so important that I find you?” he muttered, scrolling through the strange smartphone inset into his ship’s steering wheel. “And… what treasures might you bring to the table for me, hmm?”

Author's Notes:

Heyyyyy, another apology for the long gap with a pretty long chapter, I guess. Not a whole lot's happening here, but a lot's gonna happen later on. This is just setting up a lot of dominoes in preparation for the wrecking ball.... or something.

Episode 13: New Friends, New Worlds, New Places to Kick Ass!

“So what is this place, Natsu?” Haruka asked idly as she ran a finger along the dusty wall in the corridor that the twins had decided to explore. “Feels kinda like we’re not supposed to be here.”

“Well, apparently it’s… I think it’s just an old storage room, really. Well, that is, we’re going to one. This is just an empty, dusty hallway in the ass end of the castle,” Natsumi replied, finally stopping in front of a door. “Here we are, the… hey Haru, what did we need to get again?”

Haruka rolled her eyes, “And you always gave me shit for not paying attention in class…”

“I mean the name. I know what it looks like, at least,” Natsumi huffed as she opened the door, taking in the rather spacious chamber full of wooden crates and hastily erected shelves, all old and covered in dust.

“It’s called, uh,” Haruka pulled a notecard out of her pocket and carefully pronounced the name, “Arcano-tachyon Accelerator Rotary Blade Greatsword Attachment Module.”

“.... Y’know, when Celestia said she needed an old, slightly archaic piece of machinery to slap on her sword and make it more powerful, I’d have thought she’d use like a big crystal or something, not a fucking magic chainsaw attachment,” Natsumi shook her head and picked through the assorted bits and bobbles in the room, a tone of frustration leaking into her voice, “God why couldn’t they have organized this room better?”

“Because that’d be too much work.” Haruka answered as she did much the same, stopping when she reached a rather curious looking mirror. “Hey, Natsu?”

“What?”

“Come check out this mirror. I think something’s wrong with it…”

“Hmm?” Natsumi asked as she walked over, eyebrow raising in surprise when she saw the mirror. “.... It’s not reflecting anything- or at least, it’s not reflecting the room.”

“Just looks like it’s reflecting something gray-blue and shiny,” Haruka shrugged and, in a fit of brilliant stupidity reached out and poked the mirror’s surface.

And was promptly sucked through in a flash of light.

“Haruka!” Natsumi screamed, latching onto Haruka’s leg just in time, but not fast enough to keep the both of them from falling through the glassy surface of the mirror portal and into the swirling kaleidoscope of light and color that made up the space between worlds.

“I blame you for thiiiiiiiiiiiiisssss!”

Kelly had just finished her patrol duties with Soarin’ for the day and had driven her Tridoron over to her personal parking lot at Canterlot High School.

“Surprised everyone’s pretty chill with the car…” Kelly muttered. As she got out of the car, she heard some strange noise coming from a statue of a horse whinnying and galloping. “Huh?” Kelly approached it as she noticed the statue shimmering a bit.

The noise, as it turned out, was two girls- young adults really- swearing rather loudly as they were ejected from the base of the statue in a tangle of violently flailing limbs and groans of both pain and confusion. Further inspection revealed both girls to look almost exactly the same with the exception of outfits, hairstyles, and the rather noticeable, recognizable belt wrapped around the short haired girl’s waist.

Kelly went over to the twins and inspected them. That’s when she noticed the belt.

“Huh. Mach’s here too.” Kelly then sighed. “Thank God it’s a Displaced and not Gou…” She muttered. She then turned to the girls. “So… May I have your names?” Kelly asked the two.

“Huh?” the longer haired one asked, finally noticing Kelly as she extracted herself from the tangle, “Who’re yo- holy shit another human!”

“What!?” the other one hopped to her feet and pointed dramatically, “Oh shit it is another human!”

“... Of course I am.” Kelly rolled her eyes. “I’m guessing you got displaced to some world where humans aren’t top of the food chain?” She asked.

“Y-yeah… we got thrown into a world of ponies for… two thousand years or so?” the long haired one responded, sticking out her hand for Kelly to shake, “I’m Natsumi Miwa, and this is my sister Haruka.

Haruka shook her head, “More like two thousand and thirty two. I’m pretty sure that’s how long we spent under Discord’s reign… and being stoned, of course.”

“... Those must be some pretty powerful brownies if you’ve been stoned for two thousand plus years..” Kelly chuckled.

“Not brownies, pony magic,” Natsumi chuckled, then shuddered, “and we were literally stoned… as in stuck as statues.”

“It got real nasty after the pigeons came…” Haruka shuddered as well and pulled a nauseous face. “Springtime will never be the same…”
Kelly’s eyes widened as she put her hand to her jaw, tapping the side of her cheek with her index finger.

“These Displaced surprise me every single time…” Kelly said. She then shook her head. “Well, I haven’t had the… ehem… pleasure of being encased in stone. I mean, I had a mad scientist try to take over my mind multiple times, but meh, par for the course. I’m Kelly, referred around these parts as Professor Silverbolt.” Kelly shook Natsumi’s hand. It was here that Natsumi could see a chromed black bulky belt, almost like the dashboard of a car.

“.... Kelly?” Natsumi asked quietly, “... would the mad scientist in question happen to be named Tenjuro Banno?”

“Yep. Sadly so. No worries, he’s under wraps right now.” Kelly said.

Haruka’s eyes widened as she stole a glance at Kelly’s belt, then squeaked in surprise when she saw her own new, modified belt. “What the-?” Haruka muttered off to the side, “I don’t remember having this…? What happened to the shitty MP one?”

“Right, well, oka-.... Huh, you look like Ryoma Sengoku…” Natsumi blinked as she stared at Kelly’s hair, “Didn’t notice that earlier…”

“Thank God someone noticed. Do you know how many times I’m mistaken for this Professor Silverbolt guy? Well… Only a few times, now that I think of it…” Kelly said.

“So she does. Also, I think my shitty MP Mach Drive turned into an actual Mach Driver… and I don’t think I have any Signal Bikes to work it with. Fuck,” Haruka cut in, proudly displaying her non-functioning, chrome belt. “At least it looks pretty?”

Natsumi bapped Haruka upside the head, “Focus Haru. We’re in a different world now and, as far as I can tell-” For emphasis, she kicked the base of the statue, “-we’re stuck. So we’re gonna need to figure out how to get back as fast as possible.”

“... Okay that’s fine, but like, what are we gonna do in the meanwhile?” Haruka asked, then turned to Kelly, “Hey Kelly, you have any monster troubles around here? Inves? Roidmude? …. Shocker goons?”

“Roidmudes. Well, that and these monsters called Grimm.” Kelly said.

“.... Okay, robots we can handle… I have no idea what Grimm are,” Haruka looked to Natsumi, only to receive another headshake.

“Nope. Only Grimm that comes to mind is that one Eyecon that Necrom used.”

“Necrom? Oh, so one of those new Ghost Riders, right?” Kelly then took her hand and scratched it. “I’m a little behind on Ghost thanks in part to this whole Displacement thing.” Kelly said.

“Well shit.” Haruka shrugged, “Can we get a general description on what they look like and how hard they are to kill?”

“I don’t know much myself… But I do know a guy.” Kelly said.

“Aren’t Corgis adorable?” Fluttershy asked Ross as the two looked at a Corgi puppy in the window.

“I’m considering getting him. Gonna name him Zwei.” Ross said. He then thought a bit about it. “Maaaybe Drei.” He said. Fluttershy looked over and waved.

“Oh hey, it’s Professor Silverbolt!” Fluttershy said. Kelly approached Ross with Natsumi and Haruka in tow as Kelly held up her hand to Ross.

“Girls, this is Ross. Ross, this is Natsumi and Haruka Miwa. They’re Displaced, like us.” She said.

“Um… Displaced?” Fluttershy asked. Ross turned to her.

“Er, Fluttershy, why don’t you look at the cats while I talk about stuff.” Ross said. Fluttershy nodded and went off.

“So, what’re we doin’?” Ross asked.

“Grimm. What are they?” Kelly asked.

“... You brought some Displaced to me just to ask me that?” Ross groaned. “Alright. They’re big, shadowy monster-like animals with bone white masks. They prey on human emotions.”

“Mix that with the Roidmudes ability to sync with said emotions and they have achieved a new mode of evolution. Grimmudes.” Kelly said.

“.... Okay, so- actually I can’t think of a single Rider enemy that does that,” Natsumi muttered. “None of them prey on emotion. But… the more relevant point is…”

“Can we take them down with gun, blade, and judicious use of screaming and flaming kicks to the face and/or balls?” Haruka finished.

“Yeah. They can be taken down with normal weapons. Like this!” Ross then took out a large red mechanical scythe. Kelly held up her hand.

“Woah! Woah! Not in public!” Kelly said.

“Shit, right.” Ross then folded it back into its normal square position and tucked it behind his cape. “But yeah, they’re easy to beat. So easy, there’s schools based around fighting them… Not here, but in a world called Remnant.” Ross said.

“....” Haruka whispered something into Natsumi’s ear, causing them both to start snickering behind their hands.

“Snrk- well, that’s a relief, but what about the Grimmude? They sound like more of a challenge than normal Roidmude.” Natsumi asked.

“It’s as I described. A fusion between Roidmude and Grimm. Think a giant bear. Then stick some Roidmude’s body into its chest. Pretty nasty stuff right there. Not to mention they can divide themselves into smaller Roidmudes.” That’s when Kelly remembered something. “Shit, yeah, there’s also some Foundation X members lurking around here… At least as far as I know from these videos I saw.” Kelly said.

“.... Well that’s…”

“Absolutely fucking horrible,” Haruka stated. “Natsu, let’s go kill some monsters.”

Natsumi facepalmed as she asked Kelly, “Okay, do you have a phone and a map of the city?”

“As a matter of fact, I do.” Kelly then handed the two her phone, which had a map of the entire city of Academia. “I marked some locations that I haven’t looked over myself. … I was pretty busy with… things.” Kelly said.

“Yeah, because the Fall Formal was the most important thing of all.” Ross chuckled.

“Big talk coming from a guy who supported the alpha bitch.” Kelly muttered. Ross kicked Kelly’s shin. “Ow!” Kelly grabbed her shin. “So… chances are some monsters will be laying in wait out there.”

“Good,” Natsumi nodded, typed in her contact information onto Kelly’s phone, transferred the map over to hers and handed Kelly’s phone back. “We’ll probably call you sometime in the middle of the night if we can’t find a place to stay.”

“Yeah, anyway, you two might wanna stand back a bit. Our Henshin tends to get… explosive.” Haruka stepped back, her belt swapping out nigh immediately as she pulled a blue, metallic stag beetle from seemingly nowhere.

Natsumi nodded and did the same, except her beetle was red and was a rhinoceros beetle.

“Henshin.”

“Henshin!”

[HENSHIN]

[HENSHIN]

Twin waves of hexagons then flowed up the twins’ bodies, forming bulky, silver armor with a distinctly insectoid theme to it, with Haruka’s generating shoulder cannons and Natsumi’s having no visible weapons at all.

“Cast off.”

“Cast off!”

[CHANGE: BEETLE]

[CHANGE: STAG BEETLE]

“Huh? What’s going on?” Fluttershy entered the area as Ross ran to Fluttershy.

“Shit! Get down!” Ross tackled Fluttershy.

The armor then immediately exploded from their bodies, revealing the sleeker, more combat oriented forms beneath- Natsumi’s in red and Haruka in blue. Fortunately for the bystanders, the armor simply dissipated into the air after it traveled about six feet, leaving no trace behind but the booming sound of the transformation.

“Kamen Rider… Kabuto,” Natsumi stated proudly, pointing up at the sky.

“Kamen Rider… Gatack,” Haruka finished, pointing dramatically forward at no one in particular.

Ross got up and helped Fluttershy up as well. The three looked at the newly formed Riders.

“Awesome.” Ross muttered.

“If I recall correctly, these are Kabuto Riders…” Kelly then turned to Ross. “Bet they can outrun you in Clock Up…” She said.

“What?” Ross said.

“Clock Up… Like Slowdown. Only it speeds you up instead of slows everyone down.” Kelly said. She turned to the two. “I wish you two the best of luck.” She said.

“We make our own luck, but thanks! Clock up!” Haruka waved, then vanished along with Natsumi, the only evidence of their passage being a massive line of dust kicked up a few seconds later.

CRASH!

Several trees were knocked down by a large boulder. A large, black gorilla with white, stone-like plates on its chest, back, arms, and even face roared out. On its head was the armless, legless body of a Cobra-Type Roidmude whose number plate only had --- on it.

Not far from the Grimmude was a man with white hair and icy blue eyes in a white uniform with silver linings on it. One thing that stuck out from this Foundation X styled uniform was his purple scarf.

“Perfect… The notes Silverbolt gave us have proven useful after all… And so have these Grimm…” He said. Just then, he heard something in the distance. He smirked. “LOOK ALIVE, HARAMBE! YOU GOT GUESTS!” He said as he went to hide. The Gorilla Grimmude snarled and looked at where the speeding sound was coming from.

Immediately, a blue blur of light and pain swept across the distance and met with the Grimmude’s face with the ever so distinct noise of,

“RIDER KICK!”

Which subsequently caused a massive flare of tachyon energy to surge and explode, driving the kick even further in with a force that could shatter diamond and even melt steel beams.

With that force, the Gorilla’s head came clean off. As the head rolled into the rest of the woods, the Gorilla began to flail without its head. Its roar still heard across the forest.

The figure that did such damage resolved into Haruka, posed cockily with her hands on her hips, “Damn, and here I thought I could do as much damage to you as the Cincinnati Zoo did. Guess not. Hey Natsu! One more!”

“TOH!” came the responding cry in the distance as a red blur came flying in and struck the Grimmude in the chest with even more force.

“RIDER PUNCH!”

Much like a certain bald hero, the punch entered the Grimmude’s chest and basically atomized him to nothing, dissolving from the chest outwards. While its cries were still out there, the twins were reassured that it would be the end of the major threat for this monster.

“Now then…” Haruka muttered as she scanned the area, “Where’d the other guy go…?”

“The weird scarf guy shouting about Harambe?” Natsumi asked, disappearing for a moment before the both of them appeared right above said man’s hiding spot, “You mean this guy?”

“So I do.” Haruka grinned behind her helmet, “Hey, you know it’s pretty hard to hide from people with superspeed, right?” The man simply laughed and clapped his hands.

“I applaud your skills, Kamen Rider… You taught me that these mass produced Roidmudes are inferior to the 108 that Banno had made, even with the fusion between them in the Grimm.” He said.

“Yeah, they’re pretty flimsy. A real Roidmude would have just exploded, not shredded,” Natsumi waved airily, then whipped out her kunai gun and aimed it dead center at the man’s forehead, “So what say you get out of town and never bother anyone with this crap ever again, hmm? My sister and I may not be mass murderers anymore, but we have no problem putting someone down to save everyone else.”

“Ne ne, calm down sis, don’t have to point a gun at him,” Haruka interjected as she held up a fist that faintly glowed with tachyon generated power, “We could just punch a hole through his crotch.”

“Or… We could try something… unorthodox.” With that, he shook his wrist as all the particles around them began to grow heavier and heavier, until they became slow enough to drag things to a crawl. “I always wondered how Clock Up can compare to Slowdown.” He then laughed as he walked away.

Behind him, Natsumi growled as she slapped her Clock Up button in slow motion, straining with the movement until she broke free and dashed at the man at just slower than normal speed, kunai gun shifted into tomahawk form and a vicious battlecry flying from her lips. “Eat shit!” she yelled, swinging down with as much force as she could generate.

The man, however, leaped away, high enough to the point where he was on a tree.

“I admire your efforts, Kamen Riders. Your strength is something we members of Foundation X seek to imitate. If we could have that strength… that power… We can improve humanity with a power far more than even the Golden Fruit could muster!” He said.

Natsumi merely flipped him the bird, knowing that she would be unable to make that kind of jump with how much the air was resisting her at the moment. “If I could, I’d shoot you to death and shoot you some more just to be sure.”

“Our time was brief, but fun. I shall let the flow of time resume… Until we meet again, Kamen Riders. AHAHAHAHA!” He laughed as he leaped away. The particles dropped in weight and time resumed, just as he promised. There was still the sound of a gorilla roaring.

Natsumi immediately vanished, while Haruka fell to the ground and fired a few warning shots in the general direction of the roaring, “Oi! Shut up or we’ll throw you into an incinerator!”

Natsumi reappeared, face held in her hands and groaning in disbelief, “I can’t believe we fell for that… we shoulda just shot his arms off as soon as we found him…”

“We shoulda turned that Grimmude into a pile of smoking ash, but noooo, it’s still there. Dismembered, but still there.” They could hear the shouting for a little bit more before they heard a deafening gunshot.

“Well, that takes care of that, I guess,” Haruka murmured.

“... We should probably check out what that was.”

“Quite.”

Silently nodding at each other, both sisters headed back in the direction of where the Grimmude was, preparing for a fight should it become necessary.

Niko dropped the smoking barrel onto the ground as the head of the Grimmude disintegrated into smoke.

“Well, that takes care of that.” He said. He then turned his attention to the two riders headed his way. “No worries, I took care of him for ya. You must be Displaced from another world, huh?” Niko asked.

“Yeah, and you are?” Natsumi asked, hand placed firmly upon her kunai gun’s handle.

Haruka stood behind Natsumi, ready to clock up at a moment’s notice.

“You may call me Sid. I’m Kelly and Ross’ Displacer.” He said. There was a bit of a silence before he put up his hands. “You were expecting someone taller for a Displacer?” He asked.

“.... No, we’re more just surprised that an actual Displacer is on a planet,” Haruka answered.

“Yeah, and actually looks like he’s h- hang on a moment,” Natsumi held up her finger as she picked up her phone, “Hel- oh, it’s… Oh.” She held the phone out to Niko, “It’s for you.” Niko put his gun away and took the phone.

“Hello?” He asked.

“Heeeeeyyyyy, Niko! Or is it Sid? Ah who cares, it’s me, Aaron Heibai. Y’know the Aaron. T- actually I shouldn’t really be bragging. You should already know who and what I am. Anyway, I’m just callin’ to say that I think you’re doing a great job, but don’t touch the twins, mmkay? I’ve taken a personal interest in them and, well, no other Void Dweller gets to touch. Also, if you swing by my shop anytime soon, I’ll hook you up on a real nice deal on Rider stuff. Oh yeah, and also, if you can, hook Haruka up with a set of Signal Bikes, yeah? I’d do it myself but I just sold my last set an hour ago. Anyway, toodles!”

“Alrighty…” Niko handed Natsumi back her phone. “So…” He then cracked his knuckles and pulled open his military jacket, showing a series of four motorcycle-styled toys. “I was intending to give these to someone down the line, but you have the belt, so I figured I can give them to you.” He said. He took the Signal Bikes out and showed them to Haruka. These four bikes were modeled after the Lock Vehicles of the Kamen Riders in Gaim’s World. The first had a Sakura themed, the other was a rose, the third looked more like a speeder, and the last looked less like a bike and more of a walker turned on its side. “So, what will you lovelies be paying for this?” He asked.

“.... I mean, I’d prefer the normal set,” Haruka muttered, though she definitely looked interested. “.... Hmm…”

Natsumi crossed her arms, “Not to be paranoid or anything, but what real reassurance do we have that those will actually do something useful instead of something bad?”

“I gave Kelly and Ross their gear and they turned out fine.” Niko said.

“... Fair enough.” Natsumi sighed and stepped back, allowing Haruka to come forward.

“.... I…” Haruka rifled through her bag, which had suddenly appeared over her armor at some point, “.... I have about a year’s worth of nonperishable food in this bag. And some Equestrian Bits.”

“Keep your bits. The food’s good enough.” He said. “Hm… One month per bike’s a good trade?” He asked.

“Yeah, I guess,” Haruka nodded, pulling out a sack of bits and handing over her bag, “Just take whatever covers the bikes.”

“.... Wait, do you even have the normal series of Mach bikes?” Natsumi asked curiously. “Because those would be nice too.”

“They’re with Kelly, I presume.” He said.

“Hm. Okay, that works I guess,” Natsumi shrugged. “So…. we’re…. Gunna go back to monster hunting?”

“Once we’re done here, yeah,” Haruka answered, holding her hand out for the bikes.

“The deal has been struck.” Niko then handed the four bikes over to Haruka.

“Yessssss!” Haruka hopped in place and did a quick jig. “Thanks buddy! Seeya!”

“Thank you for the bikes,” Natsumi bowed, then both sisters promptly vanished in a blur of speed.

Niko sighed, then looked to where the destroyed Grimm was. He then took an item out of his pocket. A small cluster of seven colored gemstones attached to a stone. He smirked and wondered how much he could sell this. With that, he flew out with his hook shots.

“So Ross, why were you hanging out with Flutters anyways?” Kelly asked Ross as they just dropped off Fluttershy. “Were you and her…” She then cocked a grin.

“No! It’s not like that! It’s just… Well, Fluttershy hasn’t fully moved on from Tachibana’s death and considering how I was a close friend to him, I figured I could help her move on by telling her my experiences.” He said. Kelly patted Ross on the back.

“You’re starting to be a good kid, Ross.” Kelly said. Ross smiled.

“And you’re being a good teacher.” Ross said.

“You wanna eat somewhere? I heard of a good place downtown. Zesty Gourmand’s?” Kelly asked. As the two went onto the main part of the street on the Tridoron, they abruptly stopped as two blurs entered their view. “Huh, they beat the threat already?” Kelly said.

Said blurs immediately slid to a halt and de-transformed in mid-step, allowing Natsumi and Haruka to move with the leftover momentum and stick the landing in front of Kelly.

“Hey Kelly!” Haruka greeted with a mild salute, “I gotta question for ya.”

“We also took down a Grimmude earlier. Wasn’t difficult. A Rider Kick from Haruka took off its head and my own Rider Punch blew a hole through its torso. Though, a guy named Sid finished it off after,” Natsumi tapped her chin and shrugged, “He seemed helpful enough.”

“He also mentioned that you maybe might have a set of Signal Bikes?” Haruka asked hopefully. “He gave me some custom ones, but I didn’t get any original ones.”

“Ah, yeah. Here ya go.” Kelly then took out the original four Signal Exchange Bikes and handed them to Haruka.

“Yessss!” Haruka cheered, “Thanks Kelly!”

“... Really? Just like that?” Natsumi asked.

“I have a whole collection of Shift Cars and Signal Bikes. Besides, if I end up using Gold Conversion, they can come back to me.” Kelly said.

“Huh… that’s… well, okay, that’s pretty bad if we’re in the middle of a fight but I really hope it doesn’t end up working across Universes…” Haruka put the bikes away and shrugged.

“Well, I can always make copies.” Kelly said.

“Speaking of Shift Cars,” Natsumi spoke up, “Could I borrow one? Haruka and I got stuck in a Slowdown earlier and Clock Up only lets us move at barely normal speed.”

Fascinating discovery.” Kelly said. She then took out a golden colored Shift Speed Shift Car. “Here you go. Think of it as a calling card.” Kelly said.

“Your own Token?” Ross asked.

“Why not?” Kelly shrugged.

“Thanks,” Natsumi nodded gratefully, then checked the time. “Hey, who’s up for dinner? Haruka and I found a lot of restaurants while running around… eh… we don’t have any cash, though. Shit.”

“Double shit, all we got are Equestrian bits and like half a year’s worth of canned food total.” Haruka muttered. “I mean, okay, that actually still works out but I’d rather eat in a restaurant than out of a can.”

“Hang on… I’m gonna experiment with something…” Kelly smirked. “Two things, in fact.” She then turned on the Ignition.

“HENSHIN!” Banno said as Kelly transformed into Gold Drive. However, as the transformation completed, it shifted over to Kelly taking the metaphorical wheel, all while she has Dream Vegas in her hand. She placed it in the Shift Brace and activated it. It began to create several dinging sounds as several golden energy coins began to fly out of the circuitry. The energy coins soon became real coins as the flew to the twins.

“What.” Haruka stared blankly as she automatically caught the coins.

“.... Well, that’s certainly a useful ability,” Natsumi muttered. “I… have to question the intelligence of transforming in public, what with your identity and all, but if it works.” She shrugged to complete her point.

“Eh, Shinnosuke didn’t give a crap about that, so why should I?” Kelly chuckled.

“Fair enough, I guess,” Natsumi replied, “So… who’s up for…”

Haruka held up a hand, “Is there a McDonald’s nearby?”

“No, Haru, we’re not going to McDonald’s. Everything but their fries and drinks are crap anyway.”

“Yeah but I want fries and soda.”

“....” Natsumi facepalmed and waved a hand at Haruka as she deadpanned at Kelly. “This is what I have to deal with.”

“Well, there’s a McGoofy’s, but not a McDonald’s in this world…” Kelly said.

“Well, there’s Switz Ballet…” Ross suggested.

“I have no idea what either of those are but McGoofy’s sounds like a terrible ripoff for kids,” Haruka pulled an almost disgusted face, “So whatever is cheap, but decent would work.”

Natsumi shook her head, “You know we still have Yelp on our phones, Haru. We coulda found something decent in seconds.”

“... Okay yeah that’s fair… let’s see….” Haruka pulled out her phone and checked, reading the names aloud as she did, “Cafe Trussardi, Pizza Schmuck… okay who the fuck names a place Pizza Schmuck? …. Burrito Bell- fucking really? McGoofy’s… 5 Gals… Canterlot Sushi… and… oh my god ew, Olive Garden.”

“... Okay, the rest of them are clearly copyright safe copies, but how the hell did Olive Garden slip through?” Natsumi asked.

“Guess it was so bad, they refused to copyright the name?” Kelly asked.

“Dear god it sounds like it. Who’s up for sushi?” Haruka asked almost rhetorically, “I haven’t had a good sashimi in two thousand years.”

“A little longer than two thousand years actually, but who’s counting?” Natsumi rolled her eyes. “And please, calm down, sis. Sashimi isn’t the end of the world.”

“I guess I’ll go for some sushi.” Ross said.

“Oh man, it’s good… Trust me.” Kelly said.

“Well, alright then. Sushi it is,” Natsumi agreed. “Haruka? Lead us?”

“We go… this way!” Haruka proudly marched off in the direction of Canterlot Sushi, thoughts of sashimi dancing in her head. The rest of the group followed.

“-and then I said, ‘Oatmeal? What the fuck does that have to do with this situation?’ Trust me, it was funnier in context- especially when I punched him in the face so hard that he flew through six walls and an outhouse,” Natsumi giggled as she recounted her story, making sure to clap Haruka on the back a few times after she choked from stuffing her face and laughing at the same time. “Easy Haru, the sashimi won’t go bad just because you’re not stuffing a whole fish down your throat every thirty seconds.”

Just then, time began to slow to a crawl just as Kelly was about to eat…

“Aaaaaah fuck.” Kelly sighed and got up. A couple of Roidmudes entered the room. Each of them with three dashes on the plate.

“.... Three dashes?” Natsumi murmured, “The hell does that mean…?”

“It means it’s time to kick ass, that’s what,” Haruka spat as she stood and proudly slapped on her Mach Driver. “Let’s…. Henshin!”

Immediately, rings of energy formed around Haruka for a split second and slammed together, causing a brief flash of light that cleared out to reveal a white armored Rider in what looked like modified motorcycle gear and a muffler. “Zuiseki….” Haruka started, pointing at the Roidmude. “Boukumetsu…” she drew her thumb across her neck menacingly, then crossed her arms and struck a pose with her arms spread wide in boast, “Izureimo… Mah-ha~! Kamen Rider….. Mach!”

Natsumi facepalmed and pulled a purple katana from seemingly nowhere, slapping a mechanical scorpion to it as she intoned, “Henshin. Cast off.”

[HENSHIN]

[CHANGE: SCORPION]

“Kamen Rider… Sasword,” Natsumi finished, tapping her sword against her shoulder as she idly tapped at her Clock Up button. “Kelly, would you care to join us?”

“Hell yeah! Ikuze, Banno-sensei.” Kelly then posed dramatic before shouting out. “Henshin!” She then turned the ignition.

“HENSHIN!” Banno said as Kelly transformed into Gold Drive. Blood red eyes flashed as Banno chuckled.

“So… Foundation X has done the deed and made cheap knock offs?” Banno then laughed. “INFERIOR!” Banno then smacked one down and stomped on it. “That said, they make great punching bags…” Banno said.

“Pretty pathetic ones, though,” Natsumi mentioned idly, her poisoned Sasword Yaiver already stabbed through the back of another. “Then again, most things tend to be pretty pathetic when you’re travelling that fast.”

“Oh come on, this just makes me feel bad!” Haruka laughed, not even breaking a sweat as she carelessly bashed away at the third with her Zenrin Shooter, even going so far as to blast it in the crotch a few times. “Where’s the fight? Where’s the actual Roidmude who can take down a Rider one on one if they’re strong enough?” Just then, glass shattered. The group turned to see a pack of black colored werewolves with blood red mouths hopping into the sushi place, beginning to attack the customers.

“Grimm!” Ross shouted.

“You just had to make it worse…” Kelly muttered as Ross fired his sniper at the Grimm.

“.... Still kind of pathetic,” Natsumi muttered as she Clocked Up and, while everything seemingly froze for her, took the time to Rider Slash each wolf across the throat, poisoning them with her blade and causing them to explode harmlessly into a cloud of blue energy. “And this is why the Kabuto Riders are called boring- Nothing that doesn’t have superspeed can keep up.”

“... Oh come on, Natsu, leave some for us why don’t you?” Haruka complained, having already slotted the Split Signal Bike into her belt. “I was gonna shoot them all at once too…”

“Don’t get too cocky, Riders!” a voice called out from a rooftop, a single, solitary Foundation X member standing there with a walkie talkie in hand. “Bring in the reinforcements! Today will be your end, Riders! Courtesy of the Foundation’s sponsor: THE ULTRA SHOCKER-ZANGYACK ALLIANCE!”

Natsumi stared, “What.”

“Oh shit,” Haruka muttered. “This is gonna suck.”

Just then, hundreds of dimensional walls flashed into existence and merged as one to deposit a veritable army of kaijin, hidden amongst them being various Rider forms and even…

“... Oh my god there are Super Sentai in there,” Haruka squeaked.

“... Is that… Oh sweet Mary Joseph and baby Jesus those are evil Hurricangers.” Natsumi gasped, “And… Ninningers… Ohrangers… fuck…. Oh ew, they even brought in the Akibarangers… gross…”

“Well… Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.” Kelly said.

“Woah! Careful! One more and we need to make it an M-rating!” Ross said as he fired a bullet at the Hurricangers. However, the Ninningers managed to cut up the bullet before it even reached them. “... Crap.” He said.

“What do you expect, dude? A lot of those guys are ninjas,” Haruka pointed out, “and as we all know, ninjas > bullets.”

“That logic only works on TV and you know it,” Natsumi growled. “Now shut up and let’s kick these asshats into the ground before we g- Motherfuck!” Natsumi was kicked to the side in mid-sentence, the culprit of which being a rather smug Kamen Rider Wizard who was quite a few shades darker than his armor would normally be.

“Ultra Shocker sends their regards,” the Dark Rider stated offhandedly blasting at Haruka with his Flame ring, though she managed to dodge at the last second. “I do hope you all put up a good fight before we kill you and use your bodies for research.”

“Hah! Just try to kill us!” Banno shouted. Kelly took over as Gold Drive, getting the Signal Ax ready, before tossing it to Haruka.

“Let’s return those regards then…” Kelly said. She then charged towards the Dark Wizard. The Dark Wizard flipped over her and tried to deliver a kick, but Ross fired at him, piercing his back with a sniper round. He was hurt, but not damaged.

“Tche, your bullets sting. Let’s see how you like mine!” Dark Wizard spat, swinging his arm in an all too familiar arc, causing four bullets to spit out of his WizarSwordGun, one to each hero and each one powerful enough to blast a hole through steel.

This was the signal for the kaijin army to finally spring into action, each one charging forward and roaring until the entire street was ablaze in a deafening cacophony of sound and the occasional energy blast.

Kelly and Ross were too distracted by the monsters and got hit by the bullets. Kelly’s armor sparked as she flew up and then rolled onto the ground. Ross, on the other hand, took his bullet to the gut and clutched it. He was thankful for his Aura keeping him up and blocking the full force of the bullet.

Natsumi and Haruka did as Kelly had, and took the bullets without much damage. Still, they were thrown back from the force and into a horde of kaijin.

“Dammit!” Natsumi cried out as she struggled through a clump of particularly tough Fangire. “We’re getting wrecked!”

“I had to open my big mouth…” Haruka muttered to herself as she unleashed the force of the Split Signal Bike, raining bullet death around her. “Goddammit, how the hell is a girl supposed to ge- wait… what’s that sound?”

Chanting. Some sort of chanting was echoing around the buildings, backed by drums and violins.

“I… I recognize that music,” Natsumi muttered, “Oh no… Hey Kelly, does this sound familiar to you?”

“Oh fuck yeah.” Kelly smiled underneath her helmet.

“Gaim Riders! I hear the sound of Gaim Riders!” Haruka cheered.

“Not quite! But there’s a few in here!” A youthful, manly voice called out from yet another rooftop, the speaker on his leg being the source of the music. “Kamen Rider…. KITAAAAAAA!!!”

“Koko kara wa… ore tachi no stage-da!” another voice called out, the distinctive form of Gaim in his Kiwami arms form stepping up next to Fourze, behind them gleaming the helmets of dozens of Riders both old and new. “Riders! To battle!”

“TOH!” the assembled Riders cried out as they leapt from the roof and descended upon the horde of kaijin like unto the Eighth Plague of Egypt.

“Yes! Fuck yes!” Haruka screamed, revitalized, as she pummeled her way through the crowd and planted her boot into Dark Wizard’s face. “Eat shit you sparkling asswad!”

Natsumi sighed in relief, taking the rush of Riders to Clock Up and quickly remove a few of the Sentai from the crowd while dealing poisonous slashes to various kaijin. “Thank god for Deus Ex Machina…”

“Don’t thank god, thank Kadoya-kun,” Kamen Rider Ichigo muttered quickly as he stormed past her while beating his evil copy’s helmet into a fine dust. “He’s the one who got us into this mess.”

“So many Riders…” Ross said. Kelly looked over to Ross and patted him on the back.

“Welcome to the herd, as they say. Let’s go, let’s go, let’s gooooo!” Kelly shouted as she headed into battle, punching several kaijin in the face. Ross sighed and ran off as well, slashing apart several kaijin with his scythe.

Needless to say, with the addition of a horde of Riders added to one side, the battle was over very quickly.

When all was said and done, the street was full of craters, as were several buildings, and the Foundation X member was nowhere to be seen, having ran off as soon as his army started exploding.

“.... Well… I never thought I’d have to say this twice within a year, but thank god for Deus Ex Machina…” Natsumi mumbled as she stared at the assembled crowd of true Kamen Riders with barely hidden awe.

“You can say that again,” Haruka said from behind her, mirroring Natsumi’s reaction almost exactly.

“So… Foundation X has merged with Shocker…” Kelly muttered, then she remembered the video of Professor Silverbolt. “... No. It can’t be…” She hoped that Silverbolt left sometime before Shocker fused with Foundation X.

“So… What now?” Ross asked.

“... Dinner’s been ruined, unfortunately,” Haruka muttered, “So how about we just go hang at McGoofy’s for a while? We get good fries and if anything gets rekt, nothing of value is lost.”

“...” Natsumi facepalmed and sighed, “We also have no place to stay, so we should figure that out too.”

“I have a place…” Kelly said.

“The library? Really?” Ross eyeballed Kelly, though Kelly looked to Ross.

“I doubt Sunset will let two complete strangers stay at her place.” Kelly said.

“Well, there’s Silverbolt’s Lab…” Kelly muttered.

“.... I’m not sleeping in a library unless there’s a bench you can actually stretch out on,” Natsumi shook her head, “And I’m fairly certain sleeping in a lab is a bad idea.”

“Yeah, who knows what kind of weird shit you might bump into while rolling around in bed,” Haruka added, shuddering to herself, “Like beakers of acid.”

“What about a hotel?” Ross asked. Kelly just looked to Ross.

“... Sure. Why not.” Kelly muttered.

Natsumi deadpanned and sighed, “With what money?”

“I don’t think a few handfuls of coins are gonna cover costs,” Haruka shrugged and slipped her hands into her pockets, “Well, it wouldn’t back on Earth. Maybe the economy here ain’t tanked.”

“Well, I could probably cover it. Celestia was sane enough to give me a salary, at least.” Kelly said.

“Right so…- Oh hey, they all left… Damn,” Haruka slumped over at the revelation that the other Riders had all disappeared at some point, “I was hoping to get an autograph or two…”

“Yeah, anyway…. I think we’re gonna have to talk about what to do from here. Obviously, there’s something really shitty going on here, and it’s probably spilling over to our Universe too considering how many different monsters we have to fight on a weekly basis,” Natsumi tapped her chin, “If the alliance really is working with your Foundation X, this place is gonna be flooded with a bunch of other monsters other than Roidmude… Problem is, some of them can’t be dealt with the normal way, especially Worms and maybe Ganma.”

“Ganma?” Kelly asked.

“Ghosts… from Kamen Rider Ghost,” Natsumi answered.

Haruka shook her head, “Evil ghosts. Or something. Spirits, generally.”

“Ah… How is Ghost, by the way?” Kelly asked. She was displaced almost immediately after Drive had finished airing and before Ghost premiered.

“I think we have more pressing matters at hand…” Ross said.

“Ghost is fine, and honestly, we really do have worse matters,” Natsumi paused for a brief moment, “Honestly, I think the safest thing to do would be to give one of you, or someone you trust, a Zecter.”

Haruka turned to Ross and tilted her head, “I’m thinkin’ that the one who already has superspeed might do the best with even faster superspeed.”

“Sweet.” Ross said.

“So what Zecter are you guys considering?” Kelly asked.

Natsumi shrugged, “I dunno, maybe Sasword? It’s the odd one out, and I guess a sword is closer to a scythe than a wrist mounted stinger.”

“Yeah, but swordsmanship is your thing, Natsu,” Haruka protested, “I mean even when you were Kivala you still had only a sword.” Kelly hummed to herself, then inspected Ross’ scythe.

“Erm…” Ross raised an eyebrow.

“I’m wondering if I could possibly modify the Yaiver and mesh it with Crescent Rose.” Kelly asked.

“.... Maybe. Won’t know until we try,” Natsumi mused, then undid her transformation and tossed both Yaiver and Scorpion Zecter to Ross. “Here, see what happens.”

“Maybe Ross’ powers will do something fun with the suit,” Haruka snickered, “Maybe it’ll turn pink.”

“Only one way to find out. Henshin!” Kelly said as she transformed into Gold Drive. Banno took over as tentacles began to sprout from the belt and attacked Ross’ Crescent Rose. Some of the tentacles also pierced the Zecter and Yaiver. The tentacles dragged both devices into the Crescent Rose as a golden binary code appeared over them. As the tentacles went away, there was now an obvious slot on the front end of Crescent Rose. “Try it.” Kelly said.

“Erm… Okay?” Ross grabbed the scythe and held it. The Sasword Zecter, now colored red, hopped onto the Zecter and slotted itself into the slot.

HENSHIN!

Suddenly, hexagons began to materialize as Ross gained a set of gray, bulky armor. Instead of the yellow tubes that Sasword had, he instead had a set of dark red armor that acted as his cowl, hanging over his head as gray eyes glowed from it. Crescent Rose changed into Sniper Rifle mode.

“.... Well, it’s still normal-ish so far,” Natsumi muttered.

“Except for the hood thing, that’s new,” Haruka observed, “Try casting off.”

“Erm… Okay.” Ross had no idea how to Cast Off, so he tried to form the scythe… However, there seemed to be a heavy switch on it. As he pressed it, the gray parts of his armor began to slowly pop off. There was a loud sound of energy charging up as Ross gulped. He then forced the switch on his scythe to pop off.

CAST OFF!

All the armor bits began to fly off, leaving a red version of Kamen Rider Sasword. The only change outside of the color switching from purple to light red and green eyes to silver eyes was that the scorpion motif on the rider’s helmet was now switched to that of a blooming rose. The cowl was now a simple cloth cape.

CHANGE! ROSE SCORPION!

“.... Oh my god I heard pink text,” Natsumi snickered. “Your Henshin sequence sounds physically pink.”

“... Well, rose is another word for pink, usually,” Haruka mumbled behind her hand as she fought to contain her laughter. “But… pffft what’s with the fucking flower head?”

“Eh?” Ross then felt the top of the helmet. “EEEEEEEH!?” Ross shouted. Kelly roared out in laughter as Banno groaned.

“The things I have to put up with… One of these days… Just one of these days...” Banno said. Kelly then calmed down as Banno switched the controls to Kelly.

“Alright, so shall we get going and fend off some more Shocker creeps?” Kelly asked.

“I guess, yeah, we should. We should also figure out how to get back since we weren’t summoned like other Displaced usually are,” Natsumi shrugged and transformed into her TheBee form and rolled her shoulders. “So, I guess we could split up and do that?”

“Alright. I say we cover a lot of ground if we all split up.” Kelly said.

“Splitting up sounds kinda dangerous, but with the speeds we’ll be going it won’t matter too much, I think,” Haruka shifted from Mach to Gatack as she spoke, clipping one of her Signal Bikes to her belt.

“Yeah, soon this place will be clean of monsters in no time!” Ross said. That’s when he noticed a button on his belt. “Huh?” He clicked it.

CLOCK UP!

And with a flourish of rose petals, Ross disappeared in a red blur.

“Well, here’s hoping he won’t crash into something,” Haruka muttered as she sped off on her own in the opposite direction of where Ross went.

“We should all regroup later, yeah?” Natsumi saluted as she sped off, taking a path perpendicular to Ross’ and Haruka’s.

“Well, it’s gonna be a loooooong night.” Kelly said to Banno as she ran off into her own direction.

Morning came with little fanfare other than a few explosions here and there over the city as the combined efforts of four Riders took out a very good many kaijin and various cells of evil.

The four Riders met up back at Canterlot Sushi, talking of what had happened.

“So that’s how my night went.” Kelly said. She then chuckled. “Who’da thunk that Baseball Mask and Soccadillo would be a deadly alliance?” Kelly said.

“Not me,” Natsumi muttered, idly rubbing a bruise where some Grongi or another had scored a lucky hit.

Haruka shrugged, “Hey, couldn’t be worse than a giant stack of Shocker Combatmen armed with sickles. God, that was terrible… funny, but terrible.” Kelly turned to Ross.

“What about you, Ross?” Kelly asked. Ross snapped into consciousness as he looked around.

“Huh? What?” Ross asked.

“You okay? Ever since we got back together, you’ve been silent.” Kelly said.

“It’s nothing.” Ross said.

“So what sort of beasties did you kill?” Kelly asked Ross.

“... Well, just one. Some big purple scorpion-looking monster. He had a similar ability to Slowdown, but more akin to Clocking Up. Had some help taking it down.” Ross then looked down. “Though I worry if said help’s really on my side or not.” He said.

“Help?” Haruka asked curiously, leaning forward against the table. “What kind of help?”

Natsumi raised an eyebrow, but seemed more preoccupied with pulling ice out of her glass of water and pressing it against her bruise.

“A masked woman. Not like you guys though… It’s more flat, slits on the eyes to make holes… And it was bone white.” Ross sighed. “What has me worried is that she seemed to be aggressive with me. Especially after she saw my weapon.” Ross said.

“Well, whoever this woman is, if I come across her, I’ll make it clear that she’ll be our ally.” That’s when Ross slammed his hand on the table.

“No!” Kelly looked at Ross and blinked. “I mean… No. I don’t want you to get involved.”

“Hmm… Okay.” Kelly said.

“That’s… rather suspicious but it’s not exactly our place to decide,” Natsumi muttered, then yawned. “Hey by the way, here.” Without another word, she placed two metallic coins upon the table and pushed them towards Kelly. “Take our Tokens. Summon us sometime if you need help, kay?”

Haruka turned to Natsumi, “.... How the fuck is she gonna use the Rider power in them without an OOODriver?”

“... Fuck if I know,” Natsumi said in reply.

“I don’t have to. All I have to do is rework the Medals into something more manageable. Hang on…” Kelly then transformed into Gold Drive once again. Taking the coins, she used her Golden Aura to crush the coins. When she opened her hand, the Medals were turned into Shift Cars. “There.”

“H-how did you do that?” Ross asked.

“I was able to convert the medals into data briefly, modified their property, and viola.” Kelly said.

“....” Natsumi stared at the Shift Cars and sighed, “That’s bullshit, but I’ll believe it.”

Haruka poked one of them- the black Shift Car- and startled backwards when both cars suddenly rattled off the table and slammed together, fusing into a singular, slightly larger car divided down the middle, a black, sleek sports car on the right and a white, powerful muscle car on the left, with a dial set into the hood that bore curious symbols, all of which were evocative of certain Riders. “Whoa what the shit!?”

“What.” Natsumi deadpanned, suddenly sitting up straight. “That’s even more bullshit.”

“Well, being a Displaced has a lot of perks. Breaking the rules seems to be one of them.” A voice that was familiar to both Ross and Kelly caused the two to turn their attention to the man who just entered: Niko ‘Sid’ Zoloto.

“Oh hey, it’s that Void Dweller we met earlier,” Haruka pointed out blandly, turning over the new Shift Car in her hands.

Natsumi sighed, “Okay, that’s nice and all, but why is he here?”

“Well, for a couple of reasons. The first is giving my Displaced a memo.” He then walked over to the two. “I’ve given you two all the help I can. Sadly, this is where I’m going to depart. Something came up and I have to take care of it.” Niko said.

“Does it have to do with some dude who murdered a Displaced a while back?” Ross asked.

“No. My nephew…” Niko sighed. “My nephew accidentally Displaced himself and I have to go find him and bring him back home. I promise it won’t take too long, but in the event that it does, rest assured that I have brought some more assistance to this world.” Niko said. “With that said, the other reason I’m here is to escort you two,” he turned to Natsumi and Haruka “back home.” He said.

“Wait, hold up- someone murdered a Displaced?” Natsumi asked, leaning forward out of curiosity.

Haruka tossed down the Shift Car in her hands and raised her eyebrow at Sid, “You have a nephew?” Sid sighed and then proceeded to talk.

“Yes. Someone murdered a Displaced.” Niko took a while before he spoke up some more. “The murderer was my Displacer.” Niko said.

“Wait, you’re a Displaced as well?” Kelly asked.

“And now you know the deadly cycle of Displaced. The fortunate thing for you guys to know though is that my Displacer has no interest in this world… The problem being that he’s in some other world somewhere. It’s someone else’s problem now…” Niko said. Then he just blankly stared. “And yes, I do have a nephew. We Displacers aren’t just some sleazebags who put people in horse-filled worlds for shits and giggles. We have friends and family to attend to as well.”

“Right. Well, you mentioned us getting home?” Natsumi asked.

“Wait, before you do that,” Haruka picked up the new Shift Car and held it up, “do y’know what the hell this thing’ll do if Kelly uses it?”

“Sadly not. A Displacer just hands the toys out to people to play with. Kelly’s gonna find that out on her own.” Niko said.

“Welp. Might as well try it before we leave,” Haruka spoke up and held it towards Kelly.

Natsumi nodded, “It’ll be interesting just to see, if nothing else.”

“Alright…” Kelly placed the Shift Car into her Brace and clicked it forward, activating it in a burst of electronic warbling and rhythmic beeping as a massive, holographic dial matching the one on the car’s hood appeared behind her, each icon lighting in time with the beeps until it stopped on the icon shaped like Kamen Rider Mach’s helmet.

“TIRE EXCHANGE: COCKY RACER!”

The dial immediately collapsed into a white tire, slamming into place and flashing for a brief moment as red lines appeared running along its curve like they did on Mach’s helmet, with the word MACH etching itself into the side of the tire in black block letters. Immediately after the tire swapped out, two bursts of light erupted in Kelly’s hands, revealing a gun and a rather large axe.

“ZENRIN SHOOTER!”

“SIGNAL AXE!”

The voice that rang out in time with the appearance of the weapons was different, higher pitched, and seemed to come more from the tire than Banno, as it was the voice of the Mach Driver.

“... Well, that explains the dial,” Natsumi blinked twice and chuckled, “Good luck figuring out how to use all the forms, I guess…”

Haruka winced sympathetically, “Yeah… randomized form changes…. Ouch.”

“Eh, it’s a cool power up at least.” Kelly said. Ross then thought of something.

“Hmm… Ever notice how whenever Displaced come to our world, we get cool power ups? Like, that Chainsword and rifle you got a while back.” Ross said.

“Yeah, I’ve noticed. Then again, Kamen Riders are more or less obliged to get a new power up every other month.” Kelly said.

“So, ready to head out?” Niko asked the girls.

Natsumi and Haruka nodded in unison, stepping forward. “So what do we need to do?” Natsumi asked in reply.

“Please don’t make us do something stupid for the sake of shits n’ giggles,” Haruka muttered.

“Nothing much.” Niko snapped his fingers as a dark portal opened besides him. “Such as the perks of being a Displacer.”

“... Welp.” Haruka shrugged and stepped through the portal. “Thanks guys! Later!”

Natsumi turned just before she left and bowed. “Thanks for all your help, Kelly, Ross. Good luck with everything.” She then turned to Niko with a respectful salute and stepped through the portal, following Haruka.

“... Wait shit how long has it been?” Haruka asked as soon as they stepped back through on their side of the mirror.

“... Hell if I know,” Natsumi answered.

“.... Shit.”

“Double shit.”

Author's Notes:

Ohhhh my god this took so long to write. Shout out to my man Psyga315 for crossing over his story A Golden Drive Through Equestria!

Maybe finally I can actually weave more plots along.

Maybe.