KAMEN RIDER VICTORY

(Contains original story line, characters, setting, and Kamen Riders. I do not own the concept of Kamen Rider)

CHAPTER ONE: HENSHIN

Takao walks down the sidewalk near the train station with his bag in one hand and an umbrella in the other. Normally he would ride his bike to school, but the bike chain had fallen off and there was no time to get it fixed. In Takao's mind, these are the first signs of a bad day.

Takao is a high school student at the Iris Academy in Lapis City. The Iris Academy is a school for highly gifted students, and getting into it is not easy. Takao's parents were able to pay for such a school because they work for a huge organization within the city and the school had recognized his abilities from exams from his previous years. This is actually Takao's first year attending a school in Lapis City. His family had just moved during the summer to be closer to work. He has been attending the school for about two months now. The year is 3010 A.D.

When he finally got onto the school grounds, he started running to avoid the rain. The rain came down fast and heavy and down onto Takao. Takao finally got indoors and stopped to catch his breath as rain dripped from his hair. The room he was in was separated from the outdoors by a large wall of windows with three electronic sliding doors. The ceiling was supported by three rows of galvanized metal pillars, three in each row. He tossed his bag onto the bench in front of him and walked across the white tiled floor between the rows of foot lockers to his own locker. He took out his key card and slid it through the scanner. The green light on the lock lit and the lock deactivated. The clock on his locker also recorded the time it was opened to ensure than he came to the school on time. He reached in and pulled out a pair of white slippers that all students and faculty members were required to wear in order to preserve the clean floors in the building. He placed them on the floor next to his feet and sat down to pull off his wet shoes. After removing them he placed them into his foot locker and closed it. He pulled the slippers over his feet and picked up his bag before proceeding up a small stair case of five steps into the school building. The far wall had three glass sliding doors that lead into the central chamber of the school. The door slid to the side to make way as Takao entered the building with his hair still dripping from the rain.

The central chamber was a circular room full of students with a water fountain in the center. Above the fountain was a metallic sphere suspended by a rod from the dome-like ceiling—covered with lighting—that projected four holograms that displayed the news, the weather, school events taking place that day, the lunch menu, and the time. Along the walls of the chamber were six doorways that lead to the six branches of the academy where classes were held. There was also a second level in the room with six more doorways. The second level had glass railing around it and was accessible with the stairs or the elevators.

However, across from the main entrance was the seventh doorway that was the only one sealed off by any doors. It had two large sliding doors sealing it off from the chamber. The branch was for the faculty members and the only people allowed back there were employees, special guests, the honor students, and Lapis City's Kamen Riders.

What are Kamen Riders? The Kamen Riders are an elite combat group employed by Solaris, the biggest company in the city, to enforce the city from terrorist attacks, street crime, and other forms of attacks from inside the city. Kamen Riders perform their jobs in secret and their identities are the biggest secrets Solaris keeps. If you ever see one, you're lucky. If you find out the identities of at least Kamen Rider, you are labeled a law breaker and are to be arrested and put under surveillance. There are about fifteen known Kamen Riders employed by Solaris and their ages can range from 13 to 50 years. In other words, as long as you have the qualifications that Solaris is looking for, you can be employed as one of these amazing warriors.

Takao sighs and pulls his bag over his shoulder and straightened his school uniform as he proceeds to his left to the center of the three doorways on the left. This wing was where he attended a history class. His classroom was the third on the right. The class room was a large, half circle with seven rows of descending seating for students and faced a large LSD screen that displayed information as the teacher read aloud to the class. Takao walked down the steps into the center row and took his seat on the edge of the row. He faced forward, placed his head on his hands and sat like that as images and information flew across the screen while the teacher spoke for almost two hours.

Takao had four classes that day. At the end of the day he went straight to his foot locker. He was about to descend the steps when he suddenly saw a female student drop her books and paper on the steps. Takao quickly dropped his bag on the ground and ran over to help her. He squatted down and quickly started picking up papers one by one and carefully put them together in his hands. The girl had finished gathering her other materials and looked to Takao as he held out the rest of her belongings. "Here…"

She smiled weakly and took her papers back. "Thanks." She looked at her bag where her items fell out of. "Looks like the strap finally broke."

"…yeah." He responded.

She stopped smiling when she looked at him and cocked her head to the side. "Aren't you that new guy?"

Takao nodded. "Yeah."

"What was your name again? I don't think I got it."

"T-Takao."

She nodded. "Takao, huh?"

"Yeah…" Takao looked away from here when he noticed someone walking in their direction; and by the look on his face, he wasn't happy to see Takao.

"Hey Yuki, who is this?" he asked unpleased. He turned to Takao. "Why are you talking to my girl, buddy?"

"Don't worry about him, Connor." she said. "We weren't talking." She took him by the arm and walked away with him.

Takao angrily watched them leave together. Just like that, their friendly meeting was blown off like it never happened. Takao picked up his bag and continued to his previous destination. That previous incident was actually a common occurrence. For some reason, most people tend to avoid Takao. Well, except for one. Takao sat down on the bench after opening his locker and began to remove his footwear when that one person approached him. "Good afternoon, Takao."

Takao looked up to the source of this all too familiar voice. It was an androgynous boy that wore a pink cardigan over a white shirt with brown pants. His eyes were brown and his hair was a bright lilac color that nearly met his jaw line and laid neatly on his head. "Hi, Masashi." he responded. Takao put his white slippers in the footlocker and shut it. He stood up and threw his bag over his shoulder before heading in the direction of the door. Masashi followed behind him.

"So, I heard from your mother that you've been taking martial arts classes." he said as he followed behind Takao. "How's that going for you?"

"Fine." said Takao in a not so enthusiastic voice.

Masashi walked up to his right and walked at Takao's pace. "Why?"

"So I can take on jerks like Connor."

"Oh, I see." said Masashi. "But I think you shouldn't worry about him."

"The guy thinks he's hot stuff because he's the academy's top wrestler and it makes me sick." said Takao. He took a left turn on the sidewalk which took them around to the baseball field. A group of guys were utilizing it at the time. Takao and Masashi stopped to view the players. The group was the Iris Academy's baseball team and they were practicing for their upcoming games. Masashi walked up to the barbwire fence and put his fingers in between the holes. "Who's batting?"

Masashi took a good look at home plate and saw a tall boy with slightly messy blonde hair and small blue eyes. He was red in the face and sweating which meant he was working hard. He had a big grin on his face as he prepared for the next ball. "It's Colt, the team's star player." The two friends watched as the pitcher threw a near perfect fast ball at the batter. Colt swung the bat with full force and smacked the ball into the air. All of the players sitting on the benches jumped to their feet and cheered as they watched the ball fly out of the park. The pitcher turned and took his cap off his head to see the ball he threw go off into the distance. "Wow, I wish I could hit like that!"

Takao on the other hand, did not show any signs of being impressed. Instead, he started walking again. "C'mon, let's go."

Masashi quickly pulled himself away from the practice to catch up with Takao. A little further down the street the path branched off into three paths at a cross section. Takao and Masashi faced each other at this point. "You should come over to my house some time."

"Yeah, I can't today, I've got a lot to do." said Takao. "Sorry."

Masashi nodded with his cheerful smile. "That's okay, we can hang out later." Masashi quickly turned and started to run down the road behind him. "See you later!" he called out as he waved.

Takao waved until his only friend was too far away to see. He dropped his arm and turned away to go the opposite direction.

Elsewhere at the same time…

A young female scientist carried a metal briefcase with her as she approached an armored vehicle. She pushed her glasses up with her middle finger and brushed back her blonde hair when she noticed her escort had arrived. One of them was a young man with blue wearing a red jacket, blue jeans, and brown boots that extended up his legs under his pant legs. On his head was a red helmet with a pair of goggles on it. The other was another man almost the same age as the other with green eyes, a green jacket, also wore blue jeans, black shoes, and had a green helmet with goggles and a dragon on the side of it. "Are you two prepared?"

"Yep." said the one in the green. "We'll be ready for anything."

"This mission is very important." she said.

"We understand." said the man in the red. "Let us hurry and get to Solaris." He walked away from the group, jumped onto a red custom motorcycle, and started the engine before putting his goggles on.

The man in the green followed his procedure and started his green custom motorcycle as the woman got into the armored vehicle. The vehicle pulled out of the parking garage followed by the two motorcycles. The woman sat silently in the back as she stared down at the case. She remembers being told never to look inside of it, but she was curious. Before she knew it, she found herself slowly pulling open the clips on the case. "What could this be?"

The vehicle drove smoothly down the road for several blocks with no interference. But once it passed over a manhole, the hole exploded beneath the vehicle and toppled it over onto its side. The two cyclists stopped and parked their rides before tossing off their helmets and started running to the scene of the explosion. "No, the vehicle!"

"Prof. Masters, is she alright!?" asked the man in the green as they rushed to the vehicle. As they were running, two creatures leaped out of the hole. One of them was a blue, lean creature with blades for hands and had glowing white eyes. The other was grey with a bulky build and glowing yellow eyes. Both of them faced the vehicle as their target. "Damn, Precursors!"

Both of them stopped. The man in the red pulled out a device that looked like a belt buckle with a red orb and held it near his face. "Shin!"

The man in the green pulled out a similar device with a green orb. "Ready, Masanori!"

Masanori put the device on his waist and a belt strap shot out of it and hocked into the other side around his waist. Then he reached into a compartment on the belt and pulled a card out of a deck inside of it. The card had the picture of the Greek symbol for alpha on it. He held it out. "Henshin!"

Shin did the same and held out a card with the Greek symbol for gamma on it. "Henshin!"

Masanori put the card into the device and closed it.

Kamen Rider: Alpha

Shin put his card into his and closed it as well.

Kamen Rider: Gamma

Their bodies were suddenly engulfed in red and green light as they began to transform. When the light faded, Masanori was covered in red armor with a sword in his right hand and Shin was in green armor with a larger sword in his possession. Masanori raised his weapon. "Let's go!"

"Right!" Both of them dashed into action as Kamen Riders.

Since the Alpha armor was faster than the Gamma, Masanori was able to get to the combat area first. Masanori leaped into the air right over to his target. As soon as his feet touched ground, he slashed at the lean one causing damage to its body. Shin showed up and attacked the larger monster with his weapon. Both monsters took their attention away from the disabled vehicle and targeted the Kamen Riders.

Inside the armored car, Prof. Masters regained consciousness after hitting her head. She touched her head to feel blood leaking down her forehead from the hit. Before she looked for the case, she checked on the driver. The driver was still in his seat and unconscious. She quickly grabbed the briefcase, which was still locked, and crawled over to the door. When she pulled the handle on one of the doors, the door fell open and hit the ground. She had enough room to crawl out and get to her feet. That was when she noticed the battle. "Precursors!?"

Shin hit his opponent with a back spin kick before he noticed Prof. Masters. "Run, Professor!" he called. Masters was quick to follow that order. She quickly turned around and started running away from the fight. As soon as she got a few yards away, another monster leaped out of the man hole. This new creature was red and had whips for hands and started chasing Masters. "No!" Shin reached into his deck holder and pulled out a new card. The card had a gun on it. He opened the device on his belt and slipped it in before closing it.

Attack Ride: Blast!

The Gamma's sword blade flipped back to expose a gun barrel and he pointed it at the monster. He fired off three rounds, two of them missed and one of them struck the creature's back causing notable damage, but not enough to stop it. "Damn!" He was quickly attacked by his previous opponent and was forced to defend. "No, Prof. Masters is being perused!"

At that time…

Takao decided to take a short break and sits down on a stone bench next to a water fountain on the grounds of the radio station's central building. He sat silently as he let the falling water entertain him. But this entertainment did not make him happy, it only reminded him of the past he greatly desired to go back to. Back to his original home, with his whole family together again. "Brother…where are you now…?" His concentration was broken to the sound of running. He looked up to see a woman running towards him with a red creature not very far behind her. Takao stood up in shock. "What the hell?!" The creature swung its arms and the whip flew at her and actually doubled in length to reach its target. The whip's bladed tip swiped across the back of Prof. Masters and she fell to the ground in pain. Takao quickly ran over to her and picked her up. "Hey! Hey, lady! C'mon, get up!" Takao looked up at the monster to notice that it was slowly walking over to them while making an eerie laughter. Then he looked back to her and noticed that her badge on her coat had the logo for Solaris on it.

Masters was breathing heavily from the wound. She pulled her arm up to offer the case to Takao. "Keep it safe."

Takao looked at the case and back to her. Did she want him to just leave her and run away with whatever was in the case? Takao hesitated. He put her up against the bench and took the case. "Wait here!" Takao left his bag next to her on the bench and started running. The monster leaps over Prof. Masters and begins to pursue Takao. Takao ran down the sidewalk over to a set of concrete stairs. He jumps onto the railing and slides down it on his rear. Once he got to the bottom, he jumped off of it and ran without hesitation. The monster followed close behind him. When it approached the stairs it leaped over them and landed at the bottom with ease. Takao stopped in the middle of an open tennis court and looked around to see no one near by, not even the monster. He stops to catch his breath and drops the case. When he heard it hit the ground, he soon became curious as to what was in the case. Takao crouched down and hooked his fingers into the clips on the case. He pulled them open and slowly lifted the lid to find a strange device sitting inside of it with a golden V on the front of it flipped to the left. On the top of the device looked like a card slot. Sitting next to the device was a white rectangular compartment. "This is…Kamen Rider gear…?"

Suddenly, the monster leaps over the stone wall and into the tennis court. The monster laughed as he has found Takao. "Give me the device, boy!" Takao grabs the case's contents and scrambles to his feet. He tries to breathe steadily as the monster approached him. "Don't put up a fight boy, just hand them over."

Takao inhaled and exhaled. "No. I'm not letting you have these."

"Think over your decision, boy!"

"I have!" Takao puts the device on his waist and the compartment on his hip. A belt strap flew out of the device, through the compartment, and attached onto the other side of it. Takao quickly opened the compartment and found a deck of cards with Golden V's on the backs. He pulled the one on top and looked at it. It had a picture of a mask on it with red eyes and a pair of antenna in the shape of a golden V on its forehead. Takao poked up and the monster and showed the face of the card to him. "Henshin!" He put the card into the slot on the device and pushed the sides of it closed. When they closed, the V on the front flipped right side up and flashed.

Kamen Rider: Victory!

Suddenly, a glowing V appeared in front of Takao. The V flew towards his chest and a smaller V separated from it and flew onto his forehead. And once they touched his body, golden streaks flowed down his arms and legs before his whole body flashed. When the flash faded, his body was covered in black armor with golden strips on his arms and legs and a golden V on his chest that branched onto his shoulder armor and one on his forehead. The eyes flashed red to signify the completion of the transformation. The monster roared as it swung its whip at him. Takao quickly jumped to the side to dodge it and ran after the monster. The monster swung its other whip at him. Takao jumped over it and the monster with a forward flip. Once he landed behind him he turned around and kicked the monster.

The monster stumbled forward a bit and turned to face Takao. "What is that armor!?" He attacked Takao again at closer range. Takao blocked the attack with his arm then dodged the second attack. Then he delivered two punches to the monster's face and stomp kicked it in the chest. The monster flew back onto the ground, but quickly got to its feet.

Takao shook his head. "I don't know." He opened his card holder again and pulled out a card. The card had the word 'attack' written on the edge of it and showed a picture of the armor's arm with a blade on it. "Even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you." He opened the device again and put the card in along with the previous one and closed it.

Attack Ride: Blade!

Takao charged after the monster and the monster charged at him. In the middle of his dash, Taka raised his right arm and a golden energy blade generated under his arm. Both of them ran at full speed, ready to deal the finishing blow. "Die!" Once he called that word, Takao flew past the monster in a flash. Takao came to a sudden halt and looked back at the monster. It cried out in pain before toppling over and bursting into blue flames without a trace. Takao started panting. "I…I did it…I-I won…!" Takao looked down at the armor that covered his body. "This armor…it's amazing…" Takao looked back down at the device. "How do I get it off?" He remembered that he had to push the sides together to activate it, so he pulled the sides apart and the center piece with the V flipped sideways again. When that happened, the armor faded away and the cards in the device jumped out into the air. Takao grabbed the cards and looked at them. "These cards give it power…?" Was this what Solaris was building? Then he remembered about the woman that gave the case to him. "Oh no!" Takao took the device off of him and placed them back into the case before closing it up running back to the fountain.

Takao got there and stopped to look around. She was gone. The place he had put her had a small pool of dry blood that trailed over to a pair of tire tracks from what looked like motor cycle wheels. Whoever was there took her away, but they did leave his bag. Takao rubbed his forehead and held the briefcase out in front of him. "What do I do now?" What should he do? After witnessing so much, what was the right path? Should he return the device? Or become a Kamen Rider?

TO BE CONTINUED…