Disclaimer: Sword Art Online, the Kamen Rider franchise, and whatever else is mentioned are not my property. I would like it if they were, but, well… beggars can't be choosers.

A/N: Okay, this idea was originally supposed to be a Franchise idea as designed by Takeshi Yamato. However, circumstances proved to be rather fickle in regards to how this was going to be written. I was the guy co-authoring this fic with him, as well as helping to figure out the rest of the franchise, but then he lost his muse for this story. Well, since we already planned a large portion of the story, I decided to take over for him. That was what lead to this being published by yours truly.

Well, since this portion was (originally) written by Takeshi solely, I cannot (originally) claim writing ownership of the prologue at least… *pfft* as if I could claim ownership on any of this. I'm not dumb enough to try thinking of that.

…okay, so I can claim ownership of all but Takeshi's OCs, since he did something he never did in the past and allowed me to use them. I feel lucky, sure, but I also feel that it took a lot of deliberation for him to do so. I also own writing ownership of the second segment of this prologue… well, kinda, in any case.

Well, then… The Wheel Of Fate Is Turning. Rebel 1, Action!

Kamen Rider: Gaim's Feudal Warfare in Sword Art Online
by Xamusel

Prologue: The Month Between

Sword Art Online.

A game that was considered a milestone. A breakthrough. The first true Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Role-Playing Game.

It was all that… and a Death Trap in the form of a game.

What started as a great thing very quickly soured into a living prison, the creator holding people hostage for no known goal to the general public. However, the stated goal as spoken by the creator was to create a world where he alone was God to the subjects. With that goal complete, the Death Game commenced, already having a couple hundred players killed by concerned relatives ignoring the warning given by the creator.

However… not all hope was lost right away.

The game's creator, Kayaba Akihiko, gave the players one way to escape. The game's world of Aincrad was like a massive tower consisting of 100 floors. If players could clear all 100 floors and defeat the Final Boss at the top of the tower, they would all be safely logged out and returned to the world.

This was easier said than done, however, because even during the game's two month-long beta test, none of the beta testers could even get past floor 10. Getting to floor 100 was going to take quite a bit of time, especially since Kayaba likely made the true version of the game even harder than the Beta.

And then a new complication emerged.

The day after the announcement of the Death Game, strange portals appeared at various locations throughout the first floor. These portals, with borders resembling zippers, led into a strange and wondrous forest. Said forest contained monsters unlike anything ever seen before, that were resistant to common Sword Skills.

However, shortly thereafter, a group of players banded together under the name 'Yggdrasil'. Their goal was to study the mysterious forest, which came to be called Helheim, and the monsters within, to see whether they could be used to help clear the game faster.

A month has passed since the launch of the Death Game and appearance of Helheim Forest, and scouting teams of players have discovered the Floor Dungeon…

Pluck the fruit of heaven.

Unnatural flora was growing at an insane rate, the plants growing ever upward, until they could grow no longer. On each plant was a flower of variable design, with some exceptions actually bearing a strange fruit, one that looked reminiscent of a lock. In the background of the flora was a floating tower that had exactly a hundred levels to it, each level getting narrower as it went up.

On the ground, a horse whinnied as its rider, a man with a single-edged sword to his left hip in a blue armored jumpsuit and an orange-themed over-armor, stared down an opponent across a dirt plain, a man on a motorcycle and in a red armored jumpsuit with banana-themed over-armor and a spear. Both men had followers in terms of quasi-humanoid monsters with their respective colors on their underbelly side, a scant few flying in the air, and a variety of armored figures that were both on the ground and in the air, the figures in the air in exoskeletons that looked like they could form a giant Japanese watermelon, while there were only two figures on either side of the riders.

That the world may be dyed in your image.

To the horseman's left, there was a man wearing a deep royal blue armored jumpsuit with a helmet that looked like it had a gold horseshoe for the crest on top of the eye protectors, with a dragon-themed over-armor and a giant broadsword attached to his back. To the horseman's right, there was a woman who wore a crimson armored jumpsuit and a raspberry-themed over-armor, equipped with a gatling gun that was slung over her shoulders.

Is that the glory you seek?

To the biker's left, there was a woman wearing an acorn-themed over-armor over her brown armored jumpsuit, wielding a war mallet in her right hand. To the biker's right, there was a man in a black armored jumpsuit, wearing a pine cone-themed over-armor and wielding a lance with a pine cone-shaped tip.

Is that burden one you can bear?

A man in a red armored jumpsuit and a dark-red cherry-themed over-armor, wielding a pair of identical pistols attached to his hips, ran to a woman in a white armored jumpsuit and a musk melon-themed over-armor. The man stopped a short bit away from her left, turned to face the other figures leading armies, and knelt down next to the woman and looked at her.

At the same time, a woman with blonde hair, closed eyes, and wearing predominantly white clothes was laying on the ground, eyes closed as more of the aforementioned flora grew around her. When the flora reached a certain part of her surroundings, the woman opened her eyes, the left one brown and the right one blood red, as she looked around for a sign as to what to do, before she noticed a strange fruit near her location.

The horseman looked off to his left, to see the woman walk up to a cliffside, holding the strange fruit in her left hand. She had a flower in her hair on the left side of her head, to boot, which was nearly immediately blown out of its position to trigger a charge.

Know this. The lives of men are not ours to control, not even our own. We cannot deny the inexorable current of fate that carries us.

As both sides facing each other charged, the third group, itself leading an army as well, prepared to take on the winner of the current battle, its leaders standing upright to get ready.

But what if fate itself were to call you…

Some of the troops were firing on their opposites, each side also losing some of their own, primarily in the air at that.

…to change the world? To turn the course of the future?

The armored figures riding towards each other were content to charge, ignoring the explosions at their sides, even as the battle would be decided by a single strike.

You cannot defy your fate. But the fate of the world is in your hands!

A/N: FINISH!

…okay, I should shut up, shouldn't I?

Anyway, this prologue was looked over by Centurious the Azure and Lily Nadesico, at the very least.

Review corner will start showing up in the chapter after the next at the bottom. That's all I can say about that.

Until We Meet Again.
~Xamusel