Right, I don't have the best track record of attempting regular updates, but I'm gonna try this for June: a 30-day challenge! In an attempt to revive my fanfic-writing skills, as well as my writing skills in general, and my creative thinking at the same time, I shall persevere. I'm not sure as of now if all 30 chapters are going to be on one storyline, or even only in one world, but the first few days are going to be about W, so look forward to that =)

Challenge prompts are taken from this site: (oh darn no urls) asylums dot insanejournal dot com slash 30 underscore somethings slash 615 dot html, and I'm using the one about flowers because it seemed the most interesting.

Day 1: Separation

"Oi Akiko! Is Terui not here yet?!" Shoutarou yelled as W, in LunaJoker form, narrowly dodged another slash of the Dopant's countless tentacles. Both Philip and him were quickly losing stamina just avoiding the attacks. They needed backup, fast.

A crash sounded from the warehouse distracting the rider just enough for the Dopant's slicing attack to knock them into the air and then slam them to the ground with another falling tentacle.

W got up as quickly as he could, only to see a new Dopant advancing on Philip's unconscious body, having obviously knocked Akiko out just before.

"Get away from my body!" Philip shouted and tried to extend W's right arm to reach out for his body. It was intercepted by five tentacles, all reaching round to wrap about W's extended arm. Tangled up, the two men could only watch as the other Dopant disappeared into a mist of data with Philip's body.

The tentacles holding W in place loosened and retreated, and the Dopant swung away like Spiderman. W tried to give chase, but it was too late.

"Damn," Shoutarou cursed and moved his hands to undo the transformation, but Philip stopped him.

"Wait, don't. I don't want to find out what they're doing to my body. I shouldn't try to return until we get my body back, in case they try to use the Gaia Library."

"You're right. We should try using Xtreme memory to retrieve it," Shoutarou suggested, and on cue, the bird-like memory flew into view, "Xtreme, can you try to get Philip's body?"

Xtreme memory beeped a series of noises, which Philip translated to, "It can't. The Dopant has taken my body within a region cordoned off with a signal disruptor. It will scramble Xtreme memory's, well, memories, for lack of a better term, and it will be driven out of the field."

"They've really done their research, haven't they..."

"Yeah, question is, how? No one should be able to get this sort of information from anywhere but the Gaia Library, and even in there, it's in the restricted section, which only I have access to, as its librarian."

"So we're looking at a hacker then," Shoutarou concluded.

Philip mentally nodded, and Shoutarou could feel a trickle of pride leaking through their mental connection. That's strange. No feelings have ever been transmitted before.

"Right now, I think it's best if I stay out of my body, since without my consciousness, there is little they can..." Philip's voice suddenly stopped, and Shoutarou felt his partner's consciousness leave his mind, dragged away by some force. W's henshin undid itself, leaving Shoutarou standing on the battlefield, alone with a still-unconscious Akiko, trying to come to terms with his partner's missing presence where he should have been when they had the belt on.

Yes, a cliff-hanger. Nope, it's not beta-ed yet coz my usual beta is out of commission this evening so I'll get it beta-ed when I can.

I hope you look forward to the updates as much as I look forward to writing the next part, tomorrow!