Note: The original idea of Kamen Rider belongs to Ishinomori, I'm just borrowing it for this fanfic.
Kamen Rider Memora
by MezzoAlto
Episode 1: Remember the Earth!
Lily Compton leaned on the mountain wall of the trail and took a sip of water from her bottle as her friend Eileen stepped through a small stream. "I'm glad you talked me into this, Eileen. Even if I'm going to be absolutely exhausted by the time we reach the Valley."
"Working up a sweat is good for you," Eileen retorted as she made it to the other side. "Isn't the waterfall pretty?"
"Yeah, to think that it's going to dry up soon," Lily said flatly. It felt like what had happened to her job.
Eileen smiled sympathetically and started walking down towards the next curve. Lily leaned against the wall for another minute before braving the stream; she'd slipped the first day they were out hiking; nothing had hurt but her pride, thank goodness. She took a casual look towards the other side of the path; a long, dangerous fall awaited her if she slipped on that side, helped or hindered by the local trees and bushes on the way down.
At least this trip seemed to be helping out a little; Lily already felt less stressed about having to hunt for a new job in the current economy. And, she could honestly say she was doing something to make herself feel better. With determination, Lily stepped into the stream, balancing as best she could, barely glancing at the tiny waterfall. As she was getting ready to step out onto dry land, a flash of bright light seemed to hold her in place.
"Flower Child," a voice chimed as she blinked at the return of her normal eyesight, "We have need of you."
"Flower Child?" she echoed, looking around. Eileen was a slowly moving, hazy image before her, as if Lily was in a bubble of time. She looked down at the water, which seemed to be moving normally, but as she looked behind, everything was the same hazy, slow-moving image. She pushed at the bubble, which didn't move. Then she tried to step through the edge of the bubble. It stubbornly didn't allow her to push through. "Hey, let me out of here! Eileen! Can you hear me?"
But Eileen continued to move slowly, unhearing.
"We are the Osa," the chiming voice said, seemingly coming from the light, which floated in the air. It seemed to not notice that Lily might, say, not want to be trapped in a hazy bubble in the middle of a hiking trail as she tried to push through with her walking staff. "We are watchers of the plants and the animals and the life of this world. We have come to warn you, Flower Child, of the threat coming to your world, and have come to select you as our champion, and the world's champion, to defend against the alien metal that would make the world barren."
"You seem pretty qualified to handle a 'threat' yourself," Lily said, pushing at the bubble, trying once more to get free. Maybe she was imagining things. She hoped. "Stop talking like a stereotypical princess, and tell me why you've got me here!"
"You connect to the land in a way that you cannot see, and yet you understand the forged metal of your kind. You care for the land, and yet you work with the metal. You understand the weakness of metal. That is why you alone can do this." The Osa floated over her head, as if trying to seem superior. She wondered if it was trying to talk down to her, though the voice was placid, not superior-sounding.
"You can put people in bubbles that distort time," Lily said, pushing at the sides and glaring up at it. "I can't get out. Why can't you do that to the 'threat'?"
"Because we can only communicate this way," the voice - Osa - said. "We can only create these bubbles for a limited time. Someone with a greater physical presence in this world is needed to keep things safe."
Right. She crossed her arms and looked up at the light, wondering if tapping her foot would do her any good. "And how am I supposed to do this? I'm not a fighter. I'm a tech support person. I fix computers. Over the phone. You know, not physical stuff. I'm getting tired hiking down this trail, how am I supposed to fight these whatevers?" She flexed her muscles as a body builder would. "See? No muscles to speak of. I'd be a bad choice."
"The Earth will help you fight. You will be given armor, metal from the Earth, to aid you and give you strength," the Osa said. "They would take this world and make it metal, barren. Our metal does not hurt our planet; theirs will."
"Right now, I'm not seeing a threat," Lily pointed out, leaning stubbornly on her stick, "Unless you count me being trapped in a time bubble. And I'm not going on some fancy quest to find such a thing, because I need to jobhunt. Not to listen to sparkly things that have me in a stupid time bubble."
"We cannot force you to be our champion," the Osa said, the chimes sounding discordant, not the gentle chime of earlier. "But as they come, we hope you will see the need. Your armor will come to you."
"Right," Lily said doubtfully.
"Goodbye, our Flower Child, our Memora." There was a flash of light, and the bubble was gone. Eileen was moving at normal speed, down the trail, almost to the corner.
Lily shook her head, wondering if she needed her meds adjusted, and tugged at her backpack strap. As she did, she felt something below. She looked down to find what seemed to be a belt of some kind, a flat hemp-like belt with a metal piece in the middle where the buckle should be.
"Hey, Lily," her friend said, "You okay? Or is that t-shirt trying to strangle you?"
Lily looked over to see her friend standing at the trail curve. She looked down, and the belt was gone. "Ah, just rearranging some things," she said, straightening her shirt.
She wondered if she'd hallucinated the whole thing.
The two of them finished hiking down the trail and then walked up towards the nearest bus stop that was, to Lily's dismay, not that near. She was in decent shape, but not hiking shape. "And they thought I was going to save the Earth how?" she muttered as she leaned against the bridge wall. The whole thing still seemed so unreal, and she tried not to think about it.
"Who thought what?" Eileen asked, pacing about under the bus stop sign.
"Oh, nothing," Lily said, shaking her head. She must have imagined it, she must have. "Just... I'm going nuts."
"I thought you were insane already," Eileen joked, grinning at Lily as the shuttle bus came into view. "So..."
They got on the bus and crammed themselves in the last two available seats that were together. "Nothing," Lily said. "I think the fresh air is making me imagine things. I swear, I have hiked more in the last two days than I have in my entire life!"
"And I had to practically haul you the top of Sentinel Dome, too," Eileen teased, poking Lily on the shoulder.
"Yeah, I know," Lily acknowledged with a shrug, holding onto her backpack as another tourist shuffled by. "Hiked that before hiking Four-Mile... no wonder I'm tired!"
The shuttle bus took them past several stops until they reached theirs, filling up with more people until it was standing room only. Eileen and Lily had to push their way through to get to the exit doors.
And then someone screamed. And someone else screamed, and then moving wasn't a problem as they were practically pushed out with the crowd. Lily stumbled, steadying herself once more with the stick, and she and Eileen tried to get out of the way of the fleeing crowd.
Then she saw the monster. It reminded her of a wolf crossed with a porcupine, though the resemblance was only vague. It was golden, the fur shiny spikes, with a tail full of spikes as well. Tiny eyes of a sort glared just above a pointy snout. The fur moved, chiming, as if it was trying to communicate, but nothing intelligible came out; it sounded more like the monster was trying to imitate 80's pop.
"Running would be a good idea," Lily said to Eileen, grabbing her friend's shoulder with her free hand. "Really good idea."
"That monster's playing Duran Duran," Eileen said, fascinated, staring at the monster as if drawn by the music. "I wonder if it's trying to communicate?"
"I don't care what it's playing, or if it's going to communicate, I just want to get out of here - oh, shit." The belt had reappeared. Lily could almost see the items hanging off of it. "Okay, maybe I wasn't imagining things."
The monster cocked its head and turned the trunk of a nearby tree to metal. Lily tried not to imagine what that would do to a human, and pulled on Eileen's arm. "I don't wanna find out what that thing can do," she said.
"I guess it isn't friendly!" Eileen said with a slight squeak, finally moving.
The two of them ran as best as they could down a trail away from the monster, where other tourists hadn't seemed to have gone, Lily stumbling from all the exercise of the day.
"Are you okay?" Eileen asked, when they came to a rest. Lily leaned on a tree, grateful for the support, and breathed heavily. Her side was beginning to hurt; she massaged it. She noticed Eileen leaning against another tree.
"Runny away from a metallic wolf before lunch was not in my plans for today," Lily said, looking over at Eileen. "Okay, Sentinel Dome wasn't either, but at least I got a good view of the valley from there!"
"See, all you needed was a push," Eileen said with a grin, catching her breath.
"Yeah, all I needed was a hike up Sentinel Dome, a hike down Four-Mile, a mysterious entity sticking me in a time bubble on the way down and telling me to save the Earth, and then a metallic wolf appearing to scare- I'm having a bad day."
"You, saving the-" Eileen stared at her. "Lily, are you telling me that you're a superhero?"
"Um," Lily said, looking away in desperate hope that Eileen would forget about what she'd said, and trying to pull her t-shirt over the strange belt. "You read too many comic books."
"Well, you certainly didn't have that belt before," Eileen said, motioning in the direction of the belt in question. "Do you know how to use it?"
"I have absolutely no fragging clue," Lily snapped, crossing her arms and glaring at her friend. Maybe it would work on Eileen where it hadn't worked on the Osa. "It's not like the fragging nightlight bothered to give me an instruction manual."
"Or maybe you lost it," Eileen said, tapping her chin. "That was the thing with the Greatest American Hero. You ever see it?"
"That so doesn't help, Eileen!" Lily snapped, sliding down the tree until she was sitting down. Maybe if she hid in a ball, the belt would go away.
"Or, maybe, if you concentrate on it, it'll tell you what to do, that's how it is with some superheroes." Lily looked up; Eileen was standing there, as if this was some kind of fascinating intellectual puzzle. Of course, to her, it probably was some kind of fascinating intellectual puzzle.
"Eileen, I'm not a superhero because some bobbing light gave me a belt in the middle of hiking Four-Mile!" She looked over at her friend, who was smiling down at her in some amusement.
"Yes, you are a superhero," Eileen said, and then knelt down next to her. "You remember, 'With great power, comes great responsibility'? Seems like you've got a power there."
"Don't quote Spiderman at me," Lily groaned, massaging her side as if it would help. "Eileen, I'm tired. I don't wanna be fighting a metallic wolf that tries to communicate with 80's pop tunes."
"Well, too bad, because you're the superhero," Eileen said, poking the belt, which had materialized over the t-shirt. "You are going to figure this thing out, and you are going to fight that monster, because you are going to go save the day."
"Eileen," Lily said, grinning with a sudden burst of inspiration, "If you're so keen on the superhero business, why don't you try it yourself?"
"Sure," Eileen said. "Hand it over. And when it doesn't work, you can go save the world like a good hero."
Lily slipped her backpack off and then pulled the belt up off her body, handing it to Eileen. The belt was amazingly elastic for something that looked like flattened hemp "Here you go," she said, with the same fake happy tone she used on her callers.
Eileen tried slipping it on, but it wouldn't stretch around her broader body. "No go," she said, smirking at Lily. "Looks like you get to be the superhero."
Lily sighed and took the belt back, slipping it back over her body. It settled comfortably, as if it belonged. "Still didn't come with instructions," she said.
"Hm," Eileen said, tapping her chin. "Try putting your hands on the belt and concentrating, that works in the comics."
Lily rolled her eyes, but obeyed. As she did, words came to her mind, and she found herself speaking. "Memory! Transform!"
Something solid formed around her, hard material. She blinked as she gazed out of eyeholes in a helmet, and then, suddenly she could see as if her view was unobstructed. She heard Eileen whistle. "Instruction manual comes in the belt," Eileen said in amusement. "At least you should have no trouble fighting. All the knowledge should come to your head."
"What do I look like?" Lily asked, not sure she wanted to know the answer. Eileen was starting to sound uncomfortably like the Osa.
"Step forward," Eileen said, "so I can get a good look."
When Lily obeyed, Eileen added, "Oh, pretty good metal armor, flexible at the elbows and knees but still armored so that the enemy can't disable you that easily. Wing casings at the back - maybe you'll have some kind of wing form. Probably nice, springy legs. Long antennae on your helmet. Reminds me of a bug. Hmmm. Grasshopper? No, katydid, I think. You look good in green."
"You have been spending too much time with the comic books," Lily remarked, putting her now-armored hands at her now-armored hips. "Why an insect?"
"Why not?" Eileen asked, raising an eyebrow and motioning at the armor. "We're in a national park, and you were given your powers by a ball of light. Is insect armor so absurd?"
"When you put it that way," Lily allowed, leaning against the tree once more. She would have made a face at Eileen, but remembered she was wearing a helmet. "So, what do I do now?"
"Find the monster and kill it?" Eileen suggested, raising her eyebrows. "Or whatever the beings that gave you your powers want you to do. Probably get rid of the wee beastie somehow."
"I'm-" Lily was about to say she was tired, but her energy seemed to be returning. Maybe the armor was giving her strength.
"Oh, stop complaining and save the world," Eileen said, giving her a push. "I'll grab your backpack, you fight the monster."
"Why me?" Lily muttered.
"Because that's what superheroes do," Eileen insisted. "And besides, that way, I don't have to guilt you into a large donation for the Yosemite Fund for all the stuff the monster is probably tearing up as we speak."
Lily groaned. "As I said, why me?" Then she heard a boom in the background, and screams. She slumped. Someone had to help those people. And right now, she was the only one with the armor and the working super powers. "Okay, let's go."
"That's the spirit!" Eileen announced cheerfully, picking up Lily's backpack and retracting the staff.
It didn't take them long to locate the monster once they got back down the path; it was happily turning a wood building into metal. Lily could see several tourists trapped inside, banging on the glass, as the door melded into the wall, though she lost sight of them when the metal engulfed the window. Lily didn't doubt that once it was done with the building, it would aim for the two other buildings and the bushes and trees nearby.
"Okay, prepare to fight!" she proclaimed, striking what was probably an absurd pose.
"You forgot the 'alien scuzzball,'" Eileen said from somewhere behind her. Lily didn't dare look, but she trusted that Eileen had good sense to hide behind a tree or a sign or whatever was nearby.
"Yes, thanks," said Lily, rolling her eyes. "You wanna do this?"
"Will you attack him already?" Eileen called from where she was hiding.
Right." Lily charged at the monster. It clinked against a tree and fell backwards into the foliage. She glanced around quickly for Eileen. A heavy force smashed into her head. Lily staggered and looked up to see the monster charging her. It slammed her twice, making her stagger into the partially-metallic building. As she regained her balance, it threw a fist at her again. Her arm came up to block it, and she pushed the creature away.
Changing tactics, it swung around, shooting spikes out of its tail. They pinged hard on her stomach, making her double over. Lily gasped, staggering back. She had to be careful, the suit's energy was the only thing keeping her running.
She rushed at it again, tackling it to the ground, punching. Hit once. Twice. Three times. Something softened and gave. The monster grunted, pushing her off and staggering. Wounded, maybe.
But after a second, it was rushing her again. She stepped sideways, bracing herself. She grabbed it and threw it across the clearing. Like she'd done it for ages. "How'd I-"
She didn't have a chance to think further. With a roar, it seemed to become spikier. It was going to attack again. Or maybe just blow everything up around it. "What do I-"
Kick. The answer echoed in her head. "Kick, right," she said, kneeling slightly and jumping into the air. The monster below her bristled as she angled towards it. Somehow, she didn't kill herself as she hit it.
Instead, the monster staggered, and then there was an explosion, and the monster was no more. The dust settled. And sparkled? Lily took a step closer, eyeing the gold dust.
Lily took a deep breath, making sure it wasn't going to reassemble itself. Something that the Osa had told her surfaced in her mind, though. Her power would make the monsters, the metal, compatible with the Earth's.
She wondered if that meant that there would be a lot of people collecting the remains, and if it was like gold, or like Fool's Gold. And speaking of the tourists, maybe she should check on them. The front of the door seemed fused to the rest of the structure, but there had to be another door. California safety regulations required it. She went around until she found one.
The store was empty for the most part, the back door hanging open. Only one woman cowered under a table formerly full of polished burled wood. She knelt beside the table. "Are you all right?"
"What in the hell are you?" the woman asked, her eyes wide.
"A superhero. Do you need aid? The monster's gone."
"There's no such thing as superheroes," the woman said, refusing to come out from under the table.
"That's what I used to say," Lily remarked as she held out a hand. "Where did everybody else go?"
"Out the back." The woman cocked her head in that direction. "I'm not going out until the Park Rangers give the all-clear."
"Okay," Lily said, getting up. If the woman wanted to wait for the Rangers, and she wasn't bleeding, then Lily should probably leave her to the Rangers.
She made her way back to the trailhead, Eileen joining her from the tree she had been hiding behind. "A little clumsy, but I knew you could do it," Eileen said warmly. She patted Lily on the shoulder. "Now, let's go somewhere private so you can change back."
Lily nodded. "Right."
"And then I'm gonna lend you my 'Who Wants to Be a Superhero' DVDs so that you can see what a superhero is supposed to be like," Eileen said, obviously thinking ahead.
"Eileen... I can't be a superhero, I need to jobhunt," Lily said as they walked. "I need to find something that pays money. I need a roof over my head. Food. I can't stay here in Yosemite forever."
"Who says you have to stay?" Eileen asked. "By the way, it should be safe to power down."
Lily nodded again after glancing around. Out of paranoia, she stepped off the trail so she wouldn't be in anybody's direct sight. "Come on, go away," she muttered, and the armor obligingly disappeared.
"I think you're getting a hang of the superhero biz," Eileen said admiringly as Lily reemerged onto the trail
"Yeah, a hang off of a cliff," Lily said, as Eileen handed Lily her backpack and staff. "Which is all too appropriate out here. I still have no idea how to juggle superheroing and a job that would allow me to live as I like living."
"You have a job," Eileen said patiently, leaning back against the tree. "Sure, it's not one that pays the bills, but still..."
Lily rolled her eyes and slumped against another nearby tree, not bothering to put her pack back on. "Right. When I said I needed a job, I didn't mean this!"
"Too bad, you have it," Eileen said, patting Lily's shoulder. "A damned good job, too."
Lily would have said something more, but the damned bubble had formed around her. The Osa must have wanted to talk.
"I make a lousy guardian," Lily said, the moment the Osa showed itself. Themselves. Whatever. "I really don't think I'm the guardian you're looking for. I have no clue on how to fight, the armor's doing the job for me, I'm not in shape. You need a fighter, not a computer geek that's going to lose her house in two months. Find someone else."
The nightlight was silent for a moment. "No."
"What do you mean, no?" Lily asked. "I am not..."
"You are a child with your powers," the Osa said, "learning how to walk. Your powers and your control will grow greater as your bond with this land grows. But you must give that bond a chance."
"I have a life outside this, I have to be able to eat and have a roof over my head," Lily pointed out. "I can't live here. If the invaders are going to be attacking Yosemite, and I'm expected to guard it, I have to live somewhere."
"We know," the Osa said. "We know of your modern conveniences. Place your hand on the tree next to us."
Puzzled, Lily did so, and their surroundings changed. She was leaning against a different tree, this time, and there was a wood cabin, obviously neglected, off to one side. "Where are we?"
"Deep in the woods of your 'national park'," the Osa told her. "You are protecting this Earth; this Earth will provide shelter and food for you. This location will make sure others do not bother you. We, or you, can repair it as you live in it."
"And how am I supposed to fight these monsters - who'll probably attack places like earlier - if I'm out here?" Lily pointed out sensibly. She wondered if the Osa realized that she wanted her creature comforts, not a moldy cabin in the middle of nowhere. Sure, it was free, but it probably didn't even have indoor plumbing.
"You will know how to get there," the Osa told her.
"If I'm in the middle of nowhere," Lily said, motioning at the woods around her, "I'm going to have a hell of a hike to get anywhere, much less save anybody or anything. I'm not that fast."
"Do you want us to move the cabin?" the Osa asked, clearly puzzled.
Lily sighed, rubbing her temples in frustration. "You know what? I've got a friend that was with me. Why don't you bubble us back to her, and maybe she'll have an idea."
"She is your helper?" the Osa chimed.
"Hell yes," Lily said. "She's brighter than I am - you grabbed the wrong person. She'd be perfect for this."
"There's a reason why you are the one with powers, and she is the one with wisdom," the Osa told her, bobbing a bit.
"Just get us back, okay?" Lily said, leaning against the tree.
A moment later, they were back, and she was standing next to Eileen. Lily had the weird sensation of watching the bubble disappear, and then coming back up it surrounded the both of them.
"So, this would be your new boss, the nightlight?" Eileen asked, quirking an eyebrow at the Osa.
"I guess," Lily said, feeling all of her exercise for the day catching up with her. She leaned back against the tree. "It wants to put me in a cabin in the deep woods - I told it that's not a good idea. It would take me forever to hike. It's nuts."
"Well, it makes sense if your energy is from the land. You need to live on the land," Eileen said. "Be part of it. I'm sure it'll do you some good."
"Eileen," Lily said, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder in exasperation, "I could get arrested if someone found me, power source or no. Plus, as I said, I can't save places if I can't get places."
"Well, if it's only a mile or three away... you can drive," Eileen said thoughtfully, tapping her chin. "I know someone who has an off-road bike that they might be willing to get rid of."
"Eileen, don't help the Osa," Lily groaned, thumping her head gently against the nearest tree.
"We can make the cabin a three of your miles away," the Osa said, ignoring her. "The land can move it... or regrow it." It paused. "It can grow you a new home at a location you choose, at the distance you specify. And the land will help you out as you grow closer to it. It will feed you and house you in return for your guardianship."
"Free room and board, it sounds like," Eileen told her with a grin, she looked up at the Osa. "Your boss has a nice voice."
"Never mind how it sounds," Lily argued. "I have no clue on how to live on the land! I have no clue on how to survive this!" She found she was waving her arms at the last bit, trying to get the insanity of the whole thing through to Eileen.
"Well, I do," Eileen said, hands on hips as she admired the cabin. "And I think you'll get to learn. You knew how to fight, after all, why couldn't it teach you how to live?" She thought for a moment. "And, you know, I could bring you some stuff too. Camp food and a water purifier and camp cookware. Camp furniture too. A stove. A solar charger for electronics. I can bring you stuff to help shape that new place of yours up. It'll do you some good. I'm sure your new benefactors will keep you from being kicked out of the park."
"She will be part of the Earth," the Osa said. "The ones who watch will not notice her, or this... bike... or its trails."
"See?" Eileen asked encouragingly. "And I'll just find some way to live in here. I'm sure there's some housing, especially down in Wawona. The town, that is, not the hotel. And I can drive up when I need internet access. But you? You're set up. I'd say you'd better order up that housing three miles off some road up here, and just settle in. I'm sure that the Earth can offer some help with the monetary stuff, too."
"Um," Lily said, and looked at the Osa, which was still floating unhelpfully in the sky.
"We will see what we can do," the Osa replied as the trail reappeared.
The bubble faded, and the two looked at each other. "Well, I guess you have a job to do, and I have stuff to get for you. I think it might not be a good idea for you to get away from the land for a while," Eileen said, dusting off her shorts out of habit. "Power source and all."
Lily groaned and stared at her friend. "I can't believe I'm supposed to get used to all this."
Eileen shrugged, giving her a one-armed hug. "You will. I'll get that bike and some camp stuff, you just keep staying where you are until they're ready for you. It'll all work out in the end."
Lily stared at the forest beyond the buildings, the waterfalls rising up ahead in the distance. "I hope so," she said.
In episode 2!
Lily gets her bike and attempts to get used to the superhero job. In the meantime, another monster is set down, this time attacking buses! Stay tuned for the next episode of Kamen Rider Memora!