Author's Note: I do not own any part of the Kamen Rider franchise, but I do love it. As such here is my own version of Kamen Rider and this being my own creation most of these characters are 'original characters.' If you would like to use any of the characters used in this story, please go ahead, but inform me beforehand.

A Taste of Things to Come

My name is J… and lately, I've been feeling tired. I guess I should be, but I've never felt like this before. Charlie says it's just stress, and I hope it is. What should I be stressed out about, though? Friends, school? No. My work. You see…

I am a Rider.

I'm starting this journal now, to get my head straight. Whoever finds this, do with it as you will.

I'm having trouble remembering just how this all started… I know I saved a girl, Charlie, from one of those… things. I still have no word for them. Mutants? Aliens? Demons? I have no idea. All I know is, their organization, the Order of the New World, want to take this world for themselves. They dress in human skins and carry out their destruction from the shadows… but I am there to stop them. I just can't remember how it happened.

The others call me Bolt. I mean, the people do. I've heard of other Riders, but I never met one… yet. I do have a partner in Rider-dom though. Lou. He has no powers but he's just as effective as another Rider. He tends to use makeshift weapons and gadgets of his own design to keep up with me. I haven't seen these other Riders… it's really just Lou and me as far as I'm concerned.

Perhaps I should write down what happened today? Yes, I should. The Order decided to do something much more daring then usual. This was an act of terrorism- plain and simple. Sometimes, the Order just wants attention pulled to them. I can't say why. I was actually there to see it happen.

It being Saturday, I didn't have any school to go attend. Charlie suggested I get out more, so I wandered the streets of Morrison City. I heard from the news that the subway had a record number of people using it. I decided to be one of those numbers. I'd never used the subway before, so I thought I'd ride it on a roundtrip. Well, good thing I did.

The subway carriage- car- was fairly clean, and it wasn't as packed as I had expected… I wonder how low the original record was… anyway, the Order member stood out amongst us.

He wore a long, brown trench coat and a hat of some kind. His face was free of most markings… a generic face, on a generic skin on a generic Order creature. He stood up, not holding on to anything, and looked at the people around him. The car was in full swing around the tunnels when the creature revealed himself. The man- creature- started to laugh. It was a quiet snicker at first until a guy asked him "What's so funny?"

The Order member went into a fit of hysterical laughter, but managed to cough out, "You don't see it! You're all doomed! Because it is commanded!" Then… he changed. His face contorted until it hit a terrible rectus grin. As such, I dubbed him Sardonicus. His face then started to peel away, like the layers of an onion… soon he wore a face of grey that only tried to mimic a human face. His body expanded, large and wide. The coat was quickly shredded and he shed his skin. By the end, the creature was a writhing mass of vaguely human gray muscle. Sardonicus was still smiling.

Chaos ensued.

Luckily, I was able to use it to my advantage. With all the screaming and panic, I was able to transform without notice. I took off my gloves, exposing the strange marks on the back of my hands. I pressed my palms to my face and whispered, "Rider Up!"

I hopped from my seat to see time slow to a crawl. I casually walked to the creature while my armor ripped itself from the pocket dimension in which it is stored. The individual pieces either snap on or grow from other parts, staring with my hands. The two base parts of the helmet appear in either hand, and I snap them together around my neck and guide the helmet's growing form around my head with a swift motion. The armor itself is insectoid in appearance, especially the mask. It looks like I'm a guy in a suit of armor inspired by a grasshopper… but, well, I am. The scarf that appears with the helmet is Charlie's. I'm not sure what the stylized lighting bolt (akin to a reverse sided Captain Marvel bolt) on my chest means, but it gave me my name.

With the transformation done, the tears in reality closed, and I was combat ready. Power surged from the suit into me. Sardonicus tilted his grinning head at me. His mouth opened and closed with a teeth chattering click. "So," he said. "The Rider decided to drop by?" My appearance to the scene calmed the citizens down.

"Whip his ass," someone screamed.

"Will do," I responded, my voice filtered through the helmet. My first punch lacked any real power behind it, but it was enough to take Sardonicus off his feet. His fingers suddenly extended into sharp claws, and he latched onto the car's wall. He tried to claw to the ceiling like a bug, but I knocked him through it with a forceful uppercut. His back skidded across the tunnel's roof and he fell back down, slamming into the top of the subway car that was behind us. I stood, on the other car's roof, ready. The horrid creature quickly recovered and stood poised on all fours.

He leapt at me, but with a quick sidestep I evaded Sardonicus and give him a powerful kick to the back. He fell forward, but spun around on his chest, razor sharp claws drawn. He regained his balance and took a quick swipe at me. As I dodged it, the tricky bastard made another tackle for me and I fell for it. It was a good strategy, as he tried to told me up just as the next small tunnel came up.

Too bad I kicked him right in the neck. Sardonicus dropped me and clutched his throat in pain. I ducked just as he did. The smaller tunnel was dark, and Sardonicus used this to his advantage. Most of his kind see in the dark, my helmet takes a few seconds to regulate. He slashed out with all four of his limbs, each one wielding deadly claws. I was able to quickly dodge them and catch his right arm. With a swift punch to the face, he went flying backwards… but he didn't take his arm for the trip. He got up in a daze, just as the car exited the small tunnel. Sardonicus nervously eyed the arm in my hand, and taking a step forward, nearly slipped in his own blood. The creature began to shake. "You," he hissed, "took off… my arm!"

I nodded. "Come over here," I beckoned, "and allow me to remove your head." Sardonicus didn't take a liking to my suggestion. He meekly turned tail, jumped to the side, and latched onto the side of the subway tunnel.

He wasn't going to get way that easy. Arm missing or not he could move. I followed his example and jumped from the back of the train to the ground. I then summoned up my bike from the place where my armor resides as well. I've never thought to look it up, but the bike was a 2002 model Harley Davidson motorcycle. I got on it and the armor picked up on the small device it had planted on the bike's front from the first time I found the vehicle. The bike's power and handling was augmented, as was its looks. It was still obviously a Harley, but now it looked customized to fit with my armor.

The bike started down the tracks, and with its supernatural amount of speed, I quickly caught up with Sardonicus. With a annoyed hiss he picked up speed, but that didn't matter. He likely intended for me to be splattered by the oncoming subway train, but I rode the bike up the wall, the tires quickly morphing into something more appropriate and jagged. I rode up the wall, missing the train and catching up with my prey. The tires promptly split Sardonicus in two. I rode past the train and steered back onto the tracks and rode to the next platform.

I haven't thought of what Sardonicus intended for those people on the subway, but it couldn't have been good. I changed back when I got to the platform and snuck on with little fuss.

I went back up to the streets and found myself nearer to home then expected. I strolled back and met Charlie upon my arrival. She didn't look amused. "J.," she growled, "where the hell were you?"

"The… subway?"

"Doing what?"

"Fighting monsters?"

"Uh-huh. You'd better have been."

"Am I… missing something here?"

"You bet your armored up ass you are. We're supposed to be writing a report on the French Revolution! Remember?"

"It- it must have slipped my mind!" It didn't. Honestly, I think I was trying to avoid Charlie with the subway. Speaking of, I should be working on that shouldn't I?

I will write more here as it happens or as I remember.

- J.