Where did he go? Chris wondered to himself, turning his head back to where his friend used to be, the bright flash of light shining there just moments ago disappearing into thin air. No, it wasn't thin air. It was fading into something, no… Someone. As his eyes finally adjusted back to normal, he saw something he thought only existed in the shows he obsessed over. They were called Tokusatsu. He thought it was fiction.

He was wrong.

"Sorry, Employer," the warrior who stood before Chris raised a hand at the monster who threw him, wheelchair and all, into a wall. "But it's time to play my game."

"Why you-!" The monster… Employer barely got those two words in before the warrior ran forward, striking a palm into the beast's chest. The Employer was thrust back a few feet, but quickly retaliated with a few punches and kicks. The warrior blocked a few hits, but one of the kicks sent him reeling back.

Composing himself, the warrior hit a button on his chest (His Driver, I guess? Chris wondered to himself). "Eject!" a voice coming shouted at no one. The warrior caught the flying… cartridge… and placed it in a case on his belt. He then chose another one, raised it to the air and slid it into the intricate mechanism on his chest. "Hack! And! Slash! SET!" same voice shouted again. "Press Start!"

The warrior slammed his fist into his chest. Another bright light, and the warrior looked different. His suit had once been white with black accents and silver gauntlets. Now the black accents were red and the gauntlets were gone, revealing a colorful and intricate design on the left arm- it almost looked like a tattoo, but a part of the suit. Chris pulled himself back into his wheelchair and looked back at the warrior, now sporting a rather interesting sword in his hand. It was a silver broadsword with a controller attached to the crossguard. It looked like it was from the Z-Prism, but he wasn't sure. The warrior and the Employer ran at each other and came to blows once again.

The warrior continued to block and slash at the Employer, who seemed unfazed by the attacks. This isn't like those shows at all, Chris decided. This guy is weak.

If you think I'm so weak, then show me how it should be done.

The voice rang in his head. It sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. "What do you mean? Who are you?"

I'll explain everything later. For now, catch.

"What?-" Chris stammered, confused as the warrior seamlessly detached the controller from the sword, threw it in Chris's hands and continued fighting.

Throw the cable at my head.

The controller felt natural in Chris's hands. He had spent hours playing game after game while all the other students were out playing sports and socializing. It was strange, though. He had never seen a Z-Prism controller with a cable. He reached for the end and threw it at the warrior's head. The adapter on the end flew in the air and finally clicked at the back of his helmet.

"COOOOOOOOOOOODE SABER!" That same voice yelled. Is that gonna happen every time? Chris thought to himself.

You get used to it. Now, have you played Angel's Fury?

"Yep."

Same controls. Let's take this guy down together!

Chris sat, mouth agape for a moment. He was going to fight with a Rider? This was one of the best moments of his life. Now wait, Angel's Fury…. It came out a few years ago. It was about an angel sent down from Heaven to slay demons taking over the world with his holy sword. The controls to that were fairly easy. Just keep mashing buttons and things keep dying.

Chris gripped the controller with both hands and began to play. He thought the cable would drag him about as the warrior fought, but it magically kept extending and retracting to fit the situation.

"Lock on," Chris muttered to himself. "Jump, slash, slash, slash." His inputs were translated perfectly by the warrior. The monster staggered for a moment and began to spit something towards the warrior. "Dodge, dodge." Wait, didn't Angel have a gun? He pressed the projectile button and.

"COOOOOOOOOOOODE GUNNER!" The warrior hit a switch on the sword, and the blade split in half and folded, revealing a gun barrel. The crossguard rotated and moved at an angle revealing a trigger. The warrior pulled the trigger and a flurry of bullets hit the monster, staggering back again.

Hit the center button. Chris did so, and that annoying voice yelled "HACK! AND! SLASH! INPUT FINISH!" Show me the ultimate combo.

"You got it!" Chris grinned as he hit the Angel Limit button and began hitting the attack buttons, alternating between slashes and shooting. Once he had input the Ascend slash command, he had the warrior jump and continue to attack the Employer in midair. Finally, he held down the slash button and the warrior slammed his sword into the monster and sent the beast careening down to the ground, where it finally erupted in a glorious display of fire and blood.

The warrior landed not long after that, resting the Code Saber on his back. "Game Over," he muttered to no one, looking over his shoulder at the heap of dead Employer behind him. As he walked and approached the awe-struck Chris, the latter shook his head and looked up at his hero.

"Who are you?" Chris said as the warrior before him kneeled to his eye level. He had a strange helmet, nothing like he'd ever seen in his shows from Japan. The top half was a monitor, though nothing was visible through it at the moment. The crest on his forehead was the well-known I/O symbol. His earpieces each looked like half of a controller, though he couldn't tell what kind. His bodysut also had patterns that reminded him of half a controller. Again, which kind eluded him. It was the left side, a control stick on the left shoulder and a D-Pad design on his chest.

I am the one who will fight the Employers, the warrior said, continuing to speak through Chris's thoughts. "But who are the Employers?"

The Employers seek to use their evil energy, Work, to enslave humanity to do their bidding. "Okay…. You seem a little crazy right now. But you never answered my question. Who are you?"

"I am…" The warrior stood, placed a hand on his chest, rotated it and pulled the Driver (or at least part of it) off. Another bright light as the warrior's suit faded away, revealing….

Kamen Rider Gamer

"Have you ever heard the phrase 'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy?'" The boy sitting on the teacher's desk finally spoke. He and Chris were the only ones in the room. He wore boot-cut jeans, holes torn at the knees, a pair of worn sneakers, a green t-shirt portraying a silhouette of some video game character, and a zipped up black hoodie.

"Yeah, I have," Chris responded, rolling back and forth in his wheelchair. "What about it, Aden?" Chris had known Aden for a few years now. He moved to New York with his family about 5 years ago, but he came back to live with his uncle last week. "Besides, you never told me what you were doing back here in Chicago."

"Well," Aden said, ignoring the extra inquiry. "Work and Play are actually kind of the new Yin and Yang. Work represents Yin, adulthood and responsibility. It means putting on a suit and tie and paying your dues to society.

"Play represents Yang, childhood and creativity," Aden continued. "It means being true to who you are and what you want out of life, no matter what that is."

"I don't think that's not how Yinyang works," Chris interjected. "I'm sure someone somewhere's offended."

"You're probably right," Aden conceded. "It's a simple explanation, but it gets the job done. Anyway, Work and Play are in balance, much like Yin and Yang. One cannot exist without the other. Basically, if everyone decided to quit their jobs and do nothing but play all day, we'd go into chaos.

"Conversely, if everyone gave up on their hobbies and started working all the time," Aden turned his head to the warmth of the setting sun. "We'd all die without living."

"Okay," Chris nodded. "But you said Work was an evil force, right? If there needs to be a balance, why did you describe Work so negatively?"

"Because of the Employers." Aden stated. "The Employers drain the Play out of you. They replace it with Work. And you become this soulless thing, this…. monster." Aden pounded his fist on the desk, tears slowly dripping from his face. "They want every Human to succumb to Work and serve them for all eternity."

"That's awful!" Chris snapped. "Where did they come from? Who are they?"

"We… I don't know." Aden sniffled, rubbing the tears out of his eyes. "I haven't been able to figure it out yet. All I know is that the Employers are evil and they must be stopped."

"You never did answer my question," Chris said. "Why are you back in Chicago?"

"Because of the one thing I do know," Aden rose and cracked his back. "The Employers plan to take Chicago and spread their influence across the nation. They must be stopped."

"Well, then, where's your family?"

"Gone. They took 'em."

"I'm… I'm sorry." Chris sighed, relaxing into his chair. "By the way, how are you fighting the way you do? Aren't you-"

"Blind?" Aden looked up. For the first time in the week he's been home, Chris finally got to see his friend without sunglasses on. His eyes were pure white. There was no retina, no iris. Just plain white eyeballs. The area around his eyes were scarred, like he was wearing a domino mask made entirely of pain. "Yeah. I can't see like you can, but I can see. You remember Daredevil?" Chris nodded. "It's like that, but I can only see Employers."

"Who… Did this to you?"

"This," Aden sighed. "This is what happens when the Employers suck the Play out of you. The only reason why I didn't become one of them…"

He removed his hoodie and took off his shirt, revealing more scarred tissue and a piece of technology embedded into his chest. At the center was a glowing crystal ball with a triangle floating inside of it. "Is the Core of Gamer," he finally finished. "It keeps my Play levels from dropping too low."

Chris looked at the Core carefully. It was floating inside the mechanism, which extended in an X pattern over his shoulders and met in another X in the back. "This is what turns you into a Kamen Rider?"

"What's a Kamen Rider?" Aden asked. "What are you talking about?"

"They're heroes," Chris said. "They transform and save the world from villains every week."

"Oh, another one of those shows from Japan you keep watching?" Aden teased. "It's been 5 years, I figured you would have started up on something else."

"Whatever, man." It felt good to laugh with Aden like this. It felt like it was before the accident. "Well, from now on, you're Kamen Rider Gamer."

"You can't just decide that on your own."

"And I'm gonna be your partner."

"You can't just decide that on your own, either!"

"Sorry, but… What was it again? 'It's time to play my game?!' That's totally a Kamen Rider catchphrase!"

"No, it isn't!"

The boys laughed some more and got caught up as the sun finally set.