KAMEN RIDER VICTORY

(Contains original story line, characters, setting, and Kamen Riders. I do not own the concept of Kamen Rider)

CHAPTER TWO: CHOICE

Takao ran up the stairs to the train stop. There were a number of people waiting there for the train. If he had his bike chain still on his bike then he would probably be half way to Solaris by now and not be waiting for the train. Takao held onto his bag's strap with his left hand and carried the briefcase with the other while pushing his way through people to get near the front. He finally got close enough to where he could see the train tracks through the crowd and decided to wait there. In that time, he took time to think about what was going on. A woman from Solaris, being chased by a monster, gave him a case to protect. Then he used the device in the case to defeat the monster. Now he plans on returning it.

The train came a few minutes later. It was a solar powered train that also had electric wires attached to it for a back up energy source. The train carried about twelve cars not including the head car. The train stopped at the platform and opened the doors of the seventh train car. Riders got off on one side while new passengers got on the other. Among the new passengers was Takao. Takao sat in the seat closest to the exit so he could get off as soon as he could. Takao took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. Soon after, a woman sat down next to him. He turned to look at her when he noticed her. She was a young woman with long blue hair and purple eyes. She seemed to be older than Takao, but also the same height, perhaps a little shorter. Takao tried to make it seem like he wasn't looking at her, but he seemed to always want to look at her. She quickly noticed Takao and looked to him. Takao quickly turned away. "Something wrong?"

Takao looked back to her when he noticed she was talking to him. "Um…n-not really…" he responded trying to keep eye contact and trying not to examine the rest of her body.

"You seem to be under stress." she said.

Takao nodded. "Yeah…a little." he turned away to look out the window of the moving vehicle. He suddenly felt someone tapping him on the shoulder. He turned around to see the same woman still looking at him. This was getting creepy for him. "Yeah?"

"Do you need help?"

Takao began to sweat. "N-no, I'm fine…"

"What's your name?"

"…Takao."

She nodded. "I am Jun."

Takao nodded. "Jun…I see."

The train stopped at platform 32. Takao stood up and grabbed his bag. "This is my stop." He said in haste. "I'll see you later." He quickly jumped off as soon as the doors opened up while watching Jun watch him from the window and ran down the stairs of the train stop. Takao looked around from his locating and spotted the street that the headquarters for Solaris was located on.

At that time…

Prof. Masters lay in the hospital bed for hours while recovering from surgery. Surrounding her in chairs was Shin and Masanori. Along with them was another boy around their age. He wore glasses and had long, neat blue hair and wore a purple sweater with brown fabric pants. This boy was not happy to hear the news. "You lost the V project?"

"Hey, chill Yoshihiro." said Shin. "I'm sure it's safe and we'll find it soon."

Masters didn't have her glasses on while communicating to the men around her. "It's safe." she assured them.

"And you're sure about that?" asked Masanori.

She nodded. Shin leaned forward. "So, how soon do you think you can get out of the hospital?"

"The doctor said I should not be allowed to sit up for about two weeks." She responded.

"Do you know the identification of the person you gave it to?" asked Yoshihiro.

"I remember what he looks like." she started. "And if I recall, he wore a school uniform."

"You gave it to a kid?" asked Yoshihiro.

"He was an older student." he assured him. "I'm not sure what school he went too."

"Do you think he activated it?" asked Shin.

"The possibility that he did is high considering he was being chased by a Precursor."

Yoshihiro put his face in his palm as if saying that the situation could not get any worse. "This was not professional work"

"I'm sorry, I was losing consciousness at the time from blood loss." She said. She heard the door hand turn and face the door the same time Shin did. The door swung open and a woman entered from the other side. "Jun?" She looked to Masanori. "You brought Jun here?"

"We thought that if we left her back at the office that she would feel…lonely." He said.

"Feel lonely?" she asked in a tone of disbelief.

Jun walked over and took a seat on Masters' bed next to her legs and placed her hand on her right leg. "How are you, Prof. Masters?"

"I'm okay, thank you." she said. Masters looked over at Shin and he told her, in sign language: She's getting better.

Elsewhere…

Takao entered the doors to the waiting room. It was mostly white with four pillars on each side of the red rug down the center. Against each wall, sitting under a wall mounted light were couches for the guests. Takao did not come to wait; instead, he went straight to the crescent shaped reception desk at the end near the elevators and other doors to separate wings of the building. The female receptionist had short black hair with a head set on. She wore a white blouse and black skirt. On her blouse was her name tag that read: Jacqueline. Takao approached the desk. "Excuse me."

She looked up from the computer. "Welcome to Solaris, do you have an appointment?"

"Um…no," he started. He stopped talking for a moment so he could remember the name on the name tag from the woman he met before. "I'm here to see a woman that works here named…Masters."

Jacqueline examined him. "Are you a relative?"

"No, I have something of hers."

She looked back at the computer and went to work at the touch screen keyboard "One moment please." Takao stood and watched as her fingers flew across the screen, touching the letters. A hologram screen showed up and she looked at it. Her expression suddenly showed concern. "I'm sorry, I have just been informed that Prof. Masters was just hospitalized early this afternoon." She looked back up to Takao. "Would you like to leave the item with me?"

"N-no, I'll just come back another time." He said. "Thank you." Takao turned around and started walking for the door with the case.

"Have a nice day, sir."

Takao walked back out into the sun and looked around concerned that someone might be following him. Seeing no one around, he felt it was safe for him to head home. He crossed the street and started walking down towards the train station. This time, he felt he should take the underground train to keep out of sight. As he passed the coffee shop, he looked down at the case while thinking about the Rider belt inside. While he was doing that, someone came out of the coffee shop and they almost bumped into each other. "Whoa, sorry."

The person he stopped himself from knocking over backed up. "Jeez, almost spilled my coffee." Both of them stopped and looked at one another. The person Takao nearly bumped into was Colt. He had a cup in one hand and his baseball bag over his opposite shoulder. "Hey, you're that new guy." He said pointing to him with a goofy smile.

"Yeah, I'm Takao."

Colt nodded. "Right." He took a sip of his coffee. "So what cha' doin' out here?"

"Um…" he said shifting his eyes. "Just shopping…you?"

Colt swallowed more coffee. "Came to get my coffee." He said. "Do you try out for sports at all?"

"Well…no, not really."

"You should try out for baseball." he said. "You look like a good hitter."

"Uh, right." He said. "Look, I got to get going."

"Me too." Colt started walking in the direction Takao came from. "Talk later, new guy." He waved. "See ya, Taco!"

Takao knew he said his name wrong, but he didn't bother to correct him. He just gave a weak wave and started heading for the train station again. The stairs to the underground station were about two blocks from the coffee shop. He quickly ran down the stairs to the well lit and well cleaned station. Like the above station, it was filled with people waiting for the train. The train came shortly after and opened its doors to the people. They all rushed in like a wave with Takao mixed in with them. He quickly took a seat at the soonest accessible one and put the brief case on his lap. The last person to get on the train was a homeless man wearing an old coat and a large cloth wrapped over him. He took a seat far from Takao. The train started up and picked up speed quickly. Takao looked around the train. All of the people were silent and calm. None of them looked suspicious. He looked across from him and noticed a little Asian girl with her mother. The sight of it made him want to be with his parents that are never around. This girl notice Takao looking at him. Takao looked away not to seem like a creep, but curiosity made him look back to her. She was still looking at him. She smiled and waved to him. He nervously waved back.

Both he and the girl put their hands down and looked away. Takao looked down back at the case. He wanted to see the belt again. He flipped the clips and opened it up to see the black belt buckle with the golden details and golden V in the center still turned to the right. He quickly closed it so no one would see. He looked around to check for people looking at him. Everyone seemed to be minding their own business. Then he noticed the homeless man. He was staring at Takao with his eyes wide open. Takao didn't know how to react to this. "Rider!" the man said. He stood up and started walking towards Takao. "You're a Rider!" Takao looked around to see that he caught the attention of some of the passengers. "All Riders must die!" His body bursted into blue flames and all of his clothes turned into ash. At the sight of the fire, many of the passengers panicked and got out of their seats to run to a different car. The fires receded to reveal that the man had turned out to be a Precursor. The precursor looked to all of the running humans and noticed the little girl. He reached out his arm and it transformed into a tentacle. The tentacle wrapped around the girl and yanked her from her mother's grasp.

"No!" Takao jumped for her, but fell hard onto the metal floor of the moving train. He quickly got to his feet and saw the girl in the arms of the precursor. "Let her go, monster!"

"Come and get her." He turned about and headed for the back passenger car.

Takao grunted and looked back at his seat where the case sat. He ran over and threw the top open. He removed the contents and attached them to his body again. The girl's mother was still on her knees crying uncontrollably. Takao kneeled down next to her and put his hands on her shoulders. "I'll get her back, but you have to go with the others." She looked up to him with fear. "Do you understand me? You have to go!" She nodded and got to her feet with Takao's assistance. As soon as she left through the door, he was the only one in the car. It was safe for him to activate the belt. He pulled open the card case and pulled the card with the picture of the armor on it. He raised it above his head. "Henshin!" He threw it into the belt buckle and pushed it closed. The V on the front once again flipped right side up.

Kamen Rider: Victory!

The golden V appeared on Takao's chest and a smaller one on his forehead again. The same process from before occurred and recreated the armor onto his body. The transformation was complete and the eyes lit up. Now that he was fully transformed, he dashed for the back car. He went through the first door into a car that was completely empty. He ran through that one and forced open the door on the other end to find himself in the back car. At the other end was the precursor with the girl next to him in his right arm. "Let her go!"

"Give me the belt buckle!"

"I can't do that!"

"Then the girl will die!"

"She has nothing to do with this!" he yelled. "I'm the one you want! Fight me and let her go!"

"I'll release this child if you defeat me!" He threw the girl to the back and extended his left arm into a tentacle at Takao. Takao put up his arms to block the attack. The collision threw him across the train car and onto the ground. "Humans have no right to possess the power you have!"

Takao got to his feet and ran at him. The precursor unleashed another tentacle at him, this time the end was sharpened to a point. Takao leaped over it with a forward flip and landed on his feet in front of the precursor. He started letting out numerous punches to his chest and sent one to his face. The armored creature stumbled back into the train seats. Then he extended his hand and grasped hold of Takao's neck and thrusted his head through a window at the same time. The precursor got to his feet and approached Takao while trying to push his head against the tunnel walls. "All Riders must be brought to justice."

Takao pulled his leg up and kicked him in the chest to break free. He coughed from the lack of air and resumed the fight. He ran over to the precursor and punched him hard in the face with his right, then his left. He swung his leg up to kick him in the head, but the precursor dodged it and swung his leg around and kicked Takao in the chest. While Takao stumbled back, he extended his arm again at point blank range with a needled tip. The hit tossed Takao into the door on the other end and he fell to his hands and feet panting. "Dammit…" He now knew he could not win with skill alone, he needed the power of the armor.

He reached into the card holder and pulled the top 3 card on the deck. He looked all of them. Each of them had 'attack' printed on their left edge with different weapons pictured. One of them was the Blade attack he used before, but it would be hard to get close to use it. Another had a gun on it and the word Blast under the picture and the other had a V shape object on it and the word Boomerang under it. "Good!" He stood up and opened the belt buckle and threw in the Blast card before closing it.

Attack Ride: Blast!

The golden ornament on his arm started glowing and transformed into a hand gun in his hand. He lifted his arm and quickly took aim at the monster. He fired off four shots in a single second at the monster and sparks flew from his chest upon impact. The precursor grunted and grasped his chest in pain. Takao took this chance to use the other card. He opened the buckle and the Blast card shot out into Takao's hand. Then he threw in the Boomerang card and closed it.

Attack Ride: Boomerang!

The ornament that was previously a gun transformed into a large golden V in Takao's hand. Takao brought it behind his hand ant threw it at the precursor. The glowing V spun with great speed and sliced off the precursor's arm with ease before flying back into Takao's hand. The precursor fell to his knees while grasping his shoulder as Takao approached him. "It's time to bring you to justice. I'm not going to let you kill that girl!"

"I never…intended on harming that child..."

"What?!" said Takao in shock.

The precursor turned and looked to the girl sitting in the corner while holding on to a metal pole. "That child is an innocent soul who has committed no crime, to kill her is to go against the ways of the Precursors…" Takao lowered his weapon as the Precursor struggled to get to his feet. "It's the Riders who need to punished." He said. "Even you!" The precursor extended his right arm at Takao. Takao ran up the wall to his left and jumped off of it into a back flip as the tentacle passed under him. In mid leap, Takao threw the boomerang at the precursor. The bright weapon passed right through the precursor's abdominal area. He called out in pain before bursting into blue flames and completely vanishing from existence.

Takao took in a deep breath and let it out now that the battle was over. He pulled open the belt and the armor vanished again. All of the cards in the buckle flew out into his hand and he placed them back into the container. He looked down at his waist at the belt and pulled his shirt over it to conceal it. He looked back to the girl and kneeled down in front of her with his hand out. "Come on, I'll take you back to your mother." She looked at him like she didn't understand. "Anata no oka-san." She smiled and took him by the hand. He stood up with her and walked back to the car wit her mother in it.

The train finally came to a stop at the next station and opened the doors. Those who witnessed the precursor ran off the train in fear that another might be on it. Takao left the train at a steady pace and quickly took a seat on the bench. He took deep breaths to regain his energy from the fight. Shortly after, the girl from before approached him alone. He looked up at her and sat up straight. "Nan desu ka?" She reached out her hand, which had something in it. Takao put his hand out and she dropped a bracelet made of blue prayer beads.

"Arigato gozaimasu" she said to him.

"Do itashimashite." He responded. She smiled at him again and ran off into the crowd of people.

Later that night…

Takao finally came home to an empty house and took off his shoes. The first thing he did was head up stairs to his room. His room was the room on the end of the hall on the second story. Once inside he closed the door and sat down on his bed. Takao sighed and pulled up his shirt to view the belt. He pressed a button on it and the strap flew back into the belt. He pulled it away from him and looked at it. "Incredible…" He took a good look at it and noticed more buttons on it. He saw a red one on it that had what looked like a wheel imprinted on it. He pressed it and nothing happened. Hew pressed it again a few times with the same results. "Probably needs to be recharged or something." He tossed it and the card container onto his night stand and laid back on his bed. Takao took a moment to remember the events that took place and remembered the prayer beads. He looked at them with pleasure. The fact that he is rewarded for what he did felt great. "Alright, I'll become a Rider…Kamen Rider Victory…"

???...

"Sir, the V bike started itself up and left the hanger."

"Is that so?"

"Yes, sir. Also, the belt operated again for the second time on radar."

"I see…have Team 1 to look for it…make sure they don't have it…"

"Yes, sir."

TO BE CONTINUED…