Disclaimer: I don't own Kamen Rider.
Chapter 2
Origin of the Rider
A cleanup team arrived a short time later to pick up the remains of the frog monster. Tom watched from afar as they worked.
The guy in the suit stood in front of him, watching the whole thing as well. The two who had fought the frog earlier were each standing behind and to the side of him; clearly they were there to make sure Tom didn't try to sneak away. He didn't plan on leaving just yet though. He felt curious about what had just happened.
Tom clutched the pendent in his hand. The device he had used to transform currently resided in the suit's jacket pocket.
The fragile brown husk-like remains were carefully scraped up and placed in the back of a white unmarked van, Tom briefly wondered why they hadn't picked the more traditional and mysterious black.
"Shall we?" the suit gestured towards another van. Tom felt relieved that he wouldn't be traveling in the van that held Froggy's remains.
Scarface slide the door on the van's side open and Tom stepped in, flanked closely by the other two. Scarface walked around and climbed into the driver's seat.
Tom examined the wall of screens and various other surveillance devices on the van's wall. The suit gestured to one of the chairs sitting in front of the wall of screens. Tom sat down. The man rotated the chair next to it around, so he could sit down and face Tom. The woman climbed into the passenger seat.
"So you obviously have some questions…" the suit said.
"You think so?" Tom asked, leaning back in his chair. He was turning over the pendent in his hand. "First off, who are you people?"
"I am Mark Phillips," the suit said. "Director of the Secret Prevent of Offbeat Killings."
"SPOOK?" Tom frowned.
"Yep, that's us," the woman said, twisting around in her seat to look at them. "I'm Mary Faust."
"And him?" Tom asked glancing at their driver.
"His name is Dennis Chang," Mary said when Chang rudely neglected to answer.
"And would you happen to already know my name?" Tom asked, eyeing Phillips suspiciously.
Phillips smiled. It seemed to be a warm, friendly smile, the kind that might soften up most people. Unfortunately it had no such affect on Tom. "You're a smart kid, aren't you?"
"I'm hardly a kid," Tom said, before holding up the blue pendent in his hand. "Why is my necklace the activation component for your little secret weapon?"
Phillips inhaled, preparing to start his explanation. Tom leaned against the surveillance equipment, preparing to distrust every other word the man said.
"The fact is we've known of the monsters like the one you fought for a long time," Phillips said. "As such we began taking precautions. One of those precautions was genetic experimentation. Several of my soldiers and scientists volunteered to have their children undergo a process which altered and fused the still developing embryos' DNA with that of an animal's. Your parents were some of my best researchers."
"So how come I don't have any memories of being stuck in some lab test tube?" Tom asked, crossing his arms.
"Since the children were to be an important part of our resistance against the creatures, we hid them naturally…" Phillips sighed. "But somehow the creatures found out about the project and did everything they could to destroy it. We thought that most of them had been wiped out and it was a surprise to find you."
Tom frowned. "So you're saying that somehow I ended up in an orphanage after the monsters attacked?"
Phillips shrugged. "I have no more idea of how it happened then you do."
"And you hope that I'll help you with your giant animal problem?" Tom asked. "Sorry, you might be able to control my genes, but you can't control me."
"You're a lifeguard; doesn't that mean you have some obligation to preserve human lives?" Mary asked.
"Only if it involves water," Tom replied. "It says nothing about monsters and shady government agencies. So if you don't mind, stop the car and let me off."
Chang glanced back at Phillips who nodded slowly. Chang scowled, making his scarred face look truly fierce and then he turned and pulled over.
"If you reconsider-."
"I won't," Tom interrupted, pushing the van door open. He glanced around at the deserted highway. The hairs on the back of his neck started to stand up and he glanced around. He almost wanted to step back into the van and ask them to take him back to someplace more populated.
"Is something wrong?" Phillips asked, leaning out of the van door.
Tom glanced up at the sky then shoved Phillips back into van, before leaping forward. Sparkling yellow powder hit the ground, exploding on contact. It also crackled against the side of the van.
Mary and Chang flung the front doors of the van open and jumped out, each drawing one of the fancy pistols and aiming skyward. The giant white moth monster swooped towards them. They both opened fire and the moth stopped its dive, quickly fluttering its green wings to regain altitude. The two kept firing, but the moth was far enough away to weave around their shots. It thrust its arms forward, sparkling powder floating from its wings at the two humans below. The distance worked in their favor this time as they both rolled out of the way.
Tom leapt to his feet and saw Phillips climbing out of the van, withdrawing the belt buckle from his jacket pocket.
"I told you I'm not working for you," Tom snapped, glaring at the buckle.
"The moth might know about you already, it may have witnessed your fight with the frog and if it did, it will inform the other members of its kind about you," Phillips said, holding out the buckle.
"What if it already has?" Tom asked.
"In that case, then I would suggest you keep the Biobuckle, since more of the creatures will come after you," Phillips replied.
Tom scowled and snatched the buckle out of Phillips' grasp.
Chang and Mary rolled to the side as another barrage of powder hit the ground. The moth dived towards them and wrapped one hand around each of their necks, before flying forwards, carrying the two humans with it. Tom growled and charged after it.
The moth flew through the trees and slammed both of the humans into the trunk of a particularly large one. He released their necks as the two battered fighters fell to the ground.
"How on earth did you guys manage to stay alive this long?" Tom asked as he leapt over a log and faced off against the moth monster. Tom raised the buckle and then dropped it, vines reached out of his waist and snatched the buckle out of midair, pulling it against his waist and forming into belt straps.
"Henshin!" Tom placed his pendent into the belt's panel and then pushed the panel in. The belt's eye opened and flashed with blue light.
"Transform," the belt announced, a white mist settling over Tom's form before a line of blue light moved down it, replacing his clothes with the blue, black, and white suit. The light reached his feet and pulsed through the ground, the moth hovered into the air to avoid the shockwave.
Tom stared at the moth and stretched out his fingers, before clenching them into fists. He shouted a karate yell before leaping into the air; swing his foot up towards the moth. The creature grabbed his foot as it slammed into its side and then flapped its wings, flying higher.
"Hey! Where are we going?!" Tom shouted as the trees flew past him and occasionally one of their branches slammed into his face. The suit did a wonderful job protecting him, but by the time they had left the forest, he was severely bruised.
He felt the presence of water before he heard the waves and he looked up to see the beach come into view. The moth hovered out over the water and then dropped him. He fell headfirst towards the water below. He straightened his limbs, the impact would be worse if he hit the water with his limbs spread.
Taking a deep breath, he slammed through the wall of water below. He paddled his arms, his legs morphing into the fishtail just like they had when he hit the water of the pool. He swam towards the surface. He could make out the moth floating down to the water to see if it had really killed him. Tom briefly questioned the intelligence of the creature.
He kicked his tail and shot out of the water. The moth only had enough time to screech in surprise before Tom grabbed it and pulled it into the water. He wrapped one arm around the moth's arms and used the other to repeatedly punch it in the head, while his tail drove them farther down. The moth failed and broke his hold, quickly trying to paddle back towards the surface. Apparently it didn't like the water.
Tom swam after it, but it kicked him in the head when he got too close, though it might have been an accident, since the moth's full attention was focused on reaching the surface. When it reached the surface it took flight again, the dip into the water hadn't affected its powers of levitation at all.
The moth turned and flew back towards land. Tom kicked his tail and swam after it, leaping out of the waves for a breath of fresh air, though the suit somehow allowed him to hold his breath a lot longer than natural. The moth shot a cloud of powder back at him as he made his next leap out of the water, Tom managed to twist around in the air and avoid the thicker part of the cloud, but he still felt the powder explode against his skin-like suit. He ungracefully fell back into the water, but immediately continued after the moth. He dived a little deeper as the moth launched a spray of the powder against the water, causing a pillar of water to shoot into the air. He headed back towards the surface and leapt out, crossing his arms into front of his head before he slammed into the moth. The force of the impact sent the moth flying the rest of the way onto the beach.
Tom's tail morphed back into his feet as he reached the shallows and he walked unto the beach. The moth picked itself out of the sand and screeched in rage. It whirled around and charged at him. Tom batted its punch to the side and delivered a crushing blow to its gut. The moth keeled over, clutching its stomach in pain and Tom slammed his elbow down on its back, knocking it the rest of the way to the ground.
It rolled back to its feet and leapt into the air, fluttering its wings.
"No, you don't," Tom leapt after the creature and slammed his foot into its back, knocking it out of the sky and into the shallow water. "Say 'good-bye', Mothra."
Tom jumped, flipping towards the moth with both of his feet together. His legs morphed into a fishtail with a flash of light and he slapped the tail against the moth's head repeatedly, before he back flipped away, landing on his reappearing feet.
Mothra screeched, raising a hand into the air, before green flames exploded out of it and its husk collapsed into the water.
Tom raised his head and turned around as he heard the sound of grass rustling. Mary appeared on the hill in front of him. She glanced at him and then the husk of the moth, which was being washed away by the waves. Tom turned and walked away, deciding that for the moment he would keep the Biobuckle.