Kamen Rider Voyager

by maxpower02

The Demon King People, the Maojins. For 657 years they have lived among us, leaving behind a path of carnage and destruction at their wake. One man has dedicated his life to stop them with the power of Voyager, traveling around the world and fighting the Maojins wherever he go. Join him in his journey as he seeks to stop the Maojins from unsealing and reviving their leader!

3. Burning My Soul! Unleash the Inferno

A/N: Hello everyone! maxpower02 here with the third chapter of Kamen Rider Voyager! In this chapter, we will have a first look of Voyager's first alternate form as well as witnessing the first fight between Voyager and Star, a major villain in this story whose role in Voyager is somewhat similar to Chase from Kamen Rider Drive. The rivalry between these two will be an interesting one, so be sure to keep yourself glued to Voyager's adventures! But before we start, I would like to give my favorite reviewer of this story xXRocketShark216Xx and also rpgfan100 a huge shout out. Thank you for your reviews on chapter 2, guys!

Now, without further ado, let's roll on with the story!

Disclaimer: I don't own Kamen Rider, TOEI does.

xxx

Previously, on Kamen Rider Voyager

After his fight against the Eagle Maojin, Kamen Rider Voyager was captured by the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department. He was then taken to the HCMCPD Headquarters, where he was interrogated by Officers Pham Minh Tuan (Leo) and Dao Ngoc Phuong Anh (Hako). There Voyager confided to them his human identity, Krishna, as well as his equipment and what he's known so far about the Maojins. Much to Krishna's relief, Leo and Hako decided against kicking Krishna out of the city, since they share the same concern that the police force alone wouldn't be enough to stop the Maojins and they felt that Voyager could be the help that they needed the most.

Disaster then struck when Hako got possessed by the Ace of Swords, the Komodo Maojin. The possessed Hako rampaged through the city and would have burnt it down if it's not for Voyager's intervention. Thanks to Steffi's encouraging words, Voyager managed to unleash his Kaminari Blade, breaking through the Komodo Maojin's solid defenses before defeating the powerful kaijin, putting an end to his rampage and at the same time saving Hako from his clutches. Now with both the HCMCPD and Voyager on the same page, the people of HCMC has gotten themselves a new beacon of hope in the ongoing Maojin crisis.

But a new, powerful enemy awaits in the horizon, as the next Maojin tribe prepares its own brand of rampage…

xxx

Saigon Port

It was early Saturday morning in Ho Chi Minh City, two days since the Komodo Maojin's rampage. Peace has seemingly returned to Vietnam's largest city, with District 4 being slowly rebuilt after being damaged by two consecutive Maojin attacks, while at the rest of the city things has gone back to normalcy. This particular Saturday was no exception – the Sun has only started to appear from the horizon when workers had already gotten themselves busy at Saigon Port, the world's 24th busiest container port in the world. Even though most of the shipping activities of the city has been relocated to the newer and larger Thi Vai Port in the nearby Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, a number of river-bound container ships still used the port as their docking station until today. The lack of large sea-bound containers in Saigon Port has allowed the city to relocate its main fish market into the area in order to fill in the vacancy, meaning that Saigon's fishermen had called Saigon Port their office for the past few weeks.

Standing on the pier overlooking the newly opened fish market was a young woman, aged around 21. She has a rather petite build, with fair white skin and shoulder-length dark auburn hair with a slight bang over her forehead. The young woman was wearing a light blue lace top with dark blue Thai pants and light blue slippers, with a pair of glasses on her face completing her look. As she looked on the fishermen boats going back and forth in front of the fish market across the pier where she's standing, a spiteful "tch" escaped her mouth.

"Those useless humans," the young woman muttered as she saw a fisherman boat unloading buckets after buckets of fishes onto the market's loading dock, "How dare they treat our kind like that! Being scooped out of their homes and thrown out like that…stripped of their dignity, robbed of their families, and being depraved of their right to live…oh I wish I could crush those pathetic humans right here right now!"

As the young woman clenched her fists in anger, two more people came into the pier, both of them men. The first man, aged around 25, was tall and slightly muscular in build, with lightly tanned skin and short, slick black hair styled into tiny spikes. He wore a navy blue T-shirt with shark spray-painted in white on it, blue denim jeans, and dark blue sneakers, a necklace with a shark's tooth on it hanging from his neck. The man's face indicated that he's from an Indonesian descent, just like Krishna.

The second man was around 22 years of age, with dark skin and a face that indicates Caribbean descent. His long, shoulder-length hair are styled into dreadlocks, while his greased blue and white attire suggested that he's a crew member on a cruise ship of some sorts, particularly the men manning the ship's engines.

"Morning, Pi," the first man greeted, "The Sun's barely out and I see you're already being pissed off at something."

"Oh, hi there, Bayu," Pi, the young woman, replied with a greeting of her own, "It's nothing. It's just those humans. I can't stand the sight of them killing our own kind like that. They literally took our kind away from their river homes and threw them onto land. God knows why they would do such things to our kind…I heard that those humans actually eat them!"

Bayu, the young man, shuddered slightly at Pi's last few words. Quickly he placed his hands onto Pi's shoulders, calming down the fuming young woman, "There, there. We'll wipe away the humans for what they did to our kind. This planet belongs to the creatures of the deep, and we're here to reclaim that from these…land-dwellers. Speaking of which, I've found a nice new body for one of our Water Tribesmen."

Upon hearing that, the sourness in Pi's face was wiped away and replaced with a beaming smile from the young woman's lips, "Ooooh? Who is it? I'm curious."

Bayu took a few steps back, allowing the dark-skinned man to step forward, bowing respectfully in front of Pi.

"His name is Damian Morgan," Bayu said, "Born and bred in Jamaica. He was a crew member at this fancy cruise ship that's currently docked in Vung Tau and our Six of Cups managed to fit himself quite nicely inside this guy. The other crewmen of that ship would probably file a missing person's report when they realize that we've taken their comrade, but what the heck. They'll be dead anyway once we're done with them."

"And you've picked him up all the way to Vung Tau," Pi smirked, remembering how Vung Tau was quite far away from Ho Chi Minh City, "That's what I admire about you, Bayu. You always put out your best efforts for our Tribesmen."

"And I will repay those efforts by making you proud," Damian said politely, still bowing in front of Pi, "I, Six of Cups, solemnly swear that from this second on will obey the commands of Lady Empress and Lord Emperor."

Suddenly Bayu grabbed Damian by the neck, shocking the Jamaican as he was lifted off the ground.

"Now you listen here," Bayu said, his demeanor still calm despite holding Damian in a powerful neck lift, "Number one rule of the Water Tribe. Never, and I mean never refer to the Water Arcanas with their real names."

"Remember our names, Six of Cups," Pi added, "My name is Le Vu Quynh Mai and you can call me Pi. And that man who had picked you up all the way to Vung Tau, his name is Bayu Pradika. Make sure that you remember that, or I'll ask Bayu here to throw you all the way back to Vung Tau."

"Y…yes Lady Pi," Damian stammered as he struggled to breathe.

"Good," Pi said, gesturing Bayu to release his hold on Damian's neck.

Damian let out a huge sigh of relief as Bayu released him, adjusting his breath as he rubbed his sore neck.

"And now, for your assignment," Bayu said as he walked towards Pi's side, "We've been observing the humans near our natural habitat here and we are utterly disgusted at how they're treating our kind."

"Behind us is a symbol of our kind's pain and suffering," Pi added, obviously referring to the fish market across the pier, "What we want you to do is to disrupt the humans' ritual of capturing our brethren…something that the humans call…fishing."

"Your task is simple," Bayu said again, "Find any vessel capturing and carrying our kind and attack them. If they have our kind captured, set them free. Let the humans know that they shouldn't be too greedy with what nature has provided them. Give them a warning…that if the humans dare to lay a hand on our kind, our kind will retaliate back…a hundred times more."

"Got it," Damian said, once again bowing respectfully in front of Bayu and Pi.

"Now go out there and liberate our kind!" Bayu commanded.

Damian nodded as a bluish glow began to overtake his body, before a cascade of water bursts out from the young man's entire figure. Both water and glow died out seconds afterwards, revealing a seahorse-themed humanoid in Damian's place. Colored pale yellow with patches of red on the thighs, armpits, and crotch, the humanoid has webbed fins growing from his forearms and shins, with three rows of webbed spikes on the humanoid's back and a tall, webbed crest on the top of the humanoid's head. The humanoid's fingers were long, wet, and slimy, almost resembling fins, with the same thing could be said for the humanoid's feet. A small yet curved tail was seen on the humanoid's backside, while the usual golden belt with a blue loincloth hanging out of it was seen on the humanoid's waist. The humanoid's face resembled that of a seahorse's, with a pair of large white eyes with black pupils and a long, tube-like nose, and completing the humanoid's bizarre look was a bulge on his abdomen, with a small, slit-like opening on it.

The Seahorse Maojin gave Bayu and Pi one last glance as he went towards the edge of the pier, nodding at the two.

"Wish me luck," the Seahorse Maojin said, before he took a straight dive into the waters below.

"Good luck!" Pi waved the Seahorse Maojin goodbye as he disappeared into the river, while Bayu nodded silently, knowing that he could count on the Seahorse Maojin in doing his assignment.

Unknown to the two, another young man has been watching Bayu and Pi from a distance, this individual being 23 years of age and of a Caucasian descent, with pale white skin and long blonde hair styled into dreadlocks not unlike Damian's. The man's attire consisted of a dusty brown hemp shirt with dark brown sweat pants and a pair of dark brown sandals, with the look being completed with a multicolored bandana on the man's head. With a pair of binoculars in his hands, the man watched on as Bayu and Pi left the pier, going into a blue Ford Fiesta parked near the pier's entrance. As the Fiesta left the Saigon Port area, the man slowly emerged out from his hiding place, a smirk on his face.

"So, instead of destroying everything for the awakening process, the Water Tribe has decided to protect this planet's aquatic lifeforms," the man said to no-one in particular as he left Saigon Port, "I do like how they execute their plans carefully instead of going straight into the rampage, that way the humans wouldn't know what hit them…but still, we need to keep an eye on the Water Tribe…"

xxx

KAMEN RIDER VOYAGER

Episode 3: Burning My Soul! Unleash the Inferno

OP: Eiyuu no Uta – THE ALFEE

xxx

Ho Chi Minh City Police Department Headquarters, District 1

The next day

Leo let out a rather bored sigh as he leaned himself against his seat, taking a sip out of his cup of coffee as he does so. It has been twenty minutes since Leo and a few other officers of the HCMCPD had been summoned to the headquarters' meeting room for an important, closed-door meeting with the city's police commissioner, but the person in question hasn't showed up yet. Thy was sitting next to Leo, playing with phone to pass the time.

"Don't worry," Thy said as Leo looked at her, "He'll show up soon."

Five minutes later Police Lieutenant General Nguyen Ho Trung Thanh, the HCMCPD's commissioner, finally entered the room, prompting everyone in attendance to stand up and salute the 35-year old man. The youngest person to hold the position of police commissioner in the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department, Thanh was a medium-sized man with tan brown skin, short, rather spiky black hair, and a pair of thick-framed glasses on his face. Wearing the usual olive green uniform of the HCMCPD but with a number of golden medals adorning his uniform that signify his achievements that made him the police commissioner that he is today, Thanh lets out an air of wisdom and leadership that earns the admiration of his fellow policemen.

"Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the force," Thanh greeted once everyone had sat down on their seats, "First of all I apologize for my tardiness…I had a meeting with the representatives of the Hanoi, Hai Phong, Da Nang, and Nha Trang police departments. But what I've discussed in that meeting will be related to what we'll be discussing in this one."

Thanh gestured for a nearby policewoman to turn on the room's projector before asking the policemen nearest to the room's windows to close the windows' blinds, allowing images of the destruction caused by the Eagle Maojin across Ho Chi Minh City to display itself on a screen set up next to Thanh.

"Four days ago a series of particularly powerful tornadoes struck Ho Chi Minh City, leaving 76 people dead and hundreds being injured, most of them because the tornadoes struck the city in such a sudden manner, no one was prepared to anticipate it," Thanh said, "Initially we thought that it's a meteorological problem gone haywire thanks to the changes in our planet's climate lately, but thankfully we were alerted to the true culprit behind the tornadoes."

The screen then displayed a shot of the Eagle Maojin.

"It's an Unrecorded Lifeform," Thanh continued, "Now, as you all know, our city has been facing these mysterious creatures for the past few months, but every effort that we've made to stop these creatures has been futile. Lives are being lost, properties are being destroyed, and even though we managed to defeat some of these creatures with great effort, they always came back. Until three days ago."

The screen then displayed images of Kamen Rider Voyager fighting the Eagle Maojin.

"As we intercepted this particular Unrecorded Lifeform at District 4, this mysterious masked warrior, calling himself Voyager, engaged this Unrecorded Lifeform and easily destroys it with a single kick," Thanh said, "Of course, at first we couldn't trust this guy. I mean, the guy has the ability to destroy an Unrecorded Lifeform, but at that time we didn't know where his true allegiance lies. If his intentions were malicious, surely that'll add more to our already mounting problems."

The screen then displayed CCTV shots of Krishna confronting the possessed Hako, shots from Thy's dashboard camera depicting the possessed Hako's rampage in District 4, and shots of Kamen Rider Voyager taking on the Komodo Maojin.

"Three days ago one of our own fell victim to these Unrecorded Lifeforms," Thanh explained again, "Her body was taken over by an Unrecorded Lifeform here in this very building and it forced her to go on a rampage at District 4, still recovering from the eagle-like Unrecorded Lifeform's attack. And that's when this Voyager fellow shows his true allegiances to us. It managed to defeat the Komodo dragon-themed Unrecorded Lifeform possessing our fellow officer's body and save her from its evil clutches, proving his worth as an ally of justice. And that wouldn't have happen too if it's not for the bravery of two of this city's finest police officers right here in this room, who fearlessly engaged the Unrecorded Lifeform when Voyager's down, thus buying Voyager some time to recover himself."

Both Leo and Thy blushed, knowing that the commissioner was talking about them.

"The city salutes your bravery and we would like to thank you for your selflessness for this city and one of our own," Thanh said, "Let's give it out for Officers Pham Minh Tuan and Mai Thy Dinh Vu!"

The whole room erupted into applauses as both Leo and Thy stood up, huge smiles on their faces as they accepted the praises and applauses with full gratitude.

However one person didn't join in the celebrations. Letting out an inaudible sigh as she folded her arms in her seat, Police Lieutenant Tran Khanh Linh kept silent as the celebrations went on for about a minute or so. The 29-year old officer was your typical no-nonsense police officer, graduating the academy as the top of her class and having worked alongside the elite in her hometown of Hanoi before being transferred to Ho Chi Minh City around three years ago. Her medium-sized, slim figure belittles her combat experience, meaning that despite her non-threatening looks, she's definitely someone you wouldn't mess with. Her youthful face was stuck in a permanent stern expression, probably from all the stress that she had to endure while on the job and her habit of doing everything seriously. Despite that she's quite a beauty – her pale white complexion made her one of the most attractive police officers in the department, but her stern, serious and no-nonsense attitude made her literally hard to get. Like Thanh and the other officers in the room, she's wearing her olive green uniforms, but this time with red accents that signify her rank, while her shoulder-length straight black hair is tied into a side bun.

"Pardon me, Commissioner," Khanh Linh raised her right arm suddenly, interrupting the other police officers who are still congratulating Leo and Thy, "But are you sure that this Voyager person is really trustworthy? What if he's just trying to gain our support and betray us in the future?"

Khanh Linh's question was more than enough to bring the entire meeting room into a sudden, awkward, silence. Slowly the police officers in the room returned to their respective seats, leaving Leo and Thy still standing in their places. Even Thanh was taken aback by the police lieutenant's question, his lips were sealed in silence.

"That's right," Khanh Linh continued, "We can't just judge one's character based on only a couple of encounters. We need to keep a close eye on this Voyager person, to make sure that he is what the city really needs and not a…how can I put it this way…ah yes, a Trojan horse sent to lull us with its sweet promises before showing its true, sinister nature, striking us at our must vulnerable moment."

"Voyager is not like that!"

Thy gasped in shock as she saw Leo slamming his hands against the desk in front of him, his face red in anger. Leo was known throughout the force as a very patient, level-headed police officer who rarely flew into tempers, so it was surprising to see Leo being angry, especially in front of a superior officer like Khanh Linh. Immediately the young policewoman sat down on her seat, anxiously biting her lower lip as she prepared herself for the inevitable debate.

"Pardon my rudeness, Lieutenant, but I have to beg to differ," Leo spoke again, this time trying his best to maintain his temper, "You can say that because you don't know much about Voyager, but I have the right to disagree because I actually saw him fight twice with my own eyes. I also got the opportunity to talk to him face-to-face. Voyager is an earnest warrior, an honest man who fights for the sake of the innocent, he's truly sincere in what he's doing and his conviction is to protect everyone from the Unrecorded Lifeforms' threat. He saved my partner, he saved District 4 twice. Tell me, Lieutenant, tell me what should he do to gain your trust?"

Khanh Linh smiled cynically, "You said that I don't know much about Voyager? Officer Leo, the transcript of your interrogation with him clearly stated that he's been turning these Unrecorded Lifeforms into cards that he uses to access his own powers. Why should we trust someone who uses the powers of those damned Unrecorded Lifeforms with the safety of our city? What if one day Voyager decided to use those Unrecorded Lifeforms in his arsenal to launch an attack against us once he has eliminated his 'competition?' Have you ever thought of that, Officer?"

"And your point is?"

"Voyager is still an unknown force to us," Khanh Linh said, "But one thing's for sure, we can't trust someone who uses the powers of Unrecorded Lifeforms to fight his fellow Unrecorded Lifeforms."

Leo shot an angry glare at Khanh Linh.

"That's right," Khanh Linh lets out another cynical smile, "As long as he's still using those Unrecorded Lifeform cards to fight, Voyager's just another Unrecorded Lifeform in my books. Besides, he didn't have any records in any civilian databases that we have, so I'm doubting that this Voyager person is even human. And we shouldn't rely ourselves on an Unrecorded Lifeform vigilante to solve our problems…we're the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department for God's sake. The city's people entrusts us with their safety and we must repay them. That means taking down those Unrecorded Lifeforms by ourselves."

"And look where it got us," Leo argued, "We've been fighting these things for a while and we didn't exactly made any progress."

"We've defeated a few Unrecorded Lifeforms before Voyager came," Khanh Linh said.

"And they kept coming back," Leo argued again, "And that's because we didn't even bother to check their remains for anything that could revive them in the future."

"For the record, we didn't know anything about the Unrecorded Lifeforms' so-called regenerative abilities until your interrogation with Voyager the other day," Khanh Linh said.

Leo sighed, "That's true, but that's not my point, Lieutenant. My point is, with Voyager on our side, we could solve the Unrecorded Lifeform problem plaguing our city much sooner. It is true that we've defeated some of them prior to Voyager's arrival, but we've been struggling against them. We're talking about the loss of lives here, Lieutenant. Many of our men had died in vain fighting these Unrecorded Lifeforms before Voyager came. Our weaponry could only annoy these creatures and the only way that we could defeat these Unrecorded Lifeforms before Voyager's arrival was by literally blowing up small portions of our city's districts and dishing out a majority of our manpower. The people want results, Lieutenant. And so far before Voyager came we couldn't give them such results. The Unrecorded Lifeforms are running around Ho Chi Minh City scot free and we couldn't afford to lose more men or damage more of this city's property but without the end product that all of us in this city desire. Because of that it's always nice to have someone who's experienced enough in fighting them as well as having the power to dispatch them quickly to assist us in our cause. I arrest my case."

Leo sat down on his seat, sighing underneath his breath after that grueling debate. Khanh Linh, on the other hand, rolled her eyes in displeasure as she sat down as well, grumbling to herself as she does so. Never before had Khanh Linh encounter someone as stubborn as Leo and the young officer had really tested her nerves.

Leo, on the other hand, had prepared himself for such a debate. When he pitched his intention of having the HCMCPD working together with Voyager to Thanh, he was met with both delight and skepticism from the commissioner.

xxx

HCMCPD Commissioner's Office, yesterday afternoon

"What you're proposing is quite crazy, young man," Thanh said after Leo had told him everything about Kamen Rider Voyager and his proposal to have the police department working alongside the Rider, "But you have your point."

A brief smile escaped Leo's lips as Thanh adjusted his position on his seat.

"We don't have the adequate amount of firepower to take on these Unrecorded Lifeforms," Thanh said again, "But this Voyager fellow…he has shown himself to be quite capable of taking on these creatures and if what he said during his interrogation was correct, he knows a thing or two about them. We could use that to our advantage. Besides, we owe him one for saving Officer Phuong's life."

"So is it a yes?" Leo asked.

"Personally, yes." Thanh nodded as he sorted through a number of files that had been delivered to his desk earlier, before turning his attention back towards Leo, "But I need to discuss this with the others, since I need their cooperation too in your proposal. Let me warn you first, however…there are some high-ranking officers in our department who are…how can you say this…still having doubts on whether we should trust Voyager or not. When I pitch your idea to the department tomorrow, be prepared to have a debate with one such officer."

xxx

"And boy, Commissioner Thanh was right," Leo thought to himself as he saw Khanh Linh sipping her coffee uneasily in front of him.

"Alright," Thanh cleared his throat, "Now with that debate over with, let's move on to our main part of today's agenda. Voyager's presence and his ability to defeat Unrecorded Lifeforms with ease means that we must step up our game against them. Can't let him have all the fun, can we?"

Both Leo and Thy chuckled upon hearing Thanh's slight banter, while Khanh Linh retained her serious expression. From the moment Thanh told everyone that the HCMCPD must step up their game against the Unrecorded Lifeforms, her thoughts were focused on one and only one thing. The ultimate defeat of the Unrecorded Lifeforms.

"So, with that in mind and thanks to the inputs of a few of our officers, today I'm declaring the formation of a special taskforce designated specifically to tackle the Unrecorded Lifeforms head on," Thanh said, as the screen next to him displayed a row of three letters, being written in futuristic font and painted in majestic chrome green with red and yellow highlighting, "The MCU, the Maojin Counter Unit, with Maojin apparently being the Unrecorded Lifeforms' real name according to Voyager, thanks to the info that we've got from him during his interrogation. The MCU will be given full control in handling the city's Unrecorded Lifeform-related problems and they are extremely encouraged to handle any Unrecorded Lifeform that they'll find with extreme prejudice. This is a designated taskforce specifically created to handle these dangerous creatures, meaning that it's a special, elite unit with our best men and women manning the team. The members of this unit will be the combined members of the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department, Hanoi Police Department, Hai Phong Police Department, Da Nang Police Department, and Nha Trang Police Department's Counter-Terrorism Unit, so their experience in handling extremely dangerous situations are second-to-none. We'll backup Voyager, but we'll do our best in taking on those Unrecorded Lifeforms by ourselves."

"Excellent," Khanh Linh smiled. Even though she's rather reluctant in working together with Voyager, she's still delighted that the HCMCPD has decided to take the Unrecorded Lifeforms problem seriously. Besides, who wouldn't want to work together with some of the best officers of the country?

"But how about our armaments, Sir?" asked a police officer, "Our weapons are totally ineffective against those Unrecorded Lifeforms!"

"Leave that to me."

Everyone in attendance turned around to see Minh standing at the back of the meeting room, clad in a formal-looking black and white blazer with matching skirt while her body was leaning against the room's wall.

"Good Lord, Minh!" Thanh gasped, "How long have you been inside this room? I haven't instructed you to enter yet!"

"Five minutes ago," Minh replied as she got off her leaning stance, "Got bored outside and decided to take a peek at this little meeting of yours. And I have to say, that was quite the debate."

Immediately without being instructed to do so, Minh went over towards the front of the room, positioning herself next to Thanh.

"Right, did someone asked about armaments?" Minh asked, before continuing even though the police officers in front of her haven't responded to her question, "First of all, I apologize for my slight…er…rudeness. My name is Le Thao Minh, I'm the chairwoman of Lotus Industries. I'm here today to talk about the new partnership between Lotus Industries and the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department."

"Lotus Industries has been known as one of Southeast Asia's finest weapons manufacturers," Thanh added, "So much so that Miss Minh here got an official recognition by…Mr. Tony Stark, isn't it?"

Minh nodded, "Yeah, Lotus Industries and Stark Industries had worked together on a project once to aid UN soldiers in their peace mission in Somalia and I was honored to work alongside a great man like him. But onto the more important stuff…since normal police weapons couldn't leave a scratch on these Unrecorded Lifeforms…"

The screen next to Minh and Thanh displayed images of hi-tech and futuristic-looking pistols, rifles, machine guns, and even a bazooka and a grenade launcher, much to the awe and amazement of the police officers in attendance.

"I've decided to supply the Maojin Counter Unit with the best, state-of-the-art, military grade weapons crafted by Lotus Industries. These bad boys didn't use normal bullets as their ammunition…the bullets for the pistols, rifles, and machineguns were all custom-made by Lotus Industries, tailored to be able to penetrate the toughest of armor. My men at Lotus Industries has tested these weapons and a single bullet from one of these was capable of penetrating a thick block of titanium. The pistols are called the X105-Strike, the rifles are called X303-Aegis, while the machineguns are called X207-Blitz."

The police officers in attendance could only let out gasps of amazements at Minh's presentation of the weapons, with Leo letting out a slight, amused nod.

"And don't get me started with the bazookas and grenade launchers," Minh continued, "Called the X131-Calamity and the X103-Buster respectively, the Calamity has the firepower of an anti-tank gun, same goes for the Buster. And incredibly, all of these incredible power has been scaled down for handheld usage, meaning that MCU members equipped with these two will become literal human tank destroyers, but targeting Unrecorded Lifeforms instead of tanks, obviously…and that's just plain awesome. Last but not least…"

The screen next to Minh and Thanh displayed an image of a small, foldable metallic knife, its blade glowing red.

"The X102-Duel. The finest combat knife ever produced by Lotus Industries, this baby's laser blade could cut through the toughest of metal," Minh said again, smiling proudly as she does so, "And all of these will be the standard issue weapons for the MCU. I hope that these new weapons would help the MCU in protecting the city from those wretched Unrecorded Lifeforms. And in order to study these creatures even further so that we could come up with a way to defeat them, I'm bringing in a close friend of my family's to help us. Professor, if you may…"

As if on cue, the meeting room's door opened to allow a 38-year old man to step inside the room. Wearing a white Polo shirt and black trousers, the man has tanned skin, an average build, and short black hair with a few gray lines on the temples. Taking out a pair of thin-framed glasses from his shirt pocket, the man wore them on his face as he stood next to Minh.

Immediately Khanh Linh recognized the man in front of her, and a look of slight disgust appeared on her face.

"Oh no, not him again!" Khanh Linh cursed in her thoughts.

"Everyone, this is Professor Pham Van Truoc from the University of Hanoi," Minh introduced the man beside her, "He's going to help us in analyzing these Unrecorded Lifeforms and develop the perfect strategy to defeat them."

"Pleasure to meet you all," Professor Truoc bowed respectfully in front of the officers, "It is an honor to work alongside this talented group of men and women."

As the police officers in attendance applauded Professor Truoc, welcoming him to the team, Khanh Linh lets out a slight, inaudible, yet disgusted sigh. She and Professor Truoc had a long history with each other, having worked together in several cases during Khanh Linh's tenure with the Hanoi PD. Professor Truoc was one of Vietnam's brightest minds, but as a fellow genius, Khanh Linh often found herself at odds with him, developing a rivalry of wits if one might say. So the fact that fate has brought Khanh Linh and Professor Truoc together again…has not pleased the former at all.

"These new weapons looked cool and all," Thanh said as he looked at the screen, "But they seemed expensive. I wonder how much of the taxpayers' money are being spent on these…"

"No need to worry," Minh shook her head, patting the commissioner's shoulder reassuringly at the same time, "All of them are free of charge. Heck, you don't need to worry about the funding for the MCU as well…Lotus Industries would be more than happy to fund every single activity that this team does. Call it…a little token of appreciation towards the city where I was born and raised. I can guarantee, there will be zero Vietnamese Dong from the taxpayers' money that will be spent on this team."

"Rich and generous, that's a rare combination nowadays," Thanh smiled, "No wonder a lot of people like you and your company, Minh."

"My late father always taught me to return the society's kindness towards you and that has been my life's philosophy ever since," Minh said, a smile on her face as well.

"Right. Now with the weapons all sorted out, it's time to go into the more…technical stuff," Thanh told everyone in attendance, "As we all know, every good team needs a good leader. And because of that, I'm going to appoint someone who is worthy enough to become the leader of the Maojin Counter Unit."

Everyone in the room went silent in anticipation, each of them hoping that they would be appointed as the leader of the new elite taskforce.

"Officer Pham Minh Tuan, your bravery and dedication in our fight against the Unrecorded Lifeforms must be appreciated highly. And because of that, you'll be promoted into Lieutenant and serve as the leader of the Maojin Counter Unit."

Leo's jaws dropped in disbelief as everyone applauded him, while Thy gave him a congratulatory hug. Even Khanh Linh joined in the applause, even though one could easily see that it's out of formality instead of sincerity.

"And helping Lieutenant Tuan with his new position are Lieutenant Tran Khanh Linh and Lieutenant Mai Thy Dinh Vu," Thanh added, "Congratulations on your promotion, Thy. You and Tuan deserved it."

"I'll take it," Khanh Linh nodded, accepting her position while thinking to herself, "At least I could have the MCU dig up a few things about Voyager while I at it."

"It'll be our honor," Leo said on behalf of himself and Thy, "But I have one other request before I could fully accept my position."

"What is it?" Thanh asked.

"I want Officer Dao Ngoc Phuong Anh in the MCU after she got out of the hospital, promote her into the same position as Lieutenants Khanh Linh and Thy if you could. Officer Phuong has been my partner both in and out of this building, and I don't want her to be left out of this. Besides, she might know a thing or two about the Unrecorded Lifeforms."

xxx

Cho Ray Hospital

After her ordeal with the Komodo Maojin, Hako was admitted to the Cho Ray Hospital, the city's biggest hospital. Surprisingly, despite everything that she's been through, Hako escaped with minimal injuries to her body, but her psychological state was another story. Unstable and traumatized due to the Komodo Maojin's possession on her body, Hako was placed on bed rest for a few days on the hospital, long enough for her mind to recover.

That afternoon Hako was enjoying her lunch on her bed, while at the same time watching today's afternoon news on her room's television. Leo had texted her that the MCU's meeting had gone smooth and Commissioner Thanh would announced the unit's formation to the public in about half an hour, so Hako kept her TV glued to the news channel so that she could see the announcement in its full glory. Leo had also texted her about him being appointed as the leader of the MCU and his attempt to have Hako as part of his team, but the young policewoman haven't replied it yet since she's still too busy with her lunch and watching the news.

A knock was heard on her room's door, prompting Hako to quickly place her bowl of soup on her bedside table.

"Come in!" Hako said.

The door opened itself, allowing Krishna to step inside Hako's room. A bouquet of flowers was present on the young man's right hand.

"Yo," Krishna greeted as he closed the door behind him, "How are you doing?"

"Hi," Hako greeted back, a slight smile on her face, "I'm doing quite well, to be honest. The doctors said that I would be discharged tomorrow if not the day after tomorrow."

Krishna nodded, "Good to hear that." He then turned his attention towards a small chair located next to Hako's bed, "Mind if I sit here?"

"Sure."

Krishna immediately sat on the chair, positioning himself to face Hako, before giving the young woman on her bed the bouquet of flowers.

"For me?" Hako blushed as she accepted the flowers from Krishna.

"Yeah," Krishna nodded, "You deserved it, after all. To be honest I've never seen someone as strong as you are…usually victims of Maojin possessions took much longer to recover from the effects of their possession, as they can be quite taxing both physically and mentally. But here you are, looking all fresh and happy again after only a few days after your ordeal. I salute you, Hako."

"Thanks," Hako said as she looked at the bouquet of flowers in her hands, admiring each and every flower in it, "I just thought about the people who I cherish the most in my life when that thing possessed me. Their spiritual encouragement really helped me through my recovery process. Besides…a lizard monster can't keep Dao Ngoc Phuong Anh out of action for too long. The force needs me and I'll do my best to patch myself up and return to my duty of protecting this city."

"Such dedication," Krishna smiled as he slowly stood up, "Well then, I better be going. Take some rest, will ya? I hope you'll get well soon."

"Sure thing!" Hako nodded as she places the bouquet on her bedside table, "Er…Krishna?"

"Yes?" Krishna turned around, having almost exited the room the moment Hako called him.

"Thanks for saving me. I'm really grateful for what you've done the other day and I owe you a lot…Kamen Rider Voyager."

Hearing this, a warm smile escaped Krishna's lips, "Don't mention it. Just doing my job, that's all."

xxx

"Whatcha readin', Karin?"

Having left Hako's room, Krishna immediately went towards the hospital's waiting room, where he saw Karin sitting there with a manga in her hand.

"One Punch Man," Karin replied as she continued reading, her thoughts already absorbed inside the manga in front of her, "A really amusing and interesting story. Can you believe the guy in this manga actually kill monsters with just one punch?"

"Really?" Krishna raised his eyebrows, the young man immediately sitting next to Karin with interest in his face, "How's that possible?"

"Training, of course," Karin replied, "Do you believe the guy actually did 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and 10 kilometers of running every single day?"

"And you think I could do the same?" Krishna chuckled, "I don't know…maybe if I did what the guy in your manga did, I could kill Maojins with one punch too."

"And lose all of your hair?" Karin snickered as she closes her manga, "As if. I prefer the current you anyway. Can't have you being too overpowered, can we?"

"Guess so," Krishna shrugged as he stood up, "Let's go, Karin. We need to patrol the city for any Maojin sightings."

Pocketing her manga, Karin quickly stood up and followed Krishna out of the waiting room, skipping excitedly along the way.

xxx

Ho Chi Minh City Police Department Headquarters

Outside the HCMCPD HQ building, journalists from all over Ho Chi Minh City began to flock, all of them anxiously waiting for Commissioner Thanh to deliver his press conference. There have been rumors that the police commissioner was going to announce the formation of a special taskforce that will investigate a series of mysterious attacks that has been plaguing the city of late. If it's true, it's a sign that the HCMCPD are finally taking these mysterious attacks seriously, especially after the quick-fire attacks on District 4 a few days ago.

Among the journalists crowding in front of the HCMCPD HQ building are Steffi and Vy, the former typing furiously on her laptop while the latter was busy setting up her camera. Unlike the other journalists who had to stand in front of the impromptu podium that the police officers had set up in front of the headquarters building, both Steffi and Vy got the luxury of having seats provided to them by the police, since their Supernatural Investigation Group (SIG) had been appointed as the official civilian liaisons organization of the newly formed MCU. It was Leo's idea to include Steffi's group in the newly formed taskforce during his meeting with Commissioner Thanh yesterday and both Steffi and the commissioner agreed to the plan wholeheartedly.

"I can't believe your brother managed to convince the commissioner to have us help out with the police's newest task force," Vy said, fastening the bolts on her camera's tripod as she spoke, "I mean look at us! Last week we're just an underground blog who reported cryptid sightings all over the city. And now look at us! We're actually legitimately helping out the city's police force here! It's about time that our group's investigations are being taken seriously!"

And with that, Vy, being unable to contain her excitement, started pumping her fists rapidly before jumping up and down like a kindergartener who had just received candy, attracting attention from the other journalists around her and Steffi.

"Settle down," Steffi smirked, shaking her head at her friend jumping excitedly in front of her, "I know that you're all hyped out because of this…heck, even I'm hyped out too! But control yourself, Vy, we're in a formal press conference here!"

Vy stopped jumping as she saw the eyes of the many journalists in the area are all staring weirdly at her. A blush and an embarrassed chuckle later, Vy slowly sat next to Steffi, uneasiness written all over her face.

"Whoops," Vy said sheepishly as she slowly regained her composure, "The camera's all ready to record by the way."

"Nice," Steffi nodded, giving Vy a thumbs up, "The wireless link between your camera and my laptop has been established and it is now connected to my Ustream account. I've also embedded the stream on our website, so that our regular visitors could see the press conference too."

"Oh boy," Vy grinned, "The days of us being mocked online will finally come to a close! Finally the people of Ho Chi Minh City will take the cryptids issue seriously! By the way, have you seen Kim? She's supposed to be here from five minutes ago."

"She's running a bit late," Steffi replied, "She's still at the market shopping for ingredients to cook our dinner later."

xxx

District 5

Kim lets out a frustrated sigh as she slammed her face against her car's steering wheel.

It has been a long morning for the bleached-haired young woman. What had started off as an innocent shopping trip to a market near Steffi's apartment has turned into a wild goose chase around Ho Chi Minh City for the one vital ingredient that Kim needed for the spicy fish soup that she's going to cook for the SIG members later tonight.

The actual fish itself.

While Kim found most of her ingredients in the first market, she was shocked to find out that the market's fish supply hasn't been restocked over the early hours of the day. Thinking that it was a mere coincidence, Kim went to another market located a few blocks away, only to find out that the market also hasn't received their daily fish supply earlier this morning. This prompts Kim to travel around the city in search of her valuable ingredient, only to come away with nothing.

An Dong Market in the city's District 5 was the seventh market that Kim has visited and like the 6 previous ones, they also haven't received their daily fish supply, much to the disappointment of Kim and several housewives who also went shopping in that market.

"What the Hell is going on?" Kim's mind questioned as she lets out a frustrated sigh, "Don't tell me the city's having a fish shortage…"

Kim then glanced at the digital clock on her car's speedometer, which displayed the numbers "13:12." Immediately Kim's eyes went wide after seeing those numbers.

"Shit!" Kim cursed as she starts up her car's engine, "I'm late for the press conference at the city's police headquarters! Steffi's so gonna kill me for this!"

xxx

As Kim was driving on a small road that runs next to the Ben Nghe Canal (a small canal running off the larger Saigon River that splits through Districts 1, 4, 5, and 8) on her way to the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department Headquarters, suddenly without warning a figure crawled out from the canal and into the street, lying right on the path of Kim's car. Clearly startled by the figure's sudden presence, Kim applied her brakes hastily, her car's tires screeching loudly as it ground itself into a complete halt a mere inches away from the lying figure.

"Fuck!" Kim cursed underneath her breath as she got out of her car, "Why the fuck would someone lie on the middle of the road like that?!"

But soon her rage turned into concern once she heard whimpers of pain coming out from the figure. Immediately Kim rushed to the figure's side, who turned out to be a middle-aged man garbed in a fisherman's attire, all torn up with bleeding cuts and bruises all over his body.

"Oh my God!" Kim gasped as she picked up the man and brought him to the roadside, "What happened?"

"Monster…" the man groaned, clearly in sheer pain, "There's a monster attacking our boat…"

"Monster?!" Kim gasped, "Could it be…a cryptid?"

"My friends…" the man continued, his voice growing weaker and weaker, "Save…them…"

"Don't worry," Kim said reassuringly, taking out her cellphone, "I'll get some help."

After calling for an ambulance to pick the injured man up and leaving him somewhere safe and secure, Kim slowly made her way towards the canal, picking up a few stones along the way. As she approaches the canal bank, a horrifying sight soon greeted Kim's eyes.

Several small fishing boats were scattered all over the canal, most of them having being turned upside-down with bodies lying around them. Others were sinking, with huge holes being torn into the boats' bodies. Fishing nets were torn all over the place, and while fishes who were caught just a few minutes ago were lucky to escape into the waters, their deceased brethren were left floating on the canal surface, some of them partially eaten by predators.

Kim had to hold the urge to throw her entire stomach contents up after seeing everything in front of her.

"Help! Help!"

Turning towards the source of the cries, Kim saw a fishing boat docked nearby, with its three occupants cowering in fear on board, each of them bearing injuries. And towering over the trio on the boat was the Seahorse Maojin, a fishing net filled with the boat's catch on his right hand.

"A cryptid!" Kim muttered as she hid herself behind a nearby bush, clutching the stones that she had picked up.

xxx

A few meters down the same road, Krishna was riding on his motorcycle alone when he sensed something distressing in the air, forcing him to suddenly pull over.

"What is it?" Karin asked from her partner's jacket pocket.

"A Maojin's nearby," Krishna said, a determined look underneath his helmet as he floors his motorcycle, "Let's go!"

xxx

"Your abuse of our brothers and sisters have come to an end," the Seahorse Maojin said, taunting the fishermen trio with the net on his hand, "Today they shall be liberated and you…you shall be punished for your crimes against them!"

And with that the Seahorse Maojin tossed the net overboard, releasing all the fishes in it into the canal waters.

"Nooo!" cried one of the fishermen, "We have spent hours catching those! How are we supposed to feed our families if we didn't get anything?"

And the answer that the fisherman got was a swift grab on the face by the Seahorse Maojin and as his friends watched on in fear, the Seahorse Maojin dunked the fisherman's head into the canal water, practically waterboarding the poor chap.

"How are our friends supposed to feed their children if you keep taking them away from their homes?" the Seahorse Maojin asked back as the fisherman in his grasp struggled to breathe, "That's right. Now suffer the asphyxiation that our kind has felt whenever you took them away from their habitat!"

Before the fisherman could drown, however, a stone was thrown onto the Seahorse Maojin's face, attracting the kaijin's attention as he forcefully dragged the fisherman's head out of the water.

"Who did that?!" growled the Seahorse Maojin, rubbing the spot where the stone had hit him, "Show yourself!"

Kim slowly emerged out from her hiding spot, her fingers tinkering with the remaining stones in her possession.

"I did that," Kim said bluntly, her eyes staring directly at the Seahorse Maojin's, "You got a problem with that?"

"How dare you interrupt my mission, you puny human?!" the Seahorse Maojin grumbled, trying his best to maintain his emotions and focus, "Stay out of this you wench! You have no right to interfere!"

"Tell that to the men whose livelihood you just threw away," Kim replied, pointing at the fishermen cowering behind the Seahorse Maojin, "Well don't get me wrong, I don't know these men personally…but I don't like it if someone decides to go out and interfere with their jobs that they do so dedicatedly for their wives and children. Be it a human…or a freak of nature like you. So yeah, of course, it's my right to interfere!"

Kim threw another stone at the Seahorse Maojin's face, enraging the kaijin even further.

"That's it!" the Seahorse Maojin yelled, jumping off the boat as bluish energy began to gather on the tip of his nose, "Take this!"

Kim was forced to jump out of the way as the Seahorse Maojin fired a thin blue energy beam from his nose, striking the ground near Kim's feet and igniting them on fire.

"Shit!" Kim cursed as she regained her footing, her eyes going wide at the now burning patch of land in front of her, "That was a close one!"

"Don't you care about the environment?" the Seahorse Maojin asked as he charged through the flames, swiping a punch at Kim that the young woman was unable to avoid, "Don't you care about the feelings of these fishes whom these men had taken away from their homes, from their families?!"

"I do care!" Kim grunted in pain as she was punched twice on the face by the Seahorse Maojin, resulting in a couple of bruises on her cheeks, "But these men…as far as I know from their boats and methods that they're traditional fishermen! Fishermen who still respected their nature and wished to sustain both themselves and their environment in a sustainable manner! There's no way they would intend to ruin the environment the way that they think you would…don't lump these honorable men and those modern fishermen who are actually ruining nature together!"

"You bitch!" the Seahorse Maojin cursed, grabbing Kim by her throat and hoisting her up into the air, "To us Water Tribe Maojins…all fishermen are just the same. There's no such thing as fishermen who respected nature!"

"Let her go."

Both Kim and the Seahorse Maojin turned around to see Krishna already standing nearby, the ScanDriver in the man's right hand.

"Man, you Maojins are getting lower and lower each passing day, huh? Who taught you to hit girls like that? Your mom?" Krishna asked as he approached the two, placing the ScanDriver on his waist as he does so.

READY!

"You…" the Seahorse Maojin growled as he tossed Kim aside, "You're Voyager, aren't you?"

"No, I'm freaking Tom Cruise," Krishna replied sarcastically as he took out his Thunder Kabuto card, "Henshin!"

ACE HENSHIN! THUNDER KABUTO!

Transforming into Kamen Rider Voyager, Krishna turned his attention towards the slightly bruised Kim, who was still trying to catch her breath after being subjected to the Seahorse Maojin's choke-hold.

"You okay?" Voyager asked.

Kim nodded.

Voyager then gestured for the three fishermen on the boat to evacuate themselves, which they did almost immediately.

"Call your friends for help," Voyager told Kim, "I'll handle our friend the Six of Cups here."

Kim nodded again, before coming to the fishermen's aid, taking out her cellphone in the process.

"My name is Voyager!" Voyager exclaimed, pointing at himself before pointing at the Seahorse Maojin, "I shine light in the darkness and I vanquish evil!"

As Voyager and the Seahorse Maojin clashed, unknown to the two combatants, Tran had made herself known in the vicinity, her eyes glowing orange with hatred as she glared at Voyager.

"Time for you to die, Voyager," Tran muttered in Star's voice, as her entire form was overtaken by a black and orange glow, transforming into Star seconds afterwards.

xxx

Ho Chi Minh City Police Department Headquarters

The press conference at the HCMCPD HQ had gone smoothly without any hitches and despite Kim's absence, the live stream on the SIG's website had gone without any problems, mainly thanks to Steffi being able to cover for Kim's role and Vy's expertise with technological stuff. With Commissioner Thanh and the newly promoted Leo already finished delivering their respective speeches in introducing the newly formed MCU, the event now shifts into a formal lunch, with journalists and the other invited guests being treated to an exquisite banquet just outside the HCMCPD HQ building.

As the guests were enjoying themselves at the banquet, Minh decided to slip away quietly to the HCMCPD HQ building's lobby, bringing with her a glass of champagne. Sitting on the lobby's stairs, Minh slowly sips her drink, reflecting back on how well the day had went, but at the same time, there's one thing that's still bothering her mind.

xxx

Three days ago

"Voyager…he's the one who had murdered your father," Tran told Minh after the latter had placed her on the Bentley's backseat.

A still surprised Minh was shocked even further by this revelation, "Voyager? You mean the one who had fought alongside my father all these years?"

Tran nodded weakly, "Yes…from what I've remembered, your father's murderer was an armored warrior themed after a beetle with powers over electricity, and Voyager fits the description perfectly."

Minh was left speechless by what Tran had just told her. She could still vividly remember her father's last moments from two years ago, when he and Tran were ambushed on their way to a Lotus Industries-affiliated hospital to check the progression of Tran's cancer. Minh's father used the last of his strength to carry Tran back home, before dying afterwards in front of Minh's eyes. After Tran had recovered from the psychological trauma that came with the ambush, she told Minh about what her father's attacker had looked like.

And Kamen Rider Voyager…being a beetle-themed armored warrior with electrical powers, he's the number one suspect of the murder of Minh's father.

"Voyager? Why? Why did you do this to us?" Minh's thoughts went wild as Thao drove her and Tran back to the LIT, "We trusted you…I've trusted you…and this is how you re-pay our trust?! By taking away the life of the man I've cherished the most? He was your partner too, Voyager! As much as I wanted to refuse to believe this…but I'm sorry Voyager…if our paths cross, I'll be the one who will avenge my father…by taking away your life!"

xxx

"Tran's feeling well enough to track down Voyager for me," Minh thought to herself as she kept on sipping her champagne, "I hope that she'll give me some information about him…so that I could set up the day when everything's going to be settled, once and for all!"

As Minh finished up her champagne, she noticed a familiar feminine figure clad in her police uniform walking up the lobby stairs, a huge stack of files in the figure's hands. It was clear that the figure was struggling with her files as she stepped up the stairs, trying her best not to drop them. Seeing that the figure needed help, Minh decided to lend her a hand.

"Hey," Minh called out as she approached the figure, "Need some help with those?"

"Sure," the figure replied, placing her files on the floor, "Carry half of these to my office."

Minh nodded, picking up half of the files while the figure picked up the other half. As Minh adjusted the files in her hands, she couldn't help to notice that the figure that she's helping right now looked familiar to her.

And then it hit her.

"Thy?" Minh smiled as she looked at the figure next to her, "Is that you?"

Thy replied with a smile of her own.

xxx

Thy's office was not that far from the lobby and after a brief three minute walk, Minh and Thy had arrived to their destination.

"It's been a while, ne," Minh said after she and Thy had placed the files on the latter's desk, "I actually saw you in the meeting this morning, but I couldn't bear to disturb you. Anyway, congratulations on your promotion!"

Thy giggled, "Thanks Minh. It's a huge honor for me to work for the department's newest elite taskforce. I'll do my best to make the people of this city proud!"

As Thy arranged the files on her desk, Minh leaned herself against a nearby sofa facing the office's window. The window provided the office with an overlooking view of the busy streets of Ho Chi Minh City, packed with motorcycles just like every other day.

"We haven't talked much since we've graduated from middle school," Thy said after she had finished arranging the files, sitting next to Minh as they admired the bustling scenery in front of them, "I'm sorry for your loss, by the way."

"It's okay," Minh smiled sadly, "I mean it has been two years since my father's death. He wouldn't want me to wallow in sadness for too long, you know. Inheriting his job as the number one person of Lotus Industries has been a huge honor for me…and along with my new responsibilities, I got really, really busy, hence why I haven't contacted you in a while. You know me, I'm always doing things to keep myself busy so that I won't get bored in life and I rarely go out with anyone unless it's business-related."

Thy lets out a slight chuckle upon hearing that, "Classic Minh, you haven't changed a bit since our middle school days."

"And how about you, Thy? How's life lately?" Minh asked, "Other than your promotion that is."

"I enrolled into the police academy after I've graduated high school," Thy replied, "My dream has always been to protect the smiles of everyone in this city, especially after what happened to me and my family ten years ago."

"Ah, the Kira incident," Minh recalled, reminiscing the serial killer that had terrorized Ho Chi Minh City in 2013, "I heard they haven't really caught him, have they?"

"Sadly yes," Thy nodded, "After the police had uncovered a mass grave containing all of his victims at his backyard, he slipped away from the general public's eyes undetected. It's like he literally faded away from the surface of the Earth! But something inside me tells me that he's still out there, claiming more and more innocent lives…"

Thy began to clench her fists as she struggled to contain her emotions. Seeing this, Minh immediately placed a comforting hand on Thy's shoulder.

"It's okay," Thy smiled softly at her friend's gesture, "That's why I became a policewoman in the first place. I want to protect the smiles of everyone in this city…so that they don't have to suffer what I had suffered through."

"Good luck," Minh smiled back, "I hope that you'll catch Kira soon."

At that moment Minh's iPhone began to ring, prompting the young woman to pick it up.

"Hello? Thao? You're already at the front lobby? Okay," Minh immediately hung up her phone before turning her attention towards Thy, "I must go now, I have other things to attend to."

"Sure thing," Thy said, standing up as she went towards her office's door and opening it, "I'll send you off."

"Thanks," Minh said as she headed towards the door, giving Thy one last look before exiting, "Let's talk again if we have time, shall we?"

"Sure," Thy nodded.

Minh bid farewell to her friend before taking her leave, passing by Steffi who was on her way to Thy's office. The young policewoman was clearly surprised to see Steffi suddenly showing up on her office's doorstep.

"Yo," Steffi greeted, "Can I come in?"

"Sure," Thy replied, letting Steffi into her office before closing the office's door.

"Nice place you got here," Steffi commented, admiring Thy's office as her eyes gazed upon her surroundings, the street-overlooking window included, "With a nice view to boot! You're sure lucky to call this room your office."

"Thanks!" Thy smiled as she sat on her recliner, her desk in front of her, "Now, why do you want to visit me here?"

"To congratulate you, duh," Steffi chuckled as she sat in front of Thy's desk, facing the desk's owner, "I mean you and my brother are now part of an elite taskforce of this city's police department…you should feel honored by it."

"Same goes to you," Thy winked, "Your brother did pulled a lot of strings in order for that little group of yours to collaborate with ours. I mean...what you girls are doing are quite dangerous, you know. Investigating creatures from the unknown in order for the general public to know about their existence…that's kinda crazy."

"We get that a lot," Steffi grinned, before her eyes notices the files stacked on Thy's desk, "What are those?"

Thy blinked, "What are what?" before she realizes what Steffi meant as she glanced at the files on her table, "Oh, these files? These are police reports from concerned citizens that had been coming to our doorstep since yesterday."

A curious Steffi picked up a file and gave it a read as Thy continued, "Due to the unusual nature of these reports, our commissioner compiled them into several files and entrusted them to the newly established MCU for investigation. Due to the task force being formed just today, we were unable to examine these reports further until now."

"Strange fish-man attacking boats…throwing people overboard…releasing fishes caught by local fishermen?" Steffi's eyebrows went up in both astonishment and confusion, "Could it be…"

"…an Unrecorded Lifeform," Thy finished as Steffi placed the file back in the stack, "Barely half an hour since the task force is formed and we've already got ourselves our first assignment."

Suddenly the two were interrupted by the sound of a techno remix of Go Go Power Rangers echoing out of nowhere. Smiling sheepishly, Steffi picked up her cellphone from her jeans pocket.

"My phone," Steffi chuckled uneasily as she answered her phone, "Hello? Kim? Is that you? Where are you? The press conference's over and you've missed the whole thing! Wait…a cryptid? And Voyager's fighting it? Alright, I'll see what I can do."

"What's wrong?" Thy asked.

"It's Kim," Steffi replied, desperation can be heard in her voice, "Voyager's fighting a cryptid at Ben Nghe Canal!"

"What?" Thy gawked in shock.

"C'mon, let's find my brother!" Steffi hollered as she ran out of Thy's office, the policewoman following her suit.

xxx

(Cue BGM: Specium Zepellion no Theme – Takao Konishi from the Ultraman Orb OST)

Having armed himself with the Kaminari Blade, Voyager slashed the Seahorse Maojin twice on the torso, before kicking the kaijin away from him. Stumbling back, the Seahorse Maojin let loose with his nose beams, striking Voyager and his surroundings a few times and causing several small explosions. However the Rider was unfazed, easily swiping away the settling dust with his Kaminari Blade before charging towards the Seahorse Maojin once again.

The Seahorse Maojin tried to resist by swinging his fin-like hands in an attempt to slap Voyager, but the Rider easily parries away the attempt with his left hand, before landing a decisive strike on the Maojin's chest with his Kaminari Blade.

"As expected from a numbered Maojin, they're not as strong as their ranked counterparts," Voyager commented as the Sehaorse Maojin was sent reeling, smoke billowing from the slash wound inflected on his chest.

"Don't get too cocky, Krishna," Karin reminded, "Let's wrap up this battle before he could regain his strength."

"Aye-aye," Voyager nodded, taking out an Overcharge Card…

(BGM ends)

…only for a sudden slash from above to struck Voyager across his chest, forcing him to drop both his Kaminari Blade and his Overcharge Card. Sparks flew from Voyager's chest armor as he stumbled back from the impact of the attack, clearly it has caught him off-guard.

"What the heck was that?!" Voyager gawked.

Standing between Voyager and the Seahorse Maojin was Star, the black Tyrannosaurus-themed warrior wielding a machete-like weapon with a curved, silver blade and a black Tyrannosaurus skull engraved on its hilt, the weapon's handguard was also black in color but leathery in material, a stark contract to the hilt's somewhat crystalline structure.

"Hello, Voyager," Star greeted, his voice calm yet venomous, "We meet again."

"Star," Voyager greeted back, placing his Overcharge Card back in his card holder before retrieving his Kaminari Blade, "Nice to see you again."

"It's been a while since our last battle," Star said, his left hand calmly running itself against the silver blade of his weapon, "And since then you've managed to defeat two Aces. I'm impressed."

"You're here to complement on my ability or you're here to fight me?" Voyager asked rather mockingly.

Star chuckled, "You haven't changed a bit, Voyager. 657 years long, and you've never changed."

"Same with ya," Voyager smirked underneath his helmet, "Now if you excuse me, I need to clean up your subordinate's dirty laundry, thank you very much."

Star turned his attention towards the recovered Seahorse Maojin, the latter clearly relieved at the former's arrival, "Six of Cups, continue your mission. I'll ensure that Voyager will not be a hindrance to you again."

"Yes, sir!" the Seahorse Maojin nodded obediently, before making a dive into the canal waters.

"Wait!" Voyager yelled, the Rider immediately trying to give chase only for Star to point his weapon at him.

"Your opponent is me now!" Star declared, gripping his weapon tightly, "Feel the might of my Destruction Blade!"

(Cue BGM: Yoshikage Kira Just Wants a Quiet Life – Chikayo Fukuda from the JoJo's Bizarre Advenure: All Star Battle OST)

Immediately both Voyager and Star clashed, their Kaminari Blade and Destruction Blade dueling each other in fierce swordplay combat. Kim and the fishermen watched on from the sidelines as the two warriors continued their swordfight, neither of them gaining the upper-hand over another.

"It's like the two of them had been fighting one another for quite some time!" Kim thought, "Are they rivals or something?"

After several seconds of stalemate Star had managed to find an opening, landing a devastating slash across Voyager's stomach with his Destruction Blade. Groaning in pain, Voyager clutched the left side of his stomach as smoke flew out from where the Destruction Blade had met his armor, the Rider's grip on his Kaminari Blade becoming tighter. Star raised his Destruction Blade to the air, ready to perform a vertical slash onto Voyager's body, but this time the black and purple Rider was ready. As the Destruction Blade made a dash towards his head, Voyager quickly lifts up his Kaminari Blade, the two weapons clanging with each other fiercely as a result.

"My God!" Kim yelled as she closed her ears, the collision from the two weapons had resulted in a deafening noise that was too much for her ears.

Quickly the two warriors were at it again, the Kaminari Blade and Destruction Blade once again dancing with each other in a show of finesse and power. This time though, it was Voyager who found an opening, landing a slash onto Star's right shoulder that managed to stun the Maojin vanguard.

"Not bad, not bad at all," Star commented as he clutched his right shoulder, the Destruction Blade now on his left hand, "As I expect from the one who will stop at nothing in being a thorn in our side."

"Fighting you is not my priority right now," Voyager said as he took out his Overcharge Card before inserting it into his left hip slot, "Now step aside! I've got bigger fish to fry!"

THUNDER OVERCHARGE!

"Lightning Edge!" Voyager yelled, purple electricity surging into the Kaminari Blade.

Letting out a determined yell, Voyager slashed the air in front of him once, causing a purple crescent-shaped wave of electricity to be discharged from the Kaminari Blade. The wave went straight towards Star, who unfortunately saw it coming.

"Apocalypse Shield!" Star yelled as he held out his left hand, black energy surging into it before materializing itself into a pitch black, diamond-shaped shield with a silver, ribcage-like design engraved to it.

The newly formed Apocalypse Shield predictably cancels out Voyager's Lightning Edge attack, much to the Rider's surprise.

"Is that what you've got?" Star asked mockingly as he crouched down, black energy surging into the Destruction Blade, "It's my turn now."

(BGM ends)

Before Star could launch his special attack, the Maojin vanguard was struck by several bullet fire to his chest, startling him to the point of cancelling his planned attack altogether. Voyager turned around to see Leo, Thy, and Steffi with a platoon of Kevlar-wearing police officers, each of them (with the exception of Steffi) wielding their brand new Strike pistols that Lotus Industries had supplied them with.

"You guys!" Voyager said in relief as he saw the cavalry behind him, "Boy am I glad to see you!"

"It's okay, that's our job anyway," Leo smiled, before he turned his attention towards Kim, "You okay?"

"I'm good," Kim nodded, "But the fishermen…"

"Don't worry," Leo said reassuringly, "We'll take care of them."

"You bastards!" Star cursed as he dusts off his smoking chest, "Human weaponry…they've never hurt me before!"

"Welcome to 2023 ya son of a bitch," Leo asserted, "We humans are trying our best in keeping up with you Unrecorded Lifeforms!"

"I won't forget this!" Star yelled, before he leaped off into the skies, vanishing from sight.

As the policemen underneath Leo's command took Kim and the fishermen to safety, Voyager went towards his motorcycle, giving it a gentle rub before mounting it.

"The Maojin's heading down this canal towards Saigon River," Voyager told Leo as the latter approached him, "I'm going to intercept him with my motorcycle."

"Do you need our help?" Leo asked.

Voyager paused for a few seconds, before giving out a slight nod, "Just in case that black Maojin returns."

"Who's that guy anyway?" Leo asked again, "When we came here, you two were fighting very fiercely…it's just like you two had previous history together."

"His name's Star," Voyager replied, "One of the Maojins' most powerful warriors, it is the vanguard of the Maojins, their protector safe to speak. And because of that, he's one of my biggest rivals."

"I see," Leo nodded.

"We have fought each other numerous times," Voyager said again, "Each of them ending in stalemates. And to be honest…if you guys hadn't interfere, Star would've won. So I'm probably going to need your help if he shows up again. But if he doesn't…just leave the Maojin to me."

Leo saluted Voyager upon hearing that, "Gotcha!"

Nodding, Voyager turned on his motorcycle and gave its accelerator a twist. This caused purple energy to surge out from Voyager's ScanDriver and into the motorcycle's body, slowly transforming its paintjob from black to purple as well as adding additional armor to the motorcycle's front and sides. A purple Japanese rhinoceros beetle's horn materializes itself between the motorcycle's headlights, the Japanese kanji for "thunder" engraved in silver on it, while purple armoring with silver and red highlights adorn the motorcycle's sides.

"Cool…" Leo gasped as he saw the transformed motorcycle before his eyes.

"The Machine Adventurer," Voyager introduces his Rider Machine, "It's an improvement over my usual motorcycle. I would like to go through its features one by one for you but we have a Maojin to defeat out there!"

"Good luck," Leo patted Voyager on the shoulder.

And with that Voyager sped off, pursuing the Seahorse Maojin on his Machine Adventurer. Following him a few minutes afterwards were Leo and his MCU team, their sirens blaring loudly in order for traffic to give them way.

xxx

"Help us!"

Cries of help echoed throughout the air as the Seahorse Maojin had resumed his attack on humanity, this time attacking a number of fishing boats docked at a small jetty located near the mouth of the Ben Nghe Canal. Fishermen and fisherwomen alike fled in terror as the Seahorse Maojin single-handedly wrecked their boats, tossing their day's catch back into the canal waters, before blasting the other docked boats with both his nose beams and a powerful stream of water fired from the slit on his abdomen.

"Yes! Yes!" the Seahorse Maojin cackled maniacally as he witnessed the people fleeing the jetty in terror, "This is what you'll get for capturing our kind!"

Suddenly the Seahorse Maojin was interrupted by the noise of the Machine Adventurer arriving on the scene, the purple Japanese rhinoceros beetle-themed motorcycle immediately revving into the jetty and heading straight towards the Maojin. Performing a wheelie, Voyager immediately slammed his Rider Machine's front wheel against the Seahorse Maojin's chest, sending the Maojin reeling back in pain.

"Yo," Voyager greeted casually as he dismounted from the Machine Adventurer, his Kaminari Blade in hand, "You and me. Round two, now!"

"You really don't know when to quit, do you Voyager?!" the Seahorse Maojin growled in anger as he regained his footing, "Let's go!"

(Cue BGM: Orb no Pinch – Takao Konishi from the Ultraman Orb OST)

Immediately the two went at it again, Voyager going on the offensive with his Kaminari Blade but this time the Seahorse Maojin had learned from his previous battle, easily dodging each of the weapon's swipes before landing a couple of punches of his own onto Voyager's torso. Clearly taken aback by the Seahorse Maojin's sudden improvement in combat, Voyager was defenseless against two point-blank shots of the Seahorse Maojin's nose beams, the two shots hitting Voyager square in his chest. Clutching his smoldering chest, Voyager stumbled back, using his Kaminari Blade as support as he fell down to one knee.

"Holy shit!" Voyager cursed, "How the heck did he became stronger in such short notice?!"

"I've learned a lot since our previous encounter, Voyager," the Seahorse Maojin told the Rider, "From our battles throughout these past hundreds of years, from that encounter against that blasted ice-wielding mage, and also from that battle that we had earlier…the determination to serve my Tribe…it's flowing through my veins!"

"You know what they say, if you're driven to do something you can literally do anything," Voyager commented as he slowly stood up.

"That interruption from Star must have given him the chance to fully recover himself…" added Karin.

"We're fighting near my element now, Voyager," the Seahorse Maojin said, taking note of the jetty's presence at the water's edge, "Do you think you have what it takes to stop me?"

"Try me!" Voyager replied, taking out his Thunder Hopper card before inserting it into his right hip slot.

FIVE ABILITY! THUNDER HOPPER!

Leaping into the air with his enhanced jumping capabilities, Voyager gripped the Kaminari Blade tightly as he prepared himself to perform a vertical slash onto the Seahorse Maojin's body, only for the kaijin to let loose with a stream of pressurized water from his abdomen. The water stream struck Voyager head on, causing the Rider to splutter out in surprise as he plummeted to the ground with a loud thud.

(BGM ends)

As the Seahorse Maojin laughed in delight at Voyager's predicament, Leo and his MCU squad arrived on the scene just in time, with Steffi and Kim quickly videotaping the fight from the sidelines. Immediately Leo pointed his Strike pistol at the Seahorse Maojin, only for the downed Voyager to gesture towards Leo to stand down.

"Eh?" Leo blinked as he slowly lowered his weapon, "But why?"

"I've told you," Voyager replied as he slowly stood up, his armor and bodysuit soaking wet from the Seahorse Maojin's attack, "Leave the Maojin to me. Star's not here yet so you guys aren't needed for now." Letting out a slight chuckle, Voyager stabbed his Kaminari Blade onto the ground, before taking out a familiar looking card from his card holder.

It was the Inferno Komodo Maojin Card. Immediately everyone's eyes went wide upon the sight of the card.

"That's!" Steffi gasped.

"An Ace up his sleeve…" Leo added, now realizing what Voyager had planned.

"Karin, we haven't tried one of these in quite a while," Voyager said as he opened up his ScanDriver's tab, taking out the Thunder Kabuto card afterwards. This caused the purple armoring on Voyager's body to disintegrate into purple motes of light, leaving Voyager in his bare black bodysuit, "You think you can handle this?"

"Well...can't hurt to try, right?" Karin replied.

Voyager nodded, a smirk appearing underneath his helmet, "I knew you're gonna say that."

"What are you trying to do right now?" asked the Seahorse Maojin.

"Bringing up the heat," Voyager simply replied with that, before inserting the Inferno Komodo card into the ScanDriver and slamming its tab shut.

ACE HENSHIN! INFERNO KOMODO!

A red ring of energy bursts out from the ScanDriver as an energetic American rock-and-roll electric guitar chord was played out from the device. The ring splits into two, scanning through Voyager's body from top to bottom as the translucent screen on the ScanDriver glowed red, a white image of a Komodo dragon being emblazoned on it. Voyager's chest insignia changed as well, from the usual purple circle into a fiery red one, with a Komodo dragon's head sticking out from its right side.

Red grid lines began to materialize around the bodysuit, configuring themselves into bulky pieces of armor that stuck themselves onto Voyager's bodysuit. Colored fiery red with dashes of silver and gold mixed into them, the greaves, gauntlets, and torso armors were almost Medieval-like in terms of design, while the shoulder armors resembled the skulls of dragons, also painted in the same fiery red color as the other armor pieces with silver highlights. The most striking feature were the gauntlets, which are bulky in design and also fiery red in color, with silver highlighting and golden flame-like patterns adorning them.

Finally red grid lines began to materialize around Voyager's helmet, forming a fiery red dragon-themed helmet that looked Medieval in design. It has a crest that stuck upwards, with a pair of golden horns at the tip of the crest, while two more horns, this time silver in color, were present just above Voyager's yellow eyes. The mouthpiece was silver in color and is somewhat identical to Voyager's default form, however with a slightly much more serrated design. The transformation sequence was finished by the flashing of Voyager's eyes, three times as usual, with red lines appearing on the arms, thighs, legs, and sides of the bodysuit's torso.

At a glance, Voyager's new, bulkier form looked almost identical to the Dragonscale Armor of Skyrim, only much fiercer.

"Holy moly…" Steffi gasped in awe upon the sight of Voyager's new form.

"That is one cool looking armor…" added an equally awestruck Kim.

Leo, on the other hand, remained silent, but lets out a confident smirk.

"I know you got this, Voyager!" Leo thought, "That new set of armor looked more than enough to overwhelm that Unrecorded Lifeform!"

(Cue BGM: Burnmite no Theme – Takao Konishi from the Ultraman Orb OST)

"Kamen Rider Voyager, Inferno Form," Voyager introduced himself, checking out his armor in awe at the same time, before he proceeds to point at the Seahorse Maojin, "Evil…shall be burned into crisp!"

"So you changed your color, big deal," the Seahorse Maojin scoffed, "That wouldn't change a thing!"

Immediately the Seahorse Maojin charged forward, his fin-like hands ready to give a beat-down that Voyager would never forget. Letting out a rage-filled roar, the Seahorse Maojin slapped Voyager once on his chest…

…only for nothing to happen.

Clearly surprised by this, the Seahorse Maojin landed several more punches and slaps onto Voyager's torso, but the Rider didn't budge at all. To the Seahorse Maojin, attacking Voyager in the Rider's current form is just as fruitless as trying to punch your way through an iron wall, and not before long the Six of Cups gradually decreased the intensity of his attacks, fatigue clearly setting into his entire body.

Pleased at this turn of events, Voyager smirked underneath his helmet, "My turn."

Immediately Voyager grabbed the Seahorse Maojin by his neck, before literally lifting the kaijin off the ground with just one hand! The Seahorse Maojin's eyes went wide in surprise as he struggled for air, Voyager's grip slowly crushing his windpipe. Seeing that his opponent was struggling, Voyager tossed the Seahorse Maojin aside, sending the creature flying onto a nearby iron pillar.

Much to the shock of everyone in the sidelines, the pillar in question was immediately bent underneath the Seahorse Maojin's weight.

"Holy shit…" Kim gasped.

"Such power…" Steffi added, her eyes wide in disbelief.

Slowly Voyager went towards the downed Seahorse Maojin, forcing the kaijin to his feet before performing a series of bone-crushing knee strikes onto the Seahorse Maojin's chin, finishing the combo with a back-breaking judo throw that instantly stunned the Seahorse Maojin.

But Voyager wasn't finished there just yet. Grabbing onto the Seahorse Maojin's legs, Voyager spun around, slamming the kaijin head-first onto another pillar, disorienting the Six of Cups. The brutal onslaught hasn't finished though, with Voyager grabbing the Seahorse Maojin by his head and slamming him head-first several times onto the concrete jetty floor, black blood oozing from the Seahorse Maojin's nose and mouth as a result.

Wrapping up this now totally one-sided fight, Voyager hoisted the Seahorse Maojin's body over his head before throwing him to the ground once again, breaking what's left of the kaijin's bones.

"Ouch," Steffi winced upon the sight of that attack, "That's brutal…even for the standards of the WWE!"

"The finisher," Voyager announced stoically, taking out an Overcharge Card before inserting it into his right hip slot.

INFERNO OVERCHARGE!

Voyager's fists went up in flames, the Rider clenching them tightly. As the battered Seahorse Maojin slowly stood up, Voyager immediately went in for the kill, landing a barrage of jabs onto the hapless Maojin's chest.

"ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA!" Voyager cried as he punched the Seahorse Maojin repeatedly, for the Maojin, every punch to his chest was equivalent to a dump truck crashing onto the kaijin head-on.

"Holy shit!" Steffi gasped, "Is that…"

"…a motherfucking…" Kim continued.

"…JoJo reference?!" Leo finished.

Realizing what they had just said, Steffi, Kim, and Leo blinked at each other awkwardly.

"ORAAA!" Voyager yelled as he landed the last punch with his left fist onto the Seahorse Maojin's chest, before supercharging his right fist with fiery energy surging from his ScanDriver, "Inferno…Machinegun…Impact!"

And with that, Voyager delivered the finishing blow, a crippling fiery uppercut onto the Seahorse Maojin's chin, which sends the kaijin flying into the air and through the jetty's roof. Seconds later the Seahorse Maojin impacted against the jetty floor with a deafening thud, his entire body exploding the moment he touched the ground.

(BGM ends)

After the smoke and fire had died out, what's left of the Seahorse Maojin was an unconscious Damian and a Maojin Card lying nearby. The card depicted a seahorse swimming in an ocean, with a blue line on the card's left hand side. The words "WATER SEAHORSE" were emblazoned in white on said line, while a small blue swirling circle icon was seen on the card's top left corner. The back of the card was gunmetal gray in color, with a stylized 6 superimposed on a cup engraved on it.

Approaching the unconscious Damian, Voyager signaled for Leo to come closer, the newly appointed leader of the Maojin Counter Unit obliging immediately. As Leo laid his eyes on the unconscious Damian, immediately they went wide, with Leo apparently recognizing the man in front of him.

"That's Damian Morgan…" Leo gasped, "A Jamaican national, he was reported missing by his fellow crew members of the cruise ship Olympus that was docked at Vung Tau yesterday. Can't believe the Unrecorded Lifeforms had used his body…"

"Believe me, they would use just about anyone to achieve their goals…" Voyager replied, his mind remembering the poor balloon seller and Hako, both of them falling victim to the thrall of the Maojins. Clenching his fists slowly, Voyager determines himself to stop them no matter what before any more innocent blood were to be shed.

"I'll take Damian to the hospital," Leo told Voyager as he picked up Damian's prone body, "Hopefully he'll be back with his crewmen in a few days' time."

"Please do," Voyager nodded, picking up the Water Seahorse card in the process, "As for you, you're coming with me."

Placing the newly acquired Maojin Card in his card holder, Voyager took out his Inferno Komodo card from his ScanDriver, his armor disintegrating into red motes of light as he reverts back to Krishna. Delivering a two fingered salute to everyone in the sidelines, Krishna mounted his motorcycle who had also reverted back to normal, putting on his helmet, before revving his engine and slowly making his way out of the jetty.

"Hey!"

Krishna stopped his motorcycle in time to see Steffi and Kim running up towards him, enthusiastic grins displayed clearly on their faces. Letting out a smile of his own, Krishna waved for the two to come closer to him.

"What is it, girls?" Krishna asked once Steffi and Kim had stood near his motorcycle.

"Well…we're going to have this dinner at our place…" Steffi replied.

"With spicy fish soup!" Kim chirped in, "Don't worry Steff, I'm pretty sure those fishermen back there will give me some free ones as a thank you gift for helping them."

"Technically I did all the hard work," Krishna smirked.

"And who distracted that cryptid long enough for you to show up?" Kim winked.

Krishna rolled his eyes, sighing in defeat as Kim roared out in laughter.

"Anyway," Steffi continued once Kim had recovered from her hysterics, "We're going to have dinner at my apartment tonight and I was wondering…would you join us?"

Krishna shook his head, "As much as I wanted to, I can't. I need to patrol this city 24/7 for any signs of those Maojins."

Immediately both Steffi and Kim gave Krishna their best puppy dog eyes impression, in an attempt to sway the young man into joining them for dinner. Knowing how persistent these two were, Krishna lets out a hearty laugh, finally giving in to their offer.

"Come to think of it, I do need some energy to do my patrols properly," Krishna chuckled, "Alright, I'm in. Just show me the way there and I'll follow you two."

"Believe me, no one can resist Steffi's spicy fish soup," Kim teased, earning herself a slap on the back of her head by Steffi.

"C'mon, my soup is good but it's not that good," Steffi laughed, "But yeah, you should try it. We also need someone to prepare stuff back home and we're hoping that you could help us."

"Hold on, let me ask my partner first," Krishna said, taking out Karin's card form from his jacket pocket, "What do you say about that?"

"To be honest I haven't had human food in quite a while," Karin mused as she imagined herself eating Steffi's spicy fish soup, "Alright, I'm in."

"The more the merrier," Krishna smiled, "Alright, let's go to your place. I'm kinda curious what kind of place that you intrepid supernatural investigators have."

Unknown to everyone, a familiar and ominous visor-like eye was watching the gang from a distance. Hiding from plain sight behind a series of trees nearby the jetty, Star had witnessed everything, from the battle between Voyager and the Seahorse Maojin, the latter's destruction, as well as the former's new form. Clutching his fists in anger, Star slowly and discreetly made his retreat before anyone could notice his presence.

"Damn you Voyager!" Star cursed, "He's getting stronger and stronger by the minute…I must not lag behind!"

In frustration, Star slashed his Destruction Blade at the nearby trees, slicing them in half in one go.

xxx

One hour later

A visibly bruised and slightly injured Tran waited in front of the iconic Ben Thanh Market, her eyes scanning the bustling traffic in front of her. Noticing a cobalt blue 2013 Acura ILX sedan among the many vehicles, immediately Tran waved her hands rapidly, signaling the car to come closer. Once the car had pulled up to her, Tran immediately entered the car through its rear passenger door.

"How did it go?" Minh asked from the front passenger seat as Tran puts on her seatbelt, before Thao proceeds to drive the car back to the LIT, "Did you get any intel on Voyager?"

"Yeah," Tran nodded slowly, "I saw Voyager fighting against a Maojin today…apparently he has a new form now."

"Interesting," Minh smirked, taking out a Maojin Card from her blazer pocket. It was a Thunder Tribe card, with the same purple line and lightning bolt icon, but this time the card's image depicted a firefly surrounded by lightning bolts, its abdomen glowing purple. The back of the card, as usual, was gunmetal grey in color, with the stylized number 9 superimposed on a shield engraved on it. The words "LIGHTNING FIREFLY" were engraved on the card's purple line in white, "And what a coincidence as well…I've just gotten myself my own power-up. Things should be interesting when Voyager and I met on the battlefield."

"I guess your own Maojin hunt went well, huh?" Tran asked.

Minh nodded, "Yeah, I got held up at the HCMCPD headquarters, y'know, Lotus Industries stuff. But at least this Maojin didn't give any meaningful resistance when I beat him."

As the Acura pulled itself to a stop at a four-way intersection to wait for its traffic light to switch into green, Thao notices Tran's bruises and cuts from her rear-view mirror, "Oh my God! Tran, what happened?"

Minh glanced a bit at Tran, her left eye winking at her. Knowing what that meant, Tran immediately answered, "Ah, these? I tripped over some roots when I was spying Voyager."

As Thao resumed her driving, both Minh and Tran let out inaudible sighs. So far the only person who knew about Tran's alter ego as Star was Minh, and she doesn't know that much about it. As far as Minh knew, Star had taken over Tran's body to save her from the attack that killed Minh's father two years ago, and the Maojin vanguard had promised Minh to help her in her quest of vengeance, along with helping Tran in coping with her cancer.

With Tran now busy in her own world and Thao still concentrating in her driving, Minh slowly opened the glove compartment of her Acura.

"Soon…" Minh thought as she saw the item inside the glove compartment, "Soon I will be able to avenge you, Father!"

Inside Minh's glove compartment was a ScanDriver, identical to Krishna's apart from the blue tab instead of red on Krishna's Driver.

A smirk appears on Minh's face as her eyes made contact with the ScanDriver, before the young woman placed the Lightning Firefly card inside the glove compartment and closing it.

xxx

TO BE CONTINUED…

xxx

Next time on Kamen Rider Voyager, episode 4 – A Hurricane's Rage

A series of disappearances where people were being pulled underground has attracted the attention of the MCU, prompting Steffi and her friends to go underground into the sewers of Ho Chi Minh City in search of the cryptid called "Mole Man" who they suspect was behind the disappearances. With Krishna and Karin deciding to move into Steffi's apartment, the former must juggle between investigating the disappearances and adjusting himself with the perks of modern life. And with the Mole Maojin proving too quick to catch, another new form will be needed by Voyager to catch the Maojin by its tail. But as the fight rages on, a new Rider enters the fray...

xxx

Maojin Card of the Day

Thunder Hopper

Class: Five of Shields

Tribe: Thunder

Properties: Enables Voyager to perform superhuman jumps in order to evade attacks or perform new ones. With this card equipped, Voyager is able to jump over a three-storey building and if he kicks opponents with this card equipped, Voyager is able to send them flying away.

Maojin of the Day

Seahorse Maojin

Class: Six of Cups

Tribe: Water

Motif: Seahorse

Host: Damian Morgan

Abilities: underwater adaptation, fin-like hands capable of performing devastating slaps, laser beams fired from the nose, pressurized water streams fired from a slit on his abdomen.

Destroyed by: Kamen Rider Voyager Inferno Form's Inferno Machinegun Impact

xxx

A/N: And that's a wrap! It took waaaay longer than I expected, because of college work and stuff, but the third chapter of Voyager is done! I would like to thank God90zilla Studios for using my Seahorse Maojin in their story Kamen Rider Cryo (which takes place in the same universe as Voyager btw). You guys should check that story out, it's awesome! And speaking of which, check out my other story Kamen Rider Zard as well!

As usual leave your reviews, don't leave flames, and don't forget to follow and subscribe to this story!

This is maxpower02, signing out!