Hey there again, everyone! I am SuperHeroTimeFan, and I have returned to continue my story, The Next Decade. I am sorry for not updating sooner, but during the summer, I was quite busy. Still, thank you all for being this patient enough to wait for my next update. I would like to thank my friend and fellow author, RenTap for helping me to get back on track. Now, I believe I've already answered everyone's questions, since there were hardly a few, so I'll start my returning chapter for The Next Decade. Please be sure to review, rate, and as always, please enjoy!
Chapter 4: Wild Cards
General Shadow walked around in the darkness of an abandoned warehouse, looking around for any sign of trouble. Since Dai-Shocker had chased away Tsukasa Kadoya, aka Kamen Rider Decade, rumors of a new Decade, by the name of Ben Tennyson, had emerged, and was now being trained to fight Dai-Shocker where Kadoya had started. It was all making him too uneasy. Still, since the new leader of Dai-Shocker had ordered him to come, he couldn't refuse. Albedo was after all a great leader.
Soon, General Shadow reached a large throne, where he saw Albedo sitting and waiting for him. "General Shadow, at ease." He calmly said. General Shadow then loosened up his formal position and nodded. "Great leader, you summoned me?" he asked. Albedo nodded and looked to the side. Shadow looked to the side as well, and saw that there was a holographic image of Ben Tennyson. Much to General Shadow's surprise, he looked just like Albedo! "Ben Tennyson is a pain in my side from my past." Albedo explained. "Your mission is simple and to the point: you are to track down Tsukasa Kadoya and Ben Tennyson and bring either or both of them to me alive. You, as well as other generals and the Dark Kamen Riders, will be on this assignment for the time being until Decade is permanently wiped out." Albedo ordered. General Shadow took this assignment without question and soon, the general of Dai-Shocker left the room, leaving Albedo to close his Dark Decadriver. His eyes turned from red to navy, as he was now Kamen Rider Dark Decade.
The next morning, Ben and Kaito, with Yusuke, Natsumi, Gwen, Kevin and Julie, all met in the Bellwood High School Soccer Field for some more training to become a Kamen Rider. Gwen and Kevin were both busy talking to Yusuke about more combat training while Julie and Natsumi were having a conversation in Japanese. "It's sure been a while since I've met someone of my same ethnicity." Julie stated. Natsumi nodded. "Hai, it is an honor." She replied back.
Soon, Ben came from one end of the field with the Decadriver on his belt while Kaito came from the other side with his Diendriver drawn. All five friends stopped what they were doing and turned their attention to the two Riders. Ben placed out his card as Daiki placed his card into the Diendriver. KAMENRIDE! The Diendriver announced. Ben then flipped the card and inserted it into the Decadriver. "It's Hero Time!" he yelled, closing it soon after. "Henshin!" Kaito yelled. KAMENRIDE: DECADE/DIEND! Both of the drivers called out, transforming the two into their Rider forms.
Kaito chuckled as he took out a card from his pack. "Let's see if you've learned anything from my training." He remarked, slotting the card into his Diendriver. PSEUDORIDE: ALTERNATIVE-ZERO! The Diendriver announced. At that moment, Pseudo Rider Alternative-Zero emerged and started to go fast as light. Ben scoffed and inserted a card into the Decadriver. "Yeah, Kaito, I learned a lot." He mused, slotting the card into the belt. KAMENRIDE: KABUTO! The Decadriver yelled out. Soon, Ben was Kamen Rider Kabuto, and he slotted another card into his belt soon after. ATTACKRIDE: CLOCK UP! The belt announced, allowing Ben to move at the speed of the Clock Up system.
Gwen and Julie watched the battle with interest before looking over to Natsumi. "How did Tsukasa ever prepare for stuff like this?" both of the girls asked. Natsumi looked at their confused faces and shook her head in disagreement. "When I first gave the Decadriver to Tsukasa, he already knew how to fight with it." She explained. Yusuke then stepped up and decided to take the stage. "Tsukasa had the Decadriver commissioned so that he could travel the worlds of the Multiverse, and he adapted his fighting styles off of all the different Kamen Riders." Yusuke explained.
Kevin scoffed and crossed his arms as he looked back to the battle. "So, let me get this straight: If Ben travels through a ton of worlds, he should be able to fight the same way Tsukasa learned how to fight." He dryly stated. Yusuke nodded and said, "Yes."
Just then, in the battle, a large card appeared and dashed right through both Ben and Alternative-Zero. Kabuto reverted back into Decade as Ben and Kaito both took sight of what just attacked them. Soon, the card landed on the ground on its edge, revealing some sort of man in a white suit and a clear helmet, but no visual face. "Ben Tennyson, am I correct?" he asked. Ben looked to Shadow and nodded. "Yeah, what's it to you?" he asked back snippily.
"I am General Shadow, and by orders of the Great Leader of Dai-Shocker, I am to bring you in for questioning and a counsel with the Great Leader himself." He explained. Ben scoffed and shook his head. "Yeah, I'm not really the kind of guy for that kind of stuff." Ben quipped. He then looked to Kaito and craned his neck. "I never got that far in the Kaijin, so how do I take down guys like Poker Face here?" he asked. Kaito shook his head as he started to aim his Diendriver at General Shadow, placing two cards into it before firing. KAMENRIDE: ZOLDA/DELTA! The Diendriver announced. Soon, Kamen Riders Zolda from the World of Ryuki and Delta from the World of 555 appeared. "You can't. General Shadow was the strongest enemy of the Kamen Riders, and only a Sentai was able to take him down." He explained.
Ben looked to General Shadow as DiEnd used his Cross Attack card on him. He could see the way General Shadow was dodging the blasts easily as he twirled around. For a minute, Ben could have sworn that he saw General Shadow as a card when he twirled. His whole body is his shield. Ben thought to himself observantly. He then watched as General Shadow started to use his cards as shurikens against DiEnd and his summoned Riders, making Zolda and Delta disappear immediately. I can't act, not now. Ben added on as General Shadow started to make his way towards him.
Ben noticed this and blocked an attack made from him with his wrist, but since his Omnitrix was on the hand he was using to block, it started to beep. General Shadow took no mind to this as he continued to attack Ben. Ben soon took out the Ride Booker and started to block every one of his moves, not fighting back at all, much to everyone else's surprise. "What does he think he's doing?!" Kevin yelled. Julie and Gwen nodded as they prepared to go and defend Ben, but he looked back and shook his head no. "I've got this!" he yelled. The two nodded as they sat back down, with Natsumi and Yusuke watching with shock as Ben blocked some attacks and let himself get hit with very little effort of fighting back.
Soon, Ben was knocked to the ground as General Shadow looked down to him with a look of disappointment. "My great leader never said that you would never be a challenge." He remarked. Ben opened up the Decadriver and looked up weakly, sending his best glare towards him. Shadow scoffed as he soon started to leave, with Kaito running to Ben's aid to help him back up onto his feet.
The rest of the group ran towards Ben as he started to brush off some dust from his shoulders.
"Ben! What were you thinking?!" Kaito yelled as Gwen grabbed his shoulder. "You knew that General Shadow was right there, so why didn't you do anything?!" she asked as well. Ben just got up and looked to all of his friends, then to Kaito. "You said that there was no possible way to defeat General Shadow, right?" he asked, in which Daiki nodded. Ben sighed and looked to the rest of the team. "I want to try to prove that I can find a way to take him down!" he yelled.
Everyone remained silent at this statement before Yusuke walked up and placed his hands on Ben's shoulders. "General Shadow is unpredictable. Though one Rider had been able to defeat him in the past, it doesn't mean that someone else can do it just as easily." He reprimanded. Ben sighed and nodded as he looked up to his Decade card. "I know, but that's just what I do, what I have to do." He stated. Everyone looked to him confusingly as Tsukasa came into Ben's head. "For Tsukasa." He added on.
General Shadow looked over Bellwood that night and scoffed. "I was defeated by Kikaider, Kikaider-01, Inuzaman, Zubat, the Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, and Kamen Rider Stronger, but this Ben Tennyson doesn't seem that much of a challenge!" he remarked. He sent a card out and grunted as he turned around. "Shadow hopes that the challenge Ben Tennyson gives will be worth it all!" he exclaimed angrily. He then turned around and noticed the two bullies of Ben's school, Cash and JT, walking home. "Of course, I could call in some new recruits." He stated sinisterly.
Meanwhile, Gwen and Julie looked after Tsukasa in his healing state with Natsumi and Daiki. "Tsukasa-kun, I hope for you to recover soon." Natsumi stated. Julie nodded and said sadly, "Hai." Kivaala then flew in and looked to Tsukasa with interest. "I hope that you come back so that this Ben Tennyson will stop making you look like such a fool." She remarked. Gwen gasped at this and grasped Kivaala in her hand. "You take that back!" she spat.
Before the argument could go on any further, the gang started to hear some grunting coming from outside. Kaito held up his hand as he started to walk towards the garage, where Kevin and Ben were at the moment. When Kaito got there, he could see Ben using a metal rod as a fencing saber, training against a dummy that Kevin had built. "Keep it up, Tennyson!" Kevin yelled, in which Ben replied by continuing to train. Kaito walked up to Kevin and started to whisper, "What's he doing?"
"Ben said that he saw all of General Shadow's moves back earlier, and he's trying to copy off of it." Kevin explained. Kaito nodded at this as he saw Ben practice further. "Oi, Tennyson!" Kaito yelled out. Ben turned around and nodded. "I have some Riders who could help you with your skills." He said. Ben smiled and nodded. "Let's have it, then." He stated.
Kaito smiled and soon took out two cards and slotted them into the Diendriver. KAMENRIDE: SAGA, SASWORD! The Diendriver called out, summoning Kamen Rider Sasword from the World of Kabuto and Kamen Rider Saga from the World of Kiva. Both were talented fencers, so they could help Ben. Ben smirked and placed up his rod, starting to spar with the two Riders. Kaito and Kevin continued to watch Ben train as Gwen, Yusuke and Natsumi came out to see what was going on. Maybe this kid DOES have some potential after all. Kaito thought to himself.
For the rest of the night, Ben continued to train. He took some breaks in between, but he still continued to train. In order to counter Shadow's spinning defense technique, Ben used Armodrillo and spun as fast as he could to see what kind of limit to the stamina of the tactic was. After doing so, he started to use Kamen Rider Wizard's Gravity AttackRide card to try preventing the spin to stop. When he thought about how he used his cards as shurikens, he had Gwen throw as many Mana blasts as she could towards him to counter the projectiles.
Finally, he had observed that General Shadow traveled and attacked sometimes as a large card. He had faced Zs'Skayr before, who could perform a similar ability, only he would turn invisible instead of a card, so all he had to do was find a way to expose Shadow in a similar way. He soon found out a way, and now, he was prepared to take on General Shadow when he next attacked.
The next day, Ben was walking on his way to school with Julie. As the two were walking, Ben let out a sigh and turned around. "You guys don't have to follow me, you know." He said, getting Kaito, Kevin, Natsumi, Gwen and Yusuke to come out of their hiding places and into the light. "General Shadow might attack at any minute, Ben." Yusuke stated. Ben rolled his eyes and took out the Decadriver, waving it in his hands. "I'll be fine." He reassured them. The group nodded as they started to walk away.
As soon as they were gone, Julie gave Ben a worried look on her face. "Ben, I know that you're trying to repay Tsukasa like this, but according to what Tsukasa himself said, as well as what Kaito, Yusuke and Natsumi said, you might be in great danger." She stated. Ben smiled and placed his arm around Julie's shoulder. "I'll be fine." He said playfully before walking on ahead. Julie just rolled her eyes and ran after him.
At school, many of the students started to look at Ben. "I heard that you were saved by a guy in armor the other day." Cash stated before JT walked up. "I know that we had a bit of a misunderstanding back when we were trying to get famous by being with you, but hey, we can leave all of that stuff in the past, right?" he asked. Ben shrugged as he headed to his locker. "I guess so." He soon replied. Cash and JT both smiled at this as Ben closed his locker.
Just as Ben closed his locker, General Shadow appeared behind the locker door, surprising everyone. "Ben Tennyson, we have some unfinished business!" General Shadow remarked, unsheathing his fencing saber and slashing downwards. Ben rolled to the side and then did a side kick at him, but he blocked it and countered with a right hook. Ben was unable to block this attack and was sent flying into the next room, his math class.
Many of the students and teachers in the classroom ran out in terror as General Shadow brought his blade down on him once again. Ben was quicker this time, and grabbed one of the meter sticks and blocked the blade. "How are you feeling right now?! I mean, I can hardly see your face!" Ben joked around before throwing the blade off. The two then clashed their blades again, but the meter stick broke, and General Shadow picked Ben off from the ground and threw him out the window into the soccer field.
Soon, all of the students arrived to see what was about to go down, as well as Kaito, Kevin, Yusuke, Natsumi and Gwen. Ben was struggling to get up as General Shadow advanced towards him, but Julie got in the way and clashed his blade with her tennis racket. "Leave him alone!" she yelled, tossing him off and starting to duel with him. General Shadow, finding Julie a much harder adversary, clashed with her nonstop as Ben started to get up.
Ben looked to General Shadow and sighed. "And here, I was thinking we could sit down and get to know each other better." He mused, gaining some laughs from the crowd as Gwen just crossed her arms and shook her head in disapproval. Ben then took out the Decadriver and placed it onto his waist, equipping the Omnitrix soon after. "This is for Tsukasa!" he exclaimed, taking out the Decade card and placing it out in front of him. "Henshin!" he yelled, flipping the card and slotting it into his belt. KAMENRIDE: DECADE! The Decadriver called out, sending multiple images of a blank form of Decade around him, eventually planting themselves onto Ben's body before ten red cards were thrown onto the helmet and his eye visors glowed green with the rest of the armor glowing magenta.
Meanwhile, Julie was still battling General Shadow. The two were clashing hard, over and over again, neither backing down. Julie lifted her tennis racket into the air and brought it down on Shadow, but he just grabbed the racket and threw it aside, disarming Julie of her weapon. Julie gasped as General Shadow was now about to bring his blade down onto her. Before he could, a black and white blade blocked it, causing the two to gasp as Ben was now as Kamen Rider Decade. "Stay away from my girlfriend." He exclaimed, throwing General Shadow off. The General just chuckled and pointed his blade to Ben. "You, who are you?!" he demanded. Ben sighed and pointed a finger to Shadow. "Just a hero. Remember that!" he exclaimed back, now arming himself with the Omnitrix.
"Now, let's see what I can do with XLR8." He stated, selecting his fastest alien, XLR8, down onto the Omnitrix, causing a card to fly out of the Ride Booker and get inserted into the Decadriver. KAMENRIDE: KABUTO! The Decadriver yelled out, turning Ben into Kamen Rider Kabuto, only with the eyes green instead of blue. He then took out his Kunai Dagger and patted a small button at the side of his belt. "Clock Up XLR8!" Ben yelled out, now preparing to go at light speed. CLOCK UP: XLR8! The Decadriver announced, allowing Ben to move with the combined speed of Kamen Rider Kabuto and XLR8.
General Shadow looked around with confusion as Ben started to attack from everywhere. Shadow growled and started to send out all of his cards towards the blurs attacking him, but Ben, seeing this coming, dodged all of the cards and caught them, stopping his running and throwing the cards back in the same way Shadow did so. Shadow yelled in pain as he was thrown back, but he wouldn't give up without a fight. "Take me on!" Shadow yelled, unsheathing his sword. Ben scoffed and took out the Ride Booker Sword, preparing to take General Shadow on as he ran towards the Wielder of the Omnitrix.
General Shadow's style couldn't be defeated, so Ben was pushed back. Luckily, with the training he got from last night, Ben was able to go onto the offensive, using fencing moves he learned from Sasword and Saga to counter back. Ben chuckled as he sent Shadow to the ground, turning his sword into a blaster soon after. Shadow only spun around in his card form for defense, but Ben had other plans for how this would work. He selected Chromastone on his Omnitrix and slotted in the Kuuga KameRide card. Instead of using the usual Pegasus gun, Ben, as Kuuga, was able to shoot out of his fists, sending multiple energy blasts towards Shadow. As usual, the blasts were deflected, but since Chromastone was able to absorb any energy, he was able to send it right back, knocking General Shadow to the ground.
Shadow growled at how easily Ben was able to take him on and aimed his sword at him. "You, you were just studying my moves, weren't you?!" he demanded. Ben did nothing except nod as Shadow roared loudly. He then turned into his card form and started to fly towards Ben in a last-minute attempt to kill him, but Ben saw this coming and just stood there.
Kaito and the others watched in shock. "Oi, oi! What does Ben think he's doing out there?!" the Treasure Sniper demanded. "Don't be an open target, Ben!" Gwen yelled out, but despite what his friends were saying, Ben still did nothing.
Back on the field, Ben watched as General Shadow started to near him. As soon as he was a meter away, Ben raised his sword and slashed the card, causing General Shadow to land on the ground in pain again. Without looking behind him, Ben took out the Finisher card and slotted it into the Decadriver. FINAL ATTACKRIDE: D-D-DECADE! The Decadriver announced. Ben soon jumped up into the air and performed a backwards kick on General Shadow, creating an explosion as Ben passed through the cards of the past Heisei era Riders.
Everyone cheered for Ben as he landed back on the ground. General Shadow was now defeated, and Ben was victorious. He turned around after a while and aimed his gun at General Shadow. "Now, who are you working for? I want answers, and just saying 'The Great Leader' won't cut it." He ordered. Shadow looked up and groaned painfully. "His name… is Albedo." He replied. Ben gasped at this and in anger, he shot General Shadow, killing him in a final explosion.
Kaito, Yusuke, Natsumi, Gwen, Kevin and Julie all ran up to Ben as he opened up the Decadriver, now showing a shocked reaction on his face. "Albedo?" he asked. Gwen, Kevin and Julie were in shock as well when they heard this, but the rest of the Japanese trio just remained confused.
Back at the Dai-Shocker base, ShadowMoon walked up to Albedo in his throne. "I have received news that General Shadow has just been defeated." Nobuhiko reported. Albedo scoffed and stood up, currently as Kamen Rider Dark Decade. "All is well, ShadowMoon. After all, I never expected General Shadow to succeed, I only wanted him to be a messenger, and the message was very well received." He stated, clicking the button on a device and showing Ben in his shocked state. "Albedo?" he asked. The same footage reappeared on the rest of the screens as Albedo started to chuckle.
He then looked to the shadows and nodded. "You two will make fine additions to Dai-Shocker." He stated. At that moment, two Shocker Riders appeared and removed their helmets, revealing themselves to be Cash and JT. "After all, the enemy of my enemy is my friend." He remarked. Both of the bullies remained silent as they stepped back into the shadows. "Everything is now in place." Albedo stated, his eyes glowing dark blue as he laughed.
Author's Note: Well, everyone, did you think I did a good job or what? This is my returning chapter to The Next Decade, so I hope that you all liked it. Thanks to RenTap, I now have the right motivation to get my Kamen Rider stories done. I'll try to update more frequently, I promise. Please be sure to review, rate, and Private Message me if you can on anything about my stories. After all, I am always keen to hear from you all the time. For now, this is SuperHeroTimeFan signing off. Have a great week and Labor Day, everyone!