Arc 1 - Worlds Apart
Chapter 12: Enter the Final Showdown
Hase blinked, going to raise his arm, a blinding pain stopping him.
"Careful," chided Hina, helping Hase sit up.
"What happened?" murmured Hase, groaning as he looked around, they were in a hovercraft, Sento in the pilot's seat.
"You were shot," stated Sento, "If you weren't an Inves you would have died."
"Why did you do that?" questioned Hina as Hase looked down at his shoulder, a bandage with dark green blood leaking through, I didn't ask you to do that."
"You didn't have to, it would have killed you," replied Hase.
"It's because of what happened with BurnSting, isn't it?" asked Hina.
"You know?"
Hina sighed, "It wasn't hard to figure out, the way you and Yamato were acting made it pretty obvious."
"Wait, where's Yamato?" frowned Hase, eyes scanning around the craft.
"Onyx took him," responded Hina.
"He was disguised as Kohei," stated Sento, his voice harsh, "Six years I trusted him!"
"So how do we get Yamato back?" asked Hase, pushing himself out of his cot, grabbing a grey t-shirt and pulling it on.
"When I found Yamato in Foundation X's labs, I implanted a tracker into him," explained Sento, flashing Hina and Hase a smug smile, "It's how I found you guys at the temple."
"So we can track it back to where Onyx took Yamato," grinned Hase, pulling his leather jacket on, his fingers lingering over the hole from laser blast for a few seconds, "I'm ready to kick some X-Rider ass!"
"Not likely," spoke Hina, "You sprained your ankle yesterday and you got shot today."
Hase pulled his trouser leg up to reveal his injured ankle, now only a slight bruise, "I'll be fine, accelerated healing is a definite plus of being an Inves."
Hina frowned, "We'll see."
"So where did you dump BurnSting? Active volcano? Middle of the ocean?" joked Hase.
"Something like that," stated Sento, his voice hard.
Hase suddenly turned serious, "Good."
"There's something I need you give Yamato, you know, in case I don't," spoke Sento, drawing the Transteam Pistol from his jacket, the red device on top gone, "I took it from BurnSting, removed the additions Foundation X sullied it with."
"I've already told Hina, but from the CCTV in the hangar, Onyx destroyed the Alpha Driver," continued Sento, watching the shock form on Hase's face, "With my modifications to the Transteam Gun it should be able to use purified FullBottles as well now."
"Can the Alpha Driver be fixed?" questioned Hase.
"Probably, but it would be easier just to make a new Build Driver instead," answered Sento, "My younger self can make him a replacement."
"Thanks," nodded Hase, taking the Transteam Gun with a small smile.
As Hase walked away, Sento reached into his pocket drawing a bundle of cloth. Carefully letting it fall open, avoiding contact with what was inside, the impure Scorpion FullBottle.
Foundation X Laboratory
Yamato carefully opened his eyes.
He recognised the room he was in immediately, his entire body freezing.
It was the same room he'd woken up in when it had all started, the room where he'd become Kamen Rider Hansei, the room that haunted his dreams every night.
The door began to open, breaking Yamato out of his frozen state, shutting his eyes and pretending to be unconscious.
"Did you have to destroy the Alpha Driver, Onyx?" demanded a voice, one Yamato recognised as the scientist from when he first woke up, he still regretted injuring him in his anger.
Yamato still feared he might hurt someone like that again if he lost his temper.
"This way he can't steal it and run off again, can he?" retorted Onyx, "That really was an embarrassment for you, Dr. Tachibana."
"You know as well as I do that he didn't exactly go up against the Foundation's best soldiers, did he?" retorted Tachibana.
Onyx gave a cold laugh, "To think he thought he was hero."
Carefully opening his eyes again, Yamato looked around the lab, landing on where Onyx and Tachibana stood over a workstation, both with their backs turned to him.
"I haven't seen this in a while," commented Onyx, lifting up an axe, the original Onyx Breaker, "Why are you bothering with such inferior technology?"
"That isn't the original," explained Tachibana, taking it from Onyx, laying it back down, "It's a backup incase you damage the Transteam Breaker, again."
Onyx gave an affronted sighed, before reaching into his jacket, placing Yamato's FullBottles down on the table, "A gift, I have no use for them."
Tachibana snatched up the blue Psychic FullBottle, "If you ever take an untested prototype for my lab again I'll make sure the one afterwards blows you up!"
"Sure, sure," drawled Onyx, turning around, "Look who's awake."
Yamato pulled against the shackles holding him up against the vertical gurney.
"What did you do to me?" demanded Yamato, pulling again, feeling far weaker than he'd gotten used to since he'd been turned into a cyborg.
"I can't have you escaping now can you," spoke Tachibana, strolling up to Yamato, "So I turned your implants down a bit, not so nice being weak like you used to be?"
"ARI, turn them back on," stated Yamato, pausing, "ARI?"
"You won't be needing your AI anymore," uttered Tachibana, drawing a yellow FullBottle, throwing it up into the air and catching it, "You won't be needing it anymore, not after the operation."
"Operation?" questioned Yamato warily.
Tachibana sighed, "You know what, I'll monologue, I don't tend to do it all that much these days, I think I actually miss it a bit."
Onyx yawned, exaggerating it.
"Fine," frowned Tachibana, rolling his eyes, "An operation to extract the nebula gas that flows through your veins, considering you managed to purify the Canvas FullBottle like we hoped, it should be capable of doing the same with an impure FullBottle that's been giving me quite the problems these last six years."
Yamato eyes landed on the workstation, an impure FullBottle placed facing him, the outline of a drop of blood on the front.
"It will be my magnus opus when it is complete," explained Tachibana, "An artificial FullBottle forged from your father's blood, empowered by you sister's Nebula Gas and it will be purify with your essence, truly a power you don't deserve."
"That's why you turned my sister into a Smash, for an experiment?" snarled Yamato, his anger threatening to consume him.
"She made an excellent test subject," spoke Tachibana, with a sadistic smile, "Thanks to her, sacrifice, we discovered that the ability to resist the effect of the Nebula Gas is in some way hereditary."
"My goodness this is boring," yawned Onyx, "But at least it's not as boring as pretending to actually put up with Sento Kiryu for six years."
"What did you do to Kohei?" demanded Yamato.
"I didn't do anything," sneered Onyx, turning and walking closer to Yamato, "You did, or at least you will, very soon."
"What do you mean?" retorted Yamato, pulling again while Onyx and Tachibana watched on, "Tell me!"
Onyx laughed, "The game's been fun, but the joke is over now, Shiro."
Yamato growled, "Don't you call me that!"
"I feel betrayed, Shiro," jeered Onyx, "Didn't you ask me to call you that, don't you remember our first day of class?"
The breath caught in Yamato's lungs, he wanted to scream but nothing would come out.
Onyx stepped forward, morphing into Kohei once again, but this time he was the same young man Yamato had yelled at in the hospital, "How could you forget your best friend, Shiro."
Yamato shook his head, "No, you can be Kohei, you're just a fake!"
"Would a fake know this?" retorted Kohei, before speaking in a mocking tone, "Because you're my friend, and that's what friends do."
"Why?" uttered Yamato his face pale with shock.
"Because of what you did to me!" yelled Kohei, his entire temperament flipping in an instant, "When I went back to your room the day after Osamu took you, I found Touka, she begged me to find you, gave me an ID she stole from your father."
"So I broke into this very building all those years ago, I couldn't find you but I found a portal," continued Kohei, practically frothing at the mouth, "I heard voices so I entered the portal in panic, well, that's where it gets interesting."
"What. Happened."
Kohei leaned forward, whispering in Yamato's ear, "That's for you to find out."
"What about Touka?" questioned Yamato angrily, "You were the one who made her a Smash, didn't you?
"Starting to catch on," grinned Kohei, "She sent me to my fate, for that I took my revenge, thanks to Dr. Tachibana of course, besides the level gas needed for the experiment would lethal even to us, we need someone, disposable."
"You bastards!" growled Yamato, yanking at his shackles again.
"This is boring," stated Kohei, "Extract his essence and merge it with the Blood FullBottle."
"Come back here!" yelled Yamato as Kohei left, the door swinging shut behind him.
Portal Room
A swirl of lights flashed around Kohei as he marvelled at the sight. Looking up, he could see a circle of purple energy nearing, suddenly engulfing him.
With a crash, Kohei was spat out of master portal, back in the same room he'd just left.
"Weird," commented Kohei as he stood up, dusting himself off.
The room he was in looked almost identical to the one he'd left but when he looked closer the differences began to appear, some of the equipment was much older, some of it had been replaced entirely.
"I've so fucked up," sighed Kohei.
Resistance Hovercraft
"It's time to go!" called Sento over the roaring win, as he, Hina and Hase stood around the open cargo bay.
Hase gulped, "Can't we just land?"
"Foundation X would detect us, they can't like this," replied Sento, "Are you?"
"No, I love this sort of thing, who wouldn't love risking their lives like this," snapped Hase, "Of course I scared of heights!"
"It's fine," assured Hina, placing a hand on Hase's shoulder.
"My repulsor packs will stop us from going splat," explained Sento, "It's theory of course."
With that, Sento dropped.
"In theory!" exclaimed Hase, "You idio-"
Hina heaved, pushing Hase, watching as he fell, spinning head over heel, "As much I understand your fears, now's not the time."
Dropping out the cargo bay, Hina tucked her arms in, catching up to the flailing Hase in a few short moments.
Reaching out, Hina grabbed his arm, steadying him.
Hase glared at Hina for a few seconds before adopting the same position as her.
Accelerating downwards, the two caught up with Sento, the three of them entered positions to slow their fall.
Sento looked from Hina and Hase, before holding up his hand, counting down from five.
On one the three of them pulled the cord on their shoulder, the packs on their backs lighting up light blue, slowing their fall.
"This are amazing!" called Hase, grinned as adrenaline rushed through his veins.
Hina smiled, just about able to hear Hase.
Throwing out his arms, Hase pirouetted around and around, a silly grin on his face.
"Don't!" yelled Sento, "These are untested!"
Hase looked across at Sento, suddenly hearing a brief buzz from his pack, before finding himself plummeting to earth again.
"Hase!" called Hina, looking around the shoulder straps of her pack, "We have to save him!"
"We can't," explained Sento, "These packs don't have a backup, besides we've got bigger fish to fry."
Looking down, Hina eyes widened at the sight of one of the Foundation X base's turrets locking onto them.
"It must be programmed to stop people dropping in," commented Sento, "I should have probably thought this through."
Tumbling to earth, Hase just about managed to steady himself, looking down to see the turret firing at Hina and Sento, only just missing them.
He had to do something.
Attempting to shield himself with his arms, Hase watched in surprise as vines grew around him like a cocoon, cushioning him as he smashed into the ground, leaves flying everywhere.
"YES!" yelled Hase, dropping his arms and aiming at the turret as he accelerated.
Closing his eyes, Hase crossed his arms in front of his chest, hoping and praying to whichever god would listen that his would work.
Opening his eyes, Hase's eyes glowed gold as he changed into Inves form, vines growing from all over his body, weaving around him to form a bullet shape.
"I'm sorry, Jonouchi," whispered Hase, continuing to rocket towards the turret, "I won't be able to see you again."
"No!" called Hina, watching in horror at the vine bullet struck the turret, exploding in a massive fireball.
Hina struggled to hold back tears while Sento looked down at the fiery remains of the turret, horror in his eyes, it was his fault.
A hail of laser fire forced Sento from his dazed state, looking down to see Foundation X goons firing at them.
Pulling his Driver from his jacket, Sento slammed it onto his waist, summoning the Drill Crusher, using it to return fire.
A stray shot soared through the sky, hitting Hina's pack, sending her tumbling to the ground.
"Hina!" exclaimed Sento, reaching out his hand.
Fumbling with her Core Medals, Hina tried to slot them into her OOO Driver, losing her grip on them.
Hase looked around him at the solid white light around him.
"Great, I died, again," sighed Hase, frowning as he realised he was speaking English fluently, something he couldn't normally do.
"Not quite," spoke an ethereal voice.
"Who's there?"
"Hello, Hase," spoke Kouta as he faded into existence in front of Hase, in his godly form.
"Kouta?" uttered Hase, stepping forward.
Kouta nodded, smiling slightly, "In the flesh, well, not really."
"You're an actual god," spoke Hase, "How could you let this war happened, how could you let Faust and Foundation X?"
"If I could, I would," sighed Kouta, folding his arms, "The Pandora's Box blocks me from interfering directly, but you can go back, change things."
"How?"
"I can give you portion of my power," explained Kouta as he shimmered, shifting into his civilian form, "Just a sliver, that's all I can."
"Why do you trust me?" asked Hase, "I treated you like dirt when we we both still human."
"You're still my friend," smiled Kouta, "You always were."
Reaching out, Kouta opened his hand to reveal a Matsubokkuri Energy Lockseed, the plastic gold, a Genesis Core appearing next to it.
Taking them, Hase held one in each hand as he looked down at them.
"Hase, there's something I need to remember," spoke Kouta, his face turning serious, "When man and machine become one, when the gem is cracked, save the enemy, save the world."
Hase frowned, "What does that mean?"
Hina continued to rocket towards the earth, her attempts to grab her Core Medals in vain, just out of her reach as she accelerated away from them.
Sento scrambled to get into his jacket, the straps stopping him from retrieving his Taka FullBottle. A sudden movement catching his attention, Sento watched as golden beams of light began to shine out of the ruins of the turret.
The metal suddenly exploded outwards as Hase soared into the air, wings of golden energy carrying him, his eyes glowing the matching. colour
Reaching Hina, Hase stretched his arm out, slowing his fall, using his other arm to snatch Hina's medals out the air as they passed them.
Floating towards the ground, Hina and Hase touched down behind the cover of a truck. Hase grunted as the golden energy wings retracted within his body, the glow of his eyes fading away.
"Next time, I catch you," spoke Hina, leaning against the truck, catching her breath.
"It that a promise?" replied Hase, doing the same thing.
"Yeah," uttered Hina before they both burst into laughter.
"Now's not the time for whatever this is," spoke Sento as he landed in front of Hina and Hase, having cut the repulsor pack off early, using the Rabbit FullBottle's power to cushion his fall.
Hina and Hase both looked affronted and embarrassed for a few seconds, before copying Sento as he drew his Build Driver.
"Let's give them hell," stated Sento, drawing the Gorilla and Tank FullBottles.
"Gladly," grinned Hase, fitting his Matsubokkuri Lockseed into his Sengoku Driver, before swapping his Rider Indicator out for the Genesis Core that Kouta had given him.
[MATSUBOKKURI!] [MATSUBOKKURI ENERGY!]
Inserting the golden Energy Lockseed into his Driver, Hase slammed the knife down, opening both the Lockseeds as he stepped out from behind cover.
[SOIYA! - MATSUBOKKURI ARMS! ICHIGEKI IN THE SHADOWS!] [TATAMI MATSUBOKKURI!] [WASSHOI!]
Two armour parts appeared above Hase, both Matsubokkuri, however one glowed with gold energy. Spinning around Hase, the armour parts deflected the hail of laser fire before merging into an armour part similar to Jinba and dropping onto Hase, a black undersuit appearing, similar to Kurokage but with the leg armour changed to gold. Circle patterns in gold on the thighs and gauntlets of the suit, the chest silver with the same quilted pattern as Gaim and Zangetsu, a Musoh Saber at his waist.
The black and silver armour part unfolded, resembling a lighter variant of a Jinba armour, the black chest section made of interlocking black hexagons, a golden matsubokkuri pattern down the side of the armour.
"Woah!" exclaimed Hina and Sento in union as Hase's new form was revealed.
"I think it's time I took a new name, after all, you idiots did steal mine," commented Hase, grinning under his helmet, "How about Yariha, Kamen Rider Yariha, yeah, I like it."
"Spear blade?" murmured Hina.
Holding out his hand, the Kagematsu-Shin appeared in his grip. Swinging it around, Yariha used it to block the Foundation X Kurokage Troopers' laser fire away, a couple of shots even reflecting back at the Troopers.
Once the laser fire had stopped, Yariha held the Kagematsu-Shin out in front of him before tapping it on the ground. A golden haze surrounded Yariha before he suddenly split into three.
"Fascinating," murmured Sento as Yariha multiplied again, the nine riders standing in the line.
"Six attack, three support," ordered the center Yariha, the rest springing into action, the three on the end of each side rushed at the Kurokage Troopers, while the center three summoned Sonic Arrows, sniping at the Troopers.
"Better get into it," commented Sento, slotting the Gorilla and Tank FullBottles into his Driver and charging into the battle, "Can't let him have all the fun!"
Hina nodded, slotting her medals into her Driver, "He'd be unbearable if he won all by himself."
[GORILLA!] [TANK!] [ARE YOU READY?!]
[TA-TO-BA! TATOBA! TATOBA!]
Build and Hoshii charged past the support Yariha clones, drawing the Drill Crusher and Birth Buster respectively. Swinging the Muscle Glove, Build sent a Trooper flying backwards, allowing a Yariha to slash them across the chest.
"We need to get into the facility!" called Build as he, Hoshii and one of the Yariha split off, running ahead.
"That not going to happened," announced a voice.
The three riders looked up in time to see a dark figure fall from the roof above, landing with a crash in front of them.
"Onyx!" sneered Yariha as he multiplied again, momentarily having to hold himself up with his Kagematsu-Shin before his strength returned.
Unhooking the Transteam Breaker from his back, Noir, in Onyx Form, strolled forward.
"You won't be rescuing your friend," sneered Noir, "In fact, Tachibana should just about be finished extracting Shiro's Nebula Gas from his body, and after that, he'll be disposed of, waste material."
"You bastard!" spat the center Yariha, the three duplicates charged at Noir.
Holding up his Psychic FullBottle, Noir gave it a quick shake, Build, Hoshii and the Yariha doubles freezing in place, "Let's have some fun."
"Onyx, the Blood FullBottle is complete, it is time for the next stage of Project Harbinger," spoke a voice, identical to ARI's, in his ear.
"Shame, I'd been looking forward to this," sighed Noir, drawing three strange devices like large golf balls with two slots in the top of each, "Time for a field test."
Drawing six FullBottles, Noir inserted two into each device before tossing them into the air. Turning around and beginning to walk away as the devices unfolded into Guardian heads, hovering into the air at head height as frames appeared around them.
[NINNINCOMIC!] [ROCKETPANDA!] [FIREHEDGEHOG!] [BEST MATCH!]
The armours snapped shut, the Guardian heads attached to the three suits.
"Have fun with the BuildRoids," commented Noir before suddenly blurring away as the riders were released from their paralysis.
Yariha dropped to his knee as the other clones vanished, streams of light flying back into the original version. Grunting in pain, Yariha held his head.
"Hase?" exclaimed Hoshii, rushing to Yariha, "What's wrong?"
"The memories of all the others," uttered Yariha, standing as the worst of the pain passed, shaking his head, "I'm fine."
"You two go," spoke Build, pointing at the BuildRoids waiting to attack, "I'll hold these guys off."
"You can't!" argued Hoshii.
"Don't worry, I'll be fine," replied Build, he hoped he sounded more confident than he felt.
"Thank you," nodded Hoshii, pausing for a second before she and Yariha took off.
Turning to face the BuildRoids, Build sighed, drawing the Rabbit FullBottle and quickly changing to RabbitTank Form.
[RABBITTANK!]
"The laws of victory have been determined!" called Build, before switching the Drill Crusher to blade mode and charging at the FireHedgehog BuildRoid.
Tachibana's Lab
Yamato's chest heaved as the pain began to recede, his vision coming back into focus, Onyx was back.
Tachibana held out a briefcase, "The Blood FullBottle is complete, take this and return to 2017, take your younger version's place, I've included all my research from the last six years, make sure that I get it."
Onyx sighed, "You don't need to tell me the plan again, or is it for Shiro's benefit?"
"He is of little concern," sneered Tachibana, "He will be disposed of post haste, without the Nebula Gas he is powerless."
Onyx smiled, the mirth not reaching his eyes as he turned and left, shutting the door behind him.
"How wrong you are," spoke Onyx, hovering for a few seconds before setting off again.
Back inside the lab, Yamato grunted in pain as he tried to pull against the restraints, finding himself even weaker than before.
"This will be a most enlightening experiment, be glad your life is going to good use," explained Tachibana as he pulled on a gas mask, before hitting a button in his keyboard.
Nebula Gas flooded the lab from a vent in the wall, within seconds it was tickling Yamato's nostrils. Taking a deep breath, Yamato's eyes began to water, holding on desperately.
"Now, now, no cheating," scolded Tachibana, mockingly, stepping forward and punching Yamato in the gut, expelling the air from his lungs, forcing him to breath in the Nebula Gas.
Eyes bulging, Yamato struggled and contorted as the gas worked it's way into his bloodstream.
"The operation rendered you Hazard Level 1.0, with prolonged exposure you will soon perish," informed Tachibana casually.
Yamato screamed, the pain was immense, like someone had dropped a building on him. He'd failed, he wouldn't see Touka or his mother again, he couldn't make it home.
Yamato, wake up!
Jerking his head up, the pain wracking his body, Yamato's eyes widened.
ARI? How?
I'm not sure, but you have to fight this, I know you can!
I don't know it I can, I think this is where my story ends.
No, no it isn't, in the ten months I've been with you, I've had direct line into your thoughts and feelings. Your emotions have taught be what it's like to human, if they can do that, you can do this! For Touka, Hase, Hina, your mother, for me!
Yamato's emotions began to reach boiling point, for months he'd been pushing them down, barely keeping his violent temper under control. That had got him where he was, so Yamato let go, letting his emotions engulf him.
Giving a loud roar, Yamato opened his eyes, glowing white as the Nebula Gas in the lab began to be sucked towards Yamato, entering him.
"What are you doing!" yelled Tachibana, watching on his screen as Yamato's Hazard Level began to increase, passing 2.0 in only a few seconds.
"Stop it! Stop it!" shouted Tachibana, starting to sound desperate as he shut off the Nebula Gas.
Yanking his arm, Yamato broke the restraint, before doing the same with the other three. Dropping down, Yamato stalked towards Tachibana, who cowered in fear.
Anger etched onto his face, eyes still glowing, Yamato reached down and picked Tachibana up by the same arm he'd broken all those months ago.
"A reminder of why you shouldn't fuck with me," snarled Yamato, squeezing his grip on Tachibana's arm, feeling the bone snap and crumble.
Tachibana howled in pain, Yamato continuing to apply pressure, blood dripping from his hand.
"You murdered my sister, exposed her to Nebula Gas and turned her into a Smash," growled Yamato, hitting a button on Tachibana's keyboard, Nebula Gas beginning to flood into the lab again, "Seems only fitting to return the favour."
Ripping the mask from Tachibana's face, Yamato twisted his arm around and forced his nose and mouth against the vent.
Screaming in a mixture of terror and agony, Tachibana spasmed uncontrollable as Yamato continued to holding him place.
Tachibana fell silent, his body going limp, Yamato dropping him to the floor. Shutting of the Nebula Gas, the strength suddenly leaving Yamato, forcing him to hold onto the workstation.
Looking down at Tachibana, his face scorched dark green by the Nebula Gas, Yamato wanted to feel guilt, remorse. But he didn't, he only felt satisfaction.
He deserved it, Yamato.
"Who makes be judge, jury and executioner," spoke Yamato.
That's not important right now, if Onyx escapes to the past who knows what kind of mayhem he will unleash.
Yamato sighed, "You're right."
Turning to face the workstation, Yamato quickly located his FullBottles, stashing them away. Picking up the two halves of his Alpha Driver, Yamato looked sadly at them before adding them to his jacket.
"This will have to do," uttered Yamato, taking the Onyx Breaker from the workstation, using the sheath it was in to strap it to his back.
The Alpha Driver, it seems the power supply and storage are undamaged, contained wholly on one side of the Driver.
"Some good news at least," muttered Yamato, before slowly picking up the yellow FullBottles, the head of an ankylosaurus on the front, "So this is where you are?"
Correct, this FullBottle has been modified with a storage device powerful and large enough to host my program.
Turning the Ankylo FullBottle over in his hand, Yamato tucked it onto his jacket pocket before setting off, opening the lab door, starting to follow the same path he'd taken the last time he been in this facility.
