Episode 014: Mayu

Author's Note #1:

This chapter also revisits Mayu's story from episode 26 and 27 of Kamen Rider Wizard, then episode 40 and 41 of the aforementioned series where she became Kamen Rider Mage.

Given the Space Explorers are expies of The Avengers (the Marvel Cinematic Universe version), Mayu is a cross between Scarlet Witch and Doctor Strange.

It appears Mayu knows the members of the Special Investigation Unit ranging from Shinnosuke

-Enter Mayu Inamori-

Astonished at the sight to see another female Rider, Samus finds herself someone equal in Mayu.

"So, you're a police detective?", Samus asked Mayu. "At the same time, a magician?"

"Yeah.", Mayu nodded. "I heard about from friend about someone in a great suit of armor protecting people."

Samus continued, "Are you related to a certain Kamen Rider called Wizard?", as Samus pulls out a Flame Dragon Ring from her pocket. This was the same Flame Dragon Ring that Haruto dropped after the magician exorcised a Phantom within her, at the same time that granted the bounty hunter the Dragon Suit.

"Oh, you've met Haruto."

The bounty hunter continued, "Yeah. Mayu is it? How did you find me?"

Mayu reveals that, given the fact that she knows Shinnosuke AND Go, she was recommended to be working with Samus's crew. It was Shinnosuke who recommended the young Mage to be an ally to the Space Explorers.

"You must be Samus, right?", Mayu bit her lip. "You're not from here, are you?"

"It's a long story. Perhaps we should talk this elsewhere, at the Command Tower."

Though Mayu hasn't seen the Command Tower, she pulls out the Teleport Wizard Ring and scans it on the Hand Author in her belt.

*Teleport, Now!*

She can even use magic without transforming... as Samus observed Mayu's usage of her Wizard Rings. Seconds later after Mayu scans the Teleport Ring, she and Samus stepped on the Magic Portal as they warp to the Command Tower.

-Broken Reflections-

Meanwhile in the Command Tower...

A discussion ensues on the observatory, Ange has first saw a Kamen Rider that can use magic. What worries her, given that she's a Norma - can be a detriment to Mayu.

Mitsuzane notices the uneasiness on Ange's face, so does Tusk.

"What's wrong, Ange-kun?", Mitsuzane asked. "You look all riled up all of the sudden."

"That woman uses magic with her rings.", Ange replies, referring to Mayu. Then, Ange herself shows her ring to Mitsuzane. "My own ring is different than hers."

"How long that ring of yours have been around your finger?", the young Kureshima looked closely at the emerald ring worn by Ange.

"It was given to me by my mother a night before my baptism, or rather the fateful day I was revealed to be a Norma."

Not only that, the royal ring also serves as the key to pilot Villkiss, in which deduced by the young Kureshima himself. Before Ange can bring up how she was outed from her kingdom after the revelation of her being a Norma, Alain interrupted, also bringing up his own side of his own story.

Back in the Ganma world several months back, Alain gets framed by Adel for killing their father, which in reality, Adel usurps their father to ascend to the throne, which leads to Alain being exiled to the real world. But, when Alain returned to their world with Takeru to rescue Makoto, Adel murders his own father in cold blood. In a sense. Ange is just like Alain, they are born in a royal family, as they come at age, their rights to royalty being taken away at the wrong place at the wrong time, which changed them forever.

Oh, it goes deeper than that. As Mitsuzane notes that Ange is not different from the whole Space Explorers aside from Alain - given that Ange is a pragmatic combatant, Samus herself is pragmatic, with or without the suit. During her exile in Arzenal, Ange becomes self-destructive, seeing nothing but shades of grey; something what Mitsuzane is today as he himself reminds this to her. Like Makoto, Ange herself is well-driven individual, but is an anti-social loner; something what Makoto was before Kanon's revival. Lastly, Go had prejudiced animosity towards Roidmudes, seeing them as anti-social monsters; heck, this is what Ange herself would have been like, when she first encountered a Norma a day before the revelation of her as a Norma itself.

"Well, it all make sense.", Mitsuzane scratched his head awkwardly, "Given the fact we heard your (Ange) side of the story. It can't be helped that we ourselves also work as broken reflections of yourself."

"What do you mean?", Ange sounded skeptical about Mitsuzane's last sentence, given to its cryptic statement.

"It's a long story.", Alain replied.

"We faced ordeals in our way, just like how you survived your own.", Makoto added.

Mitsuzane continued, "To sum it up, we're also a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're a walking time bomb."

*Teleport, Now!*

A Magic Portal emerges on the observatory entrance with Mayu and Samus appearing through it.

"Who is that woman?", Alain asked.

-Mayu and the Space Explorers-

"Gentlemen, this is Mayu Inamori.", Samus introduces Mayu to the crew. "She happens to be a Kamen Rider herself, that is, she's also a mage. It seems she's going to be a part of us."

Somehow, Mitsuzane recognizes the name, "Did Shijima-senpai and Tomari-san told you about us?"

"Yeah. I was told by Tomari-san about you guys. I heard you guys fought some Ganma a month back.", Mayu replied, before looking at Ange, Tusk, and Momoka. "Who are those three kids?"

"They came from an Earth Colony called AZ-007. These children escaped with us when their home planet was invaded by intergalactic outlaws that we still have to find out who they are.", Samus replied.

"Oh, my sympathies.", Mayu paused for a moment before she could interact with her successor Riders.

"Umm, Inamori-san...", said Mitsuzane.

"Just call me Mayu only.", the private investigator insists to be called with her first name aside from honorifics.

The young Kureshima continued, "You were with the police force, are you?"

"Yup.", Mayu replied. "Before I went on to be a private investigator recently." Then, turns her attention to Ange, after the latter notices her ring, which happens to be a size of bottle cap.

Ange approaches Mayu to look closely at the latter's amber ring, which somehow allowed her to transform into Kamen Rider Mage.

"What's your name?", the black-haired woman asked.

"Ange."

"Ange? As in Angelise?", Mayu continued.

"I used to be called Angelise, but I would be referred to be Ange."

This is not the first time that Mayu is not familiar of someone like Ange, since she (Mayu) has recently became the sixth member of the Space Explorers, though few of the Space Explorers have recently learned of Ange's personal, Mayu does not.

-Mach vs. Graphite, part 1-

Meanwhile, a fight between Mach and Graphite ensues. Pallad looks on nonchalantly as he plays with his handheld console as if he wasn't doing anything.

Go dodges Graphite's swing of his pole-arm, as he dodges every swing of Graphite's spear, all while taunting the Bugster as well calling Graphite a "Bugsie", much to his frustration.

"Hey, Bugsie with a perm!", Go calls out Pallad with the same slur he threw to Graphite. "What are you sitting there playing with those shit? Genm Corporation's games are boring, you know!"

Pallad replies, "It's my hobby."

The white Kamen Rider with a mouth taunts him, "You better wipe off that shit-ass grin off over that coochy face of yours after I'm done with your lizard friend here!", then gives Pallad a middle-finger afterwards.

Pallad doesn't give a damn about Go's threats. Though, Graphite is itching for a good fight, Go enjoys trolling him, which causes Graphite in the verge of losing his temper, as each time Mach dodges Graphite's swings from his lance, the white Rider takes pleasure of laughing and throwing salvos of profane words at the green Bugster.

"Over here, asshole!", Mach runs at super-fast speeds after doding Graphite.

"Stand still, you spineless coward!", an irate Graphite goes livid as Go speeds away from the swing of his lance.

"Bitch, please.", Go continues upsetting Graphite as he effortlessly used his superhuman speed to dodge each thrust of his lance. "Is that all you got, jackass?", Go gives the Bugster another middle finger as he smacks Graphite with the Zenrin Shooter's front wheel.

-New Ridley Destroyer Armor-

Back in the Command Tower, on the laboratory at the 20th floor, it seems Samus, Mitsuzane, Rinna, and Ghor are working on another set of armor.

On the lab, all seven of Samus's Legend Rider Suits were contained in a hall of armor. The Xtreme, Phoenix, Shuttle, Dragon, Shogun, Tridoron, and the Phantom Suits were encased in glass capsules. Any of the suits disappear from the capsule each time they are activated.

The armor currently on development is an upgraded and improved Ridley Destroyer Armor. The last time the Ridley Destroyer Armor was last used by Mitsuzane during the final assault on the Ganma world. Several weeks later after moving back to Zawame, Samus thought about giving improved customization of the armor. As such, per Samus's recommendation, she and Ghor provided the upgraded suit with autonomous prehensile propulsion system, allowing the user, Mitsuzane in particular can summon the armor's pieces with a force of will through a special device in the form of the V-Scope. A translucent eyepatch that works like Samus's visor systems.

"So, that's the finished product.", said Mitsuzane.

Samus gives Mitsuzane the V-Scope. "The V-Scope acts as a transformation device whenever you want to use the suit. Ghor and Professor Rinna added autonomous prehensile propulsion to the Ridley Destroyer Armor without the need of materializing the armor like I usually do."

"Looks like the upgraded product is sexy as hell.", the young Kureshima smiled.

Moments later, Mayu enters the laboratory, only to be marveled at the sight of the seven armors in their capsules, among those is the Dragon Suit, which happens to be based on Wizard's Flame Dragon Style and his All Dragon form.

"They're amazing...", Mayu gazed on the Dragon Suit's capsule.

"These suits were the proof that I have encountered the Kamen Riders which they're powers were based on.", Samus appeared before Mayu.

"How do you put those armors on?"

"In general, my Power Suit is a modular armor. It is a part of me.", said the bounty hunter as she demonstrates on materializing her suit. "These Rider Suits are the fourth layers to my suit whenever I need to use a Kamen Rider's power with it. Observe."

Samus demonstrates her suit-up sequence into the Dragon Suit as the said armor disappears from its capsule as Samus wears it through a suit-up command.

"Wow, you can wear these suits?", Mayu was amazed.

See you next mission...

Author's Note #2:

- Mitsuzane quotes a line from Marvel's The Avengers (2012).

- Samus has her own hall of armor in the Command Tower's laboratory, which is based on the Iron Man films.

- The V-Scope is based on the Scouter from the Dragon Ball franchise and the Solid Eye from Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

- Given the fact that the new Ridley Destroyer Amror gets an autonomous prehensility upgrade, it makes it more of the Mark 42 from Iron Man 3.