The Skull Rider's head snapped upright. "He's here," he said.
"You can tell?" said Briggs. "What, do you have some kind of Rider sense?"
Skull Rider looked at her. He said nothing. The skeletal gaze painted on his helmet said more than any words could.
"Yeah, I know," Briggs said. "I can't believe I said that either."
"He IS here."
"I've seen just enough these past few days to start believing you," Briggs said. She rammed a magazine into her pistol and racked back the slide. "We wait for the Rider to draw the monster away. Then we can come around from behind and-"
"We should run," the Rider caught him off. "This fight is the Rider's alone."
"You wouldn't be here if that were true," said Briggs. "Besides, you don't know this Rider like I do. He's strong… strongest thing I've ever seen. But he's… well, he's kind of an idiot."
The Skull Rider was silent. Briggs shrugged.
"It's kind of endearing, actually," she said. "Like Charlie Brown. And he needs all the help he can get from us."
"We had better hurry then," said the Skull Rider, readying her shotgun. "The battle is already begun."
This monster was an ugly one. They were all ugly ones, but this one in particular. Its body was all chitin and stingers, and it wore a shirt of some thick, honeycombed mesh in an un-comprehending imitation of armor. Four wings sprouted from the monster's back, making a noise like an idling chainsaw every time they moved. Its bug-eyed, mandibled head was more insect-like than either the spider, Hopper, or Exo himself, making this monster look like it had just stepped out of an episode of Beast Wars.
This one had made a big showing of it too, actually dropping to the ground when he saw the Rider arrive, introducing himself by name – Sphex, or something like that – and asking Steve to transform so they could fight properly.
Exo responded by punching him in the face.
"Good!" Sphex said, trading blows with Exo and giving ground to him. Their fight spilled backwards into a back alley, Exo wearing his crimson armor as he pummeled his opponent with fist and elbow and heel. In his mind he had called this his Warrior Mode. His every muscle and sinew felt like he wanted to tear his opponent apart with his bare hands. "I had heard of your prowess before, but I had not the chance to challenge you!" the monster continued. "The sleep of ages has only made me-"
"Shut up and die already!" Exo shouted, launching a fierce blow at the monster. Sphex dodged out of the way with a practiced grace, grabbing Exo around the neck and shoulder and slamming his head into a metal grate. Exo let out a cry that was less a grunt of pain and more a roar of primal fury.
The rider summoned all his strength and threw Sphex off of him. He flew back into a pipe, and Exo kicked him back further. The pipe burst like a water balloon, spraying the monster with gouts of hot, white steam, forcing him to one knee.
"Everything… I could have expected," the wasp coughed, rising to his feet. "Now let us ascend to my domain!"
The monster spread his wings and took to the sky, his infernal buzzing roaring in Exo's hearing. Vaulting the same gate his head had so recently been acquainted with, he charged up the fire escape towards his foe.
"Climbing fire escapes… this is my life now…" he groaned, his heavy feet slamming down on the metal steps. "Skirmish Form!" he shouted, his legs pumping faster and faster, his armor turning from red to blue. "Oh yeah!" he roared, taking two, then three steps with each lightning stride. "Get ready to kiss the hurricane, brundlefly!"
He leapt from the stairway straight up to the roof. Nobody was there. Exo looked from one corner to the other like a dog who could have sworn you really threw the tennis ball. His blue eyes scanned looking past the safety rails to the cityscape beyond, searching for any sign of motion in the sky.
"Oh… I see how it is!" Exo called out, stepping carefully towards the center of the rooftop. "I get one good hit on you and you have to go flying back home to your queen!"
There was a sudden buzzing in his ears, just at the edge of hearing. He felt it behind him.
"Gotch-" he shouted, just in time to get kicked in the face. He flew back into the railing, crashing hard against the metal. "Aaagh, you jerk!"
"Taunting does not become you," said Sphex, dropping to the ground. "I preferred your taciturn form."
"You don't get how this goes, bug-face!" said Exo, launching into a blisteringly fast attack on Sphex. "You're here to entertain me!"
His punches were solid, and they were fast, but as before, Sphex simply shrugged them off, knocking the weakened Skirmish form to the ground with blows that seemed almost casual. Dropping to the ground, Exo tried to sweep the monster's feet out from under him, but Shpex jumped, spreading his wings at the apex and vanishing into the sky.
"So we're gonna do this now?" Exo said, scanning the sky for some sign, any sign, of the attacking monster. He searched the horizon with wide, unblinking eyes, but couldn't see so much as a speck of his foe. For a moment, alone at the top of the world with silence as his only company, his vision flashed a brilliant green.
He heard the buzzing of wings at the last second, but it was too late. He turned towards his attacker, but for all his speed, the wasp-monster was faster. A devastating kick sent Exo flying off the roof. He flailed his hands, grasping for some purchase, and through luck alone managed to get his hands on a railing, the force of his landing all but tearing his arms from his shoulders.
Something, the shock of the landing, the surprise of the attack, the humiliation of the easy defeat, spurred a change in his body. A second transformation, his armor shifting from a sky blue to an ocean green.
The last one had only taken a second, but this one felt like years. He could feel his armored skin growing so hot it glowed, feel it shifting around him like molten iron in a mold, feel every cell of himself ever just slightly shifting out of place.
Through his hands, he could feel the building shiver as the wind buffeted it, feel footsteps clattering on tile floors. He could look at the wall and see a menagerie of creatures so small to be seen by the human eye, thousands of them crawling along their infinite vertical plane. And he could hear voices coming to him along the wind, thousands of souls all speaking at once, too many to be anything but noise, endless cacophonous noise, battering his senses from all directions. The strain of it was too much… he was losing focus… losing his grip…
"Exo!" That voice was clear. Powerful hands clasped about his wrists and pulled, two people lifting him off his precarious position and back on to solid footing. He could hear them speaking, but their voices were lost once more in the maelstrom of his senses. The big one, the one in the skull mask. There was something about that one that set his brain on edge. A 'smell' in the air was as close as he could get to putting a name to the feeling, at least with his normal senses. A smell that wasn't human.
"Hey!" Briggs slapped his green chest. It hardly bore any resemblance to human anatomy now, with a design of symmetrical geometric shapes on his chest. A single pointed shoulder pad was atop his left shoulder, and a green band wrapped around the opposite bicep. "Kid, is that you in there?"
Exo turned to look at Briggs, cocking his head at her. She was familiar in all of this, at least. She would be something he knew was there. As he looked at her, the sensations overwhelming his brain slowly began to fade.
"It could hardly be anyone else, Agent Briggs," he said, at last. "My new abilities appear to be more varied than they seemed at first, but my identity is the same."
"That's… good…" said Briggs, sharing a look with the impassive rider beside her. He had nothing to add. "Did you kill that thing?"
"Not as of yet," Exo said, his voice cold and emotionless. "This creature holds air supremacy in this battle."
"We think that if you can draw it out enough for us to get a good shot at it-" Briggs began.
"You will not be necessary," said Exo. "The transformative nature of my abilities extends beyond my own body. I can transmute matter at the atomic level and create weaponry beyond anything humans can wield."
"…are you sure this is the same guy?" asked the Skull Rider.
"Not entirely," said Briggs. "Kid, are you okay?" she asked, waving a hand in front of his face. "You don't seem like yourself."
"I am transformed," the Rider said. "I am superior to my previous state. I am superior to you."
"That remains to be seen," the Skull Rider said.
"Conversation wastes time," Exo said, his voice still cold and flat. "You are not required for victory. All I need is your weapon."
Exo held out his hand, and then… stood there, like a statue, or a machine that had been switched off. Briggs and the Skull Rider glanced at each other.
"Listen… kid, I know that you're eager, but you've never held a gun before," she said, her eyes flickering from her gun to the unmoving rider. "Besides, I'm a federal officer, I can't just-"
Exo's hand shot out, grabbing Brigg's gun-arm.
"Your weapon is required," Exo said, twisting her wrist. "Your cooperation is not."
Briggs could feel her bones grinding and straining against each other. The rider was stronger, but she fought to keep hold of her weapon. A bloody tear dripped from her eye, the one just below the scar across her face.
The Skull-Rider pressed his gun against Exo's green eye, the barrel making a dull thunk as it hit that bulbous orb.
"You will not hurt this human."
Exo turned from Briggs to the gun-barrel, and then back to Briggs. Exo stared at her defiant, bloody eyes. Steve released her wrist.
"Oh… oh my god…" he said, backing away as far as he could in the narrow alley. "B-Briggs, I-"
Brigg's gun was pointed in his face in an instant. Steve felt he might throw up if his body could figure out how his digestive system worked.
"Stand down," said the Skull Rider, lowering his gun. "It's over."
"Like hell it is!" said Briggs, blinking away a streak of red. "This thing is just like all the others… just waiting for the slightest advantage over us. Was this all your long game you lying bastard?"
"Briggs… Briggs I…" the armor faded and there was Steve, his hands shaking and tears in his eyes. The gun that had been pointed at the Masked Rider's face was now aiming just slightly over Steve's head. "I don't know what… what happens to me when I change," he said, his blue eyes wide and fearful as the agent aimed her gun between them. "But when I do… I can fight like nothing else. I'm like a demon wrapped in the armor of a god. I need the Rider, Briggs… I can't do this, but Exo can."
Briggs stared at him for several seconds. The Skull Rider looked from on to the other, his hand never leaving the grip of his weapon. Finally, Briggs lowered her weapon.
"I hate when you're right," she said.
"I ain't to happy about it either," Steve replied. "But I still need your gun."
"Well I'm still not giving it to you."
The Skull Rider silently unholstered a pistol and handed it to Steve.
"You… you could have done that from the beginning!" Steve said.
"You had to earn it," said the Rider.
"Nobody can give a goddamn straight answer on this case," said Briggs.
"You two need to get out of here," said Steve, gesturing with his gun. Briggs ducked, the Skull Rider didn't. "I'll go take care of the monster."
He started up the stairs and Briggs grabbed his sleeve.
"Hey, kid… be careful," she said, and there was something vaguely approaching compassion in her voice. Steve blinked, and nodded. "And remember," she continued. "Be sure of your target and what's behind it. Keep your finger on the trigger until you it in your sights. Never point the gun at anything you don't want to shoot. And most of all, no matter what, no matter the situation, your gun is always loaded. Always."
"Always?" Steve asked. "Even when it's empty?"
"Especially when it's empty," said Briggs. "Now you go take that bastard down."
Steve ran back up the stairs to the top of the building, gun in hand. He couldn't see the wasp anywhere, but he knew, he knew as sure that his feet were on a solid floor, that he was there, waiting for him.
Steve drew in his breath and formed the motion focus, finding the claw-grip of his hands meshing well with the grip of a gun.
"No fear…" he said, intoning the mantra as he moved his hands. "…no pain…" he said, drawing his hands in, forming the belt around his waist. "Masked Rider, Exo! Archer form!"
The black-and-green armor formed around him in a burst of light, and the energy spread down his arm to the pistol in his hand. It formed… something like a crossbow, but the golden bow was aligned vertically, and there was no string. Green crystals shone in the black body of the weapon, and a golden arrowhead emerged from the tip. A handle emerged from the other hand, and Exo pulled back on in, producing what even the Archer Form thought was a very satisfying noise.
Exo raised his gun to the sky, his eyes taking in detail he had never thought possible. He could see planes flying far beyond the horizon, count the feathers on passing birds, see the dance of clouds as though he was floating on the breeze beside them. And he could see Sphex, a tiny darting speck flitting through the air, but he could see him. And that was enough.
"Target acquired," said Exo, and loosed his arrow. The golden bolt shot through the sky as fast as any bullet. Exo looked down. He didn't need to see his bolt strike home. It wasn't even perfunctory. He knew it would find its mark.
Sphex felt an instant of surprise as the golden arrow pierced his chest. Then it was all over but a ball of fire hanging in the air like a second sun.
Exo turned to return down the stairs, but then he saw something, something that even he could barely distinguish. It was the shape of a man, but with the wings of a bat, watching him from atop a smokestack in the distance. It raised a hand to Exo in mock salute.
Steve raised his bow-gun, but Murcielago was already swooping down into the sea of buildings. The monster was lost to him.