Chapter 8: Wolf Diver! Electric Construction!

Over at the Covention Center in Bonesborough, the head of the Construction Coven, Mason, was overseeing the construction needed for the upcoming festival.

"Okay, come on you guys," he said to his fellow Construction witches, "we've got to get this finished before tomorrow!"

Just then, a bunch of beings wearing hoods crashed through the windows and began to attack Mason. One tried to do an overhand swing, but Mason grabbed his arm and dragged him outside, causing everyone to run away. He then took out his hammer, tossed them into the air, and whacked the hooded being away. Mason tightened his grip on the hammer, making the glyph engraved into its side glow. A few of the Hooded Followers attempted to attack him, but Mason raised his hammer and slammed it against the ground. Suddenly, the earth beneath his feet rumbled and shook as several rock spikes jutted out in all directions from his position. The Hooded Followers were forced to back away from the sudden appearance of the spikes, but Mason wasn't done. The muscle-bound witch drew a spell circle with his left hand and pressed it against the ground, conjuring a stone pillar that launched him into the air. Mason held the hammer with both hands and struck the earth the moment he landed, causing a shockwave that resonated through the dirt and rock.

The impact tossed most of the Hooded Followers into the air, for a few moments before Mason drew another spell circle and made several bowling ball sized chunks of earth to rise. Mason began striking each of the chunks of earth, sending them flying like cannonballs straight at the Hooded Followers that were still airborne. The Followers were either sent flying into the sides of the buildings or knocked out and laid unconscious on the ground. Mason looked upon his work, crossed his arms, and then nodded his approval at the efficiency of which he dispatched that batch of the Hooded Followers. Mason turned around and readied his hammer to launch another attack at the next batch of Hooded Followers. However, before Mason could swing his mighty hammer, something struck the hammer in his hand. A loud metallic "clunk!" sound resonated in the air as Mason's weapon was sent flying into the air before landing on the ground, causing a small crater to form.

Mason saw the object that had hit his weapon, it was a harpoon that was connected via a chain link. The Head of the Construction Coven followed the chain until it led him to the rooftop of a building a few feet away. The chain went slack as the one responsible for firing it severed that part of it before the harpoon gun automatically reattached a new section of chain to a new harpoon that was loaded in like a revolver pistol. At the moment, the one responsible for firing the weapon jumped off the roof and landed a couple of feet away from the burly witch. It was dressed in a light green, old-fashioned deep sea diver's suit. Most of the upper torso and arms were covered by seaweed, but what could be seen under it showed dark green metal plates around the shoulders, biceps, and chest area. The right arm of the creature had a large drill equipped to it. The monster's left arm had a mounted harpoon gun, a spool of iron chains was attached to the belt just below the air tanks and fed into the apparatus on his arm. The apparatus made hissing noise as the gun portion retracted into a standby position. The creature's boots were metal and clanked with each step against the stone road. Around its waist was a belt with the sigil for the Shocker Coven upon it. Attached to its back were a couple of air tanks, with two black hoses that led to a metal helmet diver's helmet. The portholes on the front and sides glowed an eerie green color, allowing Mason to see the lupine face of the creature beneath the suit. This was Wolf Diver.

"Who or what are you?" Mason asked

"Wolf Diver. Mason of the Construction Coven, your life is mine to take this day! For the glory of the Shocker Coven!" Wolf Diver proclaimed.

Mason drew two spell circles with his hands and slammed them against the earth, sending a surge of rock glaives rushing towards Wolf Diver. But just as the blades of rock were about to reach him, Wolf Diver widened his stance and cocked back his right arm. The large drill on his arm spun up, and once at full rotation, Wolf Diver thrust it forward. The glaives were instantly shattered the moment they came into contact with the drill, crushing them like fragile glass as Wolf Diver charged straight through the wave. Mason could see his rock glaives getting destroyed in record time, and despite Wolf Diver's huge size and clunky suit, it did not impede his speed in the slightest. Thinking quickly, Mason drew another spell circle, but this time applied it to himself. Wolf Diver broke through the wave, jumping into the air as he thrust his drill arm forward, striking Mason in the chest as Coven leader and the monster were sent to the ground.

Wolf Diver could see sparks flying from the point of contact and wondered why he was not seeing flesh and bone getting rend from the Head of the Construction Coven. That's when Wolf Diver saw that Mason had used his last spell to change his physical body into one made of metal. "Clever," Wolf Diver praised, "but in the end futile!" Wolf Diver raised his left foot and stepped onto Mason's right arm, pinning it down. Once he had, Wolf Diver started striking at Mason's chest multiple times with this drill arm. Sparks flew with each contact that was made, and unfortunately for Mason, with each strike a little more of the armor he created for himself was chipping away. Wolf Diver noticed that there were two spell circles hovering over his wrists; he figured a spell like this would require the caster to maintain it constantly. Which meant that Mason could not cast any other spells or risk weakening the armor he created by stretching his magic out. With that in mind, Wolf Diver pressed the tip of the drill right over burly witch's heart and pressed down, the armor was starting to crack, and it wouldn't be long before the fatal blow was struck.

"He, he, he. And so falls the Mighty Mason!"

Suddenly a strange whistling rang through the air, making everyone look around to find the source. Wolf Diver slowed the drilling down to look around for the source of the whistling, he was not about to let Mason get a chance to get up, but he was a cautious one and was not going to let his mission get interrupted.

"Over there!" one of the Hooded Followers yelled as he pointed to a man on a nearby rooftop. The man had wavy black hair, a yellow, long-sleeve shirt with a big "S" on it, and black gloves on his hands.

"Who the hell are you?!" Wolf Diver yelled.

"I'm Shigeru Jo!" the man said, "Priest of Black Satan, I'll be your opponent!" He then proceeded to take his gloves off, revealing that his hands were made of metal coils. Shigeru waited his stance as he pointed his arms to the right, and then rotated them to point to the left.

"Henshin…Stronger!"

Shigeru then rubbed the coils on his cybernetic hands together creating a static charge. The electrical energy from the charge activated a silver belt with a red eight-point star, causing him to suit was black, with white gloves, and white boots that had a red line running down the middle of them to match the ones on the pant legs and sleeves. Shigeru had a large red armor chest plate with a black and white "S" on it, and on sides of the chest plate were two additional plates that were green and blue in color. Around his neck was a white twin tailed scarf that flapped in the wind. His helmet was black in color, and sported big green compound eyes, a silver mouth plate, and a red segmented rhinoceros beetle horn as its crest. This was Kamen Rider Stronger.

Stronger flipped through the air and landed on the awning of the Covention Center, surrounded by Hooded Followers. He then struck a pose as sparks shot out of his back.

"The Heavens call." One of the Hooded Followers decided to attack him, summoning a harpoon weapon as they came to stab him. Stronger saw the attack coming and easily dodged, but then grabbed the Follower and threw him over his shoulder with ease as he continued walking along the awning.

"The earth cries out." Another Follower tried to hit with a haymaker, but Stronger blocked it with his left forearm, without barely looking in his opponent's direction. He swiftly grabbed that Follower's arm, spun them around so that they were now in front of him, cocked back his right fist, and punched the Follower right off the awning.

"The crowd roars." A third tried to jump him, but Stronger roundhouse kicked him in midair, sending him flying to the ground below.

"They are calling me to defeat evil!" Two more attack him from either side with haymakers, but Stronger easily blocks them with his arms, again, not even turning to face them. While they were in range, Stronger shirked off their arms, struck them both in the gut with a karate chop, and finished with a double backhand fist to their faces, sending them crashing into the side of the Covention Center.

"I am a warrior of justice…" Out of sheer desperation, a sixth Follower wildly attacked, but Stronger easily grabbed his arm and tossed him like a ragdoll over his shoulder.

"Kamen Rider Stronger!"

"How nice…" Wolf Diver said sarcastically, "get him!"

The Hooded Followers began charging for the awning that Stronger was on, but before they could go up to meet him, Stronger jumped down to confront them. Diving right into the middle of the small army, Stronger roundhouse kicked a Follower into his allies, sending five of them to the ground. Another came in with a punch, but Stronger just grabbed the arm as it passed by, once he held onto it, Stronger channeled his electrical energy through his hand and into the Follower, giving them a paralyzing shock as they fell to the ground motionless. Stronger dashed for another of the Followers and ended up tossing him in the same ragdoll fashion into another pile of them, and then took another one and tossed that Follower away.

Another attacked Stronger with a harpoon, but the Legendary Rider dropped low to the ground and sweeped the Follower's leg just as they thrust the harpoon forward. Once on the ground, Stronger stomped on his chest and sent another electrical surge through his body and into the Follower, the Follower convulsed for a moment before going limp. Stronger continued, cutting a swath through the Followers as he made a beeline for Wolf Diver and Mason, three more Followers blocked his path, but Stronger kept running as he attacked. Stronger jumped a little and punched the first Follower in the face, knocking him out, the second he side kicked into a lamppost, and weaved around the third as he backhanded him into the remaining Followers behind him, all while still dashing straight for his target.

Wolf Diver was getting anxious, a Kamen Rider that was not Witch, Heka, or Crusader was here. This was not a part of the plan, however, he had more pressing matters to deal with. Mainly the fact that he was close to killing Mason, but if he stayed in place, Stronger would be able to deal him a powerful blow and possibly end him. But if he didn't kill Mason now, the Head of the Construction Coven would more than likely alert the rest of his fellow Coven leaders and their surprise attack would fail.

Ugh, priorities. I need to kill the Rider first. Any Kamen Rider roaming freely could prove detrimental to our plans more than these weak Coven leaders, he thought.

Wolf Diver quickly got off Mason and jumped backwards to put some distance between them. Now free, Mason rolled away until he was next to his hammer, sprang to his feet, and grabbed said hammer as he prepared to reengage Wolf Diver. But before he could, Mason saw some of the Followers on Stronger's tail, Mason grunted, raised his hammer, and struck the ground. A magical energy surged through the earth and made a wall of rock appear behind Stronger, cutting off the rest of the Hooded Followers from the Rider. Stronger stopped running, standing next to Mason and looking at him as the Coven leader looked at the Rider.

"Thanks for the help." complemented Stronger. The Legendary Rider glanced back at the wall and asked, "Do you think you can open that wall?

Mason smirked confidently. "Not a problem."

"Good! On my signal then!"

Stronger covered his right fist in electricity as he got into a ready stance.

"Now!"

Mason drew a spell circle and made a wide opening for the Hooded Followers to run through. And just as predicted, they charged straight for the both of them. Just what Stronger wanted.

"Electro Fire!" he yelled as he punched the ground, producing an electrical shockwave that went towards the Hooded Followers, making them fall on the ground shaking. He then turned towards Wolf Diver.

"Damn you, Stronger!" he exclaimed.

Stronger raised his fist in preparation for a fight, but then looked to Mason and said, "Please make sure everyone is evacuated safely. I'll deal with this monster myself."

"Fine, don't lose," said Mason as he ran off to do just that.

Stronger and Wolf Diver squared off as the two circled, the Priest of Black Satan snarled and growled as he stared down the Rider, but Stronger merely stared right back. The attack was initiated as both the Rider and Kaijin dashed straight for the other and met in the middle. Stronger jabbed Wolf Diver in the chest three times before striking Wolf Diver in the side with a right roundhouse kick. Wolf Diver grunted from the strong attacks but managed to hold his ground as he spun up his drill arm. The Priest of Black Satan raised the drill for an overhand strike and brought it down. Stronger quickly dodged to his left just as the drill hit the ground and tore it up on impact. The Legendary Rider struck him twice with his left and right fists, causing a small amount of sparks to fly off Wolf Diver before he jumped backwards and put some distance between them.

Wolf Diver grinned and continued to use his drill arm as he slashed it in Stronger's direction, the rapid rotation combined with the quick slashing motion caused several chunks of debris to get launched in Stronger's direction. Stronger raised his arms up, bracing himself as the debris assaulted him. The debris attack was just a distraction as Wolf Diver charged in and managed to land a hit against Stronger's chest, sending sparks flying from the hero's armor as he was sent skidding backwards on his heels. Stronger grunted and then jumped into the air as he cocked back his right fist. However, just before his attack could land, Wolf Diver jumped into the air and landed in a nearby lower street.

"You missed, Stronger!" he tauntly yelled, "I won't lose to you!" He then took off running.

Stronger then flipped into the air, landed right in front of Wolf Diver, and roundhouse kicked him in the face, sending Wolf Diver into the side of a building. Wolf Diver pulled himself from the body sized crater impression he made and began swinging with his drill arm. Stronger managed to evade most of the attacks but was forced to back up against a wall as the monster thrust the drill at him. Stronger rolled to between the legs of Wolf Diver just as his drill hit the wall and made it crumble. Wolf Diver quickly swung his right arm in a backhanded fashion to hit Stronger, but the Legendary Rider ducked at the last second as he karate chopped Wolf Diver in the stomach, generating a mini shockwave upon impact. This caused Wolf Diver to bend over in pain, but when he did, Stronger jumped up and threw an uppercut, knocking Wolf Diver back.

While still in the air, Stronger threw an axe kick to the top of Wolf Diver's head, and then struck again with another kick to the left side of Wolf Diver's face. The combo managed to send Wolf Diver straight to the ground. As Stronger was about land, Wolf Diver quickly got back up, turned around and activated the apparatus on his left arm. The speargun was now in firing position, and once Stronger was in his crosshairs, the Priest of Black Satan shot the harpoon at him. Stronger, at the last second, managed to lean his body to the side just as the harpoon passed right by him and lodged itself into the wall of a building a few feet away. Seizing this opportunity, Stronger grabbed ahold of the chain with both hands.

"Electro Fire!" he yelled as an electric current ran through the chains and back to Wolf Diver, causing sparks to shoot off from all over Wolf Diver's body. The Priest of Black Satan was now effectively paralyzed by the strong electrical attack from Stronger. "Alright!" Stronger exclaimed as he flipped into the air. While in the air, electrical energy surrounded his body.

"Stronger Electro Kick!"

Stronger's entire body glowed bright red as he extended his right foot and struck Wolf Diver in the shoulder. The energy that Stronger built up surged straight through his body and into the shoulder where Stronger kicked. Sparks began spraying from that point as electricity sparked all over Wolf Diver's body, two more streams of sparks shot out from his body, as the electricity intensified. Finally, Wolf Diver fell to his knees, and then backwards. Upon hitting the ground, Wolf Diver exploded as smoke rose from the flames.

Stronger looked at the smoke as Mason ran up to him.

"Not that I don't appreciate being saved, but who are you?" he inquired.

Stronger turned to look at him. "Me?" he asked. "I am Stronger. Kamen Rider Stronger! Now if you'll excuse me…" He then jumped into the air and yelled, "Kabutoro!" He then landed on his personal motorcycle and drove away.

Notes:

I would like you, the readers, to have a moment of silence for Kamen Rider Stronger's original actor, Shigeru Araki, who passed away from pneumonia on April 14, 2012.

Fun Fact: The Wolf Diver's appearance is loosely based on The Ghost of Captain Cutler from the Scooby-Doo franchise and Big Daddy from Bioshock.