His heart was just about ready to burst out of his chest. The small wolf pup was running for his life, sending his foot stomps echoing down the alleyway. His eyes, widened in fear, were desperately searching for a good place to hide. He splashed water all over himself upon stomping on a puddle in his frantic dash. He didn't have time to fret over it; they were after him.

Emerging from the alleyway, and onto a dirt road, the small pup ran straight for the closest building he could find. An old, abandoned warehouse was to be his salvation. He shoved the large, wooden gate a crack open and squeezed his way inside. The place was filled with nothing but wooden crates, tires, and other miscellaneous junk. It would have to do. He scurried over to one of the crates and hid behind it, holding his breath and gluing his eyes to the entrance.

His heavy panting and thundering heartbeat filled his ears, nearly drowning out the sounds he was desperately trying to listen for. He held his breath, perking an ear to listen more intently. He waited to hear their foot stomps, but they never came. All had fallen silent. Were they still far away? Were they already upon him? He didn't know. He waited a moment longer, digging his claws into the edge of the crate as he waited for the answer…

Then he relaxed. The breath he'd been holding was released as he sat back on his haunches. He let himself catch his breath before sitting up and clawing back to his feet. After dusting off his pants, he started for the large gate. He only made it two steps before a firm hand stopped him in place. Horror washed over his features once more as he turned around to face the perpetrator. He was a tall man wearing a black suit and red tie, with the coat long enough to form a trench coat of sorts. Beneath his black, white-trimmed fedora wasn't the face of a fur. It was the face of a grotesque monster, with eyes as black as the night and a bony ribcage-like mask stretched over his face.

It was them. The Dopants.

"You're comin' with us, kid," he growled, his allies stepping out from behind him and making their presence known. The pup's urge to fight swiftly returned, making him kick and bite at the monstrous man as hard as he could. They all laughed until he bit down on his captor's arm. The Dopant swore and snatched his arm away, allowing the pup to make a break for it. But they were all upon him in a matter of seconds, grabbing him by the arms as he fought to get away. "Call the boss; tell him we got the kid," one of them said, rubbing the spot he was bit. One of them reached into their coat and pulled out a phone whilst two others held the pup up by the arms and made for the gate.

But they came to a stop once they realized the gate had swung open. The Dopants looked amongst one another, muttering to each other as though expecting one of them to have an explanation. Just then, a stray breeze ruffled up the pup's fur. His gaze followed its current up above, and what he saw made his eyes widen. Not out of fear this time. Out of hope.

"I don't remember school being let out this early!" a voice called from above. Now everyone's gazes shot upwards, frantically searching for the owner of the voice. What they found was a twin-colored figure leaning casually against the rafters hanging above them, their silver scarf fluttering behind them in the wind. The bright red eyes beneath their silver crest glowed brightly from the shadows, shadows that couldn't reach the two-sided buckle of their belt.

The belt of the hero of Jinsoku City, Kamen Rider 00.

"Unless this is some kind of field trip I wasn't aware of," said their female voice, "I'm afraid I'm going to have to teach you all a lesson you won't soon forget!"

"A lesson about what happens when you mess with the people of this city!" shouted their male voice, lighting the eye of the green side. The Dopants didn't take too kindly to the notion, responding in kind by pulling out guns from their coats and immediately opening fire on the Rider. 00 quickly leapt off of the scaffolding before shouting, "Class is now in SESSION!"

Kamen Rider 00: Mobster Hunters

Cyclone Effect

They hurled out a powerful gust of wind that forced the Dopants to release the pup from their grasp. 00 greeted one of them with their foot to his face, and greeted the other with a devastating left hook. "Behind us!" the male voice shouted. 00 quickly turned around to find one of the Dopants about to fire off a shot. They quickly got in front of the pup and shielded him from the bullet exploding against their armored back. They then kicked a green foot out that launched another gust of wind, flinging the Dopants backwards.

"Go! Hide!" the female voice shouted at the pup. He didn't need to be told twice. He scurried off in a flash, running out of sight and out of mind for the two toned Rider, allowing them to put total focus on the adversaries before them. One tried to rush them, but they easily somersaulted over his mad charge. They grabbed his wrist upon landing and whirled around to fling him at his allies. While they were all crashing down, 00 ran forward and bounded off of their backs to ram their knee directly into the forehead of a Dopant in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The gunshots rang free again as soon as the Rider landed, forcing them on the run. They leapt and dove behind crates that exploded into bits from the gunfire, filling the air with dust and smoke. "Nice try, boys!" shouted the female voice, "A couple more tries, and you might actually hit us!"

"Erika, they hit us not even a minute ago," said the male voice.

"No interrupting the teacher during class!" she shouted back. Another crate exploded, but this time, no Rider came running out of it. The Dopants hastily scanned the area to try and find them, their vision obscured by all of the dust hanging in the air.

JOKER: MAXIMUM DRIVE!

All of it was swept away in one fell swoop as a wild cyclone erupted in the middle of the warehouse and pinned the Dopants down. Up above, 00 hovered in the air with their arms spread out. They drew their legs up to their chest before striking the compartment on their side. Then, they kicked their feet out, rocketed forwards and shouted with one unified voice, "JOKER XTREME!" Their body split apart down the middle before their feet plowed through the Dopant crowd, causing them to erupt in a brilliant explosion. When the dust settled, 00 stood over a pile of unconscious furs as USB-like devices slithered out of their necks and shattered to bits.

00 dusted their hands off before Erika sighed, "And there's the bell. Class is over, fellas. Now wait here while we call up your parents to pick you up. I hope you all learned something important today…"

The green hand was lifted to the side of 00's helmet before the male voice said, "Squad leader, this is Arata. All Dopants have been neutralized. Your team is clear to proceed."

"Copy that," a new voice answered them, "Good job, 00. We'll take it from here."

"Thanks guys~" sang Erika, "We always appreciate your grade A service!"

"We'll see everyone back at base. Over and out," said Arata, lowering his hand with a sigh. "Honestly I don't get why you're so informal."

"I don't get why you aren't!" shouted Erika, tossing her hand up in an exasperated manner, "We've been at this for so long that we're practically family at this point."

Arata waved his hand. "Alright, fair enough. Anyways, shouldn't we…"

"Don't worry, I'm on it." Erika leaned her head back before shouting, "Alright, kid! You're safe to come out now! Baddies are all taken care of!" Carefully, the young pup poked his head out from behind a crater at the far end of the warehouse. Spotting him from afar, 00 turned to face him and waved him over. "Come on then, no need to be shy. We don't bite."

"Uh, Erika?" said Arata, "Maybe you should look more approachable and less…well…imposing?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" After glancing down at her armored self and the numerous unconscious bodies behind her, Erika realized she already knew the answer. "…Alright, fair enough." She reached down to the buckle of her belt and pried out the two USB memories inside. 00's armor crumbled to dust and blew away in a gentle breeze, leaving behind a snow leopardess dressed in dress pants and a vest worn over a sleeveless purple shirt. After brushing some of her snow white hair away from her eyes, she smiled and held out her paws. "How's that? Less scary for you?"

That seemed to do the trick, as the pup was easing his way out of his hiding spot and over to the feline. "Are they all really stopped? The bad men?"

"Well, let's see," Erika said as walked over and nudged one of the unconscious furs with her foot. She nodded thoughtfully. "Yep, seems pretty stopped to me." The pup began to walk over, only to scramble back as a bunch of tactically armed troopers in dome like helmets flooded into the warehouse. They quickly surrounded the pile of knocked-out furs and began picking them up one by one. "Thanks guys," she nodded to them with a sidewards glance. As they took the furs away, Erika returned her gaze to the pup and pointed at the troopers with her thumb. "Don't worry about them; they're the good guys. They're here to take the bad guys away." This was enough to get the pup to approach once more. Erika knelt down to his level once the distance was closed between them. "Are you alright?" she asked, "Did they hurt you at all?"

He shook his head. "No, but they tried to though…"

A grimace crossed Erika's features, "Yeah…I bet. They seemed pretty intent on catching you. What's your name?"

"Hoshi…" he muttered, "Hoshi Gushiken."

"It's nice to meet you, Hoshi." the snow leopard placed a paw on her chest, "My name is Erika. Erika Mori. So tell me Hoshi, do you have any idea why those men were after you?"

Hoshi's ears flattened against his head. "No… They just showed up one day and banged at our door." His face began to scrunch up as tears came running down his cheeks. "They-they yelled at my brother and took him away. A-and once he was gone, they came after me next!"

Erika's heart thundered in her chest. "Your brother?"

Suddenly, Hoshi grabbed her arms and pleaded, "Please miss, you have to find him! Those men took my big brother away!"

Erika did her best to stay calm. "Okay, okay. Easy there. Where are your parents? Do you have their phone number?"

The pup's gaze lowered. "We don't have any…"

Erika felt her heart drop. As more tears began to pour out of Hoshi's eyes, she gently placed her paw on his shoulder. "Hey there, it's going to be okay. There's no need to cry anymore. You've got Kamen Rider 00 on the case." Hoshi wiped his tears away and was greeted with a bright, reassuring smile. "I promise you, Hoshi; we're going to find your big bro and bring him home safe and sound."

Hoshi wiped his nose from his sniffles. "Really?"

"Absolutely." She then stood up and offered him her paw, motioning her head towards the gate. "Now come on. If we're gonna get started, it should be in a place cooler than a dusty ol' place like this."

Hoshi's eyes were like giant chasms with how wide they were. The small pup was unable to stop himself from gawking at every little thing inside the Amnesia headquarters. Furs were bustling about, heading from room to room with a sense of purpose written on their faces. Amongst the bustling furs were some of the same troopers from before, some heading out to work and others heading in to turn in for the day. A giant wall of screens displayed various maps and diagrams, the same ones displayed on the rows of consoles set up in front of the wall.

"Busy place, ain't it?" said Erika, playfully nudging Hoshi with an elbow, "It's a lot of work keeping this city safe, but none of us would have it any other way." She led the bewildered pup over to a much less crowded room. It was a sizable briefing room of sorts, with white boards, plastic tables and chairs set up all around. Pinned to the boards were various pictures and maps, some of which were being connected via red string. The others were either labeled, had drawn arrows pointing at them, or both.

Standing in front of one of the boards was a husky, who was looking over the pinned photos thoughtfully. At least until she noticed the two of them enter the room. She smirked at them and nodded, "Hey boss."

"Already ahead of the game, I see?" Erika laughed, taking a seat and motioning for Hoshi to do the same.

"Well you know me," the husky huffed, "I'm hardly the kind to wait around for orders. Figured we'd save ourselves some time if I did a quick background check beforehand. Can't let the kid wait any longer to meet back up with his bro, after all."

"Speaking of which," Erika waved a paw towards the canine, "Hoshi, this is agent 6, a proud member of Amnesia."

A hearty laugh left her throat. "Lookit you, acting all formal all of a sudden."

"Well I figured I'd give it a shot, at least while I've got Arata pestering me about it."

6 rolled her eyes before looking over to Hoshi. "You can just call me Lizzie, by the way."

Hoshi bowed awkwardly on his chair. "Nice to meet you, Miss Lizzie."

"Nice to meet you, Hoshi," she nodded back, "We're gonna get your bro back. Promise."

The snow leopard clapped her paws together. "Alright, what've you got for us, Liz?"

"Right, so…" Lizzie stepped away from the board to give the others a better look. She pointed at a photo of a young canine and said, "Taiyo Gushiken, nineteen year old German Shepard, lives with his little brother in a small apartment in the lower district of Jinsoku. Currently not in school and is working multiple jobs to make ends meet." The husky crossed her arms over her chest and furrowed her brow. "Honestly, that was all I could find. Besides caring for his brother by himself, there's not much else out of the ordinary. As far as I can tell, he's an upstanding citizen of the city. No marks on his records or anything."

Erika sat up. "Really? Not even a hint of anything?" Lizzie shook her head, making the leopardess stroke her chin thoughtfully. "That makes no sense. Those Dopants had to take him in for a reason. Ransom maybe?"

Lizzie shook her head again. "I don't know who they would be trying to get money from. There's no wealth attached to his name, and I haven't found any familial connections involving him or Hoshi."

"That's true…" Erika sighed, "Those Dopants we brought in, they haven't squeaked yet, have they?"

"Nope. Their lips are sealed tight, unfortunately. Whoever they're working for really doesn't want them to talk."

"So we really are in the dark about this one." Erika cursed under her breath before turning towards the pup. "Hoshi, can you tell us more about your brother? Do you know if he's done anything to make anyone really angry at him?"

"Well," Hoshi drew a bit into himself, pulling his tail in close with a sniffle, "there's this man that always comes asking my brother for money. He's been yelling at him a lot more for the past few weeks. Taiyo called him a…land…lord, I think?"

Erika stroked her finger across her chin. "Struggling to make rent, then."

"You're not seriously about to suggest the land lord is behind this, do you?" Lizzie narrowed her eyes at the feline.

"No, but money issues could be a factor at play here."

"Could it? That doesn't sound like a reason to be kidnapped by Dopants."

Erika's ears perked. Rather than press further, she turned to the pup again and asked, "Hoshi, do you know if your brother has tried to borrow money from anywhere?"

The canine shook his head. "My brother doesn't really talk to me about money stuff. I just know he works a lot to make a lot of money. But…" He paused to dig into his pocket, pulling out what appeared to be a crinkled up baseball card. He pointed at the fur on the card. "Taiyo said that one day he'd be like him. He said that one day, he'd become a big and famous baseball player and make us lots of money. So much that we'd get to live in a mansion!"

Erika carefully took the card in her paws. "So he wants to become a professional baseball player, huh?" Her answer was an eager nod from the pup. "That's a pretty big endeavor. I'm guessing he's trying out for local teams to begin with?"

"Mmhmm," he nodded again, this time with an air of pride, "He's already in one, actually. The Wind Chasers. He's their main batter right now! At least, that's what he told me before he…" His pride and excitement suddenly crumbled away as he was once again reminded of what he was doing here in the first place. His face scrunched up before his paws could cover it. "Big brother…"

He hiccupped as he felt something tap against the back of his paw. He lowered it to find Erika offering him back his baseball card. And once again, he was greeted with Erika's bright smile. "Come on, now, Hoshi," she said gently, "you gotta be strong for your big brother. You don't want the first thing he sees when he's back is you crying, do you?" Hoshi sniffled and shook his head. She playfully ruffled his headfur before straightening back up and turning to Lizzie. "Well, it's not much to go off of, but it's a start. I'm gonna head out and start investigating, so I'm going to need someone to watch Hoshi for me—"

Just then, a loud BANG rang out from outside the room. The girls' gazes snapped over to the door, where they could see smoke drifting past. The next thing they heard was a sputtering cough, followed by a set of clumsy foot stomps. Out of the smoke came a dust-covered Dalmatian wearing large, circular glasses. He cleared his throat as he tried to fan all of the smoke away with his paws. "Sorry! Sorry!" he shouted between coughs, "Wrong wire in the wrong place!"

"Raito! Perfect timing!" Erika exclaimed, placing a paw on Hoshi's head, "I'm heading out, so I need you to watch over our client here for me."

"W-what?" Raito had to cough out the last of the smoke in his lungs, "Why me, though? Can't you get 6 to do it?"

Lizzie snapped her gaze over to him. "Do I look like a babysitter to you, intern?"

"Do I?!" he shouted back as he dusted soot off of his work apron.

"Look, just keep an eye on him for me, alright?" Erika called as she grabbed a hat and notepad, "Show him your workshop or something, I dunno. Oh and clean up the mess you just made! That smoke and dust won't sweep itself!" She was out the door before the Dalmatian could get another word in.

The loud CLANK of the bat striking the ball was just barely drowned out by the enthusiastic cheers of the many uniformed furs in the benches. Whilst some were content with shouting from their seats, others were on their feet rattling the fence shouting words of encouragement to their fellow teammates. Red dust filled the air as the furs on the field ran as fast as they could, hoping to outrun the ball as it sailed back towards the other players. The rowdy bench furs all cheered in unison as their teammate slid safely into home base.

"Good hustle! Good hustle!" clapped a large, portly canine as the fur dusted himself off and joined the others on the bench. As the next batter was sent out, the large fur leaned over to Erika and said, "I can't say I ever noticed anything out of the ordinary. Up until he vanished, Taiyo has been acting as he's always been; dedicated and always striving to be better."

"And you're absolutely certain about this?" Erika asked, leaning her head to the side to get a better view of the action, "Even the smallest of details could lead to a larger clue."

He stroked his bushy mustache as he thought back. "Well…now that you mention it, there may be something. I'm still not sure if it's worth noting, though." Erika adjusted the grip on her notepad and waited intently. "You see, about two weeks ago, our team lost in the qualifier round of the local tournament. Of course, we were all pretty disheartened by that, but I think Taiyo took it the hardest. I tried to assure him that it wasn't all on him; a lot of things just went wrong on our end. But he didn't listen.

"He disappeared for a couple of days. He didn't leave me a message, didn't answer any of my calls, nothing. For a minute there, I thought he'd quit the team. When he came back, he was even more determined than ever! I don't know what he did to train himself, but he was at the top of his game from then on. It was a remarkable change for sure." Erika paused in her note taking. The way he'd said that; it was ringing a bell that she really hadn't wanted to hear.

"Are you guys talking about Taiyo?" a young voice took her away from her thoughts. She turned to face a cap-wearing feline with a glove on his paw. "Is it about why he didn't come to practice today? Because he's probably just training on his own again."

Erika lowered her notepad slightly to regard him properly. "We are, actually. We were just talking about his sudden improvement. You said he was…training?"

The feline nodded. "He must have trained hard. Ever since, he's almost never struck out of a game! He can even tell when someone's trying to throw him a curveball!"

"Yeah, Taiyo's amazing!" shouted another teammate, "I wanna learn how he does it!"

Despite the clear enthusiasm coming from the team, Erika couldn't shake the sinking feeling in her chest. She continued to take notes, but it was mostly out of habit at this point. She continued asking questions until the team's mock-game came to a close. She politely dismissed herself as everyone dispersed for the day to head home. As she was walking down the road and flipping through her notes, Erika pulled out a large, red device from her coat and slapped it onto her waist. A silver belt slithered out of it and secured the buckle onto her.

"Arata? Are you up?" Erika asked aloud, her paw returning to her notepad.

"For you? Always." Arata's voice rang through her head. The snow leopard rolled her eyes. "What's up? Got some clues to discuss?"

"I do. Honestly I think I have things figured out, but I really hope that I'm wrong here."

"Well shoot. I'm all ears then. Though, I guess I'm kind of only ears here."

Erika flipped back to the start of her notes. "So after talking with all of his bosses and coworkers, we know nothing's amiss in Taiyo's jobs. He does them all well, and no one really feels here or there about him in general."

"He's just there to do his work, then. I guess when you've gotta pay the bills, you can't waste time picking fights with people…"

"And yet someone's clearly picked a fight with him, someone big enough to get Dopants involved." Erika flipped a page. "Taiyo was captured and taken away earlier today, before we rescued his little brother from that mob. Thanks to all of his jobs, we know where he's been for a majority of the time. But his coach has revealed to us an interesting blind spot in his timeline."

"Two weeks ago…" Arata read off of her notepad.

"Exactly. Because he has so many jobs, the only time 'off' he has is with his baseball team. This is the only gap we don't have accounted for. And once that gap closed, we know Taiyo suddenly became better at batting."

"…You're not saying what I think you're about to say, are you?"

Erika sighed. "You're in my head right now. You already know the answer." She turned the page again, pointing to her final bullet point. "People don't just get better at something overnight. If he suddenly improved in performance, it's because he's benefitting from the effects of a Gaia Memory."

She felt Arata's heart sink as she said that. After a moment of contemplation, Arata said, "You're sure it's from a Gaia Memory? It's not any other performance-enhancing methods at work here?"

"I am. His improvements are too specific to be anything else. He's been hitting with pinpoint accuracy, and stopping himself from swinging seconds before a curveball is thrown. I'm not sure what kind of Memory he's using. Maybe something to boost his reflexes? But either way, I'm very certain that this is the work of a Memory."

"Well then," Arata sighed, "we have quite the problem on our paws. How old did you say Taiyo was?"

"Nineteen."

"…That's too young. In nearly all cases we've experienced, most, if not all furs that have gotten involved in this part of the black market were in their late twenties and beyond. The fact that Taiyo was able to get his hands on one of those things tells me that someone came to him."

Erika lifted a finger. "We know it can't be someone from work; he doesn't interact enough with his coworkers. That would've left the coach as our prime suspect, but he was way too willing to share info about him. I don't get the feeling it's him."

"So then…that leaves us with only one possibility."

"And it's the one that I like the least," Erika growled, "If he got his hands on a Gaia Memory, it's because there's a new black market organization that made it accessible to him. God… Here I was thinking we'd already cut the problem from its roots."

"It seems like the problem is less like a weed, and more like a hydra," Arata sighed, "We cut one down, and another will just take its place."

Erika pounded her fist into her other paw. "Then we'll just have to keep beating it down until it learns its lesson. We did it with the Earth's Tree, and we'll do it again here."

"So the only question now is who this new organization is."

"Thankfully we've got those goons locked up for questioning," Erika reached into her pocket for her phone, "I'll call the base and see if we got any new info." But before she could dial in, her phone began to ring on its own. The snow leopard blinked in confusion before picking up. "Hello?"

"Erika, this is Lizzie," came the husky's voice, "We need you back at base."

Erika furrowed her brow. "Why? What's wrong? Did something happen?"

"You need to get back here and keep this kid under control!" was Raito's distant shout, "Hoshi, no! Those aren't toys! They're VERY delicate equipment!" Some rattling and indistinct commotion soon followed before Lizzie cleared her throat.

"Ignore him; it's actually something important. It's…something you need to see for yourself. You'll understand when you get here."

"I'll take your word for it then. I'm on my way." The feline was rushing over to her bike before the call even ended. She swiftly tossed on her helmet and kicked up her kickstand before revving her engine and speeding down the road.

As soon as she arrived, Erika leapt off of her bike and ran for the door. Her helmet came off right as the doors swooshed open, allowing her to quickly scan the area. Thankfully nothing seemed out of place; only the pensive looks of concern coming from the other Amnesia members. "Erika!" called Lizzie from the other end of the room. The canine tilted her head towards the hall, indicating for her to follow. Erika's tail swished behind her with nervous energy as she made her way over to her.

"What's this about?" she asked Lizzie, "Is something wrong?"

"Honestly, I'm not too sure yet…" She led Erika down the hall until they reached the briefing room once more. Rather than enter herself, Lizzie stepped aside and stood at the entrance, motioning for the snow leopard to step in first. Erika ignored the reluctance that followed. She strolled in without hesitation, and as soon as her gaze laid across the room, she understood.

Standing there waiting for her was a well-dressed timber wolf. His fur was as black as the tuxedo one of his paws was stuffed into. The other was held up, allowing him to inspect his finely manicured claws. When his bright amber eyes lifted from the inspection and gazed upon the feline, the pristine white of his pearly canines were revealed in a regal smile. "Hello, Erika. Long time no see."

Erika narrowed her eyes at him. She knew the face and she knew the name. This was Daiki Watanabe, the Gaia Memory salesman of The Earth's Tree.