Fang of Frost

Trident stumbled into the ruined building with a growl. That battle had not gone the way he had wanted it to. He slowly made his way over to a large chunk of rubble and pulled the deck out of his belt, letting his armor fade away as he lowered himself to the ground. The man punched the wall in fury. He had Hypnos right there where he wanted, he was winning, so how did it end up going so wrong?

Just who was that blue rider?

He jolted as soft, almost mocking laughter cut through his thoughts. He looked up sharply and scanned the room before a flash of movement caught the corner of his eye. The man turned to find nothing. Something shifted behind him, and he turned to once again behold nothing. Whoever this was, they were playing with him.

"Well well well Okamoto Kaisei" the voice, familiar in a way he couldn't quite place, chuckled, Kaisei stiffened at the use of his name, "you don't look so well."

Something moved again, he turned in time to finally catch a glimpse of a trailing, black cowl, patches of orange arranged on it like some odd camouflage.

Oh no.

"Kamen Rider Doku" he growled, dragging himself back to his feet. Kaisei should have known from the voice who it was, yet he had been too deep in thought to recognize it. He stumbled a bit as he tried to stand, eliciting another round of laughter from Doku as he continued to keep out of sight. "Come to complete another contract?"

"Not today," Doku replied, Kaisei could practically hear the grin in his voice, "If I had, you'd be dead already."

"Bastard," Kaisei growled under his breath. Another shadow shifted, he lunged at it to find another empty corner.

"But no, a wonderful little bird sang to me that you were going to challenge another rider again and I couldn't help but check it out myself," more laughter, "and damn you didn't disappoint, what a fight! Especially when that other rider showed up and trounced you." Oh God, now he was bringing the blue rider up, his temper burned hotter as he tried to seek out Doku's hiding spot. "What was his name again…" Doku trailed off as he tried to recall, "oh right..."

"Rayza."

Now Kaisei was fed up, he thrust his deck toward a window.

And Doku was right in front of him, a black, gloved hand wrapping around his wrist, the other snatching up a clump of his brown hair. Kaisei was brought face to face with the silver grill of Doku's mask as the black rider leaned in, his armor bringing to mind a black and orange lizard eyeing its next meal.

"Ah ah ah" he teased before squeezing Kaisei's wrist. The man cried out as the vice-like grip, already painful from the strength of Doku's suit, became almost crushing and forced his grip on his deck to loosen. The pink object clattered onto the floor, and Doku shoved Kaisei to the side as he leaned down to pick it up.

"He's a new one, that much I can tell," the lizard rider continued, running a finger along the edge of the deck, "clearly this was his first time, so the fact that he managed to beat you is both hilarious and impressive."

Kaisei said nothing, merely cradled his injured wrist and eyed his deck with clenched teeth as Doku tossed it between his hands.

"I must say, he looked young as well" the black rider paced around Kaisei, shuffling through the deck's cards, "I was thinking of meeting him personally, but that Hypnos rider's probably gonna be hanging too close around him now, they seemed to know each other well."

He angled his head down at the injured man, "what do you think?"

Kaisei was still silent, Doku scoffed and dramatically rolled his eyes behind his mask.

"Fine then, keep your silence," he chucked the deck at Kaisei, the object hitting him in the chest and bouncing into his lap, "get better fool, and do let me know if you plan on challenging another rider, it's always fun to watch your ass get kicked."

He laughed once more and vanished out the door, leaving Kaisei to stew in his defeat.

Kiraru felt heavy.

His arms moved like they were made of lead. His eyes opened slowly, protesting against the bright light of noon. He groaned as he pushed himself up, everything ached. He turned to his nightstand.

Where the deck sat, the dragonfly emblem glinting in the light.

He stared at it as the events of the morning came back to him. So all that had happened.

He was a rider now.

Kiraru exhaled and picked the deck up, dragging himself out of bed.

With slow, unsteady steps, he made his way to the door of his room.

"Dammit Ren!"

Kiraru jolted, hand on the knob. Matori rarely addressed anyone other than him like that, much less with that kind of tone.

"I gave him a warning, he knew what he was getting into" Mr. Akiyama's voice sounded from behind the door, level yet starting to raise.

He should probably go out there, they were clearly referring to him. He took a deep breath and opened the door.

Downstairs, in the living area sat Matori and Mr. Akiyama. The former was pacing around the table, hands clenched. The latter sat calm yet tense, watching the rider's movements with that stoic stare.

"You could have stopped him!" Matori slammed his hands onto the table.

"Matori."

"You had the chance to warn him, but why didn't you stop him!?"

"Do you really think that I could have stopped him?! That there was a choice!?" Ren snapped and rose from his seat "And if there was, do you really think that he would just sit still and watch you get the life beaten out of yourself!?"

Matori was taken back.

"And the Mirror Monster," Mr. Akiyama continued, "You know very well that once a Mirror Monster has chosen a target they will never stop until they've gotten it! Do you think you could have protected him in the state you were in!?"

He made his way around the table, "And you know Kiraru. You know that there's something nagging at him. That kind of obsession comes from something, he's got something to fight for, something to survive for. He's just like..."

Mr. Akiyama trailed off. He suddenly looked far older than he was, exhaustion painting his face. Matori stared at him, surprised.

"I apologize," Mr. Akiyama sighed, shaking his head, "Come see me when you've calmed down Matori."

Mr. Akiyama made his exit, his dark coat flowing behind him. Matori sank into a chair, a hand against his head.

Kiraru stood at the top of the stairs like a deer in headlights. Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to head down right now. He turned to head back to his room.

"Kiraru."

The boy in question froze mid step. He peeked back over his shoulder to look at Matori, who hadn't raised his head.

"Mr. Morimoto I…"

"Don't," Matori stopped him with a sigh, "not right now." He stood up, letting Kiraru see his bandaged chest and shoulder barely peeking out from under his green jacket.

Kiraru's guilt only grew.

Matori seemed to notice this, and pulled his jacket tighter over his body. He gestured for Kiraru to come down, placing his hand on the boy's shoulder when he did.

"Go out Kiraru, we'll discuss this tonight," he said before noticing the boy's shocked expression, "it's best you know what you've gotten yourself into, just stay near the settlement."

Reluctantly, Kiraru made his way out the door, Matori watching him go.

It felt odd walking through the empty streets now.

Kiraru walked quietly out of habit, gazing into empty buildings as he used to do before. It was almost surreal that he could walk down these streets without fear of being caught now. Even the normal Mirror Monsters, while still a threat, weren't as much of a worry anymore now that he had the means to fight them off. It felt kind of liberating in a way.

It still didn't shake the awful feeling he had after talking to Matori though.

He sighed and leaned against a broken streetlight, keeping close watch on the broken storefronts around him. He shut his eyes, listening to the sounds of distant Mirror Monsters, settling buildings, and the soft footsteps pattering against the street.

Wait.

"You!"

Kiraru jumped at the new voice, whirling around to face the new person.

Coming face to face with another rider.

Gray armor adorned his body, its general appearance bringing to mind a wolf. He stalked toward Kiraru, gloved hands balled into fists.

"Me?" Kiraru yelped, pointing at his face.

"Yeah you!" The rider growled, "surprised you even have the guts to answer me like that you thief!"

"Thief?!" Just what is this guy going on about, "I've never even met you!"

"Just cause we haven't met doesn't make you any less of a thief," he scoffed, "the evidence is right there in your pocket!"

Kiraru brought his hand to the pocket in question, where his deck sat?

"But, you're already a rider?"

"It's not the deck I'm talking about!" The wolf rider threw his hands into the air, "that dragonfly was incredibly powerful and mine to take, and you just swoop in and snatch it outta my hands!"

"Oh."

The rider growled in irritation, and drew closer. As Kiraru came to the worried realization that the rider in front of him was transformed and he was not, he noticed an odd detail that he hadn't noticed on the gray rider's armor before.

"I spent five days tracking that thing down," the rider snarled.

"Umm…"

"Five days of having that thing slip out of my hands."

"You…"

"And you just come in from outta nowhere, and take it from right under my nose!"

"Hey!"

"What!" The rider snapped before he felt something tugging at him. He looked down.

Where a thick silvery string of some kind of silk was wrapped around his waist.

"Shit."

And as soon as that was uttered, the rider was yanked back. Kiraru yelped and pulled his deck fully out of his pocket, thrusting it toward a shattered storefront window.

"HENSHIN!"

Rayza dashed after the rider, who was still being dragged toward another broken window. His heroic dash broke off into a hesitant stumble as the Mirror Monster responsible burst out in its full, horrible glory.

It was huge, towering above both of them. Eight, sharp legs the size of tree trunks pierced the pavement, the bulging abdomen they were connected to pulsed and twitched. The face was truly the worst part however, blank and hollow save for the silk strand drooling out of its middle hole. Its pedipalps drew the trapped rider closer and closer as it's empty face eyed both of them hungrily.

"Stay back!" The rider shouted as he anchored his feet into the ground, keeping himself from being dragged any further, "I've got this!" He drew a card, slotting it into the wolf head mounted on his arm.

STRIKE VENT

Two large, silvery claws flipped onto his hands. He brought them down onto the string, severing it like scissors through paper. The spider thing screeched in rage, raising its front legs above its head.

"Let's do this," the wolf rider growled. He dashed forward and leapt over the spider monster's head, plunging his claws into the place between its head and abdomen with a shout. He held on for dear life as the beast shrieked and flailed, trying to buck him off.

Rayza watched with awe as the rider fought. His awe turned to worry as the spider struggled back, and he tried to figure out how he could aid him.

Strike Vent, didn't he have that card? He shuffled through his deck and slotted the resulting card.

STRIKE VENT

His wrists felt slightly weighted. He looked down at them to behold a pair of blue gauntlets bearing razor sharp blades. He swung them a bit, feeling the cut through the air with ease.

Rayza took a deep breath, and dashed at the monster. He leapt up, hoping to slice an unprotected joint on one of its legs, a part that looked soft enough to cut through. At the peak of his jump, he readied his blades, slamming them down onto the joint and hoping that did something.

It did, he felt himself go through the beast's leg, tumbling to the ground as he severed the limb from its body. It screamed in pain, stumbling a bit and letting the gray rider get a better grip. Having a moment of respite from the spider's flailing, the gray rider dislodged a claw and drew another card.

ADVENT

Something grey leapt over Rayza's head, tackling the spider monster from the side. The beast gave another pained cry and swatted the gray blur with a leg. It flipped back and landed on all fours.

Behind Rayza's mask, Kiraru's eyes went wide as the new beast stood up onto two legs and howled. A wolf monster, its armored body covered in sharp spikes, stared down the spider thing with four eyes. Its plated face breathed frost from under its lupine head and it gave another chilling howl before launching itself at the spider once more.

The gray rider flipped off the spider monster's back just before the wolf monster collided with it. Stepping back as the two beasts brawled. It was clear that the wolf was stronger, as it quickly began to overpower the spider, tearing off three more legs as it did so.

"Nice work!" The rider complimented as the wolf monster drew back to his side. He drew a card, "let's finish this!"

FINAL VENT

The rider lowered himself into stance, readying his fist. The wolf leapt behind him and blasted a powerful gust of cold, propelling the rider forward in a powerful punch. He struck the spider head on, punching straight through it and skidding to a halt right in front of Rayza.

The spider curled in on itself, and exploded in a powerful burst of flames. An orb floated up from the burning remains, only to be pounced on and devoured by the wolf monster.

"Wow…" Rayza breathed.

"That's Snowolver for ya," the rider said, "though he'd be a lot stronger if you hadn't stolen that dragonfly!"

Rayza merely stared at the gray rider, trying to figure out just how to respond to that.

Then he turned and started walking, hoping the angry rider wouldn't follow.

"Oi!" The rider shouted after him, "Just where do you think you're going!"

Rayza was vaguely aware of the fact that his plan was not working, and that the rider was following him. He prepared to break into a run.

"Ahem."

Both riders looked up to find Hypnos standing atop a storefront, his green armor gleaming in the light of the sunset. Kiraru silently expressed his relief at the appearance of someone who can save him from this odd situation.

His relief faded back into guilt as he remembered the events from before.

"Who are you?" The rider was clearly confused, and a bit concerned, at the appearance of another rider.

"I believe that is my line," Hypnos replied, leaping down from the storefront to stand between him and Rayza. The rider looked between the two and seemed to make the connection that they knew each other, as he backed away with a frustrated noise.

"Fine then," the rider growled, "Lykos."

"Kamen Rider Lykos…" Hypnos said in thought. "I am Hypnos," he introduced himself then gestured to Rayza, "and this is Rayza."

"We've met," Lykos grumbled. Rayza could still feel him glaring behind his mask.

"You're not intending on causing trouble here are you?" Hypnos stepped forward, staff at the ready, "I'm sorry I have to ask, but I'm afraid we've had issues with others in the past."

"Others?" Lykos questioned before something clicked, "oh you meant the pink guy." So he had seen that battle. He gave a dismissing wave, "don't worry about that, I'm just passing through." He paused for a moment as he seemed to consider something, "though, I do kind of need a place to crash for the night if you're willing to offer one."

Hypnos looked to the darkening sky and nodded, "That would probably be for the best, I believe we can continue this conversation at the settlement, it's dangerous to be out here at night." He gave his staff a spin, "acknowledge though that I will be keeping an eye on you."

"Figured."

Hypnos walked back down the street, Rayza moved to follow him, only to be kicked sharply in the heel by something. He turned to see Lykos still glaring at him, arms crossed. Rayza sighed.

And the three of them started back down the ruined streets. Back to Hope.

I was gonna have Trident do this chapter, but then I thought up a scene with this guy. I promise he's not gonna be any kind of Butt Monkey.

Anyways, here's Chapter 3, and another pretty important rider! Little fun fact: Both Lykos and Trident are based off Kaijin from other series, try and guess which ones!

Anyways, reviews are always welcome as is constructive criticism! I hope you enjoyed!