Chapter 2
Lockdown
What followed Max's statement was what you would usually expect a bunch of workers and alien drones would do if you were a fugitive that was previously locked away in a vault full of valuable minerals and used a belt to transform into a silly looking superhero would do: Pressed a button that initiated a lockdown. The workers fled from the bay, with all possible escape roots being blocked by doors that were made of metal and likely too thick to pierce. Glanced at the tab with Arlene and said, "What's the plan from here?" Arlene frantically typed away at her keyboard as she replied; "==}-How long will you be able to hold them off for?-{==" Max shrugged, "I don't know! Fifteen, maybe twenty minutes tops?" Arlene nodded and said, "==}-Make it 10. I'm sending something your way.-{=="
The tab with Arlene's face disappeared, and Max's focus returned to the drones in front of her. She readied her sword, and readied herself for battle. "You wanna strife? Come on, let's strife!" The drones charged at max, shrieking out statements like, "Narf Fronz illichee(loose translation: Cease and desist, or I shall fart in your general direction)," and "Nonsense, my fronz haz nevarbeen Veesoobun(loose translation: You will expire, and meet your maker. You'll be pushing up the daisies! You'll run down the curtain and join the choir invisible!)."
Max reached into the compartment and pulled out a third card labeled, "fire." she inserted the card into one of the 3 remaining slots before she spun around in a circle, cleaving the advancing drones in half. This continued for about 9 more minutes before a rocket crashed through the roof of the facility. The rocket then unfolded to reveal Arlene sitting inside of a motorcycle sidecar. A motorcycle that was made in the shape of a golden gargoyle, to be exact. Arlene beckoned Max, "GET IN, GENIUS!" "o-okay!"
As Max got in the cockpit, the vehicle shot through the open vehicle bay doors, and out onto the red martian soil. When they were out of range, Max pressed the transform button on her belt, causing her armor to disappear before she turned to Arlene and cleared her throat, "so, Arlene…" Arlene looked up at Max, "==}-yes?-{==" "I have… several questions…" "==}-Yes…-{==" "First off: what's this thing exactly?!" "==}-by thing, I presume you are referring to the belt?-{==" "YES!" "==}-The belt is called the Sol Driver. It harnesses the power of the souls of the fallen lightbound in order to convert loose grist particles floating in the aether into armor and I just realised how much of this is probably going over your head right now…-{==" Arlene glanced up, and sure enough, max had a stray drop of drool leaking from her mouth, having gone all cross-eyed. "==}-To abbreviate, your basically harnessing the power of souls to transform into a masked superhero.-{==" Max's eyes uncrossed themselves, and she looked at Arlene, "sorry, a lot of that first statement went over my head." Arlene sighed and rubbed her temples, "==}-No, it's fine. I'm very… articulate, for lack of a better term.-{==" "Hey, look on the bright side, knowing too many words is always better than not knowing enough words." "==}-On the contrary, it's knowing where, when and how to use those words that is a true mark of intellect.-{==" Max quickly went cross-eyed again. Arlene rolled her eyes, "==}-Knowing words is nothing, you have to know where and when to use them.-{==" Max uncrossed her eyes. "Sorry, I do that whenever I'm having trouble thinking." "==}-Eh, not the worst thing that's happened to people when I talk.-{==" "Really?" "==}-Yeah, at one point, someone exploded into a pile of confetti because I read their name backwards. Speaking of names, what's yours?-{==" "Max." "==}-Is that your birth name, or a nickname?-{==" "I-i'm not sure…"
Meanwhile, halfway across the universe, a shadowy individual sat at their desk, the glow of the computer monitor barely illuminating their green, skull-like face. They watched as the two figures drove away from the military base. The figure swiftly clicked on Max's belt, viewing the crafting recipe. The figures expression shifted from gloating to surprise: for being such a powerful device, the Sol Driver was surprisingly inexpensive to replicate. She clicked on the device, causing a perfect clone of it to appear on a pedestal next to her desk in small ball of purple light. The figure then reached into the highest drawer in her desk, before pulling out a box with a black widow spider inside. The figure then stood up, and walked over to another device, similar to the one she had used to clone the Sol Driver.
This device, however, was not meant to clone, but to combine. The figure carefully set the Sol Driver and the spider on one podium. A second item appeared on a second podium linked to the first. This new item was almost identical to the Sol Driver, but instead of being largely fire warm in color, this new belt was purple and green, and appeared to have a distinct spider motif to its design. The figure smiled and reached for the belt, purple lightning arched up from the belt, and blasted her halfway across the room. The figure stood up slowly, rubbing the back of her bald head, before she looked at a white holographic dialogue box that had appeared above the item. It indicated that to combine the items, she would need to gather more materials. Not that it mattered, of course. The figure glanced at the pandemonium taking place outside of her window; hundreds, if not thousands of ogres and imps were raining down from 4 portals above. Each falling unceremoniously into the rotating knives below. The figure cackled gleefully as she watched a handful of sulfur imps land on the knives before popping and turning into build grist.
Her eyes turned to the window opposite the window she was currently looking out of. She looked at the massive metal ship. She was going to use it to cross the universe, and go to the system of Sol, where she would use the belt she was crafting to fight Kamen Rider Sol. The figure slowly walked back over to her desk, and pressed a button on her desk, activating an intercom. "Excuse me, Jayden, would you mind sending me some of the excess grist up to me when you have the chance?" There was no reply. Just as she was about to call again, he felt something tap on the top of her head with a lot of force. The figure screamed and whirled around to see a massive, snow white vulture perched behind her, with a massive basket hanging around its neck. She frantically grabbed the basket, and said, "PISS OFF YOU OVERSIZED BUZZARD!"
As the bird waddled away, the figure spun back around and pressed the button, "JAYDEN! DON'T YOU EVER DO THAT TO MY FRAGILE ORNITHOPHOBIC ASS EVER AGAIN!" "(O) Next time, use the magic word, dumbass!(O) (O)and by the way, you scared the life out of my fragile dumbass-a-phobic bird's ass!(O)" "Keep sassing me and that overgrown desert parrot will be…" "(O)Pushing up the daisies, run down the curtain, join the choir invisible, become an ex-desert parrot, expire, go to meet his maker, etc.?(O) (O)We've been over this a billion times already.(O)" "I was gonna say, "roast your buzzard for the first thanksgiving we send the ship to earth," but yes." As the figure released her hold on the button, and turned away from the monitor. She scratched at the device planted in the back of her neck, as she watched her minions built the machine soon, she thought, soon.