Greetings friends! We're back and this time with a battle to pad out that lovely thing known as exposition. I must admit, I was a little tired when i created this, but I like to think that it came out alrigth actually. Plus, I've also got the last characters to join as powers for Issei, so that can progress nicely after this. Anyway, let's go!

Super hero time!

Shuujin: Issei, battle for the truth, just like those who came before me!

Issei: And you should focus upon the dangers placed upon your friends! A kamen rider waits...

Shuujin: Trust me, when a man calls himself a rabbit-tank, I don't think I should be scared.

Issei: Don't underestimate the power of a rider! Henshin!

S + I: Break the chains! Phone up the future!

"Why are you here? You aren't supposed to be…" Liu Wei's words were frozen upon his tongue as he looked to the two before him. Admittedly, it wasn't the cleanest of places to live in, but he had made it his home, but to find them within what he had thought to be a safe area… he was fortunate that he had been told never to take of the vambrace he had been given as he slipped in the black crystal into the slot. There wasn't a moment for words as Issei was drawn away from a surprised Rider, a new world literally morphing around them as the Chinese symbol wearing boy melted into the mirror that formed before him, the terrifying form of Genbu emerging from the other side. "Mind Meld - Sacrifice your soul!

SaCrIfIcE yOuR sOuL!

nOrTh! GeNbU!

"How did you find my home!?" Liu Wei growled as a large foot slammed down to the ground, a small cry escaping Issei as he jumped to the side. The phone couldn't have been quicker to his hand; even if he wasn't really sure where he was, he would still be able to call his friends to his side.

CALL!

NUMBER FOUR – DEMON!

CALL TO ARMS!

Issei, yet to use the call to arms with Onihime, wasn't exactly sure what was going to happen to his body. After all, he didn't even know all that much about the gambler in the first place, but even if there was a real danger to the battle, he still needed to try out the power one time or another. As he felt the power flood into his very veins, Issei wasn't even aware of how the massive turtle's leg came in for a strike; there was simply the innate instinct to move a little to the right as a small hop had Liu Wei primed to stomp upon a small jutting out rock with a low groan.

"You have yet to see the extent of my power." Liu Wei intoned in his warped voice as the snake turtle chimera opened its mouth, a large flood of white energy pouring between its lips as Issei looked around wildly. Usually, when he used someone's power like this, they would've already appeared and yet here he was, unarmed and without any form of shelter to speak of, a small cry of desperation escaping the brunette as hands were held up in futile protection.

But a stumble backwards had his leg come into contact with a small rock, even that being enough to force the boy to fall. Another cry escaped Issei as he fell to the ground, left to look with wide eyes as the beam flew but centimetres away from his face, the impact zone behind him to be felt even far away as pillars of ice appeared upon once barren ground. How such a thing could've happened after the close mishap before was surprisingly lucky, but there was no way he could survive off of luck alone. It was fortunate then that Onihime decided to make her appearance, a set of claws materialising themselves upon his right arm, their tips blood red and ready to shred.

"I hope you've missed me. After what you did, I had to remain behind in order to get Rider back to the Starway Rider. Fortunately, she's got the two girls comforting her, but I at least learned that if one desires to, they can try to resist the pull of your phone." Onihime's voice echoed out as a thrust forward had the three claws rammed into the approaching body of Liu Wei, the man leaping into the air as his colossal body sent tremors as it landed. "Claws and a distinct increase in your luck, of the good kind. How wonderful it must be to have me at your side."

"I guess it is right now… At least I know a bit more about the past of Rider. Unlike you, I never had a reason not to know her better before this." Issei lamented as he suddenly turned, just narrowly missing the water jet fired at his back. How a person's luck could be effected in such a way, Issei would have no clue, only placing it under the title of 'magic' and leaving it at that. The brunette was quick to leap to the air as the lumbering beast of the north clamoured towards his position, the three spikes digging their way into Genbu's flesh as Issei flipped his way onto the back of the shell.

Why he thought that was a good idea, he didn't know as almost immediately, the snake turtle hybrid began jumping about furiously in order to remove the nuisance situated upon its back, the shell offering no grip for his claws to latch onto. The only good factor was that Liu Wei had taken to slamming into various things in order to shake him off, dashing off far into the distance to find some sort of rocks to bring down onto his back with confidence that his shell would keep him safe from harm.

"Why don't you try leading him? The boy seems to have reverted to a more feral form right now in irritation. If you can position him so that some of the falling debris could hit a vulnerable position…" Onihime trailed off in what felt like his ear as Issei took the risk of falling to check the landscape. It was the same barren landscape, only with the addition of some mountains to be broken and have their rocks threaten to crush him off, so what could he do to try and follow through on the idea given to him.

"Well, here goes nothing!" Issei sighed as jumped forward, the movements of the seemingly rabid man beneath him threatening to ruin his entire plan, but with a swift strike, his claws struck deep into the flesh of the snake like head, a cry of pain escaping Liu Wei as he thrashed about even worse, Issei both fortunately and unfortunately following his movements. If he was following his movements however, that just meant that if he could exert enough force…

Slamming straight into the wall, Issei rapidly dug out his weapon, scrambling backwards to avoid the boulder that slammed down onto Liu Wei's head, landing upon a bush as he was thrown off without mercy. It at least made for a more comfortable landing than the cold (somewhat literally thanks to the remnants of ice that remained upon the ground) hard ground as Liu Wei fell to the ground, his form shimmering before he began to revert to normal. Unlike the other times where Liu Wei merely appeared to be a little annoyed however, his appearance was much worse for wear as Issei hesitantly approached, ending his own transformation falling as he looked to the boy sprawled out upon the ground.

Blue hair was dusted with dirt as silver eyes were hidden under heavy eyelids, his shirt and trousers having seen far better days without rips to expose the bloody wounds beneath. Admittedly, unlike before where his strikes had either been blunt or clean and swift, like Onihime's Sword six, the claws had been carelessly stabbed into his body to rip away, the pains naturally transferred to his human form. Regardless, he struggled to get himself to his feet, Issei gasping when he first heard the boy's horrified cries of agony.

"No, no, no! You will not get this body!" Liu Wei growled out, his fists tightening even as they started to leak the black energy, copious amounts of it flowing off of his being until they were slammed ruthlessly to the ground beneath, bruises building upon his knuckles as reward. Before another word could be said, the familiar humming of an engine working hard to break the perceived laws of reality coming as the Starway Rider materialised and a surprisingly sober Rider dashed up to Liu Wei, her hands clamping onto his shoulders.

"Do you really remember me!?" was her first exclamation, Liu Wei's eyes widening in questioning before they suddenly enlarged even further, though not from surprise. It was quite a literal transformation as they took on a serpentine form, suddenly shrinking down as if there was nothing wrong in the first place, the pink haired girl hesitant for a second before she began to draw the Chinese boy towards her home, Issei's question unvoiced before she started to answer.

"He might have information about the others! I just need to ask him about that, but we have to make sure he's in a position to answer!"

When he heard the rhythmic beeping of what he could only assume was a heart monitor, Liu Wei supressed the innate desire to give off a sigh. Most likely, Cong-fan had taken him to that poor Doctor for recovery after the small bout of chaos through his system. It was most honestly as mistake to try and use the power when they had already been showing signs of acting up, but the other two were simply too risky to utilise before he mastered the first ones at his disposal; they held much more resistance and if they were even given a single chance at breaking out, there was little chance of him containing them.

But his eyes soon cleared up and he was allowed to glance about the pristine area, far different to the atmosphere the happiness obsessed doctor had built up in his medical bay. The only place he had seen something along the line of this design was…

Rider. It was the design that had been passed down to Rider, meaning he was currently within the vehicle designed for her use. Her family had created the prototype, but she was the one who perfected its creation and sole usage even when it was believed doing so would require the bending of the laws of physics. And if he was in this place then-

"So, are you in the mood to talk for a little bit? It won't be long, but I think we both need this." Rider's voice echoed through the near silence, only the click of her shoes against the ground sounding out as she approached the bed. Perhaps it would've been polite to at least raise his head, if not get up entirely considering how thorough a job she had done in healing him, but instead he merely remained flat as the girl took a seat next to him. "You can guess what my first question is, right?"

"…I am still a part of Generation, though not in the fullest meaning of the word." The boy sighed, a hand coming to his forehead. The pounding had refused to seize even with the treatment he had been given, but he could bare the pain for the duration of this conversation at least. "I've heard a lot about you, you know. How you were a part of the greatest research team Generation had ever produced, only to be forgotten and shoved away upon your first failure."

That brought a sourness to her face. At least Liu Wei had the decency to wince at how harsh his words had been even to himself. Sure, he had joined after her group had been… forcefully disbanded, but that still meant it would be hard to the only known survivor of the incident.

"Yes, I was. I would also appreciate it if you didn't bring that up again unless I say so." The technomancer dismissed immediately, a small exhale having her in an at least somewhat better state. "But what happened to that base? Was there some sort of siege upon it?" Now that was an easy tale for Liu Wei to speak of.

"One by their own people. It was a coup of sorts, some of the members feeling frustrated at the way they operated, especially using your team as an example. They wanted to know that they were safe unless they specifically chose to endanger themselves and thus created a new headquarters, destroying all that the original one had and killing the people. All they left was the research they didn't need or particularly wanted."

He wasn't exactly sure what he had said that had pushed Rider into the brink of tranquil fury, but from the way her hand trembled and her breathing became audible, he certainly wasn't going to like the reason. She was polite however; she made sure that there was little chance of her special guest getting hurt before a scream of pure rage escaped her, several machines shattered to mere pieces under her violent outburst, left panting after all of the exertion.

"They left my friend's work, the greatest work done under their name… because they didn't feel like they needed it? They left it because it wasn't wanted!?" the pink haired girl cried, pulling out several strands as Liu Wei could only watch until she calmed down, returning to her seat with more than a little sadness colouring her words. "Still, I have to ask you the questions I wanted to hear. Tell me, what are your intentions when it comes to Generation? What was your wish?"

Now that confused the blue haired boy, who could only blink awkwardly before struggling for an answer that ultimately settled as a shrug.

"I have no purpose. I merely wish to fulfil the tasks that I am given and I had no others to give me tasks." Rider could only scoff at the answer, a dry laugh escaping her as she turned to Liu Wei incredulously.

"You can't be serious, right? Everyone who's joined Generation has had some sort of wish they wanted fulfilling, whether it be scientifically, magically or otherwise. Even I joined because I wanted to have the resources to complete my parents' work." The girl stated, looking with a pout as Liu Wei gave no further response. "Well, I guess it was going to happen one time. But surely there must be something you look towards!"

"I cannot say I do. I have no reason to look forward to anything other than my next assignment." It was at that moment that Rider knew – Liu Wei wasn't exactly the most sociable of people. Maybe she could change that however, it would be super fun to just go a-

Serious conversation, right.

"You said that you weren't exactly a full member. Why was that?"

"It is the very reason I chose to fight your group." Holding up the arm weakly, Rider was reminded of the fact that it wasn't that she forgot to remove the vambrace upon his arm, but was simply unable to and gave up after a while. The gold armour still shone even in the artificial dimmed light of the medical bay, Liu Wei's eyes drawn to the glimmer before he almost forcefully tore them away. "Allow me to explain in better detail."

"This power is a specially designed armour and transformation device designed to act in a similar way to sacred gears without a balance breaker. If you can weaken creatures to a certain extent, then you can contain their power, their very essence within a crystal like the ones I use. Place them into the gauntlet and you can take over their body, in what has been called Mind Meld. It's… a strange experience taking over a creature's entire mind, but it has been proven to work on, albeit with issues, even legendary creatures." Liu Wei explained, pausing for a slight breath as a small wisp of red escaped his mouth, Rider at least polite enough to not ask what it was.

"Naturally, such a power is desired by many of the people who took over Generation, their board desiring me either as a weapon or a bargaining tool with which to threaten various groups." Rider couldn't help the small gasp of shock that escaped at the sentence; Generation had never been strong enough to challenge other groups, but if they were to, who knows how many lives would be sacrificed in the consequences? "And I didn't want to be used in such a fashion, even if they gave me orders. Thus, I was thrown out and taken in by one of the last remaining original leaders, Cong-fan."

She had definitely heard of that man before. A shrew, calculating being that was able to churn out some of the best the group had to offer, if at a high price. There were many who sought out his training and came out of it battered or not at all, yet even Rider herself had debated trying her luck at the harsh regime in order to see what she would come out as. Even so, for such a person to have taken in what appeared to be a very vulnerable person and keep him alive was definitely worthy of respect on both sides.

"He was the one, working in tandem with the exiled Dr. Beat, who somehow managed to find the legendary Taoist symbols and capture them, making me as powerful as I am right now. Without them… I know that Cong-fan plans something that can ultimately be dangerous, if only to my own health and yet I can't find a reason to stop following him."

"You mean you can't find a reason apart from the fact that what he's doing has the chance of killing you and potentially failing anyway?" Rider gaped, a palm moving to her forehead in what was just a little bit of confusion. "Still, I suppose you did answer my question. I can return you to the … original headquarters, but I still have questions for next time we meet."

That was the first time she had seen the boy properly smile, even if it was for only a little bit as he pulled himself off of the basic bed, reaching for the door before turning with one last message.

"By the way, I think you would like to know this. I can only give it to you because it would greatly upset Cong-fan, but..."

"I can guide you to the Tower of Ai's newest location."

And let's put that on hold! Yes, things are shaping up nicely... I know we have those vocaloid fans coming, so maybe you know where this could ultimately culminate. Of course, you can expect some twists to come as we move onto our next chapter, so please look forward to that wile we enter the next phase!

1 - Dragon (Ophis: scale slicer)

2 - Kitsune (Kunou: Kit o' nine tails)

3 - Technomancer (Starway Rider: .EXE(but!)cuter)

4 - Demon (Onihime: Royal straight crush)

5 - ?

6 - ?

7 - ?

8 - ?

9 - ?

0 - ErRoR (woman: ErRoR)

Super hero time! See you next time!