Reese looks over as the door to the café swings open. A familiar grey-haired woman walking inside with a couple bags of groceries. "Finally back from your errands?" He asks.
"Mhm." Penny gets close enough to whisper. "Taking these to the safe house. I'll take over, so you can leave."
"Got it. I met that regular you mentioned. He really is interesting." Reese says, removing his name tag.
"Told you." Penny's eyes gleam for a moment as she stares into Reese's. "Also, I heard some kind of crack outside. You mind checking it out?"
"Oh? I'll take a look." Reese says, stepping outside to see what Penny found.
It doesn't take a lot of walking until Reese hears the distant shout of a girl. "Give it back!"
"Miss, get out of our way." A man says.
Finally getting close enough to see, Reese finds two soldiers holding a makeshift basketball hoop away from her. Every time the soldiers try to move past her, the girl gets in front of them. Now where's the "crack?" Reese thinks to himself.
"I won't do anything with it. Just give it back!" She tries to reach up and grab it, but the soldier shoves her back.
It's small, but Reese notices a light amount of steam leaving the girl. There it is. He doesn't wait another moment before pulling out his notepad and walking towards the three, putting on a huge smile.
"Wow! Two soldiers from Suck, right here in front of me. This must be my lucky day." He says, cutting between them and the girl. "You two wouldn't mind if I asked some questions, would you?"
"We don't have the time for this. Move." The guard asked as irritation filled their voice.
"Whew, scary. Is that the tone you were using with the girl behind me?" Reese pretends to scribble something into his notepad. He hears the light chuckle of the girl behind him.
"We were just confiscating this." The other, much calmer guard takes the hoop and shows it to Reese. "You should know the dangers these kinds of items can bring, especially to our younger generation."
"Of course, of course. Now, I could've sworn I had heard or seen some kind of shove as I was walking over. Since you avoided the other question, were you using force against this child?" Reese asks.
"What? We didn't use any…" The guard clicks their tongue as they look back at the one who had shoved the girl. "Patrol can get irritating for some of us, but we didn't harm the girl." He takes a long look at Reese. "Who do you work for?"
"I don't work for the news, just a man who likes collecting information. Back to my questions-" Before Reese can continue, the girl swipes the hoop from the guard as his focus drifts from her to Reese.
"That little… get back here!" The irritated guard shouts.
Reese turns his back to the guards as he pretends to block them unintentionally. "And a chase? What an interesting day."
They run around Reese, finally able to chase the girl, but she'd already ran far away at that point. Hopefully, I can get Penny to find the girl and check on her. Maybe Jes could take a crack at it. They seem like similar ages. Reese thinks as he puts the notepad away.
—
Jes groans as she bangs the back of her head against the soft bed. "I bet I could do a thousand times better than Reese at the Café. What's he got that I don't?"
She looks over at the math finished math homework on her desk, the only clean part of the room. Jes continuously bangs her head against the bed until she gets a call on her phone.
"Reese?" Jes scoffs as she picks up. "What? You better not have messed something up."
Jes scowls as she hears a light chuckle from Reese. "No, I just thought you might be interested in helping a potential breakout victim."
"Really?! What do I need to do?" Jes asks.
"I didn't get a name. But she looked around your age, had a basketball hoop." Reese says.
"You couldn't have gotten more than that?" Jes asks.
"What? Too hard? I could ask Penny, but I thought you might enjoy doing it."
"No, I can handle it! Don't ask penny, please?"
"I will keep quiet. Just don't push yourself. We'll be on standby if they end up turning." Reese hangs up.
Jes lays back on her bed with a giddy squeal. "This is gonna be awesome! I'll find that girl and ace this. Reese will be all like 'I knew you had it in you,' and Penny'll say 'Nice work, kid. You might even take my spotlight.'"
But there aren't many people who'd have something like that at my school. There is that girl who's always talking about basketball. She thinks to herself, resting her head against the pillow as her eyes shut. It's my time to shine.
It doesn't even feel like that much time passes before she hears a knock on her door. "Are you awake?" A soft voice asks.
Jes's eyes shoot open, jumping out of bed and shoving things into her backpack. "I'll be out in a minute!"
Need to get to the entrance fast, no time to eat. Jes thinks as she swings her door open, running out of the house within moments. Actually, how am I going to find her? Not a lot of people want to talk to me. Maybe I could just force them to talk. Thankfully for her, as she gets to the school's entrance, Jes sees a girl with small amounts of steam leaving her body.
"Yoohoo!" Jes slaps the girl's back, many of the students around them giving Jes an annoyed look.
She swings around with a frightened look. "What was that for?!"
"You wouldn't know anything about a basketball hoop, would you?" Jes asks.
"How do you know about that?" A little more steam rises. "Why is this happening now?"
All I did was ask, why is she freaking out? Jes thinks.
"Woah, don't start freaking out. Let's go talk somewhere else." Jes grabs the girl's arm and starts walking.
"What about classes? If I don't keep up-"
Jes cuts the girl off. "Who cares? Is that all you want to do?"
Her insistence only stresses the girl out more. "N-No, but it's still important." She takes a look at Jes's green hair. "Wait, aren't you that kid causing trouble around school?"
"I don't cause trouble, it's called 'doing what I want.' And my name's Jes."
A quiet chuckle leaves her lips as some of the steam dissipates. "The school doesn't see it that way, or most of the people there."
Nice. Now, how do I convince her to follow her dream? Jes thinks. Guess I can just get her to talk about it.
"Why did you have a basketball hoop? Not like you could do much with it." Jes asks.
"You'd be surprised how much I can get away with mounting onto an alleyway wall. As long as I'm safe about it. I'm Ivy."
"Safe? Who cares about that? You should go out into the street and mount it up. That'd show those soldiers from Suck."
"And let it get confiscated? Then I wouldn't be able to use it at all."
Jes grabs her arm. "Come on, it'll be fine. If anything happens, we can just pull it off and run."
Ivy tugs back as Jes pulls her. "I don't want to risk it." A small amount of steam rises from her.
Not giving in, Jes continues to pull on the girl's arm. "Just trust me. I know what I'm doing. Or do you want to stand around and do nothing?"
"No, but, I don't know." Panic enters her voice as more steam rises.
Jes becomes lost in her goal, oblivious to the steam. "Just let yourself have fun, it isn't that hard."
"Let myself have fun?" The steam grows even more abundant as they step out of the alleyway. "You're right, I don't want to do nothing. I want to show everyone who I really am!"
Jes turns her head around, finally snapping out of her excitement. "Right? Let's go-" Her eyes widen as she sees the steam leaving the girl, letting go of her. "This wasn't supposed to happen."
"I'll show them how much fun it is. Then maybe things can be different." The steam engulfs Ivy, a lanky, humanoid monster rising from the steam.
Sirens blare throughout the street, the vacuum poles sucking in the steam. "Breakout detected! Breakout detected! Evacuate the area immediately!"
No, no, no! I was supposed to help her. Maybe I can fix this. If I transform… Jes looks around. With the sirens blaring, people are evacuating their homes. Causing the empty street to fill up, even if by just a little. Why did she turn? Wasn't I helping?
With the steam cleared, the monster was in full view. It looks almost like a mannequin, with a jersey and basketball replacing the head. "Don't you want to have fun? Why won't anyone play with me?!" It rolls the basketball off, leaving the monster headless as it bounces the ball.
The monster throws the ball at Jes; she dodges as it crashes into the ground behind her, leaving a crater behind as it bounces back to the monster. "Wait, time out! You weren't supposed to turn like this. I was just trying to help."
"It's no fun if you don't try. Come on, play with me." The monster throws the ball at her repeatedly, each throw getting faster.
As Jes grows tired, barely moving out of the way, she trips. Even if it's for a moment, that one slip up leaves her open as the monster throws the ball, hurdling right at her. I just thought I could help.
Someone runs in front of her, their sword bouncing the ball back. "Can't be cut, huh? That certainly makes things difficult." The chocolate knight looks back at Jes. "Told you we'd be on standby."
"I-I just wanted to-" Jes says, but Reese cuts her off.
"It's alright, you did the best you could. That's all that matters to me. We can let this incident be our little secret from Penny."
"Like I care what you think, you better not mess this up." Jes says as she gets up, trying to hide her smile.
"I'll do what I can. Think you can make back to the Café?" Reese says.
"Obviously, who do you think I am?" Jes says before running off.
Reese looks at the monster. "Now, how will I deal with you?" It throws the ball at him again, only for Reese to send it back.
With every throw, Reese bounces it back, but the monster always catches it. Stuck in an endless cycle, the two are stuck in a stalemate as the throws get faster.
"I'm surprised. This is the first time I haven't been able to cut something. But I'd like to finish this before trouble arrives." Reese bounces the ball back once more before clicking the trigger on his hilt, positioning the sword behind him on his right, the tip facing the ground.
Chocolate casing covers his body as the monster catches the ball, throwing it back instantly. Right before the ball strikes the casing, it breaks open. A burst of winds blows the ball away as Reese dashes in front of the monster, cutting upward through it. Steam bellows out of the monster as it dissipates, the vacuums poles sucking it up.
Reese catches the unconscious girl. "We'll fight for a world where you can have all the fun you want." He runs off as soldiers appear in the distance, turning into an alleyway, and dropping into one of the hidden entrances.
Penny and Jes are waiting for Reese in their suits as he enters their hideout with the girl. "So it really was that kid," Penny says.
"Remember, we can't force her to stay in the safe house." Reese tells Penny.
There's a look of pain on her face. "I know, but she's still a kid. Who knows what Suck's doing to those people?"
Ivy slowly opens her eyes with a groan. "Where am I?"
Reese puts her down, closely watching the small amounts of steam trickling from her. "You're in the Emporium of Sweets. Are you hurt anywhere?"
"No, who are you?" She asks, a little frightened by the three.
"We're the three bandits who're saving this town." Penny says.
"The one's on the news?" Ivy asks, followed by a nod from Penny. "D-Did I turn into one of those monsters? Does this mean I have to go with those soldiers?"
Penny shakes her head. "You don't have to. We have our doubts that those people are actually helping victims like you. If you're willing, we have a safe house you can stay in. But you'd have to be hidden from your parents and the rest of the town."
"Do I have to decide now?" Ivy asks, followed by another nod from Penny. "Wouldn't it be easier to trust them? They're supposed to help me."
Penny balls her hands up for a moment. "If that's what you want, then go through one of those doors." She points to the many exit doors.
As Ivy walks to the doors, Jes speaks up. "Wait!" She hesitates before putting her gloves on her belt, dissolving her suit.
"You're…" Ivy's at a loss for words as she stops, looking at the girl she'd met not too long ago.
"We want to help you, really. It's my fault you turned, but please, trust us," Jes says.
She hesitates, but Ivy walks away from the door. "I know they're helping us, but those soldiers take people away, and I never hear about them again. So maybe, maybe you're right."
"Thank you." Reese says as he and Penny undo their transformations as well.
"That guy from before." Ivy says to herself upon seeing Reese. He gives her a friendly smile.
"Don't pull another stunt like that again. You could've cost us our identities," Penny says to Jes with a grin.
"I wouldn't have told anyone. It's like, I don't know, part of me knows something's wrong with that company." Ivy says.
"Well, if you're ready, I'll help you get situated at the safe house. And you're sure about this? You won't see your parents for a while, however long it takes us to bring Suck down." Penny asks.
The girl nods. "I don't know, but if it's between you or those soldiers, I want to trust you."
"Good enough for me. We'll save this place so you can see everyone again real soon." Penny says, guiding Ivy to the door in the center before going through the slide inside.
AN: Apologies for the delay, had some other things to work on and this ended up falling to the back of my mind. This could end up happening again, as it did with my other Kamen Rider fic, but chapters will always come in 2 - 3 weeks at the latest. I do aim for releasing them weekly, but things happen sometimes.