Okay, so last chapter was a bit "drab" but what can I do I'm still new to writing Kamen Rider, not mention cross-over, fics. So, as I said before this chapter is about finally introducing Sakura's and Wizard's combination in combat and I'm certain by now a lot of you probably have a good idea about where my inspiration for where this team-up truly came from.
Chapter 4: Wizard, Sakura and Carter's Rival
"Welcome, Sakura-sama!" Sakura sweat dropped as she was instantly flanked on all sides by the many maids and body guards of the Daidoji estate. She never could get used to how Tomoyo's mother ordered the help treat her just like royalty.
"I-it's nice to see you all again." She bowed in turn to the group and then she was blindsided into a smothering hug.
"Sakura-chan! It's so good of you to visit!" Tomoyo's mother, Sonomi, cooed as she held Sakura close to her chest. "Please stay as long as you like."
"Thank… you, Sonomi-san." Sakura managed to get out.
"Now, now Mother." Tomoyo finally managed to separate her mother from Sakura. "You don't need to smother Sakura-chan so tightly every time she comes over." Sonomi blushed at how her own daughter had begun to scold her.
"Ri-right! Okay girls you go enjoy yourselves, I have work to do."
"Hai!" The two said as Tomoyo lead Sakura to her studio. "Oh, also we may be expecting another guest so please show him in if he drops by." Tomoyo asked one of the maids who bowed in understanding.
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"Ahh! Finally!" Kero gasped as he freed himself from Sakura's bag. "It's always so tense trying to get into this place." He immediately sweat dropped as Sakura did when he noticed how Tomoyo was desperately holding onto Sakura just as her mother had.
"I'm sorry I just couldn't stand it." Tomoyo explained as her eyes literally began to sparkle with expectation. "It's been so long since you've come here to try on clothes. Ah! It's so nostalgic!"
"Tomoyo-chan it's only been two years!" The card mistress had more trouble getting away from her best friend than she did from Sonomi.
"Oh! Are these the clothes?" Kero suddenly flew toward the back of the tiny studio where a newly assembled costume was displayed on a wire frame model. "Hey, isn't this the mask that Sakura used for that play years ago?" Kero noticed.
"Indeed. I predict that Sakura will have to fight much more public battles than in the past. So, a mask seemed a necessity." Tomoyo explained marveling over how this would look on her favorite model and best friend.
"Speaking of mask, when's that whatever Rider gonna get here?" Kero asked.
"I asked Yu-kun if he wanted to come too but he said that would be difficult, but he would find a way to let himself in some way." Sakura explained.
"Well he'll have to make due until the premier of this costume because I can't wait. Hurry and try it on!" Tomoyo suddenly began pulling the various components of the costume off the model and handing them to Sakura, all the while shoving her into a changing booth. "I'll get my camera while you get changed. I can't wait!" Tomoyo cooed once more after slamming the curtain to the booth.
"Geez, Tomoyo-chan." Sakura sighed. She looked over the bundle in her hand and smile. "I guess I missed this a little bit too." She admitted to herself. She hung the many components to the outfit on hooks and hangers that had been provided inside the booth. She had just slipped out of her burgundy school jacket and was unbuttoning her white undershirt when she heard a quiet cough.
"Umm…you don't wanna do that." She looked toward the source of the soft voice and she noticed a tiny figure standing in the corner of the booth, a soft pink flush on his cheeks and giving her the most innocent wave he could muster.
"HOOOOOOEEEEEEE!"
"Sakura what's wrong?!" Tomoyo came rushing back into the studio at the sound of Sakura's cry. A small contingent of body guards had come with her. There was no movement from the booth until Sakura poked her head out from the curtain wearing an embarrassed smile.
"Sorry about that. A cockroach had gotten back here but don't worry I squished it." And she instantly tucked her head back inside. The guards looked to each other confused but conceded, muttering to themselves about increasing the security against pest as they left. Sakura immediately came back out of the booth, fully clothed and a small figure hanging from her pinched fingers.
"Squished… is an understatement." The tiny, not to mention pulverized, Carter said. "I believe curb-stomped is a better word." Sakura dropped the broken man onto the nearby couch where he immediately grew back to full size.
"What were you doing in there?" Kero demanded.
"Definitely not what you think I was doing." Carter shot back as he slipped his Small ring back into his jacket. "I had to hide somewhere. Have you seen the security in this place?" Carter explained.
"But why did you need to sneak in to begin with?" Tomoyo asked with an up raised brow. "We could have simply invited you in."
Carter brushed down his wrinkled jacket and gave the girls a wry look. "Listen, it's not that I don't appreciate you girls' friendship. But I've got to preserve some kind of image around here as an upstanding teacher. And I doubt too many parents are going to appreciate knowing that their kids' new foreigner teacher actively and unprofessionally intermingles with his under-age pupils."
"That's what you say but considering what just happened." Kero argued with a grin, feeling he had just found some juicy dirt on their new friend.
"Oi! Don't even think about it! I've got a sister their age, I ain't no bloody perv!" Clearly upset that he was being accused, Carter seamlessly switched from Japanese to his more natural English dialect which was also heavily accented. Tomoyo and Sakura were just barely able to understand his tirade.
"Okay, okay." Sakura attempted to pull the two apart. "We don't need to give the security another reason to come in here, do we?" The Carter looked to the girl who smiled in forgiveness to which he sighed and leaned back on the sofa, making himself comfy. His eyes then veered toward the nearby coffee table where he spotted today's newspaper.
"Well what do you know?" He said as he scanned the front page excitedly. "The front page is about me!" He turned the newspaper around so that his friends could read the main article.
"Local children's home saved by an urban legend made real." Tomoyo read the headline. Just beneath it was a picture of the burned down Tsukimine Orphanage where Kotone, along with the bank collector Goda and the children of the home were standing in front of the demolished building but looking rather happy despite the destruction behind them. Several of the children were even posing, their arms pointed at odd angles and smiles on their faces.
"That reminds me, have you heard from Kotone-san?" Sakura asked to which Carter nodded.
"I saw her just the other day, I even helped them dig through the debris and salvage what ever of the children's belonging's that may have survived." He then pulled down the sleeves of his jacket to show how his hands and arms still had black stains on them from handling the burnt wood.
"So what's that miko gonna do now?" Kero asked curious as to how those kids were gonna be without a home.
"Goda, explained most of the situation to me. The official report is 'that a long time bank employee had been dipping into the deposits made by the orphanage and was reporting them as late to throw the heat off himself.' The bank refunded the orphanage all the deposits they had made in the last few months, with an "apology" of course." Carter winked, implying that apology must've been fairly generous. "So Kotone decided to use the extra money to restore an older home away from Tomoeda and they should be moving into it within the week."
"So, now that she's moving away from Tomoeda, the Phantoms won't target her anymore." Sakura guessed to which Carter nodded. "Thank goodness." She sighed. "At least she didn't have to go through falling into despair. I don't want to imagine what that's like."
"Oh yeah!" Kero suddenly jumped up and hovered directly in Carter's face. "You said these gates that are being targeted could become wizards like you right, Rider?" Carter blinked not knowing where he was going with this. "So you must have almost fallen into despair yourself right?" Sakura and Tomoyo both stared wide eyed at Kero's brash question. Carter's expression was like stone, his eyes covered by his bangs. "So how'd it happen anywa-!" Sakura quickly covered his mouth and pulled him back.
"Kero!" Sakura hissed at him to be silent, putting a finger to her mouth. She then turned to see Carter was standing once again, his face still a mask to them. He began walking away, his hands in his pockets. Though, instead of angrily leaving the studio through the door, he actually walked toward a door sized set of windows leading out into the mansion's garden. He opened one of the windows, allowing a small red form to flutter in.
"Garu-chan!" Sakura recognized as the Pla-monster tweeted in happiness at seeing Sakura again. He then lighted into Carter's outstretched hand where he seemed to start chirping urgently.
"Well, duty calls." Carter lifted his head toward them, his familiar smile greeting them as he opened the window wide enough for him to jump from.
"Ah, wait Yu-kun!" Sakura's call stopped him mid-bound. "I want to come to! I don't want to stand on the side lines anymore." Her earnest declaration forced him to pull back from the window in thought. He sighed once more.
"If you insist." He then opened his jacket, revealing the hand-shaped buckle on his belt. He placed the Driver ring up to the scanner.
Driver on!
Unicorn! Please.
His second ring summoned what looked like a model set which immediately collapsed in on itself and reconfigured into the form of the familiar blue horse Pla-monster. Carter pulled the ring from his finger and set it into the unicorn's chest, prompting it to "whinny" to life.
"Hurry up and get changed, he'll lead you straight to me." Carter explained before finally leaping out the window into the grassy knoll below. He landed in a crouch and immediately passed his Flame Style ring across the scanner. "Henshin!"
Flame! Please! Hi, hi. Hi-hi-hi!
Connect, please!
Kamen Rider Wizard revved his bike, the Machine Winger, and speeded across the garden dodging bushes and plants and finally leaping over the high wall to the street beneath it. His faithful familiar Garuda, leading the way.
"There he goes again." Kero muttered. "I'm starting to think he just enjoys playing hero." He then found himself picked up by the back of his neck and turned around to look into his mistress's stern glare. "Umm…"
"That was very rude." Tomoyo joined in aswell. "Yu-kun hasn't told us about his past yet because it must be painful for him to explain."
"Yu-kun can tell us all about himself when he feels he can. Until then, we shouldn't pry." Sakura dropped the clow guardian back down onto the table and then turned away to head back into the booth where her costume waited, leaving Kero to rub the back of his head in mixed guilt and shame. The newly arrived Unicorn only turned its head in confusion, wondering what he had missed this time.
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"Ba-bakemono!" Shrill screams of terror filled the busy intersection as several cars came to a grinding halt at the sight of the winged terror gliding just above their heads. The creature chuckled as his leathery wings brought him to ground level near a group of cowering people.
"Disperse!" He cackled and swiped at a nearby street lamp, sending it crashing at the cowering mobs feet and sending them all sprawling in random directions in order to avoid the debris. The Phantom suddenly pounced upon one of the escapees, gripping him by the shoulders with his talons and flapping furiously back into the air. "Hang on there." The reptilian creature grinned its hook like beak down at the teenage boy who desperately tried to pry the clawed toes from his jacket before he realized they were already several stories up. "It's your lucky day kid!" The blue skinned, horned lizard stated as they finally came to a nominal height. "Old Gargoyle-sama's gonna teach you a lesson personally." The boy suddenly felt the creature's grip loosen on his shoulders. "I'll teach you a lesson about despair in the face of death!" The creature's claws quickly released their burden as the boy started tumbling through the air, eyes widening in terror as the ground rushed up to meet him.
Big, please!
"Fui." The teenager opened his previously clamped shut eyes when he realized that the impact didn't come. His eyes widened in shock and confusion when he realized he was lying on a gigantic, black leather covered hand. He followed the gigantic appendage to its source where he noticed that the gigantic arm was stemming from a red, sigil filled circle floating in midair. The hand gently lowered him to ground level and receded back into the magic circle, which faded away as well.
Gargoyle growled in frustration when he too saw the magic circle fade, revealing it owner right behind it. "The ring bearing magician." He spat.
"Kamen Rider." The teenage looked on in shock, having heard rumors and read a witnesses description provided from the article in the newspaper.
"Let me show how a proper instructor does things." Wizard quipped, taking up his sword-gun and aiming the silver barrel at the leather winged beast. "Saa, Showtime daa."
"I've pretty thick headed. You think you can teach me anything!?" The Phantom quipped back as it dive bombed the magician rider. Wizard rolled back, just missing getting his head swiped off by the gargoyle's talons. His finger rapidly bounced on the trigger, sending a spray of silver bullets soaring toward the circling beast.
"Gahh!" Gargoyle took the shining projectiles in the back, ripping up his wings and sending him crashing back down to ground level. Wizard immediately moved in on the down beast, switching his gun to blade mode and preparing to bring it down in a horizontal slash across the Phantom's head. "Not good!" The Phantom quickly righted himself and suddenly went completely still, not making any move to avoid the blow.
Clang!
"Yow!" Carter instantly pulled back as his blade bashed against Gargoyle's hide, bouncing off the creature as if he were made of stone. In fact, with his blue hide now having turned into a dull black, Carter deduced he had done just that.
"Surprised?" The Phantom quickly reverted back into normal and sweeped Wizard's legs out from under him with his tail. "I can turn myself into stone and back on a whim. So you can't touch me!" He mocked, leaping into the air and swiftly petrifying himself once more to come crashing down on top of the downed magician.
"Gah!" Now it was Carter's turn to call out in pain as he was being squished by several hundreds of pounds of solid stone. He desperately pulled at the chain on his belt, reaching for the Yellow gem ring and passing it across the scanner.
Land! Dodon. Dododo, dododon. Don, dododon!
The yellow magic circle passed over Carter, changing his armor to the heavier Land Style and filling him with strength, straight from the Earth herself. "Haaaaaahh!" Carter roared in frustration as he pushed up with all his might.
"Wh-whoa!" The stone gargoyle called out in shock as it was easily lifted off the ground, held up by the newly transformed Wizard. Wizard growled in effort one last time as he tossed his heavy foe flying through the air like a javelin. Gargoyle, swiftly tried switching back to normal in order to catch some air on his wings, but he forgot they had been ripped up before so instead he continued his flight barely slowed as he crashed face first into a building.
"Fina-!" Carter was just about to slip the Kick Strike ring onto his finger when he felt cold metal rest atop his shoulder, right next to his neck.
"The moment one prepares to deliver the final blow, is also when they are most likely to drop their guard." A feminine voice sniggered behind him. Gargoyle noticed that the magician was no longer moving to attack him and decided it was best to hightail it after his target who had already made a break for it.
"I don't know who you are doll, but thanks." He called to his sudden savior who paid him no mind.
"Now then-" The female Phantom started but she quickly had to leap back as the Wizar Sword-gun came stabbing back toward her.
"Well now." Carter twirled his sword through his fingers and leveled it at his newest adversary. "I certainly was not expecting to see you here, Empousa-chan. What brings you to quaint little Tomoeda."
The female Phantom chuckled, brushing a hand through her jet black hair. Her feminine body was covered in wicked magenta armor with the exception of her left leg which was a bright golden color and her right arm which was a demonic black appendage that ended in a clawed talon. Her face was mannequin like, being completely pale with a void space where her eyes would be and luscious red lips drawn in a smirking smile. A single, hooked horn also extended from the side of her head. A rapier with a needle thin blade and a magenta guard that matched her armor rested in her demonic grip.
"I followed the other Phantoms of course."
"So…" Carter's tone seemed to switch to one of disappointment. "You came to attack the gates in this city along with the other Phantoms." Empousa threw back her head and laughed a hardy woman's laugh.
"You wound me, child. I followed the others here because I knew you would not be far behind. Protector of hope that you are."
Carter grinned inside his helmet, pleased with her answer. "Well then. Time to prove I'm no longer the kid who couldn't keep up with you before."
Flame! Hi. Hi. Hi-hi-hi!
Now back to his Flame Style Wizard held his sword out toward his old rival in invitation. "Care to dance, love." Empousa held out her own blade, crossing it with Carter's and snickered once more.
"Let us continue our wild dance of blades, Wizard." The two immediately broke away only to stab at one another once again. Steel clashed against steel as the two became locked, pushing against each other for control. Empousa was the first to break the stalemate, dropping low, and kicking for Wizard's legs. Carter had already faced this ploy, and instinctively cartwheeled to the side, slashing as he landed. Sparks flew as the silver blade scraped against Empousa's armor. The female phantom leaped back, gripping her shoulder.
"Looks like the first point belongs to me." Carter quipped excitedly. He retook his stance preparing to charge once again.
"Indeed. It seems you have improved. Which means this handicap won't be necessary any longer." Empousa dropped her stance completely, she breathed in deeply as her magenta armor started to quiver and shake.
"Reppu gari! (Gale hunter)"
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"There you are!" The teenage gate turned in fright. Gargoyle, his ruined wings having healed, had finally caught up with him. The gate stumbled, hitting the ground hard. "Hahaha!" The Phantom chuckled gleefully, grabbing hold of the teenager pulling back his talons, preparing to rake his claws across the gate's throat. "Now, as I was saying, let the fear of death drive you to-."
"Wood!" The Phantom stopped mid swipe as a canopy of snaking vines began to tangle about his arms and torso, separating him from the gate and pulling him back.
"Oh what is it this time?!" He cried in outrage as he swiped at the vines, tearing them from his arms and using his wings to break apart the ones around his torso. "Not another damn magician!" He growled when he finally noticed the costumed girl standing defiantly across the street from him and his target. She wore a pink dress with a red belt around her waist and a red cape on her back,plus red knee high boots and white gloves covering her arms. A pinkish, feather designed mask covered her face as well as red beret covered her hair. In her hands was a pink staff with a star at its head and tiny wings flanking the star. "So what the heck are you supposed to be?!" Gargoyle demanded.
"I am…"The girl stopped mid sentence, apparently having no idea as to how to introduce herself. "I am…? Um, please wait a moment." She bowed in apology which quickly deflated the angry Phantom as she started rummaging through the folds of her dress. She finally removed a small note from her pockets and quickly skimmed over. She sweat dropped over the notes instructions. "Oh this is so embarrassing." She quickly turned back to the stunned Phantom and gate and bowed once again. "Thank you for waiting." She then readied her staff again, attempting to regain her previous composure. She then started twirling her staff through her fingers like a baton (oh god my testicles just shot back inside me!) and tossed it into the air catching it once again with her other hand and leveling it at the Phantom. "Kamen Mahou Shoujo, Piffle!"
Gargoyle stood frozen at the sight of the cosplaying girl. First he had to deal with an armored clown on a motorcycle and now he was being forced to watch this costumed cheerleader make a fool of him with her ridiculous intro. "Why…you." Steam literally started bellowing from his ears as outrage like never before set in. "I've had it with you costumed clowns!" He quickly held up both his claws which were filled with handfuls of strange black stones. "Ghouls, get rid of her!" Gargoyle threw the stones to the ground where they immediately started to give off purple smoke and sprouted into a horde of the lesser Phantoms.
'Piffle' (cocks suicide pistol just in case) pulled a card from the folds of her robe and tossed it into the air above her. "Jump!" Tiny wings sprouted from the masked girl's ankles, these wings gave her amazing leaping abilities as she bounded over the charging mob of Ghouls to the stunned Gate's side. "Hang on!" She commanded as she gripped him by the arm and leaped once again. They landed a good distance from the Ghouls and Piffle allowed the teenager to fall, exhausted, to his knees. "You should be safe for now. Please try to escape." She instructed. The teenager looked at her for a moment, perplexed, but, he soon nodded getting back to his feet and began jogging down the street away from the monsters.
"Sakura!" Piffle looked up as the fully transformed Keroberos landed by her side. "What was with that intro?" He attempted to hold in a snicker as his mistress blushed in embarrassment.
"To-Tomoyo-chan said she only needed to record me doing that once and I would never have to do that again!" Sakura explained desperately.
"Well, she got her films worth. I left her on a rooftop a safe distance away after she got her shots. So let's get this done with." Kero smirked. Sakura nodded, pulling herself up onto her guardian's back as they took off.
"There she is!" Gargoyle finally noticed the winged lion soaring toward him and his horde and the masked girl riding on its back. Kero soared over the Ghouls, swatting a few down as he passed over. Sakura leaped from his back, a new card in hand.
"Sword!" Sakura commanded as her wand shifted to its rapier like form. She raised her sword up, descending straight for Gargoyle.
"You think that's gonna work!?" The Phantom spat as his hide quickly changed to stone. Sakura's blade flashed downward, sending a line of sparks jumping from the stone Phantom's body. "Yeeowch!" Gargoyle cried out, instantly switching back to normal and finding a large gash had been slashed down the left half of his body. "How did you-?"
"My Sword is magical. It cuts only what I want it to cut." Sakura explained, retaking a firm grip on her rapier.
"Dammit." The Phantom grumbled. It also noticed that its stone troops were fairing even less, the Ghouls easily being dispatched by the flames let loose by the sorceress's pet lion.
"Where, where is it?!" Sakura and the Phantom suddenly heard familiar mutterings as their eyes followed the noise to a short distance down the street. Sakura's eyes widened when she saw the same teenager she had just rescued had returned, his eyes tracing the ground around him as he seemed to be lost in search. "I must have dropped it around here somewhere." The gate finally raised his head and his eyes widened. Not from shock that he had just wandered back into the situation he had barely escaped from with his life, no they were focused solely on the ground right at Gargoyle's feet. The Phantom followed his target's line of sight and noticed his foot was just inches away from a tiny pair of brass bells tied together on a blue ribbon.
"What? Looking for this?" The Phantom lifted the bells up so the gate could see them, shaking the brass orbs mockingly to make them ring. The gate took a desperate step toward his lost property.
"Give those back." He demanded. "Those are…Ba-chan's bells." His hands shakingly reaching out for the tiny ribbon the gate continued to move closer to Gargoyle. The Phantom chuckled, holding the bells out as if wanting to return them.
"Get away!" Sakura pulled on the boy's sleeve. "You have to get away from here!" The gate only shoved her away, continuing to beg for his grandmother's precious memento. His fingers had just barely brushed against the tiny brass instruments when the Phantom pulled back cackling.
"Take them then!" The Phantom tossed the tiny orbs against the cold ground, prompting the teenager to dive for them. The Phantom's wide feet suddenly came crashing down atop the tiny brass bells, it constantly shifted its foot back and forth between stone and normal as it grounded the tiny instruments over and over into the dirt, the teenager watching on helpless. "Here's your precious bells!" The Phantom then ceased his stomping, kicking what remained of the tiny instruments to the boys hands as only flattened, useless pieces of metal wrapped in torn blue fabric.
"No…that was…all I had left…Ba-chan!" The boy suddenly gripped his chest as if it were in pain as he cried out. Fissure's began cracking along his face and body, purple light filtering from them.
"No!" Sakura immediately went to the boy's side trying to shake some sense back into him. "Don't give up! You can't fall into despair now!" She cried to the sorrow filled gate who made no indication that he heard her.
"Hahaha!" Gargoyle cackled to himself as he signaled all his remaining Ghouls to form up around him once again. "It's over! It took me awhile but I finally managed to make him fall into despair! Now that leaves just you." Gargoyle flexed his claws and signaled for his troops to press ahead, their spears and swords poised to charge. Kero instinctively returned to his master's side, growling threateningly against the oncoming horde.
"Please, Yu-kun. We need your help." Sakura prayed, readying her staff once more, preparing to fight to the bitter end to keep the monsters away from the gate.
Flame, Shooting Strike! Hi-hi-hi!
(hit the music: Last Engage.)
The first line of Ghouls were instantly blasted to bits by a barrage of blazing artillery, forcing Gargoyle and his troops to stop in their tracks.
"Miss me." Sakura felt a hand rest on her shoulder as she smiled up to the armored magician. "You did good, now then…" He then switched his weapon to blade mode and once again held his red ring up to the scanner.
Flame, Slash Strike! Hi-hi-hi!
"Let's burn these bastards!" He cried, lowering his sword to point behind him, its blade instantly igniting in a torrent of flames.
"Right!" Sakura threw a new card into the air and passed her staff over it. "Firey!" The pixie-like spirit of fire erupted from the cards surface, hovering at Sakura's side.
"Wha-what do you think your little flames are gonna do?!" Gargoyle challenged, switching once again to his stone state. The Ghouls charged, their spears and swords reaching out to run the magicians through. Kero would have none of that as he released an even greater gout of flames, that stopped the Ghouls dead in their tracks, even incinerating those few at the front.
"Finale!" Carter cried, charging through Kero's flames, his own blade poised to slice through the mob of stone beast. Suddenly, the Firey was at his side, becoming a tiny red orb that danced around his blade, causing the flames to roar even higher to life and changing them to a bright scarlet color. Wizard felt like he could barely hold onto his blade anymore as it hummed with incredible power but he held on even tighter than before. "Haaaaaah!" With a mighty battle cry Carter slashed forward with his blazing sword, sending a great wave of fire slicing through the entire mob of Ghouls, instantly blasting them back into stone debris. Carter then moved on Gargoyle who remained stubbornly prone as a statue. "That won't help you this time!" Carter called out, confident in the power boost Sakura's magic provided him. He spun on the balls of his feet and slashed right through the stone monster. There was no movement for that instant after his stroke as the flames on the Sword-Gun died down and then…
Crack!
"Ahg! No…way!" Gargoyle cried out in disbelief as a thin line of fire circled around the top of his chest and his top half separated from his lower. The stone Phantom crumbled in a pile of burning rock.
"Yu-kun!" Sakura's cry pulled Carter back toward the slowly fading gate who still gripped his memento desperately.
"Gomen." Carter apologized, slipping an Engage ring onto the teenager's finger and holding it up to his buckle. "I allowed myself to be distracted and this is what happened."
"Yu-kun?" Sakura looked at him, confused. He laid a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"Don't worry. I'll use whatever strength I have left to save his hope." Carter promised and leaped through the gates newly formed portal, diving down into his underworld.
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"Whoo! That is some ugly despair!" Carter quipped as he finally located the undeveloped Phantom. It stood some twenty feet tall. Its thick hide was a dull gray with green covering its back and head. It lumbered towards the waiting wizard in a hunched over charge, its single eye in the middle of its head staring hatefully. It was seconds from bringing its crude mace down atop the Wizard that had insulted it.
Dragorise!
"Koi, Dragon!" Carter called as the red magic circle materialized before him. Hearing the call, Dragon charged through the portal, flooring the Cyclops as it passed.
Connect, please!
Now astride the Machine Winger once again, Wizard leaped toward his Phantom, hooking the bike to Dragon's back and wings and gaining some measure of control of the wild beast. "Dragon! Lend me your power!" He called as he brought the flying lizard around for another attack. The Cyclops was already back on its feet and taking swings at the pesky monster that blindsided it with its club. Dragon unleashed a barrage of fireballs at the monster's feet while carter unloaded a hail of silver bullets on the beast with his sword-gun. But the beast thick hide held up against the artillery and it continued the chase, smashing up the scenery around it and leaving purple fissures in the ground and open air. Carter decided it was time to end this.
"Finale!"
Cho-inee! Kick Strike! Saikooo!
Carter leaped from Dragon's back as the Phantom suddenly went rigid. Its head and front legs suddenly pulled into its shoulder and its back legs were pulled into its sides as its tail connected to the under belly. Dragon was now in Strike Phase where its body had transformed to resemble a larger version of one of its own claws. The claw leaped up where Carter connected his own boot to the gigantic talon. The two were instantly covered in flames and an enlarged projection of Wizard appeared wearing the Dragon Strike Phase.
The Cyclops could only stare up in terror as the giant dragon print came sailing toward it like a meteor.
Boom!
The flying kick left a huge crater in the shape of a dragon's foot print where the Cyclops had been. Carter leaped down from his perch as Dragon returned to its true form. It roared in victory and flew off, returning to the portal Carter opened for it.
"Fui!" Carter sat back on his haunches as he watched the gate's underworld return to normal. He then heard a faint ringing noise and his eyes wandered to what looked to be a small children's park.
Sitting alone, not playing with any of the other children, was a small boy who seemed perfectly content just shaking his thin ribbon, listening to the jingle of its brass bells. An aged hand suddenly rested on his shoulder, surprised the boy looked up.
"Found you." An elderly woman smiled down at him, pushing up her thin spectacles.
"Oba-chan!" The boy cried in joy, wrapping his arms around his dear grandmother. "How did you find me?"
"You still have the bells I gave you right?" The boy nodded showing her the precious toy. "Just ring that and granny will always know where to find you and come running. Promise." She smiled and took his hand in her own, leading the smiling boy away as he practically skipped at her side.
As for the Wizard, he was nowhere in sight. Only a single white flower remained where he once sat.
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"Look, he's going back to normal!" Sakura cried in joy as the purple fissures began to close up and the boy's pained expression became one of peace. The red portal appeared once more as Kamen Rider Wizard leaped from its depths to land beside his friends.
"You did it, Yu-kun!" Sakura cried in joy. Kero and Tomoyo nodded in agreement.
"With this…he won't be targeted…any…" Carter began to sway on his feet to his friends shock.
Error!
The buckle began to flash and the red armor broke apart into tiny particles, flying from Carter's body. The magician suddenly fell to his knees, seemingly unable to stand any longer.
"What's wrong?!" Kero asked, getting behind the wizard to keep him from falling back.
"Yu-kun!" Sakura cried out to him in concern. Carter sighed.
"Finally ran out of mana huh? Well, at least she left me enough to get the job done." His energy completely spent, Carter's head rested against his chest as unconsciousness engulfed him.
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Some distance away from where the battle took place, a raven haired woman looked down upon the city with a giddy smirk. Her hand resting on a fencing rapier with a magenta guard.
"You still have a lot to learn, my darling little wizard."
Okay, I really have no comment about this chapter so just review and if you have questions hope their answered next chapter.
Now for my dilemma. What to do with this cocked pistol. (looks over blank space where disclaimer goes) Let's see if anyone's ballsy enough to call me on it.
