AN: Yes, I have made Masked Family part of the Ultra Crystals multiverse but the only 'required' prior chapter readings are Kamen Rider Tyrant chapter 40 (Unexpected Assistance) and Powers Unleashed chapters 89 (Another Crossing) – 95 (Dispersal). And, yes, I am using Idiosyncratic Episode naming with μ's and Kamen Rider song titles. English words are in italics...as usual. And I don't own the licensed chatracters.

Chapter Four: Power to Tearer

Weihan Liang was not having a very good time.

After coming down from the high of piloting the Dino Ultimax against Slashing Nak, he had to wait until his double had cobbled together the parts needed for the smaller Dimensional Opener and assembled everything. He was noticeably silent about what had happened with AJ and Hartford's son but he supposed he needed to concentrate without thinking of unnecessary things. For some reason, he had added a recall function just in case he landed in a dimension that was overly hostile. When he had asked why this was needed, since the data from the Dimension Door would be ported, his double had explained that, while they had an accurate assessment of where his home dimension actually was, the slight variances in the frequencies that had occurred when Xonix had moved from Equestria had thrown everything off by an extremely slight margin. If he were to use the Dimension Door, the small variances would be exacerbated and could cause him to be stuck in his dimension – but in the past or far future. Since he had no desire to see another evil future ever again, he had wisely decided to wait.

His double had informed him that, if he did press the recall button, it would take some time for a clean signal to punch through the variances. He had estimated around forty to fifty minutes with a ten-minute window for a stable portal to be generated. Anything more than that and he would run the risk of rupturing the Dimension Barriers so severely that he would cause total and complete failure. He had taken that information to heart as he really didn't want to be responsible for trillions upon trillions upon trillions of lives being snuffed out. After a quick charging of his Turbine from the Ultra Cavern, he had opened a portal and had stepped through to what he hoped was home. Unfortunately, it wasn't as smooth as he had hoped. His journey had ended, rather abruptly, several storeys up and he had a strange feeling he had hung in the air for a few seconds like some sort of cartoon character…before slamming into the ground below. Some sort of antennae poking up from the concrete had opened up a rather deep gash in his leg but it had been healed thanks to his Ultra Crystal. The residual pain, however, had taken a bit longer to fade away. It was then that he had realised he wasn't in the right dimension.

By his reckoning, he was in Japan, outside the Tokyo Dome, but there were posters around him advertising an event, and a band, he had never heard of. Also, there was a small point about the date on the posters being 2015…but he wasn't going to nitpick this turn of events. After being mistaken by a tourist by two strangely familiar men, he had wandered off in their direction before coming across a strange sight near the back area. While he hadn't really kept up with the Kamen Rider shows back home, he had seen one called Black RX and had, eventually, ribbed Dex about the similar armour design and if he was going to claim any royalties. There was a group of nine girls around the same age and one of them, a tall girl with ash-blonde hair, was speaking to a guy that looked maddeningly like the main actor – Tetsuo Kurata. As the signs around him were advertising the third Love Live event, he didn't really know what was going on but it hadn't seemed like a fan signing. He had wanted to leave the rather intimate reunion but something had compelled him to stick around, albeit out of sight. Feeling rather like a creeper, he had crouched behind a nearby pillar and wondered why his 'danger sense' was pricking. He also debated whether or not to press the recall button but had held off until he knew what was going on. As it had turned out, he had fought the urge to groan out loud as soon as the strange Japanese guy in the bloodied lab coat had appeared from a lightning bolt.

As his Japanese was a bit too rusty for comfort, he hadn't really understood what was happening…until the supposed actor and another man that had joined him had transformed into actual Kamen Riders. He had openly gaped at the sight and had to fight the overpowering urge to transform as he didn't really want to be seen as an enemy Rider. When the other Riders showed up and joined the battle, he had made up his mind to leave the area and wait for everything to end. However, he had been close enough to the girls to hear the confession of the purple-haired one to the blonde that had been threatened by the creepy old guy. Peeking around the pillar, he had seen her stepping away from the group…and then he had seen the creatures that had been summoned. He had moved on instinct, summoning the Turbine to him and transforming while running towards them and shouting out a warning that he desperately hoped was understood. Leaping into the air, he soared over the heads of the stunned girl and slammed his fist into the spider monster while wondering how in Celestia a Wraith had appeared. As he heard a question from behind him, he answered as best as he could – praying that the question had been regarding his identity.

"Kamen Rider RAPTOR."

Without wasting any more time, he launched himself at the recovering Wraith and slammed his left fist into the creature's chest. He could hear the cracking of its armour and hoped that the hit hadn't been hard enough to make it bleed. The last thing anyone needed was to see a spider creature making a weapon out of its blood. He followed up with an elbow strike to its mouth, a knee to its chest and – finally – a full clip unloaded into its head from the Rider Shoot. As it fell back, he positioned himself for the finisher before a barrage of web blasts caught him unawares. Silently cursing at himself for forgetting there were other monsters apart from the Wraith, he fell to the ground and struggled in an attempt to free himself. He could hear one of the girls talking to the others and, within moments, could see them around him tearing off the webbing that obstructed his hands and feet. They kept asking questions but he couldn't really understand what was boing said, though he was able to pick up on their names. The ash-blonde girl was Kotori and the one that had willingly put herself in front of the Wraith was Nozomi. Her hopeful girlfriend was Eli and the energetic orange haired girl was Honoka. The serious one that kept instructing them was Umi, the quiet one was Hanayo and the other girls were Rin, Nico and Maki. After a few moments, his hands were free of the webbing and he tore the rest of the silk away from his legs. Closing his eyes under his helmet, he wondered how he would get out of this situation. Thinking hard about his next actions, he almost missed the heavily accented voice coming from Nozomi.

"Thank you for saving me and freeing me from its control. What is happening here?"

He opened his mouth to speak but a flash of light to his left alerted him of danger. In one deft movement, he grabbed the surprised girl and twirled around as a blast of energy splashed across his back. Roaring in pain, he blinked through the warnings flashing up and ground his teeth together as the destructive energy chewed through several layers of armour within seconds. As soon as it reached the final layer of armour, which had become so hot to scorch his skin, the blast stopped and he willed the Power to heal him. Breathing heavily, he looked down at the scared girl and tried to push everything to the back of his mind – something that was harder than it sounded. Looking up at the other eight girls, and a rather stunned untransformed Rider, he managed a weak grin and moved his left hand in the universal sign of thumbs up. Releasing Nozomi from his grip, he shakily stood up and turned to face the Wraith. He didn't know how it was possible but there was no mistaking it; this Wraith was a reincarnation of the one that had attacked outside Australasia Worldwide several months ago. Tightening his hands into fists, he stepped towards the Wraith and growled.

"I destroyed you months ago and in my home dimension. How the fuck did you return?"

The monster stared at him for a brief moment before starting to laugh.

"So, you do remember me. I do not know what this word 'dimension' means but my anger and hatred upon you did not fade with my destruction. I awoke in this place and was found by that man over there. He witnessed my emergence and promised me the death of the Rider; however, if I had known it was you – I would have hunted you down myself!"

Resisting the urge to take his eyes of the Wraith for a single second, Weihan activated the rear cameras on his suit. Much to his consternation, several of the monitors were blank but he could see that the untransformed man was steadily moving the girls away from the battle area. Looking past the Wraith, he could see the other Riders engaged in battle with the remaining grunts and the other Spider monsters but, as they weren't Wraiths, he knew they could handle themselves. Summoning the Rider Blade to him in a flash of flames, he settled into a ready stance and prepared for the counterattack. On the other hand, he wanted to know what the main goal of the Wraith was.

"Seems to me you got duped. I wasn't even here until a few minutes ago. What's your game plan, then? After you supposedly defeat me, then what? Bloodless Mary doesn't exist here and there are plenty of other Riders that can take you down."

Nozomi's ears perked up on the piece of information the mysterious Rider had provided; that he was from another dimension and had only recently arrived. There was also a name that made no sense to her or Daisuke – Bloodless Mary, though she doubted it had any connection to the other urban legend of Bloody Mary. Shaking her head, both from the adrenaline of saving his life and the thought of what she had almost done, she looked back at her friends to gauge their reactions. As expected, almost all of them were looking at the circling battle that was reaching its peak…except Eli. The blonde girl was looking at her with a mixture of emotions on her face: sorrow, confusion and a strange look of love that filled her with warmth. They would need to have a talk about what had happened in the near future but, for some reason, she wanted to prolong it as long as she could. Chastising herself for her silly thoughts, she stifled a sob as she recalled the dagger that had come so close to taking Eli away from her. She had survived the encounter with only a small nick on her left ear but if the other Rider had been just a fraction of a second too slow…

"Don't think about it, Nozomi."

Hanayo's voice from her right made her jump as the orange clad Rider charged at the spider monster. She looked away from the clashing of his blade against the mirrored armour to see the quiet girl looking at her with a ghost of a smile whispering on her lips.

"You were thinking about what could have happened, weren't you? It didn't happen – Eli didn't die and neither did you. We're not sure what that webbing did to you but all of us are relieved you're not under its command any more. Although, you will have to talk to her soon."

Swallowing back her protest, she wondered how Hanayo had become so observant of her thoughts and the feelings of those around her. Raising her head to look at Eli again, she shyly smiled at her friend and wondered when she would find her true courage again. Yes, the nine of them coming together was a miracle and it would always be one but another miracle was happening in front of her. If she didn't do anything, it would slip away but was she really strong enough to take Eli's hand and be led to a new future together? It almost didn't seem possible. She was so caught up in her thoughts; she missed the regrouping of the other Riders around them; Dictator Bloody, the Chaps and the empowered Spider mutants pushing them to their limits. Kotaro, in particular, was amazed by how strong the mutants had become – even with his enhanced and upgraded attacks. They weren't going down as easily as before and the few blows he had traded with the mirrored creature before it had run off were almost like striking against wet concrete. However, whoever this new Rider was, he seemed to be doing a better job.

The Rider Blade produced a shower of sparks at it grazed the back of the Wraith once more. Weihan didn't like this one bit as he had no control over the flow of the battle. One moment, he was setting up for the Raptor Blitz and the next moment he was dodging a volley of maddeningly familiar poison and paralysis barbs and blocking them so they didn't hit the mass of people behind him. Adding to the pressure was the fact that the hockey-masked grunts, the other spider creatures and the weird guy in the lab coat were attacking him as well – forcing him to go on the defensive more often than he would like. On one hand, he felt at ease; as if this was something that he should have been used to by now – barring the fact that Bloodless Mary and Jabarkas had only attacked with one Wraith at a time and had held off on sending those mirrored grunts. On the other hand, he was starting to feel as though they were stalling for something; that he seriously needed to get everyone out of the way before something permanent happened to them. On the other hoof, he also was keeping a very close eye on the way the Wraith moved around the lab coat guy.

He had been the one to see the revival of the Spider Wraith, which meant that his blood being spilled would fully power the Wraith to its original power. The events of the Colossus Wraith and how hard he and the others had to fight to even put a dent in it was still fresh in his mind and he seriously doubted he would have assistance from a cross-dimensional finishing move this time. Channelling fire to his palms, he rolled away from an attack and shot a stream of white-hot fire at the group of monsters – destroying one outright in an explosion of blue flame. Seeing the destruction that had been wrought, the lab coat guy started screaming in Japanese. Unfortunately, he didn't know what was being said at all.

"You, you destroyed one of my pets! One of my beautiful Gorgom mutant pets! You, damn you Rider, you damned Rider – you will not get away with this! Full Burst Setup!"

Kotaro swallowed hard as Dictator Bloody called the remaining mutants and the…Wraith, he had head it being called, to him. Drawing out his single-shot pistol, he pointed it at the Rider as a dangerous cloud of energy began to crackle between the individuals. For his part, the new Rider knew that whatever was happening wasn't a good thing and instantly began to run towards the group – yelling at them in English to shield the girls. Summoning most of his power to his forearms and back, Kotaro threw his arms out to form an energy shield that would block out most of the blast. Unfortunately, he had only tried this trick once and didn't really know how strong it would be. He saw the others setting up meagre defences of their own; Blade coating his body with the Metal Trilobite Undead card, Agito using the Storm Halberd as a spinning shield and Zangetsu attempting to use his Melon Defender in the way it was originally envisioned. Taking on the blast head-on would drain the majority of their power and would leave them vulnerable to attack in their weakened state, though the same would be true of Dictator Bloody and his entourage of monsters.

Leaping into the air, the Orange Rider could see the other Riders setting up their forms of defence but the amount of energy that was being set up would be too great for them to block. He had something up his sleeve and Shining Light was guiding him on how to go about it but it was risky. It was extremely risky and there was a 9-in-10 chance that successfully pulling this off would leave him in a coma for Luna knew how long. But he had looked into Nozomi's eyes and had seen the depth of emotion and passion there. He had seen the way she had taken charge and helped pull the webbing off him so soon after being freed from the controlling webs of the Wraith, an ability he hadn't known about until just then. He could see the bonds of love and kinship she held with the other girls and had felt the bonds they shared with her. He couldn't allow the Wraith to snuff everything out in an instant and, even if there was a chance he would die in this other dimension, he would do whatever it took to protect their hearts and innocence. Landing in front of the group as the lab coat guy began firing, he crossed both arms in front of him and dug his heels into the ground. He wanted to protect their innocence for as long as he could.

Even if it killed him.

TBC…