Chapter Five: Psychic Fire
"Is he awake yet?"
Kotaro looked down at the figure and shook his head, causing his cousin's shoulders to slump down in defeat. Thanks to their mysterious saviour, they had suffered very little damage in the Full Burst attack Dictator Bloody had fired at them. Most of the destructive energy had bounced off the incredibly powerful shield that he had erected and had blown the Crisis Empire leader and his group of creatures clear across the way. Where they had ended up, the Rider wasn't sure but he hoped they weren't in a position to attack immediately or they would be crushed. Running a hand through his hair, he looked down at the man once more and shook his head; wondering where he had come from. As far as he knew, the newest Rider on the block was some kid named Takeru who transformed into Kamen Rider Ghost and he had heard nothing from any of his contacts about other Riders appearing. Even the name, Kamen Rider Raptor, was unfamiliar to him – though he had a strange feeling the person in front of him wasn't from this dimension.
Looking behind him at the other Riders, he sighed in frustration as he checked himself for any internal damage. His cousin and her friends were unharmed, though Nozomi was still recovering from the mental trauma of what she had nearly done. In a way, he understood what had happened. The 'Wraith' had shot a strand of near-invisible webbing at the girl from the shadows and that had called upon and magnified her deepest instincts of love, protection and self-sacrifice. When she had taken it off her face, its powers had been lost. It was an extremely devious act and one that spoke of vast levels of intelligence. He just hoped there weren't any more Wraiths lurking around in the shadows. Gently tapping on the Sunriser buckle, he looked over the faces of those he had gathered and picked the one that would be the best suited for the next task.
"Kenzaki, can you sense anything from him?"
The brown haired man walked over and placed a hand on his chest. Closing his eyes, the Blue Joker Undead sifted through the emotions and energies coming from the new Rider and furrowed his brow in confusion. He was picking up on a fierce determination, echoes of extremely chaotic battles and a strange sense of despairing loss. There was also something inside his mind, almost like a spiritual presence that was guiding him and helping him find the emotions and memories he was searching for. In all his years helping people as an Undead, he had never found someone with such strong qualities; except the Riders around him. However, his dealings with Tsukasa Kadoya had allowed him to pick up on small particles he had come to call 'Extradimension Waves', though they weren't really waves at all. The Rider on the ground was practically bathed in them and they were two different types as well, though they were very similar to each other.
Images began to flash inside his mind's eye of impossible battles involving hundreds, if not thousands, of combatants, impossibly tall monsters, a reptilian creature holding a bloody railroad spike as long as his arm and a dragon monster exploding in a violet fireball. Incredibly, he also saw a vision of something on an incredibly small screen of his exploits as a Rider when he had been human; complete with subtitles. Lifting his hand from the unconscious man in shock, Kenzaki shook his head as he tried to process what he had just seen. There was no doubt in his mind that he wasn't from their dimension and had come to theirs either by accident or some strange quirk of fate. However he had come here, there was no denying that he had been a massive help in the past ten minutes. The only issue now was when he would wake up and if it would be soon. Since becoming an Undead, he had discovered that his senses in detecting evil had strengthened and he was receiving rather odd signs from the area where Dictator Bloody and the monsters had been flung.
"What the hell happened?"
The young man below him stirred and groaned in English as he awoke from his slumber. Although he had been in many English speaking countries, Kenzaki had never properly grasped the language as he hadn't stayed in one place for a very long while. For a semi-retired Pulitzer Prize winning photographer, Hajime was always on the move. Stepping back, he allowed Kotaro, Hongo and the two English speaking girls to crowd around the reclining man; chuckling lightly at the brief flash of distress and confusion on his face.
Upon later reflection, Weihan would have sworn that the first thing he had seen when coming out of his micro-coma was Nozomi's chest. Of course, he could be certain of that as he had found himself being enveloped in a flying hug/tackle that was very reminiscent of Pinkie's glomps…only he was on the ground and there wasn't really any place he could move. Briefly wondering why every single girl he seemed to meet always wanted to hug him in awkward positions, the Rider struggled to sit up. Although it didn't seem as though he was hurt, he allowed a wave of Power to pass through him as reinforcement. Shifting his body to be comfortable while ensuring nothing was standing at attention, he snorted in amusement at the girl clinging to him and nodded at the two men. Now he knew they weren't Tetsuo Kurata and Hiroshi Fujioka but the actual Kotaro Minami and Hongo Takeshi. This would make one hell of a story to tell when he got back but he wasn't sure anyone would believe it.
"So, by now you've figured out that I'm not from around here. My name is Weihan Liang and, from where I'm from, I am known as Kamen Rider Raptor. I came here by accident while trying to get back to my home dimension."
Shifting slightly to avoid outright groping Nozomi in front of a visibly amused Eli, he brought out his Dimensional Opener and checked it for any external damage. Thankfully the recall button hadn't been accidentally pressed, which meant he was still OK and wasn't going to be unavoidably hurried. Slipping it back into its subspace pocket, he wondered why he hadn't done that before, before shaking his head. Whatever the reason, it wasn't important as wondering why – and how – a Wraith had been created in a dimension that was practically cut off from his. Also, he would probably have to do some explaining to the Riders that were peering down on him and the sobbing girl on his lap but, excruciating as it was for him to leave a girl in distress, it would have to wait. Holing up a finger to staunch the flow of oncoming questions, he thought back to the first battle with the Spider Wraith and the first meeting with Bloodless Mary. It had looked more like a spider then and hadn't seemed to possess any sort of speaking abilities, though its intelligence and cunning had been rather high. Its webbing hadn't had any sort of magical compulsion ability either; making this new change all the more worrying.
Exhaling slowly, he closed his eyes and psychically probed Nozomi's mind to see if he could find any traces of the control that the Wraith had put her under. As expected, he found nothing – only a vague sense that something had been done to the chemical makeup of her mind. Channelling a light burst of energy into her mind, he felt her squirm slightly as the healing energy ensured she would be safe from any repeat incidents. He also tried to put the feeling of the squirming at the back of his mind but, judging from the muted giggles coming from Kotori, he wasn't doing such a good job. Opening his eyes, he found Nozomi staring at him and could see a faint flicker of orange energy in her eyes. To his right, Kotaro crouched down and addressed him with a question that needed to be asked.
"Thank you again. What was that creature and why was it so strong?"
Weihan looked up at the night sky and wondered what he could safely tell them. Kotori had finished translating the question to the other girls and Riders and they were awaiting his answer. Making up his mind, he opened his mouth.
"They're called Wraiths, beings born from the mirror that have extraordinary strengths and very few weaknesses. Bloodless Mary leads them; though I doubt you'll have to face her here. The only way to defeat them is with a combination of high heat and blunt force impact or a blast of heavily concentrated energy. Anything else and it'll bleed; allowing the Wraith to shape it into weapons. What I don't understand is how one of them, especially one I defeated a few months ago, was able to come back."
Shaking his head once more as Kotori translated his answer, he mulled over that thought in his mind. He could see no form of alien holographic technology, so he could rule a Simul-Deck malfunction off the list. Sighing under his breath, he looked past Nozomi and the Riders to the flat expanse of ground they had been fighting on. He didn't know who had dragged his unconscious form away from the battle site but he was willing to bet it had been one of the Riders. Or it was Rin. Chuckling as he heard the disgusted sounds coming from the others as Kotori explained, he pulled out the Activation Gem and stared at it, wondering why he had ended up here. Had it been a glitch in the co-ordination software that couldn't be re-corrected in time or had he run afoul of one of the ripples that Xonix had produced? Or it could have been that he was supposed to have been here all along; that this world was where the original anomaly that had opened up after the battle with the Colossus Wraith should have sent him. Honestly, it was giving him a headache and a half just thinking about it.
An, yet, he couldn't be more excited to be in this world. It was one with actual Riders from various shows he had, admittedly, only watched one or two episodes of and with Riders that he had never seen before. The guy in the business suit and the guy carrying his underwear on a stick piqued his interest and he made a mental note to look out for their Rider shows in the future. Rolling his head to loosen up the muscles, he swallowed hard as he realised his eyes had been wandering to Nozomi's ample…charms. Looking the other way only served to fluster him more as the girls were wearing what appeared to be training gear with little regard to how it clung to their bodies. Attempting to push those thoughts out of his mind, all chatter was silenced as a pained scream rang out from across the way – being cut off abruptly as if the screamer had been…no. He felt a torrent of ice water gush down his spine as he connected the dots. Carefully slowing his breathing to not panic the others, he motioned Kotaro and Hongo to come closer and spoke in a low voice so Nozomi wouldn't hear and become even more frightened than before.
"There are two ways a Wraith can attain its full power. One is by waiting an hour or so or by not using much energy during that time. The other way is by killing the person, or people that saw it emerge. Now, I don't speak a whole lot of Japanese but I'm willing to bet that lab coat guy saw the rebirth of the Wraith. Judging by that scream, I doubt that guy is alive but I hope to Hell I'm wrong. If I'm not, you and the other Riders need to protect these girls at all cost and leave the Wraith to me. I'm the only one with enough power and experience to handle whatever new tricks it's picked up with its Awakening."
The two Riders looked at each other before nodding, making him exhale in relief. On the other hand, he hadn't told them that he had only seen one Awakened Wraith but they didn't need to worry about that. As much as he wanted to sit on the ground in front of the Tokyo Dome with a beautiful girl on his lap, he could hear the heavy footsteps coming closer…something he could see the other Riders picking up on. Steeling himself for what he would see, he rose on slightly shaking legs and turned around to face…something rather unexpected.
"Surprised to see me alive?"
Dictator Bloody's grin turned into a grimace of pain as he looked down at the bleeding stump that had once been his right arm. He had been right not to turn his back on the mirrored monster for an instant as it had moved with an uncanny speed and had cleaved off his arm neatly. Even if he won the next battle, he wouldn't get his arm back as it had been swallowed whole – and twitching – by the monster. The Spider mutants seemed unsure of this new development but they would follow the stronger leader. Unfortunately for the Riders and their new ally, they wouldn't be around long enough to prepare a counter-attack. This meant he would be forced to reveal his greatest transformation and he would be willingly casting aside his humanity. On the other claw, he had cast aside too much for something silly like emotion to get in the way. Clenching his eyes shut, a deep and guttural growl ripped free from his throat and caused all individuals to take a step back as his body began to ripple and change. His ribs burst from under his lab coat, sending a gout of blood and flesh onto the pavement as his organs slid around each other, jostling for their new positions.
His feet exploded in a shower of bloody mist as taloned toes unfurled from the flesh layer he had hidden them in. He could feel unimaginable agony tearing through his back as his spinal column detached from his ribs and peeled away from him, twisting and turning to become a bladed staff. His left arm bulged grotesquely outward as a secondary arm, created from the cells of the late Emperor Crisis and implanted inside his body before his ultimate defeat, pulled its way free. The remaining bones in his right arm pushed out from his stump to create small bone blades. Finally, a helmet made up of a reptilian creature formed on his head.
"Grand Bloody will see to your destruction, Riders!"
Chuckling darkly, the Awakened Spider Wraith pushed his former master aside, causing the accursed Raptor Rider to stiffen in shock. While he hadn't changed outwardly that much, he was brimming with a greater amount of power than he had felt before. Plunging his hands into his cracked chest, the Wraith used his new energies to fashion his blood into twin-barbed swords and pointed them at the miserable human. He knew he wasn't fully Awakened as the thing that had seen his emergence still lived and breathed but he would gain all of his Awakened abilities upon its miserable destruction. The Spider Mutants would prove for a useful distraction against the Riders and they would be held down to watch the torture and deaths of the weak girls. That would break their heroic spirits nicely and his revenge would be complete.
"Ready for Round Two, Rider? I promise it will not be as easy as before."
Gently disengaging Nozomi's arms from his neck, Weihan pushed her behind him and stood in front of her, aware that the others were standing in front of the girls as well. Upon review of this scene later, he would find amusement in the way they positioned themselves: Hongo protecting Honoka, the guy in the business suit watching over Maki, the second Rider – Ichimonji – in front of Nico and, of course, Kotaro in front of Kotori. Flashes of light signalled the summoning of various belts, locks and cards and he summoned the Turbine in a burst of flame. As the belt tightened, he lifted up the Activation Gem and prepared to transform and protect the relative innocence of the girl behind him. This light show would almost surpass the one he had witnessed during the final battle with Xonix but it would be all worth it in the end. As Hongo and Kotaro nodded at him to begin the sequence, he couldn't help but feel incredibly honoured and humbled by the action. Inhaling deeply, he channelled power to the gem and yelled out with all his might.
"HENSHIN!"
TBC…
AN: Ha. Yeah. So that happened. I may up the rating on this story if it gets any bloodier. Of course, I can't really get any bloodier than having people explode via going too fast or having railway spikes jammed into one's body...
