Kamen Rider Tarock, Re-Dealt – Reading Two: Young Blade

Disclaimer: I don't own or make any claim of ownership of the Kamen Rider series. Kamen Rider Tarock and its characters belong to me, and may not be used without express permission. But don't be afraid to ask. I also don't necessarily share the beliefs of any character in my stories, and in the case of the ones in this story, don't necessarily endorse anything they do.

Author's Note: I'm thinking of commissioning some artwork for this story. Please PM if interested.

The sun seemed to have gone out for a second that refused to end. Liss screamed as a wave of terror ran up her body, but then scooped up the buckle and ran for all her legs were worth.

Behind her she heard the spider scream and the uneven thumping as it started to chase her, but Liss was already thinking of the nearest escape route. She slipped between two old cars and kicked out a pair of cinderblocks at the bottom of the back wall of an old warehouse, then dropped to her stomach and crawled through as quickly as she could, ignoring the gravely digging against her stomach as she went.

As soon as she was inside she could hear smashing as they were overturned by the spider. As fast as she could, Liss ran and jumped for a length of old chain hanging from the roof of the building. She clambered up the chain, awkwardly because the buckle was in one hand, but once she was high enough started to swing back and forth and then let go, jumping for a walkway. She landed, crawled into a small hole in the wall. She pulled a small crate against the opening and squeezed herself into the smallest ball she could manage, hugging the buckle up against her stomach.

There was a terrific roar and the walkway shook horribly. Liss took a deep breath and held as still as she could. For a minute she heard the spider skittering around on the floor of the warehouse before things went silent. Liss was about to peek out and see if it was still there, then froze.

She could hear the sounds of its feet…on the ceiling. The spider hissed in frustration, probably having enough of a brain to know people didn't just disappear into thin air. Then, suddenly the crate covering her hiding place exploding, pelting her with splinters. One lodged in her cheek like a tiny spear, but Liss held silent.

A chill ran up her spine. Something was tapping against the wall behind her, and Liss turned her head just far enough to see it was the tip of one long, spindly spider leg. It scrabbled around feeling for her, and coming within inches of her back. It paused for a second, and Liss allowed herself a moment of hope that it was about to give up and leave.

Then without warning it gouged into the corner where she was huddled, scraping the skin off a strip of her shoulder. Liss clenched her teeth but managed to stay quiet as she lay quivering in pain and fear. After an eternity passed, but was probably more like thirty seconds, the leg pulled back from Liss's hiding place. It scuttled down the wall and then out of the warehouse again, but it wasn't until Liss had counted to two hundred she dared to look out and make sure she was really alone.

After leaning over the walkway to assure herself, Liss stumbled to the other end where an empty office still stood, and collapsed into the rolling chair that was the only thing still there. With quivering hands she set down the buckle and reached into her inside pocket for the cigarettes her family knew nothing about. She hadn't found it nearly as cool to inhale smoke as she thought she would, and she'd catch hell if she still smelled like them by the time she got home, but right then steadying her nerves was the only thing on Liss's mind.

She settled one of the cancer sticks between her lips and lit the end. She took a deep puff and her throat burned, but the jitters from her ordeal did start to go away. Inhaling again, her hands stopped quivering enough for her to pull the splinters out of her skin and then pull out the knight's buckle.

It was a mostly rectangular shape of dull gray metal, with a transparent half-sphere in the middle, although looking at it from directly above all Liss could see was pure blackness. A curved inlay of what looked like brass arced outward from where the sphere was inserted toward the edges of the buckle. Despite looking like solid metal, it surprised Liss by feeling like it weighed almost nothing. She was pretty sure she could throw it a couple hundred feet if she tried.

Liss took out the card next that had slipped from the slot atop the buckle. If anything, it was even stranger. It looked like a piece of red plastic, but it had the feel of metal against her fingers instead. Engraved on the front was an image in gold a sword, with a matching golden border around the edges of the card.

Interesting stuff, but how did it work? She tried putting the card back into the slot in the buckle, but it sat there with the top quarter sticking out. Liss pushed it in all the way, but it sprang back out and stayed there as soon as she moved her hand away. Something very, very weird was going on, but Liss knew better than to say anything before she could prove it.

At least, to say anything to most people. After waiting another few minutes to assure herself the spider was really gone, Liss slipped out of the building.

Slowly, peering into every shadow expecting to see the spider watching for her, she started making her way back to the garage. Hearing a set of police sirens, coming to investigate the destruction of the restaurant no doubt, she kept to the back streets. A minute later the familiar empty lot with the tall weeds behind Paige's garage came into sight. She was about to start toward it when suddenly a wave of cold ran up her arm.

Alarmed, Liss glanced down and noticed a dark green stain on the cuff of her jacket and the back of her hand. She scratched at it with her fingernails, but instead of coming off Liss was sure she could feel it seeping into her skin. As it did the feeling of cold intensified until Liss yelped and sank to her knees. A hint of movement on the deserted back street caught her eye, and Liss turned, sure she could see the face of the spider monster looking back at her from the shadow between two buildings.

"Are you all right, Miss?" someone asked all of a sudden. It was a scruffy-looking boy a few years older than Liss, who had on a shirt with Ine Smith Tech's logo underneath his jacket. His hair and the bristles on his chin were a sandy blond. The feeling of cold on her shot through her whole body. Then, suddenly, it was gone and she had the strength to get back up.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Elbow's just acting up again," Liss lied.

"You okay? You need any help?" he asked. "We can't stick around here, it's not safe."

"And why isn't it safe?"

He squinted at her. "No, you're definitely that girl I saw when the big spider smashed up Pepe's a little while ago," he said. "You woulda got killed if that guy in the red suit didn't show up!"

"I'm pretty quick," Liss said as she sized him up. He seemed fairly harmless, but on the other hand that made him totally out of place in a part of town as rough as the one where Paige worked. He hadn't really seen the monster attack and followed her all those blocks just to make sure she was okay, had he? Who would do something like that?

"I guess so!" he laughed. "So what's your name?"

"…Liss."

He gaped and took a step closer. "Not THE Liss?"

She sighed and clenched her jacket tighter so he couldn't see the buckle and card. "Quit screwing with me," Liss grunted.

"Okay, okay, I haven't actually heard of you," he smirked, then extended his hand. "My name's Frank."

She didn't accept it. "Nice to meet you."

Frank didn't seem affected by her standoffishness. "We should probably find a place to lay low for a while, that spider thing must still be around here somewhere."

"Thanks, but I can take care of myself," Liss replied. There was a cold tingle on her arm again, and her eyes went wide as she spotted the spider monster scuttling onto the roof of the building next to Paige's garage. "Oh god, come on!" Liss shouted and ran as fast as she could. What was around that she could hide in? The old theater!

But as Liss hurdled the first fence on the way over she heard a gasp and grunt and glanced over her shoulder to see Frank landing on top of the fence on his waist. He slumped forward and landed on the ground on his back.

Liss grabbed his arm and hauled him up, then ran off again shaking her head in disgust the first few steps. Frank stumbled after her with all the grace of someone having a seizure. He followed as she made her way to an old wooden door that had fallen off its hinges and lifted it just enough to slip through. Frank yanked it out of the way and left it against the wall on the other side, and Liss had to run over and drag it back into place.

"Don't you know anything?!" she almost screamed. "Do you want it to see us?"

"Excuse me!" he whispered curtly. "I'm not exactly an expert on the rules for being chased by giant freaking SPIDERS!"

"How about just thinking on your feet when you're in trouble?" Liss retorted but then pulled herself back, took a deep breath and listened. The roof trembled and a fountain of concrete dust fell right on top of her head as the spider scrambled onto the building. She had to clench her eyes shut to keep from sneezing, but not letting herself look like the dumb one in front of this guy added an extra incentive that helped her hold it in. What seemed like hours later, she could distantly hear the spider shriek in frustration and trundle off along the rooftops.

Frank started to say something but Liss clapped a hand over his mouth and waited a minute before going to peer out the door and make sure the spider wasn't just hanging around waiting for a target. Not seeing any green, twelve-foot arachnids anywhere in sight, she slipped back inside and heave a sigh of relief. The cut on her shoulder was starting to ache as she came down from her adrenaline rush, and Liss began to ask herself in earnest what was going on.

Until the spider gouged her shoulder she'd been thinking maybe she'd actually gone to school and fallen asleep in the back of class, or maybe she'd gone to one of Richie Carmine's parties. With shaking fingers she touched her cut and the warmth there was enough to convince her that she really had been attacked by a giant spider, and was going to be again if she stepped outside. And after that thing with the tar and the vice-principal's desk she wasn't on the best terms with the police…

She looked up as she was nudged on the shoulder. "Hey," said Frank. "Didn't you pick up something the guy in the red suit dropped after the spider was almost done with him?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"No, you totally did. What was it?"

"I'm telling you, I have no idea what you're talking about," Liss insisted. She had no idea who this guy was, and after almost being killed wasn't feeling inclined to trust total strangers with what she was sure was the key to the mystery.

He reached for the zipper of her jacket, and Liss jumped back. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" she demanded.

"Let me see it!" Frank said, getting agitated.

"Why?"

He didn't reply to that, scowling fiercely at her instead. Liss backed away a few steps before she felt the roof shake, sending bits of brick dust fluttering down on them, and into her cut. The door they'd come in through exploded inward and a long green leg stabbed through the opening it had left.

Frank lunged for Liss again, but she was already running toward the front of the stage and jumped down into aisle and ran for the front of the theater as fast as she could. The roof trembled behind her, obviously the spider moving to block the front door. Looked like her suspicions had paid off once again, because how else could it have known unless Frank was telling it somehow?

But she had a good head start and had an idea of where she might be able to hide out next. The basement of the place where they kept the garbage trucks, maybe, or…

She flung open the door at the front and dashed out, but ran right into a wall of white fibers. Liss yelled in surprise and tried to pull away but was stuck fast. Of course, a spider had a web.

"So typical of humans," she could hear Frank say behind her, but suddenly his voice was a few octaves lower. Turning her head as far as she could, Liss could see that his eyes had started to shimmer red in the darkness of the theater, the teeth he was clenching in his angry scowl looked awfully long. "A little honesty could've spared your miserable life…"

Liss pulled with all her might to break free of the web, but the end of her long, dark hair caught in the sticky strands. She yelped and then found herself with her face stuck to the web. She tried to pull loose again, screamed in pain as she felt how her nose ring was caught, and realized brute force wasn't getting her out of this.

At least, not her own…

She pulled back with her right arm as hard as he could, and pulled harder when she spotted Frank only a few feet away. There was a rip and a patch of her jacket's sleeve was left stuck to the web, but with how Frank's fangs looked to be getting longer every second, it wasn't a sacrifice Liss regretted. She thrust her hand into her jacket and whipped out the buckle, then pressed it to her front hoping desperately for kind of reaction.

To her own surprise, she got one. A belt strap shot from one side, looped around her waist and clicked into place on the other side of the buckle. As soon as that was complete a sheath of what looked like black plastic spread from the buckle over Liss's body, and formed a mask with slanted yellow lenses over her eyes. Frank was right behind her by then, his hair falling out and skin peeling away to reveal a surface that looked more like dark rock than flesh underneath. Desperately Liss slammed the card down into the slot atop her belt buckle.

"Swords Suit!" it said. Liss had a split-second to wonder what she'd just done, then a transparent red rectangle appeared out of the dome on the front of the buckle, floated above her head and then drifted downward, forming thick red armor over the black suit as it passed over her body. There was a feeling of warmth and then strength that flowed through her body. Frank went for her neck with his fangs, but as the shape reached the soles of her feet he was pushed by a burst of unseen force that also ripped the webbing away from her body.

Above she could hear the spider screech and the web trembled, no doubt its maker coming to reinforce Frank now that Liss wasn't trapped anymore. But now what? The web stretched like a wall all around and above the front of the theater. Liss felt incredibly stronger now, but strong enough to break through a giant spider's web? Did she want to chance that with two monsters around and no idea what she could do? Did she have any other choice?

Frank thrust spindly clawed fingers at Liss's neck, and mindful of how the buckle's previous owner had met his demise she grabbed him by the wrist and spun him into the web where he thrashed around, but within second the strands were already starting to tear.

The belt…something on her belt could help! She looked down and spotted a pocket on one side, but it was empty. On the other, though, was a metal plate in the shape of a diamond, and when Liss reached for it, it suddenly jumped off on its own and a bracelet on its underside closed around her left wrist. It stuck out like a blade, and with three swipes Liss chopped through the web and dove through the opening just as she spotted the shadow of the spider just a foot above her head.

Liss was still rolling with the momentum of her dive when the spider reached out and tried to impale her with its leg. It struck against her back and sparks flew from her new armor, but it held. Another thick green leg stabbed at her and Liss slashed at it with her wrist blade, cutting in deep and sending a spray of green blood spurting across the street.

But the spider just hissed and sprang from its perch on its web, blotting out the sun for a second as its hideous bulk soared over her. And as it did, it spread another web behind it. No, there was no way she was getting stuck in another of those damn things! Was her only weapon this little thing on her wrist? What about that huge sword?!

"Arms of Fate! Skycalibur!" said the belt. Liss could feel power building up inside her again just before the dome on her belt buckle shone energy and hovering over her was a metal rod with an ovular head she recognized as the hilt of sword that knight had had before. She reached out to grab it and a pair of curved crossbars slid from the sides of the head, and in a flash of light a blade four and a half feet long formed from the top.

And just in time. The web had almost reached the ground, but Liss got her feet under her and cut through it easily with her new weapon.

The spider turned to set about finishing her off, but once it saw she hadn't been trapped it shrieked in frustration and rushed toward Liss trying to batter her with its powerful legs. The first one clipped her stomach and she yipped in pain, but the second one she was ready for and swung her sword, lopping it off at the second joint. The spider screamed as green blood gushed from its wound, shattering windows up and down the block. The severed leg jerked horribly for several seconds before falling still.

But Liss wasn't waiting for the spider to make the next move. She had it on the defensive, she had to keep it that way if she was going to win the fight. Holding on tight to the hilt she swung the sword in front of her, thinking of when the previous knight had made those glowing swords shoot from it. "Woe! Bladestorm!" the belt said, and as the blade passed a sheet of wind issued from it, and ghostly swords formed and pelted the spider. It staggered, but fixed its eyes on Liss screamed before it crouched to jump at her.

She wasn't about to let it turn her into a target, though. Before the spider could jump Liss turned, crouched and took off at a sprint, hands tight around the hilt of her sword. In the blink of an eye she was a hundred feet away and had to skid to a stop to keep from crashing into a car parked in front of her.

And then the air was filled with a piercing scream and time seemed to slow down as something swooped at her. It was the monster Frank had turned into, with long leathery wings running from forearms to knees. He reached out for Liss's head with long spindly fingers, shrieking like a banshee. Liss crouched and jumped over his head…

…and as she soared over the end of the block, she realized she probably should've known something like that would happen in the first place.

The roof of a rundown apartment house came up to meet her in a hurry and with a sword that long in her hand she wasn't sure how she'd go into a roll to blunt the momentum, yet didn't dare let a weapon go with two monsters after her. Her first foot hit and right through up to her knee, the second left a print two inches deep. In spite of that she wasn't even aching from the landing and turned around just in time to see Frank flying toward her again, blood-red eyes narrowed in fury.

At the last second Liss swung her sword and hit Frank hard on his shoulder with the flat. He spun out of control, but a second later disappeared in a small dark cloud that came from nowhere. Liss didn't get to dwell on it long, something clipped the side of her mask and she whirled to see the spider clinging to the side of a building, looking up at her before it ducked back its head and spat a volley of red needles at her.

Liss raised her sword in front of her face, deflecting two harmlessly but the others sliced through the armor on one shoulder. The shoulder that was still sore from being gouged by that monster's leg not an hour before. She'd been helpless against it then.

But not anymore

With a yell Liss ran to the edge of the roof and let herself fall to the street. As soon as the sidewalk caved in around her boots she was off and running toward the spider, yelling in the most defiant way she'd learned how. The spider dropped from its perch and trundled in Liss's direction while it hissed in cold amusement. The poor stupid human had lost her mind, and thought she could win with a frontal assault!

Liss stopped short in front of the spider but lifted her sword to meet it head on. One of the arachnid's powerful legs fell, aimed at Liss's chest—

NO!

It was that same strange voice that had said how to make the card work. For a second Liss froze, wondering where it was coming from, but just before the spider's leg could impale her, she jumped with a little less force this time. In the split second the spider took to realize it hadn't killed her after all, she held out one hand to push herself off the wall of a building and come rocketing back at the spider with a flying kick. Liss felt a crunch under her boot, and incredibly, the arachnid's bulk toppled over.

FINAL ASCEND.

Final ascend?! Liss thought.

"Dire Fate! Final Ascend!" the belt all but shouted. Not knowing how or why, but gripping the sword in both hands and Liss raised it straight in the air. Power flowed into the blade until it glowed a blazing white. The she brought it down.

The blade bite deep into the asphalt and immediately a crack in the ground ripped from the point of impact and raced to where the spider had fallen. The street buckled and a tornado that stretched from curb to curb erupted from underneath the spider, spinning it into the air and ripping bits away with each revolution. The spider looked as if it was screaming in pain, but Liss couldn't hear it over the deafening winds that were tearing it to pieces. After just a few more terrible seconds the spider was simply gone, and the tornado died away.

Liss fell to her knees, bracing herself on the sword.

She'd done it…she'd figured out how her new powers worked and actually beat a giant monster with them!

Liss was too busy reveling in what she'd just managed to notice a pair of shadows vanish from the scene.

XXX

There was a rush of air and she was no longer alone. The intruder immediately sank to one knee.

Knowing the news was sure not to be to her liking, she rose from her seat and poured a drink into her usual chalice. "Speak," she commanded.

"Empress, the Fate Driver has indeed been recovered."

"And who wears it now?"

"An outsider, Empress. I saw her kill a Mythos with my own eyes, and hold her own against another at the same time. The danger-"

She banged the chalice down heavily for silence. "Don't seek to remind me of the danger, child. Surely you don't suggest I sit here not knowing what goes on beyond these walls, that I've no regard for my people at all. Tell those loyal to us to gather at once, and try to convince the rest. There is much to discuss."

Next Time on Kamen Rider Tarock, Re-Dealt…

(Liss stands in a dingy room, facing a woman in a recliner)

Mrs. Decker: Just what kind of future do you think you're making for yourself like this?

(In her armor again, Liss faces off with a fanged, bat-winged monster)

Liss: One bigger than living in this hole for the rest of my life.

(A beautiful, pale-skinned woman in a black dress raises her arms for attention)

Empress: My fellows, it seems our troubles are even greater than we thought.

(The monster pins Liss and sinks its fangs into her neck)

Narrator: Your fate is in your hands.