WARNING: I do not own Kamen Rider Gotchard, the series is owned by Toei
Also, this one-shot is, and never was intended to be, accurate to the real episode it's named after. This was done completely for fun.
Deep within an unknown crypt, there lied a strange wooden box with various paper seals on it. From the shadows appeared an unknown figure who kept to the shadows.
"Finally, after all these years. I have finally found it." They spoke, revealing a male voice.
As he approached it, he began to work to remove the various paper seals placed onto the box. However, as the figure removed each seal, the box began to shake more and more vigorously. Finally, upon the last seal being removed, the box violently opened and released dozens of strange lights accompanied by the cries of various creatures. The figure was left amazed and shocked as all of a sudden, various creatures began to escape the crypt and enter the city.
Then, as sudden as it started, the light show was over. Confused, the man looked over at the box and saw a large deck of blank cards, all of which had strange barcodes on it.
"Cards? But how would they have-"
That was when the man heard something move. The man quickly put a couple of the cards away before making a run for it. Meanwhile, a man who seemed to look like an archeologist arrived at the crypt, likely being alerted by the strange man's presence.
"Who's there?" he asked.
He soon noticed a strange shadow backing away, seemingly in fear. The archeologist slowly but surely walked towards the shadow. Perhaps it could have been one of the lights that escaped the box.
"Um, hello? Is there anyone there?" he asked.
He saw the shadow move back, seemingly in fear. The archeologist raised his hands to avoid causing the creature to either attack him or flee. After finally getting close, he soon came across a strange grasshopper the size of a small dog backing away in fear. The grasshopper was green with yellow on the bottom and red eyes.
"Hopper…" the grasshopper creature quivered.
The archeologist, realizing that the grasshopper creature was scared, knelt down, "Hey… it's okay. I'm not here to hurt you." He reassured him.
"Hopper?" the grasshopper creature pondered.
Conflicted yet curious, the grasshopper creature slowly but surely walked towards him. The archeologist soon noticed that it had a small limp on one of it's back legs.
'He's hurt.' He thought.
After the creature hopped onto his lap, the archeologist began to stroke the creature's back to try and calm it down.
"Don't worry, It's alright." He reassured it as the archeologist looked around for any other signs of life.
Sadly for him, the only thing that was left behind were the other blank cards…
KAMEN RIDER GOTCHARD
ALTERNATE
FEVER 1: GOTCHA! HOPPER-1
10 years later…
"Okay, so can you please turn to page 38." A teacher asked as a group of students in white shirts, ties, and either checkered pants or pleated skirts did what they said. The teacher himself had scraggly black hair and wore a simple long-sleeve dress shirt and pants.
Afterwards, the teacher began to drone on as one student with black hair and brown eyes just zoned out. While the teacher continued to teach, he began flipping through his notebook and took a look at one of the many recipes that he had written up.
'Hmm, maybe I should use less sake in the broth?' he thought to himself, 'Or maybe I could add in some different kind of spice in place of the ginger and garlic?'
"Ichinosue!"
A chalk was tossed in his direction, snapping the boy out of his thoughts.
"U-Uh, yes sensei?" the boy panicked.
"Can you tell me what this is?" the teacher inquired of the boy as he pointed towards the whiteboard where some symbols were written.
"Well… that's the symbol of the Azoth." The boy, Hotaro Ichinosue, hastily answered, "It's what most consider to be the goal and dream of many alchemists to create."
"I'm glad that you're paying attention." The teacher said, dismissing the boy before he sat down amongst the murmurs of his classmates. "Now then, while modern medicine and science has since supplanted alchemy. That doesn't understate the importance, and especially the dangers, of becoming an alchemist. I'm sure that you've all read about the recent transmutation incident?"
Most of the class were silent, and for good reason as most felt uncomfortable in remembering the infamous death of several famous alchemists.
"Now then, who exactly invented modern alchemy?" he asked the class as one student, a young woman wearing the female uniform of his school with long dark brown hair, raised her hand.
"Robert Boyle, sir!" she answered.
"Thank you, Fugo-san." The teacher noted, "And who helped perfect the system we use for alchemy today?"
Now that was something Hotaro quickly recalled, "Eiji Hino, sensei."
"Exactly! It was thanks to his rediscovery of an ancient form of alchemy allowed us to allow modern alchemists to transmute objects and medicines that helped further not only the alchemic field, but also the scientific as well!" the teacher confirmed.
The bell soon rang as the class began to pack up their things and prepare to leave for the day.
"Now then, be sure to submit your printouts about your desired life-course this week." The teacher advised his students, "You kids will be graduating high school very soon, so I want you all to start thinking seriously about your futures."
Most of the students ignored him and either left or conversed with each other.
However, while many just enjoyed the freedom they had after the end of a long school day, Ichinosue was mostly silent as he looked towards his print-out… which really only had his name on it and nothing more.
'My future…' he thought to himself, 'What exactly should that be?'
As he put the printout away, he saw one of his classmates running towards him. Namely it was a rather scrawny student who wore a white vest over his shirt and had curly hair.
"Hey, Hotaro!" the young man called out.
Hotaro Ichinosue looked towards the young man, "Oh, Kajiki-san. What's up?" he asked his fellow classmate.
"So, you heard about the recent sighting I posted?" Ryo Kajiki asked him, "You know, the giant ghost train."
Hotaro sighed, "Please tell me that this isn't you believing those rumors, are you?" he grumbled.
"Dude, I saw the thing with my own eyes! It looked like one of those old school trains but with weird bug eyes on it! It was screaming, "STEEAAAMMM!" and-"
Hotaro stopped his fellow classmate mid-sentence.
"Come on man, the kemonogami are just old folk stories much like that whole Kamen Rider rumor floating around last year. Nothing more, nothing less." He said, dismissing whatever crazy story he thought it was.
Ryo shook his head, "You say that, but there have been a ton of proof of them existing. Like that one sighting of a large crazy demon pirate."
"Probably a cosplayer."
"Or the streets spotting a demonic car speeding around with no driver."
"Likely just some guy with one of those fancy self-driving cars."
"Or what abo-"
Hotaro just sighed, "Dude, come on. We're gonna be graduating next year. We can't just go chasing around rumors like we're some paranormal investigators or something."
"Oh yeah, and what about you? Mr. No Future?" Ryo pointed out, "Still haven't filled out that form?"
The young man shook his head, "Wha? I'm trying to look after my mom while dad's away on his expeditions! I don't have time for that!" he vehemently stated, "Besides, I haven't really found… that."
"What?"
"You know, that spark in life." Hotaro clarified, "The kind that makes you want to say, "Gotcha!". Know what I mean?"
"Huh…" Ryo answered before checking his glasses, "Well alright then, whatever floats your boat I guess…"
As the two continued to talk, a mysterious young man wearing a black leather jacket with purple on the inside, a black dress shirt, a purple and white checkered tie, black pants and shoes was lurking around. His eyes were less trained on the various students, but rather he was looking for something.
The young man noticed something in his pocket begin to glow a bit.
"Not now. We haven't found it yet." He ominously told the glow, causing it to disperse, "I won't rest until I find it. And I'll make sure that nothing will get in my way…"
As Hotaro began to walk through the streets, he soon reached a small two-story building, one that had a restaurant below and an apartment above. The sign on the front door read "Mystery Meals" with a smaller sign by the door step that displayed the menu of the day.
The young man entered into the door and called out, "I'm home" as he put his bag away and went to put on his apron.
"Welcome back." A woman wearing a pale blue shirt and a salmon pink apron greeted the boy, "How was school?"
"Long, but things have been okay." He said before he began getting the orders of the customers and bringing them to his mother to cook.
This was his routine for the past few years, got to school, come back home, help his mother with the restaurant, sleep, and repeat. It was something he had to do while his father was away. It's always something he's gotten used to.
As the customers came and went, Hotaro began to ponder on that conversation he had with Ryo. Namely in the recent sightings in what many in his prefecture were calling the return of the beast gods, the kemonogami. While alchemy was mostly a minor science in comparison to it's widespread use in the past, that didn't overrule the potential that these so-called kemonogami were either cosplayers, fake sightings, or some random chimera that escaped.
Regardless, he continued to help his mother out with the work. As he did so, he noticed someone oddly familiar. He was surprised, why was Rinne Kudo in his mom's restaurant?
"Uh, can I help you?" he asked the young girl.
"I'm fine, I'm just using the wi-fi here." She reassured him as she worked on her homework.
As he was about to walk away, he spotted something rather odd on her ring finger. It was a silver ring with a blue painted arrow on it. Hotaro decided to put a pin on it for now and went back to waiting on the other tables.
Meanwhile, in a dark room, three girls dressed in black garbs and golden jewelry looked towards the open skyline.
"My sisters, it is time. Do you feel it?" The eldest of the girls stated, however eldest was a stretch as physically she resembled a preteen girl more than an adult woman.
"It really has awakened after all…" the youngest of the trio who looked much older than her sister stated, "The key that opens the Door to Darkness."
"Shall I hunt it down, sister?" the middlemost of the girls asked with a slight smirk, "It would be nice to stretch my legs for once, having to wait in this accursed temple for all these years."
"Perhaps." The youngest said, "Take Lachesis with you for now. We must prepare for our master's awakening."
"As you command, sister." The youngest said with a bow before the two sisters left, leaving the eldest to look towards a large door behind her, one with many locks and seals behind it.
"You can see it too, right father?" the eldest asked the door, "The battle between good and evil beginning once more."
From there, a red glow began to glow from the cracks of the door. A demonic laugh echoing through the temple as the eldest sister smiled wickedly.
'Another school day, another dull drum lesson...'
That was Hotarou's thoughts as he entered school that day. As he changed his shoes and went towards his classroom, the young man began to hear several of his classmates chatter amongst themselves.
"Hey, did you hear about the recent Metal Man sighting?"
"Yeah, I heard he was chasing another kemonogami."
"Two kemonogami sightings in the same place, that hasn't happened in months."
'Again with these kemonogami. Can't life be any normal?' he thought to himself before he accidentally bumping into someone. "Ah crap, I am so sorry." He tried to apologize, only to notice a strange card on the ground.
This card had some kind of ten blank arrows on the lower part of the card, and a strange back. When he looked around for who was the owner of the card, he only saw a man wearing a black suit and white dress shirt.
"It's alright." The man said, "You can keep that, it'll come in handy."
The boy was confused at first as he looked at the card, but before he could ask him what he meant, the mysterious man was gone.
In the dark of night, a strange creature was zipping away as fast as it could. It was the strange grasshopper creature.
"Hopper…" the creature feared as he looked around, as if trying to find a means to escape.
All of a sudden, the grasshopper creature heard something and turned around to find an armored warrior approaching it.
The armor itself was covered in dirt and rust, with the lower half being white with black metal braces on the shins, bolts on the knee and feet, and some kind of jacket wrapped around his waist that was held together by two more metal braces in a criss-cross pattern and a belt that seemingly had some kind of card holder on it. The upper half was purple with two rusted pipes on the sides, a pair of large spikes on the shoulderpads, two white gloves that had the same bolts on the back and rusted metal armguards, and finally a helmet that was purple with a lone white eye on the right and a wrench-like left-eye.
The armored warrior held in his hand a large sword that consisted of a wrench around the bolt for the handle, a black blade that displayed some kind of card depicting a sports car on it and had purple along the cutting edge and a wrench-like tip.
"Finally found you, ya little prick." The armored warrior snarled.
The grasshopper creature panicked and started to hop away from the armored warrior as fast as it could to escape. The armored warrior scoffed and quickly gave pursuit, running after him.
"Get back here!" he snarled.
The chase was on once again as the grasshopper creature began bounding from spot to spot in an attempt to escape from the armored warrior's grasp. Every time the creature thought it could rest, the armored warrior was there to attack it, he was relentless. After finally finding a place where the armored warrior couldn't spot it, the hopper creature breathed a sigh of relief.
"Hopper…" it grumbled before looking behind itself, looking around in the room it had found itself in.
Perhaps the creature could finally find some rest after running all night?
Unfortunately for it, the place it chose to flee to… happened to be the exact same school that Hotaro was attending… and soon spotted the young man as he entered.
"Ugh, I hate that I forgot my backpack at a time li-"
Hotaro's thoughts soon came to a stop as he and the grasshopper creature stared at each other, confused but surprised. And then… they reacted to their sudden presence with calm.
…
"HOPPPERR!"
"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!"
Out of fear, the two stepped back. Hotaro could not believe his eyes. There was a living, breathing kemonogami standing right in front of him. He definitely had to give Ryo an apology the next time he saw him.
However there was no time as the creature quickly began fleeing through the school, forcing Hotaro to run after it.
"Hey, wait!" he shouted, "Come back!"
Hotaro was glad that everyone, for the most part, was already leaving school by the time he found the grasshopper creature. It would have been much harder to try and calm the creature down if there were multiple students still in class.
At least, that's what he thought. Because while he was trying to call out to the grasshopper creature, Rinne had spotted the pair in her peripheral vision while she was merely getting her shoes.
'What the?! A Chemy?!' she thought to herself.
Meanwhile, Hotaro was still trying to call out to the grasshopper creature as it leaped away from the student.
"H-Hey! Hey wait!" he shouted, "Wait up! I'm not gonna hurt you!"
"Hopper." The grasshopper creature said, stopping for a moment as it turned around, "Hopper!"
Then it quickly head butted the boy to the ground before continuing it's escape. After sometime, the two were left at an old tree, out of breath. The boy was shocked and quickly ran after the creature, passing by a mysterious man in a black suit with a red and white scarf. The man smirked and merely walked away, satisfied that his work was done and the next generation would take over.
"Hopper…" the grasshopper creature sighed.
"Yeah, you said it…" Hotaro agreed, something the grasshopper creature was surprised by.
"Hopper?" the grasshopper creature looked towards the young boy and tilted it's head.
"Huh? I thought you said that you were tired too." Hotaro had guessed.
"Hopper…" the creature noted, he did have a point. "Hopper?" the grasshopper creature then slowly walked towards the boy, observing it.
"Uhh… nice little kemonogami." Hotaro said, "I don't think you'll be able to eat me in one bite."
"Hopper?" the grasshopper creature questioned him, tilting it's head in confusion.
"R-Right. I should apologize for chasing you all around the city." He noted before bowing, to the surprise of the grasshopper creature.
"Hopper?" it asked again.
"Oh, there's a reason why humans like us bow." Hotaro explained to the creature, "It's to either give our gratitude to someone, or to apologize profusely."
"Hopper." The grasshopper creature took note.
"Oh, I guess I never really introduced myself." The student said, "My name is Hotaro Ichinosue. It's nice to meet you Hopper-san."
"Hopper!" the grasshopper creature greeted as well.
"Um, you don't really have to say your name again." He noted, only to realize that this Hopper creature was really only saying it's name repeatedly, 'Maybe it's like that one tree creature I saw in a comic once?'
GRRRRRR…
All of a sudden, Hopper's stomach began to grumble, much to the creature's embarrassment.
"Hehe, you must be hungry after that, little guy." Hotaro chuckled before checking his bag, "Here, have some granola bars." He offered, removing the wrapping from one bar to give to the creature.
"Hopper?" the creature chirped out of curiosity.
At first, it was conflicted to eat the food, but it was hungry after all so it wanted at least to try it. After getting a bite, Hopper's eyes widened and soon it began leaping around excitedly.
"Hopper! Hopper~!" it cheered.
"You liked that, huh?" he chuckled.
At the front of an office building, a tired salaryman had just gotten off of work. The man was grumbling to himself.
"Stupid exec. If he would just do his damned job instead of lazing around, then likely he would have gotten that promotion he so desperately wants." He grumbled, "Ugh, I wish I could just kick that guy down a couple of pegs."
As he said that, the two younger Dark Sisters made their presence known to the man.
"So this is the one we're looking for, Lachesis." The middle sister, Clotho noted.
"H-Huh? Who are you two?!" he gasped before being silenced by Lachesis.
"I see that your heart desires for destruction." The youngest sister observed with a smile, "Do you wish to gain the power to enact your wish?" she offered as she flashed a card to him, one that had an orange background alongside the image of a four-armed mantis ready for battle.
The salaryman picked up the card and looked towards the girls, "What's the catch?"
"There is no catch, we merely wish to, how do you say… transmute you into a stronger being. One much greater than your leaders." The youngest Dark Sister told him.
At first the salaryman was conflicted, but he was not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. He then turned to Lechesis, "Alright, I'll do it."
"Good, now stand still. This won't take too long." She noted before the youngest Dark Sister stepped back.
With a smile, Lechesis clapped her hands together, causing a dark aura to form around her before she then placed her hands onto the ground. At once, a transmutation circle appeared underneath as the card in the salaryman burned away, summoning the mantis creature as it appeared to be around the same height as the man.
"Kamantis!" the creature roared.
"Gah! What the hell?!" the salaryman gasped.
However he had no time to think of what was going on before the two suddenly began to turn into mercury as they quickly melted and reformed into a singular being. This creature had a mostly silver body with black arms, two large mantis claws for arm blades, and a strange face that resembled a mantis monster with a singular orange face that was held together by silver wrappings.
"KAMAKIRI!" the monster roared as it soon began to go on a rampage outside the office building, leading everyone to run.
At once, the mysterious man from the school had arrived and grit his teeth at the sight of the mantis monster attacking innocent civilians.
"Oh no, another one…" he noted.
He soon heard the sound of a train and readied himself for battle.
"Alright, I'll try and find him soon enough. For now… please take care of this, my partner!" he declared before he ran to look for something, or rather someone.
Speaking of Hotaro and the grasshopper creature, he was still chasing after it when the boy noticed all of the people running away. This made him slowly stop as he looked towards where the people were running from, at least before he ended up resting on his knees to catch his breath from all of that running.
'Crap! I haven't run like that since middle school!' he thought to himself.
"Kamakiri…"
The student's eyes widened as he slowly looked up, his gaze meeting that of the mantis monster. He didn't have much time to react as he stumbled back just as the monster brought one of it's blades down, barely missing him as he scrambled to run with the crowd.
However, he was too tired to even move after the chase he had and soon stumbled to the ground. While the grasshopper creature had stopped as well, it was mostly to check if the strange boy was still chasing after it. So it was surprised to spot the same boy being menaced by the strange monster, something about the boy's face reminded it of someone.
"Hopper…" the little creature chirped, "Hopper! Hopper, Hopper!"
Realizing that the boy wasn't looking to hurt it like the armored warrior was, the grasshopper creature quickly leaped in and headbutted the mantis monster away from Hotaro. Afterwards, it landed safely in the boy's arms.
"Hopper!" the grasshopper creature snapped at the mantis monster.
"Kama!" the mantis monster snarled as it held it's head.
After shaking it's head, the mantis monster was ready to retaliate. At least until they heard a strange sound before all of a sudden, several stone spikes appeared and strike the monster away. The pair quickly looked behind them and saw Rinne there. However, she wasn't in her normal school uniform. Rather she had on a pale blue zip-up jacket with black on the sides like with white, a small blue cape, a black skirt with spats, and finally a pair of dress shoes.
"You two, get away from the Malgam!" she called out to the pair.
"Eh?! Fugo-san?!" he gasped.
"Hopper?" Hopper pondered.
"Do it now!" she shouted.
Not thinking twice, Hotaro got to his feet and held onto Hopper tight before he made a break for it. Once the boy was out of harm's way, Rinne turned her attention towards the Malgam standing before her.
"KAMAKIRI!" the monster roared.
"As an alchemist, it is my duty to stop you!" Rinne declared as the blue gem on her ring began to glow and soon, after taking out a water balloon, she clapped her palms together to pop it and quickly fired out several ice crystals towards the Malgam.
This completely surprised Hotaro, since when was she an alchemist. Let alone one who could utilize her alchemy for offensive attacks?
However he didn't have much time to think of that as the Kamakiri Malgam got angry and quickly charged at the alchemist as it began to slash wildly at her. Unfazed by this sight, she quickly began dodging each of the monster's blades.
That was when she took out a card and loaded it into an arrow-like knuckle-duster object, one with a purple background that depicted a gold and black motorcycle with eyes and two large claws.
"Summon, GoldDash!"
With the press of a button, an arrow was fired out of the device quickly materialized a motorcycle before her. Specifically it resembled a CRG1100L Africa Twin Adventure Sports ES bike, but judging that he saw it come out of a card, Hotaro had a guess that motorcycle was no ordinary one.
"Da-Dash!" the motorcycle spoke, proving the boy's theory correct.
"Let's work together, GolDash!" Rinne asked the bike creature.
"Dash~!" the bike, GolDash, affirmed with a salute with one of it's arms before she got on and stared down the creature.
Afterwards, GolDash quickly revved up it's engines and started charging at the Kamakiri Malgam. The living motorcycle began ramming into the creature several times. When the mantis monster tried to cut down the living motorcycle, GolDash grabbed both of it's blades with its arms.
As the pair grappled with each other, Hotaro noticed how scared Hopper was from the battle. Instinctively, he began to hug the creature.
"Don't worry, everything's gonna be alright." He reassured the creature.
As he said that, Hopper felt a small sense of nostalgia from hearing that.
"I see, do you wish to gain the power to protect those you care about?" an unfamiliar voice asked him.
"Huh?" he asked.
Upon looking up, he saw the strange man who gave him the card the previous days. At first, he wanted to try and hide Hopper from the man, but the grasshopper creature looked surprised and glad to see this man.
"Hopper!" it cheered.
"Huh? You know him?" Hotaro asked the grasshopper creature.
"There's a chance that more people like them, people who will abuse these Chemies." The mysterious man said.
Hotaro blinked, "Wait, you're talking about the kemonogami?"
The mysterious man nodded, "It's up to people like us to both find and protect the Chemies before those who wish to abuse their power, creating Malgams out of both man and kemonogami. However, I think you might be something special."
He then handed a special object towards him, the device itself was black with a strange design on the front that had an incomplete helmet that housed two orange arrow-like lines on the front, and two spots for cards to go in, alongside a pair of valves on the side and a second blank card to go along with the one Hotaro already had.
"Do you two wish to gain the power to fight?" he asked.
As he looked at this device, Hopper and Hotaro looked towards each other for confirmation.
The grasshopper creature, or rather the Grasshopper Chemy, gave a nod of confirmation as the young man nodded.
"That's what I wanted to hear." the man said before he declared, "Young man, from now on I will give you the name… Kamen Rider!"
Hotaro couldn't help but smile before turning towards the battle between Rinne and GolDash against the Kamakiri Malgam.
"Hey, you!" he called out to the mantis monster.
Rinne looked surprised as she and GolDash were surprised to see the pair standing before them.
"Dash?" GolDash asked.
"Hey! What the heck are you two doing! This isn't your fight!" Rinne called out.
"It is now!" Hotaro declared before he clenched his fists, "I don't know who did this to them, but I can't just leave you and the Chemies behind!"
"STEEEAAAMMMM!" a boisterous voice agreed before both parties spotted a large black steam train with segmented bug eyes, the word Rider on it's forehead, and an arrow appeared and rammed into the Kamakiri Malgam, sending it flying into the air.
"Eh?! The ghost train was real?!" he gasped as the ghost train stared at him for a moment, observing him for a moment.
"Steam…" the Ghost Train Chemy growled as he looked towards him, then at the belt.
"Hopper!" Hopper cheered.
"Steam?" the Ghost Train Chemy noted in surprised as it looked towards Hopper with a small relief, "Steam!" it noted before looked towards Hotaro with a much more jovial expression.
"Wait a minute, do you want to help us?" Hotaro asked the train.
"STEAAAAAAAM!" the Steam Train Chemy agreed loudly, letting out a roar of it's chimney as it did so.
"Okay then. Let's do this, Hopper, Ghost Train-san!" he called out.
"Hopper~!" the Grasshopper Chemy cheered before entering the blank Card, creating an card that had the name Hopper-1 alongside the image of Hopper leaping into the air behind the same orange background the Kamantis card had.
"STEEEEEEEEEAAAAAM!" the Steam Train agreed before entering the second blank card, this one having the steam train's name, SteamLiner, proudly displayed on the card while he chugged along in a purple background.
"Alright, let's get this done!" Hotaro declared before slapping the Gotchard Driver onto his waist, creating an orange belt around his waist.
After grabbing the first card, Hotaro placed it into the left side of the driver with the back facing forward, causing it to glow orange like the back of Hopper's card while a standby noise played out.
HOPPER-1!
He then did the same as he slotted in Steamliner-s card as the right side became purple, which soon changed the standby noise into something much more jazzy.
STE~AM~LINER~!
After splaying his arms out, he then showed his palm and the back of his hands before jutting his hands out.
"Henshin!"
He then pressed down both side of the belt, causing the two incomplete
GOTCHA~NKO~!
He was then transported into a large world if arrows while astral versions of Hopper and SteamLiner appeared by his side. After being coated in smoke, the two Chemies merged with him to create a new armored form.
STEA~M~HOPP~ER~!
The armor consisted of a black bodysuit with a set of silver and tealleg armor that resembled a grasshopper's legs, a chestplate that resembled the fire box of a steam train, a set of silver shoulderpads and gray gloves, a long white scarf, and finally a teal helmet that had a pair of grasshopper-like goggles on the front, a pair of antennae, two silver 'ears' on the side, and finally atrain-like mouthguard. The helmet however opened and revealed a pair of orange arrow-shamed segmented eyes, completing the transformation.
"Woah, I transformed!" Hotaro marveled, "So, this is Kamen Rider? I remember hearing stories about Riders popping up all around the city last year." he noted as he looked at his new form.
"KAMAKIRI!"
"Huh?"
The newly transformed Kamen Rider turned around and quickly panicked, jumping up to avoid the incoming slash. However, what he did not expect was seeing himself several feet into the air.
"W-Woah! I can do that?!" he gasped.
After looking down, he quickly spun around as he flew down before landing a flying axe kick on the monster, stunning it long enough for the Kamen Rider to stumble back and get his bearings straight. Once the Malgam freed it's arms, the monster then began swinging it's blades wildly at the new hero, who quickly began dodging each attack.
He then accidentally placed his hand on the ground, quickly causing the stone to liquidate into water and causing the Kamakiri Malgam to end up being forced to swim out of the water. Rinne was surprised to see this, as was GolDash.
"Dash!" the Motorcycle Chemy realized as it snapped out of it's funk and did the same for it's rider.
"Oh, right. We should help him!" she noted before revving up the Chemy before the pair rode in and rammed the Kamakiri Malgam.
As the three fought in tandem, the Kamen Rider saw an orange gun with a card scanner and card slot on the back and a magazine that more resembled a deck holder than an actual bullet magazine appear in his hand.
GOTCHARGE GUN!
"Huh, well I hope playing light gun games at the arcade prepared me for this!" the Kamen Rider noted before firing several blasts at the monster.
He then spotted something on his wrist, a card holder.
"Huh, wonder what's in here?" he noted before opening it up to find a blue card that the name Bulletbang on it alongside the image of a strange masked cowboy in green and gold firing off it's guns.
He then scanned the card on the gun before loading it into the gun.
BULLETBAANG!
"Take this!"
GOTCHARGIC BUSTER!
He soon began firing several card-shaped blasts into the monster. The monster was soon dazed as Rinne and GolDash rode to the Kamen Rider's side.
"Okay, I think it's time to finish this guy off." She noted.
"Yeah." The Kamen Rider agreed before grabbing the two valves and pressing them back in, causing a new standby noise to appear as he lifted his right leg into the air. After clenching his fist and letting out some steam, he pulled the grips out again.
STEAM-HOPPER: FEVER~!
The Kamen Rider then leaped forward, zipping forward like a bullet and flying straight through the monster. After he landed, the Kamakiri Malgam snarled and cried before blowing up. In the dark explosion, both the salary man and the mantis Malgam stumbled out.
Seeing her chance, Rinne drew a new blank card and jut it out towards the mantis monster, sucking it up and creating a new version of the Kamantis card.
"Whew, another one sealed…" she sighed in relief.
Meanwhile, Hotaro got up as he dis-engaged his transformation. While he was happy, the young man was quickly confused.
"Wait, where's the Ghost Train or Hopper?" he asked aloud as he noticed the missing Chemies weren't with him, "How come they're not here?"
"It's because you need to summon them using this." Rinne noted as she showed him the arrow object she used to summon GolDash, "But, I think you need to come with me first." She said.
"Why?" Hotaro asked, still confused by what had just happened earlier.
However she said nothing as Rinne merely dragged a conflicted Hotaro with her. Unbeknownst to the pair however, the two Dark Sisters were watching them from a distance.
"I see, so they have finally found their champion. Sister might not like this." Clotho observed.
"Perhaps not, but for now we must keep an eye on them. Things have certainly become… interesting." Lechesis giggled as the battle to collect the other Chemies, known to the public as kemonogami, reached a new fever pitch.
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Welp, by the time you're seeing this, there's a good chance that Gotchard's first episode is already out. But I wanted to do a challenge for this one. Namely if I could make a Gotchard fic without seeing the first episode. So I had what toys were ready for the first quarter, what cards were available, and all of the pre-release material released for the show thus far.
I started writing this thing as soon as the English subs for the trailer were out and it took me the whole of August, not including co-writing stuff for friends, to get this done. Admittedly, I did have to rush the first transformation and battle to get it done before Gotchard episode 1 airs, but for the rest I had to hunker down and actually imagine how I would have started Gotchard off.
Obviously, all of this will be outdated as soon as the first episode comes out, but that was something I knew when going into this project. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this little oneshot.
Until next time, see ya!