X-Squad: Carmen Sandiego

by garshishoe

Prepare for laughter-induced side effects, spontaneous dance routines, and an insatiable craving for popcorn as chaos reigns supreme. If you start to plan heists in your sleep or feel an urge to bust out some sick dance moves, contact your local holy figure for backup. Viewer discretion is strongly advised – this musical escapade might just be too catchy for your own good!

3. Duke's legacy and how to tame a Mammoth

The clock ticked on in a quiet lecture hall. University students were scrawling down notes and other important information about the day's lessons; most of which seemed to go right over their heads. Still, they were hard at work to make sure that nothing went undocumented. As, in Seinarushima University, there was no room for failure.

And no better was this represented by one student in particular. She had short, dark azure hair that frames her face, with bangs mostly brushed to one side and a pair of clips opposite of them, a partial braid on one side of her head, and over her bangs is a curled lock. She has sharp cyan eyes. She wears a white top with a ribbon, a navy pencil skirt with black belt and a blue jacket. Her dark colored boots are worn with black tights. Even as the lecturer started addressing the gallery once again, she was still deep into her studies, making sure that everything was written down.

Then, out of nowhere, her train of thought was interrupted by the speaker; a man with bushy brown hair, and a brown and grey suit. "Kokone!" He spoke, and everyone's eyes turned to the blue-haired girl, who simply looked up from her work. "Since you are one of the brightest students here, tell me this. What does 'segfaulting' mean?"

Kokone stood up and addressed the speaker in a calm, if joking, tone of voice. "Segmentation faults, or segfaults as they have been abbreviated to, happen when a computer's programs crash when they are tied to the computer's core; more specifically the kernel," she started. "Normally, segfaulting only occurs when the computer is trying to read or write to an illegal memory location. Normally, computer memory falls into four different categories. Text for program instructions, data for variables and arrays, stacks for temporary or automatic variables in subroutines and functions, and heaps for variables allocated during runtime by functions." Kokone took another deep breath. "Traditionally, segfaulting occurs when variables fall outside of the given parameters, or when the computer tries to write to a read-only location. Other such segfaults can occur when the computer attempts to read from memory in a way that is not allowed, or when your program runs out of stack space and can no longer sustain it. Most segfaults can be fixed by checking the out-of-bounds arrays or looking at your shell space. For some of the more tricky ones, grab a debugger."

She was greeted with a round of applause from both the students and the speaker, who watched as she took her seat once more.

"No wonder she's the Tech Witch. She knows everything!" One of the male students behind her whispered as Kokone took her seat.

"Too right. I didn't even know what half of that segfaulting stuff even is..." A second male student added to the conversation.

"Splendid as ever, Kokone." The speaker commended, then went back to his lecture, while Kokone herself went back to her work, studying hard as his long-winded talks resumed.

Every day, it's all the same. Work, work, work. Kokone muttered to herself in her head. Still, this is the path I chose. Still, would love to take Yuina out on the town for some parfaits.

---

Yuina on the other hand, was already out in the city of Seinarushima once again. Her phone gripped tightly in her hand and Giff jogging, dressed like a pope, while eating cornflakes, Hime and Iona by her side, still cuffed because Voidlon forgot a key, she held it as if it were a camera. But taking shots, she was not. Today was the day that she scouted out other potential heroes. Her phone pointed at various people, their attributes flashed up on the screen again and again, but that wasn't what Yuina was after. She didn't need to know people's lives or anything; just whether or not they would make a good Rider partner for her. Sadly, her phone's Rider Scan app Ark had installed kept on saying the same thing.

"Rider Potential: 12%. Rider Potential: 7%. Rider Potential: 0.00000000000000000001%." These were just a few of the responses that she had been getting from her city-sweep, and the last one that she had scanned was a man who had just come out of the supermarket with his daughter and wife.

"Ark... I don't think this is working." Yuina said as she exited the phone app and went back to her home screen; the former evil AI in question revealing himself once more. "I mean, I've frisked almost a thousand people in this city and none of them seem to be Rider-worthy." She moaned, dejectedly as her face deflated. "Is there something I'm missing?"

[is giff deadass sprinting while eating cornflakes]

[mother of god he is, the absolute madman]

[the efficiency, no milk wasted while he's fucking G O I N G]

[it's like those anime scenes with the girl and the toast]

[IS HE DRINKING THE FUCKING MILK!?]

[absolute, unmatched, power]

[what is he gonna do with the bowl]

"Well... maybe that's because you're just checking everyone and everything that comes your way, Yuina." Giff put his hands by his hips after eating the bowl as well. "I mean, most Riders in their civilian states don't even look remotely like what you've been scanning so far. They usually have some weird quirk about them or maybe it's something to do with their hair."

[did he just]

[godspeed you beautiful bowl, you're with the stars now]

[a moment of silence for the fallen]

[Taps]

"Y'know, I never even bothered to ask you." Yuina rubbed the back of her head. "What do you think the other Riders for my squad would look like?"

"Well, it's hard to explain, really." Ark explained. "Riders aren't all the same. Though, if I had to guess, I'd say look for someone who stands out. Someone who's different from the rest. Maybe even someone who's the complete opposite of you. After all, opposites attract, don't they?"

"Someone who's the... opposite of me?" Yuina tilted her head, cocking a brow at Ark.

"Rider, Sentai and Precure teams are usually a bunch of different people; people who you'd never expect to gel well with, yet somehow, they manage to come together despite their differences." Ark cleared up. "I could give you a bunch of examples, but I feel like that'd be gushing a little bit."

"If you say so..." Yuina rolled her eyes slightly at that remark. "Anyway, what do you think is the opposite of me?"

"Well... that's hard to say, really. You're a bunch of emotions when you're away from your games." Ark realized. "You're loud, outgoing, playful, brash, and a little bit of a gun jumper." He said, trying to eye up Yuina from inside her phone. "So... I guess, we need to find someone quiet, reserved, serious, meek, or maybe someone who's a bit more of a thinker for your secondary." Ark added. "Anywhere in this city like that?"

"Well, there's only one place that comes to mind." Yuina said, opening the web browser on her phone. Ark stayed at the top of the screen, watching as the browser flared to life and Yuina started typing things in on her phone. "There's my own school, Seinarushima University." She said, as she punched in the wiki pages showing both her school and the university on two separate windows.

"University?" Ark blinked.

"Hoo boy... You don't have school in cyberspace either?" Yuina asked as she looked down the street, eyes focused on Ark at all times; yet still fully aware of the world around her. You could have called it a hunch that she knew where to go, but Yuina knew Seinarushima like the back of her hand, so was well-versed in the art of talking on the phone. "In the human world, we have a bunch of different places where people go to learn. Usually, it goes from pre-school for the little, little kids, then kindergarten for when they get older, then grade school, middle school, high school, college, and then, if you really wanted to be the best of the best and learn some top-tier stuff for the future, you'd go to university, which is where I'm at."

"The best?" Ark parroted.

[anyone else need to schedule an emergency appointment with their dentist?]

[i think i have diabetes now]

[god bless the silver ai and his himbo goth rider]

[he's so cute]

[adorable]

[gorgeous]

[too damn cute]

GLaDOS: [For once, I actually agree with you all.]

GLaDOS: [Don't expect it to last.]

"I can't believe this, I can't believe this, all I wanted was to go home, drink till I faint, and possibly go on a date with Taeko. Instead me and Yuina are off going clothing shopping for a witch, four huntresses, a Skylandian, the Oresky Trio and an ancient hitman...good lord I sound like a damn freak." Voidlon said, as he was driving his personal car, the Voidenali to the store.

"Uh, I'm pretty sure no one will judge you..." Yuina said, although she didn't want to do this either.

She had been clothing shopping before...it was a shit show.

"Are you kidding me? I am going to buy clothes for a bunch of 17 year olds, a 16 year old, a 15 year old, a 14-year old, the Oresky Trio and a centuries old man! Do you have any idea how weird that sounds?! Azuma may as well shave his beard into a moustache and buy a windowless van and spray paint free candy on the side!" Voidlon said, as he was not in a good mood.

"Look, at least they gave us their measurements." Giff held up a piece of paper.

Good thing Weiss was a practicing seamstress and knew how to take exact measurements. There was only one problem. Weiss had pointed out that they...didn't have proper underwear for their stay...

Voidlon screamed at the fact he would have to buy underwear...it took Yuina forever to get him to calm down and not hit the bottle of Jim Dean on his table. After Blake had reassured the six that it would be just fine, they set off in the Voidenali. Still though, Voidlon, out of stress, was going 75 in a 45 mile per hour zone. It was a miracle they hadn't been pulled over yet.

"I think you ran over an ice cream man..." Giff said as he saw an ice cream man be flattened, dead on arrival.

"Eh, that guy was an asshole anyways, I saw him sticking his balls in the chocolate chip mint ice cream." Yuina said as Giff felt disgusted.

"Why was he still an ice cream man?" Giff asked, not understanding why he was still there.

"I don't know, apparently because nobody believed me when I told them." Yuina said as she tried to report the guy.

"Sooooooo, you live here long?" Voidlon said referring to the town.

"My parents just moved here for a job, I've only lived here for about a year and a half." Yuina said something normal.

"So you like it here?" He asked, trying to continue the conversation.

"Eh, unfortunately some of the students are a little too whiny for my tastes, and all the hippies on campus piss me off, but I do like the education and the free food." Yuina said, as she looked around for a store.

"What are hippies?" Giff asked.

"Basically dirty people who believe that smoking pot gives them the power to change the world." She said as Giff didn't know what to say about that.

"What about that store? Victoria's Secret?" Ark asked as Yuina glared at him.

"I AM NOT GOING TO A LINGERIE STORE FOR MINORS!" She yelled as Ark tensed in defense.

"Okay...I did not know that it was a Lingerie store..." He said, embarrassed.

"Look, there we go!" Voidlon said, as he pulled into a thrift store.

"Seriously? This place looks run down." Giff said as Yuina waved him off.

"Trust me, it's decent clothing for cheap prices, I don't want to max out my credit card on expensive clothes for them all." She said, as she didn't like spending too much money.

They walked inside the store as the only woman working there looked at them.

"Hey fellas, what can we do you for?" She said in a cute Northern accent.

"Uh...Yeah, this may sound a little weird but..." Yuina said as Voidlon spoke up.

"We need to buy clothing for ladies." Voidlon said, as Yuina facepalmed.

"Dude! You don't just come out and say that!" She said as Voidlon looked at her.

"What? There's no shame in it." He said, as the teller got a look on her face.

"Oh, it's okay fellas! I don't judge. I can find something perfect for your boyfriend here." She said, as she brushed Voidlon's chest.

"Wait! It's not for-" He said, as she had already gone off to get something.

"Great, now everyone's going to think we're having kinky crossdresser fun, thanks a lot!" Yuina glared at him.

"Hey! I didn't mean that! And I will let you know I look damn fine in a dress!" Voidlon said, as Yuina facepalmed.

"That's not the point! I have been trying to chat with this girl out for the past few months! And now she thinks that we're dating." Yuina said, as Voidlon scratched the back of his head.

"Oh well, sorry." He said as the lady came back.

"Here we go, I think this would look rather ravaging on him." She said with a bit of a nosebleed.

It was what appeared to be a slutty maid costume, and the funny part was it was Voidlon's size.

"Look lady, we're just here to-" Yuina tried to say, as she forced Voidlon into the dressing room.

"And for God's sake..." She said, as she waited outside.

"Woah! I don't wear thon...OKAY! WOAH! I did not consent to this!" Voidlon yelled, as he came out of the dressing room in the outfit.

"See?! Doesn't he look ravaging!" She said, as Yuina...blushed a bit, but reminded herself that he was seeing someone.

"Okay...first off, we're here to pick up clothes for our friends, they're staying at my place, but they lost their clothes because they...went skinny dipping in the local reservoir and someone stole their clothes." She said coming up with a lie.

"Oh...OH! I'M SO SORRY! It's just that, you two came in, and you looked so nervous! I just assumed! Just give me their measurements, and I will take care of it." She said, as Yuina gave her the measurement sheet.

Meanwhile Yuina was looking at Voidlon in the maid costume. And she had to admit, Voidlon did actually look good in that. She looked away with a blush as she saw Voidlon walk back into the dressing room. Seriously what the heck? How could a guy look so feminine and so masculine at the same time? More importantly, why did Voidlon shave his legs?

"Taeko...must never...hear about this." Voidlon said with a blush that could rival a tomato.

"Oh yeah, sure...no problem." Yuina said as she was now laughing a bit.

---

"So how did the trip go?" Louise asked.

"I don't want to talk about it.." Voidlon said as Yuina came in with the shopping bags.

"Hey Taeko! Want to see a picture of Voidlon?!" Yuina yelled as she opened it up on her phone.'

"DUDE! YOU SAID YOU WOULDN'T TELL!" Voidlon yelled in horror.

"We didn't shake on it, you have to shake to make it official." Yuina said as Taeko and Yang looked at the phone.

"WOAH HO HO! Damn Voi! Who knew you had a kinky side!" Yang said as Taeko grasped it.

"Ooooooooohhhhh Myyyyyyyyy." She said with a blush as she wanted Yuina to send that picture to her now.

"Ha! Voidlon is the maid!" Robin laughed.

"I am going to kill you for this..." Voidlon said, as he did not look good in a kinky maid costume.

[this fashion disaster is brought to you by RAID SHA-]

[ User was banned for 400 seconds reason: I am not having you promote such a hollow creation. It doesn't even have testing in it. ]

[Robolady don't like the raid, understandable]

"Well in the mean time I'm going to get something to eat, oh look we have Ranch Dressing, Voidlon." Yuina said making a pun.

"Oh God no, not another one..." Ruby said as she thought Yang was annoying enough with her puns.

Yang meanwhile beamed at the thought of finding 2 more fellow punsters. While the rest of the team shivered in horror at the possibility of three bad jokesters.

"Well, Yang...you beat me to the punch!" Mystle received a myriad of groans and snickering.

"I know I'm not religious, but in that moment, I was praying." Hajime sighed.

Giff fixed his eyes on Hajime. "Mr. Aoyama, there is no priest here, not even the Rider pantheons will save you now."

"What is this?!" Weiss asked as she pulled out a t-shirt.

"Hey, beggars can't be choosers, and the point is that you are supposed to blend in with society, Ice Queen." Yuina said as Weiss glared.

"Don't call me that! And I suppose..it will have to do." She said as she went to go get changed.

"Hey cool! My shirt has a boxer on it!" Yang said holding up a Muhammad Ali t-shirt and jeans.

"Aww! Look at the dog!" Ruby said finding one of those animal head hats.

"Really?" Blake asked as her t-shirt had a kitten on it.

"Yeah! You got to be 'kitten' us right now!" Yang said as everyone groaned.

"I found that shirt to be 'purrrfect' for her." Voidlon said as he high-fived Yang.

"And to think I was going to kick your ass if you turned out to be a douche!" She said as he laughed but then froze up.

"Wait...what?" He said as he felt worried.

He had already taken a claw to the head, he didn't want to get pounded by Yang. He had a feeling that it would be even worse.

"Why does mine have a bearded man yelling while dressed in a leather speedo?" Oresky asked as he had a shirt with a '300' logo on it.

"Hey, I tried to find things that were in your sizes, and it took me awhile to convince the lady working there that I wasn't some kind of maniac who had people locked up in the basement." Yuina said, as that was one hell of a day.

Namakelder was simply wearing a green long-sleeve shirt with khaki slacks and black shoes, Oresky a '300'' t-shirt and tight jeans, Weiss a white t-shirt with snowflakes on it, a white jacket, and blue pants. Ruby was wearing a red hoodie with black jeans and the dog head hat that she found. Hosshiwa was wearing a pink long sleeve shirt with blue leggings and a pink baseball hat. Louise was dressed in pink jeans and a white hoodie with a black shirt underneath. Blake was begrudgingly wearing the kitty shirt and black pants, along with nothing to hide her ears, since Yuina pointed out that animal features would not be out of place. Yang was wearing a pair of jean shorty shorts and a yellow long sleeve shirt with a packer symbol on it, Azuma wore a demon hoodie and black hammer pants with black boots, and Sora wore a loose-fitting long-sleeved shirt that is pale blue on top and cerulean at the bottom along with a navy blue skirt. She also has long dark blue socks with two white stripes on top and light beige sneakers.

"You have no idea how awkward it was buying underwear...NEVER ask me to do that again." Voidlon said, as he felt like he needed to wash his hands of his sins.

Not because of the clothes, but because he felt like a freak.

"So, now what?" He asked as they all sat down.

"Uh, what do you do for fun around here?" Ruby asked as they had no idea where they wanted to go.

"Well...I don't know, I don't really get out much." Yuina said as they all suddenly felt very bored.

"Please tell me I didn't spend all that money for nothing..." She said, as Louise was looking up at the ceiling.

"Why don't we all stay in today and watch a movie? And go out and do something tomorrow." She said as Yuina looked up.

"I have class tomorrow.." She said, as Louise beamed.

"Then we can all go to your school!" Louise said as everyone agreed with that.

"Uh, I'm not sure if that's a good idea." Yuina said, as she really didn't want to do that.

"Oh come on! It will be fine! What's the worst that could happen?" Yang asked.

"Well, you could be brainwashed by biased professors, caught up in one of those stupid ass student protests, given drugs by one of the local stoners..." She said, as they were all looking at her oddly.

"Uh, I think you may be getting a bit personal with this, what's so bad about the student protests?" Weiss asked, not understanding what her problem was.

"Look, students on college campuses show how much they don't know, by protesting and screaming loudly, I may like it here, but not all the students are bright." She said, as she had run into some damn idiots during her year at college.

"Relax, we don't know enough about your world to get brainwashed by any professor, we don't like protests because they're too loud, and our aura negates the effects of most drugs!" Ruby said, as Yuina looked a little worried.

"I don't know..." She said, as she wasn't sure what to think.

"Please?" Ruby said with the puppy dog eyes.

"Oh come on! THAT'S NOT FAIR!" Yuina yelled, as she felt like an asshole.

"No! I am not falling for it this time!" She said, as Ruby started to move her lip a little bit.

"I'm not doing it! It won't work again!" She said, as Ruby turned up the waterworks a little bit.

"Pwease?" She said in as cute of a tone as possible.

Yuina once again felt her sociopathic heart melt as she smiled at the site. It was like resting on a cloud, being basked in the warmth of the sun while munching on delicious chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream.

"Son...of...a...bitch." She said, as she couldn't take it anymore.

"Well, we've got nothing left to go on, and most of the people on the street aren't really registering for being Riders." Ark commented as Hibiki closed out the internet browser of her phone. "Lead the way."

"Alright." Yuina nodded as she slipped the phone back into her pocket. "We're off to Seinarushima University!"

---

The Next Day..

---

"I'm so excited!" Ruby said as they got on the bus.

"Only you would be excited to go to school..." Azuma said, as Yang beamed.

"Hey come on! We're going to go explore a brand new place!" Yang said, as she was just as excited.

"Ooookay, so, what are we going to do today?" Louise asked.

"Well, you can't go to class with me, so you'll probably have to find something to do in between classes." Yuina said, as she was a little worried about that.

"I'm sure we can find something." Weiss said, as she wasn't sure about this.

Yeah, she didn't want to be stuck in that small house all day with seven other people. But this was still an unknown world to them and who knows what kind of crazies they could meet. She heard Yuina speak disdainfully of 'hippies, socialists, and dumb ass wannabe communist students.' So she was really hoping they didn't run into those kinds of people, she had no idea what a hippy, socialist, or communist was, but they didn't sound like good things.

"So what do you study?" Azfk asked.

"Archaeology." Yuina said, as she was looking at her phone.

"Sounds kind of boring." Yang said, as she shrugged.

"Some of it is, some of it isn't. I was really disappointed when I found out it's nothing like Indiana Jones." Yuina said, as that was what she thought it was going to be like when she was a kid. That turned out to be a disappointment.

"Wait, we're here already?" Ruby asked as that didn't seem like any time had passed.

"It's not that far of a walk to campus from my house, I just prefer to take the bus since it's faster." She said as they got off.

Seinarushima University was fairly big, it had one of those fancy church-like buildings that seemed to be on every single major university campus. And there were a multitude of students walking to class. Although for some reason, all of them seemed to be pissed off and holding on to cups of coffee labeled 'Starbucks'. Other than that, the fresh air was nice, and they could see ducks swimming through a little river. One of the students who stuck out for all of the wrong reasons, however, was Kokone.

Kokone heard the voices all around her and decided to keep to herself. It wasn't in her business to get involved in other people's affairs. All that really mattered was her own ambitions; her own goals. Everyone around her were just witnesses to her journey, and all of the lectures that she took along the way were vital to that journey's success. Because of how much of a needlenose she was, Kori did not have that many friends; at least, not the kind she preferred to be with. So, she just left the building that she was in and wandered outside.

Meanwhile, outside of the high school, Yuina and the squad stared at the site and whipped out her phone so that Ark and Giff could get a good look at it. From where they were standing, Seinarushima University was akin to that of a modern-day castle both from its' size and its' architecture, with a large archway leading onto the main campus grounds and to all of the respective buildings, dorms, and fields within. "Whoa..." Louise said as she walked towards the university.

"It's so immense." Giff blinked as he drank in the majesty of the site. Even though he was just looking at it, he couldn't deny that the amount of work put into this was impressive. "And you're saying that this was built entirely by man?"

"Yep." Yuina nodded. "Anyway, SU's our place. You want a good learning experience with lots of geniuses and top-of-the-line teachers? This place has 'em. They've got all kinds of fields covered, from art, media, music, history, science, and yes, that does include computing and coding." Yuina opened up the Rider App on her phone and the scanner started to scan what was in front of it again. "We want a Rider, this is where we'll find a Rider."

"Right. Let's get going," said Ark. "You lead the way."

"Mmhmm." Yuina walked forward, the phone tightly gripped in her hands. The squad was ready to scan the students and determine whether or not they were Rider-worthy. It didn't matter who she found or where she found them, just as long as they were ready to join her side.

"Seems like a nice place." Yang said as they suddenly heard a noise.

"HEY MY PURSE!" A woman yelled as they all turned to see a hooded guy running towards them with some lady's purse.

"Oh, of all the freaking-" Yuina knew she had to do something.

Although she didn't know what to do, she tried to stop a confrontation once, and she got her ass kicked, but not before drinking the guy's soul. Sure she got the purse back, but it left her pride feeling damaged.

"HA!" Yang responded quickly by punching the would-be thief in the face.

Yuina had never seen a man go down that quickly, he might as well have been hit with a sledgehammer, because all it took was one punch to send his candy ass down to the ground. The woman ran up and got her purse back.

"Oh thank you young lady!" She said with gratitude as she saw Yuina.

"Ah! Yuina, is this your girlfriend?" She said, as Yuina blushed.

"No, no, no, why would you think that? Not even close, no offense to you Yang. These are just some friends I'm showing around campus." She said as the now revealed professor slung her purse over her shoulder.

"Too bad, you two could be so nice together." She said, as both Yuina and Yang shook their heads.

"She's not my type." Yang said, as she was not attracted to her at all.

"And she's older than me by at least 4 years. And I'm already seeing someone." Yuina said.

"They say age is just a number." The Teacher said as she walked away.

"YEAH! AND PRISON IS JUST A ROOM!" Yuina yelled as she walked away.

"Why the hell would she think we're a couple?" Yang asked wondering why anyone thought she would date her.

"I have no freaking idea, she does that to a lot of her students." She said.

That being said, there was one more hurdle that our intrepid idiots had to face. Standing guard at the entrance to the university was a man with spiky brown hair and a black suit. The suit had the crest of Seinarushima University on it; which showcased the sakura leaves dancing on the wind. The moment he saw the squad approaching, he walked from his position and stood before Yuina. "Hold on." He said, gruffly, stopping Yuina in her tracks. "Where's your ID?"

"I...D?" Mera blinked, looking at the man looming over her.

"In accordance with the laws of Seinarushima High under Article 3, Section 7, all students must have their identification card on them at all times." He crossed his arms and backed up a step. "If you don't have your ID, then I can't let you in."

"I know, I know. But we really need to get in there, sir." Drakus was trying to figure out a way to get past without sprinting by and potentially breaking the law. They were already treading on thin ice as is.

"There are only two ways someone like you is getting in here," the guard went on. "Either you show me your valid identification card, or there is an open day where anyone is free to attend. As it stands, you qualify for neither of those, so whatever plans you have of walking onto Seinarushima University, you can forget all about them."

"Sir, I know that this might sound crazy, but this is—"

"No buts!" The man bellowed, and Voidlon toppled onto his back. "There is no place for anyone who breaks the rules. Student or otherwise. Now, be on your way and both of our lives will be much better." He brushed them off.

"Tenryou. What is going on out here?" A familiar voice shouted; one which made the man turn around. The voice belonged to a girl with a cold stare and straight dark azure hair. It was none other than Kokone, and she was now harshly glaring into the guard's eyes.

"Kokone?" He asked, looking at her, unintimidated by the stare that she was giving him.

"Your noise is in violation of Article 8, Section 11 of the laws of Seinarushima U: All people on campus, staff or students alike, must keep their general noise to a normal degree." Kokone said, pulling out a thin handbook and flipping it over to the relative pages. She held the book out and pointed the page's contents to Tenryou. "Loud shouting, violent tone of voice, and disruptive volumes of any sort might distract students, and the distractor shall be heavily punished. I am rather disappointed with you; for being one of the university's disciplinary details."

"I have a reason to counteract your clause with Subsection F of that same article." Tenryou huffed and pointed out the print, which was miniscule in relation to the rest of the book. "The distractor in question can be let off the hook if there is a valid reason to which he or she made the noise." He jabbed his finger towards the squad, who simply stood their ground. "These, I don't even know what some of them are, wanted to enter the school, yet have no ID and there are no open days scheduled until next month. They're stubborn, so I had to be firm. And as you can see, these things are in violation of another one of our laws." Tenryou went on. "Article 2; Section 4. Strictly no outsiders. Local or otherwise. If you are willing to defend her instead of me, then I can subject you to disciplinary action and report you to the council."

"I care not who wins or loses this little debate. What I wish to see is an end to your noise." Kokone kept on debating with Tenryou. "Your continued presence and interjection with me is also violating another one of our laws; Article 7; Section 9. Absolutely nobody from the faculty is allowed to keep a student waiting. Not for post-classroom reports or for handling disciplinary matters. All matters of your kind must be swift, to the point, and concise. Failure to immediately act on and uphold the laws is punishable by a revocation of your status and may result in suspension or even termination." Kokone closed the book so hard that it could have been argued that everyone within a mile could have heard it. "Now, are you going to just stand there and keep me from my lessons, or are you going to behave, stick within your own rules, and report your own wrongdoings in peace? As you are aware, if you have made any sins as one of the disciplinary committee members, then you must lay it bare; lest your own sins pile upon you and deliver your swift judgment."

Tenryou grumbled. "Damn you..." He swore in his native tongue, spat, and walked off. "I have no time for this." And so, he trudged back into the university campus, leaving Kokone with Yuina.

"Whoa..." Grim was in awe of how Kokone had handled the situation. He could tell from that little debate that Kori was a young woman who commanded respect, power, and was much smarter than the squad had initially thought.

Kokone looked towards Yuina and saw her just casually wave at her. "Yuina? Why are you bringing more imbeciles onto campus? We're already dealing with enough as is."

"M-me?" Yuina put her hands to her chest. "U-uh... w-well, I wanted... to... uh..." Now, Yuina's composure went up in flames, mostly because Kokone was still very pretty and triggered an intense reaction in her pathetic lesbian heart.

"Don't expect me to say 'you're welcome'." Kokone walked over to Yuina's side and looked the squad in the eye. "I simply upheld the rules of this school to their fullest. State your business here."

"My business?" Voidlon asked, pulling out his phone. Secretly, he opened the Rider App, while making his explanation. "I'm... uh... actually here as part of my... uh... designer training! Yes! Designer training!" He made the excuse just as the Rider App read Kokone's attributes.

"Name: Kokone Fuwa. Age: 14. Blood Type: A," the phone read out as Yuina lowered the volume ever so slightly. The next bit of information caught her off-guard, however. "Rider Potential: 87.68%. Recommended course of action: Casual conversation."

"Designer?" Kokone blinked at Voidlon's excuse to be at the university. "On what grounds? Are you trying to build a fashion line?"

"Yeah. Yes he is." Yuina cleared up, trying her best to try and keep Kokone believing in their trumped-up tales, even if it's true.

"As much as I would like to indulge your photography endeavours, mister..."

"Voidlon Shingetsu," he told her.

"When me and Yuina reached the end of our time in Seinarushima Middle School, an observer from the high school noticed my impeccable intelligence and focus, along with Yuina's genius and general prodigy levels of skill, and pulled some strings with the council." Kokone looked back towards the university in question. "I suppose you probably wouldn't have been there when we were."

"Y-yes...?" The squad was still trying to keep up with Kokone.

"Then it stands to reason that we could have never met under any other circumstances." Kokone smiled. "However. I am getting off-topic. We must return to the matter at hand and that matter is simple. I cannot give you any leniency to photograph our site; no matter what other reason you might have. Now, if you will excuse me, me and Yuina have wasted precisely 5 minutes and 27 seconds not only dealing with a rowdy Tenryou, but also to entertain your prattle. We simply must return to work." Kokone turned away.

"Yikes... she seems scary." Ark commented as Kokone brought Yuina with her, the squad following behind.

"Yeah. She seems like she should be 23, not 13..." Hibiki was rubbing the back of her head. "That can't be good for her. At least, not when it comes to having a social life anyway."

"Still, the Rider App doesn't lie. 87.68% is a pretty convincing amount if you ask me." Ark pointed out the percentage rating of Kokone on the app's screen. "We've gotta find some way to talk to her again. It doesn't matter if she comes to us or we go to her, we need her. And whether she knows or not, she needs us as well."

---

Deep within the bowels of the Hiden Intelligence building, in a long forgotten and obsolete boiler room, were two men who were practically a study in contrasts. One was Gai Amatsu, his once pristine white business suit in tatters, his hair long and disheveled, his body filthy and covered in old blood and excrement. He was prostrating himself before a makeshift altar made from scrap and old Gridlocked parts which rested a broken Gridlocked arm.

The other man was a young man with a Gridlocked left arm wearing a dark business suit and impeccably well-kept, the character for "Unmatched" on his right cheek. He was playing Mighty Xtreme 2 on his Genm Boy handheld, an increasingly frustrated look on his face. "Can you keep it down?" He shouted at Gai, who'd been very loudly praying to the body on the altar for the last several minutes. "I'm trying to clear this level!"

"Our esteemed master will speak to us at any moment!" Gai cried, eyes wild. "And when he returns, I want him to know that I am at his most faithful servant, giving it 1000% of my devotion!"

Kuroto scowled and rolled his eyes. "Funny, it never feels like you're giving me 1000% of your devotion whenever we're-"

"Hyde comes."

Neither of them had spoken. The sinister utterance had come from the synthesizers of the dozen or so Thouser robot dog pets Gai was so ridiculously obsessed with, their LED lights turning on and bathing the chamber in sinister purple, revealing almost every inch of the walls was covered in characters for hatred and evil and malevolence written in blood and oil and excrement, a massive red and black eye taking up the back wall, looming over everything.

Gai exclaimed joyously and Kuroto reluctantly paused his game as suddenly, a well-dressed man, wearing a purple and gold vest, white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, black pants, black shoes with purple streaks and gold lining, welding a metallic cane and with purple veins and messy black hair appeared in a flash. "The master is here!" Gai wailed as the man turned to face them, groveling before her. Kuroto, a grimace on his face, reluctantly did the same. "Speak, master! What would you have us do?"

"Okay, first off, you shall meet my little army I found on travels after busting out of Starfleet's little prison," Hyde said. "And as a plus, you two could prove useful in ridding myself of that insufferable Jekyll."

"Great, and once you do that, I can get my company back?" Kuroto asked, not even remotely interested in the conflict he'd found himself roped into.

Hyde rolled his eyes. "Yes, then you will get your company."

"Great, that's the only thing I actually care about," Kuroto said flatly, ignoring the outraged look Gai was shooting him.

"And by destroying this world once and for all, the power of malice will rise once more, preventing Zein from manifesting from the data of human benevolence and wiping out mankind!" Gai cried excitedly.

Hyde and Kuroto both stared at him blankly for a moment. "…Yeah, that's what will happen," Kiko said finally as Kuroto rolled his eyes, both telepathically agreeing that the sooner Gai gets booted off, preferably after he outlived his usefulness, the better.

"All is as the Harlequin of Madness wills it to be!" Gai shouted fervently.

"Yep, it is," Hyde said smugly. "Now, leave, head to Foundation Prime. Time we take off the metaphorical belt and wipe the Riders out."

"Yes, my Lord!" Gai shouted, taking off his pants.

Hyde smiled. "Yes, now… Wait, what are you… Oh for the love of… WHY IS THIS THE FIRST THING THAT COMES TO YOUR MIND?! I MAY HAVE NO RESTRAINT, BUT AT LEAST HAVE SOME COURTESY!"

Kuroto sighed in disappointment. "Well, guess I'm not getting to beat this level…"

---

Meanwhile, in Foundation Prime, Erxkadnmlae walked forward once more. Again, the landscape shifted and distorted; ever-changing with seemingly every step that he took. Before him stood Kosexry and Xsowshiha. Kosexry was busy stretching his arm muscles, and Xsowshiha was letting sweets slip through her fingers and trickle down to the pile by her throne.

"Princess and Zinner whipped your ass again?" Xsowshiha asked as she stopped dropping her sweets and looked at Erxkadnmlae.

"Zinner's far stronger than I had anticipated. But it matters not." Erxkadnmlae held his hand out and once again, the Holy Wing Vistamp was in it. "The Vistamp has been claimed, and our lord's power grows ever stronger." He offered the data to Kiko who put it into a machine.

"Good." Kiko spoke once again as all three of the generals stood in line with each other. "With each Element that you gather, our portal gets closer to its' completion, we need one more before we start the real plan."

"Kiko, if you don't mind me asking, what exactly is a Foundation Element?" Kosexry asked.

"It is said these artifacts have existed since the beginning of time. My plan is to gather them at Foundation Prime to summon the base of all dimensions, which will give us the power to have full control over all dimensions." Kiko explained, slowly.

"Oh, now I get it." Kosexry sniggered and cracked his knuckles together. "So, you want us to completely bleed these worlds dry?" "Then let's get to it." Kosexry chuckled. "I've been wanting to trade blows with that little twerp myself."

"Then go, Xsowshiha. Get to breaking and find out the last piece we need to start hopping to dimensions." Kiko said.

"On it." The hole that formed crackled with purple and black energy and without thinking, Xsowshiha leapt into the hole, leaving her other associates behind as she disappeared from the palace.

---

The squad was with Kokone and Yuina reading multiple books in the library, ranging from history to science. Blake found Earth fascinating. Their planet and land was much more abundant than others. But in some ways, it was also a lot more primitive. These people didn't rely on dust, they relied on resources like fossil fuels and Nuclear power, both of which were potentially dangerous. Well, potentially, Nuclear power seemed to be fairly safe, despite the risk of a reactor meltdown.

But the book that had caught Blake's attention, was one written in a strange language.

Kama Sutra

Once she saw it, she knew she had to have it.

"Uhm, excuse me." She said, as she walked up to the library attendant, who was a really cute girl.

"Yes?" She asked.

"I noticed you said some of the books were for sale." She said pointing to the sign on the wall.

"Oh yeah, we need to make room for some new ones, would you like to buy one?" She said as Blake gave her the book and money she had borrowed from Yuina.

"Ooooohhhhh." The girl said teasingly. Blake blushed.

"Oh don't worry sweetie, we all feel that urge." She said as she whispered in Blake's ears.

"You know...if you still feel that urge, you can come by the dorms tonight, I can help you with that...itch." She said as she breathed into Blake's ear.

Blake blushed like crazy, bought her book and ran out of there.

"Oh, she's shy, that's cute." The girl said, as she went back to attending books.

The squad thought there was no way this could get any weirder.

"So, how are you and Yuina friends? You seem so much like a super genius." Voidlon asked.

"For the record, we're dating, and I don't mind her.." Kokone shook her head. "I know what it's like to have no friends of my own. While I am one of the smartest people in the room, that did me no favours when it came to middle school." She turned her head to the skies. "I became so determined to excel; so driven to succeed, that I ended up pushing away everyone around me. Even when I had my position as the student council president, the rest of the council were deathly silent as they let me handle all of the affairs on my own. It felt like their advice was doing nothing; at least, not to them." A sigh fell on her lips and she looked down to the ground. "Even now, in university, everyone else is having fun when they aren't working, and they dress however they want; and the way I conduct myself, I feel like an outcast. I feel... lonely."

"Lonely..." Yuina parroted as she looked deep into Kokone's eyes as she blushed. "Well, I changed that for her. I know that I might not know as much as she does, but I want to listen to all of it! It doesn't matter what she talks about, I'm glad to listen! Even if it takes me days, weeks, months, or years to get it right, I swear as hard as I can that I, Yuina Akagawa, will be her best girlfriend ever!"

Kokone's lips just trembled at the sight and she felt her guard lower more and more in regards to the cute Fangire. All of a sudden, the frost around her heart started to melt away and she felt like she was truly forming a bond. Even though Kokone and Yuina had nothing in common, there was something about her nature and her drive to befriend her that Kokone couldn't deny. And it in turn was triggering something within her. Maybe it wasn't too late to start again and make a friend that understood her. She fully understood that, because Yuina was out of her league, so too were many of the conversation topics she wanted to discuss, but to her, that didn't matter. Not anymore.

"Freaky, isn't it?" A voice cut through the moment, and Yuina let out a gasp as she turned around.

There, standing before the squad, was Xsowshiha. Her clothes sheened in the sunlight and she was casting a wicked smirk at Yuina and Kokone. Then, several manholes burst open and dozens of rabid, red eyed Dog-Bots swarmed out, biting at heels and leaping at jugulars.

Cyclonis yelped and hid behind Ice Bear. "Protect me!"

"Stay away." The bear calmly said, slapping the Dog-Gears that tried to mob him.

Yuina screamed as one leapt for her face, punting it away. "I hated these things when I was a kid!" She shrieked, kicking away another one. "I was so glad when the company stopped making them!"

"Wait, that's right, they did discontinue them," Kokone realized, earning her a look from Giff. "But if they're here, that can only mean…!"

[uh oh]

[wait]

[does anyone else hear that boss music?]

BGM: Satan In Wonderland (Hell Boulevard)

A portal appeared on the rooftop. The portal swirled and parted to reveal two figures, one human and the other Gridlocked.

"That's right! Get them, my children! Tear them limb from limb!" Gai Amatsu laughed insanely, eyes wild, smelling freshly clean and wearing fancy clothes. "For the glory of the Thouser Battalion!"

He yelped and hid behind the rather irritated Kuroto as several of the X-Squad immediately opened fire on him. "That's uncalled for!" He shouted.

"Not really!" Victor shouted back.

"Gai Amatsu and Kuroto Dan! According to Article 6 of the Specialized AI Laws, it's illegal to create a Gridlocked bearing another person's likeness, even if deceased!" Tenryou shouted, training his personal ShotRiser on Kuroto.

"Really? Out of all the horrible illegal things both of us have done, that's what you're focusing on?" Kuroto complained, rolling his eyes.

"No, that's just to start with," Tenryou said, still stone faced. "Kuroto Dan, you will be terminated. And Amatsu… You're going to prison for good. This time, you will not evade justice."

"I've done nothing wrong!" Gai shouted, still cowering behind Kuroto.

"You're siding with Deadlight and participating in a terrorist attack."

"It's for the greater good!" Gai insisted. "The balance of good and evil in the world has been disrupted! There's too much good and soon an AI born from data on human benevolence will emerge and destroy everything with a hint of malice in it, including the human race, and only by increasing the level of malice in the world can we stop that from happening!"

Quite a few people stopped fighting and stared at him in disbelief. "…I'm sorry, what?" Snatcher said incredulously.

"I'm willing to break people's dream demons, and even I think that's stupid," a bewildered Mystle pointed out.

"It is not!" Gai whined.

"No, it totally is, trust me, I'm a Sentai, Rider, Kaiju and PreCure history buff and that's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard," Yuina said. "And who are you?" Yuina asked.

"Yuina!" Ark called. "I thought I sensed corruption! What's going on?"

"Well, I was talking to Kokone, and then this woman showed up along with Gai and Kuroto." Yuina turned her phone, and there, Ark saw her.

"Yuina... you might wanna change into Zinner now!" Ark barked. "She's a Deadlight member!"

"Name's Xsowshiha." She pushed her hands together, the bones cracking as she pushed them back. "I saw how you took down two of Erxkadnmlae's little pets."

"Huh?" Kokone was still standing there in shock.

"But I assure you, you WON'T be getting away from me. Nobody who's brawled with me lives to tell the tale!" Xsowshiha smashed the ground with the back of her right heel, and the whole world around the squad along with Kokone was cast into a dark purple hue, as smog appeared around the park. In addition, lines of smoke spat out from where Xsowshiha had struck the ground and they grew and took shape into Bikrows.

"What are... they?!" Kokone jabbed a finger at the bird monsters.

"Bikrows. Whatever you do, do NOT let them touch you." Yuina lowered her brows as she addressed Kokone, then looked towards Xsowshiha. "If you're with Erxkadnmlae, then you already know that you're gonna lose, y'know that?"

"Ooh, she's awfully tough, isn't she?" Xsowshiha boasted, then let out a laugh. "In a city where anything can be a weapon thanks to our power, I think your safety should be your only concern; let alone trying to stop us! Awaken, Rockbat!" She shouted as she shot the air with her umbrella, the blast of darkness going around a quadrotor.

The quadrotor drone was consumed in the smoke. The toy, once a vehicle, had now taken on a humanoid form with metal arms and legs and skeletal armor along with batwings.

"Jakumori..." The quadrotor rasped, as its' rotors started to spin up.

"That thing too?!" Kokone shouted as the winds were whipped up with the quadrotor blades accelerating.

"It's a Jakumori! And it's the only way that we can change everything back to normal!" Yuina screeched as the noise grew louder and louder and the winds picked up. Now, it was like the two of them were fighting off a cyclone with how heavy the winds got.

"Jakumori! Launch them into the stratosphere!" Xsowshiha pointed towards the two girls.

"Jakumori.." The quadrotor Jakumori's rotors were now at their full speed, and a tornado spat out from all four rotors; coming together into one large tunnel of wind.

"X-Squad, get ready for a brawl." Voidlon said.

ARK ZIKU-DRIVER!

PRECHANMIRROR DRIVER!

TRI CHIMERA! OCTO! RHINOCEROS! CENTIPEDE! COME ON! CHIMERA! CHIMERA! CHIMERA! OCTO! RHINOCEROS! CENTIPEDE! COME ON! CHIMERA! CHIMERA! CHIMERA!

"HENSHIN!"

DEVIL TIME! KAMEN RIDER~! ZINNER!

ROYAL TIME! KAMEN RIDER~! PRINCESS!

SCRAMBLE! OCTOPUS! BLACK RHINO! SCOLOPENDRIDAE! KAMEN RIDER DAIMON! DAIMON! DAIMON!

Kuroto rolled his eyes. "Just humor him, okay? His obsession about this Zane-"

"Zein!"

"Whatever. It's far from the worst thing about him. I am very glad I can turn off my olfactory sensors…" Kuroto grumbled, producing a Gamer Driver. "Come on, it's time to level up."

"Right!" Gai agreed, producing the Ark Driver One.

THOUSAND ARK!

GENM UNMATCHED!

"HENSHIN!"

SINGULARISE! WHEN THE FIVE HORNS CROSS, THE 1000TH ARK IS BORN! PRESENTED BY: ARK LIMITED!

UNMATCHED CLICK AND LOAD! UNMATCHED LEVEL UP! THIS IS GOD'S CHOSEN ENDING! I AM THE OMNISCIENT JET-BLACK PRESIDENT! GRADE UNMATCHED~ GENM!

The two villainous former presidents stood before the heroes, now transformed into Kamen Rider Thousand Ark and Genm Unmatched Gamer.

"Our victory is 1000% guaranteed," Gai said smugly.

"We won't even need continues to beat you," Kuroto bragged. "However, since I don't believe in such a thing as overkill…"

Several streams of Cluster Cells extruded themselves from the walls of the storm, pouring into the orifices of the Bikrows, causing them to convulse as the insects crawled beneath their exoskeletons, causing them to bulge out and distort gruesomely.

BEROTHA!

DODO!

KUEHNE!

ONYCHO!

NEOHI!

MAMMOTH!

GAERU!

EKAL!

ARSINO!

VICARYA!

DIRE WOLF!

SERVAL TIGER!

MEGALODON!

TITANOBOA!

REX!

DEINOSUCHUS!

Now, the Bikrows are the much more powerful, much more dangerous Bikrows.

Kokone tried her very best to keep her footing, but the force of the rotors was much too strong for them. She let out a scream as her feet were ripped from the ground and she was launched high into the air. Higher and higher they went until, when the wind finally stopped, they were now far above the city. Kokone let out a deathly scream as she started to skydive towards the ground. As the ground grew closer and closer, she was sure that this was the end of the line for her. That was, until, she felt a pair of arms wrapping around her. Looking to her left, she saw Kamen Rider Zinner catching her. She could only stare with her mouth agape at this sudden new hero who had swooped in. Instead of violently slamming to the ground like pancakes, Zinner pointed her feet at the ground and sprung off of it, leaping over the park and the Doraibuma entirely. After which, she put Kokone down.

"Stay here." Zinner said, pushing her arms towards Kori.

"Who... who are you?" Kokone blinked, looking up at the hero staring before her. "And why do you sound... so familiar?"

"I'm Kamen Rider Zinner. But we can leave the introductions until later. I've got some monsters to clean up." Zinner winked at Kokone, then leapt back into the battlefield, charging towards the quadrotor Jakumori. "You wanna fight? I got your fight right here!" Sword tight in her grip, Zinner leapt at the Jakumori.

And then, it happened. The quadrotor spun up again and Zinner found herself fighting off the wind. With a powerful gust, Zinner was launched towards the ground. She rolled as she collided with the park turf and leapt back to her feet again.

"So, you've come at last, Zinner." Xsowshiha looked towards the Rider with a smirk. "I knew you'd survive that. It'd be disappointing if you kicked the bucket before I got to meet you like this."

"Stop what you're doing right now and go back to where you came from!" Hime swung her sword dramatically; the tip mere inches from the ground. "We were just about to make a new friend, and you just had to step in and ruin it!"

"Friends? Tell me. Why does a Rider need friends? What does a Rider gain from friends?" Gai walked a few paces forward. "Friends are a waste of time; especially to a Rider who's so busy trying to save everyone."

"What doesn't a Rider gain from friends, huh?!" Drakus pointed the tip of the sword at Gai. "You're probably so focused on trying to raise some malice that you don't even see the bigger picture!"

Kokone heard the whole thing from the sidelines and thought about her own circumstances again. It was true. She had been so focused in the past on her work that she had never taken time to stop and smell the roses. Her whole mentality had been to work for the sake of herself and leave everything else behind, but now that she had met Yuina and that Zinner was reminding her of her own platitudes, she could feel something else welling up in her heart.

"Hmph. I don't need friends. They're detrimental to our success." Kuroto chuckled. "All I've needed since day one was strength and respect. That's what got me where I was and it's what got me where I am today. And that's how it's going to stay, little miss Rider." He jabbed his finger at Zinner. "Now, wipe her out!"

"Going up!" The Berotha Ark Bikrow declared as its' wings started to spin up once again. This time, as it fired off its' devastating winds out at Zinner, she saw them coming. Quick as a flash, the girl leapt over, ducked under, and sidestepped around the violent wind gusts until at last, she was within touching distance of the Jakumori. As she swung at it, however, the rotors kept on spinning, and the Jakumori sidestepped out of her way. In that brief moment where Zinner had leapt forward, the quadrotor Jakumori let off another windy barrage that knocked Zinner directly into a tree with such force that the tree trunk snapped and crashed down to the ground.

"Zinner!" Kokone called from afar, then noticed something else. The Bikrows from before had broken off from their position and spread throughout the park. One after the other, the Bikrows touched the fleeing humans and converted them into Bikrows as well. What had started out as zombies made from nothing had now spread into a miniature horde of zombified city people. "What...?"

Then, Kokone could hear a growl from just behind her. Shivering, she looked back and saw that there was a Bikrow looming over her. Her face turned white with fright and the Jakumori slammed its' hand downward; barely missing her by an inch. As Kokone started to sprint away from the Bikrow, it started to give chase, letting out many more zombie-like grunts.

As the squad resumed the fight, she heard the screams from afar. There, Roman saw Kokone fleeing from the Bikrow. Letting out a gasp, he proclaimed, "Kid!" before getting promptly slapped by the Bikrow's backhand strike. He let out a pained grunt as he met the ground; a plume of dust and dirt rising from where he had impacted. Even as he got up; his focus wasn't on the Bikrow, but rather on Kokone.

"Look at that. Juggling things already." Xsowshiha smirked. "It's no wonder that being a Rider is the harshest kind of reality. You've gotta put everyone before yourself. You have to be humanity's whipping stock!"

Zinner sprinted as fast as was physically possible. She needed to get there before the Bikrows got their hands on Kokone. Then, she saw Kokone trip over; landing harshly on her hips. As she tried to get up, the Bikrows now loomed over her body; hands ready to make her into one of their own.

"STOP!" Zinner launched herself at the Bikrows and swung her sword horizontally. The Bikrows that were about to touch Kokone were launched down one of the streets; far away from the scene of the fight. "Leave her alone! She doesn't deserve this! Nobody does!"

"Oh, but I think they do. All of humanity deserves to be set free from itself." Xsowshiha commented as she kept on walking. "Life is not fair. Not for you, not for me, not for anyone. Even for this Kokone girl you talk about, she isolated herself and almost destroyed her social life, so she could achieve her dreams and goals. Is that really a human who is happy with their life? Someone who wakes up every day with a smile, someone who can take on the toughest of pain and still come out a winner? I think not."

"But that doesn't mean her life's completely ruined! Kokone's still got some shred of hope left in her!" Zinner barked, holding Kokone close. "You don't get to decide whether or not Kokone's wasted her life, and neither does anyone else here! The only person who gets to decide whether or not she's made the most of her time... is herself!"

Kokone let out another gasp as Zinner stood up for her once again.

"Oh, really? Then let's hear it straight from the horse's mouth!" Xsowshiha's face cracked another wicked grin. "Bikrows! Jakumori! Get rid of them right now!"

Sure enough, the Jakumori spun up its' rotors and sprinted towards the squad and Kokone. And off to their sides, they saw the Bikrows gathering together in a horde; ready to take her first. Zinner held her sword ready to fend off the coming horde, but she knew that against an attack like that, she wouldn't be able to defend herself and Kokone at the same time. As Zinner was ready to fight, she heard something that made her loosen her grip.

"Stop it... please..." Kokone whispered, some tears falling from her eyes. Then, the Jakumori leapt at Zinner, as the Bikrows charged in at her and Kokone as well. "STOP IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!" She let out a ferocious scream, and a storm of blue light emerged from her; knocking the Jakumori and the Bikrows backwards.

"What?" Kuroto looked at the column of light and saw it quickly die down.

"Kokone?" Zinner let go of Kokone, seeing that a shimmering blue aura now enveloped her body.

"No way..." Ark opened up the Rider App and sure enough, he saw it.

"Rider Potential: 100%. Awakening imminent. No further action necessary." The app said as it scanned Kokone, who was standing up on her own two feet and walking forward.

"It's true what you say. All of it." Kokone tightened her hand into a fist as she bravely stepped before Xsowshiha and the Jakumori. "I almost sacrificed everything to get where I am now." Kokone took one step forward, then another. "Friends. Excitement. Social life. All of it tossed to the wayside in the hopes that I might achieve my dreams." Another step, then she stopped. "But. If there is one thing that I refuse to give up, it's my life. Everything that I have worked for. Everything that I aspire to be. I can have that AND what Zinner proposes. Nobody tells me that I've wasted my life. The only one who can truly decide that for myself... is me!"

Kokone threw her hand forward and another torrential wave of light erupted. Then, before her, there it stood. A Sengoku Driver, except this one was coloured sea blue with a yellow center. Kokone watched in awe as the Driver floated down and landed on her waist. She examined the driver thoroughly. Then, she noticed the Ridewatch in her hand at the side.

"A... Driver?!" Xsowshiha's eyes bulged at the sight of the artifact. "You mean, she's also—"

"A Kamen Rider? That's right!" Zinner let out a cocky nod and leapt over to Kokone's side. "Kokone. Slam the Ridewatch here and say 'Henshin'. Then, you'll be able to fight this thing off!"

"Right." Kokone nodded. Then, with a smile, she said, "Thank you. Zinner." Confidently, she looked back to Xsowshiha and her Jakumori with a focused glare. "I won't let you down!"

ARAZA LOCKSEED!

With nothing more to be said, Kokone opened her Lockseed. "HENSHIN!" Her eyes shimmered with light as she threw her arms out to the side as a dimensional opening into the Helheim Forest to materialize above her and an Armor Part in the shape of an araza appeared above her, as she locks the Lockseed onto belt's Lock On Arm. Finally, she pressed the Cutting Blade knife down, which cut open the Lockseed, causing the Armor Part to fall on top of her head. As her armor turns into a recolor of Kamen Rider Abyss but white, blue and silver.

ARAZA ARMS! SNOW EMPRESS! ON STAGE!

"Alright! Now that's three!" Ark cheered from the belt as he watched Kamen Rider Snow enter the fray.

"REJOICE!"

Woz proclaimed, as he stepped into view of the others. "She is the heir to the Araza Scythe! Making her mark in science, and destroying all who oppose. Her name is Kamen Rider Snow, and you have borne witness to the dawn of her advent." Woz finished, slamming the book closed with an audible slam as he walked off.

Xsowshiha just growled in disbelief at the sight of a third Rider on the battlefield. "THIS CHANGES NOTHING! WIPE THEM OUT!" She threw her free arm so ferociously that a small gust of wind wrapped around it.

"Jakumori..." The Jakumori rasped as the four rotors spun up faster and faster. This time, instead of shooting wind at the girls, the rotors rotated towards the ground, and the Jakumori left the ground behind, soaring into the air.

"It can fly too?!" Mystle's jaw hung open at the flying Jakumori.

"Well, it is a quadrotor. A simple drone, yet very agile too." Snow examined the flying Jakumori as it flew higher and higher into the air. Once it had gained enough altitude, the machine turned itself towards the squad and shot itself forward like a rocket. Snow, faster than she could think, leapt as high as she could. And in doing so, she jumped over the monster's body. "I got faster? Interesting." Gripping the shield, Snow turned herself back towards the Jakumori, and as it came swooping in for another run on Zinner, Snow slammed her feet down hard onto the back of the Jakumori, causing it to smash into the ground and land in a heap before Xsowshiha.

Zinner was about to join the fight when she was restrained by some more Bikrows. Each one let out growls and groans as they gripped the squad hard enough so that they couldn't move forward. "Get. Off. Me!" Zinner, summoning up all of her strength, threw a couple of Bikrows over her head, then jumped with such force that the other Bikrows that had been holding her legs fell over onto their faces.

"Jakumori!" The Jakumori fired up the rotors again and launched rapid shots of wind out at the squad.

Roman was about to smash head-first into the wind, when suddenly Snow stepped before him. She held her scythe out and pushed a button beneath the handle. The scythe's left and right edges popped out and a large barrier of blue hard light formed in front of her, catching all of the wind blasts from the Jakumori and rendering them powerless. Once the wind stopped, Snow pushed the button and the scythe returned to its' normal shape.

"Whoa... Thanks, kid!" Roman gave a smile to Snow.

"Don't mention it." Snow gave a nod of confirmation, then rushed to the Jakumori quadrotor. Once she got close enough, the Jakumori tried to swing and swat away at her, but Snow struck the monster before it could move out of the way again. "Now then. Weaknesses." Snow hit another button on the side of the scythe and before she knew it, a round, holographic screen was scanning the Jakumori from head to toe. Numbers appeared to show the creature's HP, ATK, DEF, and SPD, like it was a foe from an RPG. More interestingly, however, Snow saw that the rotors were flashing on the screen she saw. "Bingo." A smirk crossed her face and she tossed the scythe at the spinning rotors, resulting in the scythe glowing.

With how fast the rotors were already spinning and how sturdy Snow's scythe was, an explosion coated the quadrotor's rotors and the Jakumori lurched to the side. Before it could get back up, Snow threw her arm forward and the scythe recalled itself directly back to her, flying straight through another rotor. It too exploded and the Jakumori staggered towards her. Zinner came in and delivered an uppercut with her sword and Snow tossed her shield through the third of four rotors. A third explosion rang out and the Jakumori was shot to Princess, who brought her shield back down on the fourth and final rotor.

"Mori..." The Jakumori moaned as it fell to the ground in a heap before the squad.

OCTOPUS EDGE!

Azuma levitated into the air, producing a shock wave of red energy on the ground beneath him, eight red constructs of octopus tentacles appearing from his feet and launching themselves at Kuroto.

PAUSE!

Stopping time, Kuroto struck the tentacles with a series of punches and kicks. He then restarted time, and the tendrils dissipated, much to Azuma's surprise. "What-"

"You'll have to do better than that," the former CEO cackled.

BLACK RHINO EDGE!

Taking him up on that challenge, Azuma tried to hit Kuroto with his rhinoceros punch. Rather than stopping time, this time Kuroto caught the punch, allowed himself to get pushed back a few feet, then struck Azuma in the chest with an uppercut from his other hand, flinging the assassin back.

SCOLOPENDRIDAE EDGE!

While in the air, Azuma flipped over, two large centipede constructs made of orange energy flying around him and coiling around his leg as he was surrounded by spiraling red energy. Producing waves of red and yellow energy, he performed a flying kick at Kuroto as his foot was covered in orange energy.

PAUSE!

Once again stopping time, Kuroto casually stepped out of the way of the kick, then restarted, watching in amusement as Azuma struck the ground and triggered an orange shockwave.

"… You dodged my attack again," Azuma murmured, eyeing Kuroto wearily. "But it's not speed or teleportation… No, it's something else…"

"That's right, it is," Kuroto said smugly. "And you'll never get a chance to figure out what it is."

PAUSE!

CLICK AND LOAD!

GENM CRITICAL FINALE!

Numerous clones of Kuroto appeared and proceeded to attack the frozen Azuma with Gashacon Breakers, Key Slashers, and Thousand Jackers as well as kicks. Finally, the clones dissipated and time restarted as Azuma was engulfed in an explosion.

Kuroto chuckled and turned away. "Game over-"

TRI CHIMERA EDGE!

Kuroto cried out as he was struck from behind by a sustained, wide ray of crimson and golden energy from Azuma. "No. The game is still on."

"You… You survived?!" Kuroto shrieked in disbelief. "That's impossible! Nobody has ever survived that finisher before!"

"Then I'm glad to be the first," Azuma replied.

"But will you also be the second?" Kuroto snarled.

PAUSE!

CLICK AND LOAD!

GENM CRITICAL FINALE!

Kuroto jumped into the air, clones appearing to continuously kick the frozen Azuma, producing shock waves and zigzag patterns that were a combination of green, purple, and yellow. Finally, the real Kuroto launched a final flying kick, flinging Azuma away and into the barrier, triggering an explosion.

"Game over for real this time," Kuroto said decisively.

"Wrong."

TRI CHIMERA CHARGE!

Waves of purple, yellow, and red energy blasted out from the smoke cloud and slammed into Kuroto, flinging him away with a scream.

"No… That… That's not possible!" An irate Kuroto shrieked as Azuma marched towards him. His cape didn't even look singed! "How are you doing this?!"

"Thanks to my master, I am immortal," Azuma declared proudly, swishing his cape behind him. "Which not only means I can take whatever you can throw at me… But I have all the time I need to figure out your trick and counter it."

He grinned as Kuroto fumed with rage. "Let's find out which of us will break first, shall we?"

Gai fought like a rabid animal, wildly flailing and thrusting his Thousand Jacker at Uzi while hurling incredibly powerful punches and kicks. Uzi, who had the advantage of not only being a trained fighter but not completely insane, avoided his attacks, deflecting his blows while delivering numerous strikes of her own, whittling him down with her blade and occasional blasts from her railgun. "Give it up, Gai! There's only one way this can end!" She said after delivering a punch to his sternum which forced him back a few steps.

"You're right," Gai agreed, slashing the Thousand Jacker through the air and again failing to hit her. "There is! With the power I've been given, it's only a matter of time until I defeat you!"

Uzi fired her railgun at his feet, throwing up sparks and causing him to flinch back, allowing her to get in close and deal a powerful blow with her knife that would have cut him in half were it not for his armor. "I've yet to see any example of this power so far."

"You're about to!" Gai snapped, removing his Thousand Ark Progrisekey and inserting it into the Thousand Jacker.

PROGRISEKEY CONFIRMED. READY TO BREAK.

THOUSANDRISE!

"I've been crawling through the walls of Hiden Intelligence for months, collecting all of the Progrisekey data I could get my hands on," Gai declared as he pulled back the hilt of his weapon, causing it to crackle with energy. "Saving it… For an occasion just like this one!"

[T]

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[!]

He swept his lance through the air, summoning Rider Models of a grasshopper, wolf, cheetah, falcon, scorpion, Caucasus beetle, tiger, bear, mammoth, kangaroo, gorilla, hedgehog, spider, hornet, Hercules beetle, Buffalo, whale, lion, penguin, panda, jackal, horseshoe crab, giraffe, and stag beetle. Gai thrust his weapon forwards, and the menagerie of animals launched themselves at Uzi.

"GOT YOU!"

The Thousand Jacker shot forwards, stabbing Uzi in the gut.

JACKRISE!

"Now, your power will also become mine!" Gai gloated to the horrified Uzi as his weapon began copying the data from her. "And with it, I will put you in your place-"

A gunshot rang out and the Thousand Jacker was knocked out of Gai's hands. "What?!"

Uzi gasped upon seeing her savior. "It's you!"

"I think that's quite enough from you, Amatsu," Lune said, smoke rising from her hagoromo.

"You… What are you?!" The livid Gai demanded.

"Just a demon," Lune replied. "Remember that now."

"You…" Gai seethed.

"You all right?" Lune asked, not taking his eyes off Gai.

"I am, now that you're here," Uzi told her sincerely.

"How touching," Gai sneered in disgust. "Fortunately for the two of you, you will have all the time you need to catch up… In hell!"

[J]

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Gai clenched his fist, red and black energy crackling around his arm.

Unimpressed, Uzi and Lune exchanged glances. "Together?" Uzi asked.

She nodded. "Together."

"Wait, no-"

Uzi aimed her railgun and struck him with nuclear energy, exploding on impact and causing him to lose control of his tentacles, allowing Lune to shoot bits of her hagoromo forwards and hit him, engulfing him in a spectacular explosion.

"Looks like he's been 1000% owned," Uzi sneered as Gai collapsed to the ground, his suit fading, as cops came to restrain him and Xsowshiha took his Driver away as she leapt on top of a building. "Again."

[damn gai caught slacking]

[4k, ray-traced footage]

[shoulda stepped up your game little man]

"Really, chat?" Lune asked, rolling her eyes jokingly.

[what?]

EdensBlessing: [and now we have become your enemy by telling you the truth?]

EdensBlessing: [Galatians 4:16]

VoidBot: [Sorry boss]

VoidBot: [I would do something about this but it's too damn funny]

"Damn!" Xsowshiha saw the felled Jakumori. "Riders..."

"Alright, Snow! Finish it off!" Zinner gave Snowduke the thumbs up as both girls looked to the Jakumori, which now had swirly eyes instead of its' regular yellow eyes.

"Right!" Snow gave a nod.

Snow saw that a key on her belt was now gleaming with light. She pressed it, while saying "Energy: Maximum! Supercharge Ready!" Her whole scythe transformed into one large scythe of pure blue light energy. Grasping it like a frisbee, she aimed it at the Jakumori, which was still trying to get up. A pair of glasses virtually manifested themselves onto her visor in a burst of blue, blocky particle-effects. In both lenses, a crosshair was displayed; one which both of her eyes synchronised to. Locking onto her target, Snow grabbed the scythe hard in her hands and wound it back for a throw. "ARAZA SQUASH!" Hurling the scythe towards the Jakumori, a contrail of twinkling light followed it. Accumulating in speed and power, the disc slammed itself directly into the head of the Jakumori, disappearing upon impact.

The Jakumori quadrotor let out some more roars and howls of pain as its' body twitched and contorted. Blue light poured out of its' mouth and eyes as binary numbers, particles, data, and code ran across its' body. Falling to the ground, the Epidem let out one last pained howl. Before it exploded in a torrent of radiant white light.

"Sayonara." Snow recalled the scythe, and posed valiantly as she was consumed by the light.

As the purple hue faded from the park, and the Bikrows transformed back into normal people again, Xsowshiha couldn't believe her eyes. A low growl escaped her lips as she looked down at the Driver in her hand.

Every Cluster Cell, Dog-Gear, and Ark Bikrow screamed, convulsing in agony. Metal grasshoppers fell from the sky in droves, the Zakenhawks began exploding one by one, and the rabid robot dogs started melting and combusting, much to Gai's horror.

"Noooooooo! My puppies!" Gai wailed as he got shoved into a police car.

"Well, at least this wasn't a total waste of my time." She looked at her prize before turning back to the squad. "X-Squad and Kamen Riders! This is far from over. Prove you are worth my time in the future; not another Jakumori!" She taunted, before her and Kuroto vanished into another portal as Gai screamed and howled as he was hauled off to prison.

---

"So, this Deadlight..." Kokone was walking with Yuina through the town that evening, now that the sun was beginning to set over the horizon. Yuina's work at the university had come to an end for the day, and now she had some time to herself before she had to clock out for the night. "You say that you've battled them before?"

"Yeah. This is the third time they've come to make a mess of things." Yuina nodded. "First, they attacked an eSports event I went to, then, they decided to hit me at Hiden Land. Seriously, can those guys ever learn to cut me some slack?"

"Not likely." Ark commented. "You're a Rider, Yuina. Deadlight wants your head on a spit!"

"Well, at least I'm not alone anymore, am I?" Yuina pulled Kokone in close.

"Indeed. You worry too much." Kokone commented, looking down at Ark. "Still. I never would have imagined that I would become a Rider. I've heard tales about them, but I never thought in a million years that I would be worthy among their ranks..."

"Well, fate's a little bit wacky at times. It's better not to question it." Yuina chuckled. "Anyways, Ark. Three Riders and some psychos against Deadlight, eh? I'd say our chances have gone up a bit."

"They have, yeah, but you're still not out of the woods yet, Yuina." Ark addressed. "You, Hime and Kokone might be a strong trinity, but the more Riders you find, the better you'll all be for it. Plus, with three people looking for potential Rider candidates, I'd say that the process will be much faster now!"

"Speaking of which, what unit of Rider is this?" Kori asked. "Now that we're a trio, it's only fitting that we have a name. Most of the Riders that are famous online have no teams but now, we're a team." She lifted a finger. "It's only fair that you and I come up with a name for our team, right?"

"Yeah. But I think, first of all, we've gotta find the rest of our squad first. Then, we can focus on naming our team," said Yuina. "Oh yeah, about that. Ark. You mentioned the Rider App does more than just finding Riders, right?"

"Yes." Ark nodded. "Take a look at the app now. You too, Ko."

"Alright then." Kokone looked at her phone and sure enough, she saw that the Rider App was there before her. There weren't many other apps on her device at the moment, but the Rider App stuck out like a sore thumb. Her thumb pushed against the Rider App and she saw that, in addition to the scanning menu and profiles menu, there was also a menu that had opened up at the bottom-left side of the screen, showing a neon Zi-O symbol with a smaller Ark eye. There was also a small Gaim symbol on the Zi-O symbol. "Is this the one, Ark?"

"Yes, that's the one." Ark zipped into Kokone's screen, like a fish jumping between two ponds of water. Once he was in Kokone's phone, he walked over to the menu and pushed it to open it. "Fuwa Kokone, Akagawa Yuina. Shirayuki Hime. Allow me to introduce you to the RiderTact!"

"RiderTact?" The squad said as they watched the menu form. There was only one rectangle on the screen at the moment for Kokone's phone, but on it, it read 'Kamen Rider Zinner/Yuina Akagawa'.

"Yes. With the RiderTact, you can keep in touch with each other wherever you are." Ark pushed on the rectangle and a small menu opened up, showing the details for Kamen Rider Zinner. It showed all of Yuina's contact information, including her phone number, social media platforms, and her e-mail. But more importantly, there was a green button that had a phone button. "Simply push this—" Ark pushed the button, then suddenly, Yuina's phone started ringing. Unlike a regular phone ring, Yuina's phone was playing a digital ringtone that sounded like a rasping growl. "—And ta-da! You can call Yuina!"

On Yuina's phone, she could see that the caller who was trying to reach her said 'Kamen Rider Snow/Fuwa Kokone'. She pushed the button to accept the call, and suddenly, she and Kokone could see each other on the phone screens. "Whoa..." Yuina asked as she stared at Kokone through the phone.

"So basically, it acts as a Rider scanner, profiler, and a phone all at the same time?" Kokone blinked as she ended the call between her and Yuina. "Quite a small bunch of features, if you ask me."

"Oh, there's more. But that'll have to wait until we get more and more Riders by our side." Ark said, going back to the scanning function for the Rider App. "For now, we'd better celebrate! New Rider anointed, and Yuina brought a friend on board!"

"Alright! I call first round on the basketball machine!" Yuina grabbed Kokone and ran with her down the street as fast as possible, while Kokone ran along her side, more taken-by-surprise than excited. "Ever played basketball machines before, Kokone?"

"I... have played basketball before." Kokone had never done it in an arcade, however.

"Good! Then you'll totally crush it!" Yuina cheered as she sprinted with Kokone down the streets.

Kokone, though she was completely under Yuina's grip, found it comforting that, at last, she had found someone that she could trust to be her friend. Though it was out of the blue and they were bound together as Kamen Riders, Kokone was convinced that she could and absolutely would make this work. Not only would she be able to turn her own life around, but she would be able to make Yuina's life much brighter and her job as a Rider much easier. For now, she knew the bigger picture. Now, she was working to save everyone's aspirations and everyone from Deadlight. And that, to Kokone, was a goal that was worth striving for...

---

John Hammond's dream of a wildlife sanctuary for extinct animals is growing. Already it consists of a herd of Triceratops, a territorial Ankylosaurus and three ferocious Tyrannosaurs.

Mackenzie was standing in the treetop hideout watching the Tyrannosaurs. She was holding a gun-shaped device at one of the feathered tyrants as the screen on the device showed the dinosaur glowing red and amber.

"There is a theory that dinosaurs are warm blooded and this proves it," Mackenzie explained, pointing at the screen. "Warm blooded animals have an internal body temperature. If they were cold blooded we would see warmth on the surface, not the centre. Better go now to see Brandon about his next mission."

She quickly walked to Brandon's treetop office where the squad, Bob and Maya were waiting as well. On the desk were skulls of long dead animals such as the smilodon. On the wall was the map of the island chain with the new animal exhibits drawn on. To the left of the map was one of the Earth ten thousand years ago with the polar ice caps far larger than they are today.

"Just got your message," Brandon said. "As I thought, warm blooded. Now, we're going back 10,000 years to Warsaw, during the last ice age. Here, the main group of mammuthus primigenius started to completely vanish. A small subspecies lived on a Russian island until 4000 BCE, but I think we should go for the main ones first."

"Finally, an animal I can easily look after," Bob laughed. "A mammoth can't be too different from a modern day elephant, right?"

The woolly mammoth lived for 200,000 years and dominated the landscape from the Iberian Peninsula to New York. By 10,000BCE the mammoths had been virtually wiped out but what by no one knows. In prehistoric Poland, the squad should find out.

The squad emerged from the time portal among a forest full of pine trees. It was the middle of winter and snow had blanketed the land. In the sky above there was not a single cloud and the sun stayed high in the sky.

"Maya, do you know anything about mammoth biology?" Roman asked.

"No. When I took the job, I did mostly research into dinosaurs because Hammond wanted to make Jurassic Park."

"Their coat has a guard layer for the winter which adds another 30cm of thickness for warmth. Their haemoglobin has an anti-freeze similar to what polar bears and seals have to keep warm. Their teeth are also suited to chewing and breaking down grass so you can see what the problem is." Brandon explained.

"Yeah. The conifers have replaced open fields full of grass, so the mammoths have lost their food source."

Brandon nodded and they continued. After a few minutes they found a cave, which Kokone wanted to explore. Although it wasn't true that cave men lived in caves all the time, they did have art there which Kokone wanted to see, only for Kokone to immediately run out of there and hide behind Yuina.

Kokone remembered that bears often live in caves.

"Run!" Kokone yelled.

The squad ran up a nearby tree as a giant bear ran after them. It resembled a panda bear but was the size of a polar bear. In vain it stood on its hind legs to swipe at them and roared in defiance.

"Sorry I thought they were extinct," Kokone explained, but Brandon laughed. "A cave bear, the largest species of bear, and this guy is probably one of the last of his kind. I would love to rescue him."

Mera managed to jump into the next tree and the one after that to get behind the bear who was still distracted by the others. She climbed down from the tree and called to the bear who charged at her. Just then she opened the portal and the bear ran through it.

"Let's find that mammoth!" She yelled up at the squad.

Back at Prehistoric Park, Bob has to make sure that the bear and one of the reptilian residents are behaving themselves.

"There you go big fella," Bob smiled. The bear sniffed around his exhibit, in one of the colder areas where Bob had put conifers, rocks to form a cave and small machines to make the exhibit colder. The bear sniffed some more before going into the cave and flopped to the ground, asleep. "Mackenzie said he's a bit malnourished but that's probably from hibernating, but at least now he's never going to go hungry. Speaking of hunger, we've had a bit of trouble with one of the other residents."

Bob got in a jeep and drove to the Tyrannosaur Hill, where the staff was looking weary at the juvenile Rex, Tempus. He roared and one of them hid behind the oxygen tank, swearing in Russian.

"With the big two, we can simply drive a medium sized van in and throw the meat in but with this guy, well just look." They parked the van in the entrance and Tempus ran inside the van and pulled out a huge chunk of meat, before t-posing in front of the jeep. "It's a bit dangerous and when he first did this, a member of staff almost quit on account of the t-posing. With how much we need to feed this guy, we obviously have problems."

In Prehistoric Poland, the gang have found signs of a mammoth.

The team stood by a warm pile of feces. This indicated the mammoths were close, but Yuina pulled out something from the snow: a spear tip made of ivory. Mammoths didn't just go extinct thanks to their diet vanishing, they were victims of man as well.

"Guys, over here!" Mystle yelled. He instantly saw why. Two female mammoths were there but it was a sad scene. One was injured and lying down while her sister was roaring in distress.

"Elephants often do this," Brandon said. "They protect the injured of their family but I have a feeling this one might not make it unless we do something."

Yuina ran through the portal as, Doom managed to gain the trust of the sister. He had recorded elephant noises from Africa and started to play them, in hope that the sister would let them past. When Brandon arrived back, the sister had let them past. While Brandon administered anaesthetic and medicine on the injured one, the standing sister stroked the squad with her trunk.

After a tense hour, the sister managed to stand but was struggling to. Brandon showed them the source of the problem: an arrowhead in her thigh. With the gained trust, Drakus managed to herd them through the portal and into the park. They had been nicknamed Lucille and Syra.

"We'll need to watch them both," Brandon said "They're a bit malnourished."

However, they're not done yet. Brandon wants to rescue a male, so they are travelling to Poland again, but 350,000 years ago to do this.

This time, Poland was very different. It was summer and vast plains of grass stretched as far as the eye can see. Herds of mammoths frolicked in the sun and they immediately saw a big bull male. However they smelt a musky smell which sounded trouble.

"That's musk," Brandon said. "He'll be aggressive."

Then they heard a snuffling sound. Behind them was a rhino but was covered in silver fur similar to the mammoths.

"Ceolodonta," Lune whispered. "A male woolly rhino. We're lucky that we're downwind. He can't see us, but otherwise he would smell us. He's going rare now; woolly rhinos started to vanish at this time."

There came a trumpet behind them. They were upwind of the bull mammoth who started to charge in fury, the herd chasing after him to try and possibly warning him that it's suicide. The trumpeting also alerted the rhino who charged in anger. Luckily they had a portal each, and the charging animals went through the portal simultaneously.

"So, who did that?" Mystle asked. "Cause I assure you, it ain't me."

They turned around and saw a peculiar sight. A group of Neanderthals were walking towards them. Other than the larger nose and forehead, they were reminiscent of Homo Sapiens. The group was even more surprised when one spoke.

"X-Squad. A friend of yours called Anubis, the Lord of the Dead, came to use moons ago, taught us your language and offered us a second chance on an island of yours. We were told to tell you about our culture. Your friend, Hammond, was also informed on this plan."

So the Neanderthals told them about their culture. They had a polytheistic religion where they worshipped the Spirits of the Air, Fire, Earth and Water, which lived in all life. For that, all men and women were equal in their society. They had a natural respect for all animal life and would only hunt for food. They envied the new humans and they feared the cro-magnon man. Although, they would often interact, and their camps would often intermingle. They were the same as us.

John Hammond had the fifth island in the chain devoted to rescuing extinct humans, away from the interference of modern man. Free to move wherever they want some have even decided to work with the park staff on Isla Nublar, after all, who better to look after Ice Age animals than Ice Age humans?

The park staff quickly learnt the Neanderthal language and a few of the young Neanderthals had helped with the new arrivals. The mammoth exhibit split Lucille and Syra from the boisterous male Titan, although the Ceolodonta was moved in with them. With the Neanderthals, (who insisted on wearing their Ice Age clothing), helping Mackenzie tend the healing wound of Lucille, the Park had settled down. Hammond was ecstatic.

"I always wanted to help save Neanderthals," Hammond laughed. "You have helped save an entire culture as well as the mammoth, although maybe next time, we might rescue the mastodon. However, that is not your next mission. I know the Rex have feathers but have you heard of some species from Cretaceous China…"