A/N: Thank you all for the positive feedback! I'm glad you're liking it so far! And now, time for the "A" to the "Qs" in the review section!
Ultraman Aegis (And all others asking this question): Do I plan on making a Secondary Rider for this story? Yes. I'm currently hashing it out both on paper and in my head. I'll let you know know in a "A/N" if I've come up with something I like, but of course I won't tell you when they'll show up.
Starwing1995: No, Luz will use the rings that she's gained from Wizard, but she will also create new rings for herself. And whatever else we discover from S2.
CapMorgan55: Firstly - Not at all, this is Fan Fiction! What the show doesn't do, falls on us to flesh out. If they don't give her any character development then I'll make it myself and we will have BoschLow by thunder!
Secondly - Yes. Those of you who follow me and read the Black Vortex/Loud House crossover, I am working on that chapter. It's the Luan chapter so be just a little more patient y'all, that girl is hard to right.
Thirdly - Yes, I will write Kamen Rider Tempest into existence, but I'm trying to shift gears away from MLP. I just got through writing a three part epic of Equestria Girls/Witchblade crossover and I'm trying not to burn myself out on them. I love MLP, I love EqG, and I want to give it the attention it deserves and not make it into a chore. Plus, I need to hash out some things with the Tempest storyline.
Hope that answers most your questions, and now, without further delay, Episode 4: A New Hope! HA! Get it, because, you know, Hope is the main theme of Wizard and that movie...I'll see myself.
"It was unbelievable! I've never seen anything like it!"
"That woman just…wiped out those monsters like it was nothing!"
"What did she call her herself?"
"I think she called herself 'Common Rider Witch'?"
"Why? There was nothing 'common' about her."
"Actually," Luz interrupted, sliding up next to two of her fellow Hexside students. "It's 'Kamen', spelled K-A-M-E-N."
The mono-eyed girl, Eileen, and the oracle track student with a crescent moon head, Luna, looked at Luz with confusion.
"It sounds similar, what's the difference?" Eileen asked.
Luz chuckled a little, the weeb in her starting to bubble up. "Well, the word 'common' refers to something plain and ordinary, while 'Kamen' is a word from another language meaning 'masked'. Essentially it can be read as Masked Rider Witch."
The single eyed Luna blinked and asked, "Then why the heck would she not just call herself 'Masked Rider Witch' instead of 'Kamen Rider Witch'? Sounds confusing."
"Probably a personal choice," Luz speculated.
"On that note, how do you know that?" Eileen inquired.
Luz froze, in her rush to correct her fellow students on the pronunciation and meaning of the word, she had now put herself in a position of suspicion. Curse my inner nerd wanting to correct normies on the wonders of Japanese superhero shows! "Uh…Uh…Well, you see–"
"It's because Witch is a fan of humans!" Gus interjected. "I did some research and I found out that it's a human 'TV show' in a foreign country called 'Ja-Pan'! Look!"
Gus held up a magazine, a rare one that was translated, and it had the names of some Kamen Rider shows from Luz's world, Rider's like Thunder, Re-Vlect, and others. Luz breathed a sigh of relief for Gus' convenient timing and love of all things human.
"Exactly, they're make believe in my world, but apparently they might be real! That's how I know," Luz clarified.
"Oh," Luna and Eileen sounded together.
With that settled, Eileen and Luna walked off to class, and Luz was more relieved that they did before she said something else incriminating.
"Seriously, Luz, it was so cool how she defeated those monsters!" Gus gushed.
Willow walked up behind him and said, "It was amazing, I've never seen anyone use magic like that. It felt…different."
Luz gulped and asked, "Different as in good or different as in bad?"
Willow took a moment to think. "If I had to say, more the first one. I didn't feel threatened by her, unlike those…what did they call themselves?"
"Phantoms." Luz, Willow, and Gus watched as Amity came limping on her crutches towards them, with her brother and sister flanking her. "After what happened yesterday, I went and looked through all my books on demons, but there's no record of them, either as a subspecies or otherwise. They might be an entirely new race of demons!"
"Well, the important thing is, everyone's safe, and that's what matters," said Luz, in an attempt to steer the conversation in another direction.
Unfortunately, that's all anyone would talk about at Hexside, Kamen Rider Witch and the Phantoms. After her battle, Luz had returned to the spot where Eda had told her to wait, appearing around the corner and running to her mentor and friends. The Emperor's Coven, along with Lilith, appeared not too long after the Phantom was defeated and began their investigation and cleanup of the battle. They spent hours being questioned by Lilith and the Coven lackeys, but to no avail. Thankfully, it seemed that Lilith – or rather the Emperor – was making good on his word that the kidnappings, and now the Phantoms, were his top priority, as Lilith didn't once mention anything about bringing Eda in.
It weighed a little on Luz, part of her wanted to tell those closest to her, Gus, Willow, Eda, Amity, and King. Hooty…well…Hooty would find out whenever everyone else did.
Maybe I could tell them?
Luz was heading to her Oracle class, but as if on cue, she received a vision, time seemed to slow as the teachers and students around her suddenly stopped where they were, the color of the world around her dimmed to black and white, except for herself. The young Latina looked around, trying to figure out what was going on, that's when she saw him. In a flash of fire Kamen Rider Wizard appeared before her, arms crossed as he looked upon her from behind his helmet.
"Hello, Noceda-chan," said Wizard.
"Mr. Soma! Oh, uh, Soma-san?" Luz wasn't sure if she should use an honorific as well, she didn't want to appear rude to her "senpai".
"Mr. Soma is fine; I'm not expecting you to adopt my customs as well as this mantle."
"Okay, thank you, but…HOW ARE YOU HERE?! I thought you couldn't stay in this world?!"
Wizard nodded. "And you're right, but this isn't really me. When I used the Transfer Ring, I was able to implant a kind of magical, virtual assistant, if you will. I'll be able to give you information on certain things that you might have some questions on. Although, my responses are limited, so I won't be able to answer what I don't know."
Luz squeed with joy, she had another magic mentor. Granted it was one that lived in her head, but she wasn't about to complain about that. "Okay, so, I defeated my first Phantom yesterday, and if I know anything, I doubt that that was the last one."
"You would be correct, the Sabbath ritual had more than one person in it when it happened to me. I presume the same happened with yours," said Wizard.
Luz thought for a moment, she remembered that the reports in the news said that there were thirty people who were abducted, which would've made her number thirty-one, and she just destroyed one of them. "That means there's twenty-nine Phantoms left. But what do they want? Wendigo was talking about finding 'gates'?"
Wizard waved his hand and created an outline of a human being. "Gates refer to individuals who have the potential to become Phantoms, if they are brought into despair, they will undergo a transformation that will end up with that person becoming a Phantom themselves." The human outline had a circle at the center, that circle created cracks, and a moment later a recreation of Wendigo burst forth from the outline. "For the Phantoms, it's about increasing their numbers, but for what purpose is beyond me at this time."
Luz suddenly felt a weight on her heart, remembering that the Phantoms were once people, that she herself could've become one. "Does…Does that mean I just…just killed someone?"
"No, once a person becomes a Phantom, that person's soul is gone, all that is left is the Phantom. However, they will retain the memories and mannerisms of the person they once were. They can hide in plain sight by switching into the form of the human they were born from. Which means…"
Luz looked around, to the many faces that lined the halls of Hexside. "That means anyone could be a Phantom in disguise. Time for detective Luz to get on the case!"
"Be careful, Noceda-chan, these Phantoms aren't the same as the ones I've fought. But then again, neither are you the same as me."
Luz stood at attention and saluted her senpai. "I won't let you down, Mr. Soma!"
Wizard nodded and faded away into embers. The world started to regain its color as the students and teachers were moving again. Luz wondered if anyone saw that, but it seemed that whatever just happened occurred only in her mind, and at a speed that made it seem like the world around her was frozen in time. At least people won't look at me funny for having a conversation out loud.
(Unknown Location)
The caverns of the Boiling Isles, otherwise known as the hollowed-out bones of the great Titan itself, none dared to enter these deep places, the surface caves were one thing, but these were deep inside, where only fools would enter. Demons hid in these places, feral demons that were driven from the surface by the witches and more civilized demons. They were stronger, deadlier, and without mercy. And right now, the entire floor of the caverns was filled with their corpses.
A bestial creature, standing seven feet tall, eight if you count his jagged, crescent horns. His body was covered in orange-red fur, flames roared around his forearms, claws, and both of his dog-like legs. It had a muzzle with sharp canine teeth, yellow eyes with a black slit down the middle, and a tail with a flame at the end. In this creature's right claw was the severed head of a demon, the Phantom eyed it for a moment and said, "These are the deadliest creatures here? Heh, I barely used a tenth of my power to kill most of them." The Phantom tossed the head up before kicking it like a soccer ball down the cavern.
The head was going straight for another of its fellow Phantoms. The second Phantom was on all fours, but stood onto its hind legs, not bothering to turn its head towards the incoming severed head. It's long tail suddenly rose and caught the head in the clawed hand that was at the end of it. The Phantom had navy-blue fur, with artic blue under fur, its claws were black as night, with similar colored eyes, but its pupil was a sharp slit that was white. This Phantom had three black crescent spines coming out of its back, and a cat-like face, opposite that of the fiery Phantom. On all fours it was about five feet tall, when standing up, this Phantom was about a head shorter than the fiery Phantom.
"Ifrit, watch where you throw those things!" the panther-like Phantoms chided.
"Excuse me, Ahuizotl, just trying to have some fun, considering this was far too easy," Ifrit responded.
"Cease your complaining! At least you got to kill something you glutton! You didn't even leave anything for us to kill!"
A third Phantom's voice bellowed in the cavern, creating a gust of wind as it flapped its large, feathery wings. Its body was muscular, with two silver snake trunks for legs that matched the color of its body. Its face was humanoid, bearing a beard, but its eyes were green, and had cross shaped slits that were red as blood. This Phantom towered over both of Ifrit and Ahuizotl, looking down on them with his arms crossed.
"Lighten up Typhon, you can have your fill with those humans up top," said Ahuizotl.
Typhon grinned, his gaze briefly turning upwards to where their prey resided. "Not a bad idea."
"You will do no such thing; we are not to kill them until we've managed to grow our ranks! And for clarification, they are not humans, they are witches and demons."
All three Phantoms turned to a fourth one. He wore a headdress of an unrecognizable creature, giving him an Egyptian look. He wore red and black tattered robes, with red glowing eyes, and a faceplate over his mouth. He had gold and red bracers and greaves, and unlike his three other compatriots, he was lanky, with black skin and white claws, but his aura radiated power.
"Set is correct," spoke a new voice. "For now, we must focus on strengthening our ranks, and ending the threat of this 'Kamen Rider Witch'."
All four Phantoms turned to a larger Phantom. This one was female, unlike her four other male Phantoms. She was obscured by the shadows, but the voice of this Phantom echoed itself, strangely, not due to the cave. Ten pairs of eyes glowed in the darkness as she stared down her compatriots, to which all four of them knelt in reverence to her.
"Currently," the female Phantom spoke, "we have a target for our first Gate. And one of our fellow Phantoms is already on it, isn't that right?"
A blue flame appeared between the leader Phantoms, and then it began to speak, "Yes, your grace, I will get us a new Phantom, and it will be a strong one."
"Make sure you are successful, and if you encounter Kamen Rider Witch…kill her."
The blue flame flickered and said, "It will be done, Lady Tiamat."
It was nighttime and Luz was up in her room, double checking to make sure that Hooty wasn't going to come in through the window at the last second, but once she was sure, she laid out the objects that facilitated her transformation and spells. She took out the pouch filled with magic stones, and there were several of them.
Guess Mr. Soma didn't want me to be without some extra means to make new spells if I needed to. Luz looked at her waist, staring at the Hand Author buckle and the small cloth belt that held it place above her boy shorts. I can only use my rings when I place them over this thing, but if I do that someone will know that I'm Witch. I mean, I already stand out because I'm a human and use glyphs, I don't need to draw any more attention to myself.
Luz began to think of how to create a new Spell Ring for herself, Wizard gave her some to start, but she needed some for herself. With nothing but an inkling and some imagination, Luz took out some paper and just drew, she just let herself draw, a circle, not really knowing what would come of it. Before she knew it, Luz found herself in a trance, as if her subconscious knew what she wanted and was directing her hand to make it. When Luz blinked, she was staring at a new circle glyph.
"Okay, guess we can give it a try?" Luz remembered how her style change rings were created, with that in mind, she placed the magic stone at the center of the circle. The young Latina tapped the circle, and the reaction was immediate. "Holy cow!"
The circle flashed blue, releasing its energy only to be absorbed the stone. In just a few seconds, the stone took shape, forming metal facets around it until it finally took the shape of a Spell Ring. The new ring had the image of what Luz assumed, was a block of ice?
"Huh? Might have something to do with my Ice ring." Luz looked towards her window and sighed. "Wish I could try it, but then Eda would find out."
"Luz, what's going on in there?" Eda's voice called out.
Crap!
Luz hurriedly pushed the rings and stones under blankets, she then wrapped her hand around the buckle, which released from her and shoved it under her blanket with the rest of her items. With that done Luz rushed to the door and opened it. "Hey, Eda, what's up?"
"You alright, thought I saw something glowing in here?" Eda asked as looked over Luz's head.
Luz nervously chuckled and said, "Oh, it was just my cellphone! I was messing around with it, and I accidentally set off the flash on the camera. Nothing to worry about."
"Uh-huh…so then why do you look nervous?" Eda inquired as she narrowed her gaze at her apprentice.
Double crap!
"W-Who's nervous? I'm not nervous!"
Eda continued to give Luz a scrutinizing look, which only made Luz sweat more. After a minute, a grin appeared on Eda's face as she crossed her arms. "Ah, I get it, you don't have to worry about a thing kid."
"Y-You do, why?" Luz asked.
Eda hunched forward a little and said, "Look, you're fourteen, and I was fourteen once too, kid. If you need some 'alone time', hang a sock on your doorknob."
Luz raised an eyebrow quizzically. "Wait, what? What do you mean by…" It then clicked in Luz's mind what Eda was talking about, which only made her blush. "NONONONONONO! That is NOT what I was doing, I swear!"
Eda patted Luz on the head and chuckled a little. "Luz, relax, it's not that embarrassing, everyone does it. Whether they admit to it or not. You are a healthy young woman and sometimes you need to take care of yourself. Oh, and if you're worried that King might stumble in, don't, I taught him a long time ago that if he sees a sock on the door, he's not allowed in for any reason."
Luz didn't know what the lesser of two evils were in this predicament were. Letting Eda find out that she was Witch or letting Eda believe that she was…doing that behind closed doors? Luz went with the latter.
"Y-Yeah…okay…you caught me…sorry," said Luz in a strained tone.
Eda smiled at her apprentice and waved it off. "Like I said, Luz, don't worry about it. Just do me a favor, if you happen to use something you eyed in the market, you bring it to me first. Most of those, ahem, 'items', weren't made with humans use in mind. So…yeah…better safe than sorry."
With that pleasant advice given, Eda walked away, leaving Luz to close the door, pressing her back against it, and sliding down groaning in embarrassment that she just let Eda think that she was doing things. Luz looked at her foot and sighed, she reached out and took the sock off, then she proceeded to place the sock on the outside doorknob before closing it again.
Luz thumped her head against the door and sighed heavily again. "That was embarrassing beyond all belief…but…upside…I can work on making more Spell Rings without having Eda or King barge in…yay."
The Latina took out the stones, buckle, paper, and rings. She once again let herself get put into a trance as she drew yet another spell glyph, it was strange, she knew she was drawing, but she didn't know what. After a few seconds a new spell circle was made, Luz placed another stone atop of it, and with another touch Luz watched the stone transform into a second ring. This one had the outline of an Owl on it. After creating the second ring, Luz started to feel exhausted for some reason.
"Wow…didn't think that would take it out of me…" Luz felt as if she had just done hard, back breaking chores all day, her eyelids drooped, and her body felt weak. "Okay…new rule, only one new spell at a time…"
Luz pushed her stuff into a bag and knocked out on her sleeping bag.
"Jeez, kid, how…uh…intense of a session did you have last night?" Eda asked.
"I don't feel comfortable talking about that."
"Just askin', seeing as how you downed all that food I made, I mean, wow."
What Eda was referring to was how Luz practically binged on everything the Owl Lady put on the table. Due to the creation of two Spell Rings, Luz had used up some of her mana, and in order to replenish it, she had to eat, a LOT. Mostly sugary things, so the sorta pancakes that Eda made were good at building it back up. Unfortunately, this had the added effect of making Eda think she was…"very active" that night.
Currently they were flying over the woods and heading straight for Hexside. Ever since the attack, Eda had become a little more protective of Luz, so instead of letting her walk, Eda declared that she would fly her to and from school.
"Eda…you don't have to fly me to school, I'm okay to walk," said Luz.
"Like I said, no dice. Can't take a chance that there's going to be another of those freaks walking around out there, plus, I still don't know what the deal is with that black robed guy, or that white robed girl," said Eda.
Luz didn't like the slight tone in her voice. "But she saved us, and my friends. You can't think she's a bad guy, do you?"
"Tch, kid, the only people who do that kind of stuff are doing it for an ulterior motive, we have no idea what this 'Witch' really wants. She and that black robed, helmet wearing freak just suddenly appeared along with those monsters, yeah, what a coincidence."
Luz tried to hide her distaste for Eda's suspicion, but at the same time she couldn't blame her. She didn't know that the Kamen Riders were heroes, she also didn't know that it was Luz under the mask. But until she was sure that those around them weren't all Phantoms, she needed to be careful. Hexside was coming into view, Eda slowed down and hovered a couple of feet off the ground, allowing Luz to dismount safely.
Eda noticed the slightly sour look on her face and said, "Hey, I know how much you want to believe in heroes, but remember what I said when we faced Ataghast?"
Luz did remember.
The Owl Lady reached out and placed a hand on her ward's shoulder, making Luz look up at her. "I'm not saying this to be an asshole, Luz. I'm saying this because I don't want you getting hurt, you almost got killed by Ataghast, and I nearly lost you when you were kidnapped. The last thing I want is for you to be looking for some supposed hero and wind up getting hurt in a way that I can't fix or make better. Do understand where I'm coming from?"
Despite all Luz was feeling, she did, and it brought a smile to her face. "I understand, Eda. But I still don't think you need to be suspicious of Witch."
Eda rolled her eyes. "We'll see. Now go on before I do something mushy."
Luz giggled and headered towards the school, as she got closer to the steps, she noticed that there were a lot of students gathered there. Weird, was there an assembly today? Luz continued walking until she was at the top of the steps, once she was there, Luz saw Amity limping towards her with a look of shock on her face.
"Luz!" Amity called out.
"Amity?! What's wrong?!" Luz asked as she met her friend halfway.
"It'…It's Willow," said Amity.
Luz's eyes widened as worry gripped her heart. "What happened to Willow?!"
"Follow me…she's not hurt or anything, but it's not good either," Amity clarified.
Luz followed Amity, there was an urge to just rush on ahead of her, but at the pace that Amity was going, it told Luz that whatever was going on it wasn't too serious that she needed to get there immediately. When they did there, Luz noticed what that Willow's locker had graffiti on it that read "Half a Witch Willow!" and "Get out of Hexside!", there were some not so nice drawings of Willow alongside some additional things that weren't exactly "PG" rated.
Willow was there, a depressed expression on her face as she looked upon the nasty words written over her locker. Gus was standing next to her, doing his best to be the great morale support that he is, as well as shooting glares at anyone who sounded like they were going to add to the things written on there.
"Willow!" Luz called out.
Willow turned around and gave a little smile at her friend. "Hi, Luz."
Luz stopped and looked at the graffiti that was written on it and narrowed her eyes. "This…This is awful! Who wrote this?!" Luz glanced about into the crowd, looking for anyone who might have done this. But it didn't take her long to spot the someone she was sure did it walking on by as if nothing had happened.
The Latina pushed her way through the crowd until she was right in the path of Boscha, forcing the teen triclops to stop and shoot her a glare. "Ugh, what do you want, human?"
"You know, it's bad enough that you messed with us that whole time before the Grudgby match, but now you're resorting to this?! You really are that petty, aren't you?!" Luz accused.
Boscha had a confused look on her face and asked, "What in the hell are you talking about?"
Luz pointed a finger towards the lockers, "That!"
Boscha looked at the spot that Luz was pointing at, her eyes widened with shock for a moment before shifting to anger as she turned all three of them on Luz. "You think I did that?!"
"Oh please, you keep giving us a hard time! You still can't get over the fact that everyone likes Willow because she's a genuinely nice person that now you're resorting to lowbrow stuff like that?!"
"I didn't write that crap, human!" Boscha growled.
"Oh yeah, then who else?!"
Boscha crossed her arms over her chest and said, "Maybe the culprit's closer than you think?" All three of her eyes shifted towards a certain someone.
Luz followed the direction Boscha was looking in and saw that it was Amity.
The green haired witchling furrowed her brow in anger and exclaimed, "I would never do something like this!"
"Well then maybe Willow isn't as 'popular' as you all thought," Boscha retorted with a smirk.
"You–!"
"Luz, it's okay!" Willow spoke up.
Luz and Amity looked at Willow with concern, but she just shook her head.
"Seriously, it's fine, it's just graffiti, a quick spell and it's gone."
Luz sighed but shot a warning glare at the triclops before said triclops huffed and stormed away.
Amity hobbled over to Luz and asked, "You know I wouldn't do that, right?"
"Amity, of course I don't believe that it was you," said Luz as she placed her hands on the promising witch's shoulders. "After all that work we did to help Willow get her memories back, you're the last person who would ever hurt her."
Willow walked up behind Amity and patted her back, gaining Amity's attention. "I agree with Luz, so don't worry, Amity. We're a bit on the rocky side, but I still consider you a friend."
Amity blushed, "Thanks."
"Okay, now how about we get rid of this mess?" Gus asked as he drew a spell circle in the air.
"Hold on!" Luz exclaimed as she took out her cellphone. She switched it to the camera mode and snapped a couple of pictures. "Evidence for later. Okay, Gus, do your thing!"
The illusionist pointed the spell circle at the graffiti and with little effort erased it from Willow's locker. Willow, Amity, and Luz clapped in appreciation, and Gus, the showman that he was, gave a little bow to his friends. While the four friends were starting to walk away, they didn't notice the two pairs of eyes that were keeping watch over them.
"That was pretty lame," said a male voice. "Graffiti? Really? If you're going to induce despair in this Gate, you're going to need to step up your game."
"Patience, this is just the first step. Willow likes to show that she's strong, like the plants and trees she adores, but inside, she's fragile. And besides, you don't chop down a tree in one go, you do it with one chop after the other," said a female voice.
"Well, better not take too long on this one 'tree' when we have a 'forest' of other Gates to get through. Dawdle, and Lady Tiamat will eat you."
The female voice giggled without a hint of worry. "Just you wait, the despair I induce in this girl will produce a strong Phantom for our ranks."