Chapter 5: Back to Back! The Solid Gold Rider!
Another morning rose over the city of Werlos and the USAnything Agency was nowhere near as active as it usually was, and once again at the center of its inactivity was one Flynn Stingray. While he was well beyond good at hiding it, he was a mixture of livid and horribly downtrodden. The scene still replayed in his head over and over again. Seeing Charles dried husk on the floor, crumbling in his hands and that weird freak blowing him away so hard he was smacked clean out of the armor. It pissed him off and even worse it was all he could think of while cleaning, causing him to just glare daggers at the floor while he plucked up garbage and swept us dust.
"Hey! Dude!" Anna says lightly tapping him on the head with her own broomstick. "You know you can't stay like that with that face forever. It's not good for business. Didn't even think you could pull that kind of face." She pulls away thinking maybe she could give him space while thinking about it.
Flynn sighs, losing his usual attitude and gritting his teeth. "I'm not sure if you noticed but I saw someone I knew just crumble in front of me, so excuse me if it takes a while to feel better." Granted, he's been trying to calm down for a while and it all just leads to his thoughts cycling back over and over again. Death, war and that horrid woman, it was making him sick. And even looking at one of his new friends didn't really help.
"Hey… I know the whole Kamen Rider thing is getting to ya. But it's not good to let it get to you like this." Anna says, patting him on the back trying something to make him feel better.
"Yeah sure whateve- You mean masked rider right?" Flynn's anger is somehow quickly replaced with curiosity.
"Well, that got your attention." She giggles a bit and explains. "So I've been around the block a few times. Kamen Rider sorta became the term after some weird talk of a Masked Rider on this side of the sea and they were trying to…differentiate it. The whole Kamen Rider thing has a weird following over here. I guess Japan's heroes are our urban legends."
"Riight." Flynn says putting up a broom. Now looking blandly at his job mediocrely done.
"Maybe I can ask Proton about it. I know when I was young my sister was obsessed with some weird monster stuff that happened there in 2000 I think. Might be the same thing. But…Why Kamen Rider?"
"Oh. Well. Japanese word for mask. Sorta like how some food has foreign names. Gives it a je ne sais quoi." She chuckles again as she says that, looking at the cleaned room. "Well. Place looks good. What do you say we do? Maybe get some ice cream… I could go for something like that."
"Maybe. I think I should put more thought into the whole thing of learning my skills." Flynn then thinks again as Anna half hugs him.
"Well. Not sure how I can help with that. So I think I'll at least help myself. I'll be at the parlor if you need me." She then just casually walks right out of the front door. And as she exits the room, Commander Proton enters from the garage.
"Hey there. Doing any better, Flynn?" Proton asks, looking at some schematics on some virtual screen in his hands. "I decided to try to take some of the stuff I saw and bring it up to some higher ups."
"As good as someone like me could possibly do. And am I ever going to meet these higher ups?" Flynn inquired as he crossed his arms.
"Not likely. What I'm doing right now is already considered a bit risky." He then turns the screen over to Flynn, showing him some sort of diagram. "According to what you said and what you saw. It looks like my guess was correct. The blue thing, which you said they called a forma soul, seems to overtake the victim and sap them of energy, like a mosquito sucking something dry. When you fought the baker, it seems you defeated the monster early enough to leave him none the worse for wear. Charles wasn't so lucky."
Flynn then thinks about that. "So then Charles must've had that thing inside him longer, right?"
"Bingo. So unfortunately we have to work around them. The problem is I don't know how we'd be able to track them to stop those transformations." Proton thinks on it as Flynn's face turns to a dour expression. How could he possibly keep up with that? "If we could find a sign of them showing up we could probably save more people. Problem is we've only seen them after they got to this world."
Flynn thinks on it a bit. It makes his brain ache trying to think of any way to find out how they get here without sacrificing lives. "How the hell are we supposed to manage that? Could we find out how they get here or is this just gonna be normal from here out?" These deep thoughts are cut off by a loud sound coming from his stomach. "Oooh… dammit. I got so caught up in how mad I was I forgot to eat… Well. I guess it'd be better to think about this when I'm not starving." He reaches into his jacket pocket for his wallet and finds nothing. He then goes to check his other jacket pocket and then pats down his pants. "Dammit, I swear I had it in my… pocket… when I… Oh hell no." He then thinks on it and remembers as Anna hugged him, she reached into one of his pockets and might've snatched his wallet. With that he dashes out the door and follows Anna over to the parlor, Proton following along curiously.
Flynn makes his way to the ice cream parlor and tries to search around for Anna. He tried to keep his head while in public because the last thing he needs is to get overly angry in public. Proton follows behind, again amazed no one is surprised at the walking talking robot. "A lot of people here seem unimpressed. Shouldn't a robot like me be astounding to these people from what you told me?"
"A lot has been going on lately. I'm sure a robot doesn't scare them at all when there's monsters like… that." Flynn trails off a bit and then sees a familiar red ponytail slink into the nearby alley. He gives chase and encounters Anna, smugly licking an ice cream cone.
"Took you two long enough." She said, munching on the cone a little as she tossed Flynn his wallet back. "No need to worry. I didn't take anything important."
"Oh, you got a lot of nerve kicking a man while he's down like that. Why would you even take my wallet if you aren't gonna use it? Did you do it just to get my attention?!" Flynn looks a little angry as he says that.
"It worked, didn't it? Both you and that weird friend of yours came here."
"I resent that." Proton replied pointing meanly. "There are better ways to get a man's attention than pickpocketing!"
Anna then finishes the ice cream and then points at the alley wall behind her. "So remember when I said I had a few secrets of my own? With that whole thing with the wicked witch yesterday, I think now's not the time to hide those kinds of secrets. She did just dust our poor paying customer after all."
Flynn crosses his arms, looking perturbed at her casual treatment of the situation. She then sighs and knocks on the wall. To the surprise of both Flynn and Proton, it seemed to create some sort of ripple. "Oh the hell is that?"
"Looks to be some sort of distortion in space time." Proton goes towards it and taps it for himself. "Some sort of spatial fabric tear I suppose."
"So." Anna says, clasping her hands together and beginning to explain. "Those freaks with the Formas are obviously coming from somewhere else. So I thought someone I'd know might be able to help with that whole thing. This right here, is how they get in. And, like so." She then simply leans back into the wall vanishing into it to the surprise of Flynn.
"Cool. It's like a warp… We should probably follow her." Proton says to Flynn as he walks in surprisingly calmly. Flynn himself tries to shake off the surprise and runs in after them.
It was a bizarre sensation. One step in felt like one million. What was once a wall became a mass of color and nonsense one second and then the next… It was breathtaking to Flynn, a place that looked straight out of fairy tales and renaissance fairs, grassy fields and sheer cliffs surrounded by simple towns that looked nothing like the urban jungle he was used to.
"Welcome to the Outrealm. Well one of many… A bizarre little thing I found out about as a young girl." Anna gestures towards the world around her. "It's a place sorta stuck in a long time ago… Now I just gotta hope this is the right place."
Flynn still looks around curiously. Trying to piece all this together just made it feel more mysterious and unfathomable. And now Anna seems to be talking about this being the right place and that just makes it even more confusing.
Proton, on the opposite end, was amazed. Seemingly scanning around the area and its many intricacies. "Fascinating. No matter how many times I see stuff like this, it's amazing. So then how does this place relate to those people entering your world?"
"Think of it like a shortcut. You take cut-throughs to get to a place faster. They use it like that but for our world…" Anna keeps looking around, squinting, as if trying to find something before putting her hands on her hips. "Oh thank gods. This is the right place. Would've been even more confusing to explain if we ended up somewhere else." She then just casually walks on. "Come on, fellas. We're burning daylight."
Flynn and Proton followed behind, The robot filled with glee while his human compatriot with confusion. He could believe Proton, the robot from another world, being relaxed about this but then in comes Anna saying she's known about this kind of place for years. Soon enough, there probably won't be a thing in the universe that surprises him. He tries to silence his looping thoughts as he just stays quiet and follows, taking in the sights.
The group takes quite the trek. Going down long, winding paths and near giant mountains, the group soon comes across a small hut covered up by a sea of trees making a forest. Anna casually walks over to the house. "Et Violá! The answer to… most of our problems. Now all we have to do is see if the old man still has what I want…"
She runs her hands on the walls of the house, until they come across a bookshelf. She peeks into each book, big and small, her eyes scanning across book spines and the pages within. She hums to herself while reading and then slams the last book shut, coming to a conclusion.
"Mhm. It's not here…" She says, exhausted. "This big of a bookshelf and he doesn't have it… thanks for nothing, old man."
"Okay. Who's the old man you keep talking about?" Flynn asks with a tinge of confusion and agitation.
"Well it might be a relative, with how she's talking about him. I'm more interested in why we're looking for a book here." Proton adds looking around the old house.
"Not like it matters… now we gotta go all the way back with nothing… unless." She goes over to the front door, putting her ear up to it and simply listening. Eventually picking up the sound of footsteps approaching the door. She then backs up and lets the door swing open, her eyes widening when a giant of a man lurches through the door.
He was massive, a full one, maybe two heads above Flynn. Dressed in chipped and dented violet armor, and topped off with a permanent scowl lining his face, he looks over at the two with scorn. "I did not expect more than the old fool at this house… let alone that he vanished outright. Tell me! Where did he lurk off too?"
Anna backs up and snidely replies. "I'm asking the same question, buddy, along with how did you of all people find this place?"
"Doesn't matter how he found it," Flynn adds, "I'm gonna see him out." He then reaches into his jacket pocket for the Emblem Driver, only to be stopped by Anna.
"Hey! Hey! This is emotionally expensive merchandise you're fighting around. Why don't we take a civil approach and take this outside?"
"Are you really going to try pragmatism with a man like that?" Proton asks.
"You better not be referring to me." Both Flynn and the armored man say as they scowl at Proton.
Anna shrugs and manages to politely push both Flynn and the man outside, the man then tries to toss her off of him, beginning to yell. "Don't you treat this so casually you wretch! This isn't some game!" In his hand appears a bizarre staff, looking like a sharp, silver, trident with a gold backing and a purple jewel adorning the middle. He raised it and from the trees came several figures, ones who look similar to the mage the baker turned into. "I did these insipid fools a favor and removed them from humanity. Now, I know your friend, so I'll give you one chance to give me that device of yours. I'll not give you a second chance."
Flynn readies himself again. Only for Anna to push him to the side a little. "I think it's my turn to show off a little." She then looks over at the man. Calling out his name. "Zephiel, right? You got a lot of gusto to think this is gonna be as simple as that. Bold for a man as wrong as you." She reaches into her own jacket pocket and pulls out something of her own, a garish gold device with a giant number seven in the center, topped off by a crank you'd see on a slot machine. "But you got one thing right. This is no game." She then slams it to her waist as a trail of gold coins trail around it and form a belt, which shouted with an excited "Let's Roll!"
Flynn looked on in awe as she made a show of it. Pointing at Zephiel directly and then leaning her hand towards her face, snapping her fingers and laying her index finger on her chin before using her free hand to pull the crank. "Transform!" She says as the seven in the center spins wildly before landing quickly with the seven facing right side up, making a giant cauldron appear above her head.
"Lucky! Cha cha cha!"
The belt shouts again as the pot leans over and seemingly buries her in coins, a few strays smashing into some of the creatures, knocking them flat to the floor.
"Go for the gold! Brave and bold! My name is! Kamen Rider Bull-ion!"
She shakes off the leftover gold and reveals herself again, now adorned in shining gold armor. Gold and jewels adorned the armor all over, to the point of gold bars even being where eyes would be. She then giggles and brandishes an equally gold sword, turning back to Flynn and Proton before saying "Hope you boys are ready. Because I'm about to put on a show." And with that, she then charges into battle.
She starts with one with a tome, slashing into them with a finesse unlike Flynn's, slashing clean through and and then slashing at it once more, causing it to blast away and instantly turn back into a human. She paid the injured human no mind as she continued on. Another one, that looked like a horse with wings, then charged at her with a lance attempting to skewer her. She deftly deflected the lance and slashed into the monster, knocking it back as another one swung at her with an axe.
"This is amazing!" Proton exclaimed, opening a screen on his arm to jot down what he sees in front of him. "I was told that was a one of a kind signature your belt gave off and now here's another." He then looks over to Flynn who stares blankly at the ongoing battle, his face showing a mixture of surprise and amazement.
"She's…cool." He says, seemingly long stepped out of reality. Watching her slowly but effortlessly turn her attention to the monster recklessly swinging the axe at her while still being able to perfectly fend off the lance wielding horse man. While she flips away from the further lance lunges, Proton then taps Flynn on the shoulder, moving him a little from his trance.
"You know there's probably a better way to deal with this than just one person." He remarks, all but telling Flynn he should probably transform too.
The thought then breaks Flynn from his trance as he responds. "Oh yeah! Right! Two!" He then readies his own belt and goes through the motions he's all too familiar with, letting out an additional "Transform!" as he charges into battle with Marth's card in hand.
He attacks a different monster, a wingless horse man, while Anna continues her own two versus one fight. He shows a lot less skill than her performance but makes up for it by brute force. Smashing his sword into the monster ahead of him, continually knocking it back. When another axe wielding monster came his way, he managed to quickly divert his attention to this other opponent. Only to get slashed in the back by the horse man. "Aie! Step off!" He yells aloud as he manages a swift yet destructive strike, turning the horse monster human once again.
Anna looks over to Flynn. "Ooh! Nice one! Land a few more of those and you might be as lucky as me." And then she then grabs the guard of her sword, pulling a part that extends out to reveal her own cards held within what looked like an old ti mey fan. She then plucks two cards from it and slides it to the blade of the sword, causing it to gain a chilling blue glow. She stabs it in the ground, making a trail of icicles that trap both monsters. "Now, for the finale!" She says as she then leaps on top of her sword and uses that to leap into air, pulling the crank on her belt as it then glows with a golden light.
"Lucky FEVER!"
Anna then seemingly slides on the air and then slams her foot into both monsters, shattering the ice and blowing the monsters away. She lands gracefully and then bows to an audience of 2. All the while Flynn barely manages to destroy the other one. "Alright! Now!" Anna says confidently as she turns to Zephiel. "We handled your boys. Best to give up before both of us handle you too!"
"Yeah!" Flynn adds in a stand-offish tone. "This place ain't got anything, so I recommend running!"
Zephiel scowls at the two. "Pathetic. I'm sent all the way here and all I have to show for it is broken glass and two miserable whelps in front of me. It appears I've wasted my precious time here." He then surprisingly turns around and walks away. "Pray we don't meet again. I won't waste any time putting dogs like you down." And with another announcement of his annoyance he vanishes from sight.
Anna then de-transforms and uncharacteristically exhales. "Oh thank Gods you said that."
"What? I thought with how you were talking, you could've taken him." Flynn replies, a little concerned as he also de-transforms.
"Believe me. We'd lose. We can't take him in our current state." Anna responds with a hand on his shoulder. "But I think we should go back in. I think now I have an idea."
The group heads back into the house, both Flynn and Proton watch as Anna goes to a previously unseen closet door and slams it open. Behind it was a familiar old man, Old Hubba. Anna looks at him with a hand outstretched, expecting something as she abrasively says "Old man. Book. Now!"
The old man looks at her grouchily. "I see you're the same as ever. So why do you care about the book now?" He says as he laughs, pulling the book from his robes. "You lost interest in it when I told you you couldn't sell it."
Anna groans. "I was young and things are different now. You'd think you'd give the book to the guy using the damn thing you wrote about."
"What?" Proton inquires. "You're telling me that man over there basically made a manual?" He then looks over at the book curiously, grabbing it for himself and flipping through the pages quickly. "Fascinating!"
"Hey! Watch it! You'll ruin the pages going that fast. And I don't think living armor could get any use out of that." Hubba tries to take it back, only for Anna to be the one plucking it from his hands instead.
"Let's save quiet reading for when we get home." Anna says slyly as she then pushes Hubba out of the way, walking through the closet. "Sorry we don't have time to chat, grandpa. Taking your shortcut."
"You know, a please would've been nice." He says as he then looks over to Flynn and Proton. "She's always been a reckless one. Always pushy like that. But I assume you boys at least have many good questions for me."
Flynn stays silent for a bit before responding. "No. Not really. I kinda want to go home." He then tries to scoot past the old man as he follows Anna. "Oops. Sorry." He says as he squeezes by.
Proton, however, does look inquisitive. Thinking to himself as his eyes glance from the exit to the old man. "What's your game here, old man?" He bluntly asks. "You show up at that guy's workplace and seem pretty okay with him just plucking that device off of you."
Hubba smiles a little, walking over to the one window, speaking to Proton without facing him. "Well. I've done a lot of traveling in my day and traveling makes both friends and enemies. This isn't even the first time I lost those cards, some kind folk got them back for me but I realized. Those kind folk weren't always going to save my skin. So, I picked up tinkerin'." He gestures towards a workbench filled with old tools and wood. "Made that with a little bit of stuff I found on my wanderin'. A lot of steel and a lot of time."
"So shouldn't you be more upset that it isn't you wielding that? It has a lot of power. The wrong person could lead to disaster." Proton responds, looking at him and the items on the table with continuing curiosity.
"I know what I know, boy. And let's just say telling you would probably do more harm than good." He then just goes to a table and sits down calmly.
"Riiiight." Proton says, shooting the old man a glare through his screen, all the while just standing there silently.
"Well. That's all the time I think I have right now. You should probably go follow them. You'll get more out of that book than me." Hubba then laughs to himself as Proton rolls his eyes and leaves, unamused and just as clueless as when he entered. Proton keeps this place's location in mind for later. Whether the old man likes it or not, guidance is needed in a situation like this.
Anna and Flynn walk into a familiar spot. The USAnything living quarters, entering from the exact spot Hubba left when Flynn overexerted himself. Anna then sets the book on the nearby table while Flynn looks curiously behind them. "Well…What's even in that book?" Flynn says, almost shutting the door before Proton came in. "Crap. Sorry."
"This! Is Hubba's travel diary. Has all the stuff from his travels. He read it to me a few times when I was little." She opens it up and starts flipping through the pages. They were old and tattered with clear signs of use and wear. Many sketches adorned pages showing many spectacular things. Dragons, armies and people rising from cards.
"He's a hell of an artist for an old man." Flynn says looking on with intrigue. "So if he's your grandpa, are you from here?" He then goes along a trail of questions. "And that thing said your name was…Bullion. Do I have one of those names? I thought they were all just Kamen Rider. And what about those bastards who keep chasing us. I think after what happened with Charles, I deserve to know-."
"Here." She stops him and points to a certain part of the book. "I remember this one. Right before he sorta disappeared for a bit, he found this." It was a sketch of what looked like a battle. An armored figure was facing a bizarre looking cloud of sort that brandished several weapons. "Ahem…" she clears her throat before reading an excerpt from the book.
"I came across a strange mural in my travels. I did not know its origin but it intrigued me. A massive stone mural that I hadn't ever seen before in this Outrealm with words of mystery underneath. 'A hero of iron shall emerge from steel. Bearing gifts of discovery, trust and heart. They shall fight against grand forces and shall arise in victory or bitter defeat. All will depend on their will and soul.' I don't know why but I feel one day I may play a part in whatever this is talking about."
"Okay…" Flynn says, throwing his hands up in the air. "What's that mean? What does a hero of iron mean?"
"My best guess is that the belt makes the 'hero of iron'. Which is now, thanks to several things, you." She replies then thumbing through the pages that were after that one. They were new, filled with pages upon pages of things she'd never seen in the book before. She then just takes a deep exhale and hands it over to Flynn. "It's probably best if you have this. Best way for you to catch up on what you don't know."
"Thanks?" He awkwardly says, taking the book and looking through it himself a little before just holding it, casually moving it around in his hands before just putting it in his coat pocket.
Proton then simply sits in a chair and thinks. "Well. Now that we're back here, we should double check your cleaning job."
"You guys can do that. I'm going to buy myself something with…" He looks into his wallet and notices something missing almost instantly. He turns to Anna with a false smile. "Heeey, Anna. Did you take five dollars from my wallet?"
She chuckles a bit. "Yeah. I'll pay you back. Consider it an exchange for help. After all, I don't think we know each other well enough for free work."
Flynn scowls at her. For someone he finds pretty, she sure has been plucking at his nerves. But with something this important, he supposes that five dollars is worth otherworldly information. "You better at least pay me back, then. I ain't a charity worker either."
The two mutually chuckle at each other as the day winds down, Flynn personally hoping this makes the battles ahead easier.