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Kamen Rider Vortex Kamen Rider Vortex Chapters

Chapter 10

Once he and Turretorg were retrieved, the Joker spoke to Lord Vortech back on Foundation Prime as he had an ice pack on his head. “And then they stole this shiny thing I found!” he reported.

“Chance meetings and setbacks to your petty pilfering do not concern me,” dismissed Vortech. He pulled out the nuclear rod. “We have the Foundation Element, that is all that matters.”

“Trust me,” warned the Joker, “if you underestimate the Crêped Crusader, you’ll end up getting battered!”

“Like yourself?” snickered Hiro. The Joker growled. Hiro poured himself a glass of wine. “A toast, to a successful mission,” praised Hiro.

“Maybe the rest of us would celebrate,” snarled an angry, male voice, “if we didn’t suffer!” A Japanese man strode up in a black suit with black armor, a gold eagle for a belt buckle, a black cape with a green interior, a gold right hand and left pincer claw, and an elaborate gold and black headdress covering the head aside from the face, making him look like a pharaoh of Egypt, and gold moth antennae on top. He carried a red whip and was flanked by Shocker Combatmen. This was the current leader of Shocker, Ambassador Hell. “Just look at what they’ve done to us!” snarled Ambassador Hell.

“Spare us the melodramatics, Ambassador Hell,” Vortech waved off. “Hiro’s right about the mission being a success.”

“This isn’t about success or failure of a mission!” protested Ambassador Hell. “The Vortexons and the Joker’s minions are creating dissension among the ranks of Shocker! These savages are a threat to this whole operation! They should be confined, restrained even!” He was punched in the face by Turretorg.

“You could not produce a restraint strong enough to hold us Vortexons!” it boasted. It turned to Hiro and Vortech. “In any case, my lords, Comms-Op is receiving a call from Dimension K-A-M-3-N-R-1-D-3-R.

“What is their reason for calling us?” asked Ambassador Hell.

“How did they even get this dimension?!” asked Vortech as he handed the nuclear rod to a Vortexon.

“Unclear, Lord Vortech,” reported Turretorg. “All we can glean is that the caller will only speak to Hiro.”

“Me?” yelped Hiro.

“They requested you by name, my lord,” confirmed Turretorg.

“Patch it here,” ordered Hiro.

“I pledge obedience,” saluted Turretorg. It fiddled with a machine which made a giant view-screen come out of the floor.

“This is Hiro Adachi, Kamen Rider Rogue,” demanded Hiro. “State your business or face destruction.”

“Hiro-san, now really,” purred a feminine voice, “is that any way to address your lover?” A Japanese woman appeared on the screen. She wore a white lab coat with a red arm band on the left arm, a woman’s business suit, with pants, short, black hair, and was flanked by Shocker Combatmen. These had the skeletal motif made in raised silver and had armor on the suits.

“Igura!” cheered Hiro as a smile appeared on his face. “I heard from Ambassador Hell that you were dead!”

“I was,” confirmed Igura, “but I had some help in coming back. Sadly, Urga and Buffal weren’t so lucky.” She heard a snicker and saw Ambassador Hell with a look of amusement on his face. “I’m glad to see that my allies’ permanent death causes amusement for you,” hissed Igura.

“Oh, you misjudge me,” countered Ambassador Hell as he sobered up. “I shall miss them deeply. They were worthy adversaries. In any case, why are you calling?”

“Can you get the person creating portals to send one to my base?” asked Igura.

“Of course, my dear,” obliged Vortech. “Bring your minions as well.”

“Thank you,” said a grateful Igura as she bowed. The transmission ended as a portal opened to let the last remnant of Shocker Nova onto Foundation Prime. Igura broke into a sprint and gave Hiro a hug which he reciprocated. Ambassador Hell rolled his eyes.

“Is that jealousy I detect, Ambassador?” mused Hiro.

“Hiro,” purred Igura, “my men need access to your database. Could we use it?” She gave a sweet smile.

“Absolutely not, traitor!” hissed Ambassador Hell. Igura and Hiro rolled their eyes as they broke their embrace and glared at Ambassador Hell. “That database is for Shocker use only! Traitors like you…”

“What our old boss, Damon, meant, Igura-chan,” interrupted Hiro, “is that our entire database is open to Shocker Nova. Feel free to use it at your leisure, my sweet eagle.” He kissed Igura’s hand.

“Flatterer,” complimented Igura as she walked off to a terminal with a smile on her face.

“Surely, you don’t mean that?!” protested Ambassador Hell. “How did you even know my real name?!”

“That’s unimportant,” dismissed Hiro. “What IS important is that I was most sincere when Igura could use our entire database at her leisure.”

“It builds trust, you see,” supplied Vortech.

“They don’t need to know every single detail about our military operations!” protested Ambassador Hell.

“The decision has already been made,” shrugged Vortech. “In fact, I’ve seen how effective the Nova Combatmen have proven, so from now on, whatever decision you make about Shocker must be submitted to Igura for approval and, if approved, she will submit it to me either in person or through Hiro.”

“That will NOT happen!” declared Ambassador Hell. The tension could be cut with a knife. Vortech then used his powers to lift Ambassador Hell into the air and throw him into the wall. Hiro then walked over to the Shocker Leader.

“I trust that was an unguarded emotional comment,” he whispered, “so I will convince Vortech to ignore it THIS time. Make plans to do exactly as you’re told or I will have you move for practice six feet underground!” Hiro stormed off to help Igura with access to the database while Ambassador Hell looked onwards. “Now,” said Hiro to the Joker as he moved towards the terminal, “where’s the robot? I had it modified to use the Keystone for your use.”

“And a keystone is…?” ventured the Joker.

“Purple shield thing?” explained Hiro, hoping the Joker would catch on.

“Oh, the shiny thing Batman took!” exclaimed the Joker with a grin.

“Wait a sec,” gulped Hiro as his smile turned into a warning one, “is that what really happened, or a joke?”

“That’s what happened,” explained the Joker, unaware of the now dangerous position he was in.

“What a terrible joke,” whispered Hiro.

“I told you, it wasn’t a…” the Joker was interrupted.

“You allowed the Vortex Riders to take the Chroma Keystone?!” snarled Hiro. “DO YOU HAVE ANY NOTION OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR BLUNDER?!”

“Wait a sec,” yelped the Joker, “we have the Foundation Element. I don’t see why…”

“I DON’T CARE ABOUT SOME TRINKET!” roared Hiro. “My daughter and her little band have a color activated Keystone, meaning any and all Chroma-locks are under their control!”

“Daughter?” quizzed Igura. Hiro slightly relaxed.

“How about I tell you what happened in my absence from Shocker,” he offered as he turned and led Igura away.


Meanwhile, we had arrived back on Vorton. Lord Business massaged his rear. “That could have gone a little more smoothly,” he said. A portal opened back to his home dimension. “I believe that’s my ride,” said Lord Business. “Well, it’s been fun, but I have some reconstruction to do. Oh, before I go,” he handed us a bag of studs, “I believe the total should be 160,000 studs. Bye bye!” He stepped into the portal and it disappeared

“There it is, the Chroma Keystone!” exclaimed the voice. “Now we’re talking!”

“Let’s see what this one can do,” mused Batman. “Chroma Keystone, activate!”

“Incorrect Keystone request,” reported Batman’s gauntlet.

“What?!” snapped Batman.

“I guess you can only use the Shift Keystone,” I guessed.

“Then who’s using the Chroma Keystone?” asked Emily as the Keystone attached itself above the Shift Keystone.

+GATEWAY 40% STABILIZED+ reported my belt. +MINIMAL SECURITY MEASURES ONLINE+

“We won’t be blindsided then,” sighed Emily in relief.

+ALERT+ called my belt. +UNKNOWN PRESENCE DETECTED IN CAFETERIA+

“You were saying?!” I hissed as I drew my sword. We all flew down to the cafeteria. The doors were closed. “On three, we swarm the place,” I directed, “Ichi! Ni! SAN!” We burst in and spread out to give ourselves cover. What we saw just…wasn’t possible! There, holding a small glass of water, in all of her green skinned- black wearing, pointy hatted glory, was the Wicked Witch of the West! She saw us and gave a smirk.

“Red alert,” she joked. She then drank the contents of the glass! My eyes widened. Surprisingly, she wasn’t dissolving and squawking “Oh, what a world! What a world!” As she finished, she licked her lips and sighed. “You know,” she mused, “long before I was a Wicked Witch, I used to drink this religiously. I missed that part of my past. Of course, that was negligible as I had better things to do than try and find a cure to my old water allergy, like conquering Oz.”

“Up to your old tricks?” asked Emily.

“I haven’t the vaguest notion of doing so at this point in time, Rosie” dismissed the Witch, making a reference to Emily’s dress, “considering that there’s something greater going on. I need to destroy it before it destroys me. But, that’s rather hard for me to do. I no longer have any magic! I was hoping to go into business with your wizard.”

“My dear lady,” protested Gandalf, “you gave us magic folk a bad name! Couldn’t you have toned the wickedness down a tad?”

“I don’t know,” purred the Witch, “I found good to be dumb.” She then saw my expression. “You don’t believe me. Do you really think I would humiliate myself like this?”

“When it serves,” replied Emily.

“It’s the truth!” insisted the Witch. “What you see before you is a defrocked Elphaba Thropp, condemned to live out her days as a normal person!”

“The question of whether or not you have magic is irrelevant,” I dismissed. “The question of your return to life, however, I would like answered.”

“As would I,” replied Elphaba. “Last time I saw you, I was melting away in my observatory. The next thing I knew, I woke up, screaming in the dimensional vortex. After that, I ended up here. That’s all I know.”

“What do you want?” I asked.

“Your compassion,” explained Elphaba. Need I describe how I felt about that? “All right,” Elphaba tried again, “sanctuary on Vorton, dreary as it is for all parties concerned.”

“Get on that broomstick of yours and get out!” I demanded.

“I have no powers!” protested Elphaba. “You look upon Elphaba Thropp, the ordinary!”

“Elphaba the Tyrant!” I argued. “Elphaba the Conqueror!”

“Elphaba the Miserable!” Elphaba argued back. “Elphaba the Desperate! What must I do to convince you?!”

“Take a swim,” suggested Batman.

“Oh, very clever, you poor excuse of a winged monkey,” snarked Elphaba. “Eat any good books lately?”

“For the last time, I’m a bat!” snarled Batman. “Not a dog! Not a brat! And I’m CERTAINLY not one of your Flying Monkeys!”

“You wish for compassion? Sanctuary?” I asked.

“Yes,” confirmed Elphaba.

“Hongo-san, Duke Emmanuel, Dame Emily,” I directed, “have the computer help put Elphaba in the brig.” A grin crossed Emily’s face.

“Delighted, Your Highness,” she chuckled.

“You can’t do this to me!” protested Elphaba. Emily then grabbed her by the shoulder, digging her nails into it.

“You will walk,” ordered Emily as a blue path lit up for her, “or I will carry you.” Emmanuel was holding the door open while Hongo directed them to leave with is hand and a smile.

“…Given the option,” mused Elphaba, “I’ll walk.” With Emily’s hand still firmly on Elphaba’s shoulder, the group was led to the brig. Emily picked out the cell wand led the boys back up to the cafeteria. We decided to have lunch while we pondered our options.

“If she can drink water,” guessed Irina, “splashing her in the night won’t do the trick.”

“I hate to pander to a stereotype of a manner-driven culture like most Southern states,” replied Richard, “but I fail to see the honor in killing her.”

“I fail to see the honor in letting her live,” argued Lukas. “She has proven unrepentant.”

“Her comments have demonstrated that fact,” I granted, “but Mom always said that mercy is the greatest weapon of all time.”

“She usually follows up with a warning to the effect of mercy being misused!” argued Hiroki.

“When it comes to killing,” I countered. “If we kill her, who are we being merciful to?”

“The multiverse,” replied Xiomara.

“Too vague,” countered Batman.

“I’m not exactly wild about her coming back,” agreed Wyldstyle, “but there are other ways to deal with her.”

“If she stays,” argued Michael, “we’ll probably have two messes to contend with instead of just one.”

“I say we listen to Megumi,” suggested Gandalf.

“You cannot be serious!” protested Hiroki.

“If we kill her when she didn’t make any threatening moves against us or the multiverse,” explained Gandalf, “we would prove ourselves as low as the enemy.”

“You’ve killed people before!” argued Hiroki. Probably not the brightest thing to say.

“I gave them a chance to back off before I attacked,” hissed Gandalf with a hint of anger. “I never kill unless it’s the last resort!”

“Someone, talk some sense into him!” cried Hiroki.

“He speaks sense,” argued Mikhail. “There is no need to kill Elphaba.”

“Really?!” snapped Irina. “My younger brother decides to let a known threat live?!”

“She has made no move to attack us,” countered Mikhail. “I say we observe her. If she makes a move against us, all bets are off and she dies. If not, she may prove valuable.”

“Her magic is impressive,” observed Tanisha. “I agree with Mikhail.”

“As do I,” called Emily as she, Hongo, and Emmanuel reentered the cafeteria. “She had given us valuable info on operations in Oz. Once she helped us, she could only do a simple levitation spell. Her story on once being powerless checks out.”

“And you three are just taking her word for it?!” yelped Haitao.

“Of course not,” replied Emmanuel. “Lie detectors line the cells in the brig. It proves useful for interrogation.”

“And on a side note, her compliment on my and Emmanuel’s dresses proved sincere,” supplied Emily.

“Much as I want to rehabilitate her,” argued Richard, “we’ll need more proof than a compliment on your clothes!”

“Then she stays alive so we get that proof,” I said with a tone of finality.

“Nee-san, please!” protested Hiroki.

“Your princess has made her decision!” I declared. “Killing Elphaba in any way, shape, or form is out! Am I clear?” Silence permeated the room. “Good.” I said. “Now, let’s get our meals. Bring one to Elphaba.”

“I’ll bring it to her,” volunteered Emily. Elphaba’s meal was a chicken breast with broccoli. As we ate, Emily eating with our prisoner, the debate ran through my mind. Throughout the journey, I was hellbent on killing Hiro. Looking back, that might be an escape for REAL justice for him and his allies. I started mulling over options on keeping him confined for life. Hongo’s right, killing someone should always be a last resort. We then finished our meals, took our showers, and then headed for bed.


Back in the Simpsons world, Death had arrived at a house. She knocked on the door to reveal a girl in stereotypical goth clothing. “Pardon me,” whispered Death, “may I have a moment of your time, Ms. Lacey?”

“Sure,” agreed the girl, Lacey. Death was let in. “What are you doing here? Business as usual? Am I your client?”

“Hardly,” replied Death. “I’ve been away on a long journey and saw something…peculiar.”

“It’s that sword you gave Mom,” guessed Lacey. “That stupid looking thing that you told her never to touch.”

“Your mother’s ‘stupid’ sword?” asked Death as she sat down. “The one that feels ‘wrong’ to you?” She held out her hand. “Give it to me.”

“Give you the sword?” quizzed Lacey.

“For a moment only,” whispered Death. Lacey got the sword down from the mantelpiece. It was a broadsword in a black scabbard with a silver handle and guard. “Can you see any markings on it?” asked Death.

“No,” answered Lacey. “Kind of plain, if you ask me.”

“How about now?” asked Death as she casually tossed the sword into the fire. Lacey gasped and rushed towards it only to be held back by her visitor. “Wait!” hissed Death. “Do you desire it so much?”

“…N…no!” stammered Lacey. “But why burn it?!”

“Because I had unwittingly given your mother a fragment of the enemy’s power!” explained Death as her whispering voice went up a fragment. “It will corrupt and destroy any who have it until he or she passes under the enemy’s power. Named after the enemy’s desire for a perfect world, this was called the Foundation Saber!”

“That isn’t how Mom kept her appointment with you, is it?!” gulped Lacey, getting frantic.

“No, she is still safe from the enemy,” assured Death, “but you are in danger!” Death then picked up the sword from the fire. Much like the One Ring, the sword was unharmed. Death tossed it to Lacey, who instinctively caught it. She was surprised at the temperature. “Reveal part of the blade,” instructed Death. Lacey blinked, but obeyed. Instead of metal, the blade seemed to be made of solid space.

“It was metal before, I swear it!” declared Lacey.

“Oh no, this is the Foundation Saber’s natural state,” whispered Death as she took the sword back. “Stay here. I must take it and seek out War, the one who was duped into making this thing.”

“Be safe,” called Lacey. Death left the house with the sword, mounted her white horse, and charged off into a portal of her own design.

Categories
Kamen Rider Vortex Kamen Rider Vortex Chapters

Chapter 9

Homer was asleep at his post, the nuclear rod in his butt. He tossed and turned. “It’s not selling out!” he yelped. “It’s co-branding! Co-branding!” I’m surprised he slept through the crash. In any case, we picked ourselves up out of the wreckage.

“What do you suppose these infernal contraptions want here?” asked Gandalf as he brushed himself off.

“And why are there rivers of glowing green ooze flowing all around this place?” quizzed Hongo, a little worried.

“I wouldn’t worry,” assured Richard. “This thing gets reactor leaks all the time and the radiation doesn’t bother the residents.”

“They’re probably used to it!” I yelped. “We, on the other hand, aren’t!”

+THIS UNIT WOULD RECOMMEND WEARING YOUR ARMOR IF YOU’RE SO CONCERNED+ suggested my belt.

“Good idea!” I agreed. “But what about Gandalf, Wyldstyle, and Batman?”

“Never mind us,” assured Batman as we said Henshin and put our suits on. “If we don’t go anywhere near anything radioactive, we should be good. Wyldstyle, your scanner.”

“There’s something at the other end of the plant,” reported Wyldstyle, “maybe the Keystone?”

“Let’s check it out,” called Batman. We went across a catwalk to a locked room with a dial that clearly wasn’t set to keep the steam from leaking. Homer had finally woken up and was apparently informed of the steam leaks somehow. The intercom was still on, so we heard what he was saying.

“What do I do?!” he wailed. “What do I do?!” He even had the instructions in his hands! Even then, he just fiddled with random controls! After a few button presses, he looked back at the book. “All right, brain,” he encouraged said organ, “it’s all up to you!” He read aloud, “check core temperature.” I figured that there was no way he’d screw that up. Too much to hope for. He fiddled with more controls and then went to a black button. “I just press this button…” in reality, no, he shouldn’t have. That button made the steam pipes burst, causing the bridge over a vat of nuclear waste to collapse, and eliciting a “D’oh!” from Homer.

“I get the feeling this guy isn’t quite up to speed on nuclear safety,” muttered Wyldstyle. She then saw some parts. “Hey, Swing, Claw, help me out!”

“If you’re sure,” shrugged Claw. They swapped out their i.d tags for the Wyldstyle one. Once Wyldstyle Steel was activated, they started building a claw that was rolled up with a grapple hook. Batman pulled it with the grapple gun, switching it on and sending a Keystone Transmitter near us from the waste.

“That helps,” called Batman. “Shift Keystone, Activate! Cyan, near the wall outside the window! Yellow, inside top level! Magenta, inside bottom level! Shift! Ichigō! Magenta! Shift! Royal! Yellow!” Ichigō and I went to our respective places. The steam from the pipes in my area blocked my progress. Batman told Ichigō to turn the valve in his area. He did so, thus lowering the pressure so the steam won’t block my path. I then signed to Batman asking if I should go and pull the lever at the end of my area. He gave me the thumbs up and so I pulled the lever. It drained away some of the waste so it could reveal the remains of the bridge. “Shift! Ichigō! Cyan! Shift! Royal! Cyan!” We came out through the cyan portal. Thank goodness. We crossed the bridge, with Arch, Lukas, and I carrying Batman, Gandalf, and Wyldstyle, much to Batman’s annoyance, and saw a guy in a green business suit with an extended upper lip, liver spots on top of his head, and a scheming look to his eyes, and named, I believe, Mr. Burns, take down the zero on the billboard that indicated the days without an accident. It went from zero…to…three?! This whole thing isn’t an accident?!

“Um, excuse me?! Hello?! Thank you?!” yelped Touché. She only says that when something that defies logic happens or when someone says something incredibly dumb. Mr. Burns then turned the billboard that indicated the…days without an otherworldly invasion?! Apparently, it was three hundred twenty-three days without such an occurrence before this one. Mr. Burns changed it to zero, sighed while shaking his head, and walked out slowly. Meanwhile, we were running on a conveyor belt with a bunch of barrels coming out and almost squashing us. We managed to get to the other side when we heard Homer speak.

“Vent radioactive gas? N-O,” he said to himself.

“Homer,” I shrieked internally as I saw people in hazmat suits trying to escape, “anata wa bakada!” (you are an idiot!)

“Homer, you genius!” praised Homer to himself.

“Why is this guy in charge of safety?!” asked Wyldstyle. “He couldn’t cross the road!”

“We need to get across to save those people,” I resolved. The main problem with that was that there were massive covered vents in our way. We could easily reach the first vent, but the second and last were too tall for us to reach, well, maybe not Ichigō, but the rest of us aren’t…wait a minute, that’s it! “Wyldstyle!” I shouted. “Wall jump up there! I think the controls to make this easier are over there!”

“What?” yelped Wyldstyle.

“Just trust me!” I assured. Wyldstyle shrugged as she did as I requested. She found the controls and pulled a lever down. Some steam raised the cover of a vent at different intervals. She got the idea and pulled the other levers. There wasn’t an exact pattern to when the platforms raised, but that was unimportant. Clash then leapt up and landed on a vent cover when it went down. She was then lifted by the steam and raised to another platform. After a few jumps, she gave the thumbs up that our weight would be supported if we went one at a time. I wish she didn’t do that. She’s too valuable to me. We all made it to the other side and heard Homer speak.

“This is my chance to show everyone how professional I am!” he cheered. He then ran around his seat, smashed his fists on the buttons, then banged his head once, then went to sleep! Those actions resulted in a power generator holding door locks to malfunction and release the door latch. Barrels then came out of the door and onto a conveyor belt. They were then put right-side up and put under squashers. Thankfully, that wasn’t our problem at the moment. We had to get the people trapped in the gas out. Ichigō and I punched the glass, got our hands, and opened it from the other side. The people got out as we got something to block the door. Once that was done, we realized our only path was through the squashers. The controls were inside a locked room. Batman’s gauntlet light started glowing green. We looked all around until Gandalf lit up a room in total darkness in a lower level. We brought the transmitter into the light, giving Batman his Keystone Powers.

“Shift Keystone, activate!” he announced. “Magenta, on white panel inside room! Cyan, on scaffolding! Yellow, on the raised platform!”

“Oh yes?” asked Battle. “You’re just going to put the portal on a white panel?”

“Yes,” confirmed Batman.

“On a lower level panel?” quizzed Battle.

“Yes,” replied Batman.

“And people are supposed to reach the controls that way?” asked Battle.

“Yes,” sighed Batman, annoyed.

“…How?” asked Battle. Batman opened his mouth when he realized he was too eager to place portals.

“Batman, you may need me on the scaffolding,” said Gandalf. “The way I see things, there are two components that relate to the door over there. It seems locked for the person that goes in the magenta portal. However, if I were to undo the power that holds the door and transfer to the yellow portal, thus putting me on the platform, I can push something down to Madam Wyldstyle and she can build something to get that panel at a higher elevation.”

“Good idea,” I praised. “Batman, if you please?”

“Shift! Gandalf! Cyan!” announced Batman. Gandalf ended up on the scaffolding, undid the components, unlocking the door for the room and shutting the door that was spewing barrels under the crusher. He was then transferred to the yellow portal and shoved a crate off. Wyldstyle used the parts to build a giant joystick. Battle had changed into Gandalf steel and used magic to move the panel to the upper level. “Shift! Ichigō Gandalf! Wyldstyle! Outback! Hunt! Claw! Swing! Clash! Climb! Gallop! Sengoku! Royal! Guard! Touché! Zhànshì! Arch! Kämpfer! Seeker! Battle! Batman! Magenta!” called Batman, trying a different approach. Tedious, yes, but it worked. We went through the portal and walked along the conveyor belt to end up in front of a hallway with a security camera. I saw the door controls and figured I’d just waltz up and use them. My arrogance proved me wrong as the door controls locked at the sight of me. I turned on my heel and walked back.

“Any suggestions?” I asked, open to ideas.

“Allow me,” replied Batman. He then pulled his cape in front of his face and started going transparent. He went down the hall, fiddled with the controls and deactivated the camera and door locks. That door led to an area filled with toxic waste and a bunch of Micro-managers trying to yank something out of the wall, their boss, I assume, given that it spoke. He was a man in a gray business suit, had an elaborate red and black headdress with a red coffee cup on each side, a chest plate in black with shoulder pads and a red tie in the middle, a long red cape, and black boots with red light up sections that alter his height according to his whims. Judging by the look on Wyldstyle’s face, I’d say it was a certain business lord she’s been on the run from in the past.

“So,” asked the man, “what I’m saying is, why didn’t you just cut a bigger hole?!”

“Just wasn’t in the budget,” joked Rogue’s voice. The business lord didn’t appreciate the joke as Rogue walked in, laughing at the man’s predicament. The business man was the pulled out by the Micro-managers and set upright.

“Lord Business!” hissed Wyldstyle.

“Wyldstyle?” exclaimed Lord Business. “It WAS you meddling!”

“This is impossible!” snapped Wyldstyle. “You were about to graduate from the Master Builder Academy! Why are you up to your old tricks?!”

“Hey, I’d love to catch up,” replied Lord Business, “but I have to grab something and then destroy you and your friends. Mmkay? Mmkay.”

“Short, and to the point,” praised Rogue. “I like that. How about an assist for you? The element’s up there in that man’s hands!” He pointed to Homer who was looking on from an observation window.

“Get the element!” Lord Business ordered his Micro-managers. One of them chased Homer throughout the facility.

“Ow! Hoo-hoo! Ow, my thingies!” screamed Homer. He was then brought into the room in the Micro-manager’s grip. He screamed for a bit, then realized he had a drumstick in his hand, the edible kind, chomped on it, then saw Lord Business and Rogue. “I’m not normally a praying man,” wailed Homer as the Micro-manager threw the drumstick into the ooze, dissolving the meat and leaving the bone, “but if you’re up there, please save me, Superman!” Batman visibly winced at this. Homer then got the wrong idea about Rogue and Lord Business. “Oh my gosh, space aliens! Don’t eat me! I have a wife and kids! Eat them!” He was then taken away.

“Right,” chuckled Lord Business, “that’s the grabbing done. Now, what was the other thing?” A wicked grin appeared on his face.

“You’re going nowhere with this plan!” I snarled.

“And who’s going to stop us, you?” asked Rogue.

“Well, it was nice of you guys to drop by,” said Lord Business, “but Rogue and I don’t have time to play. We’re a little busy.” Batman studied the area.

“Those toxic waste pumps look useful,” he mused, “IF we can get to them.”

“HIT THE DECK!” shouted Guard. As we ducked, a red laser beam swept over us, destroying a gold apparatus, revealing parts that Wyldstyle picked up with Master Builder vision. The laser beam terminated automatically, making Lord Business growl in frustration.

“Look,” he hissed, “this is a new gun, okay! It needs a little time to recharge, so my goons will distract you, all right?”

“Don’t tell them the plan!” snapped Rogue. He summoned Turretorg again.

“There you are!” snarled the monster as it fired on us. We had to dodge its weapons as it fired. Another gold apparatus was destroyed as we dodged shrapnel.

“Do you mind!” shouted Rogue. He swept the area with another laser, destroying the last gold apparatus. “Well, I can safely be called an idiot,” muttered Rogue.

“Darn right!” agreed Wyldstyle as she built a pump, pulled the lever, and spewed toxic waste at Lord Business. After he fell into the pool of the stuff, he got back up, destroyed the pump, and sent parts of the ceiling down on our heads! It destroyed the platform we were on, so we had to use the ceiling panels to stay out of the toxic waste. Lord Business got the gun working again, but we dodged the laser until it ran out of juice again. He grunted in frustration at this.

“Why are you so difficult?!” snarled Lord Business. “Just stay still and let me get you already!” As more of the SWAT-bots came back, Zhànshì activated Wyldstyle Steel, rebuilt the pump, and pumped more toxic waste onto Lord Business. He destroyed the thing again, but Batman saw a Keystone transmitter in the vicinity.

“Shift Keystone, activate!” he announced. “Cyan, on upper left platform! Yellow, on upper middle platform! Magenta, on upper right platform!”

“Really?” asked Lord Business. “It’s like you’re just asking me to attack you in lots of different and interesting ways!”

“If I may use the Cyan portal, please?” I asked Batman.

“Shift! Cyan! Royal!” announced Batman. I went into the portal and got to a control panel for a toxic waste pump.

“Let’s see,” I mused as I looked over the controls. My eyes stopped at a lever. It asked if I wanted to activate the pump. “Y-E-S,” I exclaimed as I pulled the lever. Green ooze spilled onto Lord Business. The flow automatically cut itself off.

“Do you mind?” protested Lord Business. “This is a new suit!”

“I see waste pump controls at the magenta portal!” called Guard.

“Shift! Guard! Magenta!” announced Batman. Guard was transported to the waste pump controls and pressed a button to activate it. More green ooze spilled onto Lord Business.

“We all know that toxic waste gives you awesome super powers,” called Turretorg as it plunged its hand into the stuff, “so you just keep on trying that. Thanks!”

“What are you doing?!” shouted Rogue. At that moment, Turretorg started glowing green. Sickeningly yellow claws appeared on its hands. Its eyes started glowing yellow as well.

“Now, I am Turretoxorg!” announced the new monster. His bullets were like acid as it started melting the metal of the walls!

“Shift! Arch! Yellow!” Arch was sent through the yellow portal, activated Batman Steel, and used the grapple gun to pull the end of a waste pump towards him. It unblocked the flow of waste as it spilled onto Lord Business. He managed to get away from the stuff and switched a walkie-talkie on.

“Tell him ‘It’s showtime!’” he ordered to his forces. Meanwhile, a Micro-manager was chasing Homer as he escaped its grip. He was climbing the walls, swimming in the waste, and hiding among us in funny glasses. He was then caught by a Micro-manager as he gripped the pipes while the black box tugged at his pants, trying to get the nuclear rod stuck in them. It managed to remove the pants and send the rod flying everywhere. It bounced on the Micro-manager and towards Gandalf who used his staff as a bat and hit the rod…right into Rogue’s hands.

“Look at that!” he gloated. “Right into my hand!” Homer was distracted in the meantime.

“Hey! Get your own pants!” shouted the head of the Simpson household before he covered his crotch and shuffled off in embarrassment.

“Hey, it’s been great seeing you catch up with your old friend Lord Business, Madam Wyldstyle,” called Rogue, “but I have somewhere less exploding to be.”

“What about me?” asked Lord Business.

“What about you?” asked Rogue as he took out a remote and pressed a button. Something sparked on the back of Lord Business’ neck. He then looked around the place and saw Wyldstyle.

“Oh, hey, Wyldstyle!” he said pleasantly. “What are you doing here? Er…where IS here, exactly?”

“Don’t even try to play dumb here!” snapped Guard.

“He’s not,” replied Rogue. He held up the remote he had used earlier. “I had originally suggested to my Shocker buddies that they use a mind control chip in your cybernetics, Hongo, but they felt the usual brainwashing methods were still valid.”

“Hey, you said you came to me with a business deal!” protested Lord Business.

“And look where that latent greed got you,” chuckled Turretoxorg. It turned to a Micro-manager. “You know what to do.” Rogue took that as his cue to leave while the Micro-manager advanced menacingly towards us. Turretoxorg made a swipe with its claws as the Micro-manager grabbed a batarang and grabbed the panel we were on. We tried to steady ourselves as Turretoxorg tried to shift the weight around. The Micro-manager took us all up to an ornate office with a model of Springfield inside. Judging by the statues, I’d say that it was Mr. Burns’ office. Gandalf straightened his hat as we looked around. Turretoxorg just looked at us.

“Aren’t you going to fight us?” I asked.

“Now how selfish do you think I am?” quizzed Turretoxorg. I shrugged, and then resigned myself to looking around. I clapped eyes on a strange machine with a Keystone on top. It seemed to have a cone on each end and had a design with a red square, a blue L-shape on the left, and a yellow reverse L-shape on the right. I saw three switches and tried very hard to resist the temptation to touch them. I failed miserably as I turned the machine on. The machine then generated three portals that seemed to suspend a paint blob each, one red, one yellow, and one blue.

“Okay, what’s the power of this Keystone?” I asked to myself. My belt apparently doesn’t pick up on rhetorical questions.

+THE KEYSTONE IS CALLED THE…+

“Okay, thank you,” I interrupted. “I’ll get an explanation later.” A cackle rang through the office.

“Oh no, not him!” moaned Batman.

“Roll up!” announced the voice. “Roll up and witness the hysterically hilarious, the riotously ridiculous, the marvelously mirthful…” a certain clown Batman knew too well slid on his knees on the desk. “…me!” He caught sight of the Dark Knight. “Well, if it isn’t my old pal, Batsy!”

“Joker!” hissed Batman.

“Ding-ding-ding!” replied the Joker. “One point to the Dork Knight!” He let out a laugh. “But, can you tell me what THIS is?” He started looking at a pocket watch as Batman glared at the Joker. Sengoku turned to Turretoxorg.

“I ain’t telling!’ it exclaimed. The pocket watch started ringing as the Joker made a buzzing noise

“Too late!” sniggered the Clown Prince of Crime. “My experts say it’s a power unit! So, let’s see if it’s got enough juice to wake up an old friend of yours, Bat-brain!” The room started trembling. “Ooo hoo hoo! I think it does!” said the Joker.

“Joker, what are you doing?!” rasped Batman.

“Is there a reason behind the Joker’s actions?!” asked Seeker. The Joker blew a kiss at us, then jumped out the window!

“While he’s getting Batman’s old friend prepped,” called Turretoxorg, “how about I summon some of yours, Hongo-san?” It pulled out a radio from a concealed pouch in its chest. “Come forth, Combatmen!” A bunch of men in black uniforms with a skeletal motif and a silver belt buckle with the symbol of an eagle holding Earth came out of the woodwork, literally! They came out of the walls and drew their machete like swords, surrounding us! They kept saying “Yee!” for some odd reason.

“Shocker!” exclaimed Ichigō.

“Let me guess, these are Shocker’s grunts,” theorized Touché.

“Yep,” confirmed Sengoku. “They prefer to attack en masse. You can guess their max strength from there.” The building started shaking again. This time, a giant metallic flower on the lapel of some robot passed by to reveal a mammoth sized metal version of the Joker’s face.

“Oh, not this again!” groaned Batman. “Duck!” A giant, green, four fingered hand grabbed the power unit and attached to the back of the robot the head was attached to. The Joker Robot then lifted the ceiling and a good chunk of the walls, which I believed to be impressive since the right arm was a massive cannon.

“Ready for round two?!” asked the Joker.

“More than ready,” hissed Batman.

“No catchphrases?” asked Turretoxorg.

“Oh, catchphrases?” called the Joker. “Let me hear them!”

“As you wish,” obliged Outback. “Kamen Rider Outback! Better watch your backs, mates!”

“Kamen Rider Claw! My weapons shall turn you into ribbons!”

“Kamen Rider Swing! I’ll be taking your legs!”

“Kamen Rider Hunt! I shall always get my prey!”

“Kamen Rider Clash! A duel with me shall end in your defeat!”

“Kamen Rider Climb! Mountains are a warrior’s best friend!”

“Kamen Rider Gallop! My riding skills are unmatched!”

“Kamen Rider Sengoku! You shall get a taste of Feudal Japan!”

“Kamen Rider Royal! Evil will ultimately bow to me!”

“Kamen Rider Guard! None shall harm my friends, family, and lady!”

“Kamen Rider Touché! En Garde, thing of evil!”

“Kamen Rider Zhànshì! Try and stop my quest!”

“Kamen Rider Arch! My skills outdo Robin Hood!”

“Kamen Rider Kämpfer! Your defeat will be certain at my hands!”

“Kamen Rider Seeker! It’s not gold I seek, but your end!”

“Kamen Rider Battle! For friends and family, I shall be victorious!”

“I am Gandalf the Gray! I shall weave a spell of defeat over you!”

“I’m Wyldstyle! And I am not a DJ!”

“I’m Batman! The Dark Knight rises!”

“I am the start of a group of warriors! I am Kamen Rider!”

“…That was long,” observed Turretoxorg. The robot then grabbed an I-beam and swung it at us. We got out of the way, but barely, what with the Shocker Combatmen something into the air. They turned out to be giant wind up teeth with the Joker’s goons and some strange beings made up of space. They were featureless and had no way to discern their gender. My belt started warbling in an alarming manner.

+VORTEXONS DETECTED!+ it warned.

“Oh, look!” cheered the Joker. “Everyone has come out to see me! Little old me! Too bad there’s no Keystone transmitter for you!”

“You want to bet, clown?!” snarled Batman. “Shift Keystone, activate! Cyan, on the cannon! Yellow, on top of the head! Magenta, on the left arm!”

“Hey, where did they come from?!” called Turretoxorg. It looked around and saw a transmitter near the cannon. “The enemy’s getting aid! Destroy the transmitter!”

“You guys protect the transmitter!” directed Batman. “The Joker’s mine! Hitting him will interrupt his sequence and do some damage, but he’s too far away unless that thing stays online!”

“Just try and hit me, Bratman!” boasted the Joker. “Chroma! Yellow! Joker!” The Joker then jumped into the yellow paint blob on the left arm and was covered in yellow paint.

“Shift! Batman! Magenta!” commanded Batman. He appeared in front of the Joker and attacked him, but the Joker seemed to laugh it off.

“Ah, the wonders of a Keystone!” cheered the Joker. “This baby has given me a very powerful shield, making me immune to enemy attacks!”

“Enemy attacks, eh?” mused Batman. “Shift! Shocker Minion! Magenta!” The Shocker Minion he was referring to was trying to make a flying chop with that blade of his before the magenta portal caught him.

“Yee!” he yelped before he appeared on the Joker Robot’s left arm. Batman used him as a club and made the Joker revert back to his, er, “normal” self.

“Hey!” protested the Joker. “Now that’s not very nice!”

“Yee! Yee!” said the Shocker minion as he smacked the Joker. The Joker threw him off, causing the poor mook to crack his skull when he hit the floor. He died on impact. A couple of Shocker minions saw this and started attacking the Joker’s goons. The Joker, in the meantime, had left a bomb that just spat out a flag that said “BOOM!” on it.

“Simple fix!” chuckled Batman as he rebuilt it to actually explode. Once he got clear, the bomb went off and destroyed the shoulder armor of the robot.

“That’s it!” declared Wyldstyle. “He’s weakening!” A Vortexon tried to jump her, but she kicked it into a Shocker minion’s backside. Soon, the Shocker minions were trying to get rid of the Vortexons and the Joker’s goons.

“WHAT ARE YOU IDIOTS DOING!” shouted Turretoxorg. It was then hit with eyebeams that came out of the Joker Robot’s optics, reverting it back to Turretorg. “WHAT’S THE IDEA!” it roared to the Joker.

“Don’t forget to go out with a smile!” called the Joker. More of his goons appeared. “Nice of you to come out and play!” praised their boss. This time, he saw the chaos with the minions. “HEY! CUT THAT OUT!” he shouted. “Chroma! Blue! Joker!” This time, he took a blue coloration.

“Shift! Batman! Turretorg! Cyan!” called Batman. Turretorg was taken by surprise.

“HELP!” it shouted as it was sucked in. Once they were on the cannon arm, Batman started taunting the Joker.

“Of all the unfunny jokes you’ve made, Joker, this has to be the worst!” taunted the Dark Knight. “How is this demonstrating that chaos is eternal? All I see is your ultimate defeat!”

“That’s it,” whispered Turretorg, “keep talking!” It swung a punch to the rear of Batman’s head, but the Dark Knight ducked, allowing the punch to hit the Joker, making him lose his color again.

“Will you just PLAY NICE!” shouted the Joker as he set another bomb. This time, Batman had a little trouble reconfiguring it to actually explode as Turretorg laid down suppressing fire.

“Shift! Kämpfer! Cyan!” called Batman. Kämpfer jumped in and took care of the bomb. It blew up, damaging the cannon arm’s armor. The robot the shot its eyebeams at us again.

“You know something,” hissed the Joker, “having a gun obsessed mole like you help me obtain the Keystone was bad comedy!”

“MOLE?!” roared Turretorg. “YOU’VE GOT A LOT OF NERVE, YOU COURT JESTER! I’LL BLOW A HOLE INTO YOUR STOMACH FOR THIS! VORTEXONS, SLAY THEM!” The Vortexons started overpowering Shocker and the Joker’s goons. “As for you,” it continued saying to the Joker, “it’s time for me to take control of this show!”

“It’s not a show without the Joker! That’s me by the way,” called the Joker. The flower on the robot’s lapel started spewing purple goo. I didn’t know what it was, but it felt toxic to me.

“This metal giant appears to have a strange contraption attached to it!” observed Gandalf as he attacked his foes with Glamdring. He was referring to something that had escaped my notice! It was next to the Keystone power unit and seemed to be patterned like a circuit board!

“I think that’s the robot’s brain!” I declared.

“Oops!” said the Joker. “Forgot to patch that! Chroma! Joker! Red!” He landed on the head to protect the brain.

“Not this time, clown!” called Batman. “Shift! Batman! Vortexon! Yellow!” Batman grabbed a Vortexon and jumped in, swinging the poor creature on the Joker. The Joker had lost his shield and set one last bomb. The Vortexon tried to keep Batman at bay but failed as he reconfigured it to explode. The brain was destroyed as the robot went to a standstill to expose the belly.

“Claw! Hunt!” exclaimed Ichigō. “With me!” They jumped into the air. “RIDER KICK!”

“RIDER CLAW KICK!”

“RIDER HUNT KICK!” The robot wobbled from the impact. It then proceeded to fall on its face! We got out of the way quickly. The minions of the enemy, not as lucky. The Joker popped out of the bloody wreckage with the Keystone in hand.

“Ooh, this looks valuable!” he cheered.

“MORON!” roared Turretorg as it punched the Joker. Batman was about to grab the Keystone, but the Joker brought out his tommy-gun. Batman backed off. The Joker got out his walkie-talkie.

“Hi,” he said, “I’m going to need a taxi from the roof of Springfield Nuclear Power Plant!”

“Add me to the list of passengers as well!” called Turretorg. A portal opened for the Joker and Turretorg.

“Oh, never mind,” laughed the Joker. “One’s here. Be seeing you around, Bat…” As he picked up the Keystone, Gandalf whacked the Joker with his staff and tripped up both the clown and Turretorg, making them fly into the vortex.

“I’ll be taking that, thank you!” snapped the grey wizard as he grabbed the Keystone. A portal opened for us. “Shall we?” asked Gandalf. I pressed the vehicle summon button to get Shadowfax, the Batmobile, the Cyclone, Wyldstyle’s bike, and the F.N.S’s horses. All riders then powered down and adopted our human forms.

“After you, good Sir Gandalf,” I said as I mounted my horse. Lord Business had caught up to us. He had apparently built himself a decontamination room and then converted it to a car. He explained that Shocker had kidnapped him after he was fooled by Hiro’s idea of a business negotiation and planted the mind-control chip on him when he was still in Octan Tower after getting his graduation invite. After accepting his request to join us until he could get home, we all boarded our vehicles and Gandalf led the charge out of Springfield. Thank goodness. I was going to enjoy a nice long bath to wash my entire body of this whole affair! I didn’t want to stay in Springfield a minute longer!

Categories
Kamen Rider Vortex Kamen Rider Vortex Chapters

Chapter 8

Hongo woke up before us. He didn’t have a restful night. Shocker still plagues his mind, even after its defeat. The fact that a man that gave that organization the idea of a transformation belt for its super soldiers was still alive and travelling the dimensions had opened old wounds. He decided to head to the gateway to see Batman working at it. “Trouble sleeping?” he asked. Batman whirled to see Hongo standing there.

“Not really,” replied Batman. “I usually strike at crime during the night. With no crime right now, I’ve been restless.”

“You speak as though there was tragedy in your life,” observed Hongo.

“Well, since everyone aside from Gandalf and you know my backstory,” rasped Batman as he reached for the cowl, “I might as well tell you.” He pulled it back to reveal his face. “My name is Bruce Wayne. I’m the son of Dr. Thomas Wayne, a wealthy man who had inherited a fortune that was built through industry and real estate. When I was a boy, my parents and I were leaving the theater after watching a Zorro movie. We turned into an alley to find a mugger. My parents tried to convince the man not to mug them, but he just killed them after more refusal to give up their valuables quietly. I survived the incident and will freely admit to being traumatized by the whole affair. Afterwards, I fell into a crack near Wayne Manor and discovered a cave full of bats. At first, I used to be terrified of bats. After my butler, Alfred, got me out, I went in again after a few days. I always returned, determined to face my fears until, eventually, a bat flew by my window and I didn’t blink. By that time, I was studying law and learned how corrupted my home of Gotham was. By then, I swore on my parent’s grave to fight injustice wherever it was. I started training my body to prepare for the fight against evil and took the motif of an animal that influenced my life.”

“Thus, becoming Batman?” guessed Hongo.

“Right,” confirmed Bruce. “What about you? Since I told you my backstory, might as well give me yours.”

“It’s only fair,” agreed Hongo. “Although, I was not traumatized as a child like you were. I was practicing for a motorcycle grand prix with a man I called friend, Tōbei Tachibana. During that time, people from the Sacred Hegemony Of Cycle Kindred Evolutionary Realm, the Shocker organization I’ve kept mentioning, had decided I was a perfect test subject for their mutant cyborg super soldier program as I was an athlete with an I.Q. of 600. I was kidnapped, genetically modified to accept grasshopper DNA, and cybernetically altered. I was about to be brainwashed when a professor at the college I attended had managed to cut the power temporarily to allow us to escape. I decided to fight Shocker at every turn as the Kamen Rider. Shocker didn’t like that and so tried again with another person, Hayato Ichimonji. He almost bought into the brainwashing before I interfered. I went on to fight Shocker branches overseas while Ichimonji stayed behind to be the second Kamen Rider. Nowadays, more Kamen Riders protect the planet and they aren’t even cyborgs. They can consider themselves lucky. Like you, my life can never return to normal.”

“My sympathies,” said Bruce.

“I would hate to interrupt the bonding between you two,” I called. They whirled to see me standing there with a smirk on my face.

“Shouldn’t your shoes have made noise?” snapped Bruce as he put the cowl back on and regained his raspy voice.

“Actually,” I replied, “I’ll let you guys in on a little secret.” I lifted my dress high enough to reveal my feet, my BARE feet. “I never wear shoes under this thing.”

“And you were walking around a forest in bare feet?!” yelped Batman.

“I’ve got tough feet,” I assured, “like a Hobbit.” The rest of the gang joined us. “Are we all accounted for?”

“Not quite,” muttered Emmanuel. “Some of us haven’t had our coffee.”

“Oh, yeah,” I realized. “All right, quick breakfast and coffee, then we get another Keystone.”

“Is coffee really important?” asked Hongo. “We need to get that Keystone now!” The air went quiet as we all stared at Hongo. Gandalf wisely kept quiet.

“The longer we wait for you to make sense, Hongo-san,” I threatened, “the longer you keep us from our coffee.” Hongo backed off. “That’s what I thought.” We got our breakfast, bagels and coffee, then we mounted our respective vehicles and got in front of the gateway. “All ready?” I asked. Everyone confirmed their status. I reared my horse back. “CHARGE!” I shouted, leading the charge into the portal. We ran through the vortex, ready to take on whatever dimension was our destination. “Driver, what’s our destination?” I asked my belt.

+DESTINATION IS DIMENSION T-H-3-5-1-M-P-5-0-N-5+ replied my belt.

“Thank you!” I praised. We soon arrived at the other end. I wish I could say nothing exciting happened, but that would be a lie. Something didn’t sit right with where we are, but I couldn’t place what it was. Lukas, on the other hand…

“Er, guys,” gulped Lukas, “where’s the ground?” We all looked down and saw it a couple of miles below us. Gravity then remembered what it does to all objects as we started falling.

“Where are we?!” asked Wyldstyle over the wind.

“And why does everything look…strange?!” quizzed Batman as he could see a town below us. We passed by some letters that spelled something. A choir then sang what the letters spelled.

“The Simpsons!” it said. As each syllable reached our ears, my heart sank lower and lower. The phrase “oh no!” escaped my lips. I won’t lie, I HATE The Simpsons with a passion! Given that I’ve had the misfortune of seeing at least one or two episodes out of its absurdly long run, I can guess what’s happening as we fall.

A boy with a bit of a belly, a spiky hairstyle with hair color matching his mustard yellow skin, Bart Simpson, will be writing lines in detention until the bell rings. He’ll then run out and hop on his skateboard to escape the school.

His dad, a man with a beer gut, the same skin tone as Bart, a permanent five o’ clock shadow, and a bald head, Homer Simpson, will extract a nuclear rod with tongs before the whistle blows and he takes off his hazard suit, during which, the nuclear rod gets stuck to his back.

While that’s going on, the mom, a tall lady with the longest blue beehive hairstyle, Marge Simpson, will be shopping and reading a magazine. The baby girl, a kid with spiky hair and always sucking on her pacifier, Maggie Simpson, shall ride on the checkout conveyor and get scanned and put in a grocery sack. She’ll poke her head out and gives a few sucks on her pacifier.

During which, band practice will be going on and a girl with spiky hair like Maggie, Lisa Simpson, plays a saxophone solo, annoying her band teacher as he silently tells her to get out. She does so, still playing the thing!

Meanwhile, Homer is going to be driving his pink car, get an itch on his back, remove the nuclear rod, and throw it out the car into the street.

At that point, Bart will be busy skating through Springfield…wherever! I heard from Richard’s father, Fred, an avid Simpsons fan since it came out, it’s supposed to be based on Springfield, Oregon, annoying everyone by getting too close, even the police officer on duty.

Meanwhile, Maggie shall be turning the wheel of her car seat with Marge, the pair of them honking the horn.

Homer will then drive up to the garage and open the door while Bart skates over the car, annoying Homer. Lisa will wheel by on her bike, getting too close to Homer, making him say “D’oh!” Then Marge will drive up, going in too fast, scaring Homer into running into the house. The Simpsons will then rush to their couch to watch T.V. Usually, there’s a gag involving that instance.

This time, the gag was that we crashed through the ceiling, scattering the family and getting them out of the house. Batman, Gandalf, Hongo, Wyldstyle, and I landed on the couch while the rest had piled onto the floor. The words “Created by Matt Groening” appeared on the television. The house then shook from the impact, compromising structural integrity, most likely. Gandalf then took the remote, unsure of what it is, pressed the channel button, and went to a channel with a clown, Krusty the Clown, I believe the name was. “Enough T.V!” exclaimed Batman. Thank you! “Let’s figure out why we’re here.” While Gandalf had discovered what the average donut was and munched on it, I tried to turn off the T.V.

“Come on!” I snarled. Nineties T.V’s were apparently beyond me as I couldn’t find the off button. I then resorted to slapping the thing, which, oddly enough, resulted in getting the Krusty i.d tag. I arched an eyebrow at this. “Er, Driver?” I asked.

+THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE+ faltered my belt. +UNABLE TO OFFER EXPLANATION AT THIS TIME+ I blinked, then shrugged.

“Hey, guys!” called Wyldstyle. “My scanner’s found something in the couch!”

“Let’s get it out then!” exclaimed Emmanuel. He flung the cushions off and reached in to grab something, but even his vaunted strength couldn’t get it out. “Er, I know the French can be a proud people, but may I have some help? Monsieur Batman, I believe the two of us can use your grapple gun.”

“Looks like it,” agreed Batman. Emmanuel then struck his Henshin pose.

“Henshin!” he announced as he inserted the i.d tag into the belt. He jumped through the blue circle, donning his Arch suit, and swapped his i.d tag for the Batman one.

“Batman Steel!” called the belt. The wardrobe appeared, closed on Arch, formed the new armor, and dissolved, revealing Arch in Batman Steel. Both he and Batman fired their grapple guns and yanked hard. A bunch of metal pieces flew out of the couch. Gandalf used his magic to lift a record player onto speakers, which blasted music before the vibrations shook it apart. Richard tried the back door, but it was blocked from the outside by the debris that had fallen from our landing. Wyldstyle then used her Master Builder powers to construct an elaborate slingshot and aimed it at the window. Using some of the debris as ammo, she fired at a window, shattering it and allowing us passage to the back yard. As we explored the backyard, a portal opened over the sandbox and spat out a strange device before it closed. Batman got a closer looking.

“Interesting,” he muttered. “The markings on this device appear to be the same as on the Shift Keystone. Perhaps they’re linked? Someone’s trying to help us.”

“Batman,” I observed, “I think that’s the Keystone power transmitter my belt talked about last night.”

“Then there’s another piece of the puzzle that’s missing,” quizzed Batman, “how do I use this thing?” Batman then saw instructions on how to use the gauntlet on its view-screen. “Okay then,” he said, allowing a brief smile at his fortune. “Let’s see, ‘Step one: say ‘Shift Keystone, Activate’. Step two: state where you want shift portals. Step three: Say Shift, then target’s name, then the color of the portal target will go through’.”

“I can see something on the roof!” I called.

“I think there’s something in the treehouse,” Lukas pointed out.

“Those pipes could be useful,” mused Emmanuel.

“I think there’s something stuck in the chimney!” called Emily. I craned my neck to look up to see a bit of Keystone stuck inside.

“All right,” muttered Batman, “time for a test run. Shift Keystone, Activate! Cyan, over the treehouse! Yellow, over the roof on my left! Magenta, on the roof to my right!” The portals then appeared in exactly as Batman described. “All right, time for some guinea pigs. Let’s see…” I don’t know why, but he gave me a mischievous grin. “Shift! Megumi! Cyan!” A cyan portal opened beneath me and gave me what I call a reverse Monroe moment. You know that picture of Marilyn Monroe holding down her dress over a vent? This time, the portal tried to suck my dress into it and I had to hold it up. I was sucked in and landed on the treehouse’s roof. I bounced and grabbed the edge. Sadly, that was the catalyst for bringing it down. After it fell, I landed not so gracefully, getting tangled in the skirts of my dress, requesting help, a mess of a time to get myself untangled, and finally giving Batman what for!

“GIVE A GIRL SOME WARNING NEXT TIME, WILL YA?!” I shouted. Batman appeared to pay no heed

“Shift! Hongo! Magenta!” Hongo was caught by surprise as he tried to jump out of the way, but soon ended up sliding down the roof and pulling the pipes down. “Shift! Gandalf! Yellow!” Gandalf tried to steady himself with his staff but was sucked in anyways and ended up on the roof. He pushed the object off and the slid down with Wyldstyle catching him. “All right, now to turn this thing off.” The instructions appeared on the view-screen again. Batman read them, then said “Shift Keystone, Deactivate!” The portals disappeared as we gathered the parts to make a trampoline to get up to the Keystone in the chimney. Batman got there first. It appeared to have a design with three different colored dots in the shape of a triangle. The topmost vertex was blue, the left was yellow, and the right was red with lines connecting them all. Batman was about to grab the new Keystone when a giant black box with red eyes and clawed hands came out of a portal and grabbed it first!

“A Micro-manager?!” yelped Wyldstyle.

“Hey!” snapped Batman to the one that stole the Keystone.

“Batman!” called Hongo as a Micro-manager grabbed him. We were all grabbed and taken to the sky. While we went up, the Micro-managers caused havoc in Springfield. Such examples were shooting one of Homer’s co-workers in the rear, setting fire to Krusty Burger with Krusty the Clown fleeing with his money, but not before putting up a sign saying “Now Flame Grilled”, setting the elementary school on fire, making Bart and his best friend, Milhouse, high five each other, tearing the town hall apart, making the Mayor run into a tree, shooting Chief Wiggum’s car with him being unaware of the chaos going on, and chasing Krusty, causing him to run into Marge and try to woo her, but end up getting tossed into the stratosphere.

“What the heck is going on!” snarled Batman as he tried to escape the grip of the Micro-manager holding him.

“I don’t know!” exclaimed Wyldstyle as a trio of Micro-managers entered a portal.

“If you want my opinion,” called a voice, “I’d say our careers just reached new heights!” Hiro came in on top of a Micro-manager. As we stared, he rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, not feeling that one either!”

“You put us down, now!” I shouted.

“Are you sure you want that?” asked Hiro.

“You heard her!” shouted Batman as he took out a Batarang. “Put us down!” He threw it at Hiro’s head, then it travelled to hit the hands of our respective Micro-managers. “Here we go again!” called Batman as gravity caught up to us. Hiro regained his balance and saw us fall.

“Oh, no you don’t!” he roared. He took his guns and pointed them at us after he loaded his i.d tag into them. “You won’t get away from me that easily! Henshin!” He fell into the red circle and became Kamen Rider Rogue.

“Rogue’s on our tail!” reported Lukas.

“Then we fight him once we find a decent platform!” I suggested.

“I see a massive Micro-manager!” called Wyldstyle.

“Then that’s where we fight him!” I said as I took out the i.d tag.

“Rider!” announced Hongo as his belt opened.

“HENSHIN!” we all called as we sped towards the giant Micro-manager. SWAT-bots then clambered on top as Hiro caught up to us. When we clashed, there was a massive brawl between us! Between all the punches and kicks, we managed to loosen a panel which raised a computer terminal. Swing pressed a button to broadcast a transmission coming from somewhere to all Micro-managers.

“The Foundation Element has been located,” reported the voice, making Wyldstyle widen her eyes in fear. “It’s in the nuclear power station in the hands of an employee.”

“System compromised,” came the computer voice of the Micro-manager’s computer. “Self-destruct initializing in 3, 2, 1.”

“Self…what?” gulped Gandalf. The Micro-manager exploded.

“Oddly enough, Hiro,” remarked Hiroki, “I don’t think that’s the entire plan!”

“Like I’d tell you!” snapped Hiro as he raised his guns and fired.

“Sengoku’s right,” called Batman as we dodged the shots, “that sounded like only part of the plan! We’ll need to hack more terminals to find out more!” We soon found another giant Micro-manager, you know, let’s call it a Macro-manager, and landed on its roof. More SWAT-bots came out and opened fire once we landed. Our capes morphed into shields as we took up positions, but we couldn’t effectively return fire. The only one who could was Kämpfer with his stylized crossbow. Thank goodness there’s no recoil on it. Arch wanted to fire, but he can’t exactly fire arrows with one hand. The rest of us only had melee weapons.

“Drat, we can’t fire back!” I hissed.

+INCORRECT STATEMENT+ countered my belt. +ALL WEAPONS CAN SWITCH FROM RANGED TO MELEE FORMS+

“What about those that need two hands to fire?!” snapped Arch.

+YOU DO NOT NEED TWO HANDS TO FIRE+ replied my belt. +THERE IS A BUTTON UNDER YOUR RIGHT POINTER FINGER+ Arch blinked under his helmet and looked at the bow. The button was small and red. He pointed the bow at the SWAT-bots and pressed the button. An energy shot pierced the metal of the robot.

“Merci beaucoup!” thanked Arch as he continued to return fire.

“Is there recoil on our weapons’ ranged mode?” I asked.

+NEGATIVE+ replied my belt.

“Then we’re going to have some fun!” I chuckled as I folded my sword into a rifle. We unleashed a volley of laser fire and raised a platform with a green tube with a satellite dish. A Micro-manager grabbed the dish in an attempt to stop our progress, but Batman pulled it down, destroying it and the tube, but a certain Master Builder made another terminal which started broadcasting more of the transmission.

“Do everything it takes to get hold of this employee, one Homer J… Sampson? …Sempson? …Sim…oh, whatever! JUST GET HIM!”

“That idiot broadcasted the plan to all Micro-managers?!” snapped Rogue.

“Second system compromised,” came the Macro-manager’s A.I. “Self-destruct initializing in T-minus 3, 2, 1. Detonation.” The Macro-manager blew up. A bit of free-fall later and we landed on another Macro-manager. This time, we had to take care of three Micro-managers shooting at us. Hunt then swapped her i.d tag for the Batman one.

“Batman steel!” announced her belt. Batman Steel came on as she swung a batarang at the Micro-managers, destroying them. The panel was removed by Gandalf’s magic and the terminal raised, but Rogue shot it.

“Not this time!” he snarled. He then took out a ball of some sort. It was blueish gray with a red dot in the center. “I summon you, Turretorg!” He threw the ball onto the floor where it melted, then grew, then formed an ugly shape. It was vaguely humanoid, had fur everywhere, had gun turrets on its shoulders and head, gun barrels for hands, cannons coming out of the mouth, and a gun on each knee.

“Turretorg, awaiting orders, sir!” said the monster.

“Slay those dolts!” ordered Rogue.

“I pledge obedience!” saluted Turretorg. He…she…it turned on us and unleashed a volley of fire. We took cover where we could.

“Another computer terminal must be inside,” called Wyldstyle. “If we can get in…”

“How do you propose we do that?!” I snapped. “We’re under heavy fire, in case you forgot!”

“But the grapple guns can reach pretty long,” remarked Wyldstyle.

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” I asked, exasperated.

“My scanner found two grapple hooks on either side of this thing’s roof,” explained Wyldstyle. She pointed them out to me. “We just need someone with Batman Steel.”

“Hunt!” I called, getting Hunt’s attention. “Tell Batman to fire a grapple gun at one of those hooks over there!”

“Got it!” she confirmed. She told Batman of the plan. Batman and Hunt then fired their grapple guns and pulled a couple of pylons out of the Macro-manager. The rear swung out and a green light glowed on Batman’s Keystone Gauntlet.

“What’s the green light for?” he asked.

+KEYSTONE TRANSMITTER IN VICINITY+ replied my belt.

“Clear a path for me!” called Batman. “I need to see where to place the portals!”

“Everyone, give Batman cover fire!” I shouted. We managed to separate Rogue and Turretorg and keep their attention on us while Batman got the lay of the land. The interior was set up in two levels, the lower of which had an electric dome over a terminal. The rear door had platforms underneath pipes that begged to be disconnected.

“Shift Keystone, Activate!” announced Batman. “Cyan, over rear most platform! Yellow, on roof of Macro-manager! Magenta, near electric dome!” The portals appeared. Gandalf had jumped inside the Macro-manager to undo a pipe on the door. It weakened the electro-dome around the terminal. Gandalf got an idea.

“Batman!” shouted Gandalf. “Get me into the Cyan portal!”

“What?!” yelped Batman.

“Trust me!” assured Gandalf. Batman shrugged but complied.

“Shift! Gandalf! Cyan!” This time, Gandalf was ready. He allowed himself to be sucked in and ended up on the farthest platform on the door. He then used his magic to undo two more pipes. The electro-dome disappeared and Batman decided to try something. “Shift! All in vicinity! Magenta!” he commanded. Everyone got sucked into the magenta portal. And when I say “everybody”, I mean everybody. Perhaps Batman should have specified his targets. Everyone tumbled into the second level of the Macro-manager. It became a firefight between us and Rogue and the monster. We surrounded the terminal as I switched it on.

“Once we have the artefact, we move back,” came the transmission. “Utilize the Asset and his secret weapon if there’s any resistance.”

“Hm,” mused Batman. “There may be trouble ahead.”

“Proximity alert,” came the computer. “Emergency Landing incoming. Raise in altitude suggested.” Batman continued looking at the terminal.

“This says that we’re heading towards Springfield Nuclear Power Plant,” he reported. The Macro-manager started shaking.

“And that, I assume,” I gulped, “was our brakes?”

“Yep,” replied Batman.

“Master, we must fall back!” called Turretorg.

“No!” snarled Rogue. “We give our lives to eliminating them!”

“This is a suicide mission!” argued Turretorg. “There’s no honor in this! We must retreat so we can claim the Foundation Element more quickly!” Rogue considered this.

“You’ve successfully swayed me,” he sighed. He opened a portal. “We’ll regroup in the main building. Fall back!”

“I pledge obedience!” saluted Turretorg as it followed him into the portal. Meanwhile we tried to control our ride, but to no avail.

“Guys, if we don’t make it out,” I called, “it was an honor serving with you!”

“The pleasure’s all ours, my lady!” replied Guard. We crashed into the main building.

Categories
Kamen Rider Vortex Kamen Rider Vortex Chapters

Chapter 7

As we tumbled through the vortex, the enemy was showing his displeasure for failure. “I GAVE YOU A SIMPLE JOB!” roared Lord Vortech as he swung his staff at Hiro. Hiro flew to the other end of the rapidly finishing fortress of Foundation Prime. As he flew, Vortech’s minions, the Vortexons, featureless humanoids that were made of the same stuff as their master, looked on. “I told you to get the Keystone located in that absurd little dimension and you let a green skinned woman get it! Don’t forget that I can easily destroy you for failure, Hiro!”

“There’s something you’re forgetting, Vortech!” Hiro roared as he charged at his employer and decked him. “If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t be able to get Ichimonji’s typhoon! If I recall, that’s one of the Foundation Elements. If I didn’t discover the Rogue Driver and reverse engineered it to make a transformation belt for my colleagues in Shocker, my native dimension would very well be a null dimension and it would pass your notice!”

“And if I recall, I was the original genius behind the Rogue Driver’s construction!” snarled Vortech. He threw a punch, which Hiro caught. He then raised his staff and was about to bring it down when he felt the barrel of one of the Rogue Driver’s guns at his belly.

“It’s been so long since you built me,” boasted the Rogue Driver, “that you forgot that I know your weakness.”

“I’m not afraid to cheat to win,” exclaimed Hiro. Vortech considered what was said.

“Point…taken,” He lowered his staff and backed off. “Perhaps I overreacted. A Foundation Element is on its way, so a Keystone isn’t a big loss.”

“A wise decision,” praised Hiro as he holstered the gun. A portal opened to deposit Dorothy and her friends in front of the throne that just finished.

“Ah,” mused Vortech. “Good guys?”

“I might be a villain!” called the Scarecrow.

“Ignore him,” hissed the Tin man.

“Thank you, to the left, please,” responded Vortech as he sat on the throne. The Vortexons grabbed the group at their master’s mental command. “Oh, and you won’t be needing those lovely ruby slippers anymore, my dear!” A Vortexon took the slippers off. Dorothy and her friends were place in separate cages near Robin, Frodo, MetalBeard, and our parents.

“Have you got any idea where we are or what’s going on?” asked Robin.

“Sorry,” replied Fred, Richard and Emily’s dad, as he spoke for all our parents.

“A nightmare, maybe?” asked my adopted mom, Haruna.

“Might as well be,” mused Ichimonji as he wore a different belt without a fan inside.

“I know it’s not Kansas,” observed Dorothy. “They took my slippers.”

“They took the One Ring, too,” recalled Frodo.

“And the Kryptonite I was holding,” exclaimed Robin.

“And my treasure chest of ill-gotten booty,” sighed MetalBeard.

“And my belt, the Typhoon,” reported Ichimonji.

“They did not steal anything from us,” observed Sergei, Mikhail and Irina’s dad.

“Maybe we’re not important,” mused Amanda, Fred’s wife.

“My treasure…” moaned MetalBeard.

“Don’t worry, MetalBeard,” assured Robin, “We’ll get it back.” MetalBeard brightened at this. “And then I WILL have to return it to the rightful owners.” The grin faded.

“I’m Frodo Baggins, madam,” said Frodo. “Who are you?”

“Dorothy Gale,” introduced Dorothy. “This is the Scarecrow.”

“Scarecrow?!” yelped Robin.

“Not Jonathan Crane,” assured Angela, Xiomara’s mother.

“Oh,” Robin sighed with relief.

“And this is the Tin Man,” continued Dorothy. “And that’s the Cowardly Lion.” Said talking animal was muttering “I DO believe in spooks!” over and over. While introductions were made, the Vortexon with the slippers approached his master.

“Excellent!” cheered Vortech. “Place them with the other elements.” The Vortexon obeyed. Vortech then used his magic to lift them and place them on their images in the hole in the floor and reactivate the shield over it. He cackled once the job was done.

“Must you cackle?” protested Hiro.

“It’s therapeutic,” explained Vortech. “You should try it.” Another portal opened and released a clown in a purple suit and an old man in white robes and a staff. “Bad guys?” asked Vortech. “Excellent. To the right, please.”

“I am Saruman the White,” protested the man in white. “I am not a ‘bad guy’!”

“Pfft! Please!” scoffed the clown.

“Look!” cried Vortech, putting on a show of fear. “Sauron!”

“My lord!” yelped Hiro, pretending to be scared. “What brought you here?!”

“My lord, Sauron!” exclaimed Saruman as he turned and kneeled. “It is I, your faithful serv…!” All he saw was the fortress’ interior. He realized he was played for a fool as he heard the clown laughing at him.

“If I recall,” mused Hiro, “Sauron is a Dark Lord. Doesn’t that imply evil, Saruman?” Saruman was about to argue but couldn’t get the words out and slumped his shoulders in defeat. “And then there’s you,” said Hiro to the clown. “You call yourself the Clown Prince of Crime. Wouldn’t crime be evil? Not that I complain about your work, Mr. Joker.”

“Well, at least SOMEONE appreciates my work!” cheered the Joker. “Unlike a certain bat in my belfry and his Boy Blunder!”

“I heard that!” called Robin. The Joker pretended not to notice.

“To your right, you say?” quizzed Saruman to Vortech.

“If you don’t mind,” confirmed Vortech. He pointed to the weapons pile on his right. “You’ll find lots of fun weapons and we can offer you some excellent opportunities to use them!”

“Well,” giggled the Joker, “we’d have to be crazy to refuse that offer!” Vortech arched an eyebrow and hmmed in confusion.

“Er, I hate to ask this of a comedian,” winced Hiro, “but can you explain the joke?” The Joker twitched.

“That means we’re in,” he groaned.

“Follow me to the weapons range,” called Hiro. “I’ll get you acquainted with our arsenal.” The two bad guys from different dimensions followed him with the Joker laughing his head off.


While that was going on, we arrived back at our base of operations. The gateway was still in one piece. “Goodness,” exclaimed Gandalf, “I almost lost my staff that time!”

“Same here,” agreed Wyldstyle, “except with my lunch.”

“Yeah, I almost threw up the apples I had,” muttered Tonje.

“I don’t understand why Fili was so against apples when he got to Lake Town,” said Gandalf.

“Given that he was in a barrel that smelled of apples before he got there,” replied Michael, “I’d have the same reaction if I were in his position.” Batman took out the gateway piece and examined it. It jumped out of his hands and floated in the air.

“Hey, nice job!” called the voice from earlier. “You brought back the Shift Keystone.”

“Keystone?” quizzed Wyldstyle. “What’s a keystone?”

“I’m guessing it’s this,” mused Batman as he pointed to the Gateway piece as it attached itself to the right-most area. Batman’s left hand then floated in the air and glowed purple before a purple gauntlet materialized with the Shift Keystone’s symbol.

+KEYSTONE POWERS ARE NOW IN YOUR POSSESSION+ announced my belt. +GATEWAY 20% STABILIZED+

“Oh, so that’s why they’re called Keystones,” realized Tanisha. “They’re holding the gateway together like a bridge!”

“Hey, Haruto,” announced the voice, “I found your dimension. You can go home whenever you wish.” The gateway opened a portal.

“In that case,” bid Haruto Soma, “I must say farewell.”

“It was an honor to fight alongside you,” praised Hongo.

“Yeah, alongside, instead of against,” Haruto pointed out. “Last time we met, it was you and the other Showa riders against us Heisei riders.”

“And you proved that you’re still worthy of the name Kamen Rider,” praised Hongo. “Farewell, Haruto-san.”

“Farewell, Hongo-san,” called Haruto. “Farewell, everyone.” He jumped into the portal while we all waved goodbye.

“Now,” I quizzed my belt after the portal closed, “what’s the idea with the studs we got from Glinda?”

+THEY ARE MADE OF A VALUABLE METAL CALLED NONEXISTIUM+ explained my belt. +IT IS FOUND IN FOUR COLORS+ +A STUD IS A MEANS OF CURRENCY+ +THE NOW EXHAUSTED BLACK STUDS USED TO HAVE A VALUE OF ONE+ +THE COMMON GOLD STUDS HAVE A VALUE OF TEN+ +SLIGHTLY LESS COMMON SILVER STUDS HAVE A VALUE OF ONE HUNDRED+ +RARE BLUE STUDS HAVE A VALUE OF ONE THOUSAND+ +THE RAREST PURPLE STUDS HAVE A VALUE OF TEN THOUSAND+

“Glinda gave us a cash reward!” exclaimed Emmanuel. I grinned wickedly.

“Money!” I cheered.

“Easy,” called Batman. “What about the gauntlet I got?”

+WHEN CONNECTED TO A SPECIAL TRANSMITTER, THE KEYSTONE GAUNTLET WILL ALLOW YOU TO USE THAT SPECIFIC KEYSTONE POWER+ explained my belt. +CURRENTLY, YOU ARE BONDED TO THE SHIFT KEYSTONE THAT WE HAVE OBTAINED IN DIMENSION W-1-Z-A-R-D-0-F-0-Z+

“So, this thing can give me the power the Witch had when we fought her?” asked Batman.

+AFFIRMATIVE+ confirmed my belt. +HOWEVER, THAT GAUNTLET IS HARDWIRED TO YOUR DNA+

“No one else can use it,” I guessed. “Still, impressive technology. Where did it come from?”

+THIS DIMENSION IS THE TECHNOLOGY’S DIMENSION OF ORIGIN+ boasted my belt, as much as a monotonous voice can give a boasting tone.

“What is this place anyway?” asked Wyldstyle.

+THIS IS ONE OF THE THREE REMAINING FRAGMENTS OF THE MULTIVERSAL PLANET, VORTON+ said my belt.

“Remaining fragments?” asked Richard. “You mean, we’re floating on a dead planet?”

+AFFIRMATIVE+ confirmed my belt.

“Then, how are we breathing?” I asked.

+EMERGENCY POWER KEEPS AN ATMOSPHERIC FIELD AROUND THE FRAGMENTS+ explained my belt. +WITH THE GATEWAY RESTORED AND A KEYSTONE HOLDING IT IN PLACE, THE FIELDS WILL LAST INDEFINITELY+ +FOOD DISPENSERS ARE ALSO FUNCTIONING AS WELL AS THE SHOWER ROOMS+

“Shower!” I exclaimed. “Did you guys hear that? What a wonderful word!”

“I suggest some food and cleaning ourselves of any filth we’ve acquired,” commented Richard. “I haven’t had a decent shower since we left Castle Nerd Skull.”

“An excellent idea!” cheered Emily.

“I agree!” I affirmed. We all departed for the showers and got ourselves cleaned. Our clothes were put in machines marked “Clothes mended and washed while you wait.” Once my shower was finished, I found my dress neatly folded and my tiara sparkling like new in a basket in my changing stall. I got myself dressed and walked out while adjusting my tiara on my head. I met up with the others with clean clothes over at the cafeteria.

“Ye GODS!” exclaimed Michael. “I never felt so clean!”

“I will admit,” mused Batman, “even a hero like me needs a clean uniform.”

“And food is waiting for us!” I called. My belt talked me through how to operate the replicator and soon I was greeted with something from my home country, a comfort food, really, Chazuke, or Ochazuke made with light fish stock poured over rice and topped with things like umeboshi and grilled salmon, my personal preference of toppings. This is one of my favorite rice dishes. Soon, everyone got their meals and we sat down and ate. Those from Japan, Hongo, Hiroki, and I, said “Itadakimasu” (I gratefully receive) before we ate. We all ate our meals and had our drinks in happiness. For just that moment, we didn’t care about a dimensional crisis. Hiroki said his late father would say that if the entire human race got together to eat and drink and be merry, conflict would be nonexistent. I wish I met the man. After we ate, we Japanese said “Gochisosama” (Thank you for the meal) and we all found our bedrooms. We bid each other good night and flew off to Dream Land.


Back in the Merry Old Land of Oz, in the Witch’s throne room, a Winkie in his old gear and green makeup examined the puddle of green liquid that was once a person. He then took a vial and put a portion of the liquid into it and pricked his finger to let blood drip in the vial. The next step was to put a drop of water into the mixture, cork it, and shake it. He turned to leave when he saw a woman in a black ball gown with a skeletal motif, a black cloak, skull makeup, and black orbs for eyes. She looked at the vial, then back at the Winkie.

“Nardo will not appreciate that,” she whispered. “He needs this freedom.”

“Freedom?” scoffed the Winkie. “We were starving before the Witch came. Many of us would rather have food than freedom. Now, out of my way!”

“Even though you know my power, you still give me orders?” asked the woman. “True, it wasn’t her time, but she will not rule here again.”

“Get out of my way!” snarled the Winkie.

“Try and move me!” hissed the woman. She flicked her wrist and summoned a scythe. The woman then got into a defensive stance. The Winkie charged, with the intent to knock her down. It didn’t go so well as she used the staff part of her scythe to trip him up. The vial flew out of his hands as she spun in a circle with the scythe pointing at the ground. It opened a vortex beneath her. She remained floating above it as if she were on solid ground. The vial tumbled in as the Winkie was thrown into a wall, knocking him out. She took a book from her cloak and skimmed over it until she found what she was looking for. “A pity,” she said. She turned to the unconscious Winkie. “Looks like I’ll be back for you in ten minutes. A stress induced heart attack is a rather painful way to go, but you insisted on working yourself to death. In a way, you chose to be a slave instead of living your life to the fullest. I cannot say where you’ll go. Farewell. Your fate is sealed. Forget you ever met me. A freak portal took that vial out of your hands.”

“My lady, hold for a moment,” called a woman’s voice. The woman in black turned to see a Winkie woman in her natural yellow clothes.

“Widow Netterop,” whispered the woman. She smiled. “Good to see you.”

“So, it’s true?” asked Widow Netterop. “The Witch had secret police?”

“I’m afraid so,” confirmed the woman. “I wish it weren’t true, but she feared rebellion from both the Flying Monkeys and your people. However, it DID make her vulnerable to outside influence, as I’m sure you’ve heard.”

“Has the Emerald City been informed about this crisis going across the dimensions?” asked Netterop.

“I spoke with the Wizard of Oz himself,” whispered the woman. “He is preparing accordingly, with the resources available. I would suggest to your brother that he do the same.”

“I’ll tell him at once,” assured Netterop. “Would you like to stay for a while? My daughter is preparing Chicken Soup. She hasn’t seen you in a while, good Lady Death.” The woman, Death, considered.

“I don’t see why not,” she finally decided. “Lead the way. I’ll deal with this man in ten minutes.”

“If you don’t mind my asking,” quizzed Netterop as she led her oldest friend out of the tower, “how will he die?”

“Stress induced heart attack,” whispered Death. Netterop shut the door behind them. The click of the lock woke the Winkie. He had forgotten his encounter and realized the vial was gone. Inside the vortex, the vial cracked and shattered. The mixture then grew into a humanoid shape. It then formed a mouth and a feminine shape. It screamed from pain of the vortex winds reforming her into Elphaba Thropp, the former Wicked Witch of the West.

Categories
Kamen Rider Vortex Kamen Rider Vortex Chapters

Chapter 6

“So, how did you get here in Oz?” I asked Haruto-san after Hiroki and I explained to everybody who he is.

“I was fighting a new Phantom that I had never seen before,” explained Haruto, “when that lunatic Rider, Hiro, decided to interfere. He killed the Phantom, leading me to believe that he was a friend. That was a mistake. He opened a portal, threw me inside while saying that I’m one less interference. Somehow, it ended in a town of little people, about half my height. I was met with a woman in a gown similar to yours, but in lightish pink, a tall silver crown, and a staff with a silver star on the end of it.”

“Must have been Glinda,” mused Emily. “In the books, she’s the Good Witch of the south while in the 1939 movie, the one that this dimension is set in, she rules the north.”

“I didn’t get her name at first,” continued Haruto, “because once I introduced myself so I could ask her questions, one has to be polite in a new land, a bunch of black boxes with red eyes and clawed fingers on tendrils started attacking.”

“That description sounds a lot like the Micro-managers from my dimension,” said Wyldstyle, “but Lord Business had taken them apart for Master Builders to use as they see fit. Heck, one of his robots in a saloon girl disguise became a Master Builder!”

“In any case,” continued Haruto, “I turned into Wizard and fought them off, helping the Munchkins rebuild their town and part of the yellow brick road, as well as their red one. Glinda helped out as well and finally introduced herself to me, calling me a good wizard. She offered to help me since I helped the Munchkins. I told her that I needed to go home and she told me of the Emerald City, the Wizard of Oz, and how to get there. That’s when the Munchkins started singing Follow the Yellow Brick Road. And now, I’ve put it back in my head!”

“Americans call it an earworm,” muttered Hiroki.

“Appropriate name for it,” murmured Haruto.

“I can think of worse earworms,” I countered. “There’s Frozen’s…” My horse then started whinnying nervously. The same was with the other horses, even Shadowfax.

“My lady,” called Gandalf, “we’re near the Haunted Woods Dame Emily spoke of. I recommend we continue on foot. The horses are too restless.”

“Good idea,” I agreed. “Dismount!” We all got off our horses and reassured them that we’ll be back. Batman got out of the Batmobile, locked it, and Wyldstyle, Hongo, and Haruto dismounted their bikes. We had to crawl under a fallen tree to enter the woods.

“I believe the castle that witch spoke of lies beyond these woods,” mused Gandalf. We traveled farther near a tree with an apple and encountered more flying monkeys. “Oh dear, more of these repulsive creatures?” We fought them off, but a monkey I sent flying knocked the apple off the tree. The tree started moving as it revealed a face and arms!

“What do you think you’re doing!” snapped the tree. “Oh, you!” He started hurling things at us! Gandalf cast a barrier to protect us.

“I’ve never heard of an Ent that acted and spoke in such terrible ways!” he cried.

“That thing is no Ent, it’s a menace!” countered Emily. “We need to get it out of here!” It was then I heard someone’s stomach growl. I turned to Lukas.

“That wasn’t mine!” he argued. “Herr Haruto used a donut ring, remember? I already had food!”

“That’s right,” confirmed Hiroki. “You were the only one to refuse a plain sugar donut! It’s your stomach that growled!”

“Not true!” I protested. A louder growl came through. We all realized it was everyone’s stomachs. “Oh, for God’s sakes!” I shouted to my stomach. “We’re on a journey to save the multiverse! What do you want?!” My stomach growled louder. “Oh, complain, complain, complain! That’s all you do!”

“Your highness,” called Emily, “I have an idea.” Her voice got louder. “We’ll just find another, more respectable tree, without apples like his!”

“Are you hinting my apples aren’t what they ought to be?!” shouted the tree.

“Oh no!” countered Emily. “We just don’t want little green worms!” That got the tree mad as he started plucking the apples off of his branches and started throwing them instead of the debris in the forest. I then got the idea.

“You call that a throwing arm?!” I shouted. “Come on! My grandma throws harder than that!” That wasn’t an empty taunt. My adopted grandmother’s throwing arm is scary strong! That made the tree madder and he started throwing twice as fast. It went from taunt to throw to taunt to throw that even Batman started joining it. Soon the tree went back to throwing debris. “Haruto-san, do you have a spell that can get rid of the tree?” I asked.

“As a matter of fact, I do!” he cheered. He then put a ring on with an axe design and waved it over the hand shaped belt buckle, the Hand Author.

“Chop, please!” announced the Hand Author’s voice as it summoned a giant axe, scaring the tree into running away.

“Okay, you can…” my request came too little, too late as the axe chopped down the other trees, blocking our path, “…get rid of the axe.” I finished lamely.

“Gomen’nasai!” (I’m sorry!) gulped Haruto.

“Can’t be helped,” replied Gandalf. “In any case, I believe we have something to tide us over.”

“Apple break, everyone,” I announced. “We’ll clear the debris later.” Us dress wearers held our topmost skirts for the apples to rest while the rest gathered them up. Once all apples were retrieved, we put them in a pile and started munching. We had a 10-minute break and finished them off in that time frame. We tossed the cores into the bushes and approached the debris. Haruto used a levitation spell ring to clear it.

“My Lady, the way is clear,” he called.

“Haruto-san, you are too kind,” I replied as I curtsied. We proceeded to another clearing which had another roadblock of rocks.

“Your Highness,” requested Emmanuel, “permettez-moi.” He then started hurling the rocks out of the way. Say what you want about him and his clothing preferences, but Emmanuel is very strong.

“Merci!” I thanked. The others were impressed.

“Ah, yeah!” cheered Wyldstyle. “Now that was cool!”

“Maybe,” replied Emmanuel, “but the bridge to the castle is out on the other end.”

“Drat,” I hissed. “Is there any indication of a grappling hook?”

“I’m afraid not,” reported Emmanuel.

“What about the debris?” asked Gandalf. “We could use it to repair the bridge.”

“That would take too long,” I countered.

“Not as long as you have magic,” replied Haruto. I turned to him.

“You think you guys can build a bridge?” I asked.

“If we have at least three more magic using folk,” replied Gandalf.

“All right,” I cheered. “Richard, use Gandalf Steel and help Haruto and Gandalf lift the debris to form the new bridge part. Hiroki, Wizard Steel with me. We’ll go into flame style and solidify the debris so it can support our weight. Haruto, what ring would accomplish that?”

“A ring called meld works best,” explained Haruto. “Before you ask to borrow that ring, I’d like to point out that during our fight on the yellow brick road, your ‘Wizard Steel’ had the same ring loops as mine. The meld ring was on there. It has a design of metal shards forming a river.”

“Thank you,” I replied. That makes the job a lot easier. Hiroki, Richard, and I struck our henshin poses.

“HENSHIN!” we announced. Our armor formed and almost immediately, we swapped out our i.d tags for the magic ones.

“Gandalf Steel!” called Richard’s belt. While the wardrobe dissolved, Hiroki and I chose the flame style.

“Wizard Flame Steel!” announced our belts. “Flame, please! Hi! Hi! Hi, hi, HI!” Our flame style armor appeared and we got our rings on.

“Everyone in position?” I asked. Everyone confirmed. “Let’s do it!”

“Levitate, please!” called Haruto’s Hand Author as he, Gandalf, and Richard brought the debris to the destroyed section of bridge and formed the shape. Hiroki and I mimed flipping the levers on a WizarDriver and heard the chant of “Lupachi magic, touch to go!” We scanned the meld ring.

“Meld, please!” announced our belts as a wave of heat washed over the debris to make a solid patch for the bridge. Batman looked at the castle.

“A gigantic castle for just one person?” he mused. A grin formed on his face. “I’m beginning to like this witch!”

“You’re not gonna try and upgrade your base into a castle, are you?” asked Xiomara.

“Hmm,” pondered Batman. “The Bat-Castle has a nice ring to it.”

“And when the people of Gotham mistake you for a vampire?” asked Xiomara. I never thought anything of the “spooky” persuasion would make the Dark Knight shudder, but apparently, vampires do.

“Don’t remind me!” he shuddered. “I’ve met some guys that dressed like vampires wanting to suck my blood with special syphons around the canines! Forget it, no Bat-Castle!”

“Oh boy,” gulped Emily as Richard, Hiroki, and I cancelled our transformations.

“What’s the matter?” I asked.

“We’ve got Winkies patrolling the castle!” reported Emily. The Winkies in this dimension were green-skinned like the Witch and wore gray outfits with orange designs, signifying rank, most likely, and black boots. They all carried halberds and chanted “Oh-Ee-Yah, Ee-Yo-Ah!” to keep the rhythm of their march. A patrol was marching into the castle.

“Crud,” I swore. “With the Witch in possession of a gateway piece of unknown power, she probably doubled the guard!”

“Then why don’t we walk in there?” asked Haruto.

“Are you out of your tiny little mind?!” I yelped.

“Well, there is a disguise ring,” explained Haruto.

“That’s right,” exclaimed Hiroki, “the Dress-Up ring!”

“The what?!” asked Wyldstyle.

“Haruto can go in disguise if a mission against a Phantom needs stealth,” I explained. “But, the question is, can it work on all of us?”

“I don’t know,” mused Haruto as he put on a ring with the design looking like a dragon with a bow tie on. “Let’s find out.” He then waved it over the Hand Author.

“Dress-Up, please!” announced the Hand Author. Haruto then stuck his arm out and runic circles passed over us, putting us in Winkie outfits. It also gave us the skin color of the Winkies. Batman blinked at the outfit.

“I look ridiculous!” he hissed.

“Just go along with it!” I whispered back. “Emily, since your our resident expert on all things Oz, you lead us in.”

“Follow my lead, everyone!” called Emily. We got into two lines, with Emily leading in between. She set the marching rhythm and started chanting “Oh-Ee-Yah, Ee-Yo-Ah!” We soon followed suit and marched right up to the drawbridge with the portcullis already lowered. The Captain of the Guard stopped us.

“I don’t recall a patrol in that formation!” he barked. He turned to Emily. “What sector were you patrolling?”

“Sector 21, sir!” answered Emily.

“The Western Border, I see,” mused the Captain. “Anything to report?”

“A cantankerous apple tree started hurling objects at us,” reported Emily. “We got rid of it.”

“How did an Eastern Talking Tree wander in here?” asked the Captain to himself. He shook his head. “In any case, anything else to report?”

“No, sir,” replied Emily. “Nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Right,” finished the Captain, “Off you…” he was interrupted by another group of Winkies coming up the path. “Wait your turn!” barked the Captain. “I need to clear the patrol for Sector 21 here!”

“That’s us, sir,” said the head of that patrol. Uh oh! The Captain arched an eyebrow.

“That’s impossible,” he snapped “These soldiers are the patrol for Sector 21!”

“No, sir, we are!” argued the Patrol Commander.

“Sir,” called one of the Guard Captain’s immediate subordinates, “permission to point out some observations?”

“Permission granted,” replied the Captain.

“First, sir, you will recall that our women are being admitted into the army?” asked the subordinate.

“Right,” confirmed the Captain.

“Well, sir,” elaborated the subordinate, “didn’t our master say that they will be part of the army next week?” Uh oh times two!

“Hey,” realized the Captain, “yeah, you’re right!”

“Second, sir,” continued the subordinate, “article 9, section 2, paragraph 3 states that all soldiers must be well groomed, subsection 4 states that beards are not allowed!” He pointed to Gandalf, Mikhail, and Richard. Uh oh times three! “Third, sir,” continued the subordinate, “that bridge wasn’t repaired until a few minutes before they arrived! My conclusion…”

“YOU LOT ARE THE IMPOSTERS!” roared the Captain. The disguise was cancelled. “SOUND THE ALARM! RAISE THE DRAWBRIDGE! GET THESE INTRUDERS IN CHAINS!” ordered the Captain.

“Well, time to go in Marine style!” called Richard.

“Marine style?” asked Hongo and Haruto.

“We’re fighting our way through!” I translated as I got my i.d tag.

“Now THAT I can get behind,” cheered Tonje.

“Driver on, please!” announced the Hand Author as it turned into the WizarDriver. Haruto then flipped the levers and the familiar chant of “Shabadoobie, touch to henshin!” started playing.

“Rider…” began Hongo. Haruto took out the flame style ring.

“HENSHIN!” we all shouted.

“Flame, please! Hi! Hi! Hi, hi, HI!” sang the WizarDriver. Soon, all riders were in their suits and we started fighting off the Winkies. Arch tossed one into the moat. Insert Wilhelm scream here. Our weapons knocked down a bunch and Ichigō used his own fighting style to get rid of them. “Excite, please!” announced the WizarDriver. Wizard then grew to gigantic proportions to kick the Winkies away. The enemy was gone, but the problem of the drawbridge remained.

“There should be some outdoor controls,” called Batman.

“I see them in that guard house,” replied Kämpfer. “Batman, help me out. The rest of you, clear off. Let the techs work.”

“I hope the Wicked Witch isn’t expecting house guests,” gulped Wyldstyle.

“Considering we did raise a ruckus and knock over all the soldiers,” countered Tanisha, “the possibility of a ‘warm’ reception is very high.” The sound of chains snapping made a red light go off in my head.

“Back away!” I shouted. Everyone was clear when the drawbridge went down. The portcullis was still down, but there was a mechanism that a batarang could spin. Batman tossed one and the portcullis went up. We charged inside to see the Witch above us.

“So, you made it inside, did you?” she screeched. “Well, I hope you like it here, because I’m going to make sure you never leave!” She cackled as she fled to her tower room. The door with a flying monkey design closed behind her.

“Uh oh,” gulped Wyldstyle, “I thought things were going a little too well.” We fought off some more Winkies and headed to the wooden stairs with a candelabra on top. A flying monkey flew in and knocked it over, setting it on fire. It revealed part of a wall jump panel and a box hidden underneath. “Time to think outside the box,” chuckled Wyldstyle as her relic detector found a grappling hook. Kamen Riders Clash and Swing, Livia and Tonje respectively, activated Batman Steel and together with Batman, they pulled the box apart. The box contained panels to complete wall jumping. Once they were set up, Kamen Rider Zhànshì, Haitao, and Kamen Rider Battle, Michael, activated Wyldstyle steel and wall jumped up to the top level. A couple of Winkies swung their halberds but were no match for two of my 15 best friends. Once they were finished with the guards, Battle and Zhànshì let down a rope to let the rest of us up. When he got up, Gandalf magically picked the lock on the door to open it up. Once opened, we went up the stairs to the Witch’s tower, opened the door, and poked our heads inside. We then cautiously stepped inside to see the gateway piece.

“Maybe she’s not here,” whispered Wizard.

“That, or she’s hiding,” countered Batman. Sadly, the Dark Knight was right.

“So,” screeched the Witch, “you’ve come to steal my treasure, have you?” She then held the piece in her hands. It started glowing and made three portals in the air. One was cyan, one was magenta, and one was yellow. “Shift! Witch! Yellow!” said the Witch. Another yellow portal opened beneath her and she was sucked in. She ended up coming out of the yellow portal in the air. “And you think you’ll escape with it, do you?” she said to us. “You won’t even escape with your lives!” She cackled as usual.

“Why can’t you two do that kind of magic?” Batman asked Gandalf and Wizard. Gandalf harrumphed at that comment.

“That kind of magic is beyond what I’m capable of,” argued Wizard. “Besides, what she’s doing is not really magic.”

“Exactly!” supported Gandalf. “All she’s doing is moving faster than the eye can follow!”

“Then let’s find a way to stop her!” exclaimed Wyldstyle.

“Go ahead and try!” shrieked the Witch. “You can’t steal my new toy from me! I’m the only one who knows how to use it! It’s of no use to you! What are you people, anyway?”

“Steal?” asked Ichigō.

“We are no mere burglars,” argued Gandalf. “Although, I do happen to know a rather good one.”

“As for who we are,” began Outback, “Kamen Rider Outback! Better watch your back, mate!”

“Kamen Rider Claw! My weapons shall turn you into ribbons!”

“Kamen Rider Swing! I’ll be taking your legs!”

“Kamen Rider Hunt! I shall always get my prey!”

“Kamen Rider Clash! A duel with me shall end in your defeat!”

“Kamen Rider Climb! Mountains are a warrior’s best friend!”

“Kamen Rider Gallop! My riding skills are unmatched!”

“Kamen Rider Sengoku! You shall get a taste of Feudal Japan!”

“Kamen Rider Royal! Evil will ultimately bow to me!”

“Kamen Rider Guard! None shall harm my friends, family, and lady!”

“Kamen Rider Touché! En Garde, thing of evil!”

“Kamen Rider Zhànshì! Try and stop my quest!”

“Kamen Rider Arch! My skills outdo Robin Hood!”

“Kamen Rider Kämpfer! Your defeat will be certain at my hands!”

“Kamen Rider Seeker! It’s not gold I seek, but your end!”

“Kamen Rider Battle! For friends and family, I shall be victorious!”

“Kamen Rider Wizard! Saa, showtime da!”

“Erm, I am Gandalf the Gray!” stammered Gandalf, as he was unused to saying a catchphrase, “I shall weave a spell of defeat over you!”

“…I’m Wyldstyle! And I am not a DJ!” Wyldstyle figured she’d get that out of the way, not that the Witch would know what a DJ is.

“I’m Batman! The Dark Knight rises!” Really? Going with a movie title? Not that you’d know about that.

“Time to go the Heisei route,” muttered Ichigō. “I am the start of a group of warriors! I am Kamen Rider!” He then struck his starting Henshin pose, his red scarf flapping in the breeze.

“You’ll be called corpses when I’m through with you!” shrieked the Witch.

“Guys,” called Sengoku, “I have a plan.” We huddled up so she couldn’t hear us. “Emily, old Greenie over there hates water, right?”

“Right,” confirmed Touché, “in the book, she was so wicked, all the liquid in her body had dried up.”

“Well, first, we need to find a way to close those portals,” planned Sengoku. “I’m going to need some cages and chains to hold them in the air.”

“They’re all over the room,” observed Batman.

“My bind ring should hold them,” supplied Wizard.

“Excellent!” cheered Sengoku. “All we need to do is taunt her so she gets down. When that’s done, I want a Master Build of a hydro cannon connected to Wizard’s WizarSwordGun in gun mode. For the Finale, I’ll need a water shooting strike with Batman and Gandalf aiming the cannon’s barrel at the Witch.”

“What do you want the rest of us to do?” asked Arch.

“The Witch will make her soldiers fight us,” explained Sengoku. “We’ll hold them off.”

“I’ll be taunting her,” cheered Touché.

“Then we have a plan!” I exclaimed. “Minna, ikōyo!” (Everyone, let’s go!) Touché, Wizard, and Guard started hurling insults while Batman, Wyldstyle, and Gandalf gathered bars for cages and the rest of us kept the monkeys and Winkies at bay.

“Stay in the red mist, that’s just fine!” began the Witch. “Your thoughts, your moves, your…”

“RIDER KICK!” shouted Ichigō as he leapt up into the air, pulled his left leg up, stuck his right leg straight out, and kicked her off her broom.

“All right, mister!” snarled the Witch. “You’ll pay for that! The form I see shall seal your fate! Let the man’s armor be my new shape!” Green fire surrounded her and formed some sort of suit. Once the flames died down, the suit turned out to be like Ichigō’s, but it was black with a point on the helmet, green eyes, and a green mouth cover. She then started delivering punches with the same power as Ichigō.

“Bind, please!” announced the WizarDriver as the cages were finished. One of them had a Flying Monkey, but we got rid of it. The cages were raised.

“Sheesh!” I taunted. “You’re too slow, Witchy-poo!”

“I’ll show you slow!” snapped the Witch. “Shift! Witch! Cyan!” She found herself in a cage. “What the? Shift! Witch! Magenta!” Another cage. “Shift! Witch! Yellow!” Another cage. “Shift! Witch! Magenta!” Back in the cage. She started shaking it until it dropped on the crystal ball. “Curses! CURSES! My crystal ball! My new powers are…gone! GONE!!”

“I think I’ve got an idea to keep her preoccupied,” called Wyldstyle. “Seeker, Battle, time to get building!”

“Arch, Guard!” I ordered. “With me!” The three of us leapt into the air with both feet in front of us. “RIDER ROYAL KICK!” I shouted.

“RIDER GUARD KICK!” announced Guard.

“RIDER ARCH KICK!” called Arch. Our kicks threw her for a loop while Wyldstyle, Seeker, and Battle finished the pump. I grabbed her shoulder and got her i.d tag.

“Time to change styles!” exclaimed Wizard. He flipped the levers on his belt, making it chant again. This time, he scanned a ring that had the visor of the flame style ring, but it had a diamond shaped sapphire instead of a ruby.

“Water, please!” announced the WizarDriver. “Sui-Sui, Sui-Sui!” The chant almost sounded like Beach Boys music. A blue runic circle came down over his head to his boots, changing the outfit from red to blue, even changing the jewel shapes on his coat and giving his helmet a point at the top of the eyes. He tossed Wyldstyle, Seeker, and Battle his WizarSwordGun and helped them complete the Hydro Cannon. The Witch was still dazed from three simultaneous flying kicks, so Batman and Gandalf adjusted the cannon while Wizard pulled the thumb on the hand to open it. It started chanting “Come on and shoot! Shake hands! Come on and shoot! Shake hands!”

“The finale!” called Wizard as he scanned the water style ring.

“Water, shooting strike!” announced the fancy gun/sword hybrid. “Sui, sui, sui! Sui, sui, sui!” He pulled the trigger and unleashed a torrent of water on the Witch. Once over, she gave us a mad look as she shrieked in fear.

“YOU CURSED BRAT!” she shouted.

“Bat,” countered Batman. I think you guys know who said this part.

“I’m melting! MELTING! Oh, what a world, what a world! Make sure to cancel my newspaper delivery!” I will admit, asking to cancel your newspaper delivery as your final words shows remarkable foresight on your part, but it’s still a weird choice of last words. The Wicked Witch of the West had melted away and all that was left of her existence were her clothes, hat, and broomstick. Arch poked the remains with his foot to check if she was alive. After confirming her death, we cancelled our transformations. Haruto released a sigh of relief.

“I’ve never been in my suit that long,” he panted.

“Starts to smell after a while,” I agree.

“Speaking of smell,” quizzed Gandalf, “how do you suppose she ever took a bath?” Wyldstyle sniffed the air.

“Maybe that isn’t monkeys we can smell?” she guessed.

“Phew!” exclaimed Michael as he sniffed. “And I thought the French smell bad!”

“Pardon?!” hissed Emmanuel. Thankfully, a bubble floated in before there was another British and French war. It dissolved to reveal Glinda in all her pink and silver wearing glory.

“Well!” she called. “I see that there are quite a few good witches and wizards here!”

“Lady Glinda!” yelped Emily as she got on one knee. We all did the same.

“No need for that,” assured Glinda. “You’re all heroes. It is I who should be kneeling to you.” That was when Winkies and Flying monkeys burst into the tower and saw the remains of their former master.

“She’s…she’s dead!” exclaimed the Winkie leader. “You killed her!”

“Who are you?” asked the Monkey Chieftain. I realized that we don’t have a group name…until now.

“We’re called the Vortex Riders and…” I was about to apologize, for all the good it’ll do, when the Winkie leader knelt down.

“Hail to the Vortex Riders! The Wicked Witch is dead!” he announced. The rest of the Winkies and Monkeys genuflected and repeated the Winkie leader’s words. Well, most did, but those that got down didn’t see.

“Erm, thank you,” I stammered. I wasn’t sure how to respond to this situation. When one of the F.N.S kneels, he or she is playing the role of a reigning monarch’s subject. It’s just an act for us that we enjoy to the point of hamming it up. These are people that live such a life 24/7. I’m not an actual princess, but they don’t know that.

“Please, let us help you!” pleaded the Winkie leader. “What do you wish?” Great, a reward.

“Er, if it’s all right,” I said, “I would like to know your history with the Witch, as well as other past political dealings. In exchange, we shall give you the history of our native dimensions.”

“Hold on!” yelped Hongo. “What are you trying to do?!”

“Megumi, we can’t just open political discussion with people from other dimensions!” shouted Hiroki.

“I have to agree with your brother, my lady!” affirmed Emmanuel.

“But Dorothy didn’t complete her journey!” argued Glinda. “She was kidnapped before she reached the Emerald City! This whole journey was to show how her actions and decisions affect everyone! You must help us get her back!”

+THIS IS INTERFERENCE WITH A DIMENSION’S NATURAL FLOW+ replied my belt, arguing with Glinda. +SUCH AN ACTION IS A…+

“Do we really have a choice at this point?” I asked. My question was directed to everyone. There was silence for a moment. I knew they were trying to figure out a good counterargument before I made my decision final. Time to act now. “Look, I get that there’s a non-interference clause in the multiverse somewhere, but in this time of crisis, we need all the help we can get. With people helping us in their native dimension, we can at least stabilize the mess. Imagine what all dimensions could do if we all assisted each other in a time of crisis.”

“She’s right,” mused Emily.

“Are you out of your tiny little mind, Em?” exclaimed Richard.

“Damage to this dimension has already been done,” said Emily. “We weren’t supposed to kill the Witch, Dorothy was. Even then, it’s by an accident when she puts out the Scarecrow.”

“Good thing I got her i.d tag,” I mused. “We can use her power to our advantage.”

“That power is best in your hands,” agreed the Winkie leader as he rubbed his face. Many more did the same. Apparently, the green skin tone was nothing more than makeup as human skin tones appeared on most of the faces. “Once we have established treaties with the Gillikins, the Munchkins, and the Quadlings, we shall aid you in your cause!” said the leader.

“Munchkins, I’ve heard of,” muttered Richard, “but Gillikins and Quadlings?”

“The Quadlings are my people,” explained Glinda. “My friend, Locasta Tattypoo, is the real Good Witch of the North and rules the native Gillikins.”

“Then why did you rule the North as well?” asked Emily.

“Because Locasta had to deal with her Wicked predecessor, Mombi, again,” Glinda explained. “She asked me to rule the North in her stead while she dealt with Mombi permanently. She’s back in the North while I must return to the South.” She turned to the Winkie leader. “Good Sir Nardo,” she said, calling him by his name, “I would be delighted to help you rebuild the Western Country. It shall shine yellow once again!”

“My thanks, Glinda!” cheered Nardo. “And Vortex Riders, when next we meet, the Western Country shall be in its former glory!”

“I look forward to it,” I affirmed. Then a certain oddity I became used to happened.

“Another rift!” called Wyldstyle.

“Before you go,” announced Glinda, “take these as a reward.” She handed us some small discs of different colors, gold, silver, blue, and purple. “The total should be 125,000 studs.”

“Er, thank you?” I stammered, uncertain of their use.

+EXPLANATIONS WILL BE OFFERED WHEN WE RETURN TO OUR BASE OF OPERATIONS+ explained my belt.

“Batman!” called Gandalf as he pointed to the gateway piece. It was being sucked in!

“On it!” exclaimed Batman. He used his grapple gun to snag the gateway piece and pull it towards us. The portal’s size started fluctuating.

“I believe the rift is becoming unstable!” observed Gandalf. “Shall we take our leave through it?”

“I’m coming with you guys until I find a way home!” called Haruto.

“Where do you think this one leads?” asked Wyldstyle.

“Wherever it is, it’s gotta be better than this garish nightmare!” muttered Batman. “Come on!” We all jumped into the portal and found our vehicles floating there as well. We tumbled towards our new destination.

Categories
Kamen Rider Vortex Kamen Rider Vortex Chapters

Chapter 5

Our destination was a bright, sunny place with a yellow road leading to a green city. It seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place my finger on it. “We are NOT in Gotham anymore,” muttered Batman.

“I would have had a more pleasant journey on the back of that Balrog,” commented Gandalf as he checked Shadowfax’s hooves since he landed hoof first on the road. Hongo took a deep breath and smiled.

“The air reminds me of the countryside I would sometimes pass,” he sighed in peace. “What’s disagreeable about this place?”

“It’s so…colorful!” hissed Batman as he tensed up.

“Yes,” mused Gandalf as a peacock strutted by, “it is rather pleasant.” The peacock gave a squawk of approval. Wyldstyle was looking at her scanner.

“I can’t see MetalBeard,” she sighed.

“Well, something’s close,” replied Emmanuel. “You’re still tracking that signal.”

“This way,” called Batman. He was about to go off the path when Gandalf stopped him.

“I believe the correct course of action is to follow the yellow brick road,” he commented.

“Why does that sound so familiar?” asked Emily. “In any case, it may lead to a missing gateway piece.”

“Ah ah ah!” called a voice that made me snarl. “That’s not for you!”

“Hiro!” I hissed. The tiny sliver of hope I had that I was wrong vanished when I saw him.

“Interesting that we should find ourselves here,” mused Hiro.

“Whatever business you have does not concern this dimension!” I hissed. “Leave at once!”

“Actually, it does,” countered Hiro. “My client had detected an energy signature that he recognized in this dimension. Considering he’s paying me for my jobs, I’m not leaving.”

“And suppose someone gets in your way?” asked Mikhail. Hiro started laughing.

“Who’s going to get in my way? You?” he asked. “Don’t be stupid. Megumi may be the strongest out of you lot, but she couldn’t withstand my assault!”

“You cheated!” snarled Richard.

“I didn’t see any wrestling ring ropes back home,” replied Hiro.

“Back home?” I quizzed. “You mean Hongo-san’s home dimension?”

“And my native dimension,” elaborated Hiro. “I’ve had the Rogue Driver for some time.”

“It’s how that organization got the idea for a transformation belt,” supplied the Rogue Driver. “What was its name…er…Seeker? Soaker? …er…”

“Shocker?!” shouted Hongo.

“That’s it!” confirmed the Rogue Driver.

+INTERFERENCE WITH A DIMENSION’S NATURAL FLOW IS A CLASS 5 OFFENSE+ announced my belt.

“Considering that the Queen ain’t here to enforce it anymore,” countered the Rogue Driver, “I see no reason why I should care.” Hiro then shot a carriage at the side of the road, blocking the path.

“Catch you later!” called Hiro as he jumped over the carriage.

“COME BACK HERE, YOU COWARD!” No sooner had I shouted that, I heard Hiro hit the other side of the carriage.

“WHAT’S THE…BIG…IDEA!” he shouted in a voice that was rapidly getting slower.

“Apologies,” rasped a voice that didn’t mean the apology, “but I’ve been plucked from my universe and dumped here in this absurd wonderland. On top of that, you…landed on…my…head! …That’s a…declaration of…war…” I then heard two thuds.

“It…can’t be!” I stammered, a grin forming on my face as I recognized the voice.

“We’ll need to find a way past this roadblock,” rasped Batman. “Let’s look around.”

“The carriage seems to stretch past both sides,” Gandalf pointed out.

“There is the old brute force method,” mused Richard.

“I think I see a hook for the grapple gun,” I called. “Batman, mind helping me attach it to the carriage? It looks like a two-person job.”

“Sure,” affirmed Batman. It was indeed a two-person job as Batman held the hook into place while I attached it to the fabric of the carriage. Once it was attached, I struck my henshin pose.

“HENSHIN!” I announced and activated my suit. Then I swapped my i.d tag with the Batman one. The wardrobe closed on me.

“Batman Steel!” called my belt. Once that was done, the wardrobe dissolved as I had donned the cowl. Batman and I then fired our grapple guns and pulled until the carriage split apart. It revealed Hiro lying on a bed of poppies with Prince Vegeta of Dragonball Z fame! I squeed, then zipped the lip as it might wake the Saiyan Prince. Not a single person in the poppies stirred.

“Okay,” gulped Wyldstyle, “so I’m guessing those are NOT normal poppies. Do we have anything that will help us cross safely?”

“Driver,” I quizzed my belt as I switched to my default i.d tag and allowed the wardrobe to don the “royal steel”, as it was called, on my body-suit, “do our rider forms have a means of breathing?”

+AFFIRMATIVE+ confirmed my belt. +ALL SUITS HAVE A REBREATHER IN THE HELMETS+ +YOU CAN EVEN BREATHE IN THE VACUUM OF SPACE+

“My helmet also lets me breath in air that’s not suitable for normal humans,” replied Hongo, “and the horses for the Vortex Riders are machines, so they don’t need to worry, but that leaves Gandalf-san and his horse, Batman-san, and Wyldstyle-san.”

“Actually,” countered Wyldstyle, “with the parts from the carriage, I can upgrade my bike to help the horse.” Shadowfax seemed to agree wholeheartedly with that idea.

“You can ride with me, Gandalf,” offered Batman as he entered the Batmobile. Gandalf then boarded the vehicle while Wyldstyle upgraded the bike to allow Shadowfax to ride, the rest of the Vortex Riders transformed. We all got on our respective steeds, Shadowfax entered the new bike, Batman activated the Batmobile and we all moved around the sleeping Prince Vegeta and Hiro. We soon got away from the deadly poppy field. Gandalf and Batman got out of the Batmobile.

“I think this contraption,” mused the gray wizard as he patted the Batmobile, “could almost give Shadowfax a run for his money.” Shadowfax heard that and snorted in offense. Then, we heard something ahead of us.

“Is that…singing?” asked Wyldstyle. The lyrics sounded familiar. Emily’s eyes went wide in delight when she heard it.

We’re off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz!

We hear he is a whiz of a wiz, if ever a wiz there was!

If ever, or whether a wiz there was, the Wizard of Oz is one,

Because, because, because, because, because, because,

Because of the wonderful things he does!”

“IT’S OZ!” shouted Emily. “WE’RE IN THE MERRY OLD LAND OF OZ!”

“And everyone can give me the idiot prize!” I berated myself. Emily had played The Wizard of Oz until she scratched the DVD back at the abandoned factory, which I lovingly christened Castle Nerd-Skull.

“Then Dorothy and her friends must be singing their way to the Emerald City!” guessed Richard.

“It’s not just singing,” mused Gandalf, “it’s a singing scarecrow, amongst other oddities.”

“The Scarecrow!” snarled Batman. “I knew it! This is all a hallucination!” He charged towards Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion.

“I think he’s going crazy,” observed Wyldstyle.

“‘Going’, my dear?” asked Gandalf. “He’s wearing a bat costume.”

“You guys don’t understand,” explained Xiomara, “there’s a member of Batman’s Rogues Gallery called the Scarecrow that uses gas to commit his crimes. The gas targets your phobia and makes you suffer hallucinations based around that phobia.”

“So, if I breathed the fear gas, I’d start seeing spiders crawling all over me and freak out?” asked Mikhail.

“Exactly!” confirmed Xiomara.

“But the Scarecrow from Oz really is a scarecrow!” yelped Emily.

“He’s having the same kind of misunderstanding I had!” realized Hongo.

“After him!” I called. I say that a lot, don’t I? Batman was moving from hiding place to hiding place very quickly until he stopped in front of Dorothy’s gang.

“You’re coming with me, Scarecrow!” he hissed!

“Another one to join us on our journey!” cheered Dorothy. “And what are you missing?”

“A sense of humor,” replied Batman. “Hand him over!”

“But why ever would we do that?” asked Dorothy.

“Because he’s a heartless villain!” explained Batman, losing patience.

“No,” countered the Tin Man, “I’m heartless. He’s brainless.”

“Batman!” called Xiomara as we caught up. “That’s not a person making it move! It’s just straw!”

“What?” yelped Batman. “Then how is he moving?”

“I don’t know,” replied Xiomara, “but that’s not Dr. Jonathan Crane! That’s a real scarecrow!”

“Am I still a villain, though?” asked the Scarecrow.

“I s-s-see something s-s-scary!” stammered the Cowardly Lion as he pointed to the portal behind them.

“What? Is it Toto again?” asked the Tin Man in a callous tone. Wait, what?!

“Oh my!” cried Dorothy. “You ARE heartless!” That’s when they started getting sucked into the portal. “Oh no! Not another tornado!” The portal then closed once they were inside. A faint bit of laughter could be heard.

“What on Middle-Earth is going on?!” yelped Gandalf.

“Yeah, who was that laughing?” asked Wyldstyle.

“I don’t…know!” hissed Batman, his patience for this whole mess at an end.

“Emily,” asked Richard, “was the Tin Man always a jerk before he got a heart?”

“No, he was still kind before he met the wizard,” replied Emily.

“Look!” called Wyldstyle as she pointed down the yellow brick road. “Is that one of the missing pieces from the gateway?” It was a purple oval with a symbol of three circles in an upside-down triangle pattern. The points started from cyan, to yellow, to magenta with arrows pointing in the direction I had described.

“Yes,” confirmed Batman. “Let’s grab it and get out of this place!”

“What about Vegeta?” I asked.

“Who?” quizzed Batman.

“The man with the pointy hair asleep with Hiro in the poppies back there!” I explained.

“Do we need him?” asked Batman.

“No, but I do,” said a voice. We all turned to see a cat-like humanoid with purple skin, no fur, and Egyptianesque clothing. His tail flicked lazily. “I see someone reactivated the gateway,” observed the creature. I trembled a bit but held it in check.

“Er, can someone explain who he is and why he knows the guy in the poppies?” asked Emmanuel.

“That’s Lord Beerus,” I gulped, “God of Destruction in the Dragon Ball franchise.”

“And I am honored to meet you!” called Emmanuel, getting the scope of the guy. He knelt down in front of Beerus.

“Oh, please, get up!” hissed Beerus. “I can’t stand groveling.” I wanted to argue the point as various episodes had him act indifferent to groveling, even slightly enjoying it, but who argues with a god of destruction? “In any case, I’m taking Vegeta back with me. He’s got training to do and gallivanting across the multiverse is the last thing he needs.”

“A tournament’s coming up?” I asked.

“As a matter of fact, yes,” confirmed Beerus. He headed over to the poppies “In any case, I’ll just take Vegeta here and be on my way.”

“Er, Lord Beerus!” I called as he entered the poppies. Oddly enough, he wasn’t affected as he picked up Vegeta.

“You were about to say something?” asked Beerus as he slung Vegeta over his shoulder.

“Er…never mind,” I murmured. Beerus shrugged and turned to leave before he tripped over Hiro. He then angrily kicked him out of the poppies and disappeared. I wish he hadn’t done that, but them’s the breaks. He then left in his own manner as Hiro woke up.

“Oooogh,” he groaned. “What hit me?” He looked around to see that we were strategically walking away from him. Unknown to us, he followed.

“We’re almost there!” called Gandalf as the gateway piece came closer with each step we took. “Goodness, this has been remarkably easy, hasn’t it?”

“Oh, you just had to jinx it, didn’t you?!” hissed Batman.

“I can’t believe a wizard would ever say that!” cried Lukas. That was when we heard an evil cackle.

“And the Wicked Witch of the West decides to buzz us!” hissed Emily. The Wicked Witch was indeed flying overhead on her broom, green skin, black clothing, hat and flying monkeys completing her look.

“Now that the meddling do-gooder is gone, all of Oz is mine!” cackled the Witch. “So long, Dorothy! So long!” One of the monkeys ooked, tapped her on the shoulder, and pointed at the gateway piece. The Witch got a look at the thing. “What’s that? Something magical?” A grin as wicked as her attitude appeared on her face. “It looks so pretty! It feels so powerful!” She turned to the flying monkeys. “They can’t have it!” she ordered. The monkeys got into formation and dived with her in front.

“It would appear we’re not the only ones interested in the gateway pieces,” observed Gandalf.

“GRAB IT!” I shouted as I mounted my horse. The rest of us got on our horses/vehicles and charged at the gateway piece.

“No!” called Hiro from behind us. “No, it’s mine!” He summoned a demonic looking motorcycle and sped off after us.

“Get away from my property!” ordered the Witch. “…Whatever it is!” Some monkeys almost scalped us with a sweeping dive!

“We’ve got monkey dive-bombers!” warned Batman. “…Can’t believe I just said that.”

“Ugh,” groaned Wyldstyle. “This place makes Cloud Cuckoo Land look normal!” Hiro then used a mechanism in his bike’s seat and launched himself at the Witch, knocking her off the broom. I sped towards the gateway piece and leaned to grab it when Hiro shot my rear and knocked me off my horse! The Witch then threw Hiro into me and ran for the piece while I grabbed Hiro by the legs and used him as a club to knock her away.

“So,” said the Witch as she summoned an ugly looking green fireball, “you won’t take a warning, eh? I’ll take care of you now!” She then cackled wildly as she trapped us all in a ring of green flames. I then heard a yelp as a man in casual clothes run out of the flames slapping his rear to put it out. I was too busy fighting the Witch and Hiro to give the man much thought. I then got out the i.d tag and struck a pose.

“HENSHIN!” I announced. I then leapt through the blue circle and became Kamen Rider Royal. “Kamen Rider Royal!” I said. “Evil will ultimately bow to me!”

“We’ll see about that!” countered the Witch. She got back on her broomstick and took to the air to cast more ugly green fireballs!

“That broomstick of hers,” observed Wyldstyle, “it’s defying gravity somehow!”

“Thank you, Captain Obvious!” called Irina. The man that had his rear on fire had put it out and grinned.

“Magic against magic,” he chuckled. “This should be fun.” He then put a ring on his right middle finger with a hand design on it and held it in front of his belt buckle with a hand design like the ring.

“Driver on, please!” announced a voice. That’s when everybody payed attention to the man as a silver belt with a black hand with gold trim appeared around his waist. He then flipped some switches on both sides of the belt, making the hand move from the right to the left. The belt started singing, of all things. “Shabadoobie, touch to henshin! Shabadoobie, touch to henshin!” The man put a ring on his left middle finger. It had a smooth cut, round ruby in the center with some sort visor on top that was connected to a hinge.

“Henshin!” announced the man as he flipped the visor on the ring over the ruby, giving it eyes. He then held the ring over the belt.

“Flame, please!” called the belt. A red runic circle appeared on the man’s left side and passed through him. “Hi! Hi! Hi, hi, HI!” (Pronounced “he”, not “high”) He ended up in a black suit with a black trench coat, silver shoulder pads, square cut rubies running down the front of the coat, a red interior of the coat, and a silver helmet with a ruby on the face with the ring’s visor design on the face. I had only seen one Kamen Rider series from start to finish, and that’s the rider!

“Saa, showtime da!” (Now, it’s showtime!) announced the rider.

“Kamen Rider Wizard!” I cheered. The Witch blinked, then an evil grin crossed he face again.

“Your outfit just gave me an idea!” she said. “A spell to halt the progress ahead! To freeze, to bind my foes in red!” She cackled again. A slew of red chains wrapped around us all! Kamen Rider Wizard slowly moved his arms to get his hands on the belt’s levers and swapped the hand to the right again. The belt started singing again!

“Lupachi magic, touch to go! Lupachi magic, touch to go!” He then moved his hand to a ring strap which were silver with an orange gem in the center. They each had a design on the top. The one Wizard grabbed had a dragon poking its head and wing out of a portal. He replaced the hand ring on his hand with the new ring and scanned it on his belt, the WizarDriver. “Connect, please!” said the belt as a small red runic circle appeared near his hand. He put his hand in and grabbed some sort of intricate silver gun with a left hand making a fist on the end of it. He pulled the trigger and shot the broom the Witch was on. She fell off and it broke her concentration, thus making the chains disappear.

“You bothersome little worm! I’ll get you for that!” she shouted. She then started swinging her broom around like a weapon. I got an idea and touched Wizard’s shoulder. My belt then got the Wizard i.d tag. I then stole a ring with a shovel design.

“Hey!” protested Wizard.

“Borrowing!” I replied. I swapped my i.d tag with the Wizard one.

+IDENTIFICATION TAG HAS MULTIPLE FORMS+ said my belt. +SELECT FORM+ Four circles appeared in front of me with the different form rings for Wizard. I picked the one with the square citrine. The wardrobe closed around me. “Wizard Land Steel!” said my belt. It then said “Land, please! Dododo Dododon, Don Dododon!” in the WizarDriver’s voice. This form takes the trench coat of wizard with whatever gems it’s studded with, in this case, citrine. I couldn’t resist.

“Saa, showtime da!” I announced.

“First my ring, then my land style, now my words!” cried Wizard.

“Like I said, I’m borrowing them,” I countered. I then mimed flipping the levers on the WizarDriver and heard the familiar chant of “Lupachi magic, touch to go!” I then scanned the ring I swiped from Wizard over my driver. From the words of “Dig, please!” I’d say it was a dig ring. Several yellow runic circles appeared. The parts of the ground they were hovering over disappeared in dust, leaving holes once they vanished. Some of us tumbled into the holes, the Witch included. She poked her head out to address her troops.

“What are you flying fools waiting for?!” she screeched. “Attack! Attack!” The monkeys started throwing rocks at us. One of the rocks knocked the Witch’s hat off! “Watch it!” she screeched as she jammed it back on her head and dived into the hole.

“Just when I thought today couldn’t get any MORE strange!” rasped Batman. He dove into a hole to get away from the monkeys. The rest that didn’t fall in the holes I made originally followed suit. I heard a bunch of people say “Henshin!” with only one “Rider…HENSHIN!” over them. I met with Kamen Rider Arch, Emmanuel in the tunnels connecting the holes.

“Thoughts, your highness?” he asked.

“It’s probably going to turn into a whack-a-mole game,” I guessed “10 points on whacking your enemies, minus 20 on hitting the Witch.”

“This whole fight is making me see red!” protested Arch.

“Stay in the red mist, that’s just fine!” called the Witch. “Your thoughts, your moves, your actions are MINE!” Red chains appeared around us again. From what I saw overhead, Kamen Rider Kämpfer, Lukas, was lifted out of the hole. Her mistake, his gain, as he leveled his updated crossbow at her hat and fired! The crossbow bolt knocked the hat off, making lose concentration again. She screamed in frustration. “I’ll teach pesky little troublemakers like you to get in my way!” she snarled. At that point we all got out. Rogue was about to fire when I sucker punched him, leaving Wizard open to fire his WizarSwordGun. He didn’t leave it in gun mode and instead unfolded it into sword mode.

“I have it!” called Ichigō. He had the gateway piece in his hands. In retrospect, he shouldn’t have said that.

“A spell to halt the progress ahead! To freeze, to bind my foe in red!” This time, the chains wrapped around only Ichigō. Rogue charged to get the gateway piece, only to get tackled by the monkeys.

“GET OFF ME, YOU OVERSIZED WINGED MACAQUES!” he shouted.

“Tufted Capuchins, actually,” countered a voice. Rogue turned to see a monkey’s fist deck him. Meanwhile, more of the now named Winged Capuchins had gotten their hands on Ichigō and got the gateway piece back on the ground from all the movement. Arch had let an arrow fly towards the Witch, making her dodge and retreat to the air.

“I’ll get you, my pretty,” she swore, “and your giant dog, too!” She was referring to the Dark Knight.

“I’m a bat…man!” he replied.

“Seize the shiny and fly! Fly back to the castle!” ordered the Witch to her troops. “And what did I tell you about speaking?!” One of the monkeys rolled his eyes and started scratching his pits.

“Ook, ook,” he muttered. He then charged towards the gateway piece.

“Nuh-uh!” protested Wyldstyle as she ran towards the piece. “No you don’t!” She leapt up to grab it. Too little, too late. The monkey already grabbed it. She fell face first on the road. As the monkey started flying to rejoin the witch, she started taunting us.

“You’ll have to be faster than that, my fine lady!” she boasted. “Without my sister’s ruby slippers, you’re no match for me! Away, my pretties! Away!” The whole troop flew off towards the west, where her castle was. The flames had died and Rogue was mad.

“THIS IS YOUR FAULT!” he roared at me. “IF YOU HADN’T INTERFERED, THIS WOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED!”

“I hold no responsibility over this,” I countered.

“Bah!” snapped Rogue as he cancelled the transformation. He then boarded his bike. “When next we meet, you won’t survive!” he swore to me. His bike then summoned a portal as he sped through. I then turned to Wizard.

“How did you get here?” I asked.

“I’ll explain on the way,” he replied as he used the connect ring again to summon his motorcycle. He then dehenshined into Haruto Soma. “For now, that piece may be my only way home and I need to get home now. Phantoms are invading again and I need to stop them.”

“Then help us and we can get you home,” I offered.

“After her!” called Batman as he boarded the Batmobile.

“Hey, that’s my line!” I shouted as I mounted my horse. We all got on our vehicles, dehenshined, and sped off into the west.

Categories
Kamen Rider Vortex Kamen Rider Vortex Chapters

Chapter 4

“We are at this strange beast’s mercy,” called Gandalf as we tumbled through the vortex, “and I do not trust where it is leading us! We must get out!”

“Agreed,” confirmed Batman.

“How do you propose we do that?” asked Hiroki.

“Driver,” Xiomara asked my belt, “can’t you lead us out of here?”

+NEGATIVE+ replied my belt. +VORTEX IS NOT OF DRIVER ORIGIN+

“I have an idea!” called Lukas. “Fräulein Wyldstyle, Batman and I need your scanner!”

“We do?” asked the Dark Knight. He then got the idea and took out a micro-toolkit from his utility belt. Lukas had a habit of carrying various bits of tech with him. Wires, circuit boards, antennae, lights, it always went with him. Wyldstyle tossed Batman the scanner as he explained what he realized Lukas was saying. “If Lukas and I can locate whatever’s generating this rift, then we can disrupt it!” They set to work as they fixed an antenna on the back of the scanner. The light on top started glowing yellow as it made noises.

“Does that mean it worked?” asked Gandalf. The vortex then took us down a sharp curve.

“I think we’re about to find out!” replied Irina.


The dimension we hurtled towards seemed to be a piece of architecture floating in space. It was colored gray with blue, pulsating lines and circles peppering the place. It was very dark at that place. Inside the place, there was a square platform with a blue, metal circle with eight spokes not touching each other in the center. The circle had five, purple, shield-like objects on the upper parts. The entire thing was sitting on a screen with a folding panel on each side. It had various blue lines on the platform proper and had two L shapes facing each other and a circle in the center. A small box was standing on its end with an antenna and a couple of pincer arms rested on either side of the giant blue circle. First, the right L shape glowed purple, then the left L shape glowed white, finally the circle glowed blue. The vortex opened inside the circle as we were thrown out of the vortex. Wyldstyle landed on Hongo, Irina and Sheela, Hiroki, Lukas, and Emmanuel landed on me, Batman was under Mikhail, Haitao, Tanisha, and Xiomara, and Emily, Tonje, Livia and Gandalf were on top of Joshua. We all picked ourselves up, well, the rest of us, I sat down to smooth my dress. That’s when something pinged somewhere in my body. “Line up!” I called. Everyone lined up and I started counting noses. I counted myself as one and went from right to left. After I finished, I recounted because I was short one. Something didn’t click in my brain and it was frustrating me. “Richard, can you help me out here?” I asked. There was no reply. “Richard, I asked you a…a…er…Dame Emily, where’s your brother?!” I realized why my count came up short, Richard was missing. As we called his name, I felt myself rise from the floor. A thought went into my head. “My friends,” I requested, “I want you to look at the bottom of my dress and tell me if you see anything sticking out. I hope I’m wrong, but I think I’m sitting on Richard.”

“Meg, I think I see Richard’s hand!” called Tanisha. I slightly snarled as I hate being called “Meg”. I looked down to see a hand trying to get away from the underside of my dress. I got up to release Richard. He was gasping for air as the floor’s imprints were on his face.

“I couldn’t breathe under there!” he gasped. As he caught his breath, he looked at the machine. “Er, Lukas, you’re our tech wiz. Are machines supposed to shake like that?” Lukas turned to see what he was talking about.

“Only when they’re about to explode!” he yelped.

“HIT THE DECK!” I shouted as I wrapped my arms around Richard and fell backwards. Everyone else dove for the floor and made themselves as flat as possible. The machine did as Lukas predicted, burying the shrapnel in the walls. The explosion opened a portal and sucked the shields into it. The pull dragged us towards the portal, but it closed before we could go in.

“Well,” called Wyldstyle to Batman and Lukas, “I don’t quite know what you two did, but we’re still alive.”

“Are you sure?” groaned Gandalf.

“This technology looks advanced,” mused Lukas. “My guess? That gateway created the rift that brought us here.”

“Erm, which gateway?” asked Gandalf.

“The one that exploded!” snapped Batman.

“Hm, then perhaps…” said Hongo.

“We should rebuild it!” finished Wyldstyle. Everyone picked themselves up again, well, mostly everyone. I was keeping Richard lying on top of me. He tried to get up, but I didn’t let him.

“Meg, if it’s about that dress thing,” he said, “let me remind you that those events were beyond our control.”

“Nevertheless,” I replied in a teasing tone, “you were under a lady’s dress. I’m not letting you go until you’ve made an apology to me.”

“What?!” protested Richard. “That’s absurd! Let me up!”

“You will not?” I replied in the same teasing tone. I then took a pretentious British accent. “Then thy sentence shall be to remain in this maiden’s embrace until the end of time!”

“All right!” he snapped. “My fair princess, this humble and wretched knight doth plead mercy for the despicable act he was party to!”

“Apology accepted,” I giggled as I released Richard. He got up and helped me up. “In all seriousness,” I said as I smoothed my dress again, “we need to fix that machine. If the upgrades to Wyldstyle’s scanner were made properly, that thing was the only thing keeping the vortex stable and is our only way out of this mess.”

“The shrapnel is embedded in pretty high places,” responded Irina. “How are we all going to get it down?”

“My magic can help,” announced Gandalf.

“I’m pretty athletic,” supplied Wyldstyle.

“My batarangs should get it down,” mused Batman.

“My kicks should be able to loosen the shrapnel,” said Hongo.

“What about us?” asked Richard. “I don’t wanna stand here and look pretty and I know you don’t either, my lady.”

+SOLUTION IS EASY+ replied my belt. +MEGUMI MUST PLACE HER HAND ON SOMEONE LIKE UNIT HONGO, UNIT GANDALF, UNIT BATMAN, OR UNIT WYLDSTYLE+ I blinked and looked at Hongo.

“I have no idea what your belt is planning, Megumi-san,” he said, “but go ahead.” I shrugged, then placed my hand on Hongo’s shoulder. All the circles in our belts flashed blue before they spat out an i.d tag. Our own i.d tags had imagery that related to our respective rider forms. These all looked the same with red insect eyes on top and the first Kamen Rider symbol on the bottom, all of it on a green background.

“How do we use these?” asked Lukas.

+ACTIVATE YOUR ARMOR+ responded my belt. +ONCE DONE, PRESS THE RED BUTTON TO EJECT THE IDENTIFICATION TAG AND INSERT THE NEW IDENTIFICATION TAG INTO THE SLOT+

“Let me try,” called Hiroki. He grabbed his i.d tag and struck the same pose he took when we met Hongo. “HENSHIN!” he said. He put the i.d tag into the belt and jumped through the blue circle to form his samurai-esque suit, thus becoming Kamen Rider Sengoku. “Now, where’s the button?”

+ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BUCKLE+ replied my belt. Sengoku found said button, pressed it, and his belt spat out his i.d tag. The instant that happened, most of his armor disappeared. All that were left were the eyes, antennae, the crest on his helmet, and the purple undersuit. He put the new i.d tag into the slot. Then, two halves of a coffin like object appeared at either side. Hiroki was trying to get away, but to no avail. Finally, the coffin snapped on him and trapped him inside.

“HIROKI NEE-SAN!” I shouted. For a minute, I thought I had lost my brother. Thank God I was proven wrong when I heard a voice from inside the coffin.

“Ichigō Steel!” announced the voice. The coffin, or rather, wardrobe, then dissolved to reveal Sengoku in new armor. The helmet looked a lot like Ichigō’s helmet. In fact, the armor had taken on the appearance of Hongo in his suit. Sengoku checked himself for any pain. I ran forward and hugged him, thinking I’d lost another family member. Let’s just say, that’s my greatest fear.

“Nee-san, I’m okay,” assured Sengoku, patting my back to reassure me. “Just slightly tingly.” I released Sengoku and came up with a plan.

“All right, with 20 of us,” I announced to the whole group, “fixing the gateway shouldn’t be a problem. Once I get the Batman, Wyldstyle, and Gandalf i.d tags, we’ll split into teams of four. Hongo’s team will get the shrapnel down from that wall near the right of the gateway. Batman’s team will take care of the upper right shrapnel in the back. Gandalf’s team will deal with the upper left at the back. Wyldstyle’s team will get the shrapnel on the left most ledge. Let’s see, Hiroki, Xiomara, Richard, and myself will be with Hongo-san. Batman will have Emmanuel, Lukas, Tanisha, and Tonje. Mikhail, Livia, Haitao, and Sheela will assist Gandalf. That leaves Team Wyldstyle with Michael, Irina, Emily, and Joshua. Your respective leader’s will instruct you on how to get the shrapnel down.” I then placed my hand on Batman’s, Gandalf’s, and Wyldstyle’s shoulders and got their i.d tags. Since Sengoku was already transformed. He just went to Hongo’s side. Batman Steel, as his teams’ belts had called it, had the cape, the cowl, and the gauntlets on gray armor with the Batman logo on it. Wyldstyle Steel had the hood, the graffiti job, and the ponytail on the armor. Gandalf steel had the hat and robes “Everybody ready?” I asked. Everyone confirmed. “Let’s get to it! Hongo-san, what do you think we should do?”

“I was going to kick at the area the shrapnel was embedded in,” replied Hongo, “but with five people, it will go by faster. I just need to change.” He then struck the same pose as in his native dimension. “Rider…HENSHIN!” He leapt over us and changed into his suit.

“Is that…really necessary?” asked Kamen Rider Guard, Richard, in his Ichigō Steel.

“Considering that part of the belt is voice activated, yes,” responded Ichigō.

“Wait, that’s why you say that?!” cried Sengoku, slightly disappointed.

“Enough of that,” countered Ichigō. “On three, we use our Rider Kick. Are you ready?”

“Let’s do this!” called Kamen Rider Seeker, Xiomara. “Vamonos!”

“Ichi! Ni! San!” counted Ichigō. We all jumped into the air at an incredible height and propelled ourselves feet first towards the shrapnel.

“RIDER KICK!” we all shouted. The impact of five super-powered kicks got all the shrapnel out.

“Holy Child!” yelped Guard. “Those kicks pack some power!”

“I wonder what the other teams are doing?” quizzed Seeker.


Batman and his team were trying to get the shrapnel down, but the batarangs were coming up short.

“COME ON!” shouted Kamen Rider Swing, Tonje. Kamen Rider Hunt, Tanisha, sat down, wracking her brains for a solution, when she spotted something that could easily be hooked.

“Guys,” she called, “what if that thing hides some form of raised platform?” The others looked to see the hook she was talking about.

“It looks thick,” observed Batman. “The cable of my grapple gun might snap. Loath though I am to admit it, but since a twin attack by Lex Luthor and the Joker on Gotham proved I can’t do everything on my own, I think I’m going to need some help with this one.” Team Batman got their grapple guns and fired at the hook. The cables went taut as they all pulled and pulled and pulled until the hook pulled aside the blockage that prevented the platform from rising. It finally rose to a height where the batarangs could loosen the shrapnel up. Once loose enough, it fell to the ground.


Gandalf and his team had found another blockage on a rising platform, but there was no hook. Gandalf was teaching the team how to use magic and use a simple levitation spell. The spell allowed some stair to pop up so they could climb it and use magic to wiggle the shrapnel out. Once done, it fell to the floor. “I do believe you could all be excellent magic folk,” praised Gandalf.

“Excellent!” cheered Kamen Rider Claw, Sheela.


Wyldstyle was trying to yank a cylinder down so a connection to the floor could be made. The operative word being “trying”. She managed to jump high and catch the cylinder’s edge, but she couldn’t get it down. “Can’t believe I’d say this, but I need more weight!” she said. Her team then leapt up and grabbed hold, pulling the cylinder down. It made a connection with the floor and raised two walls. Wyldstyle and her team effortlessly wall jumped to the top and got the shrapnel down with a sharp tug. It fell to the floor and it all turned into Lego bricks, for some odd reason. Then…it happened. At first, I didn’t believe it, but Kamen Rider Outback, Joshua, rubbed his eyes.

“Am I the only one seeing this?” he asked.

“Numbers near the giant Lego bricks?” asked Kamen Rider Touché, Emily.

“Ah, Master Builder Vision,” said Wyldstyle. “Tell me, do you guys feel a need to build? To create? To make something without instructions?” They all nodded. “Then act on it. Rebuild the gateway!” The new Master Builders then got to work and rebuilt it perfectly! Once finished, a platform raised with four cylinders inside. It looked like a vehicle could go through.

“Stand aside,” said Batman. “Let the Batmobile take care of this.” We canceled our transformations as we stepped aside to let the Batmobile drive on the new thing. It took a while, leaving Batman to drum his fingers on the wheel. Eventually, the accelerator switch stopped automatically and the Batmobile reversed. Everything started glowing blue.

“Re-routing from back-up power,” said a voice. “All systems are go. Limited system functionality restored.”

“Limited system functionality?” asked Wyldstyle. “Am I gonna lose an arm if I go through that thing?” It was still shaking as it generated a portal.

“It does look unstable,” said Batman.

“I saw some glowing parts get sucked into it,” said Hongo. “They must have been important.”

“Well,” said Gandalf, “it seems to be…alive, at least.”

“My relic scanner’s showing that there’s definitely something through there,” said Wyldstyle.

“Could it be leading us to the missing pieces?” asked Emmanuel.

“Could be,” said Batman as he pondered.

“Or MetalBeard?” said Wyldstyle.

“Couldn’t be,” said Batman. Wyldstyle hmphed at this.

“If it can lead to here,” I said, “then it could lead us to our friends and family.” That’s when a voice that sounded like it had a lot of rum screamed from the vortex.

“That’s MetalBeard!” said Wyldstyle. “He’s in trouble! Or, he’s happy. He uses ‘Aar!’ for a lot of things. Either way, we have to find him!”

“Gear up, everyone!” I said as I mounted my horse. AS everyone got on their respective vehicles or horses, I gave the command. “Let’s ride!” We all charged through the portal. Where will we end up? We don’t know.

Categories
Kamen Rider Vortex Kamen Rider Vortex Chapters

Chapter 3

The vortex had dumped us in a dark city. Hongo stopped his bike to look around while I decided now would be a good time to berate his recklessness. “What were you thinking?!” I berated. “For all you know, you could have ended up in a hellhole!”

“Anything to save my friend!” he argued back.

“And if you died the instant you stepped into that hellhole?!” I countered. I’ll spare you the argument as Xiomara did the smart thing and asked a passerby where we are. She squeed at the answer.

“I DON’T BELIEVE IT!” she shouted in joy, interrupting my argument with Hongo. “We get to see Wayne Manor, Wayne Tower, The GPD Station, we might even see him riding the streets with his son/sidekick!”

“See who?” quizzed Richard. “Where are we?”

“We’re in Gotham!” replied Xiomara.

“Gotham?!” gulped Emmanuel. “I have no desire to be jumped by a clown, given a lose-lose choice by Two-Face…” Someone zoomed by us. “…Or end up on Bane’s fists,” continued Emmanuel as he saw the figure.

“That was Bane?” I gulped, a little terrified.

“What were those green crystals?” asked Hongo.

“Green crystals?” mused Xiomara. “It couldn’t be…I mean, what reason would he…?” Her thoughts were interrupted when a red motorcycle zoomed by followed by a black, tank-like vehicle. This vehicle had a bat-like motif. Three guesses what the vehicle is.

“After them!” I called. “We can get answers from Batman!”

“Bat-Man?! Shocker’s here?! He’s mine!” declared Hongo. He boarded his bike and sped off.

“Oh no, this is bad!” gulped Hiroki. “Shocker had a monster called Kōmori Otoko!”

“Bat-Man!” I translated. “Hongo has the wrong idea! After him!” We mounted our horses and took off. Ahead of us, Bane had dropped several green crystals. One of them bounced into the red motorcycle rider’s hands.

“HEY!” shouted the rider, Robin. “NO LITTERING!” He examined the crystal as the Batmobile drove up alongside him. “What does Bane want with all this kryptonite, Batman?” he asked.

“What everyone wants with kryptonite,” replied Batman, “to take down Superman. But not today! Cut him off at the bridge, we’ll have him cornered!”

“Okay, Batman!” confirmed Robin.

“Get away from him!” called Hongo as he drew up alongside Robin. “A young boy like you shouldn’t be near a Shocker monster!”

“You should get out of here!” argued Batman. “We’re chasing a dangerous man!”

“The only danger here is a monster like you, Bat-Man!” shouted Hongo. “What’s Shocker planning?!”

“Hongo-san, stop!” called Hiroki as we drew alongside. “That’s not a Shocker monster! He’s a superhero!”

“Whoa!” yelped Robin as his bike started floating in the air. Batman sped ahead, not knowing what’s going on with Robin. He stopped at the bridge when Robin failed to show up.

“Aw,” fake-whined Bane, “and we were having such a nice chase!”

“Robin?” he asked over the radio. That’s when a portal opened in a wall and sucked Robin in along with the kryptonite in his hands! Batman saw this and turned the Batmobile into the portal. Hongo, who didn’t listen to us when we said Batman wasn’t a Shocker monster, sped off after him. I rolled my eyes.

“After them!” I called. We got our horses to go to the portal after Hongo and pounded through the vortex.


In another universe, a wizard dressed in gray got the rest of his nine-member party to get to the other side of a stone bridge over a chasm. His party consisted of four men about half a man’s height, a small bearded man about a few inches taller than the other four small ones, a man with long, blonde hair and pointy ears, and two other men with goatees. All of them were in some sort of medieval gear. They were running from some sort of giant, demon-like creature wreathed in flames and shadows. The wizard stopped in the middle of the bridge. One of the smaller people turned to see this. “You cannot pass!” defied the wizard.

“Gandalf!” called the small person, Frodo Baggins. The flames of the creature, the Balrog of Morgoth, intensified, hoping to scare Gandalf.

“I am a servant of the secret fire, wielder of the flame of Anor!” announced Gandalf, undaunted. He lit up a crystal at the top of his staff as the Balrog summoned a sword of flames. “The Dark Fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn!” The Balrog swung its sword at the wizard only for it to shatter upon impact with Gandalf’s magic shield. The Balrog roared in frustration at this as the rest of the Fellowship looked on. “Go back to the shadow!” snarled Gandalf. The Balrog put a foot on the bridge, summoned a whip of fire, and cracked it to the side. “YOU! SHALL NOT! PASS!” roared Gandalf as he raised his sword and staff over his head. He then brought them down onto the bridge, enchanting it. The Balrog snorted, charged forward with the whip above its head, but the weight of the creature made its part of the bridge collapse. Durin’s Bane roared in anger as it tumbled into the chasm of what once was Khazad-dûm, now the Mines of Moria. As his foe tumbled, Gandalf turned and walked. That was when the Balrog, not about to be cheated of a victim, cracked its whip around Gandalf’s ankle and pulled him down. Gandalf dropped his sword, Glamdring, the Foe-Hammer, and his staff as he grabbed the bridge. Frodo rushed forward to save him but was held back by Boromir.

“GANDALF!” shouted Frodo. Gandalf struggled to pull himself up but couldn’t do so. He locked eyes with Frodo. They stared for a while in horror.

“Fly, you fools!” called Gandalf to the Fellowship. Then he did something that made their hearts shatter, he let go and tumbled after the Balrog. Frodo shouted no at the top of his lungs. As he fell, Gandalf caught up with Glamdring and caught it, diving after the beast. He swung the sword many times into the Balrog as, unbeknownst to him, you guessed it, our party of now eighteen came in through the portal. The Batmobile hit the sides of the chasm before the driver hit the seat eject button. As Batman landed on the Balrog, Hongo activated his belt, the wind pressure spinning the fan fast enough to form his suit. Our horses turned into flying machines as I dismounted mine. I grabbed my i.d tag, ready to activate my belt.

“HENSHIN!” I announced as I fell. As I flew through the blue circle I caught up with Ichigō who was about to strike Batman.

“Where’s Robin?!” Batman asked Gandalf.

“What?” replied Gandalf. He then saw the Balrog’s hand move towards Batman. “Behind you!”

“I said,” shouted Batman, while in the Balrog’s hand, “where’s Robin?!”

“My dear fellow,” replied Gandalf as he struck the Balrog to get it to let go of Batman, “I have no idea what you are talking about! Have you tried looking in a tree?!”

“Not a robin, Robin!” elaborated Batman as he got out of the Balrog’s grip. “He got sucked into a weird hole in Gotham, after the lunatics falling with us tried to stop our chase with an enemy of ours. I jumped in and it led me to you.” He was snatched by the Balrog again.

“And you are?” asked Gandalf. There was a brief silence.

“I’m Batman!” he replied. The Dark Knight pushed the fingers aside and threw a batarang at the Balrog’s eye. He grabbed Hongo and Gandalf, fired his grappling gun up the side of the chasm and they all zoomed upwards to the rest of the Fellowship of the Ring. I disembarked from the Balrog and hopped on my Rider Machine and the Feudal Nerd Society flew upwards to meet Hongo talking to Batman and Frodo hugging Gandalf in relief. Hongo had heard Batman’s backstory and Xiomara confirmed it.

“Oh dear,” he gulped. “Batman, I deeply apologize. I thought you were a monster servant of the organization that altered me into what I am now.”

“What are you anyway?” asked Batman. With Hiroki’s help, Hongo explained what a Kamen Rider is to Batman. Meanwhile, I fiddled with a blue button on my belt and summoned Hongo’s motorcycle, the Cyclone, the Batmobile, and Gandalf’s horse, Shadowfax. Gandalf broke off from his hug with Frodo to shake Batman’s hand.

“My thanks,” he said as he dusted his hat that Sam Gamgee handed him. “But, who are you, my young royals?” he asked us.

“I am Princess Megumi of the Feudal Nerd Society,” I introduced as I curtsied. I proceeded to introduce everyone else and explained about what’s going on. I was about to mention Vortech when we heard Frodo shout Gandalf’s name. We all turned to see Frodo getting sucked up by the portal!

“Frodo!” called Gandalf! “He has the One Ring! It cannot fall into the enemy’s hands!” He mounted Shadowfax and got him to run towards the portal. “Quickly, fly!”

“I’m not an actual bat, Gandalf!” countered Batman as he entered the Batmobile. Hongo got on the Cyclone and we, the F.N.S, mounted our steeds. We all entered the vortex and left the Fellowship of the Ring. Sam blinked.

“I s’pose we’ll just wait for them, then,” he mused.


I’m…not sure how to describe that specific part of the dimension we were about to arrive in. It seemed to be built on clouds, had a sort of Candy-Land feel to it, neon lights flashing everywhere, and a stage where a woman in a black hoodie with purple and blue graffiti style print on the front, black sweatpants, and black hair with a streak of purple and blue going across her right bangs and her left bangs held in a sideways ponytail on the left was in a dance-off with a pink, humanoid cat with yellow hooves for feet, blue furry hands, a human-like face, a cotton candy pink skirt, a pink shirt with puffy sleeves, a blue and white tail, and a blue horn in the middle of her forehead. They were being judged by a pirate that had a giant robot body with a shark on his right arm and cannons replacing his left hand, and his head being the only organic component with a metal beard like device holding it. Oddly enough, this guy was called MetalBeard. “Arr!” announced MetalBeard. “It be Wyldstyle who jigged the best!” He handed the woman a gold trophy. Wyldstyle held it up, her smiled framed by her freckles.

“THIS! DANCE-OFF! WAS! FIXED!” snarled the cat creature, Princess Unikitty, as her colors went from pink and white to orange and red briefly. She then calmed down. “I mean, well done, Wyldstyle!”

“Yes!” cheered Wyldstyle. “I mean, you know, whatever.” Then, MetalBeard, his treasure chest, and the trophy were under a portal in the sky and it started sucking them up. “Hey, wait!” said Wyldstyle as she grabbed the trophy. “That’s mine!”

“Arr!” called MetalBeard as he was sucked in with the treasure chest. “It be a Kraken, I know it!” The portal closed as it took MetalBeard.

“What the?!” cried a construction worker, who’s nametag read “Emmett”. “Where’d MetalBeard go?!” That was when we all came in. The landing was bumpy as we all landed on top of each other and another Batman. We picked ourselves up and dusted each other off.

“Batman?” yelped Wyldstyle as she pointed to our Batman. “Gandalf?!” She pointed to Gandalf. “Batman?” she pointed to the other Batman. Other Batman turned to Hongo.

“OW!” he snapped. “You landed on my back, man!”

“I’m Batman.” replied our Batman. Other Batman turned to our Batman.

“No,” he hissed, “I didn’t say…HEY! I’m Batman!”

“I’m Batman!”

“I’m Batman!”

“I’M BATMAN!”

“I’M BATMAN!” At that point, both Batmans were nose to nose, then proceeded to engage in a slap-fight.

“Oh, twins!” called Gandalf. “I wonder if one of them is evil?”

“Could be,” mused Hiroki. “There’s a monster version of him that Hongo fought.”

“Where did you come from?” asked Unikitty. “And why are there two Bat…mans? Bat…men? Batmens?” She faltered on the plural of Batman.

“There aren’t” replied our Batman as he tossed a batarang. “There’s only one Batman. I don’t know who the stiff is.” He caught the batarang as Other Batman tripped over his own cape.

“Hey!” he rasped.

“I think it’s backstory time again,” muttered Sheela. We all explained our situation and names. Unikitty jumped when she heard I was a princess that had a ruling style similar to hers.

“What sort of fun do you guys have?” she asked.

“We sort of let the wind take us wherever it wants us,” I explained. “It’s more fun that way.”

“Well,” cheered Gandalf, “this is all wonderful! Er, but I don’t suppose you saw a young Hobbit pass this way?”

“What’s a Hobbit?” asked Emmett.

“The only thing we saw was our friend, MetalBeard, getting dragged into a strange vortex,” Wyldstyle told us.

“From what the F.N.S. told us,” mused our Batman, “I think it was some kind of dimensional rift. Where is it?”

“It disappeared after it took him,” reported Emmet.

“What’s Hiro planning with hostages?” I mused to myself.

“So, you guys didn’t cause all of that?” asked Wyldstyle.

“Not possible,” replied Lukas. “We don’t have the technology.”

“Might I suggest we all set out on a quest to find this, er, ‘rift’, you say?” suggested Gandalf.

“A quest?!” asked Unikitty. “Let me go pack some rainbow builder’s bricks!” She skipped away.

“And I’ll get my wrench,” replied Emmet as he followed Unikitty. Wyldstyle lifted a panel to reveal some Lego bricks, built a vehicle, and the vehicle turned into a metal version of the thing.

“Whoa!” I called. “Master Builders at work!”

“We’re making a Master Builder Academy right now,” replied Wyldstyle. “So, quest time?”

“We shall be the Fellowship of the…” Gandalf didn’t get very far as a portal opened beneath all 20 of us as we fell through, screaming. After it closed, the Batman of that dimension got up.

“Fellowship of the Aaargh?” he asked. “That’s a terrible name!” That’s when Emmet and Unikitty came in with a chest of rainbow Lego bricks and a wrench.

“Aw!” cried Emmet. “They left without the whole gang?”

“Gang, shmang!” snarled Unikitty as she got mad. “They left without me!” She roared as her colors changed again.

“That guy wasn’t anything special,” remarked Other Batman. He tried doing some stunts but knocked himself out in the process.

Categories
Kamen Rider Vortex Kamen Rider Vortex Chapters

Chapter 2

As we were pounding through the vortex, an old man sat on a bench in Arakawa Nature park, over in Tokyo. The man was a little battle weary, with wavy hair, a well-defined muscle structure, and wore motorcycle gear. He looked at the young’uns playing and gave a small, sad smile. “The days of youth,” said a voice. The man turned to see another man about his age. He had lost his hair and wore similar gear to the man on the bench. A warm smile spread across his face.

“Haven’t seen you in a while, Ichimonji,” he mused.

“Like you, I’ve been busy fighting Shocker around the world,” explained Ichimonji. “I just came back for the nostalgia, much like you, I’m guessing. How are you doing, Hongo?”

“I’ve been well,” replied Hongo. “About a year ago, Shocker was in a civil war with a branch called Shocker Nova. Unlike the one we’re familiar with, these people wanted to take control of the economies of the planet. Much more sinister than simply subjugating the people.”

“And you fought them off by yourself?” asked Ichimonji.

“No, I met with the new Rider at the time,” explained Hongo. “This one was interesting. He had died when he wasn’t supposed to, so he set out on a quest to find these things called Eyecons, which hold the spirits of famous people, like Musashi, Robin Hood, and Edison. He had to collect all 15 within 99 days or he would cease to exist. From what I heard, he succeeded.”

“A ghost as a Rider?” quizzed Ichimonji. “That’s a new one.”

“Well, the Heisei generation can be a little strange,” mused Hongo.

“Still, it’s nice to see the fight against evil goes on,” replied Ichimonji.

“Yes, the planet is in good…” it was then that Hongo saw the portal. “What in the…? Ichimonji, look out!” said Hongo as he tackled Ichimonji to the ground. That was when we flew out of the portal, over the bench, and landed right in front of the two men.

“That was a rush!” announced Emily.

“Everybody okay?” I asked. They all confirmed their status as we dismounted. “Good. Now then, where are we?”

“You’re in Arakawa Nature Park,” explained Hongo as we turned to the speaker. The instant he clapped eyes on the two men, a look of pleasant surprise and fanboying popped onto Hiroki’s face.

“They’re real!” he muttered. “I don’t believe it! They’re real!”

“Who are they?” asked Sheela.

“THE FIRST KAMEN RIDERS!” shouted Hiroki happily.

“What now?” quizzed Richard.

Kamen Rider is an iconic franchise alongside Godzilla and Ultraman,” explained Hiroki. “The whole thing is based around a masked motorcycle rider fighting evil organizations.”

“After the earthquake in 2011, the statue of the very first Kamen Rider was discovered still standing, giving courage and hope to the victims.” I supplied. “Even one who has basic knowledge, like me, can’t deny the impact Kamen Rider has left us.”

“And Ichimonji’s coming with me,” called a voice. That’s when an electrical bolt shot Ichimonji and made him freeze up. We looked in shock to see Hiro with a smoking pistol in his right hand. My lips curled into a snarl and Hongo noticed this.

“Do you know him?” he asked.

“That man had abandoned me and tried to reclaim me when I was adopted by a more loving mother,” I explained. “This was after he murdered his wife, my birth mother!” Hongo gave a dirty look at Hiro.

“I’m guessing, because of that, you no longer acknowledge him as your father,” guessed Hongo.

“That’s right!” I snarled.

“How dare you, sir!” hissed Hongo to Hiro. “She was a gift to make your life joyful and you ruined her life! I shall not forgive those as evil as you!”

“Evil?!” snapped Hiro. “No! I don’t accept that! I needed a super soldier! One who could communicate with their bestial side! It was for the good of Japan!”

“The good of Japan?!” roared Hiroki as Hiro rambled. “You animal! You almost got her killed! It was lucky that my mother adopted her when she did! You’re an evil man that has descended into nothing more than an animal and shall be put down as such!”

“You are welcome to try!” boasted Hiro as he loaded a red semi-circle into both guns.

“Oh, this is gonna be good!” giggled the Rogue driver as both semi-circles joined together inside the red circle, with the split going from top to bottom. Hiro then pointed his guns at us. “Reach for the skies!” said the driver.

“Henshin!” announced Hiro as he pulled the triggers. A red circle appeared in front of us with an image of armor going sideways. Hiro ran towards it and jumped into it, twisting sideways, and landed on both feet in the armor. It looked like a black, full bodysuit with blackish gray armor on the arms, chest, and legs, and a black trench coat. His helmet had red compound eyes, a pair of short antennae, and a black, wide brimmed hat. The eyes had a pupil and the lights making it glow altered to show the emotion he had underneath.

“Meg,” gulped Xiomara, “your birth father, did he just…?”

“He did,” I said, “Hiroki, is that…?”

“It is!” confirmed Hiroki.

“I am Kamen Rider Rogue,” announced Hiro. “Stand and deliver!”

“You disgrace the name of Kamen Riders everywhere!” hissed Hongo. “I shall teach you what a Rider truly is.” He pulled his jacket back to reveal a belt with a white strap and a silvery metal shield covering something around the buckle area. The shield had a symbol on it with the front of a motorcycle, almost insect like, over a red R. After he revealed the belt, He put his left fist to his hip and thrust his right hand across his front in a diagonal fashion and slowly rotated it to his right side. As he was doing this, the shield split to reveal a red fan that turned with the wind. “Rider…HENSHIN!” He then pulled his right hand into a fist and put it to his hip and thrust his left arm across his front. He then leapt into the air at an impressive height for anyone, even men his age! As he landed, the wind had kicked up so much debris that I couldn’t see his suit form. When it cleared, there he stood. He wore a green mask with red compound eyes, a pair of antennae, a lighter green face shield that looked a lot like an insect’s mandibles, armor all over him with the chest, gloves, and boots being colored in green. He also wore a red scarf with both ends on the left side. My brother was about to squee.

“I thought his outfit was slimmer than that,” I pondered aloud.

“There was a movie with him and Kamen Rider Ghost,” explained Hiroki with a big fat grin. “He had upgrades done before the events of that movie!”

“Okay, that makes sense,” I muttered. A thought then entered my head. “Er, driver…”

+WHAT IS YOUR QUERY?+ quizzed my belt.

“Do you have similar transformation functions?” I asked.

+ALL VORTEX DRIVERS ARE BUILT WITH TRANSFORMATION IN MIND+ replied my belt. “SIMPLY INSERT THE IDENTIFICATION TAG INTO THE SLOT ON TOP+ +ENCOUNTERING MORE PEOPLE WILL ALLOW YOU TO GAIN THEIR IDENTIFICATION TAGS AND ABILITIES+ +SIMPLY PRESS THE RED BUTTON ON YOUR RIGHT TO SWAP OUT YOUR IDENTIFICATION TAG AND INSERT A NEW ONE TO GAIN ARMOR BASED ON THEIR IMAGE+

“So, you’re saying we all have a Henshin sequence like Hiro?” I asked.

+CORRECT+ confirmed my belt. I grinned.

“Hongo-san,” I pleaded, “please, let me fight with you. Kamen Rider Rogue is my enemy too.”

“As you wish,” replied Kamen Rider Ichigō. (The first)

“Thank you,” I thanked. I then took out the blue disk I got when this adventure started and held it in my right fist. My left fist went to my waist and my right fist came across my front to my left shoulder.

“Meg!” called Richard. “What are you doing?!”

“Not without us!” declared Hiroki.

“I was wondering when you guys would speak up,” I mused. “Form up and strike a pose, lords and ladies.”

“Oh, for the love of…I don’t have time for this!” snarled Rogue as he charged towards Ichimonji. Ichigō then threw a punch and started pushing him back.

“You kids get into your suits!” he called. “I’ll hold him off for as long as I can!”

“Thank you, Hongo-san!” thanked Hiroki. The line soon went from Joshua with his right fist holding his i.d tag above his head and his left hand splayed in front of his belt, Sheela with both hands in the air over her right shoulder with the i.d tag in between her right ring finger and pinky, Tonje with her right fist holding the i.d tag on her forehead and her left fist at her belt buckle, Tanisha with her right pointer finger and thumb holding the i.d tag and her left hand behind it, Livia with her right hand holding the i.d tag on her left shoulder and her left hand holding the other shoulder, Irina crossing her arms in front of her with the i.d tag in, you guessed, her right fist, Mikhail simply putting his left arm under his right arm, Hiroki holding an invisible katana, myself keeping the same pose before Rogue tried to interfere, Richard holding his right arm like a sword, Emily in a fencing ready position with an invisible foil, Haitao putting his right hand into his left palm, Emmanuel throwing his left arm out in front while his right hand with the i.d tag went into the air as he turned to face his right, Lukas throwing his right fist in front while his left hand held the elbow, Xiomara with her left hand holding part of her dress and her right arm straight across her belly, and Michael holding his right arm straight from the side and his left hand about to draw an imaginary sword.

“Henshin on three,” I declared. “Ichi! Ni! SAN!”

“HENSHIN!” we all shouted as we slid our i.d tags into the slots on top of the belts. Rogue stopped fighting Ichigō to look at us. Ichigō stopped as well to get a look. A blue circle appeared in front of each of us with silhouettes of armor for us. Us dress wearers had to hitch up our skirts as we all ran towards the circles and jumped through. When we came out, we were in armor with a black undersuit and light blue plating. Joshua’s motif made him look like a hunter. Sheela looked like an Indian soldier in old armor. Tonje had the Viking thing going, without the horns on her helmet. Tanisha had a pre-colonial look to her armor. Livia’s armor was styled around Gothic Plate armor. Irina’s armor covered every square inch of body that showed the black undersuit. Mikhail looked like one of the Cossacks. Hiroki was styled after a samurai. I was in armor that had a crown affixed to my helmet and a purple cape. Richard took the classic medieval armor look, complete with feather on top. Emily was in metal fencing gear. Haitao took the look of an old Chinese soldier. Emmanuel looked like a French archer. Lukas looked like an old German knight. Xiomara looked like a conquistador. Michael looked like a medieval English soldier. Our weapons looked more futuristic. Our compound eyes were blue and, like Hiro, had pupils and could show our emotions. We all approved.

“Everyone,” I ordered, “introduce yourselves! Make sure you have a good name and catchphrase!” I’ve seen enough Kamen Rider to know how it’s supposed to go.

“Kamen Rider Outback!” began Joshua. “Better watch your back, mate!”

“Kamen Rider Claw,” announced Sheela as she closed her fists to extend her new Bagh Naka. “My weapons shall turn you into ribbons!”

“Kamen Rider Swing!” declared Tonje. “I’ll be taking your legs!”

“Kamen Rider Hunt!” called Tanisha. “I shall always get my prey!”

“Kamen Rider Clash!” announced Livia. “A duel with me shall end in your defeat!”

“Kamen Rider Climb!” called Irina. “Mountains are a warrior’s best friend!”

“Kamen Rider Gallop!” declared Mikhail. “My riding skills are unmatched!”

“Kamen Rider Sengoku!” called Hiroki. “You shall get a taste of Feudal Japan!”

“Kamen Rider Royal!” I declared. “Evil will ultimately bow to me!”

“Kamen Rider Guard!” announced Richard. “None shall harm my friends, family, and lady!”

“Kamen Rider Touché!” declared Emily. “En Garde, thing of evil!”

“Kamen Rider Zhànshì,” called Haitao. “Try and stop my quest!”

“Kamen Rider Arch!” declared Emmanuel. “My skills outdo Robin Hood!” Michael looked towards Emmanuel at that.

“Kamen Rider Kämpfer!” announced Lukas. “Your defeat will be certain at my hands!”

“Kamen Rider Seeker!” called Xiomara. “It’s not gold I seek, but your end!”

“Kamen Rider Battle!” announced Michael after he shook off Emmanuel’s comment. “For friends and family, I shall be victorious!”

“You face 17 people, Hiro!” I called. “Give up now, and this goes no further!” Rogue looked all around, then bent down slightly. Given the tremble in his body, I thought he was crying. I was wrong. He then bent over backwards giving an insanely loud laugh.

“You morons!” he laughed. “What was your objective?!” I was puzzled by the question.

“What do you mean?” I asked. “Our objective is to beat you.”

“Really?” he countered. “Nothing to do with Kamen Rider Nigō?” (The Second)

“Well,” said Hiroki as he turned around, “given that…er…where’s Ichimonji?!”

“What?!” I quizzed. All riders aside from Rogue started looking for Ichimonji.

“The instant you lot started doing your roll call,” explained Rogue, “a portal opened up and sucked up the paralyzed Ichimonji! No doubt he’s on Foundation Prime!” Another portal opened behind him. “And there’s my ride!”

“You’re not going anywhere!” I shouted as I charged him. My futuristic rapier slashed across his back. He turned around and delivered a punch which I blocked. I threw a punch which he blocked. And so, the process continued, blow after blow blocked until he pulled one of his guns on me and fired. I staggered backwards as he leapt into the air.

“Rider Rogue Kick,” he said as he flew down with his left foot outstretched and a nasty red aura surrounding him I tried to get out of the way but stumbled over my cape. That’s when Ichigō threw himself between us and took the hit. It canceled his transformation as Rogue landed and disappeared into the portal. Hongo boarded his bike that was nearby and sped into the portal after Hiro.

“Hongo-san, WAIT!” called Hiroki. Our transformations cancelled as our horses trotted towards us to let us on. We entered the portal ourselves to get Hongo to see sense.

Categories
Kamen Rider Vortex Kamen Rider Vortex Chapters

Chapter 1

+LOCATING HOST+

+SIBLING UNITS FOLLOWING+

+COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF IMAGINATION LOCATED IN DIMENSION 0-1-9-2-7+

+DIMENSION CONFIRMED AS A NULL DIMENSION+

+IMAGINATION LEVELS ARE HIGHER AS VIEW IS INCREASED+

+NEW HOST LOCATED+

+INITIATING DIMENSIONAL SHUNTING+


# royal protocols engaged #

# sibling units connected to this unit #

# brother unit 4479 is shunting to dimension 0-1-9-2-7 #

# dimension is considered a null dimension #

# brother unit has located host #

# hosts for all units located in same vicinity as host for brother unit #

# initiating dimensional shunting #


Another day, another gathering for the Feudal Nerds Society. All of the ladies and one man in our large, poofy dresses, the rest of the men in armor or fancy clothes. It was quite the large group and with all sorts of nationalities. We had Duke Emmanuel from France, our one man in the dress, Duke Lukas from Germany, Lord Michael from England, Lady Irina and her brother, Lord Mikhail of Russia, Lady Livia of Italy, Lady Tanisha of Africa, Lord Haitao of China, Lady Sheela of India, Lady Tonje of Norway, Lady Xiomara of Spain, Lord Joshua of Australia, my right-hand man, Sir Richard, and his sister, Dame Emily of the U.S. and my brother by adoption, Prince Hiroki of Japan. I am Princess Megumi, head of this little band. We had gathered around our table in the castle, an abandoned factory spruced up to look nice for the new occupants, and I had called for quiet. Hiroki and I sat at the head with him on my left. To my right sat Richard, Emily, Emmanuel, Lukas, Irina, Mikhail, and Sheela directly across from me. To Hiroki’s left sat Haitao, Livia, Tanisha, Tonje, Joshua, Michael, and Xiomara directly across from him. “My assembled nerds,” I began, “This has been a good year for the F.N.S. In fact, in the four years since we’ve started, we’ve been enjoying ourselves in our little quests to be champions of nerd-kind, such as LGBTQ protection,” I pointed to Lukas, Tanisha, Tonje, and Emmanuel, “feminism,” pointing to Sheela and Emily, “and broadening culture,” pointing to Haitao, Hiroki, and Xiomara, “and succeeding in said quests. However, I must warn you, this is no time for complacency! For there are still toxic parts of nerd culture that are festering today! I, myself, have seen basement trolls attacking others online just to feel satisfied before I logged out of DeviantArt this evening!” Someone shouted “Shame!” at this. “Shame, indeed, Emmanuel,” I continued. “Still, we must not be too despondent. For, if we had no cause, we’d be nothing more than a gaggle of people with our own petty squabbles getting in the way of true enjoyment! Thus, we flourish. With that, I say Happy Anniversary to our Feudal Nerds Society!”

“Happy Anniversary!” was the resounding reply. We then started eating our meals. It was Pizza Friday. As we ate and talked, Emmanuel pricked his ears up. Joshua noticed this.

“Something wrong, mate?” he asked.

“I thought I heard something,” replied Emmanuel.

“A sort of tinkling noise from the ceiling?” asked Irina. Emmanuel blinked.

“As a matter of fact, yes,” he confirmed. “Why do you ask?”

“I hear it too, tovarisch,” (comrade) replied Irina. This time, everyone pricked their ears up. Sure enough, there was a tinkling noise.

“Maybe it’s a rat,” suggested Haitao. Hiroki tensed up.

“I hope not,” gulped Tanisha. “We don’t need one chewing on wires.”

“Hey, enough!” yelped the musophobic (rat-fearing) Hiroki.

“Yeah,” continued Richard. “If one rat gets through a live wire, we’ll have the worst mess ever to clean up. On top of that, we’ll have to relocate our castle if the place burns down, and I don’t think we have the finances to move.”

“You know,” pondered Lukas aloud, “I heard somewhere that some rats can weigh four or five kilos.”

“I said shut up about the rats!” insisted Hiroki.

“I don’t think rat claws make a metallic tinkling, even on metal,” mused Emmanuel.

“Weapons out,” I ordered. We reached under the table and got our respective weapons. I had a rapier. Richard had a broad sword. Emily had a fencing foil. Josh’s bolo, Tanisha’s kaskara, and Hiroki’s katana came out. Emmanuel took out a bow and arrow set. Lukas had a crossbow. Tonje had a battle ax, Mikhail had a shashka. Irina had a kinjal. Sheela slipped on her bagh naka. Xiomara drew her cutlass. Haitao gripped his liuyedao. Michael held his falchion and Livia pointed her cinquedea at the ceiling. In fact, we all pointed our respective blades at the ceiling. It was then that sixteen objects landed on the table as our backs were turned. After we all gave a yelp of surprise, we whirled to face the table and stared at the devices. They were rectangular and colored greyish black with a silver trim. They had some sort of blue circle in the center and a slot on top.

+CONNECTING WITH SIBLING UNITS+ announced the first device. Wires connected the devices to make a four by four square and the center circles started projecting something. It looked like a sea of gray against a cosmic background that seemed to be spitting out objects before they dissolved. It looked like London Bridge, a rocket, an atom, the Eiffel Tower, 42, and a race car were among them. Then part of the sea of gray floated to make a circle in the air. At that point, a blue, swirling vortex opened and a strange being came through. A caption beneath the being read “Lord Vortech”. It looked like he was made of solid space with glowing eyes. He wore a mask that covered his face and mouth and a bronze helmet with curved horns. He had a tattered cape held by some sort of shoulder guards and some sort of ruined, brown pants with a belt holding it in place. The belt had a red circle above the buckle and he carried a staff with three circles held by rods at the top. The creature, I assume is what the caption called Lord Vortech, started walking forward while the vortex let the devices projecting these events pass through as well as a cubical robot with a telescopic, purple eye, an antenna on top, and claw like hands dangling off the bottom. The cube robot was identified as Senior Brother Unit and it sped off in search of something as it switched a red light on. As it moved, the light turned green.

“Hey, I found a thing!” it reported. Vortech turned to face it. “Er, I mean, anomaly located, Master.” Vortech walked towards the robot and chuckled to himself in a raspy tone.

“Yes!” he called. “I found it!”

“Er, YOU found it?” asked the robot.

-This Unit Must Agree With Senior Brother Unit- supplied another device.

“After all these years of searching,” continued Vortech, “it really exists! Foundation Prime!” Vortech waved aside some of the gray to reveal 10 images in a square pattern. He turned to the first device. “Call the Rogue Driver and his host!” The first device’s circle blinked twice before another vortex let a man through. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing! First off, let me explain some of my backstory, I was adopted after my father, Hiro, had killed my mother. I felt nothing but hatred in my heart for the three years I lived on the streets. I ran from the orphanage that housed me until I was nine, a hellhole if I ever saw one, and just wandered with no direction and no purpose. The streets were not kind. I almost became an animal. That’s when she came. Her name was Haruna Hishikawa, a high society widow. I’m using European name order instead of traditional Japanese here. She took me in and gave me a home. Over the course of a year, she soon became Mom. She introduced me to my liking of Princess style dresses. Then, on my 14th birthday, he came back into my life, the man that had ruined my childhood. He tried to reclaim me, but the court had fixed him good. Last time I saw him, he was being led away to life imprisonment with no chance of parole. That trial was 10 years ago, before my family and I moved here to Virginia, and I had lived a life of bliss and friendship until I saw his face just now. He was wearing some sort of highwayman getup, complete with wide brimmed hat, and a black device was attached to his waist. Unlike the other devices, this one had a red circle and a gun on each hip. And, unlike the robotic tones the other devices spoke with, this one had a sarcastic, biting tone. This was identified as the Rogue Driver

“Well, well, well!” it chuckled. “It looks like Mister Cube found something!”

“So, this is Foundation Prime?” asked Hiro.

“The proof is right there!” explained Vortech as he pointed to the images. “This depicts the Foundation Elements; artifacts from the start of time! Scattered across the dimensions, and only I can gather them in one place!”

“And such elements will allow us this power of creation you’ve promised?” asked Hiro.

“Indeed, they shall, my dear Hiro,” confirmed Vortech.

“Just so you know,” gulped the cube robot, “the Foundation Elements are the cornerstones of Time and Space, so they’re…kind of important to the…entire multiverse!” The robot briefly chuckled.

“Your services are no longer required,” replied Vortech. He used his staff to open a portal behind the robot.

“But the elements can’t be safely harnessed!” yelled the robot as it was sucked into the portal, piece by piece. “It’s too dangerous! AND WHAT ABOUT THE PAY RAISE YOU PROMISED MEEEEEEEE!” The instant the last component of the robot was sucked in, the portal closed. Lord Vortech then started laughing.

“I will have them all!” he giggled. “I will control their power! I will make UNIVERSES collide!” As he started laughing again, Hiro rolled his eyes.

“Lunatics, am I right?” muttered the Rogue Driver. Then Vortech started shaking violently and then started shifting in size at random intervals. Hiro backed off.

“NO!” shouted Vortech. “I will not be…denied perfection!” He shrunk back down.

“What was that?!” demanded Hiro.

“That, my friend,” explained the Rogue Driver, “is what happens when you stay in the dimensional vortex for too long. Your body can’t keep its stability for much longer.”

“My dedication to this work…has…taken its toll!” elaborated Vortech. “Not…for much longer can I freely pass between dimensions!”

“What?!” snarled Hiro. “If this whole thing turns out to be a bust, we’re stuck here!”

“Maybe Lord Vortech can’t pass between dimensions…” mused his belt.

“But there is another way,” supplied Vortech. He then started using his thoughts to raise a citadel with the images of the Foundation Elements in the center. As this was going on, Vortech started laughing.

+EMERGENCY DIMENSIONAL SHIFT+ announced the first device. All of the devices started going into a portal with Hiro screaming after them. The video ended. We blinked.

“And…you guys are?” I asked the devices.

+WE ARE DRIVERS LIKE THE ROGUE UNIT+ explained the first device. That’s when all the drivers attached to our waists. They each spat out a small, light blue disk from the slot on top.

“What the heck are these things?” asked Hiroki.

+EXPLANATIONS WILL COME LATER+ announced my belt. +FOR NOW, RESCUE MUST COME FIRST+

“Of the cube robot?” asked Richard.

+NEGATIVE+ replied my belt. +RESCUE OF ALL HOSTS’ PARENTS+

“Beg pardon?” quizzed Michael.

+ROGUE DRIVER HOST HAS TAKEN YOUR PARENTS HOSTAGE+ explained Tanisha’s belt. That raised a major red flag and so we all whipped out our phones and called our parents. All we got was their respective voice mail greetings. As the reality of the situation sunk in, rage filled my heart.

“Hiro wa, anata wa amarini mo tōku ittekimashita!” (Hiro, you’ve gone too far!) I hissed in my native Japanese.

“I hate to sound like the, er, ‘downer’, of the group,” replied Lukas, “but if we are to fight Vortech and Hiro to save our parents, how will we get there?”

+SUMMONING STEEDS+ announced my belt. That’s when the vortex opened to release a horse for each of us. These horses were metal and had wheels hidden in their bellies.

“I’m guessing that these horses turn into motorcycles?” asked Xiomara.

+CONFIRMED+ replied my belt.

“Then I guess it’s time to put our horseback riding and motorbike training to good use!” I declared as I mounted my steed. The others mounted theirs as well. We trotted toward the table to grab a last slice of pizza for the road. Once we had gotten our slices, we charged towards the portal, on our way to save our parents.