Categories
Kamen Rider Vortex Kamen Rider Vortex Chapters

Chapter 62

“Don’t worry, guys,” called Shade. “I have a spell that will teleport us out of here.”

“Good to know,” replied Build.

“INTRUDERS! DIE!” boomed a robotic voice. It was Robotron! He fired on us as we took cover.

“Someone needs to stop him!” I called.

“He’ll shoot us the instant he sees us!” replied Sengoku.

“I got this!” announced Jake. He gulped down a soda and turned invisible!

“Of course!” I realized. Sengoku got the idea and we drew out the Batman i.d tags.

“Batman Steel!” announced our belts as we donned the image of the Dark Knight. We then followed suit with Jake and attacked Robotron before he teleported to another level, near an air hockey table. We then crept up on him and attacked again! He teleported to a lower area, then we followed and attacked. He teleported to the highest level by a pair of pinball machines until we attacked again. He fell and we found Robotron’s game

Robotron: 2084!” cheered Jake. “I love this game! Quick! Save the last human family!” Jake got to work playing it until he earned 10,000 points. The wizard appeared again.

Robotron: 2084,” he revealed, “was first introduced to arcades in 1982. In total, there are 40 enemy waves hard-coded into the game. After Wave 40 has been completed, Waves 21 to 40 are then repeated until 255 waves have been beaten in total.” He vanished again.

“Okay, he’s gone,” muttered Build, “but what about Caan?”

“I’ll check,” called Shade. She cast a spell on the doors which allowed us to see through it. Caan had long since abandoned the area. “Okay, we’re good. Now, all I need to do is…” the doors opened by themselves. Gandalf was sitting by the doors, puffing on his pipe! “H…how did you do that?” asked Shade.

“There’s a button marked ‘Open’,” replied Gandalf as he pointed out the button with his pipe. Shade smacked her head.

“If Mom finds out, she’ll never let me hear the end of it!” she groaned. “Right, this way.” We left the room and went to the other side of the arcade where a knight was riding an ostrich and holding a jousting lance!

“STAB! KILL!” shouted the knight. He then charged us! We got out of the way and Build stepped on one of the Dance Dance Revolution machines. He heard a noise and saw that it was from a box shaking on the ceiling. He then saw another switch next to him that looked like it had a timer. An idea then formed in his head.

“Jake, do you have something that can increase your speed?!” he asked.

“I have a speed soda, why?!” replied Jake. He then saw the timer and pressure switches. “Okay, I can see why you would ask about my speed, but how will we keep the knight sufficiently distracted?! It’s taking most of us to keep him at bay!”

“Don’t worry, I have a Best Match for that!” assured Build. He then took out two more Fullbottles, one purple and one yellow. The purple one had a shuriken on it while the yellow one had a comic page on it. He then replaced the Rabbit Fullbottle with the purple one and the Tank with the yellow.

“NINJA! COMIC! BEST MATCH!” announced the Build Driver. He turned the crank and the piping came out again. “ARE YOU READY?!” asked the Build Driver.

“Build Up!” replied Build. The piping then formed the suit and slammed the sides onto Build. The red was replaced with purple, the Rabbit eye turned into an elongated shuriken, and he got a purple scarf. The blue was replaced with yellow and his Tank eye was replaced with a pen over a set of explosive panels. Surfer rock music played as the Build Driver announced the form.

“SHINOBI NO ENTERTAINER!” (The Stealthy Entertainer) NINNINCOMIC! YEAH!” announced the belt. Build then held his hand out as piping formed a sword. The sword had a pen tip on top and there were four panels that made up the blade. The one nearest the hilt had multiple ninja like characters, the one above that had a ninja making an explosion, the one above that had a ninja making a circular wind, and the one at the top, just below the pen tip of the sword, had a ninja vanishing in a puff of smoke. “4KOMA NINPŌTŌ!” (Pronounced Yon Koma, means 4 Panel Ninja Sword) called the belt. He pressed a button on the handle once and the bottom-most panel lit up.

“BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!” (Art of cloning) it announced. At that point, three more Builds came into being. Jake got the idea as the clones stepped onto the pressure pads and drank the speed soda. He ran onto all four timer switches and the box fell, revealing another knight on an ostrich. The knights made eye contact and they rushed at each other; lances ready. They knocked themselves out at that time. Build then dismissed the clones as Jake found the game the knights came from. It was Joust! You flew around on an ostrich jousting enemies off theirs and collecting their eggs.

“Haha! Yes!” cheered Jake. “Classic Retro gaming at its finest!” He played until he got 1,000 points. The Wizard appeared again.

Joust was released in 1982,” he lectured, “and was one of the earliest arcade games to feature two-player cooperative gameplay. The whole game is based around armored knights riding ostriches jousting against enemies on giant buzzards. This idea was conceived from wanting to create a flying game that wasn’t set in space.” He vanished again.

“Then, why not use dragons?” asked Build as he took the Fullbottles out and cancelled his transformation.

“Why use those wicked things?!” protested Gandalf.

“Wicked?” asked Ex-aid as he closed the Gamer Driver.

“GACHON!” it announced. He then took the Gashat out. “GASHUN!” Ex-aid went back to being Emu. Sengoku and I became Hiroki and Livia again.

“Well, in Gandalf’s world, dragons are ALL evil,” I explained. “Bred by Morgoth, Sauron’s old boss.”

“I see,” muttered Sento. I then noticed that Shade didn’t cancel her transformation.

“Er, Shade?” I asked.

“Not yet,” she replied, guessing my question. “Not until these events settle themselves. For now, we need to get to the basement.” We took Shade’s advice and headed downstairs. We could see the rocket from Defender patrolling the back, trapped behind a boiler.

“I got this,” assured Jake. He drank another soda, then shot lasers from his eyes like Superman! It freed the rocket, then it fired on us!

“Well, how’s THAT for gratitude?!” I hissed. Emu jumped up and brought the rocket down. At that point, we found the Defender game.

Defender!” called Jake as he started playing. “Classic space shooter! 1981 arcade release!” Once he got to 2,000, the rocket vanished and the Wizard came back to give us more history.

“When Defender was released in 1981,” he commented, “many people were cautious of its complicated control scheme and high difficulty level. Ultimately, it was these very elements that made it such a huge success as they helped it to stand out as something different within the busy arcades.” When the Wizard vanished, we then noticed a buzzing noise. We turned to see a tiny car racing around a track! Jake got an idea.

“Guys, you turn over the oil drums when I say so!” he called. “I’ll lower the crossing bar, then we herd it towards the tiny garage!” We got into position. “Ready?” he asked. The car approached the oil drums. “NOW!” yelled Jake. We turned the oil drums over and spilled the contents over the track, causing the car to lose control, then Jake lowered the bar once the car was near him, then we herded it towards the tiny garage. It was stuck.

“I think that car came from Super Sprint,” I mused.

“Oh, cool!” cheered Jake. “Super Sprint! Released in 1986 to the joy of everyone! Anyone else want a turn at these things? My fingers are getting numb.”

“I’ll handle it,” I called as I found the Super Sprint machine. I won a race and the Wizard came up again.

“The arcade machine for Super Sprint,” he lectured, “released in 1986, featured three wheels as a way of controlling the cars and also allowed for three players to race each other at the same time. If the player managed to reach Race 85, a bonus track could then be played.” As he vanished, he started glitching out and we could see a trail leading into a back room. It was guarded by a security camera that shut the door whenever it saw us, so Jake went invisible and he snuck through, killing power to the door. At that point, we were attacked by the Wizard and the rest of the Gauntlet heroes.

“I guess we beat them first!” mused Emu as he got the Gashat out again.

“MIGHTY ACTION X!” it announced. Sento brought out the Rabbit and Tank Fullbottles, shook them, and put them into the Build Driver.

“RABBIT! TANK! BEST MATCH!” it called. Sento turned the crank and the piping appeared. “ARE YOU READY?!” Hiroki and I drew our i.d. tags.

“Henshin!” we all announced

“GASHATTO! GACHĀN! LEVEL UP! Mighty jump! Mighty kick! Mighty! MIGHTY ACTION X!” shouted Emu’s belt.

“HAGANE NO MOONSAULT! RABBITTANK! YEAH!” called the Build Driver. All Riders were back into our suits and we went on the offensive. It involved a lot of punching, but we managed to subdue them.

“I think it’s your turn, Sengoku,” I offered.

“Gladly,” replied Sengoku. He started playing Gauntlet as the warrior character.

“What IS this game?” asked Build.

“This is Gauntlet,” answered Jake. “It was released in 1985 and it is THE most fun a quarter can buy!”

“DAMMIT!” swore Sengoku.

“You died?” I asked.

“Er, can I get some help?” quizzed Sengoku.

“Sure thing,” called Jake. Ex-aid, Jake, and I joined in the fun. Sengoku stayed as the Warrior, I picked the Valkyrie, Jake picked the Elf, and Ex-aid picked the Wizard. We soon netted 3,000 points and the characters we fought recovered from their haze. The Wizard recovered first.

“Thor?!” he quizzed. “Thyra?! Questor?! Were we all possessed?!”

“It would appear so, Merlin,” replied Questor, the Elf.

“How did we end up in the real world?” asked Thyra, the Valkyrie.

“I’d say Vortech had a hand in it,” I called. We explained our situation to the Gauntlet heroes.

“Well then, you have our everlasting gratitude,” thanked Thor, the Warrior.

“You say you beat our game?” quizzed Merlin, the Wizard. “One last bit of history before your final battle here. Our game, released in 1985, featured drop-in, drop-out gameplay for up to four players. With four people playing at the same time, it was seen as the answer for struggling arcade manufacturers to create extra earnings whilst creating a very fun game in the process.” We heard something buzz. “Ah, that would be your way up,” mused Merlin. “Farewell and good luck.”

“You’re not coming?!” yelped Jake.

“You guys beat his game,” answered Shade. “He and the other Gauntlet heroes are going back into their electronic slumber.”

“It was good to meet you, my friends,” called Thyra. We all shook hands with them, then they faded into pixels and returned to their game. We headed out to the elevator and took it all the way to the roof. There, we saw Caan speaking to Heather!

“You’re making a mistake!” insisted Caan.

“The Apocalypse Driver will bring me back with a fully functional body!” argued Heather.

“You seem to be missing the big picture about the consequences,” snarled Caan.

“And you idiots seem to forget about your enemies!” I revealed. At that point, Caan smirked and pulled out the device the Thief used to turn himself into a Bugster!

“The Gashacon Bugvisor?!” called Sengoku.

“Baiyō,” announced Caan as he used the blaster end of the device to spray Jake with orange pixels. Jake started spasming, then morphing until he became George from Rampage! “Quite the Bugster, wouldn’t you say?” asked Caan.

“Bingo!” cheered Heather. She punched Jake’s monstrous form and got out a quarter circle. It had a canister’s image on it. “Two parts down, three to go,” she mused. She then fled through a rift!

“NO!” I shouted. Too late.

“Won’t do her any good,” mused Shade.

“Never mind the talk!” snapped Sengoku. “Jake just became a Bugster!”

“I’ll remove it!” replied Ex-aid as he closed the Gamer Driver.

“GACHON!” it announced as Ex-aid went into his level 1 form. He went on the offensive to keep Jake back.

“Now, for you,” hissed Caan. He pulled out a version of the Build Driver that was done up in the colors of a Dalek’s shell. The gear was replaced with a Dalek’s eye. He put the belt on.

“DAL DRIVER!” called the belt in a Dalek’s voice.

“A vastly superior version of the Build Driver,” boasted Caan. “And this,” he took out a can with a dome on top, “is my Pure Dalek can.” He shook the can and turned the dome so a Dalek eyestalk could come out and the speech indicators would pop out. He then put it into the Dal Driver as it took up both slots.

“PURE DALEK!” it announced. Caan then turned the crank and piping came out, forming parts of a suit behind and in front of him. “ARE YOU READY?!” asked the Dal Driver.

“Henshin!” called Caan. The suit slammed onto him, giving him a distinctly Dalek appearance. He had shoulder pads that looked like half of a Dalek’s neck, boots that resembled a Dalek’s skirt, and a blue light in the center of the head. His eyes took their cues from Build, the left giving the appearance of the Dalek gun, the right giving the appearance of their plunger. The left forearm looked like the gun and the right had a sleeve similar to their plunger as well.

“THE UNSTOPPABLE KILLER!” shrieked the Dal Driver. “PURE DALEK! EXTERMINATE!”

“Kamen Rider Dal!” droned Caan in his old Dalek voice. As he spoke, the eyes flashed like the lights on a Dalek. “You will be exterminated!” More piping formed a pistol with a Dalek gun on the end.

“DAL GUN!” announced the Dal Driver. He caught the gun in his left hand. We dodged the blasts as Shade assisted Ex-aid. Gandalf helped us keep Dal at bay.

“You may win this universe,” boasted Dal, “but Shocker Rift will win the entire Multiverse!”

“Not gonna happen!” I declared.

“I have foreseen it!” replied Dal. “It is inevitable!”

“You can’t win!” I insisted.

“We’ll stop you!” called Sengoku.

“You do not have the capacity to do so!” shouted Dal.

“EX-AID! NOW!” yelled Shade. Ex-aid hammered George and managed to separate Jake from George. Jake was…lacking…in clothes aside from his tighty-whities. Jake got out of his haze, then felt the draft around his legs. He covered his crotch and sidled off. “I got you,” assured Shade as Ex-aid went to Level 2 again. Clothes came back onto Jake.

“Thanks!” called Jake.

“KIMEWAZA!” announced the Gamer Driver. “MIGHTY CRITICAL STRIKE!” Ex-aid then did his Rider Kick and knocked George silly.

“My turn!” called Jake as he found the Rampage machine.

“NO!” shouted Dal as he leveled his gun at Jake.

“RIDER CLASH KICK!” I announced as I delivered my kick to his head. Dal recovered as he turned the crank again.

“READY, GO!” shouted the Dal Driver. An orangish hologram of a Special Weapons Dalek gun enveloped Dal and targeted us. “PURE DALEK FINISH! EXTERMINATE!” announced the Dal Driver as the hologram fired Dal in a flying kick before it faded. We ducked out of the way and Dal hit a wall, just as Jake finished the first level of Rampage. That was all that was needed to put George back. Build then turned the crank of his Build Driver.

“READY, GO!” it called as an energy chart trapped Dal in its dotted line. “VORTEX FINISH! YEAH!” Build then flew down the line and drove his right foot into Dal’s head. There was an explosion that knocked Dal backwards and made the Pure Dalek can pop out of the Dal Driver, causing him to revert back to Caan.

“Pitiful creatures!” he hissed as he picked himself up.

“Caan,” I called, “you REALLY need to drop this whole Dalek business. One of our allies did and her life is for the better now.”

“I’m familiar with the Ex-Dalek that the Doctor nicknamed Rusty!” snapped Caan. “She is weak!”

“Hardly,” I argued. “She’s stronger than any Dalek fleet. She’s allowed diversity to enter her genetics and it made her stronger. If you promise to drop this notion of purity, we can grant you asylum. What say you?”

“Vortech, I require a rift back!” demanded Caan. A rift to Foundation Prime opened for him and he went through!

“NO!” I called. “Accidenti a lui! (Damn him!) We could have used him!”

“I think the ONE Dalek we have is enough,” replied Sengoku.

“Caan is not someone who gives up his Dalek ways so easily,” confirmed Shade.

“In any case, we failed our mission,” I sighed. I contacted Vorton. “X-PO, we need a ride home.”

“Coming up,” called X-PO. A rift opened for us and Shade , Ex-aid, and Build started following us.

“You’re coming with us?” I asked.

“You’re my only way home,” replied Ex-aid.

“And I want to see your base!” cheered Build.

“Besides, I’m needed on Vorton,” replied Shade.

“Fair enough,” I conceded.

“What about you, Master Jake?” asked Gandalf. Jake looked around and still saw video game characters running around.

“I think I’ll stay here for a bit,” he mused. “The world still needs the Gamer Kid!”

“Then, farewell,” I bid. “And I hope we meet again.” We went through the rift after that and left Jake to take on his new mantle as the Gamer Kid.

Categories
Kamen Rider Vortex Kamen Rider Vortex Chapters

Chapter 61

When we came through, Mia Regina, we noticed our surroundings were NOT 8-bit. I looked a little further. “No health bars,” I observed, “no score counters, no profile versions of our faces, no text boxes, and we’re not even polygonal.”

“Is this the right place?” asked Gandalf.

“I’ll find out,” replied Hiroki as he called up Vorton. “X-PO, where are we? This doesn’t look like an arcade game.”

“You must be in the main dimension,” answered X-PO. “I did say that the dimension you were in was a trans-reality pocket dimension. What Chell meant when she translated it as ‘weird’ was that it means that it’s a universe WITHIN a universe. You guys were in the shared reality most arcade games share.”

“Hold on,” I quizzed, “are you telling me we were INSIDE the video games? The actual arcade machines?!”

“Exactly,” replied X-PO.

“And we’re in the ‘real world’ of this dimension?” asked Hiroki.

“If you want to put it like that, yes,” answered X-PO. “In any case, you’ve got a mission to complete.”

“Right, we’ll call back when we’re done,” finished Hiroki. He ended the call. “Well, no point sitting on our butts. Let’s find that part.” We started walking around the city for a bit, looking for Heather. As we walked, we heard noises near an arcade. A young man was walking by with a green shirt with the alien from Defender on it. He also wore a black jacket and was playing a game on his phone. He had earbuds on and was so engrossed in the game.

“No sense in not getting local knowledge,” I mused. We approached the kid and I tapped him on the shoulder. The poor boy jumped a bit and took his earbuds out as he faced us. He looked a bit confused.

“Is there some sort of fancy convention going on?” he asked. We then realized he was talking about our clothing.

“Actually, we usually dress like this,” replied Hiroki. “I’m Hiroki, this is Livia, and that’s Gandalf. Who are you?”

“I’m Jake,” introduced the kid, “former Retro Gaming Champ under the title of Gamer Kid.”

“Gamer Kid?” I chuckled. “Just that?”

“Short, simple, why not?” asked Jake.

“Fair enough,” I conceded. At that point, we heard a rumble.

“That came from the old Coin-Op arcade!” yelped Jake. That was when Emu and another man were tossed out and various characters and enemies from the old arcade games came out of the arcade. Still inside the arcade was a humanoid man with one single, yellow eye in his forehead and three tentacles for hair. His armor looked almost like a Dalek.

“My business here doesn’t concern you,” he snarled. “Normally, I would say ‘Do not interfere,’ and shout ‘Obey’ a lot, but I can see that you won’t listen to my old Dalek ways.”

“You? A Dalek?!” I yelped. The creature saw us.

“And Livia, Gandalf, and Hiroki arrive,” he sighed. “I must admit, I thought I would be wrong, but it only makes sense.”

“Just a minute,” interjected Gandalf, “how did you know we would come?”

“I’ve flown through the Time Vortex,” answered the creature. “I have the gift of prophecy. You won’t succeed in you mission.”

“We’ll see about that!” declared Hiroki as we readied our Drivers. The creature pulled out a Dalek gunstick and fired at the ground.

“You WILL wait there until the appropriate time,” he ordered. He then disappeared into the arcade.

“Okay, no WAY am I obeying,” I snarled.

“Indeed,” replied Gandalf. “If he used to be one of those unsavory Daleks, we MUST stop him.”

“And get that belt part,” continued Hiroki. “We’re pressed for time. Quick intros. Hiroki Hishikawa.”

“Livia Acqua,” I introduced.

“Gandalf the Grey,” replied Gandalf.

“Jake, Gamer Kid,” called Jake.

“Hojo Emu,” introduced Emu.

“Kiryū Sento,” finished the new man.

“Right, let’s get in there!” declared Hiroki. We came into the arcade and found the Wizard from Gauntlet. It spoke in the usual arcade beeps with a text box translating it.

“Greetings, mortals,” greeted the Wizard. “Just as was foretold to me, a Gamer of Legend has appeared upon the anarchic uprising of the arcade.” He pointed to Jake when he said that.

“…Me?!” yelped Jake.

“As you can see,” remarked the Wizard, “evil powers have possessed the heroes of these once beloved video games and the entire world needs your help in setting them free. You must find a way to banish the taint from these heroes and then defeat their games so they can return to their electronic slumber. Go now and fulfill your destiny!” He zapped Jake with a spell.

“What was that?!” called Jake as he recovered from the tingle.

“That,” explained the Wizard, “was a spell that gave you a supply of special sodas that give you a certain power. The powers you have are laser vision, stealth, super strength, invulnerability, and speed. Farewell!” The Wizard disappeared.

“Well, what do you know?!” cheered Hiroki. “A new superhero’s born!”

“Why me?” moaned poor Jake.

“Why NOT you?” asked Emu.

“You guys fight this kind of thing all the time, it looks like!” argued Jake. “I’m dead weight!”

“Never heard of it,” I remarked. Jake opened his mouth to explain. “And, I don’t want to hear about it! Nobody is useless! Your gaming knowledge will help us succeed! You can become something greater!”

“Can’t I just think things over?!” asked Jake, terrified out of his mind.

“Nerds across the world, no matter their affiliation,” I argued, “have been thinking things over for far too long!”

“Tell me,” pressed Gandalf, “when did those little lights and sounds in those magic boxes become so important to you? I know of at least 16 people who are off in search of adventure! People who would love nothing better than to learn what was beyond the borders of their world! The world is not in maps, books, or plays. It’s out there.”

“I can’t just go running into a fight!” protested Jake. “I’m a gamer!”

“You’re also a 21st century nerd,” replied Hiroki. Jake snorted and leaned against the wall; arms folded. “Did you know that my great-great grandfather worked for Nintendo when it was a hanafuda card company? It’s true. He personally oversaw the quality of hanafuda cards and ensured that Nintendo was huge in the playing card industry. He left the company but was still invested in its interests. With his help, Nintendo followed the meaning behind its name, ‘Leave luck to Heaven’.”

“…Half of that sounds made up,” muttered Jake.

“Okay, truth be told,” replied Hiroki, “my great-great grandfather swept the place back in the day. He still used ‘Leave luck to Heaven’ as his motto though.”

“All stories deserve a little embellishment,” affirmed Gandalf. “You’ll have a tale or two to tell when you succeed.”

“Can you promise that I WILL succeed?” asked Jake. The silence we gave was deafening to him.

“No,” I finally replied. “And, if you do, you will not be the same again.”

“I thought so,” sighed Jake. “I’m sorry, guys, I can’t help you.” He then put his hands in his pockets and started going home. “You got the wrong guy,” he called. When he rounded a corner, there was no doubt in our minds that he wasn’t helping us.

“It looks like we lost our local knowledge,” I muttered.

“Perhaps it’s just as well,” sighed Sento. “After all, what are we? Nerds, a wizard, a doctor, and a genius hero?”

“We ARE fighters,” replied Emu.

“For some of us, the fight is over,” remarked Sento. “I already beat my main bad guy.”

“That’s two endings I missed!” hissed Hiroki. “I gotta binge-watch when we get back to Vorton!”

“Pardon?” asked Sento.

“Okay, I’m gonna say something that will surprise you,” I answered. “We’re all from different universes. In our world,” I pointed to myself and Hiroki, “you, Emu, and Gandalf are fictional, seen in TV shows, movies, or read about in books.”

“I’ve called myself the Rider Encyclopedia,” continued Hiroki. “And we’re all in a different universe as well. That creature was also from another universe.”

“No way!” cheered Sento as a part of his hair stuck up when he became excited. “Multiverse theory is multiverse FACT?!”

“You know about multiverse theory?” asked Hiroki.

“I’m a genius theoretical physicist,” answered Sento. “No scientific theory escapes me.”

“A scientist?” I quizzed.

“And Kamen Rider,” answered Emu. “That’s Kamen Rider Build, the one I told you guys about when we met in those games.”

“Oh, YOU’RE his successor,” realized Hiroki. “I went on this adventure in the middle of Emu’s run. Could you show me your Rider form?”

“Sure,” replied Sento. He then took out his main belt. It was a black on with a gear on the right side of a space that had slots for two things, much like the Double Driver. On the right of the gear was a hand crank. “This is my main belt, the Build Driver,” explained Sento. “And THESE,” he took out a pair of little bottles, “are the items I use to transform, my Fullbottles.”

“Fullbottles?” chuckled Hiroki.

“Hey, look!” I called as I pointed to the red one. “That one’s got a picture of a rabbit!”

“What on Earth is the image on the blue one?” asked Gandalf.

“That’s…a tank,” I muttered.

“Wait, are those stickers on the caps?” asked Hiroki.

“These stickers,” replied Sento, “indicate a Best Match.”

“The best kind of pairing?” I asked.

“Exactly,” confirmed Sento. “Originally, the Build Driver was used to just detect Best Matches, but I modified it to become a transformation belt.” He then set the Build Driver to his waist. “Sā, jikken o hajimeyou ka?” (Now, shall we begin the experiment?) asked Sento as he put a Fullbottle in each hand. He then shook the bottles as they made a clicking sound. After a few seconds, he twisted the caps so the labels faced outside. He put the bottles into the Build Driver, the red Rabbit one first, nearest to the large gear, then the blue tank one, on the right side of the Rabbit. As he put them in, holograms of the symbols on the bottles appeared.

“RABBIT! TANK! BEST MATCH!” announced the Build Driver. A bit of music played before Sento turned the crank. We could hear machinery as Emu moved us back to make room for the glass tubes that were coming out of the gear. They formed the thing that would hold the plastic parts in model kits in front of and behind Sento and the contents of the bottles flowed through the tubes to form the parts of the suit. The front allowed the red bottles contents to form the left part of the head and eye, the right arm and shoulder with torso, and left leg while the contents of the blue bottle formed the right part of the head and eye, left arm and shoulder with torso, and right leg. The parts were forged at a diagonal. “ARE YOU READY?!” asked the Build Driver.

“Henshin!” called Sento. The suit parts were then slammed onto Sento and the suit filled in the gaps with black armor. Sento, as Kamen Rider Build, had an interesting motif to him. His left leg had a spring and his right foot had a tank tread. His left eye and antenna looked like a bunny’s head in profile with the ear sticking up and the right eye looked like a tank pointing its gun barrel upwards.

“HAGANE NO MOONSAULT!” (The Moonsault of Steel!) announced the Build Driver. “RABBITTANK! YAY!” Build then ran his finger along the tank eye’s gun barrel.

“Shōri no hōsoku wa…” declared Build before he made his fingers splay out, “…kimatta!” (The law of victory is set!)

“Okay, I’m impressed,” breathed Hiroki.

“I know, right?!” cheered Sento. “I’m amazing! I’m the best! I’m a genius!”

“And the ego comes out,” sighed Hiroki. He was about to say something more when an explosion came from the arcade. “Crap! Our mission!”

“We better get moving!” I declared. We drew our i.d tags out.

“Henshin!” we called. Emu then got his Gashat out and pressed the button.

“MIGHTY ACTION X!” it announced.

“Dai Henshin!” called Emu. He then put the Gashat into his Gamer Driver.

“GASHATTO!” shouted the belt. He then pulled the lever. “GACHĀN! LEVEL UP! Mighty jump! Mighty kick! Mighty! MIGHTY ACTION X!” He went straight to his level 2 form.

“Let’s go!” called Ex-Aid. We all charged in to see Caan trying to get away from a white car. It seemed to be shrouded by a black mist.

“Is that the…?” asked Sengoku.

“The G-6155 Interceptor from Spy Hunter!” I confirmed.

“I LOVE that game!” cheered Ex-Aid. The car then fired on us! “I DON’T LIKE THAT!” yelped Ex-Aid as we took cover.

“I knew it! Couldn’t resist interfering, could you?!” snarled Caan. He drew a Dalek gun on us. “Exterminate!” he shouted as he fired.

“Better stay out of range,” muttered Build as more piping came out of the gear on his belt. It formed a large drill with a single handle.

“What, in the name of sanity, is that?” asked Sengoku.

“I call it the Rotary Sword/Gun Drill Crusher!” proclaimed Build as he took the drill head off and placed the point of the drill into a slot on the handle that was a little perpendicular to the main grip. He pulled the trigger and the shots came out in a rotary blast.

“This is getting us nowhere!” snapped Sengoku as he fired.

“‘Pointless’ would have been the word I used,” muttered Caan. “Just give…ARGH!” He clutched his head in pain. “A…timeline change?!” he gasped. “How?!”

“GET OVER HERE!” shouted a voice. At that exact moment, Jake jumped into the battle zone, grabbed Caan’s tentacles, and threw him into the car, making the mist fade away!

“Keep him covered,” called a woman’s voice. “That Strength Soda he drank won’t last long. Jake? If you please? I believe 8000 points is the minimum.”

“Got it, Shade!” replied Jake. We all turned to see a new Kamen Rider! It was a woman in obsidian armor with gold trim. Her eyes were red and her helmet was in the shape of a witch’s hat. She wore a black cape and had large gauntlets. Her belt was silvery with a silver jewel in the center. Her undersuit was silver as well.

“Who are you?!” asked Gandalf.

“Don’t be rude!” chided Sengoku. “Introduce yourself before you ask!”

“It’s all right,” assured the woman. “I was raised with an American father. Besides, I’m from the future. I already know you guys.”

“The future?!” asked Sengoku.

“No way!!” cheered Build.

“Don’t bother asking me questions about the future,” directed the woman. “I swore an oath not to reveal things until the proper time. Temporal Prime Directive and all that.”

“…Of course,” remarked Sengoku.

“Now then,” declared the woman, “I’ll just introduce myself. I am Kamen Rider Shade, a magic based Rider, like Wizard.” She then drew her wand and a jewel sphere, a ruby, to be precise. She leveled her wand at the sphere. “One move against Jake,” she warned Caan, “and I cast a spell that will allocate the explosive power of my Ruby Under-sphere to the external lattice-work. BOOM! Instant bomb that will kill us all! So, back away from the Gamer Kid!” Caan snarled as he lowered his gun. “That’s better,” remarked Shade. “All right, you guys may ask questions.”

“Allocate the…?” muttered Gandalf.

“Quiet, Gandalf,” hissed Sengoku. “She’s doing a Thing!”

“You come here,” I said to Caan, “to get something for Vortech, but the search is interrupted by someone. A backwoods ghost?”

“And who are you to ask that?” asked Caan.

“The one who’s gonna stop you,” I resolved.

“Magic?” asked Build.

“Could we have a bit of hush, please?” requested Shade.

“Magic exists in a few worlds,” replied Gandalf. “One of you Kamen Riders is a wizard.”

“I said hush,” insisted Shade.

“Grazie,” (Thank you) I replied. “As for you, Caan, you came here for a reason. What is it, being the Daleks’ herald for their invasion?”

“Why would we invade this backwater universe?” asked Caan.

“So, what brings a member of the Caan breed of Daleks here?” asked Ex-Aid.

“Caan breed?!” snapped Caan, offended. “There is only ONE breed of Dalek! We will not accept any mutations! Caan is my name! Caan of the Cult of Skaro, at your service!”

“So, you’re part of a cabal?” I asked.

“Last member of a cabal,” clarified Caan.

“Then you’re here to resurrect it!” I guessed. “How can you do that with people from a backwater universe?” Caan didn’t answer my question.

“You there, Shade, was it?” he asked. “You have a spell that will do what? Allocate the explosive power of your Ruby Under-sphere to the external lattice-work, making it a bomb that will explode in an instant?”

“That’s what I said,” replied Shade. “One that would kill us all!”

“You made that up, didn’t you?” muttered Caan.

“WHOOO!” cheered Jake. “HIGH SCORE! Now, see this! THIS is a real video game!”

“It served its distraction well,” mused Shade. At that point, the Wizard appeared again, causing the car to vanish!

Spy Hunter was first released in arcades in 1983,” translated his text box. “It is said that Spy Hunter was originally made to be based on a popular spy movie franchise, but the license could not be acquired.” He then vanished and a gate opened to reveal another section of the arcade.

“Now, with no further distractions…” declared Caan as he raised his gun.

“No, you don’t!” replied Shade as she swapped her belt’s jewel for the ruby in her hand.

“UNDER-CHANGE!” announced her belt. “RUBY PATRIOT!” Her undersuit changed to a ruby color!

“Inspired by the hot-headedness of my American father!” called Shade. She then decked Caan, causing an explosion to occur on impact!

“Fireworks?!” yelped Sengoku.

“Well, some cultures view rubies as the July birthstone for patriots,” I recalled. “And she said she has an American dad, and they usually launch fireworks around July, so why not?”

“Fair point,” replied Sengoku. Caan was picking himself up as we moved to the area on the left.

“You know, fun fact about this place,” chuckled Jake. “In the 70’s, this was made into a flower shop by someone who was a paranoid kook. He made an area called a War Room. In the event of a robbery, the War Room will become the four safest walls in the building. End of lesson!” He shut the door as we entered the room and pressed a button that activated steel doors. “There,” declared Jake. “Now, Caan the alien can’t get in!”

“So, how do WE get OUT?!” I asked.

“……Ah,” remarked Jake.

Categories
Kamen Rider Vortex Kamen Rider Vortex Chapters

Chapter 49

The portal opened in the sky and we landed with a thud! Ex-Aid landed on his head. “Itai!” (Ow!) he winced as picked himself up and massaged his head. We examined our surroundings.

“A race track?” muttered Wyldstyle. Three race cars zoomed by.

“Goodness!” called Gandalf. “They’re even faster than Wargs!”

“Move!” shouted Batman as the cars came around for another lap. He shoved us out of the way while he got ready to jump on the car being driven by the thief. The thief got out of the way as the flag indicated the end of the race.

“Players must beat record lap to win Gold Token,” said an announcer. One of the cars separated it’s rear and folded it down. The sides split away and let hands pop loose. The front flipped up and rotated to become a backpack and allowed a blue head with a purple helmet to pop out. This was Drag-Strip of the Stunticons, and he was mad!

“HOW CAN A FLESHLING BEAT ME?!” he shouted. The last car opened. It was done up in a European driver’s style with the driver on the right side of the car. The driver was a guy in a red suit done up like a race car and he had a tire going from the left shoulder to the right side. His helmet was like a Kamen Rider. The passenger was a pink-haired woman in a yellow outfit and skirt with pixels, buttons, and yellow petticoats. She wore a headpiece on the right side of her head that looked like a green speaker with a yellow pixel note with a green outline on it. She was arguing with the mystery Kamen Rider, er, Driver.

“Drive-san!” called Sengoku.

“Poppy!” cried Ex-Aid. The two people stopped arguing. The woman, Poppy, ran up to Ex-Aid and hugged him. The Kamen Driver, Drive, looked at Sengoku.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“I’m Hishikawa Hiroki,” introduced Sengoku as he used the Japanese name order, “Kamen Rider Sengoku! I can’t believe I’m talking to Tomari Shinnosuke, Kamen Rider Drive!”

“Kamen Rider?” I asked.

“What?” quizzed Drive.

“You have a car,” I observed.

“Well, you ride cars,” argued Drive.

“Yeah, but I just saw you come out of the driver’s seat,” I reminded.

“And being a stupid driver at that!” snapped Poppy. Drive turned on her.

“You were being a backseat driver!” argued Drive.

“I was in the passenger’s seat!” snarled Poppy.

“You still gave advice that I didn’t ask for!” shouted Drive.

“This is why I don’t drive, usually,” said Sonic to Mario.

“I can-a understand,” assured Mario.

“There’s only one problem here,” snarled Drag-Strip, “and it’s you fleshlings! I can’t win with you idiots harassing me!”

“We’re trying to win here!” roared Drive.

“I’M the only winner here!” argued Drag-Strip. “That walking fashion disaster said that this was a racing game called Super Sprint and racing is my thing! Now, step aside and let me win!”

“Might I interject?” asked Clash as she cancelled her transformation. Everyone turned to her.

“WHAT NOW?!” roared Drag-Strip. “What does a fish-lady know about this?!”

“Mermaid,” corrected Livia. Before Drag-Strip shrugged her off, Livia continued. “Look, our team needs that token the thief has. You guys want to beat his best time, if not win. I’m an expert at this game and I did some real racing.” That statement surprised me. “I’ve got an idea, but it needs teamwork and, Signore…er…”

“Drag-Strip,” introduced the Stunticon.

“Signore Drag-Strip, I’m gonna need to take the wheel as you seem to have forgotten some of the most important aspects of racing,” continued Livia.

“What are you talking about?!” snarled Drag-Strip. “I’m the fastest racer around!”

“What about split second decisions?” asked Livia. “What about maneuverability? What about knowing when to slam the brakes on? These are important too.” Drag-Strip’s visor flickered.

“What do you mean know when to slam the brakes on?!” he yelped. “It’s a race! You can’t put them on!”

“Let me take the wheel and I’ll show you what I mean,” offered Livia. “Besides, I can help you win. When you do, you don’t even need to give me credit.” Drag-Strip considered her words, then sighed and transformed.

“You better not screw me up!” he threatened. Livia took her hair flower and veil off, entered Drag-Strip, and set them on Drag-Strip’s floor as she buckled up.

“I’m surprised Decepticons have seat belts,” I mused.

“They’re useful for keeping prisoners,” chuckled Drag-Strip darkly.

“Charming,” snarked Livia. Drag-Strip was at the start line.

“Poppy, do you mind staying in the stands with us?” I asked.

“Why?!” wailed Poppy.

“You’re not an expert at racing games,” replied Para-DX. “Drive doesn’t need another annoyance.” Poppy gasped. She then looked down.

“…Pupepopasulk!” she mumbled.

“Parado!” protested Ex-Aid. He then went to Poppy. “Poppy, we can cheer them on together. It will help them win. Want to help?” Poppy looked up, then smiled.

“Right!” she declared. She then went to the stands with us as we cancelled our transformations aside from Drive as he moved his car to the start. The thief did so as well. The racers were ready.

“Not all players are ready,” called the announcer. Just then, I noticed Batman talking to Hiroki and Hiroki put the Batmobile at the start. Batman got in.

“Let’s drive,” he rasped.


This is it! I can’t wait! My ride grumbled. “I hate this. I hate this! I hate THIS! I HATE THIS!”

“Silenzio!” (Be quiet) I hissed. “We’ll take first place.” I released the brake a bit, causing Drag-Strip to move forward a centimeter. The thief flinched. Drive gave the hand motion that he was watching me. Batman did nothing.

“3! 2! 1! GO!” called the announcer. I hit the gas, then braked to turn right via drifting. The straightaway had a puddle near the end, so I drifted right again near the edge, making a complete 180 on the turn and went up the next straightaway, then drifted left 45 degrees. I then drifted right after the straightaway and gunned Drag-Strip’s engine, then drifted right again and crossed the finish first. This went on for the next two laps. Soon, we finished in 1st! The thief, 3rd place, slammed his hand on the wheel, Drive was in second and handled his place more gracefully, and Batman was dead last. The Dark Knight brooded about it.

“What kind of crazy turning was that?!” asked Drag-Strip.

“Drifting,” I explained. “I intentionally oversteered, making you lose traction in your rear wheels, but still maintained control over you. That’s what I meant when I said to know when to slam on the brakes.” Drag-Strip hmmed to himself.

“We went through four tracks with the thief,” he revealed. “A couple more times, then I’ll see how well I drift on the track after that.

“Another track?!” protested Batman as the track changed. “Give me a break here!” I took the wheel again and we waited for the countdown. This one had a lot more turns.

“3! 2! 1! GO!” called the announcer. We took off. I limited my drifting as there were too many turns, but we got 1st again as we dodged puddles and oil patches. We waited for the track to change again. It was short with shortcuts and a wiggly path. I got my hands off the wheel as I leaned back.

“Aren’t you gonna drive?” asked Drag-Strip.

“Call this a mid-term test,” I replied. “I want to see how you drive with a passenger.”

“…All right,” he muttered. The race began again, and we took off. On the first lap, Drag-Strip didn’t use the shortcuts. “That was more trouble than it was worth,” he explained. He took them on the second lap and finished in first without shortcuts. The track changed and I got out. I put my hair flower and veil back on.

“Now, it’s all you,” I called. “Good luck.” Drag-Strip was ready.

“We’ve got to win that token soon,” muttered Hiroki.

“Hush,” I hissed. “Drag-Strip’s got it.”

“3! 2! 1! GO!” called the announcer. The track had an over pass after a turn. Drag-Strip went with normal steering while Batman and the thief tried to drift. That’s a mistake. Drive was right on Drag-Strip’s bumper. Drag-Strip kept his head and drifted right to avoid a puddle. He dodged a tornado as Drive spun out. He went under the overpass and turned onto the parallel track. He then turned left and went down another parallel to the finish line. This went on until the end of the race.


We cheered Drag-Strip’s victory. “WOO!” cheered Wyldstyle. “Nice driving!”

“Those other cars didn’t stand a chance!” called Batman.

“Shall we claim our prize, teach?” asked Drag-Strip to Livia.

“Now THAT’S how you win,” replied Livia. We headed to the winner’s circle when Wyldstyle noticed something.

“Why isn’t the thief’s car here?” she asked.

“Sore loser,” I guessed.

“Are you sure?” asked Hiroki as he pointed somewhere. “Look over there.”

“It’s the thief!” called Sonic as the thief rounded a bend.

“What is he doing?!” yelped Gandalf. He was driving right for us! He drove up the Batmobile and jumped out of the car, grabbing the token!

“NO!” called Mario as a portal opened behind the thief. Batman fired his grapple gun, but it came up short as the thief went through the portal!

“Oh, COME ON!” snarled Batman. We all went into the portal and ended up on some sort of black background as if there was no up. We were still 2-D and surrounded by enemies.

“Oh brother, we’re in Robotron: 2084,” gulped Livia. “A 2-D shoot ‘em up where the player must fight robots that rebelled against humanity.

“So, what do we do?” asked Gandalf.

“This!” hissed Batman as he got ready. We got ready to fight. “I’m tired of chasing! No more Mister Nice Bat!” declared the Dark Knight. We fought off the hordes and got ready for the next wave. The enemies then included one we saw before.

“Cybermen active!” called the enemies.

“Cybermen?!” yelped Hiroki.

“Bad guys?” guessed Emu.

“Yes, now fight!” I replied. We took care of that wave.

“If this is a game,” mused Parado, “it seems like something is going wrong.” The third wave had more enemies, Lex-bots, Orcs, …Winkies?!

“Wait a minute!!” I yelped. “I don’t understand! We freed you guys!”

“You robbed us of our power!” roared a Winkie as his halberd swung at me. I decked him and he faded into pixels. The last wave had the thief! We all made our assault and he fell in half while dropping the token. Suddenly, I felt myself balloon outward. I looked myself…SWEET 3-D BODY, HOW I MISSED YOU! We were all 3-D again and I could see that Emu, Parado, and Poppy were of Japanese descent. I picked myself up and headed for the token, when a large purple hand swiped it up. I looked up to see Drag-Strip smirking.

“Er, what are you doing?” I asked. “We won the games and can share the trophy!”

“I suppose I must thank you, fleshlings,” chuckled Drag-Strip as I heard large footsteps. That’s when more Transformers stomped into view. One of them looked like a grey Optimus with a square-like helmet. The second was a red bot with a purple visor and face guard in a dour expression. He looked like he transformed into a sports car and was busy polishing himself. The third was white and blue with a panicked expression on his orange face. The fourth was black and had a crazed expression. “There you are!” said Drag-Strip. He went from last to first. “Wildrider! Breakdown! Dead End! And, last, but not least, Motormaster! I finally figured it out!”

“What?” snarled Motormaster.

“What Menasor’s problem is,” explained Drag-Strip. “We aren’t utilizing our strengths when we form him. Motormaster obviously has superior strength, so needs to be Menasor’s torso. Wildrider can hit fast and Menasor is right-handed. Dead End can defend well and Menasor uses his left hand to defend himself. Breakdown can catch up to me in terms of speed and is an excellent left kicker, perfect for Menasor. I can provide the speed needed to run as Menasor’s right leg.”

“You think this combo will work?” snarled Motormaster.

“Beyond the shadow of a doubt,” assured Drag-Strip.

“Then, let’s try it,” growled Motormaster. “Stunticons, form Menasor as Drag-Strip suggested.” They transformed into vehicle mode, then feet sprouted from Drag-Strip and Breakdown’s rears as they stood on those feet. Motormaster lowered his rear wheels and split them to form legs. His cab split and formed sockets. Wildrider and Dead End split down the separation between front and back seats and extended to become joints as hands came out of their rears. They flew up and joined in the order Drag-Strip suggested and a large head with a helmet sporting two black horns came up. The gestalt slammed its fists together and roared to the heavens. It then stood still, then started laughing.

“Well,” boomed the gestalt, “what do you know? There IS a benefit in teamwork.”

“Oh no,” I sighed. “You got complete mental control, don’t you, Menasor!?” I said. The gestalt robot grinned.

“The first Decepticon Combiner to achieve total mental synchronization!” he boasted. He turned to Livia. “I must thank you,” he laughed. “If it weren’t for you, my individual components would never have made it as far as they did! And, with the Foundation Element here in our grasp…”

“I should have known you were working for Vortech!” I shouted. “It’s so old, cliché even!”

“This is not a play,” interjected Menasor, “but, you could say it’s the final curtain for you!”

“CURTAIN!!” I howled in laughter. Menasor didn’t take too kindly to that.

“Stop laughing!” he roared. “Don’t you realize your lives are in my servos?!”

“SERVOS!!” I howled again.

“Megumi, I think he wants to kill us!” gulped Poppy.

“But, of all the villains I had to face,” I got out, “it had to be someone with clichés out the wazoo!”

“That’s it!” roared Menasor as he tossed a human-sized hand held device to the thief. The thief grabbed it and held it. It looked like it had a screen in the center, two barrels near a red A button and a chainsaw near a purple B button. The thief pressed the A button and evil music played.

“Baiyō!” (Cultivate!) announced the thief as he put the device on a handle on his right arm.

“INFECTION!” growled the device as he and his legs merged back together with his torso and became a more monstrous version of himself. “Let’s Game! Bad Game! Dead Game! WHAT’S YOUR NAME?! The Bugster!”

“The thief’s a Bugster?!” yelped Hiroki.

“Snatcher,” introduced the thief. “Level 3.”

“I am Menasor, the king of the road!” boomed Menasor.

“Well, if it’s catchphrases, let us get ready,” I declared. Parado and Emu got out their Gashats. Poppy got out a teal version of the device Snatcher used and put it on a buckle on her waist.

“Gachān!” said the device. Poppy then got out a pink Gashat and pressed the button.

“Toki Meki Crisis!” (Heart Beat Crisis) it announced in Poppy’s voice. That sounded like a dating sim.

“MIGHTY ACTION X!” called Emu’s Gashat.

“PERFECT PUZZLE! What’s the next stage?” announced Parado’s Gashat. Shinnosuke turned the ignition key on his speedometer style belt.

“Start your engine!” cheered the belt. Shinnosuke then inserted a small car with its rear undercarriage pointing up.

“Rider…” began Hongo.

“HENSHIN!” we called. I.d tags went in, Gashats were inserted, and Shinnosuke’s small car was pushed like a lever.

“GASHATTO!” announced the Gamer Driver before it was opened. “GACHĀN! LEVEL UP! Mighty Jump! Mighty Kick! Mighty! MIGHTY ACTION X!”

“Dual up!” called Parado’s Gashat as it formed the suit. “Get the glory in the chain! PERFECT PUZZLE!”

“Gashatto!” cheered Poppy’s Gashat as she put it into the device at an angle. She then pressed a button above the B button.

“Buggle up!” declared the device. The Gashat spoke again.

“Dreaming Girl! (Wow!) Koi no Simulation! Otome wa itsumo Toki Meki Crisis! (Wow!)” (Dreaming girl! (Wow!) It’s a simulation of love! A girl’s heart is always a Heart Beat Crisis! (Wow!)) sang the Gashat as a suit formed. Poppy’s suit looked more like her normal appearance, but a heart replaced the speaker headpiece and she had blue eyes.

“DRIVE! TYPE: SPEED!” announced Drive’s Belt. A suit appeared out of thin air for Shinnosuke and formed while the tire slammed itself onto him.

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

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

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

“It’s-a me! Mario! How-a high can you-a jump? I can-a go higher!”

“I’m Sonic! Sonic the Hedgehog! Gotta go fast to beat me!”

“I’m Peach! I shall clear this battlefield!”

“Kamen Rider Para-DX! Fate is like a puzzle!”

“Kamen Rider Ex-Aid! No Continue de clear shite yaru ze!” (I’ll clear this with No Continues!)

“Kamen Rider Poppy! I shall guide you to defeat!”

“Kamen Rider Drive! Let me take you for a ride!”

“I am Gandalf the Grey! Prepare to see some fireworks!”

“I’m Wyldstyle! Time to think outside the box!”

“I’m Batman! The Dark Knight rises!”

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

“No, you’re dead!” roared Menasor. He swung a fist down, but we got out of the way.

“What a lunatic!” I sighed. “Gamer Riders, take care of the Bugster! We’ll handle Menasor!”

“Got it!” called Ex-Aid. He then drew out another Gashat and blew into it like you would with an NES cartridge. He then pressed the activation button.

“GEKITOTSU ROBOTS!” (Clash Robots) it announced. The title screen showed up and a little robot came out. Ex-Aid closed his Gamer Driver.

“Gachon!” called the belt. Ex-Aid then put the new Gashat into a slot on his original Gashat’s left. “GASHATTO!” Ex-Aid then swung his fist in a circle.

“Dai, Dai, DAI HENSHIN!” he cheered as he opened the Driver.

“GACHĀN! LEVEL UP!” announced the Driver. “Mighty Jump! Mighty Kick! Mighty! MIGHTY ACTION X!” The little robot then became new armor and gave Ex-Aid a large metal left fist. “A Gacha! Buttobase! Totsugeki! Gekitotsu Punch! Gekitotsu Robots!” (Punch it out! Duke it out! Impact Punch! Clash Robots!) Ex-Aid went on the offensive, but Snatcher dodged repeatedly.

“You can’t catch me!” he boasted. “I’m too fast for you!”

“Where are the Energy Items when you need them?!” moaned Ex-Aid.

“Found them!” called Poppy. The Energy Items were discs with different symbols on them. Ex-Aid took one with a running figure.

“SPEED UP!” announced a voice. Ex-Aid then started running at top speed and punched out Snatcher. He then took out the Gekitotsu Robots Gashat.

“GASHUN!” called the belt. Ex-Aid then put the Gashat into a slot on his left hip. “GASHATTO! KIMEWAZA!” (Finishing Move) There was a power-up noise loop as Ex-Aid pressed a button on the slot holder. “GEKITOTSU CRITICAL STRIKE!” Ex-Aid’s fist rocketed towards Snatcher and it hit him, then Ex-Aid slammed his regular fist into the robot fist. Snatcher sparked before exploding and fading into pixels. The Gamer Riders then joined us as we fought Menasor. Good thing too, we weren’t making a dent in him! Drive was knocked aside and landed near me.

“We gotta finish him quickly!” he called. “Or else, we’re gonna run out of gas!”

“I’m trying to come up with something!” I shouted. Sengoku then landed near us.

“Well, come up with something quicker!” he snapped. Peach was smacked out of the sky as she floated towards Menasor.

“That thing is resisting our Smash moves!” called Sonic. “We gotta try something!”

“Come on!” I snarled to myself. “What’s that creature running on?! Super Energon?!”

“What’s normal Energon?” asked Drive.

“The fuel for the Transformers,” I replied. “That’s what their civil war is all about.” I then realized something. “Some processes drain their internal Energon reserves at a quicker pace than usual, like combining.” Then, inspiration hit me, and a new attack beamed into my head.

“Are your brain cells in top gear?” asked Drive.

“Oh, they are!” I called. “Dai Super Charge!” I changed into my final form and gave everyone the excess energy I put out.

“What’s going on?” asked Batman.

“Everyone, get ready to jump high into the air!” I directed. I was met with confusion. “JUST DO IT!” I shouted. We all crouched low.

“Why are we doing this?” asked Clash.

“Menasor’s combined form is taxing on the internal fuel reserves on his individual components,” I explained. “A concentrated attack will make him fall apart.”

“THAT IS…NOT TRUE!” roared Menasor.

“True enough to make you splutter like that!” declared Peach.

“JUMP!” I shouted. We then jumped straight up. “Now, KICK!” I directed. We went in for a flying kick! “RIDER VORTEX BUDDY KICK!” I announced as we hit Menasor. He sparked at his joints and fell apart into his individual Stunticons. They were panting at the loss of Energon.

“We gotta get out of here!” shrieked Breakdown. “They’re gonna kill us!”

“It would be a good idea to get out of here,” sighed Dead End. “What was the point of coming here anyways?”

“For once, I agree with you two,” rumbled Motormaster. “Stunticons, retreat!” They transformed, summoned a portal, and went through. The token, on the other hand, fell out of Drag-Strip. We heard victory music again as the thief returned in his bisected state.

“GAME CLEAR!” announced a voice. I then heard varying “GASHUN’s” all around as the Gamer Riders powered down.

“Nice Drive!” praised Drive’s belt as Drive took his car out of his brace and cancelled his transformation.

“That was a rush!” called Sengoku as he, Clash, and Ichigō cancelled their transformations. I stayed in my transformed state as Batman inched towards the token, glancing around to check for any interruptions. He snatched it up, then got ready for battle again, swinging his batarang around. All that went by was a pixelated tumbleweed.

“All right, let’s get out of this digital nightmare!” hissed Batman.

“I must admit,” mused Gandalf, “I quite liked that one with all the magical monsters. It reminded me of home.” I opened a rift for us and we all headed into it to go back to Vorton.

Categories
Kamen Rider Vortex Kamen Rider Vortex Chapters

Chapter 48

We gathered in the Gateway room. X-PO was doing his Rider chance, but I could tell he wasn’t into it, despite the music going on. “And today’s riders are…” X-PO began. The hands spun and landed on… “Hiroki!”

“All right!” said Hiroki.

“…and Livia!” announced X-PO.

“Yes!” called Livia. They took their places.

“Away we go!” I declared. “For Rusty!”

“FOR RUSTY!” everyone said. We charged into the portal and traveled to a lunar landscape with a base and…what the? The whole place was pixilated! We were in 8-bit! Gandalf’s mouth moved, but random noise came out. A text box appeared beneath him.

“What is this place?” read the text box. Wyldstyle tried to speak but was met with the same noise. Another text box appeared.

“And what happened to your voice?” read the new text box. I made the same noise as I moved my mouth and another text box appeared.

“Er, guys,” it read, “I think the noise is us speaking and the text boxes are translating for us.”

“What kind of place would do this?” read a text box for Hiroki’s noise.

“I don’t know,” replied Batman’s text box.

“DUCK!” called Wyldstyle. A green saucer nearly swiped us! Something shot it and Gandalf cast a shield to defend us from the…pixels.  A pair of green tripods with yellow centers and eyes flew above us, but something shot them. Once the shooting stopped, Gandalf lowered his shield. Wyldstyle picked up one of the pixels from the saucer.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” I muttered. “It’s almost like…like we’re in a video game.” The pixel faded.

“…That is the single most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard,” rasped Batman. Wyldstyle then felt a buzz in her pocket. She pulled out her scanner and used it on a bronze pixel floating above the base that hadn’t faded.

“I’ll tell you what I DO know, though,” she called. “THAT’S the Foundation Element!” Another saucer grabbed it.

“So, how do we get it?” asked Batman.

“Well,” muttered Hiroki, “if this IS a video game, then we play!”

“I know what game we’re in!!” cheered Livia. “This is Defender! It’s a horizontally scrolling shoot ‘em up where you control a fighter ship and defend this world from waves of invading aliens while saving astronauts!” We then heard a banging on the door from the base behind us. We turned to see a young man in a doctor’s uniform banging on the door. He had some fancy stethoscope hanging from his neck. Hiroki’s eyes went wide.

“Hōjō Emu!” he yelped.

“Let me guess, another Rider?” I asked.

“He’s the title Rider of Kamen Rider Ex-Aid!” explained Hiroki. “We gotta get him out!”

“There’s a vent here,” observed Hongo. “Scale Keystone, activate! Lessen Scale of Hiroki!” Hiroki crawled into the vent and ended up on the other side. “Normalize Scale of Hiroki!” said Hongo. Hiroki pressed a button and released himself and Emu.

“Thank you, everyone!” called Emu’s text box. “I was busy with hospital work one minute, then a blue hole opened beneath me and I was trapped here! Thank goodness I still have my Gamer Driver.”

“We need to help other people to get that pixel down,” I told Emu. “Will you help?”

“Of course!” replied Emu. We headed to the right and found some poor guy surrounded by fire.

“Elemental Keystone, activate!” announced Gandalf. “Element of water, Hongo!” Hongo was surrounded in a blue aura and doused the fire. The person was…oh, good grief! It was a fat, short guy with a black moustache and red clothing with blue overalls! His hat was red and had a white circle with a red ‘M’ on the front. Emu goggled.

“Jumpman?!” he called. “I think there’s a Gashat based on the original game he was in!”

“Jumpman?” asked the man we rescued. “Haven’t-a been called-a that in a while.” Livia twitched.

“I forgot how cringy your accent is!” she gulped.

“I’ll-a have you know I’m a real Italian!” snapped the man. Livia and the man argued in agitated Italian.

“If you please!” I protested.

“You said you weren’t called Jumpman in a while,” interjected Batman. “What’s your name?” We all goggled at Batman.

“You never played the Super Mario series when you were a kid?” I yelped.

“Oh, yeah,” remembered Emu. “You changed your name a while ago. Mario, is it?”

“It’s-a me, Mario!” said Nintendo’s mascot.

“What are you doing in Defender?” asked Hiroki.

“I-a don’t know,” muttered Mario. “One minute, I was-a having a picnic with-a Peach. Then, we get-a sucked in here!”

“Peach is here too?!” I called.

“Is this-a Bowser’s plan?” asked Mario.

“No, someone above him,” I answered.

“Not another god-a-like being!” moaned Mario.

“HEY!” shouted a voice. It was coming from another base. “Get away from me!” said another video game mascot. It was a blue creature with red sneakers, white gloves, green, connected eyes, and a black nose.

“SONIC!” called Mario. “Hold on! I’ll-a save you!”

“Allow me!” offered Gandalf. He used his magic to make the attacking creature explode. The pixels vanished.

“Hey, thanks!” called Sonic the Hedgehog.

“Sonic, what are you-a doing here?!” asked Mario.

“Mario! Hey, buddy!” greeted Sonic. “I was just stomping Eggman, as usual, and then a portal opened beneath me. I don’t know what Egg-breath’s up to, but…”

“This isn’t Eggman’s doing,” I answered.

“Help me!” called another voice. It was a petite woman’s voice.

“Isn’t that Peach’s voice?” asked Sonic.

“There she is!” answered Mario as he pointed to the voice’s source. A blonde woman in a pink dress was trapped by machinery.

“Mario!” called the woman. “Help me!”

“I-a got you!” replied Mario as he leapt onto the machine. The attack didn’t do much good.

“Let me do it!” called Emu. “I’ll change Princess Peach’s fate with my own hands!” He then brought out a pink trinket, a Gashat, like Dr. Kagami used. He pressed the activation button.

“MIGHTY ACTION X!” shouted the Gashat. The game’s start screen appeared as blocks looking like chocolate squares came in.

“Henshin!” announced Emu as he put the Gashat into the Gamer Driver.

“GASHATTO!” called the Driver. “Let’s game! Meccha Game! Mucha Game! What’s your name?! I’m a Kamen Rider!” Emu became Ex-Aid and…BWA HA HA HA! Irina was right! Level 1 Gamer Riders look absurd. While Brave had a knight’s theme going, Ex-Aid had spiky, pink hair and a clear visor! Ex-Aid jumped up on the blocks and then on the machine but met with the same results as Mario.

“Okay,” he muttered, “that might have been a bout of clinical insanity.”

“I’ve got an idea,” I called. “Locate Keystone, activate! Initiate Rift detection!” I found it a few feet from the machine. “Identify source of rift!” The information beamed into my head. “Locate help from 8-4-C-K-T-0-T-H-3-F-U-T-U-R-3!” Just then, the DeLorean flew through the rift!

“Great Scott!” shouted the driver. The Time Machine smashed through the machine and freed Peach. It then vanished.

“I thought…the Flux…” I muttered.

“The one Vortech has was from the Time Train, remember?” reminded Hiroki.

“Oh, right, right,” I said.

“Thank you!” said Peach.

“HELP!” yelled a man. An alien was carrying him. He had wavy hair, pixel style pants, and a jacket.

“PARADO!” called Ex-Aid. “Dai Henshin!” He then opened his Gamer Driver.

“GACHĀN! LEVEL UP!” announced the belt. He jumped into the air, kicked, then his armor flew off and his level 1 head became a backpack. “Mighty jump! Mighty kick! Mighty! MIGHTY ACTION X!” Wow, his suit was pink! He still had the health bar on his chest as he leapt up to get Parado. The alien kept him out of reach. I then saw a seedling.

“Gandalf!” I called.

“Elemental Keystone, activate!” announced Gandalf. “Element of earth, Emu!”

“Ex-Aid!” corrected Ex-Aid. He was surrounded in a green aura. “What am I supposed to do with this?!”

“Point your hands at the seedling!” I instructed. Ex-Aid did so. He made a giant hand grow and flick the alien away. It dropped Parado as Ex-Aid caught him. Parado looked up. He then gave an impish grin.

“My hero!” he joked. He then kissed Ex-Aid.

“Oh, YUCK!” protested Ex-Aid as he dropped Parado. “Must you?!”

“Well, must you drop me, Emu?” laughed Parado as he picked himself up. He then saw us. “Who are you?”

“Your enemies, that’s who!” declared Hiroki. “Henshin!” He then rushed at Parado, who dodged and gave another grin.

“My turn,” he chuckled. He drew out what looked like two Gashats pressed together with a yellow dial on the front and different labels for games on them. He turned the dial to the left so one label was down.

“PERFECT PUZZLE!” announced the strange Gashat. It then gave weird techno music as it looped on “What’s the next stage?”

“Henshin!” called Parado. He pressed a button on the Gashat.

“Dual up!” it announced. An image of a suit popped up. The suit was pixelated black and white. The armor had a gold chest piece with puzzle pieces in the center, blue shoulder pads, and a blue helmet with a gold turtleneck attachment around the neck. “Get the glory in the chain! PERFECT PUZZLE!” The image went over Parado and he was IN the suit. He put the Gashat into a holder on his right hip.

“Kamen Rider Para-DX,” (pronounced like paradox) introduced Parado. “Level 50!” He then charged at Sengoku. Sengoku raised his katana and swung but missed. “Missed me!” taunted Para-DX.

“I won’t this time, Bugster!” declared Sengoku.

“Yameru!” (Stop!) called Ex-Aid. He then summoned a large hammer with an A and B button.

“GASHACON BREAKER!” announced the weapon. Ex-Aid pressed the B button. “Ja Kīn!” (sound effect for sword being drawn) called the weapon as a pink sword blade folded out and stopped Sengoku’s katana.

“Ex-Aid, the Americans have a saying for people like you,” hissed Sengoku. “Want to know what it is?”

“What is it?” asked Ex-Aid.

“ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR GOURD?!” shouted Sengoku. “That’s Para-DX! A Bugster! Your enemy!”

“Not anymore!” argued Ex-Aid. Sengoku’s sword stopped moving against Ex-Aid’s.

“What?” asked Sengoku.

“We beat Kamen Rider Cronus,” explained Ex-Aid as he relaxed his weapon. “Parado started to regret causing humans to suffer game disease and so joined CR. For a while, after we made a Gamedeus vaccine, he used it on himself as well as Poppy. Together, we beat Cronus! There’s still a need for us, but the game disease outbreak is taken care of.” Sengoku’s eyes went wide.

“Are you telling me…” he gulped.

“Yep, there’s a new Rider carrying on the fight,” confirmed Ex-Aid. “I think he’s called Build.” Sengoku twitched.

“………KAMEN RIDER EX-AID’S OVER AND I MISSED IT?! NNNOOOOOO!” Sengoku screamed a scream only fans could reach.

“So, you’re our friend?” I asked Para-DX.

“If you want to call us that,” he said as he cancelled his transformation. Ex-Aid and Sengoku did the same.

“Why don’t we start over?” I suggested. “I’m Queen Megumi Hishikawa of the Vortex Riders. The one who tried to carve out Parado’s flesh is my brother, Prince Hiroki, a major Kamen Rider fanboy.”

“Hello,” he mumbled.

“This is Lady Livia Acqua, a fan of retro games like this one,” I continued.

“Hello!” she said pleasantly.

“This is Batman, the World’s Greatest Detective,” I went on.

“Hi,” grunted Batman.

“This is Gandalf of the Istari,” I introduced.

“Greetings!” called Gandalf.

“This is Wyldstyle, the Master Builder,” I went on.

“Hi!” greeted Wyldstyle.

“This is Sonic the Hedgehog, Sega’s mascot,” I continued.

“Yo! What’s up!” called Sonic.

“This is Mario, Nintendo’s Mascot,” I went on.

“It’s-a me! Mario!” cheered Mario

“This is Princess Peach of the Mushroom Kingdom,” I continued.

“Good day!” called Peach.

“And, this is Takeshi Hongo, the first Kamen Rider,” I finished.

“Hello, young Emu,” greeted Hongo.

“I’m Hōjō Emu, Kamen Rider Ex-Aid and Genius Gamer M,” introduced Emu.

“And I’m Parado, the one that helps Emu as Genius Gamer M,” continued Parado. All of a sudden, we heard victory music!

“GAME CLEAR!” announced a voice. We then looked up to see an image of a number 5 covered by a checkmark! But, the saucer still had the pixel!

“I’m done playing!” snapped Batman as he got a batarang ready. He then tossed it at the saucer, a mistake, in hindsight. The saucer fired on us as Gandalf cast a shield. It kept hammering us with laser fire!

“I…can’t…keep this…up!” strained Gandalf. All of a sudden, a rocket came by and fired on the saucer.

“That’s the rocket the player controls!” called Livia.

“We really ARE in Defender!” cheered Ex-Aid.

“You’ve played this game?” I asked.

“I’ve played a lot of games,” replied Ex-Aid. The rocket then turned the saucer into pixels. The bronze pixel floated down.

“Game over,” rasped Batman. We went to get the pixel, but a portal opened and deposited a person in blue thief robes.

“Who’s that?” asked Gandalf. The person then took the pixel and laughed!

“HEY!” shouted Wyldstyle. We followed him into another portal. We ended up in a labyrinth with items littering the place. Our sprites looked like 16-bit ones.

“This is new,” mused Peach. She then saw someone! The thief!

“You there! Stop, thief!” called Gandalf. The thief just laughed.

“You can’t catch me!” boasted the thief. He ran off!

“You wanna bet?!” snapped Batman.

“Friends can join in any time!” called a voice. Livia’s eyes went wide.

“We’re in Gauntlet!” she realized. “No wonder the thief looked so familiar! I thought he only stole potions.”

Gauntlet?” asked Emu. “The hack-and-slash fantasy game? I never got the chance to play it!”

“Well, now we’re in it,” mused Sonic.

“Let’s-a go!” called Mario.

“Mario! Hold on!” warned Livia. Mario stopped and turned. “Gauntlet has enemies out the wazoo. We need to be ready.” Hongo then got into his pose as we got our i.d tags out.

“Rider…” began Hongo. I then heard “MIGHTY ACTION X!” and “PERFECT PUZZLE! What’s the next stage?”

“HENSHIN!” we all called.

“GASHATTO!” announced Emu’s Gashat. He then opened the Gamer Driver. “GACHĀN! LEVEL UP! Mighty jump! Mighty kick! Mighty! MIGHTY ACTION X!”

“Dual up!” called Parado’s Gashat. “Get the glory in the chain! PERFECT PUZZLE!” We got ready for a fight and charged. I heard spin dashes and saw Sonic running circles around the enemies.

“Hey! HEY! Slow it down-a, Sonic!” protested Mario.

“No way, squeaky!” joked Sonic. “This is how the professionals do it!”

“SQUEAKY?!” snapped Mario as he jumped on a goblin and got a key. “It’s-a my trademark voice! Something you don’t have, given that your-a voice actors changed over the years! That’s-a why I’m always the one saving Peach!”

“It’s also the reason why you don’t talk in any of your games!” argued Sonic.

“Hm, pretty strong words, coming from-a the pincushion with a psycho fangirl and the angriest fanbase!” mused Mario.

“Well, it beats being a falsetto squawking midget!” laughed Sonic.

“OH YEAH?!” snapped Mario as he grabbed Sonic and headbutted him.

“Dude, Smash moves?! Really?!” protested Sonic.

“Can we do this later?!” snapped Ex-Aid as he smacked enemies aside. We made it to the exit, but a portal opened and we were in another labyrinth. We fought our way through it and collected keys. Gandalf found an exit sign. I then got an idea.

“Guys, we can use this to get to the thief!” I called. We used the exit, went through another labyrinth and used that exit to arrive near the thief! He took off, but we cornered him. Then…another rift opened beneath us. …This is gonna take some getting used to.