It took a few years and a lot of secret-keeping, but I finally got my own, personal ship! It’s built like a Borg Diamond, but the faces had triangular pyramids on them. It was roughly 500 meters longer on all sides compared to the 3,000-meter sides of a Borg Cube. I called her the Imperium, registry LS-0109. As is typical on a Borg ship, there were corridors lined with Drones and multiple redundant systems, including personal quarters for myself when I need some space. Each of my quarters had a bed, a kitchen with replicator, a bathroom, an art and writing station, and a tv with game consoles. As I was admiring the handiwork, the Collective’s voice rang throughout the ship. “A cross-faction fleet has been detected. Five Starfleet vessels. Three Klingon Defense Force vessels. Three Romulan Republic Vessels. Three Dominion vessels. One Tholian vessel. All are on an intercept course.”
“Alter course to meet them!” I ordered. I sat in the central throne as the Borg surrounding me stood in their alcoves, commanding the Imperium through their will.
“All stop,” reported the Collective. “The USS Jerome Horwitz is hailing us.”
“Open a channel,” I ordered. The Captain of the Jerome Horwitz appeared on the screen. She was a human that, judging by her prosthesis, was liberated from the Borg.
“This is Cassandra Harold of Starfleet,” she introduced herself. “Khan, we know what you’ve done after I retrieved my Captain’s Yacht. Surrender at once or your ship will be destroyed while you are taken into custody.”
“I won’t be surrendering any time soon,” I replied. “My ship’s hull has neutronium in it and nothing would make me happier than you giving me an excuse to prove it!” Anansi’s face then appeared. Judging by the Tholians surrounding him, I’d say he was on the Tholian ship.
“I trained you better than this!” he hissed.
“The Tome will finally give us all what we want without consequence! Wrongs will be corrected! Bad guys will fall like dominoes-!”
“And good guys will get the happy endings they deserve,” interrupted Anansi, “and everything will be wonderful! …Except, that’s where people like you get it wrong.”
“There are no people like me!”
“Sorry, but there ARE. You’ve become the two-bit terror you once hated!” How dare he!
“I am the hero the multiverse needs! With the Lords at my side, we’ll finally bring harmony to every single universe!”
“My own son!” hissed a woman’s voice that I could recognize while asleep. I whirled around to see my parents standing there!
“…You just had to get me to talk!” I snarled at Anansi. Mom growled as she stormed towards me.
“I raised you better than this!” she said. “I thought the Borg were your biggest nightmare!”
“And I made this mini-Collective into something greater!” I insisted. “I gave them all emotions and I installed creativity into them! They have their own identities now! Yes, they’re still a hive mind, but it’s not an oppressive one! I made these guys Lords!”
“Somehow,” remarked Dad, “I could hear the capital ‘L’. Boy, you’ve crossed the damn line!”
“…My own parents?!” I hissed, livid at this betrayal.
“You’re not thinking right!” urged Mom. “Come back!” Anansi’s replacement hopped onto my shoulder. It was a purely mechanical spider with the necessary power to maintain my suit and its various forms. It took a lot of trial and error, but I finally had it perfected. I brought out my base Elementriggers and the spider formed my belt.
“What’s the word?” it asked.
“Henshin!” I replied as I separated the Elementriggers and attached them to the belt. I transformed into Kamen Rider Weaver. Dad brought out his belt.
“FANDOM SHIELDRIVER!” it announced. He then brought out his base Fandom Shield and pressed the button.
“TRANSFORM!” it called out.
“Henshin,” said Dad. He didn’t sound like his heart was in it. He inserted the Shield into the ShielDriver, then pressed a button to open it.
“THE TRANSFORMERS!” called the belt. “Autobots wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons!” He became Kamen Rider Daiku. Mom then brought out her own belt, sighing in grief.
“My own son, throwing away what we taught him,” she mumbled.
“When did YOU become a Kamen Rider?!” I asked.
“Believe it or not, this is my first fight. I just wish I had a different opponent.” As she put the belt on, I noticed it had a dragon motif to it. It looked like three circles with two dragons about to chomp on a circle each. She then pulled out a long card that looked like a dragon breathing fire. She slid the card into her belt and the circles glowed, alternating in different colors. “Henshin,” she said.
“Llosgi!” (Burn!) called the belt in Welsh. Flames surrounded her and her Rider suit formed. It looked like a classic flying dragon. In fact, the helmet evoked Draco from Dragonheart. I assumed my beginning pose, as did my parents. Dad started it.
“All the world’s a stage, but I’M editing this script! Kamen Rider Daiku!” I decided it was time for my new catchphrase.
“You face Kamen Rider Weaver, the Author of all Reality!”
“Kamen Rider Ddraig,” said Mom, using the Welsh word for Dragon. “You sure about that, Cupcake?”
M’Row, the blue haired Caitian Captain of the USS Tiger, tapped her finger on her armrest. She felt a little on edge. “This is nuts,” she hissed to herself.
“Captain?” asked her First Officer.
“Let’s just say I have a little…history with the Borg.”
“You’re fine around your XB Captains,” I remarked as I stepped onto the bridge. M’Row looked at me.
“Look, are you sure this was a good idea?” she asked. “Cloning yourself and letting it loose with Anansi like that?”
“To be honest, no,” I replied. “But I asked Mom and Dad to keep me in check one way or another and Anansi thought this would be the best way. There’s no way this is easy for them, though. I mean, they KNOW it’s a copy, but it still has my face.”
“I’m just surprised,” remarked M’Row’s Helmsman, “that the Borg aren’t attacking us.”
“Yeah, a little surprising,” I muttered. “I need to talk to Anansi, see what’s going on.”