Kamen Rider Iron

by BigShotFlynn

Summary:

Flynn Stingray is a normal person who works at the bizarre USAnything Agency. His life is turned even further upside down as he obtains a belt that gives him spectacular powers. Now it's an all out fight for earth between him and the forces of Chaos. It's time for him to face the world as Kamen Rider Iron.

Notes:

Commander Proton is an OC Owned by https://bsky.app/profile/commanderproton.bsky.social. Please go Follow him if you want more of this funny man.

Chapter 1: A Rider for the Ages! A State of Emergency!

Chapter 1: A Rider for the Ages! A State of Emergency!

 

Ever present and ever continuing to fascinate the masses is the concept of other worlds, struggles beyond our own in worlds beyond our grasps. Many people have struggled to prove the existence of such worlds on both ends. Scientists send the world's greatest to the stars and spend time with philosophers arguing the idea of the multiverse. Little did they know, they would never find the answers, the answers would find them.

 

A man dashes through calamity as fast as he can, barely dodging arrows and fireballs. The forest is burning around him, logs crashing down and tearing down other trees and setting them ablaze. Behind him, his assailants. Several shadowy figures with axes lead by a grizzled man, with no other goal than to seemingly tear this man asunder. 

 

The man is soon cornered, as his running leads him face to face with the abyss. Though despite this, he remains calm as he looks back to see his chasers. As he stands, the scruffy man comes forward, jabbing his finger into the air towards the man. 

“Told ya we'd get ya old man!” He yells in self-proclaimed victory. “We've done this way too many times to count so I'm not even gonna ask ya to give me that thing you made. I'm just gonna rip it from ya.” He barks, walking forward. 

The old man smiles slyly with his eyes closed, reaching into one of his coat pockets and pulling out a bizarre device. A sort of weird buckle and a box attached to it. 

“This one?” He inquires, almost mockingly. “I was just about to get rid of it. So, don't mind me!” 

And with his last word he jaunts back off the cliff, the other man and his posse trying to reach for him and failing, watching their target vanish into the clouds below. 

“Oh dammit to the hells!” the man yells, throwing his ax to the ground and slamming on it with his foot. Then yelping in pain as it sticks him through his boot!

“You think you get ‘im and then he up and flings himself away… boss is gonna be ticked…” he adds, picking up his ax as he walks back away from the cliff. “We're really in the Pegasus dung now.”

 

All the meanwhile, the other older man laughs as he plummets. 

“Oh. I got ‘em good, that bunch ain't getting their hands on this prett-” he stops himself as he looks into his hands. The item he was holding was gone. It and its box had fallen out of his hands during the fall. That had to be the case as there's no way that amateur could've snatched it off of him. He loudly curses his slick fingers as he plummets into a fate unknown. 

“Oh DAAAAAMN IIIIIT!” 

 

Some Time Later, Elsewhere

 

“Stingray! Hey! Flynn Stingray! Listen to me when I am talking to you!” A perturbed voice pierces through the darkness of his mind as he wakes up from sleeping, causing his eyes to open slowly, revealing to him his boss complaining at him for the umpteenth time. 

“Alright alright! Off my case, Ashley, I'm on my day off. I think I earned time to lounge.” He says in the same annoyed tone as her. “I spent all of yesterday walking dogs, and might I add, my hands still have leash handle marks.” 

Ashley looks down at her worker again. His sunglasses pushed down showing his chestnut eyes in all their sassy lowliness, despite sleeping on the main couch in the living area, he hadn't even taken his jacket off. Or that stupid scarf. 

“Look. It's not that. It's that you have your own bed and yet you choose to sleep in the middle of the living area?” She replies. “You have a whole bed which you talked about spending a lot of money on.”

 

“Well.” Flynn snidely said, putting his hands behind the back of his head as he crossed his legs. “Sometimes you can't really beat the feeling of relaxing on a living room couch. Besides, I pay my dues.” 

 

Ashley just stares at him, unamused, and then squeezes the bridge of her nose in annoyance. “... Fine, just… Scoot your legs over a little. I wanna sit there too, ya know.” She pushes his legs out of the way and sits on the couch, grabbing the remote from the nearby table and turning the tv on.

 

The TV silently turns on, showing off a basic news network rambling on about various happenings. Local library events, weird animal activity like squirrels chasing dogs, and the usual spiel about the weather being clear skies for the 3rd day in a row. Nothing special until the end of the hour. 

 

“We end this afternoon with a story of strange phenomena occurring in Werlos, Texas. Many witnesses have reported seeing a large comet passing by, creating a series of waves across the night sky. We reached out to NASA for comment, but have not received a response yet. For future updates, visit our website or tune in for our 7pm news program. I’m Mary Marymore and this has been the afternoon news.” and with that short diatribe, the news signs off and changes to the next program. 

“Oh well that's just great.” Flynn remarks, jumping off the couch. “Another weird thing is happening in this town. We don't have enough of those.” He walks off towards the kitchen and opens up the fridge, gazing as he asks “Tell me, Ash, do you think anything normal will happen here, like a guy winning the lottery or something other than crazy events?”

“Don't make me answer that.” She sighs in a confused tone.. “Things just happen here and you just gotta accept that. Besides, didn't you move here due to wanting a more interesting life??”

Flynn thinks on it for a moment. That was his original plan, but it seems the older he gets, the more exhausting all these crazy events become, to the point where every day feels like an event in and of itself. He doesn't hate it persay, but a normal day would be nice once in a while. “Yeah but… don't you think it'd be nice to have an uneventful day? Like when we were young?”

Ashley paused for a moment, contemplating his question before answering “I suppose. But I guess that's part of growing up.” Ashley's thoughts were interrupted by the door bell ringing loudly. “Oh! Go get that. I think my favorite game show is coming on.”

Flynn takes a deep nasal breath and walks towards the front door. “She may have a point.” He thinks to himself. “Growing up does wake you up to the world. But you think others would try to keep the peace and not let ridiculous things happen. Granted, none of the stuff on the news today was really by people but still. Maybe I can be a change. Make things easier for people and try to make the world as bat crap crazy.”

He opens the front door and sees in front of him what looks to be an actual robot looking at him. 

“Or maybe not.” His thoughts then trail out of his mouth as he looks at what's before him.

It's a robot alright, or at least it looked like one. Humanoid in shape but definitely not human in any other way. A little bit taller than Ashley, with some sort of screen with eyes where its face would be. He had a shiny orange coat of paint with some sort of thunderbolt insignia on his chest. 

“Hey there bud! Uhhh sweet costume… you… headed for a convention?” Flynn inquires with a confused face. 

“No, sir. Weirdly, that's the 5th time I've been asked that.” The automaton replies in a slightly baffled tone of voice. It pulls out a piece of paper, holding it out to Flynn. “My name is Commander Proton and I've been sent on a mission looking for an item similar to this.” 

The paper shows a picture of a bizarre item. Some sort of a small rectangular with a sword running through it. Flynn tries to think of what it could be. But It's hard to really guess what it is from some sort of crummy drawing.

“Uhhh what is it?” Flynn asks. “And better yet, what are you? One of those A.I. bot things they have in Japan?” 

“No. Actually. And the thing I'm looking for is an artifact that caught a few of my higher up’s eyes. Something about it gave off a weird signal, similar to weapons they saw before. However, they haven't been able to find it since then so they sent me with permission from my professor to track it.” He proudly says, putting his hands on his metallic hips. “I am the universe’s greatest soldier after all. Makes sense they hired me.”

Flynn looks at him in confusion, still not really believing his story. But the artifact story did pique his interest, as well as the amount of commitment this guy had to this bit, so he asks curiously “Well… I don’t think I’ve seen anything like what’s in that picture… is it a sword and sheath or something?”

The two are then interrupted by another individual who just ran up, a blue haired man in a tracksuit. It was Flynn's Coworker, Tonio, looking completely exhausted as he bent over panting. “Hey. Uh. Flynn. Is Ashley still here? We got a bit of a problem.”

“What is it?” Flynn responds, looking a bit perturbed. “Can't you see I'm busy with uhh Captain Neutron over here?”

Proton looks at Flynn with an annoyed look on his face as Tonio responds, very clearly winded. “Well. huff The local bakery that hired me had a bit of an upset and now they're down a worker. huff huff Was wondering if anyone else was currently at the company house available.” 

Flynn claps his hands together and sighs again, rubbing his face with frustration. “Well the only one here is me on my day off.” He took a deep breath before lowering his hands, a look of resigned acceptance on his face. “But I know how this goes so I’m just gonna cut the middleman.” He cracks his knuckles and stretches, as he forgot to do that. “Which way, Tony?”

“Hold on!” Proton butts in, clearly annoyed at being ignored.. “You could at least give me a good direction to go towards looking for that thing?” 

Flynn shrugs. “Don't know, man. Best I can give is maybe you can follow us and ask people there. Talk like that usually screams rush hour.” 

 Proton crosses his arms and thinks on it. The way he sees it, he's really gotten no leads so far and no other places to go. Populated areas would be the absolute best bet for this. “Alright. I'll come along then.”

Tonio then looks at Proton in a little confusion. Clearly he didn't notice the robot earlier. “So Flynn, aren't you a little concerned about how like an actual robot he looks?”

Flynn seems to shrug again, a look of acceptance on his face. “A lot's been going on man. Besides, he seems friendly. If he wasn't I'm sure he would've hurt me by now.” Flynn responds a little kinder in his inflection. He turns back to the main lobby and screams to his boss. “OI! ASH! I'm back on the clock. Tonio’s got a problem!” And with that the three run off to the bakery.

The bakery was in fact busy, with people bustling in and out of the place with baked goods, much to the chagrin of the workers inside. 

“The hell is happening there?” Flynn inquires. “Usually never gets this busy.” 

“The place had a Buy One Get One deal.” Tonio says, suddenly regaining his stamina to blab about food. “For those new apple pastries. You know, the ones with the big amount of Apple filling And the whipped cream on top? Or you can get salted caram-” 

“Okay. Okay. That'll do it. Big product. I get it.” Flynn responds, then looks over at Proton. “Alright buddy. You can ask around here.” 

He nods at Flynn. “Alright. Best to do it before anything else happens. Thanks for the help.” And after saying that he goes to ask the people exiting the bakery. 

The two men approach the baker's inside as the owner points at them. “YOU! Here! We're practically drowning in customers!” It's a miracle he was able to see Tonio and Flynn as they squeaked through the door, but that didn't really matter to them as they both went over to the owner and began to get to work.. 

It was in fact hectic. It was a miracle Flynn survived that kind of customer influx. Impatient adults, sad kids, and grouchy grandparents alike. Hours went by and both Flynn and Tonio felt ragged. But it at least helped that the manager was understanding of their exhaustion. After all this is a group they hired to help their workers. In the end, as the final customers leave and the manager puts up the “closed” sign, both simply slam down on the seats in the bakery and exhale. Another job adequately done. 

“Alright. Damn! That sucked. Are you doing alright, Tony?” He says looking at his coworker, being surprised to see him back up and buying a single pastry for himself and happily chomping into it. “Well you did almost talk my ear off about those so-” Almost as if it was karma for cutting Tonio off earlier, Flynn is cut off by a sharp sound cutting across the sky and the ground beginning to shake. 

“Eyack! Almost choked on this. What was that? We can’t get earthquakes here, right?” Tonio asked in small anger slowly turning into panic, causing him and in turn, Flynn to run out the door of the bakery, looking up to the sky. 

It was dark, freakishly dark, like to Flynn at least, not even night time was this dark. The sky was not the only weird thing, looking back down in front of him, the road seemed weird… grassy. Like nature wasn’t waiting for the apocalypse to start growing in the streets. Or maybe this was the apocalypse.

That thought of Flynn’s is cut off by screaming in the distance and looking towards it revealed the scariest thing Flynn had seen. A hoard of weird looking people, dressed like old bandits with bizarre masks. They were causing chaos, charging forward towards people and smashing them in the face with axes or picking them up and throwing them off the streets. “Oh… hell.” Is the only thing that can manage to slip from Flynn’s mouth.

Tonio, on the other hand, took it as a sign to get the hell out of dodge, dragging Flynn with him. At least, he wanted to, only to see that the darkness in the sky wasn’t the sky, but some sort of barrier locking them inside. “Oh God! We’re trapped. What are we gonna do?” 

Flynn tries to think, but the shock of the event is messing with his mind. He can’t think of anything other than what could’ve led to this. Looking around again he sees a familiar orange figure in the distance. “Hey hey!” He shouts angrily towards him, dashing over and confronting who he now confirms as Commander Proton from earlier. “Did you cause this?!” 

“What?!” The robot replies with a scowl on his screen. “No way! This is clearly the work of another group of sorts. Usually, at this point, we have to wait for the authorities to break in with their dimension drills and combat the suspect with their energy batons.” He says with confidence, then looking over at Flynn, who now looks completely gobsmacked. “What?” 

“The best our boys can do is a tank. I don’t know what half of that stuff is.” Flynn responds after squeezing the bridge of his nose.

“Oh. Well darn. Thought this earth would have that by now but I guess each one is unique. Still it’s best to stay calm and-” Proton replies as Flynn then shouts at him.

“WHADDYA MEAN THIS EARTH? No Earth I know of has laser batons and…” Flynn’s yelling is cut off by a group of those masked people looking in their direction, led by some sort of bearded man, dressed about the same as those surrounding him. The trio didn't want to get in his way so they hid behind a nearby building as he approached. 

The man stopped near the bakery looking over at the baker coming out of his shop, brandishing a shotgun and aiming it at the man. 

“Strange… Didn't expect you wimps to carry stuff like that. You got a death wish, boy?” He says sneering at the baker, walking towards him with confidence and arrogance in his step. 

The baker shakes a little as he holds his gun, backing up. “Stay back! Ain't seen a single man survive a shot from this thing! You don't want this!” Despite the hesitation in his voice he pulls the trigger, blasting the man clean in the chest. 

Despite the clean shot. The man doesn't seem to even flinch, seeming more ticked off than anything.

“Oh that's hilarious. Thought that would hit harder, ya know. I could help you with that.” He says, laughing as he forcefully grabs the baker by the color. He sets his own ax aside and reaches into his pocket. Pulling some sort of blue glass item. 

“How ‘bout this for a little pep In your step!” He says as he slams his hand into the baker's chest, causing him to scream In pain. 

“Boss said these have a fun reaction wit’ humans. So why don't you show me what she was talking about.” He adds on, throwing the baker to the street, leaving him to writhe in pain and beginning to change. His human body began to crack like a shell, and with a final scream and an explosion of dark colored light, a dark cloaked figure, wearing what looked like a plague doctor mask,emerged where the baker stood, slowly rising from the floor almost like a zombie, much to the horror of the only three onlookers. 

“Hahaha! Look at that.” The man laughs at his handiwork. Which slowly reaches back down towards its gun, slowly morphing it into what appeared to be a jet black tome.

“How horrifying.” Proton quietly adds. “Haven't seen something like this in a long time.” This comment causes Flynn and Tonio to continue to look at him confused, wondering how he can even begin to be so calm about this. 

Meanwhile, the creature created from the baker stands silently. While the one who made him gave a command. “Why don't you have some fun young boy? Blow this place sky high! Doesn't matter as long as we find that thing the lass sent us here for.” 

And with that the creature held up a hand towards the bakery it once owned and with a flash of light, the bakery was blown to smithereens. With other buildings and unlucky people around soon to follow. 

“No!” Tonio cried out. “The bakery!”

“Forget that!” Flynn yelled back. “If we let him keep going, he'll turn the whole block into powder! We gotta do something!” Flynn jumped out from their hiding spot and charged at the monster. 

“Are you out of your mind?! Don't try that!” Proton shouts at Flynn, who recklessly charges at the monster and slams it in the face with a right hook. 

The monster wasn't even phased. Simply pushing Flynn off of him and forcing him away with some sort of magic shove towards a nearby wall. The big bandit near him laughs.

“Oh! Now there's a boy with no fear! Tell me boy, what'd you expect trying to do something like that?” 

Flynn stood himself up, clenching his fist. “Not sure… but I ain't gonna let you do whatever you want… whatever that is.” 

“Oho!” The bandit replied slyly. “You got guts kid. Too bad my new friend here is gonna blow them right out! Let ‘im have it, pal! Make sure the name Gazzak is the last name he ever hears!” His hand signals the monster to then fire yet another blast at Flynn, who narrowly gets out of the way, slamming against a wall of another destroyed building. 

 

Flynn was struggling to get up, thinking about how stupid of a decision this was. “I'm a damn fool. What the hell was I thinking? Well I went down fighting. I can at least live with that.” His silent words barely stay in his mind for a second before thinking about it more. “Oh, who am I kidding. I still feel like a moron for-” his pessimistic thoughts are cut off by his line of vision. In it, something sparkled right next to his hand. Something he couldn't really see at first. But after taking off his now cracked sunglasses he looks at it again. 

“Wait a minute… this is that thing that one guy was looking for… if it's something that important then…”

Flynn picks it up and slowly manages to raise himself off the ground. Battered and bruised, but not out. He looks at what he has. It was a sword alright. But it looks to be attached to a buckle or something. And to that Buckle, a box was attached that he struggles to open, and pull out something from inside, a card, on it was some sort of man Flynn didn't recognize on it. But what Flynn did recognize was that the card could fit in the buckle. With a newfound smirk on his face, he walks out of the rubble and faces the monster again, staring it down. 

“Really now?” Gazzack says, crossing his arms. “Thought that would've kept you down for sure. But if that doesn't work,” he picks up his ax and aims it. “How about I kill ya myself?” 

“I don't think so.” Flynn replies, holding up the artifact. Much to the surprise of both Gazzak and the onlooking Proton. 

“I think that's it! That's the artifact.” Proton proclaims looking back down at his drawing of it. “The question now is how did he find it, and what's he think he's doing with it?”

“You had your fun, buddy.” Flynn added, sneering. “It's my turn now!” And with that Flynn slams the artifact to his waist, and with several clicks, the artifact is now attached to his waist. Almost like a belt.”

“Ready! Set!”

The item roared aloud as Flynn slammed the card inside. 

“Marth!” 

Flynn looks down at the belt as he sees the sword begin to glow. He places his hand on the hilt of it. “Marth, huh? Well. Better show me what you got!”

 Flynn yells aloud as he draws the sword from the artifact, just in time as Gazzak flings his axe at Flynn with absolute precision, causing him to almost instinctively block it with the now drawn glowing sword that he slams into the ground, cracking the earth open with an equally enchanting light. Trying to pull the sword up led to him pulling it across the ground and the light beginning to envelop him. 

“The Strongest King! The Hero King! Maaaarth!” 

Within an instant, Flynn had transformed. He looked down at his hands to see them. They were covered in a blue armor of sorts, with plating and what appeared to be leather laces crossing over the arms. But more than that, the glowing sword in his hand had changed into an almost beautiful longsword of sorts. And most intriguing of all he felt completely rejuvenated. 

“Oh hell! What kind of luck do you have to have to be the one to find that bloody thing?” Gazzak barks. 

He couldn't believe it. The item he was sent here to find. And he was willing to tear this place to shreds for it. All for it to land in the hands of some nobody. 

Flynn sneered. “Probably the Devil's own!” 

Gazzak grimaced as he raised one of his hands, calling the other soldiers that came with him to his side. 

“Don't just stand there lads, slaughter him! You too, beaky!” He adds looking over at used to be the baker. Who all follow his advice, charging towards Flynn. 

Flynn wasted no time testing out the sword in his hands, slashing at two and kicking a third one out of his way to get towards the big monster. Despite how it turned out last time, this suit seemed to help him rip through these soldiers. The soldiers kept coming and he was able to combat them. With a punch he was even able to knock some flat to the ground. With that though came another weird quirk of these people, they didn't stay down or even get split when he cut through them, they seemed to crumble away like they were made of clay or something. Though he didn't have time to think about that as another blast from the now mage monster came his way. He slammed his sword against it and managed to reflect it off, causing it to blast some other soldiers as Flynn charged forward.

“Hey! Listen to me! Snap out of it.” He yells trying to wrest the tome out of his hand. 

The monster doesn't respond, yanking the tome back and aiming an attack, causing Flynn to slash at his face and take his mask clean off. There was… nothing there, just a black fog creeping out of where a face should be. 

Gazzak laughed. “Oh that's what she meant. Man ain't there anymore, chump! Thanks to that little addition my boss gave me, that bloke and his gun are no more. All there is now is another crook for my crew. 

Flynn stood back, shocked. The baker who he was working for only hours ago was gone, changed for no other reason than to destroy. He gritted his teeth in anger. “You… heartless bastard! All you did now was give me no reason to hold back!” With renewed anger he slashed into the monster and charged towards Gazzak.

They trade blows, blades clashing as his other mooks try to ambush Flynn, only to be slashed away. Flynn tried to push advantage with his sword, but while the mooks didn't stop him, the monster with the tome certainly did. He had to do something about the magic before dealing with tall, bulky, and loathsome. But part of him didn't want to. Knowing that it was a person that was changed like that sat horribly with him. But in his mind, it'd be worse to let him keep suffering like that than to let him keep serving that big oaf. 

He changes his blade’s trajectory and lunges towards the mage. Slashing into him and causing him to almost drop the tome. Flynn then punches him and sends him flying back. 

“As one last job for ya, I'll put you out of your misery!” Flynn says as he slams the sword back into the belt and draws it again, one again bathing the sword in a divine light.

“Dancing Blade Finish!”

With that announcement he slashes into him twice, sending him back once again as this time Flynn flips towards him, slamming his foot right down through the monster and cleaving it in two, causing a violent explosion behind him that even managed to throw Gazzak off balance. 

“Hells below!” He yells as he's launched back. 

He was bewildered at such power. Was this the reason the boss wanted it? Whatever the reason, he didn't want to stay any longer to find out. He scrambled to pick up his axe And cut the air in front of him with it, opening a small portal. 

“You may have driven me off this time, runt! But there's others, and they won't be as kind!” He adds as he cowardly flees into the portal, which closed behind him as the barrier blocking the sky seemed to shatter like glass.

Flynn sheathed the sword again, the armor now disappearing off of him as he takes a deep breath. The world around him seemed to return to normal, no grass growing out of the floor and the sky was now visible. Tonio and Proton walked over to Flynn, amazed.

“That was amazing!” Tonio said. “You got him to run away and you had that cool armor set on! You were like a knight or something. What even happened there?”

Proton chimes in, “Well, Mr. Big shot. I thought you said your world didn't have technology that advanced.”

Flynn turned around and took the device off his waist, putting it back in his coat pocket sadly. “I thought it didn't either… More important than that. He killed that poor man. Just turned him into his slave and-” Flynn jumps in surprise as he hears a loud groan from behind, looking back to see the baker somehow still alive, though holding his stomach in pain. 

“Oh lord have mercy! That hurt Like hell!” The baker said in agony. 

Tonio helped him up, asking “Are you alright, sir?”

“As alright as one can be. I think that bastard cracked one of my ribs, but I'll live. I think he knocked me out with that hit of his.” The baker adds taking a deep breath. 

“Yeah… He got ya good, sir.” Flynn replied, still trying to metaphorically pick his jaw off of the floor. How did he survive? Especially when he was explicitly told he didn't. Would he believe him if he told him what really happened? Hell, Flynn hardly believed it himself. So it's probably best to not be called crazy and play along.

“Well it's good to see the people here help each other out so well.” Proton added happily, his eyes reflecting his words. 

“Yeah… always got that Werlos hospitality around here. You two boys did a good job today. Sorry about the sudden call.” The baker happily says though wincing a little at the sharp pain in his chest. 

“Uhhh.. No problem… It's…uh…what we do at the USAnything!” Flynn says, trying to pull himself back to reality and say their line. 

“But Flynn, shouldn't we-” Tonio is cut off by Flynn patting him on the back and leading them both off. 

“Yeah we should be going! Best not to keep Ashley waiting with a mess like this here that that guy left.” Adding that, Flynn rushes him and Tonio away from the bakery owner. “Catch ya on the flipside, Muffin Man!” 

Proton trails after them, still curious about the artifact that Flynn just happened to find that took him days to even locate.

“Hey! Wait up! I have questions!”

The baker turns around to look at his store, in shambles and the sign falling off of what little remained of the roof.

“God, I hope this is covered in my plan.”

 

Gazzak returned to his boss, absolutely unsettled by what happened today. The best he could hope is his boss not being crossed. 

Her voice rang in, “Gazzak, darling.” She sat daintily on her throne, crossing her legs and looking down at him. “Well you look upset, so I'll ask this first. What's the bad news?”

“Well,” He said, scratching the back of his head. “The invasion of that Realm of Steel you keep talking about was a lot harder than I thought it would be.” 

“Oho… And just when I thought my magical gifts to you and the others would make It easy enough.” She looked at him smugly, laying her chin on her hands. “Annnd the Good news~?” 

“We finally seem to have found that thing the old geezer made after losing track of him months ago, the Emblem thing or whatever it's called. Unfortunately, it landed in the hands of a passerby and he took out our army there.” 

She giggles with a surprising glee. “Interesting. So it does work. Well, we now know where it is and it's got a holder too… Gather the others. Soon we'll begin our true strikes on that world.” 

“Yes, Lady Loki, I'll see to it.” With that he runs off as her presence seems to overwhelm him. Despite her happy talking, there was a bizarrely commanding aura in the room.

 

“And so… our game begins~.” She says as Gazzak trails off, laughing loud enough to fill her entire castle. 

Chapter 2: A Method to the Madness. Let’s Go, Paladin!

Summary:

After gaining mysterious powers, they become less mysterious as Flynn encounters a bizarre old man.

Chapter 2: A Method to the Madness. Let’s Go, Paladin!

Ashley was sitting down and watching her game show. It was so enthralling to her. The contestants constantly test their wits against the greatest inquiries mankind has to offer, all while the host loses it at the blatantly incorrect answers. All of these lead to the ever so climatic final question where the winner takes all. Which is unfortunately loudly Interrupted by the door to the building slamming open, causing her to jut up and shriek in surprise. 

 

She goes over to a nearby drawer and pulls out a bat, opening the door into the entryway ready to strike. Only to see her two friends and employees, Tonio and Flynn, walking through the door, looking exhausted. While Tonio looked normal, only lightly sweaty and still having some whipped cream on his face from the bakery, Flynn looked miserable even for his standards. Most of his clothes were covered in small tears and rips.

“Oh… Did dealing with customers get physical?” She asked, raising a brow at the two of them.

“Oh…Yeah it was worse than that.” Flynn replies, going over everything that happened. The store getting blown up, that weirdo with the axe, and the absolutely bizarre happening with the baker. All of the explanation for Ashley to just cross her arms in disbelief and sigh. 

“You know… There’s nothing wrong with admitting you got beat up. There was that whole incident at the supermarket, so you getting into fights would not–”

“But it’s true!” Tonio interrupts. “I saw everything! It was nuts, he was moving and slashing, it was like… something.”

Ashley sighed again. To her, it seemed like Flynn roped Tonio into another lie of his. She’s about to scold him when the door opens again, revealing Commander Proton looking over at Flynn “You! I need to talk to you more!” he said with gusto.

“Robot, OHMYGOD!” Ashley says instinctively raising her bat again, ready to turn him into a tin can only for both Tonio and Flynn to stop her causing a ruckus, trying to lead her and Proton into the employee living space to continue to explain the situation. 

“Okay. So… to sum it up. You got attacked by monsters? And now you have a weird artifact that Mr.robot has been looking for.” Ashley said, collecting her thoughts. 

Flynn responds, grabbing the artifact out of his coat And placing it on the table. “Yeah. And now I have no idea what the hell to do. Especially considering what that guy said about others…You got any idea Electron?”

“Well.” Proton replies, a little annoyed at Flynn continuing to get his name wrong. “Judging by the way the event happened, it seems we're dealing with a typical alternative world invasion. I've seen a few of those, even fought some off.” He adds bravely, striking a heroic pose. 

“Ya know,” Flynn interrupts as well, sitting up and slamming his hands on the table. “You can't just say stuff like that and expect us to be relaxed about it! All we got to fight them is this… Thing.” 

“Well… I thought about that and as I researched on the way here. It seems your earth has a lot of people with powers like that.” He presses some buttons and on his wrist a video pops up, causing everyone in the room to lean in to look. 

It was a bunch of humanoid figures, fighting assorted weird monsters of sorts. Tonio even thought a few of the figures looked like what Flynn transformed into. Flynn cuts through the silence like a knife. 

“Wooooow, what are those?” He adds pointing at the hologram showing the video. 

Tonio answers. “I think it's called a hologram.” Causing Flynn to scowl at him. 

Proton explains. “Well, not everywhere, but in parts of the world there are similar superhero-like figures. It appears here they're called Masked Riders. And they seem to do their job really well.”

Flynn then slumps back down in the chair, mentally exhausted at the idea. “Oh boy. So I'm like a superhero now or something?”

“Looks like it.” Tonio adds in slouching in his chair. All the while Flynn squeezes the bridge of his nose. He couldn't believe it, just one act and he's the only line of defense against some weird alien force. 

“Ash. Do I get more time off for this?” Flynn tries to add jokingly to ease his mind, forcing a chuckle. He didn't want to be in this position, however, he thought deeply about it for a bit as the others talked. It's the right thing to do, it may not be easy or even as rewarding as his job but Flynn saw what those things did when they got here. The baker's lack of face still invaded his mind a bit as this talk happened. What if he wasn't there? Would the baker have stayed like that? Or changed into something worse. He didn't want to think about it. Moreso he wanted to try to make sure it didn't happen as long as he could stop it. He stands from his chair about to proclaim he's willing to fight no matter how hard it is. Only for his return to reality to be interrupted by Ashley screaming and pointing behind him. 

“Who the hell is that!?” She yells. Pointing at someone behind Flynn's shoulder. Turning around he sees a man in a green robe, holding a wooden cane. Flynn jumps back in surprise right back into the table, hurting his back on the artifact that he just played on there. 

“Woah there, fellas. I mean no harm. I'm just here due to recent events.” the man says, holding his hand up, trying to signal he's as harmless as he says. “I see you found my little friend there. And from what I heard, ya used it too.” 

Ashley arms herself with the bat again. “Who are you and how'd you get here? You have 5 seconds to answer before I turn you into pulp!!”

He drops his cane and now holds up both of his hands in fear. “Thunderesa, woman! I ain't anyone dangerous!” He begins to explain himself. “My name is Rasputamus Hubba. Most Just call me Old Hubba. I made that little thing there and was just here to check on it.” He points at the artifact and steps back further. 

Proton responds. “The driver there? How exactly did you make that?” 

“Well,” He begins. “You know those cards you used there?” He points at the box next to the artifact. “They're my own personal collection. Managed to finally get a case for them after so many times of losing them and getting them stolen. Only for a terrible thing to happen.” 

Flynn looks confused. “How's it get worse than them getting stolen?” 

Hubba continues. “These cards used to be alive so to speak. Inside them are many brave souls, souls that fought evil for years. But some time ago. They lost their luster and could no longer be called from their homes. So I tried to build some way around it.” He goes over to the device and picks it up, presenting it like a class project. 

“Behold the Emblem Driver. A gift from my wonderful mind made to turn anyone into a majestic hero.” He shouts proudly. “With the help of the power that remains in the cards, even you could be a hero.”

The group looks bewildered at the man. Flynn then looks at it and the box and thinks more about it. “So then why are those guys after it?” 

“Simple really!” Hubba replies. “They want it for its power. The idea of something like that probably dusts their dragonstones really nice, same way others got my cards. But I'm too tricky for them. Only reason I lost it was because I dropped it when falling.”

“Well how would it go from you falling to being here near Flynn?” Tonio asks curiously. 

“Well, things get weird in the Outrealms. Something falls out of there and can end up anywhere else. From how it sounded to me it must've ended up lodged in a wall. Glad they blew it out for ya otherwise you'd be toast.” Hubba laughs. 

“So who are they ?” Flynn asks. “They can't just be some randos if they can do that whole black sky thing.”

“The metal boy had it right. Invaders from the Outrealms. Made by that one trickster who's name always escapes me. While my willes and woos didn't work on her she fell head over heels for the Emblem Driver and those cards.” 

“I see.” Flynn then sits back down and thinks again. “So if I beat this trickster and her henchmen. Can I keep it safe here?” 

“Yep.” Hubba confirms. “But it won't be easy, boy. They made a lot of tools to just try to break into this world. Made things all unstable like a shaky table, that's how I'm able to be here. They'll come here as that's where the driver is. But the reverse is also true. You can go there… with a little help of course.” 

“Well quit yapping.” Flynn stops him and slaps his hands on the table again. “How will I know when they strike again?” 

“I can help with that.” Proton chimes in. “When that first weird area change happened, there was a tremor of sorts. But it was unnatural, so more than likely, if we track an unnatural tremor…” 

“We find them.” Ashley finishes. And almost on time with that a small shake happens throughout the building, causing her to get up and look out a window. Off in the distance a black bubble had appeared in the city. “Oh please don't tell me that's it…” 

Flynn sees her reaction and snatches the driver from Hubba’s hand, dashing out the door with the old man following. 

“Stop! Stop you fool! You aren't gonna get there in time on foot. Let alone break the wall. You gotta call the Paladin!” He says trying to open the box on the driver. 

“The what?” Flynn responds.

“The Paladin! It's a little happy accident that happened when I made that tool. You'll need a specific card for it. Look for a man in purple armor.” He says, instructing Flynn to put on the driver and begin looking for the card. 

Flynn pulls out the card in question. What looked like an old man in spiked violet armor. He puts it in the card slot and before he can even pull the sword the driver speaks again.

 

“Deploy! Paladin!”

 

The card shoots out of the Driver and changes. Turning into a purple motorcycle, covered in many decorations and even front spikes. Its engine roars to life as it sits there. 

“Oh damn.” Flynn says in awe as he looks over the bike. Sitting on its seat and revving the engine. “Good thing I actually learned how to ride these things! I'll be back, old man! You better not do anything until I get back!” He adds as he roars the engine again and zooms forward towards the black bubble. 

Flynn barrels down the empty streets, passing by many buildings as he approaches the sphere. Despite so quickly dashing off so quickly, he had no idea how he was gonna get in there. He leans a bit forward, looking down at the spikes at the front of his newfound bike. “I have an idea but I’m afraid it’s gonna get me killed… So just to be safe.” Flynn slaps the Emblem Driver on his waist and inserts the Marth card again, all while trying not to crash the bike. He grabs the sword and draws It from the driver and yells aloud “Transform!” And slashes in front of him to transform. After sheathing the sword on another part of the belt, he then slams the bike right into the barrier like a brick through a window, crashing into a few of those weird axe wielding things from earlier. 

Flynn surveys the situation, it seems that one Gazzak guy wasn't here, no one was actually here… just a bunch of those axe wielding things and what looked to be another changed human. This time on what looked to be a broken up armor set like some sort of knight of sorts. He dismounts from his bike and readies his sword, once again charging brazenly into battle. He once again manages to breeze through most of the lesser monsters, slashing through them and causing them to once again mysteriously vanish into thin air, all while the armored one flung things at him. He couldn't see them clearly at first but once he cleared out the small fries he realized it was tossing javelins at him. He took a few stray hits, it still hurt but it'd probably hurt a hell of a lot more if he hadn't transformed. He had to close the gap between him and the armor, and he started to while slashing away the javelins that came his way. When he got close he slammed his fist into the monster's face, knocking him back a little and leaving him open to some slashes with the sword. 

Hitting them wasn't the hard part at this point, but the sword couldn't really pierce through the armor. Flynn stepped back a bit and thought quickly. Reaching into the box on the side of the belt and pulling a random card, what looked to be some sort of man with an axe of his own. He put it in the belt and expected to transform, only for his weapon to transform instead.

“Barst! SMASHING!”

The sword transforms, with a little help from Flynn, into an axe; the blade guards now form a handle of sorts for Flynn to hold the axe with. The axe glows as Flynn swings it at the monster, actually managing to cut the armor with this. 

“Okay! I get it! Bigger blade, bigger damage!” Flynn assumes as he continues to fight. The monster seemed to stand no chance at this point where Flynn cuts through the monster and causes it to explode like last time. Afterwards, the axe morphs back into a sword. Flynn had managed to win with the help of dumb luck once again. 

Flynn bikes home once he's certain the sphere around the area fully disappeared. He tries to think about all the stuff happening just today. This belt, these spheres… those weird monsters. It all makes his head spin. What will lie at the end of this mysterious road, if there's an end to it at all. He ponders all this as he drives home. 

 

Back at the agency, Ashley, Tonio and Proton were still slightly suspicious of this jovial old man. From their viewpoint, he just barged in and said he made the belt and now is just sitting here. 

“Okay, old man!” Ashley starts. “You can't just stay here. Magical belt or not. We already have a lot of people staying here and can't just magically make a room for ya!” 

Hubba waves her assertion with his hand. “Oh don't you worry. I don't plan on staying for long. I don't think I could if I tried. Just let me wait for the man of the hour to return and I'll leave ya be.”

The group still looks at him with confusion until Flynn opens the door, looking completely exhausted. He simply ignores the rest of the room and heads straight for his room, flumping onto his bed. 

“Ooooh yeah. Probably should have told him transforming twice in a day would probably not feel that good. But he'll be fine. With that I should probably be leaving. I'll see you around!” Hubba then gets up and heads into the storage closet, shutting the door behind him.

Ashley huffs angrily and heads towards slamming the door back open. “Hey! No! Get back here old ma-” as she opened it back up, he wasn't even there. It wasn't like he had a place to go to, he somehow just up and vanished… She sighs and closes the door, looking back over at the other non-employee here with an unenthused look. 

“So. What about you then?” 

Proton thinks about it and then replies. “Well I'll probably need to stay to do research on that belt of his. So I suppose I could help on the workplace front.”

She thinks about it and ends the day thinking about how an alien robot would go through the job application process.

Chapter 3: New Friends and New Forms! The Self Proclaimed Bandit King!

Summary:

A new Co-Worker enters Flynn's Job as Gazzak quickly resorts to a do or die plan.

Chapter 3: New Friends and New Forms! The Self Proclaimed Bandit King!

 

Somewhere, far from our heroes, lay a castle in high mountains Surrounded by a sea of darkness, this Castle came to be known by some denizens as Thrudheim or “the Castle of Strength”. Deep inside, said dwellers were arguing among themselves over what they saw within a crystal ball. 

It was an interesting show indeed. The one with the item Loki sent them to look for had completely wiped out their forces with surprising ease. Showing off even more capabilities of the Emblem Driver. They didn't know his name, but something about him stimulated curiosity. And in front of all the others was the one who saw this power first hand. 

“Haha, well, you got unlucky on your first excursion, huh Gazzy?” A pale white faced woman heckled Gazzak. “You had one job and all we have now is another chump to tear open.” 

Another person, a man with a half mask sneers. Piling on in a slightly more positive light. “Don't be so cruel to him, Kronya. We now know why she'd want that… Thing. Though did you have to make such a grand disturbance? He was able to stop that second bubble of yours within only a few minutes.” 

He stands from his chair, slamming his hands on the table. “Enough of your mockery! Not like you blokes could do any better. Besides, if you want to blame anyone for the way that thing acts, blame ol baldy and hagsville over there.” He jabs his finger in the air towards two cloaked individuals at the table both simply watching in silence before being called towards. 

“You best be thankful we even humored you, boy. Our magic kept the more troublesome humans out of your hair.” The cloaked man replies, his face hidden in darkness. “Gods know they would've ripped apart a weakling like you.” 

Another man at the table, decorated in scratched  laughs as he hears this. “Oooh. Got a lot of gall saying something like that. But after seeing you turn tail and run back to Loki like that, I agree with him. You're a spineless rat, it's a wonder you even made it this far!” 

It was an insult to his pride. But he simply stood there in silence, with no real rebuttals. He did run when he probably had ample chance to fight that twerp. And because of his simple slip up he was facing mass ridicule.

“Good to see those Forma things the boss gave us to use worked.” Kronya says giddily. “Hearing that worm scream and writhe in pain was incredible. A damn shame he managed to live through that.” She adds pouting. 

“I suppose it's still in her best interest to keep us in the dark as much as possible…” the cloaked man adds. “But that gives us something to work with. Something… quite interesting.” 

Back in Gazzak's mind. He thinks about it more. The boss refused to talk with them unless it involved that stupid belt. You'd think that now she'd be more interested. And yet they're all still here almost clueless, at least he was. 

The woman next to the cloaked man, wearing a mask, smiles and talks again. “I think maybe you could try once more. There has to be some reason Loki chose you to sit along with the rest of us. 

Gazzak grits his teeth, set off by this constant barrage of slander. He juts up from his chair and yells. “Alright then, you group of twits. I'll crush him myself! You fools won't even get the chance!” 

The armored man laughs joyously, encouraging his teammates' behavior. “That's the spirit I'm lookin’ for! Crush ‘em real good if you mean what you say!”  

Gazzak shoves off his superior's backhanded approval as he walks away with a plan. “One way or another…” He thinks to himself. “That brat is gonna die!”

It’s been a few days since the whole magic belt thing happened to Flynn and things have been seemingly slowly going back to what he considered normal. Not that that mattered to him, he heard about others and there’s no way they’d stop after two attacks. Not to mention the bizarre robot that’s now with them still wants to study that belt, so days were spent testing the belt and the weird sets of cards. Though surprisingly what intrigued Flynn most was the bike. He wasn’t good at investing and a vehicle had never really been in his cards, so saving the world is as good of a reason as any to have one. Currently he just had to put it in the company garage to tune up the thing.

“Interesting thing for something that popped out of a card.” Flynn says, tinkering with the bike. “But it seems it can’t take slamming those barriers more than once. Everything looks loose. How is a magic bike loose like this? Well won’t be done” Flynn keeps complaining as he keeps tightening up the bike.

Near him, Proton sits by, reading a magazine. “Even more interesting is the fact that only a few of those cards seem to be compatible with the driver. And studying the cards themselves, it looks like there’s some sort of life reading from them. A similar one I was getting from that baker you had to fight.” 

“Really?” Flynn replies, now simply washing the machine. “So you're saying it's human?” 

Proton continues to flip through the magazine, explaining himself. “Not that. When I saw that baker and that… Man so to say. I got two life readings in them, one weaker than the other. A similar weaker reading to that man. From what I'm guessing, it looks like they're assimilating them and you destroying them seems to snuff out the weaker reading.” 

“Well that doesn’t make any sense.” Flynn says finishing by wiping the window, proudly looking down at his work and then down to the two spikes on the front, concerned.

“Well…” Proton thinks on it, trying to pin down how to explain it in layman’s terms. “Think of it kinda like a parasite. The lesser soul is like a cordyceps mushroom, and the person is like an ant. The item they insert infects them and looks like it tries something. Not sure what but it can’t be good or non lethal.” He puts his magazine down to see Flynn trying to pull the spikes off with a wrench. “Hey! What are you doing?!” 

“What? I just want to try to get these off. I can probably put them back on later.” Flynn says still trying to finagle them off.

“It’s magic, so it probably has a way to do that. Try messing with the instrument panel.” Proton says pointing to it. These two’s talk about this incredible machine is interrupted by Ashley walking into the room surprisingly calmly. 

“Hey Flynn. I need you to meet someone.” she says happily. Trying to get both of their attention. “We finally managed to get another member on this branch! And I’d like you to meet her!” 

“What? Proton didn’t count?” Flynn said jokingly, leaving his bike be for the moment to follow her out. 

“Well. The jury is still out on whether or not we can hire someone from another planet, so I can't really confirm that. But doing some number crunching and found out we have room for a few more employees. I've been wanting to expand this section of the agency forever and when we got the go-ahead I got to the hiring process and I think I found a good one.” Ashley happily winks and leads Flynn outside, Proton choosing to stay and try to run some numbers on the recent happenings all while reading that magazine still.

Flynn and Ashley head outside. The skies looked as cloudy as usual, with the air lacking the tension it had a couple days ago. Even the usually busy roads are quiet, leaving the two seemingly alone outside. 

“She's supposed to be here soon, at about 3 PM.”  Ashley says, looking at her phone, checking the time. “She really nailed the interview. And I'm hoping unlike you she's actually as multi-talented as she says… Joking of course.” 

Flynn gives his boss a mean look and snidely replies. “Well it's not a good first sign if it's 2:55. Maybe you have yet another goofball on your hands.” Ashley simply elbows him lightly for that comment as if to say “that's enough outta you.” without even opening her mouth.

The two’s mutual jabbing is interrupted by the distant rumble of a motor. Looking down the street they see the source of the noise, an approaching motorcycle, which parks in front of them. It was a weird one, colored a shiny gold with black accents totally contrasting the driver's blue pants and red jacket. The person riding then stops it and turns to Ashley, sitting like she would in a chair, taking her helmet and goggles off. “Hey there! So you must be Ashley, right?” 

Flynn was trying to pick his jaw off the floor. She looked pretty, like really pretty. Her hair was a nice dark red and tied off in a ponytail, and she had this bizarre feeling about her. A sort of ‘leading lady’ energy that demanded attention and intrigue. Just thinking about it brought most other thoughts in his brain to a halt, leading to him shaking his head trying to snap back to reality. 

“Oh there you are.” Ashley said, looking through her papers putting her index finger down on one page. “So. Welcome, Anna…” 

“Just Anna. No last name. I thought I specified that in my application. And for pronunciation sake, it's Ah-nah not Anne-uh. That's my sister.” She puts her helmet in one of the panniers of the bike she was riding, following it up with shaking her new boss’ hand. 

“Well.” Ashley says, writing things down in her notepad. “You're very excited to work here, I guess. Well over there is Flynn, one of your coworkers. Tonio is wrapped up in some food drive work, So he won't be back until late tonight.” 

“Uh… Hi.” Flynn adds quickly, trying not to make a fool of himself. “Hope you enjoy your time here.” 

“I plan on it. Variety work is in my blood. My family basically does everything.” She replies, happily patting both of them on the shoulder and walking inside.

 

The group heads inside as Ashley goes over a basic rundown of the building. “This place has been constantly renovated to fit more people but recently we haven't been able to do that. But we had one room that was used for storage. So I got one of the boys to empty it out in the back of the garage.  You'll have a bed and other necessities but you'll have to provide-” Ashley’s constant rambling on is interrupted by Flynn. 

“Long story short, you just need to provide your own food. But the fridge is always open so it's first come, first serve.”  Flynn then shows the employee living room. “This is where the magic happens. After a day's work, nothing beats relaxing right here.”

This talk is interrupted by Ashley's phone letting out a loud cutesy jingle. She grabs it from her pocket and answers. “Hello, USAnything? Mhm… Is that so? Okay, thanks, I’ll send our workers ASAP.” She then hangs up and looks over to the other two in the room. “That was one of our regulars, Charles. He needs some people to pick up some lumber taken out of the warehouses there, the ones downtown next to the bank. Turns out they’re canceling the build projects over there again.” 

Flynn rolls his eyes. Readying a snarky comment “Oh boy. That place again? They can never get anything done there… At least this time I have actual transportation.” He pauses a little, still nervous about making a fool of himself “You uh… Alright with me showing you the ropes Ann-.” His eyes go over to where his new coworker was, showing she not only already brought her stuff in, but was already on her bike starting it up again. 

“Yeah, I know where that is. Meet me there, we can talk then!” She shouts as she rides off, the roar of the engine causing Flynn to dash back into the garage to get on his bike, yelling for Anna to wait up. Lightly bumping the garage door with his bike before actually opening it, he rides off. 

The site was bustling, filled with workers carrying off lumber and girders offsite. Our two helpers arrive on the scene, meeting with Charles. Charles was a simple man, looking like your average construction worker, heavy set but still muscular. He gladly shook Flynn's hand and welcomed the two to the site. 

“Hoo boy. You wouldn't believe it. One moment this was a spot for a new mall, the next we’re being told to pack up and leave the site. It’s like this every other month. If attitudes like this keep up, Werlos will have its own abandoned warehouse district.” He laughs at his own joke.

“You think people would love to open things here.” Anna replies. “There's nothing to gain from this place being empty. And the whole place just depreciates in value over time and becomes unusable. It just screams lazy business.”  

Flynn kinda just shrugs off the conversation. He'd love to add on, but he failed in economics. “Well either way, glad you called us, Charles. Always a treat to see ya. So, what needs to be done?” 

Charles takes a swig of a drink in his hand and answers,pointing over at a warehouse. “Well. We got some stuff in the back warehouse that needs to be picked up while me and my boys move the construction vehicles off the premises. Once we're all done with that, you both can leave and me and my boys can go get beers. Careful with the sharp stuff!” 

“Yeah. Sure thing.” Flynn says with a two fingers salute and tries to get right to work. It goes on for a while, putting things outside and prepping them to be carried off and clearing up nuts and bolts. All the while he looked over at his coworker with curiosity. “So. You seem…neat I guess. What brought you our direction?” He asked, trying to spark a conversation.

Anna replies. “I come from the working type of people. The kind who drown themselves in their work, ya know?” She picks up a vacuum cleaner that was stuck in the pile of wood before flinging it in a nearby bin. “But no place but yours was biting. What about you?” 

Flynn thinks on it for a moment. “Well. I kinda had nowhere else to go. Things… weren't working in other places so I just settled there.” He pushes off the cart to the front of the warehouse while trying to really piece together his words. “But the past doesn't matter to me,right now. I try to focus on the future and stuff.

Anna looks at him, slightly curious. “Interesting answer… Care to elaborate on that?” 

Flynn smiles, picking up a box of tools left there. “No. I don't.” He follows her outside, setting the box next to the bin. 

“Alright then. Keep your secrets. I'll keep mine in return.” Anna slyly replies as they both push the junk boxes out of the warehouse and walk immediately back in to finish up, only to be surprised by someone waiting for them, sitting up on the rafters. Flynn recognized him instantly, it was Gazzak, that guy from the attack that got Flynn that belt. And from how he looked, he was pissed. 

“You gotta have a lot of nerve being alive, boy! Let alone trying to act like nothing happened. You made me a damned laughing stock!” He yells at Flynn, jumping down from the rafters onto the floor. “But I consider myself a kind person so I'll give ya one chance. Hand that belt over and I'll only kill ya with a swift axe to the head.” 

Anna somehow wasn't phased, looking at him a bit smugly while reaching into her coat pocket. Only to be interrupted by Flynn lightly pushing her away to match Gazzak's yelling, holding up the belt in his right hand. “Get real! Last time I used this thing, you ran with your tail between your legs.” 

The two share a mutual glare, Flynn looking angry while Gazzak gives a sharp , toothy grin. “I said before that I'm a nice man. But since ya wanna act like that I'll tell you this, I have a little something that'll make that thing there look like child's play.” He pulls out a small blue object, the same one he used on that baker, however Flynn's instant worry about the item hurting Anna is dashed as Gazzak squeezes the item in his hands, cracking it's glass before shattering the whole thing in his hands, causing a black aura to surround him before warping him into a monster emerging from a sea of blue flames. 

He looked wretched, covered in what looked to be assorted animal heads topped off with a lion as the actual head. His hands were covered in a red fire opposite of the one he emerged from, and axe blades adorned his forearms. He laughs heartily before pointing at Flynn with one of his wretched hands. “The real game starts now, boy. Once I'm done with you, this place is as good as dust.” 

“Alright then… It's my turn now.” Flynn replies as he slams the belt on to his waist and draws the card from the box to the side, once again slamming the card in and drawing the sword from the belt. “Transform!”

“The Strongest King! The Hero King! Marth!” 

Flynn cracks his knuckles and readies his sword, charging towards Gazzak as a clash of blades begins. The two constantly exchange blows, sparks flying from each of their strikes on their opponent. Flynn tries to go for the head and is constantly stopped by Gazzak's axes, and then blasted away by a fireball from his hands. “I hope you aren't stupid enough to think it'd be that easy. Thanks to that soul, I'm better than ever!” 

Flynn thinks about what he said. That small blue thing is a soul? How would one even contain that within a small container? These thoughts are short lived as he is then continuously pelted by axe strikes and fire. Causing him to roll back and swat at the fire coming his way with his sword. “Gotta find a way through that fire. But how… Oh! Right!” He tries to fend off Gazzak’s attacks with one hand while scrambling through the cards he had with the other. All while Anna simply looks on in intrigue. 

Flynn's hand then settles on a card and draws it. It's what looks like a green haired man with blue armor. Trying to insert it, he's interrupted by Gazzak, slamming the card out of his hands. Flynn counters back and scrambles to find where the dropped card went, Gazzak wasting no time to also try to snatch the card before he can. 

“Watch it! That card is mine!”

“Like hell!” Flynn responds. “It's mine!” 

The two constantly bat at each other with their weapons while looking at the ground for the card. Anna looks on, seeing that the card is just a little behind Gazzak. She makes a dash for it and rolls to the ground to get it just before Gazzak lays his hands on it. He growls at the girl in response. 

“You better give that here if you know what's good for you. It'd be a shame to cut down such a pretty face.” He yells, sneering and readying his axes.  

“Oooh.” She replies with a tinge of sarcasm in her voice.  “Tough luck. I've never known what's good for me.” She replies as she sways her head out of the way of the first swing and rolls away from the second.  She then narrowly avoids a fireball thrown her way before looking over at Flynn. “Heads up, dude!” She yells, tossing it at him with such precision that it slices through the air with surprising ease.

Flynn then catches it only just before it hits him in the face. “Thanks! Now… Let's go!” He slams his Sword back into the driver, withdrawing Marth's card and Inserting Alm's. 

“Alm!” 

“Embrace! Deliverance !

“Fight for the people! Rebel against evil! Alm!”

The suit now looked vastly different from before with only the eyes looking the same. And even more interesting was that in his off hand was what looked to be a bowgun of sorts. Flynn then readies both weapons and charges at Gazzak. 

The two once again trade blows, though this time Flynn's strikes are slower yet stronger, consistently knocking the bandit off of his feet. And when he tosses fireballs Flynn's way, Flynn is now able to move forward and simply shoot them out of the air. The strength of this form was nothing to sneeze at, though one problem is Flynn felt slower than he was before and it was just enough for it to be noticeable. But more importantly, it gave him an edge in this fight. 

Gazzak still kept cutting into the armor nevertheless, constantly still trying to keep up. All of this leads to him being cornered against the wall. “You ain't doing this to me! I'm the bandit king.”

Flynn then slams his sword back Into the belt again and draws it, bathing it in a light blue light now. “Well then consider this your crown!” 

“Scendscale Finish!” 

Flynn then slices him downward and then slices again horizontally, turning around to look away from the defeated and now exploding bandit king, sheathing his sword and leaving a cross shaped mark on the wall. “This. Is my strength.” 

Flynn then de-transforms and takes a deep breath. Once again, he had defeated another bizarre monster, though it didn't feel as complete as he wanted it to. But his attempts at deep thought was interrupted by Anna slowly clapping and walking his way. “Bravo. So. Is this that secret you didn't wanna tell me about? You seemed pretty gungho when tall and ugly showed up.” She laughed a little as Flynn then realized he did just do the whole super hero song and dance in front of his new coworker. 

Flynn stumbles over his words. “Uh… no, well. I probably should've said that before. But uhh. I found this belt. And uhhh that guy and’”

Anna cuts him off. “No need to explain. I've seen stuff like it before. I think it's better we do our job at this point. “ She smiles and then just walks off back to work like nothing ever happened.  

“Yeah I suppose…” Flynn then thinks for a moment. “Wait! Before? What do you mean by that?!”

 “You keep your secrets, I keep mine.” Anna chuckles as Flynn now just looks flummoxed for the rest of the day, cleaning off the rest of the warehouse before unceremoniously heading back to the headquarters. 

It was late as Charles walked through the site as all the other workers drove away, checking over things one more time before going out for himself. “Those two USAnything workers did a pretty decent job for being brought in on the spot.” Charles thinks to himself. “Place looks basically the same way it was when the construction crew got here. Except for that weird person over there- wait a minute .”

He looked at the person at the corner of his eye and saw a woman seemingly just staring at a part of the wall. It was a cloaked woman, seemingly talking woefully towards the wall. “Poor, poor Gazzak. All of your talk and ideas all led to nothing but wasted potential. Such a shame my magic was so wasted.” It was a bunch of malarkey he didn’t understand, but he had to make sure everyone was off the site. 

“Hey, uh… lady. I think I need you to get out of here. It’s kinda too dangerous to be here. Especially at night. It’s not-” His words are cut off by the woman grabbing his hand with a surprisingly tight force, taking him completely by surprise. Her hand was inhuman, purple and topped off with surprisingly sharp nails.

“It’s rude to try to touch people like that, boy!” She growled. “I’m simply here to give a corpse the small acknowledgement it doesn’t even deserve. So I’m not in the mood to deal with a peon like you!” 

Charles breaks his hands from her grip and yells back at her. “Piss off! I’m doing my job here. Now I know your type so why don’t you walk back to your coven before I call the cops?!”  He then reaches for his phone, only for it to be blown out of his hands and turned into bits on the floor as once again the woman grabbed him by the hand. 

“You’ve got quite the backbone, people like you make quite good soldiers. So I must ask. Could you do me a favor?” She then pulls a familiar blue crystal from her pocket and then slams it right into his chest, causing him to collapse to the floor. He never felt like this before.. It was a change, a horrible one that made it feel like he was cracking open. All of this pain overwhelmed him totally as he keeled over hearing only one last thing.

“Would you be willing to die for me?”

Chapter 4: A Declaration! Fury Ablaze!

Summary:

A dead-too-soon enemy quickly comes back up much to Flynn's surprise. What could he possibly had missed?

Chapter 4: A Declaration! Fury Ablaze!

 

Flynn was deep in thought, in front of him was his personal passtime, chess, an intellectual’s game. It’d been a while since he actually got to play and who better than his recent robotic friend. There was only one problem now, he still absolutely sucked at this game.

“And Knight to C2, checkmate.” Proton said. “You made a couple mistakes there, A specific one is not really thinking too far ahead. Gotta plan things out.” 

“Yeahhhh….” He says, agreeing. “I know all the terms but I can’t ever get a good strategy going. Should probably start considering… That form from the other day. There’s a difference between the two.” He then tries to pick up two pieces to pick up his point, a knight and a rook, struggling to think of how to get his point across. “Well… The first form, that Marth guy, was kinda like a knight, but like an actual one. Quick and spry like a rabbit. And then the second one, Alm was like a moving castle, armed with arrows and more bulk than Marth. Nothing really spectacular but I was able to notice I was a tad slower…” 

“Well I wasn’t there to see but I was there to see how Marth worked. You said one turned into a monster?” Proton asks. 

Flynn then juts up and loudly explains. “Yeeeah! He was all gross lookin’ and had animal faces all over him! It was like a weird chimera thing!” He wiggles his fingers to try to illustrate how creepy it was. “He was throwin’ fire and had axe hands. I’d probably had been scared if I wasn’t-”

“Stingray!” Someone yells tiredly. It was Ashley, looking a little tired as she walked in with a cup of hot cocoa. “Could you keep it down, I just got here…” She sips from her drink and yawns. “I’m here to sort out your holiday bonuses and the company reward….”

“Reward?” Proton asks. “From what Flynn said I thought places didn't do that.” 

She scowls in Flynn's direction. Answering. “Other places don't do that. Usually every year we do a building dinner where the Agency pays. Lots of holidays, so they decided on late December. Had to argue about that with my father for a long while.” 

“Oooh yeah.” Flynn remembers. “Forgot to add that. Every year, we all go out to this really nice restaurant and the company treats us for the holidays. Use it as sorta a catch all seasons gift. Still better than most.” Flynn then leaves the garage and walks past Ashley to talk with his coworkers.

Tonio was simply sitting at the main table, twiddling his thumbs, while Anna seemed to be playing around with the calculator on her phone. “Hey fellas. What's good?” Flynn chimed in. 

Tonio was the first to respond, looking like a kid in a toy store. “Well, it's the holidays. I'm just generally excited I guess. I have this big plan with my family and I was thinking about that dinner Ashley had planned…”

Then Anna looks up from her calculations, slightly chuckling. “Well… I'm thinking of spending the holidays here. Probably gonna be tons of people begging for last minute helpers. I'm also not really used to having a break so I guess I'll find something to do with my sisters when I'm forced to not work.” 

Flynn thinks about what the two said. He didn't really have a place to go for the holidays so he guessed he'd just have to sit here again for the end of the year. But this time Proton and Anna would be here, which is better than no one like other times. The thought saddened him a little so he tried not to think about it. 

“Well. I suppose that we're all in the same room. I'd like to say I've been trying to work with my dad to try to get better places to eat. But we started too late. So that means dinner at the local pizza joint.” Ashley says that with a tinge of disappointment. She'd prefer to for once dip into the deeper funds of her father's wallet and go someplace really fancy.

“I don't see the problem with that.” Tonio replies, though seemingly he changes his mind looking at Ashley's face delivering that news. “But… I'm sure you'd probably want something better. Not really nice having to go to a pizza place named Scabby's.” 

Flynn thinks for a moment as his robotic friend also walks into the room. “What about him? Have you told your father about the whole robot thing?” 

Ashley shrugs. “I don't think there's any way I could say that there's a robot here without dad thinking I'm crazy. Same as the whole magic belt thing.”

Proton's front screen emotes to nonchalant eyes. “Besides, it's fine. I don't really have the ability to eat.” 

Flynn just thinks again while people talk around him. Ashley notices him deep in thought and tries to inquire. “So Flynn. What about you? Once the dinner ends, I assume you'll clean the place. I mean it's been pretty clean all year so I guess just… enjoy the Holiday break…”

Flynn just shoves her off. “Yeah. Sure.” He then just walks over to the couch and plants himself down, Turning on the TV and starting to flip channels. 

Anna looks over at him and tries to cheer him up. “Hey! I'm also gonna be here. Maybe you and I can do something.” Proton is about to help vocally before all the channels start to have the same newscast, diverting everyone's attention. 

“An absolute travesty today in downtown Werlos. A monstrous figure began barreling through the Christmas market event and is causing absolute pandemonium. Police attempted to approach only to lead to several injured officers and totaled cars. We can only hope something can stop this thing.” 

The rest of the group then relocate their attention back to the couch, now empty as Flynn seemingly wasted no time dashing to the garage to ready his bike. Anna comments “Wow. I thought I was the only one who could do that…”

Flynn drove down the streets, trying to keep speed but not get caught and get in trouble before getting there. He’d seen that freaky face before, it was Gazzak. Flynn thought he buried that guy days ago and here he is destroying yet another part of town. This time, however, Flynn knew exactly what to do this time. “I don’t know how you got back up, Gazzy. But I’m putting you back into the ground!” He then slams the Emblem Driver around his waist, and keeps on the acceleration. 

He barrels into the market streets, immediately seeing the monster throwing goods over the street and then looking at him head on. Flynn then slams Marth’s card into the driver and jumps off the bike and draws his sword, yelling out “Transform!” as the bike plows right into Gazzak and knocks him flat to the ground. All the while the transformed Flynn rolls to the ground after botching his landing off the bike. “Don’t know how you got back up, but it doesn't matter!” He yells as he then charges at the monster, who just got back up, immediately bombarding him with sword slashes and punches. Gazzak counteracts by throwing fire balls, which are slashed away into the crushed stands behind Flynn, setting the market ablaze.

Flynn presses ever forward, an anger in his eyes as he approaches. “What’s the matter? I crush you and you come back and don’t say a word?” The beast responds by roaring at him and charging at him, barreling through a few burning carts and getting attacked again by Flynn slamming his sword’s blade into the monster's back, causing it to spark.

This fight continues into the flames themselves, the two showing no signs of hurt from it as they continue to trade blows. Flynn continues to play on offense, thinking a bit to himself as he tries to push out of the fire. “How did he even come back? When me and Anna looked at what was left, there was nothing. And now he’s back here roaring like a… Well a lion. I don’t know how he got back up. But one thing’s gotta be for sure. Gotta be the one to put him back down.”

The two’s fight continues again now into the public eye, Gazzak seemingly now trying to ignore the fight and ramming into people. Cutting into them and torching others. Flynn then looks at this and then charges into him, shoulder tackling him away from a would-be victim. “None of that! I’m your opponent here!” He yells as he then uses Alm’s card to switch forms, immediately taking advantage of the bowgun and pelting the fiend with a flurry of shots.  The beast then roars again and then tries to slice Flynn, an attack that’s stopped by his hand, leaving the other to stab into Gazzak several times with the sword before launching him back.

“Who is that?” One person cried. “It’s like some weird knight thing fighting that lion freak!” Another yelled, pulling the first away. “They’re both dangerous, so it doesn’t matter. Get out of here!” The rest of the crowd stayed however, backing up to be what they considered a safe distance from the fight, only to be proven wrong as several market tents crashed around some and onto others. 

Flynn was focused. Him still being alive was all he was thinking about. He had to think, what could possibly take him out if not slicing him in several pieces. It was then Flynn had an idea. The head. While a weaker one could be defeated simply, these guys probably had a pressure point, and Flynn had only one guess as to where it’d be. Only problem now is getting a good shot, especially with him targeting innocents seemingly more than Flynn. He prepared himself mentally to try to think of something as he went headfirst into battle. 

He slammed the pommel of his sword into the beast, trying to disorient him at first to push him back away from people and back towards the flames. Only for Gazzak to charge back at Flynn, causing him to swat him away with a heavy sword swing and another volley of blasts from the bowgun. He wasn’t acting like a fighter anymore, Flynn saw it more akin to a wild animal, making it feel more and more like this wasn’t what he thought it was. But even then he had to test out his theory. So he searched the cards in the box at his hip to find something compatible with this form. All the while trying to push the fiend into a perfect spot for aiming. 

The beast continued to roar and lunged at Flynn, even now using a new tactic, reaching for one of the axes on his forearms and flinging it directly at him. Flynn barely avoids this new trick and finally settles on a card, now just trying to find a way to set up the target. Thinking quickly, Flynn then decides to plant himself in one spot and ready himself, physically begging Gazzak to attack him. The monster had no problem complying as it roared again, loud enough to shake the already broken market, and barreled forward screaming only one sentence. “Kill… NOW!” Jumping at Flynn right as he slammed the card in his driver and aimed the now shining bowgun at the fiends head!

“Tobin! Bullseye!”

“Checkmate!” Flynn says as he pulls the trigger and in one shot, pierces through the fiends head and watches him fall back down to the ground and explode. All the same as he did days ago. 

Flynn took a breather before walking towards his now defeated opponent. Watching the smoke clear as he’s about to sheath his sword. “I don’t know how you got back up but you better…stay…down.” Flynn’s eyes widened as the smoke cleared. Where his opponent stood was the body of a man. Not Gazzak, but… Charles? What was happening? He rushed over to the body to try to pick it up only for disaster to strike again as what remained of Charles crumbled in his hands like dust. “What…the.. No…” Flynn couldn’t think straight as he saw this. Charles wasn’t someone he knew as well as others, but to see him well one day and like this the next is falling through his hands like sand. 

Flynn's ever barreling train of thought is interrupted by jovial laughter behind him, her face of joy not hidden at all by half-mask on her face. It was a woman he never saw before, someone with bizarre purple skin and sharp threatening horns. “Well done, boy~.” She says, ceasing her clapping and looking down at the pile of dust in Flynn’s hands. “I'd say that little experiment was quite the success.” 

“Who the hell are you?!? What did you do to him?!” Flynn yells as he backs away and readies his sword. 

She happily outstretched her arms and explained. “Nothing you haven't seen before. I simply inserted that Forma Soul into him and let it sit. It simply had more time to overtake his soul… Something that bumbling excuse of a beast could only dream of!” She laughs as she picks up the dust for herself. “Such wonderful remains of life, extinguished and it will make for wonderful energy!”

“You bastard! You killed him for no other reason? All just for energy?” Flynn tightened his grip on his blade, staying his hand so he wouldn't do something reckless. Though it's not easy as all of His thoughts are turning again towards pure unadulterated rage. 

“Well. I have to make it simple for someone like you. Especially since we did have a little message for you. This.” She holds up the dust and lets it fall from her hand, cascading to the floor. “This is only the beginning~.” 

Flynn couldn't hold himself back any longer. He yelled loudly as he charged forth and tried to slam his blade into her head. The sword then simply slashes through nothing, as Flynn realizes she seemingly got out of the way somehow. Now being behind him. He then slashes at her again only this time to be blown away by a massive blast of darkness. 

“You poor fool~!”  She yells mockingly as she blasts him again. “Those unfortunate enough to be above me have deemed you a threat. So now, this is war on the insolent world you live in.” 

The second blast throws Flynn against a wall and knocks him out of the transformation. He staggers to his feet. This woman was nothing like Gazzak, she was much more of a threat. Just two blasts were enough to knock him flat, and here she was claiming war. “That's… ridiculous. You won't get away with this! I'll… I'll kill you!” He readies his sword in reckless anger. 

She smirks and readies another magical charge. As she's about to fire it, something blasts her in the back of the head, bothering her enough to turn around and stop her attack. It was Commander Proton who hit her with a blast of his own from an arm cannon. “Hey! Back off!” He yells, readying another shot. She looks at the robot with disgust, even more so as Anna shows up right behind him. 

“I'd have time for one of you. But if you're going to do this, I see no reason to stay. Farewell, poor mortals~. May your nights be restless from now on!” She yells as she vanishes into nothing, seemingly taking Charles’ remains with her. Both Proton and Anna go over to pick up Flynn before he falls back down. 

“Dammit… She better GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!” Flynn says as he tries to get away from the two and limp towards where she stood. 

“Hey man! None of that! We can't have her back here with you in this condition.” Proton responds, holding him back. All the while Anna looks on with a look of both intrigue and worry on her face, not really saying anything. 

Flynn then pushes off Proton and shouts at him. “Shut up! She killed an innocent man! She…” He seemingly pulls himself back, trying to unscramble his thoughts. “I'm… sorry. It's just horrible… I…” He slams his fist into the ground as he desperately tries to mentally pull himself together. 

Flynn tries to keep calm as the group goes home. Wondering why on many things. Who was that lady? Why was Anna silent the whole time? And could he really keep up with the demand of fighting a war? All these thoughts bounced around in his head as he simply collapses Into bed as he gets back home once again. It was a horrid sign of things to come.

Chapter 5: Back to Back! The Solid Gold Rider!

Summary:

After a terrible loss that may lead to the world getting destroyed, Anna decides its time to go looking for something she left back in her childhood.

Notes:

A new hero joins the fray. It's time to hunt for answers!

Another morning rose over the city of Werlos and the USAnything Agency was nowhere near as active as it usually was, and once again at the center of its inactivity was one Flynn Stingray. While he was well beyond good at hiding it, he was a mixture of livid and horribly downtrodden. The scene still replayed in his head over and over again. Seeing Charles dried husk on the floor, crumbling in his hands and that weird freak blowing him away so hard he was smacked clean out of the armor. It pissed him off and even worse it was all he could think of while cleaning, causing him to just glare daggers at the floor while he plucked up garbage and swept us dust.

“Hey! Dude!” Anna says lightly tapping him on the head with her own broomstick. “You know you can't stay like that with that face forever. It's not good for business. Didn't even think you could pull that kind of face.” She pulls away thinking maybe she could give him space while thinking about it.

Flynn sighs, losing his usual attitude and gritting his teeth. “I'm not sure if you noticed but I saw someone I knew just crumble in front of me, so excuse me if it takes a while to feel better.” Granted, he's been trying to calm down for a while and it all just leads to his thoughts cycling back over and over again. Death, war and that horrid woman, it was making him sick. And even looking at one of his new friends didn't really help.

“Hey… I know the whole Kamen Rider thing is getting to ya. But it’s not good to let it get to you like this.” Anna says, patting him on the back trying something to make him feel better. 

“Yeah sure whateve- You mean masked rider right?” Flynn’s anger is somehow quickly replaced with curiosity. 

“Well, that got your attention.” She giggles a bit and explains. “So I’ve been around the block a few times. Kamen Rider sorta became the term after some weird talk of a Masked Rider on this side of the sea and they were trying to…differentiate it. The whole Kamen Rider thing has a weird following over here. I guess Japan’s heroes are our urban legends.” 

“Riight.” Flynn says putting up a broom. Now looking blandly at his job mediocrely done.
“Maybe I can ask Proton about it. I know when I was young my sister was obsessed with some weird monster stuff that happened there in 2000 I think. Might be the same thing. But…Why Kamen Rider?” 

“Oh. Well. Japanese word for mask. Sorta like how some food has foreign names. Gives it a je ne sais quoi.” She chuckles again as she says that, looking at the cleaned room. “Well. Place looks good. What do you say we do? Maybe get some ice cream… I could go for something like that.”

“Maybe. I think I should put more thought into the whole thing of learning my skills.” Flynn then thinks again as Anna half hugs him.

“Well. Not sure how I can help with that. So I think I’ll at least help myself. I’ll be at the parlor if you need me.” She then just casually walks right out of the front door. And as she exits the room, Commander Proton enters from the garage.

“Hey there. Doing any better, Flynn?” Proton asks, looking at some schematics on some virtual screen in his hands. “I decided to try to take some of the stuff I saw and bring it up to some higher ups.”

“As good as someone like me could possibly do. And am I ever going to meet these higher ups?” Flynn inquired as he crossed his arms. 

“Not likely. What I’m doing right now is already considered a bit risky.” He then turns the screen over to Flynn, showing him some sort of diagram. “According to what you said and what you saw. It looks like my guess was correct. The blue thing, which you said they called a forma soul, seems to overtake the victim and sap them of energy, like a mosquito sucking something dry. When you fought the baker, it seems you defeated the monster early enough to leave him none the worse for wear. Charles wasn’t so lucky.”

Flynn then thinks about that. “So then Charles must’ve had that thing inside him longer, right?” 

“Bingo. So unfortunately we have to work around them. The problem is I don’t know how we’d be able to track them to stop those transformations.” Proton thinks on it as Flynn's face turns to a dour expression. How could he possibly keep up with that? “If we could find a sign of them showing up we could probably save more people. Problem is we've only seen them after they got to this world.” 

Flynn thinks on it a bit. It makes his brain ache trying to think of any way to find out how they get here without sacrificing lives. “How the hell are we supposed to manage that? Could we find out how they get here or is this just gonna be normal from here out?” These deep thoughts are cut off by a loud sound coming from his stomach. “Oooh… dammit. I got so caught up in how mad I was I forgot to eat… Well. I guess it'd be better to think about this when I'm not starving.” He reaches into his jacket pocket for his wallet and finds nothing. He then goes to check his other jacket pocket and then pats down his pants. “Dammit, I swear I had it in my… pocket… when I… Oh hell no.” He then thinks on it and remembers as Anna hugged him, she reached into one of his pockets and might've snatched his wallet. With that he dashes out the door and follows Anna over to the parlor, Proton following along curiously. 

 

Flynn makes his way to the ice cream parlor and tries to search around for Anna. He tried to keep his head while in public because the last thing he needs is to get overly angry in public. Proton follows behind, again amazed no one is surprised at the walking talking robot. “A lot of people here seem unimpressed. Shouldn’t a robot like me be astounding to these people from what you told me?”

“A lot has been going on lately. I'm sure a robot doesn't scare them at all when there's monsters like… that.” Flynn trails off a bit and then sees a familiar red ponytail slink into the nearby alley. He gives chase and encounters Anna, smugly licking an ice cream cone. 

“Took you two long enough.” She said, munching on the cone a little as she tossed Flynn his wallet back.  “No need to worry. I didn't take anything important.”

“Oh, you got a lot of nerve kicking a man while he's down like that. Why would you even take my wallet if you aren't gonna use it? Did you do it just to get my attention?!” Flynn looks a little angry as he says that. 

“It worked, didn't it? Both you and that weird friend of yours came here.” 

“I resent that.” Proton replied pointing meanly. “There are better ways to get a man's attention than pickpocketing!” 

Anna then finishes the ice cream and then points at the alley wall behind her. “So remember when I said I had a few secrets of my own? With that whole thing with the wicked witch yesterday, I think now's not the time to hide those kinds of secrets. She did just dust our poor paying customer after all.” 

Flynn crosses his arms, looking perturbed at her casual treatment of the situation. She then sighs and knocks on the wall. To the surprise of both Flynn and Proton, it seemed to create some sort of ripple. “Oh the hell is that?” 

“Looks to be some sort of distortion in space time.”  Proton goes towards it and taps it for himself. “Some sort of spatial fabric tear I suppose.” 

“So.” Anna says, clasping her hands together and beginning to explain. “Those freaks with the Formas are obviously coming from somewhere else. So I thought someone I'd know might be able to help with that whole thing. This right here, is how they get in. And, like so.” She then simply leans back into the wall vanishing into it to the surprise of Flynn. 

“Cool. It's like a warp… We should probably follow her.” Proton says to Flynn as he walks in surprisingly calmly. Flynn himself tries to shake off the surprise and runs in after them. 

It was a bizarre sensation. One step in felt like one million. What was once a wall became a mass of color and nonsense one second and then the next… It was breathtaking to Flynn, a place that looked straight out of fairy tales and renaissance fairs, grassy fields and sheer cliffs surrounded by simple towns that looked nothing like the urban jungle he was used to. 

“Welcome to the Outrealm. Well one of many… A bizarre little thing I found out about as a young girl.” Anna gestures towards the world around her. “It's a place sorta stuck in a long time ago… Now I just gotta hope this is the right place.” 

Flynn still looks around curiously. Trying to piece all this together just made it feel more mysterious and unfathomable. And now Anna seems to be talking about this being the right place and that just makes it even more confusing. 

Proton, on the opposite end, was amazed. Seemingly scanning around the area and its many intricacies. “Fascinating. No matter how many times I see stuff like this, it's amazing. So then how does this place relate to those people entering your world?” 

“Think of it like a shortcut. You take cut-throughs to get to a place faster. They use it like that but for our world…” Anna keeps looking around, squinting, as if trying to find something before putting her hands on her hips. “Oh thank gods. This is the right place. Would’ve been even more confusing to explain if we ended up somewhere else.” She then just casually walks on. “Come on, fellas. We’re burning daylight.” 

Flynn and Proton followed behind, The robot filled with glee while his human compatriot with confusion. He could believe Proton, the robot from another world, being relaxed about this but then in comes Anna saying she’s known about this kind of place for years. Soon enough, there probably won't be a thing in the universe that surprises him. He tries to silence his looping thoughts as he just stays quiet and follows, taking in the sights. 

The group takes quite the trek. Going down long, winding paths and near giant mountains, the group soon comes across a small hut covered up by a sea of trees making a forest. Anna casually walks over to the house. “Et Violá! The answer to… most of our problems. Now all we have to do is see if the old man still has what I want…” 

She runs her hands on the walls of the house, until they come across a bookshelf. She peeks into each book, big and small, her eyes scanning across book spines and the pages within. She hums to herself while reading and then slams the last book shut, coming to a conclusion. 

“Mhm. It's not here…” She says, exhausted. “This big of a bookshelf and he doesn't have it… thanks for nothing, old man.” 

“Okay. Who's the old man you keep talking about?” Flynn asks with a tinge of confusion and agitation. 

“Well it might be a relative, with how she’s talking about him. I'm more interested in why we're looking for a book here.” Proton adds looking around the old house. 

“Not like it matters… now we gotta go all the way back with nothing… unless.” She goes over to the front door, putting her ear up to it and simply listening. Eventually picking up the sound of footsteps approaching the door. She then backs up and lets the door swing open, her eyes widening when a giant of a man lurches through the door.

He was massive, a full one, maybe two heads above Flynn. Dressed in chipped and dented violet armor, and topped off with a permanent scowl lining his face, he looks over at the two with scorn. “I did not expect more than the old fool at this house… let alone that he vanished outright. Tell me! Where did he lurk off too?” 

Anna backs up and snidely replies. “I'm asking the same question, buddy, along with how did you of all people find this place?” 

“Doesn't matter how he found it,” Flynn adds, “I'm gonna see him out.” He then reaches into his jacket pocket for the Emblem Driver, only to be stopped by Anna. 

“Hey! Hey! This is emotionally expensive merchandise you're fighting around. Why don't we take a civil approach and take this outside?” 

“Are you really going to try pragmatism with a man like that?” Proton asks. 

“You better not be referring to me.” Both Flynn and the armored man say as they scowl at Proton. 

Anna shrugs and manages to politely push both Flynn and the man outside, the man then tries to toss her off of him, beginning to yell. “Don’t you treat this so casually you wretch! This isn’t some game!” In his hand appears a bizarre staff, looking like a sharp, silver, trident with a gold backing and a purple jewel adorning the middle. He raised it and from the trees came several figures, ones who look similar to the mage the baker turned into. “I did these insipid fools a favor and removed them from humanity. Now, I know your friend, so I'll give you one chance to give me that device of yours. I'll not give you a second chance.” 

Flynn readies himself again. Only for Anna to push him to the side a little. “I think it's my turn to show off a little.” She then looks over at the man. Calling out his name. “Zephiel, right? You got a lot of gusto to think this is gonna be as simple as that. Bold for a man as wrong as you.” She reaches into her own jacket pocket and pulls out something of her own, a garish gold device with a giant number seven in the center, topped off by a crank you'd see on a slot machine. “But you got one thing right. This is no game.” She then slams it to her waist as a trail of gold coins trail around it and form a belt, which shouted with an excited “Let's Roll!” 

Flynn looked on in awe as she made a show of it. Pointing at Zephiel directly and then leaning her hand towards her face, snapping her fingers and laying her index finger on her chin before using her free hand to pull the crank. “Transform!” She says as the seven in the center spins wildly before landing quickly with the seven facing right side up, making a giant cauldron appear above her head. 

“Lucky! Cha cha cha!” 

The belt shouts again as the pot leans over and seemingly buries her in coins, a few strays smashing into some of the creatures, knocking them flat to the floor. 

“Go for the gold! Brave and bold! My name is! Kamen Rider Bull-ion!”

She shakes off the leftover gold and reveals herself again, now adorned in shining gold armor. Gold and jewels adorned the armor all over, to the point of gold bars even being where eyes would be. She then giggles and brandishes an equally gold sword, turning back to Flynn and Proton before saying “Hope you boys are ready. Because I'm about to put on a show.” And with that, she then charges into battle. 

She starts with one with a tome, slashing into them with a finesse unlike Flynn's, slashing clean through and and then slashing at it once more, causing it to blast away and instantly turn back into a human. She paid the injured human no mind as she continued on. Another one, that looked like a horse with wings, then charged at her with a lance attempting to skewer her. She deftly deflected the lance and slashed into the monster, knocking it back as another one swung at her with an axe. 

“This is amazing!” Proton exclaimed, opening a screen on his arm to jot down what he sees in front of him. “I was told that was a one of a kind signature your belt gave off and now here’s another.” He then looks over to Flynn who stares blankly at the ongoing battle, his face showing a mixture of surprise and amazement.

“She’s…cool.” He says, seemingly long stepped out of reality. Watching her slowly but effortlessly turn her attention to the monster recklessly swinging the axe at her while still being able to perfectly fend off the lance wielding horse man. While she flips away from the further lance lunges, Proton then taps Flynn on the shoulder, moving him a little from his trance. 

“You know there's probably a better way to deal with this than just one person.” He remarks, all but telling Flynn he should probably transform too. 

The thought then breaks Flynn from his trance as he responds. “Oh yeah! Right! Two!” He then readies his own belt and goes through the motions he's all too familiar with, letting out an additional “Transform!” as he charges into battle with Marth's card in hand. 

He attacks a different monster, a wingless horse man, while Anna continues her own two versus one fight. He shows a lot less skill than her performance but makes up for it by brute force. Smashing his sword into the monster ahead of him, continually knocking it back. When another axe wielding monster came his way, he managed to quickly divert his attention to this other opponent. Only to get slashed in the back by the horse man. “Aie! Step off!” He yells aloud as he manages a swift yet destructive strike, turning the horse monster human once again. 

Anna looks over to Flynn. “Ooh! Nice one! Land a few more of those and you might be as lucky as me.” And then she then grabs the guard of her sword, pulling a part that extends out to reveal her own cards held within what looked like an old ti mey fan. She then plucks two cards from it and slides it to the blade of the sword, causing it to gain a chilling blue glow. She stabs it in the ground, making a trail of icicles that trap both monsters. “Now, for the finale!” She says as she then leaps on top of her sword and uses that to leap into air, pulling the crank on her belt as it then glows with a golden light.

“Lucky FEVER! ”

Anna then seemingly slides on the air and then slams her foot into both monsters, shattering the ice and blowing the monsters away. She lands gracefully and then bows to an audience of 2. All the while Flynn barely manages to destroy the other one. “Alright! Now!” Anna says confidently as she turns to Zephiel. “We handled your boys. Best to give up before both of us handle you too!” 

“Yeah!” Flynn adds in a stand-offish tone. “This place ain't got anything, so I recommend running!”

Zephiel scowls at the two. “Pathetic. I'm sent all the way here and all I have to show for it is broken glass and two miserable whelps in front of me. It appears I've wasted my precious time here.” He then surprisingly turns around and walks away. “Pray we don't meet again. I won't waste any time putting dogs like you down.” And with another announcement of his annoyance he vanishes from sight. 

Anna then de-transforms and uncharacteristically exhales. “Oh thank Gods you said that.”

“What? I thought with how you were talking, you could've taken him.” Flynn replies, a little concerned as he also de-transforms.

“Believe me. We'd lose. We can't take him in our current state.” Anna responds with a hand on his shoulder. “But I think we should go back in. I think now I have an idea.” 

The group heads back into the house, both Flynn and Proton watch as Anna goes to a previously unseen closet door and slams it open. Behind it was a familiar old man, Old Hubba. Anna looks at him with a hand outstretched, expecting something as she abrasively says “Old man. Book. Now!” 

The old man looks at her grouchily. “I see you're the same as ever. So why do you care about the book now?” He says as he laughs, pulling the book from his robes. “You lost interest in it when I told you you couldn't sell it.” 

Anna groans. “I was young and things are different now. You'd think you'd give the book to the guy using the damn thing you wrote about.” 

“What?” Proton inquires. “You're telling me that man over there basically made a manual?” He then looks over at the book curiously, grabbing it for himself and flipping through the pages quickly. “Fascinating!”

“Hey! Watch it! You'll ruin the pages going that fast. And I don't think living armor could get any use out of that.” Hubba tries to take it back, only for Anna to be the one plucking it from his hands instead. 

“Let's save quiet reading for when we get home.” Anna says slyly as she then pushes Hubba out of the way, walking through the closet. “Sorry we don't have time to chat, grandpa. Taking your shortcut.” 

“You know, a please would've been nice.” He says as he then looks over to Flynn and Proton. “She's always been a reckless one. Always pushy like that. But I assume you boys at least have many good questions for me.” 

Flynn stays silent for a bit before responding. “No. Not really. I kinda want to go home.” He then tries to scoot past the old man as he follows Anna. “Oops. Sorry.” He says as he squeezes by.

Proton, however, does look inquisitive. Thinking to himself as his eyes glance from the exit to the old man. “What’s your game here, old man?” He bluntly asks. “You show up at that guy’s workplace and seem pretty okay with him just plucking that device off of you.” 

Hubba smiles a little, walking over to the one window, speaking to Proton without facing him. “Well. I've done a lot of traveling in my day and traveling makes both friends and enemies. This isn't even the first time I lost those cards, some kind folk got them back for me but I realized. Those kind folk weren't always going to save my skin. So, I picked up tinkerin’.” He gestures towards a workbench filled with old tools and wood. “Made that with a little bit of stuff I found on my wanderin’. A lot of steel and a lot of time.” 

“So shouldn't you be more upset that it isn't you wielding that? It has a lot of power. The wrong person could lead to disaster.” Proton responds, looking at him and the items on the table with continuing curiosity.

“I know what I know, boy. And let's just say telling you would probably do more harm than good.” He then just goes to a table and sits down calmly.

“Riiiight.” Proton says, shooting the old man a glare through his screen, all the while just standing there silently. 

“Well. That's all the time I think I have right now. You should probably go follow them. You'll get more out of that book than me.” Hubba then laughs to himself as Proton rolls his eyes and leaves, unamused and just as clueless as when he entered. Proton keeps this place’s location in mind for later. Whether the old man likes it or not, guidance is needed in a situation like this.

 

Anna and Flynn walk into a familiar spot. The USAnything living quarters, entering from the exact spot Hubba left when Flynn overexerted himself. Anna then sets the book on the nearby table while Flynn looks curiously behind them. “Well…What’s even in that book?” Flynn says, almost shutting the door before Proton came in. “Crap. Sorry.” 

“This! Is Hubba’s travel diary. Has all the stuff from his travels. He read it to me a few times when I was little.” She opens it up and starts flipping through the pages. They were old and tattered with clear signs of use and wear. Many sketches adorned pages showing many spectacular things. Dragons, armies and people rising from cards.

“He’s a hell of an artist for an old man.” Flynn says looking on with intrigue. “So if he’s your grandpa, are you from here?” He then goes along a trail of questions. “And that thing said your name was…Bullion. Do I have one of those names? I thought they were all just Kamen Rider. And what about those bastards who keep chasing us. I think after what happened with Charles, I deserve to know-.”

“Here.” She stops him and points to a certain part of the book. “I remember this one. Right before he sorta disappeared for a bit, he found this.” It was a sketch of what looked like a battle. An armored figure was facing a bizarre looking cloud of sort that brandished several weapons. “Ahem…” she clears her throat before reading an excerpt from the book. 

“I came across a strange mural in my travels. I did not know its origin but it intrigued me. A massive stone mural that I hadn’t ever seen before in this Outrealm with words of mystery underneath. ‘A hero of iron shall emerge from steel. Bearing gifts of discovery, trust and heart. They shall fight against grand forces and shall arise in victory or bitter defeat. All will depend on their will and soul.’ I don't know why but I feel one day I may play a part in whatever this is talking about.” 

“Okay…” Flynn says, throwing his hands up in the air. “What's that mean? What does a hero of iron mean?” 

“My best guess is that the belt makes the ‘hero of iron’. Which is now, thanks to several things, you.” She replies then thumbing through the pages that were after that one. They were new, filled with pages upon pages of things she'd never seen in the book before. She then just takes a deep exhale and hands it over to Flynn. “It's probably best if you have this. Best way for you to catch up on what you don't know.”

“Thanks?” He awkwardly says, taking the book and looking through it himself a little before just holding it, casually moving it around in his hands before just putting it in his coat pocket. 

Proton then simply sits in a chair and thinks. “Well. Now that we’re back here, we should double check your cleaning job.” 

“You guys can do that. I'm going to buy myself something with…” He looks into his wallet and notices something missing almost instantly. He turns to Anna with a false smile. “Heeey, Anna. Did you take five dollars from my wallet?” 

She chuckles a bit. “Yeah. I'll pay you back. Consider it an exchange for help. After all, I don't think we know each other well enough for free work.”

Flynn scowls at her. For someone he finds pretty, she sure has been plucking at his nerves. But with something this important, he supposes that five dollars is worth otherworldly information. “You better at least pay me back, then. I ain't a charity worker either.”

The two mutually chuckle at each other as the day winds down, Flynn personally hoping this makes the battles ahead easier.

Notes:

Special thanks to all my Beta Readers.