Episode 5: Fuel to the Flames

The Flame Dopant stood atop a large tower by the Ardent City water front, he tapped his fingers on the metal of the tower as he took in a deep breathe.

“What exactly are your planning,” Derek said as he appeared behind him, “Flame.”

“Ah, Commander Fury,” Flame said with a smirk, “I am simply doing as you instructed, taking care of Subject X as I see fit.”

“Last I checked, informing the target on the base properties of a memory was not as instructed,” Derek stated, “Mind telling me exactly why you did that?”

“To give him a bit of intrigue,” Flame returned, “I needed to allow him to think he has the edge, otherwise it won't be much fun at all. Call it 'baiting the trap' if you will.”

“Are you sure he'll act as you predict?” Derek asked raising an eyebrow.

“Trust me, he will,” Flame proclaimed crossing his arms and looking over the city, “Or I'll go to him.” He added as he let out a small maniacal laugh, “Prepare yourself X, your world will soon be but a smoldering ash in the pit of a roaring blaze.”

{Insert Opening Theme - Xtreme Dream}

“Alright, so let me see if I have this,” Sampson said looking over a stack of notes, “So all memories have an elemental base, is strongest against one but weakest against another sort of like a game of rock paper scissors. Is that right?” Sampson asked looking over to Alex.

“Pretty much,” Alex said from the other side of Sampson's office “That's what the Flame guy said at least. Steel is weak against fire, and that's why my sword just phased right through him.”

“Well it seems to me that the it all goes around in one big loop,” Sampson proclaimed, “if steel is the weakest against fire then all we to do is...”

“Is find a memory that has a element base that's the strongest against fire,” Marcoh stated as he walked into the room.

“Yeah, that's what I was going to say,” Sampson chuckled.

“Alright, but what would that base be?” Alex asked crossing his arms and looking towards the ceiling, “More importantly, how many different bases are there?”

“Not sure of the second part,” Marcoh began, “But the first should be obvious.”

“How do you mean?” Alex stood puzzled.

“Well, what does a fireman use to put out a fire?” Marcoh asked.

Alex thought for a second “... Water!” he snapped.

“Exactly,” Marcoh said back to him, “Do you have one?”

“Well, I don't... think so,” Alex said as he searched through his pockets.

“Hold on Alex,” Sampson said getting up from his desk, “How many memories do you have anyway?”

“Hm, let's see...” Alex thought counting his fingers, “Star, runner, blade, kicker, blast and...” Alex's eyes widened, “Diver!” Alex reached into his pocket and pulled out the diver memory and shoved it into Marcoh's face, “Water!”

Marcoh took the memory from Alex and held it in front of his face, “Well, it looks like what we need. How does it work?”

“Well... I don't know actually,” Alex said hanging his head.

Marcoh raised an eyebrow and his eyes widened, “How can you not know?”

“Well, I've never used it,” Alex explained as he pulled out Star and Runner, “Star and Runner are the ones I use the most often. With Star's skills in hand-to-hand and combat and Runner's speed it's almost like a default of sorts,” Alex placed the two memories on Sampson's desk next to Diver.

“I see,” “and what about the two you used in that fight against the previous Dopant?”

Alex pulled out Blade and Kicker, “Blade is basically just an armor and weapon attachment. Even with it's heavy armor it's still highly maneuverable in close quarters. Now although it will work with any of the three left sided memories, it seems to have a rather strong connection to Kicker specifically. It can definitely take a beating alright. Though it does have it's draw backs, what with it's maximum drive not being very efficient and all.”

“and what of Blast?” Marcoh asked.

“Blast adds a gun and armor designed for increased accuracy,” Alex explained, “Yet it does have a rather interesting feature to it.”

“How so?” Marcoh asked raising an eyebrow.

“The shots it fires seem to vary depending on the memory it's patterned with,” Alex proclaimed, “When paired with Runner it simply fires burst of some form of energy, however with Kicker it doubles as a grappling hook.”

“Then it should be that with Diver, it possibly might be a water based round or something along those lines,” Sampson said examining the Diver memory.

“That might be true, but there's still one thing that's still bothering me,” Marcoh said turning to Alex, “Why didn't you try every possible combination to figure out what all these memories did with one another?” Marcoh growled.

“It...” Alex thought for a second “uh?”

“Never occurred to you?” Marcoh retorted.

Alex simply nodded back.

“Thought so,” Marcoh sighed.

“Marcoh,” Sampson interrupted.

“Yes chief?” Marcoh returned.

“Go easy on him,” Sampson returned with his usual smirk, “It's not like he planned to lead this life.”

“Alright, I'll just run these notes by information and we'll get back to this after lunch,” Marcoh said picking up his notes and heading for the door.

“Alright then, sounds good,” Sampson said lying back in at his desk a bit, “Oh, and Marcoh.”

“Yes chief?” Marcoh looked back.

“Leave the boys name out of it,” Sampson instructed, “We wouldn't want any... unneeded attention from the higher ups.”

“Right, understood,” Marcoh said as he left the room, closing the door behind him.

“Um... unwanted attention?” Alex tilted his head.

“Oh it's nothing really,” Sampson stated, “it would just be far to complicated if the higher ups found out that we had a high school student working with us.”

“But, what about that freelancer badge you gave me?” Alex asked.

“That only covers on field work and your identity as...” Sampson sat up in his chair, “come to think of it, we haven't even decided on a name yet have we?”

“A... name?” Alex stumbled.

“Every hero needs a name,” Sampson stated.

Alex stood puzzled, “What, you mean like Batman?”

“Well, not that exactly but-” Sampson began to explain as Alex's phone began to ring.

“Uh, could you hold that thought?” Alex said answering the call.

“By all means,” Sampson gesturing in a way to signal Alex's freedom to pick up the call.

“Right, thanks,” Alex said stepping out into the hall. Alex stepped out into the hall and closed the door to Sampson's office behind him. He then flipped open his phone and hit the pick up button.

“Hello, this Alex,” He said into the phone.

“Dude, where the hell are you?!” Cole shouted from the other end of the line.

“Uh... hi Cole,” Alex said pulling the phone away from his ear.

“Don't 'hi' me!” Cole yelled back “What time do you think it is? You just woke up didn't you? You know just because it's the weekend, that doesn't mean that you can just lie in bed all day.”

“Wait, back up a bit...” Alex said looking up at the ceiling, “what are you going on about?”

“Oh my god, you didn't actually forget did you?” Cole scowled, “Remember that movie you wanted to see, with the one night screening? Fuwella Maggie or something?”

Alex's eyes widen, “Oh crap, Madoka!”

“Yeah that, well it starts in about an hour so you better get down here,” Cole said looking around, “Seems to be selling out rather quickly though.”

Alex ran for the door of the station “Crap, we might not-”

“Don't worry, I picked up the tickets in advance,” Cole stated.

“Oh... that's a relief,” Alex said stopping in his tracks, “Thanks Cole, glad to have someone as reliable as you for a friend.”

“Hey, one of has to be,” Cole retorted.

“Oh shut up,” Alex snarked back at him.

“Alright,” Cole chuckled, “just get down here already.”

“Will do,” Alex said looking over to Sampson's office, “Just need to tie up something over here.”

Cole chuckled, “K, see ya.”

“Yeah, later,” Alex said clicking the hang up button on his phone and putting it into his pocket.

Alex walked over to Sampson's office.

“Hey, Sampson?” Alex asked as he stepped into the doorway of the office.

“Yes, Alex?” Sampson returned.

“I kind of made plans for today and... um...” Alex mumbled.

“You were wondering if you could go hang out with friends at the cinema, correct?” Sampson said completing the rest of Alex's question.

“Um... yeah,” Alex said hanging his a bit.

“Sure, go a head,” Sampson said with a grin, “We can handle the rest of the investigation from here, after all we still have another twenty hours or so until our fire friend comes looking for you. We'll have something figured out by then.”

“Okay, thanks!” Alex shouted running out the front door of the station.

Sampson shouted back to Alex as he ran out the door, “You're welcome.”

--- Alex burst through the front doors of the theater and ran down to where Cole was waiting for him. He hunched over his knees panting rapidly.

Cole rolled his eyes slightly, “About time you got here.”

“Sorry about that,” Alex said catching his breathe, “I got held up a bit.”

“I see...” Cole said handing Alex his ticket, “Now come on, the movie is going to start soon.”

“Alright, great.” Alex grabbed the ticket with a grin and ran into the cinema, “You are going to love this one.”

“This isn't another one of your weird anime shows is it?” Cole asked walking after him.

Alex stopped for a second and stared at Cole, “... no, of course not... What would give you that idea?”

“Just checking,” Cole said as the two walked into the black room of the theater.

Alex charged into the theater, “Madoka!”

{End of Part A}

{Star of Part B}

Alex and Cole walked out of the theater along with the huge crowd of people that saw the movie with them.

“Man, that last bit makes me cry every time,” Alex said whipping his eyes, “Well, wasn't that awesome?”

Cole stood confused for a second, “Um... well.”

“Well what?” Alex asked.

“Well... it was definitely something,” Cole returned nodding his head slowly. “Something?” Alex asked raising an eyebrow, “Madoka Magica is perfection through and through, there's not a single wrong with it. Go a head, try.”

Cole stopped, “... Why does everyone have rainbow hair?”

Alex thought for a second, “That's just anime, it's all-”

“A what was with that creepy rat looking thing?” Cole continued, “and why didn't green hair do anything aside from being bitch? And how was black hair able to jump from one part of a room to another without moving? And-”

“Okay, I get it!” Alex exclaimed, “Although that last one did get an explaination, you really got learn to read more.”

“Oh yeah, you're one to talk aren't you,” Cole retorted, “Honestly though, why do you like this kind of stuff anyway?”

“Because, I find it inspiring,” Alex explained, “It's stuff like Madoka that helps me remember that even when it feels like the whole world is against you, as long as you have hope things will work out in the end.”

Cole raised an eyebrow, “Modeka helps you see that?”

“It's Madoka,” Alex corrected him, “and yes. You say I've got to grow up a bit, but you're the one that needs to open their mind up a bit.”

“Uh huh,” Cole sighed, “Well, that does make sense. You're always getting strange interpretations from anything. I swear, I'll just never get you.”

“I'm not really asking you to,” Alex said taking in a deep breathe.

At that moment Alex's cell phone began to ring.

“Hm,” Alex said as he pulled out his phone and answered it, “Hello?”

“Alex,” Marcoh said from the other end of the line, “We just figured out a way to deal with Flame.”

“Oh, I see,” Alex returned.

“We're just unsure of one little thing,” Marcoh stated, “We need you to come down to the station for to verify if what we have in mind will work.

“Alright, I'll be right there,” Alex said hanging up his phone, “Uh, Cole... Something just came up so I, uh...”

“You need to take care of it?” Cole asked.

“Um, yeah,” Alex said hanging his head, “I'm sorry.”

“It's okay,” Cole said patting Alex on the shoulder, “Just don't get yourself into too much trouble, okay?”

“Alright, I won't,” Alex said brushing off Cole's hand as he began to run down the road.

“See yah,” Cole shouted down the road.

“Yeah later,” Alex shouted back.

--- Alex burst into Sampson's office where Sampson and Marcoh were waiting patiently for him to arrive.

“About time,” Marcoh stated.

“Uh... sorry,” Alex said hanging his head in shame, “I ran down here as fast as I-”

“That's not important right now,” Sampson interrupted, “After all, we still have a lot of work to do before tomorrow.”

“Right,” Alex said standing back up right.

“Now then Alex,” Marcoh began, “I'm going to need your full cooperation for this.”

--- The next day, Flame stood looking over the water front.

“So... today's the day,” He said with a smirk, “X should be arriving anytime now.”

Small footsteps filled the air.

“and there he is,” Flame said turning to face Alex who walked up behind him, “I trust you followed my advice?”

Alex simply nodded.

Flame returned with a smirk, “Good...” He pulled out a red memory and held it in front of Alex, “Now then, shall we?”

“Flame!” The memory called out as Flame hit the button.

Alex pulled out the Star and Runner memories and slammed them into his driver as Flame rammed his memory into his wrist.

“Star! Runner!” The driver called out as the respective armor formed around Alex and his opponent was engulfed in fire.

Alex leapt into the air and threw himself forward with a single punch ramming himself straight through the Flame Dopant. He then threw a round house kick towards the Dopant's face which followed with a back kick to the spine of his opponent.

“You've got moves kid,” Flame stated recovering from the blow and cracking his neck, “but this ain't a dance off.”

“Well, let's try something else then,” Alex said as he removed the Star and Runner memories from his driver and replaced them with Blade and Kicker.

“Blade! Kicker!” The driver called out as the Star Runner armour was replaced with Blade Kicker's and the Blajaliber formed in his hand.

“Will he ever learn?” Flame thought shaking his head, “I already told you that's not going to-”

Before he could finish Alex tore through Flame's blaze with a single kick, and arm fell limp.

Flame gawked at Alex in shock and then returned to his signature smirk, “Interesting, what exactly did you do to me back there?”

“Simple,” Alex said returning to his feet, “While Blade is ineffective against fire based memories, it's counter part is. After I looked into, I discovered that the best possible way to fight your blaze was to weaken it. That's where Kicker comes in, it's elemental base is wood.”

Flame chuckled at the explanation, “Wouldn't wood only feed my flame and make it stronger?”

“Yes,” Alex returned, “But it still has to dedicate it's energy in order to digest it.” Alex said as he removed the Blade and Kicker memories from his driver, “Which is where part two comes in.” He added as he pulled out Blast and Diver and slammed them into the slots.

“Blast! Diver!” The driver called out as the Blast armour formed around Alex along with teal leg armour and flippers materialized from the feet.

“Your rampage...” Alex said as he slammed the Blast memory into his blaster, “ends here,”

“Blast! Maximum Drive!” The memory called out as it began to charge.

Alex pulled back on the trigger as a big blast of water shot out of the barrel, “Diving Blast Charge!” He shouted as Flame was engulfed by the blast of water and pushed over the docks.

“Good move kid...” Flame whispered as he fell into the water and his fires went out, “You've earned my respect.”

--- Moments later, Sampson and his team had arrived on the scene and were loading Flame into the back of a patrol car.

Sampson was standing by Alex who had deactivated his driver, “Good work Alex, glad to see we can count on you.”

“Thank you sir,” Alex said bowing his head a bit. He looked around for a second “Hey, where's Marcoh?”

“Paperwork,” Sampson returned.

“For?” Alex asked raising an eyebrow.

“For why the research lab was flooded,” Sampson said with a slight chuckle.

“I see,” Alex nodded back.

“Oh, that reminds me,” Sampson said slapping Alex on the back, “I figured a name for you.”

“Oh, yeah... that,” Alex sighed, “Look sir, no offense but-”

“Hear me out, this is a good one,” Sampson said stretching his arm out to the sky, “Kamen Rider.”

“Uh... Common Rider?” Alex tilted his head, “What exactly does that-”

“It's a name given to a hero who will defend the peace and fight for justice,” Sampson interrupted, “Well, that's what she said anyway.”

“She?” Alex pondered, “Oh, you mean my mother right?”

“Yep,” Sampson said.

“Hm,” Alex thought for a second, “I like it... Kamen Rider.”

--- “So Flame was defeated?” Vainglory asked as he took in a deep breathe.

“Yes, Commander,” Derek said hanging his head.

“It seems that I have misjudged you,” Vainglory sighed while tapping his fingers along the side of his arm rest, “Although, subject X has proven himself rather capable. Spite, Fury.”

“Yes Commander?” the two said in unison.

“The two of you are to no longer engage subject X in battle,” Vainglory stated.

“But...why?” Rylee asked.

“He may prove to be far more valuable than we first thought,” Vainglory explained, “Be sure to keep a close watch on him.”

“Sir, I must advise-” Rylee mumbled before getting cut off.

“Do you doubt my judgement Spite?” Vainglory questioned.

“N-no sir,” Rylee returned.

Vainglory smirked “I thought you wouldn't.”

Gaia Memories

 * ​Memory Used
 * Soul - Star, Blast
 * Body - Runner, Diver
 * Half Changes:
 * StarRunner, BlastDiver