A few moments before...
Back at the apartment, Aqua was sitting in front of the TV, watching Ai's concert live. His face was smiling, admiring Ai's performance and her singing. It was beautiful to him. "The president sure is a crazy guy. If Ai's secret is exposed, he risks losing everything. Still, I get it. There's no way to not go crazy around her. In front of an excessively intense light, people can but get scorched. They are like moths drawn to a flame. Even upon realizing their wings will be singed off, they can't stop."
Aqua then added, "And of course, I'm no exception. I'm glad I'm able to watch over Ai from so close. So much so that I'm even grateful to that guy who murdered me. Should this rebirth happen to be a miracle about the many obsessions toward her, it would make total sense to me."
Aqua then turned to the side wondering about something. "Though, the truth is that I just wanted to help her give birth to normal children. It's a force majeure. You can't compete against supernatural phenomena. So I'm going to enjoy myself."
But then suddenly, Ruby was awoken by the noise of the TV. She sat up only to see her twin brother watching the TV. Aqua even turned to her. Ruby looked at the TV and spoke up, "N Station already started! Why didn't you wake me up?!" She then crawled out of her crib and sat next to Aqua, much to his dismay. "Oh my god, Mama's just too cute! All the viewers should pay 100 million yen for this!"
Ruby admired everything about her mom. "Her expressiveness when she turns is outta this world! It's so eerie, she's like an oni! My gosh! I just had a diaper change but I feel like I'm gonna wet myself! She has a great face, great figure, and her singing is excellent too! Our mom is seriously a tremendous talent! I've gotta go back and watch the recording ASAP!"
Ruby then turned to her brother with a pouty face, "Live broadcasts are best watched in real time, so why didn't you get me up?! This body of mine always gets so tired, so we should help each other out!"
Aqua sweat dropped at her demand, "I tried waking you up a number of times."
Ruby widened her eyes, "Oh, you did?"
Aqua looked at her weirdly. He found out that her dummy sister is also someone who's been reborn like him. He ended up realizing that quite early on one night. He and Ai were sleeping in bed until he got woken up by a sudden noise. When he checked what's going on, he discovered that Ruby was on twitter, ranting angrily about the negative tweets about Ai. And just like that, they both knew they could talk, but didn't know who they were in their previous lives.
Then, before Ruby could rewind her recording, the live broadcast continued. Showing the events that are happening there. A monster had broken into the building and many loud screams can be heard from the TV. Aqua and Ruby were speechless on what's happening
"Huh?" Miyako woke up from the couch behind them. "What's that racket?" She looked over to the TV and was also horrified. "What are you two watching?! Wait..this is live?" She muttered to herself.
Miyako then got her phone and dialed Ichigo's number, "Please pick up, pick up." But to no avail. The two twins looked at Miyako nervously.
'I- I'm sure this is all part of the performance right?' Aqua thought to himself. That is until they heard many people from the broadcast yelling Ai's name. They turned to see what's about to happen. Until a certain pair of individuals came in to save the night.
G-G-G-GOTCHARGIC BUSTER!
VALVARAD BREAK!
SKEBOWS!
APPAREBUSHIDO!
GOTCHANKO!
APPARESKEBOW!
VALAVARA BREAK!
APPAREBUSHIDO FEVER!
The three of them were stunned to see what just happened. So they just waited out to see what's next.
"Ore wa Kamen Rider Gotchard! This is my new teammate Valvarad."
"No I'm not dammit!"
"Kamen Rider?" Miyako spoke up.
'What's that?' Ruby thought to herself
'Who is that...he sounds familiar...' Aqua thought to himself.
Back in the present...
Gotchard and Valvarad left the scene and stopped in an empty area at a nearby park. They both then reverted back to their human forms. As Sherwin finally changed back, Ryan instantly grabbed Sherwin by the collar. "Oi! What do you mean that I'm your new teammate?!"
Sherwin tries to reason with him. "W-What? I'm just saying that we are. I mean we are trying to look for Malgams and save the Chemies right?"
Ryan scoffed at his reason. "You're immature and reckless. You don't even know the real reason why I'm hunting the Chemies. They're just tools that needs to be put down and sealed."
Sherwin was taken back by Ryan's remark. A little upset that he calls the Chemies just tools. "Hey they aren't tools! They're living creatures. You shouldn't treat them like that."
Ryan scoffs again, not convinced by Sherwin's naivety. "You don't know anything then. You're not even supposed to have the Chemy Cards in the first place." Ryan then tries to grab a hold of his Chemy Card holder.
But then Sherwin grabbed his arm to stop him, "Hey stop it! What are you doing?!" He yelled in anger.
"Things like these aren't supposed to be in the hands of a novice." Ryan told him.
"Let go!" Sherwin tries to push him off but Ryan doesn't not let up. Instead, Ryan then punched Sherwin in the gut, knocking the wind out of him and causing him to drop on his knees. Ryan then used the opportunity to open Sherwin's Chemy Card holder and took Venomdake, Kamantis, Odoroippa, Apparebushido and Skebows Chemy Cards.
"No...give 'em back." Sherwin grumbled in pain on the ground.
Ryan then walked away until he looked back at Sherwin one more time, "I don't know where you got that driver and these cards, but you shouldn't have them. They are properties from the Alchemy Academy" Ryan then walked off with his Valvarusher in hand and the cards he stole.
Sherwin just watches him walk away until he slowly goes unconscious again.
30 minutes later...
Sherwin gasped for air as he woke up from unconsciousness. He looked around to see where Ryan went. "Huh? Wha- Where?!" Then he remembered something. "The Chemies!" Sherwin opened up his Chemy holder only to see the other Chemies were gone, with him only having Hopper-1, Steamliner and Golddash.
Sherwin punched the ground in frustration, seeing that his Chemy friends were taken by someone he doesn't know. "How could I be so reckless?! I really am a failure...I can't save my friends...I can't even protect the Chemies I saved...I'm not fit to be a rider..."
Before Sherwin could continue ranting, his phone starts to ring. He checked it out to see who it's from, only to see it's Ai. She's calling Sherwin. Sherwin picks up the call.
"Hello?"
"Sherwin? Where are you? The president's wife told us that you went out to get food. But you're out a for a while. Did something happen?"
"Huh? O-Oh, yeah. Sorry I couldn't get food. Everywhere else was closed. I'm coming back, don't worry."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure. See you soon" Sherwin then hangs up as he makes his way back to the apartment.
Later...
Sherwin has arrived back at the apartment. As he entered, Ai rushed to him, looking oddly worried about him. "Sherwin? Are you okay? Did that monster harm you too?"
Sherwin sweatdropped as he knows what she's talking about but they all do not know that he's Kamen Rider Gotchard. "Huh? W-What monster?"
"Some monsters broke in and tried to kill us all. But two armored guys came in and stopped them." Ichigo explained.
"Sounds like a bad anime" Sherwin opined.
"But it's true! Ah...this is bad for my agency..." Ichigo stated. He looked so worried while Ai finally became fine and is sitting on the couch with Ruby and Aqua.
"Anyway..." Sherwin changed the subject, "Maybe they're just actors who got into their roles too much that caused collateral damage?"
"That's nonsense!" Ichigo yelled.
"I'm just spitballing here. What's done is done. No one was hurt right?" Sherwin asked. This triggered Ichigo even more.
"No one's hurt?! My agency is hurt! Strawberry Productions is toast. What's worse is that Ai was almost killed!"
Ai laughed confidently, "It's fine president! I'm totally fine! I'm really strong!"
Sherwin smiled a little bit at Ai's statement. "Heh...yeah. Anyway, I'm going to head off to bed. You guys do what you gotta do for the night. See you in the morning." Sherwin heads off to his bedroom. As he entered, he went to lie down on his futon and quickly drift off to sleep.
In the dreamworld...
Sherwin opened his eyes to see himself in a whiteless void. He looked around to see if anyone else was with him. "Hello? Is anyone there? Where am I?"
But all of a sudden, his head starts to hurt. Sherwin groaned in pain as his head started spinning and even started to hear noises, "No! No! Stop it!"
"Sherwin go! Get out of here!"
"Mother...Father..."
"Goodbye Sherwin..."
"Sarina..."
"I'm sorry Sherwin..."
"Doc..."
Different figures started to appear in front of him. He looked up to see multiple of them. He doesn't know who the rest are but he recognised one of them; Valvarad.
"You! Give me back my cards!" Sherwin then charged towards Valvarad to tackle him down, but only to phase through him. "Huh?"
His head starts to hurt again and multiple scenes of his pasts begin to flash. Scenes of an explosion, his Chemies getting stolen by Valvarad, a very familiar building, screams of terror. "No, No! Get out of my head!"
Then, sounds of unfamiliarity began to play in his mind, hurting him more. "Agh!"
IGNITE!
FIRE!
Shuppatsu shinko!
PLATINUM!
RAINBOW!
"AGH! AAAAAAAHHH!"
In the real world...
Sherwin jolted out of bed in fear. He starts hyperventilating until he finally calms down. As he calmed down, he turned to see Ai, Ruby and Aqua sleeping soundly next to him. He just stared at them before he got up and left the room in the middle of the night.
As he got up, he didn't realize that Aqua woke up as he heard Sherwin jolted awake from bed. He slowly got up and secretly followed Sherwin to the living room. When Sherwin arrived and sat on the couch, Aqua hid behind the wall to observe him.
'Sherwin...what's going on with you...' Aqua thought to himself.
He kept on observing until he saw Sherwin take out a weird looking rectangular device and a belt, including a trading card with a grasshopper picture on it. 'Hm..what are those things...' He kept on observing until he saw something unbelievable. The grasshopper picture from the card jumped out of the card, revealing its physical form. Aqua's eyes widened from witnessing this for the first time. 'What the...a grasshopper?!' He thought to himself in surprise.
"Hopper.."
"I don't know Hopper-1...I wanna save them but I don't know what to do." Sherwin stated.
'Hopper-1? That's its name?' Aqua wondered.
"I don't even think I'm worthy to be a rider..." Sherwin said depressingly.
'Rider? Wait...that armored guy on tv...was Sherwin?' Aqua hypothesizes it. Using that information to link what he saw on the broadcast of Ai's performance.
"Hopper! Hop Hopper!"
Sherwin sighs, understanding his first friend. "I know...Sarina and Doc wouldn't want me to be like this...I just miss them...I failed them..."
'Sherwin...'
"Hopper! Hopper!"
"You're right...We gotta find them. We'll have to go now if we don't want the others to suspect anything while they're asleep." Sherwin planned, not noticing that Aqua's been eavesdropping everything.
Sherwin went on to wear his driver onto his waist and geared up with his Chemy Card holder and putting his weapons into his bag. "Hopper-1, Steamliner, Golddash, let's go." Sherwin headed off to the front door and left the apartment without knowing Aqua's presence in the room.
Outside...
Sherwin as Gotchard went on patrol to find Valvarad while riding on Golddash.
"Dash?"
"Almost there Golddash. According to the blank cards I have, it's lighting up brighter as we head to this direction, which means a Chemy is close by." said Gotchard as he held up the blank Chemy Card while driving.
He kept on driving till they stumbled upon an old warehouse. He looked at the blank card to see it shining brightly. "Hm...this is the place I guess. Looks...eerie." He hopped off Golddash and returned it back to its card. He cautiously walks into the old warehouse.
He walked and walked till he heard a rummaging sound coming from one corner behind a bunch of old equipment. He slowly walks to them and even takes out the Gotchard Gun just in case. He finally arrived at the origin of the sound but he was shocked to see a woman tied up, struggling to be free.
The woman saw Gotchard and started to panic. Gotchard held his hands in defense, "Wait, wait. Ma'am I'm not going to hurt you." Gotchard peeled off the tape off her mouth.
"Please...don't hurt me." She pleaded with tears forming from her eyes. "Don't worry. I'm here to save you." Gotchard assured her as he took out the Gotchartornado and cut her free from the ropes.
"Phew...thank you, uh"
"Kamen Rider Gotchard. How did you wind up here? Being tied up and all?" Gotchard asked her.
"Someone I sort of know kidnapped me for no reason. I already paid him all of my debts but he just wants to harass me and my family. I was spending time with my daughter and husband till this monster came in and grabbed me." She explained.
"Monster...a Malgam then..." Gotchard muttered.
Before any of them could speak, the woman saw a figure behind Gotchard. "Watch out!" Gotchard turned to see the figure behind him but was knocked to the side before he could react. Gotchard stumbled and painfully got up to realize the figure who knocked him aside was Valvarad.
"Valvarad?!"
"The amateur rider? What are you doing here?" Valvarad asked him.
"I'm trying to save her and find you so I can get my cards back! But I guess you gotta do lowly things like kidnapping this woman huh?!" Gotchard yelled in assumption which made Valvarad angry and confused.
"Huh? You thought I kidnapped her? I don't know who she is. I only came here because I discovered a Chemy around this area." Valvarad corrected him.
"That's right...it wasn't him who kidnapped me."
"Then who is?" Gotchard muttered.
Suddenly a laugh and a few hand claps were heard, getting closer to them. They turned to see a random man in a suit approaching them. "Well, well, well, I never thought two idiots in cosplays would come to save her."
"Who are you?" asked Gotchard.
"Please! I already paid you all the debts. Why won't you leave me alone?!" the woman demanded an answer.
"Because I want you darling." the man answered.
The woman shuddered in disgust while Gotchard and Valvarad prepared their battle stance. "You won't do anything bad to her! Stop this now and surrender!" Gotchard demanded.
"Oh no, you will be the ones to surrender." The man revealed a Chemy card in his hand.
"Trooper!"
"A Chemy card?" Gotchard was surprised by the reveal
"The Antrooper Chemy..." Valvarad mentioned its name.
"Let darkness consume you...Agh!" dark smoke consumed his body as he chanted out, forming himself into a Malgam. The woman recognized that form as she backed away in fear. "That's the monster..."
"The Ants Malgam..." Valvarad muttered.
The Ants Malgam roared as it summoned multiple Ants Malgams as its foot soldiers. It pointed towards Gotchard and Valvarad, roaring at them as a command to attack them.
The foot soldiers charged at the two and surrounds them. Gotchard sends out kicks and punches to create some distance between him and the foot soldiers. Valvarad slashes each of them one by one and even fires at them with his Valvarusher.
With each slash and blast, Valvarad was able to make an escape and run towards the Ants Malgam, leaving Gotchard to be overwhelmed by the rest of the foot soldiers. "Agh! Get off me!" He took out the Gotchard Gun and fired at them one by one.
Valvarad was fighting with the Ants Malgam. He slashed the Valvarusher at the Malgam but the Ants Malgam clashed with its sharp wing blade on its left arm. As their clashing, the Ants Malgam spoke up, "You're not gonna help your buddy? He's getting overwhelmed there."
Valvarad looked at Gotchard while fighting, witnessing him being overwhelmed by the amount of foot soldiers. One of them even grabbed Gotchard and threw him to a nearby pillar, causing him to fall on his back painfully. Valvarad scoffs at the Malgam's question, "Hmph, he's not my buddy. He's an amateur who doesn't know what he's doing."
Gotchard was in pain but he still carried on to fight. Throwing a punch and more kicks, dealing real damage to the foot soldiers. "I won't give in! I will keep on fighting! Even if it means sacrificing my own life!"
Hearing this made Valvarad remember something from his past.
"Sensei! I will train really hard! I'll keep on fighting even if I have to sacrifice my own life!"
"I know you will, I have all my faith in you..."
When Valvarad remembered this, he snapped out of his thoughts as the Ants Malgam used the opportunity and slashed Valvarad, sending him flying towards Gotchard, landing right on top of him. As they got up, Valvarad spoke up, "I don't really understand you, and there's a lot of things for you to learn. But you remind me of myself when I was younger."
"Really? How?" Gotchard asked.
"Later. Now focus on the fight. Here." Valvarad passed all of the Chemy Cards he stole from him, even giving him DeepMariner.
"Huh? What?"
"What are you waiting for? Change forms and let's send this guy to hell!" Valvarad ordered.
Gotchard finally understood the situation, "Right!" He then inserted VenomDake and DeepMariner into his driver.
VENOMDAKE!
DEEPMARINER!
He then pulled the two levers of his driver.
GOTCHANKO!
VENOMMARINER!
"I think I can do this!" Gotchard declared with determination as he fired torpedoes from his shoulders towards the foot soldiers.
A/N: Guess that rider reference.
Each foot soldier exploded on impact. The Ants Malgam saw this and was about to summon more until Gotchard saw this and used the opportunity to fire more torpedoes at it.
The Ants Malgam staggered backwards in pain. As it looks up, it sees Valvarad rushing towards it and has activated his finisher.
VALVARA BREAK!
Valvarad sends a powerful slash towards it, causing it to explode and yell in agony. As the dust clears, Gotchard, Valvarad and the woman see the man on the ground unconscious. Valvarad then saw the Antrooper Chemy card on the ground, he went on to pick it up and pass it to Gotchard. "Here, it'll be safe with you."
"Oh...uh thanks?" Gotchard replied.
The woman then spoke up, "Wait, what about him?"
"Call the police, they'll handle it. We're gonna head off." Valvarad explained. "It's best for us to not interfere with them. They might question us. You just tell them that two random citizens found you."
"Oh-Okay...Thank you again" the woman thanked them again as both Gotchard and Valvarad headed off. As they walked away from the warehouse, Gotchard spoke up, "So uh...we're good?"
"I guess...what you said earlier...you really did remind me of my old self." Valvarad mentioned what he said earlier.
"Yeah, what does that mean?" asked Gotchard.
"I was like you when I was younger. My sensei taught me a lot of things but then...an accident happened."
"Accident?"
"Yeah...there was a fire. Explosions...Malgams, Chemies running around, some turned into Malgams...I lost my sensei that day..." Valavarad explained.
When Valvarad mentioned all those things, Gotchard's head stung a bit. Causing him to revert back to human form. "Woah you good?" Valvarad asked.
"Yeah...it's just my memory is all fuzzy...I remembered something happened like that too. I lost my parents that day...and then everything went black. I remember a building with this symbol on it." Sherwin explained as he took out his phone and showed him a picture of the symbol.
Ryan's eyes widened, "I have not seen this in years..."
Sherwin was surprised to hear this, "Wait, you know this logo? I got this picture because it was on a package my father left me...right after I lost everything..."
"This symbol..." Ryan carefully said, "It's the symbol of the Alchemist Academy...and we're the only ones left."
"What?" Sherwin was mortified by that conclusion. To think him and Ryan are the only remnants remaining from his past.
Ryan then began to understand. He begins to link it together, "Then I guess you're from the academy too huh? Not only do you have that driver but also you understand the Chemies, which is only learned at this one academy."
"But how do you know about my driver?" Sherwin asked Ryan.
"My sensei and her friends were the one who constructed the driver, they were testing it along with the Chemies. That's all I know." Ryan explained.
The two stayed silent. Sherwin hoped there would be more to his past, but this is all he could get at the moment. "Well, something is better than nothing. Due to my fuzzy memory about my life before the accident...I still want to find out what happened. Also while finding the rest of the Chemies and protecting my family."
Ryan was confused when Sherwin said that. "You have a family?" At this age?"
"Hey, I'm 16, almost 17. I'm not that young." Sherwin got offended.
"And I'm 18, almost 19. So we're even. Besides, you're still reckless, judging from how you fought earlier. You're gonna need some help."
Sherwin liked the sound of that. "Wait, you wanna team up with me?"
This caused Ryan to laugh which confused Sherwin. "Team up? More like train you. You still have a lot to learn."
"Oh whatever dude. Still glad to have a team with you." Sherwin said as he held out his hand for a handshake.
Ryan groaned and shook his hand, hoping he won't regret this. And afterwards, the two left and went their separate ways.
Sherwin then arrived back at the apartment, slowly entering as it still sounds like everyone else is still asleep. He went back into the room and slept on the futon next to Ai, Ruby and Aqua. However, Aqua wasn't asleep, he knew Sherwin left the apartment to who knows where and did who knows what. He has a sneaking suspicion about him.
'Just what are you doing with your life, Sherwin...'
The next morning...
Ai, Aqua, Ruby, Miyako and Ichigo were already awake while Sherwin was still sleeping. Ai handed Aqua his bottle of milk and went on to breastfeed Ruby. This caused Ruby to look at her twin with a smug looking face as Aqua looked at her with jealousy.
Ichigo came up to Ai, reminding her that it is time to head off to work. Ai kissed their goodbyes yet still wondered why Sherwin is still asleep. She thought he'd be happy to see her in the morning, not still being asleep.
But there's no time for that as Ai and Ichigo head off for work as Miyako stays to take care of the twins.
A few minutes later, Sherwin finally got up and arrived in the living room, still looking groggy from sleep. But it wasn't till long for him to hear a knock on the door. Sherwin went on to answer it. He opened the door and did not expect to see who it was.
"Amateur alchemist, we meet again" It was Ryan.
"Ryan?!"