Up North

 GLASETERA

To the north of Whalestrand Point looms a castle. The word is a bit of an exaggeration, as the building is more of a half ruined keep than a true castle, though the gothic silhouette still cuts a dramatic figure for anyone who's ventured north of the city, looming over the terrain. There were many rumors among newcomers to Whalestrand as to the inhabitants of that castle, though the truth was, only two actually dwelled within.

Right now, one of them slams his hands on a table.

"Damn and blast!" shouts Wolfgang Clerval, semi-infamous mad scientist of Glasetera. The master of the castle, he primarily focused on biology, exploring the nature of the natural world. Contrary to many of the rumors about him, he was not fond of using living subjects, instead focusing his efforts primarily on autopsies and studying the mechanisms of death and decay.

Many of those rumors had stemmed from a single source, and that source approaches now, carrying a tray of tea.

"Good morning, sir!" Justine Lanchester says. As the servant of the castle, who often went into the city to run errands, she was by far the one people associated with it. And her bandages and skin made it clear; Justine was undead, a resurrected corpse brought back to life by the genius and technology of Wolfgang Clerval. Not that she seemed to mind, as she sets down the tray and looks over his work. "What's the problem this time?"

"Supplies. I used up twice as many fungi as I planned for. Utterly foolish of me. Perhaps we can manage..."

"I'll buy more." Justine says, no hesitation. 

"Are you certain? Your last trip was only four days ago."

"I am. Besides, there were a few things I wanted to do in town as well."

"Very well. I look forward to your return."

With that, Wolfgang turns back to his work, while Justine departs the castle. As she begins to drive a small van down the road to Whalestrand Point, though... there's a loud noise ahead of her. And then another. Stopping the engine, Justine leans out of the car and looks.

She's rewarded with an explosion nearby, a missile having hit the ground. The van shakes, and Justine yelps as she's thrown aside, looking up to see... a large mecha, stomping around.

The machine, known as Dagon, raises its massive hand as the missile pods on its shoulders smoke from their latest artillery round. It hasn't taken any notice of Justine, though, as it's much more focused on the ones that are directly battling it. 

"Haha, at least you've got firepower!"

Justine blinks, horribly confused. Is that... an angel? The woman certainly looks like one, and she's definitely capable of flight, but those are guns. A variety of assault rifles, glowing with energy, are pointing from her back, and the woman takes the chance to stop in the air. Her rifle-wings point at Dagon, and a powerful fusillade of bullets fires down upon the glowing teeth of the machine, which start to crack under the force. 

Dagon isn't going to take that lying down, though, and it swings up towards the air. A massive punch aims for the woman, but before it can hit, a sudden barricade of blocks appears in front of it, absorbing enough force that Dagon's punch slows down. One of those blocks falls down, a figure on top of it.

The Kamen Rider leaps off, aiming for Dagon in what seems like a Rider Kick. Dagon's ports open up, another barrage of missiles firing, only for a road of metal to appear under the Rider and him to start running on it, vanishing behind him as he finishes traveling it. As missiles approach him, the hailstorm of bullets intercept him, the angel shooting down the vast majority. A few of them go wild, impacting into the ground as the Rider lands on Dagon's shoulder.

He raises his hands, and in them, a wrench and a screwdriver appear, the Rider starting to deconstruct the missile port on one shoulder. Before Dagon can reload the other, the angel woman takes aim, shooting it apart, and between them, Dagon is left largely defenseless, unable to swat at them for fear of breaking itself apart.

Taking advantage of their perches, the Kamen Rider goes for a real Rider Kick, while the angel starts shooting - both at the base of the head. Dagon's head is blasted off, the lights going dark as the head flies through the air, the Rider and angel leaping towards it to catch it and bring it to a softer landing between them while the mech's body collapses backwards on the ground. 

As they land, they turn, and see an awestruck Justine for the first time. She closes her mouth.

"...Well, um. Thank you! I think. It's, uh. Good to meet you.

Apologies, I'm just a little discombobulated right now. Justine Lanchester. I live up there."

"It's cool, it's cool!" the angel woman says, the gun-wings and halo disappearing.

"Gabriella Fiocchi. Pleasure!"

The Kamen Rider nods as he also releases his altered form.

"X. Are you hurt?"

"No, no, I'm fine, thank you. ...Well, except for my van." Justine gestures over her shoulder - though it hadn't been struck directly, the van had been tossed around, and the engine was smoking. X nods, and Justine looks on in surprise as his arm cannon changes to a wrench head, X walking over to start working on repairing it for her.

While he does that, Justine turns to Gabriella. "So, what was that?"

"Archeotech. There's a bunch of ancient machines scattered over the world. Do you ever read the Kobber news?"

"I've started reading about them recently, yeah."

"Well, this isn't the first one to show up. I think they're all related, though... I don't know how they could be. They're all so different! It's interesting stuff, you should read it too!"

"Hmmm. Maybe I will... what brought you two out here, though?"

"Oh, well, we were just in the area, and..."

Gabriella trails off, Justine looking at her with a bit of suspicion. Before she can pursue it, though, X looks up from the van. "Engine's fixed. You'll need to get a mechanic to look it over, but this'll carry you to town." 

"Thank you!" Justine says, shaking X's hand. "I should probably get going, then. But, uh..." Looking at the separated head and body of Dagon, Justine winces. "Are you going to need help clearing that out?'

"Nah, we know a guy! It's cool." Gabriella says, X nodding in agreement. Justine shrugs as she climbs into the van. "Well, if you're sure. Thank you again! Hope to see you around!"

Justine drives off, and as she vanishes into the distance, Gabriella sighs.

"I really wish we hadn't let it get out of the cave. That would have saved a lot of trouble."

"Overall, no harm done. Let's call it in." X says, radioing out. "This is X. Dagon is down. The head was kept intact."

"Good work, my dear Neo Neos!" comes the voice over the line. "I'll have a chopper out to recover the head soon."

"And the body?"

"Not our problem. All the important data's in the head. Let the body sit there if they want it!" 

"Understood. X out."

On the other end of the line, Beck Gold grins as he lights a cigarette. He had been a little worried when he sent these two to recover the archeotech mecha and its prize - information. But here it was, hand-delivered to him. He had ideas for this... and once he had finished with his ideas, he knew exactly who would pay top dollar for it.

Oh, yes, everything was coming up Beck!