The contract has been sealed

The world is not as it should be,

It's filled with distortion,

and "ruin" can no longer be avoided,

Those who oppose fate and desire change…

From time to time, they were referred to as Tricksters.

He is the Trickster…

Now to rise against the abyss of distortion.

Kamen Rider Lupin: Phantom Joker

Prologue ?/?: How did this all start?

The city was in complete chaos, not that there had been a terrorist attack or anything of the sort. This was simply the natural state of a city this large, after all with more than thirteen and a half million individuals, it would difficult for the city to stay quiet.

Of course, amongst the chaos, one building stood out from the rest of the copy and paste office buildings, the Casino. Standing as tall as any other building in the metropolis, the casino was over two hundred and fifty meters of flashing neon lights and temptation.

But, by far the greatest chaos was about to erupt inside the monument to greed. Within the casino, everything seemed to be as it should be, people were gambling away their hard earned money and pretty waitress were constantly supplying them with alcohol to keep them gambling. However, for the briefest moment, all was not as it should be.

For just a moment, the lights flickered and swayed. In that instant, all the merriment in the place was replaced by fear as patrons looked to the ceiling to see a figure, shrouded in shadows leaping from light to light.

One of the patrons managed to see the figure, a tall slender man in a dark grey dress shirt, black pants, shoes and a flowing black tailcoat. His dark form was broken up by his crimson gloves and white mask. Upon realizing he'd been seen, the man merely smiled at the terrified woman before leaping to the next lighting fixture.

As he moved and the guards mobilized, he heard a voice speaking in his ear. "Good. Now keep moving," the voice was young-sounding and boyish. The intruder continued on as his allies continued to talk.

"This is your only chance!" a young man added, prompting little more than a nod from the masked man.

"Stay calm! You can get away now!" a younger girl assured, putting a smile on his face.

"We'll retrieve the briefcase on our end." another, older girl added matter-of-factly.

"...Suspects...not...confirmed...hold...your...positions…" the thief stopped dead in his tracks at the intercepted transmission. After a moment of hesitation, the thief shook his head and kept moving.

"Hm...? What was that?" the younger girl questioned, putting slight worry in the thief's mind.

"Don't worry about us. Just concentrate on getting away!" the young man called over the radio, the thief gritted his teeth and obeyed, continuing to move towards the front of the casino.

As he moved forward, the boyish voice spoke up again, "But I have to say, showing yourself above that crowd earlier was an excellent move." A smirk formed on the thief's face as he leaped from light to light. "Nice work as always, Joker."

"I bet Skull wouldn't pull it off that smoothly," a third girl, whose age was in between the other to, added.

"This happens because you have no sense for aesthetics." another young man added.

"Nobody asked you, Inari!" Skull responded angrily. Joker couldn't help but smile as he listened to his teammates bicker, it reminded him of better times.

Before he could reminisce, security guards came up on a nearby balcony. "There he is!" they shouted.

Before he could act, the youngest girl shouted over the radio, "Just run! Get out of there!" Joker couldn't agree more so he made a beeline for his escape route.

"Ok, the enemy's focus is on him, looks like the rest of us can slip away," the boyish voice noted somberly.

For the first time sense he was spotted Joker spoke to his team, "Good luck everyone, Mach, Chaser, keep everyone safe." he commanded before he leapt up onto a balcony.

Before he could get very far, however, two security guards appeared before him. One began to twist and contort in inhuman ways as his skin turned an inky black. His transformation was concluded when a purple mask appeared over his face.

"Take' em down Joker!" the thief smiled as he leapt over the monster's head and grabbed it's mask, ripping it off. The creature's body oozed a black, bloody fluid as it underwent a far more terrifying transformation. It morphed into a creature that seemed to be a bizarre permutation of the minotaur. It had the head of a bull, and walked on two legs with black, cloven hooves. It's most notable feature however, was a long, serpentine tail that rested behind its legs.

Joker had no fear of this monster, however. Upon seeing the horrible beast, he merely chuckled before he removed his own mask. The moment his masked was removed, it burst into beautiful blue flames. The flames reformed into a being for more terrifying than the monster Joker faced could ever be. Baring coal black wings and face forged from darkness. This was the nobleman of hell, Arséne. Arséne spread his terrible wings and from them, darkness spewed forth as if it were the fires of hell.

The monster, cut and bruised be the wave of darkness, refused to fall and charged the demon. Before it could land a single blow however, Arséne delivered a swift kick with its bladed heels, severing the monster head from its shoulders. The beast's body fell to the ground and faded away into nothing.

Before Joker could move on, however, an unnatural heaviness washed over his body for a moment. When the sensation passed, Joker immediately turned to face the source. Yet another guard approached, this one was quickly surrounded by a black mist it changed shape.

The creature that emerged wore light brown metal armor with a razor sharp cap. In fact, the monster more resembled a robot Herlock Sholmes than anything else. The robot Sholmes bared its razor claws, and dashed at Joker. The thief merely stepped out of the way as he readied a strange weapon. It appeared to be a cross between a knuckle duster and a gun. It was gold and cover with jewels. He pressed a button on the front.

The weapon, the Lupin Gunner began to play jazz music. He took his hand off the button. "Henshin" he spoke softly.

Dozens of jewels appeared and floated around the two of them.

Lupin!

The jewels gathered around Jokers body. In a flash of light, a maroon suit form around Joker's body before the jewels attached. As the light faded and cape formed upon the warrior's back, standing in Joker's place, was Lupin.

The most notable of Lupin's features was his helmet, with a sleek, silver face with piercing red, compound eyes. It had gold accents similar to facial hair which seamlessly flowed into a top hat.

Lupin held out his gunner as what appeared to be a flying toy car flew onto the top of the gunner before extending a knife blade out the top.

Tune: Lupin Blade!

"Everyone, move to positions! Use route B!" the younger girl called out as Lupin casually dodged another swipe from robo-Sholems.

Gun!

Lupin pointed the gunner at the machine's back a pulled the trigger, firing a pair of golden bullets into the robot's back, causing it to bleed a sort of oil. Enraged, the Sholmes bot made another mad dash with a sharpened cane to try to stab Lupin.

Blade!

Ultimate Lupin Stlash!

The blade emitted a beautiful golden light and seemed to get longer. The robot dropped to the ground, sliced in half before it could even attempt to attack Lupin with its cane. Shortly after the robot dropped dead, a silver object resembling the number 044 floated upwards from the remains for a moment before breaking into pieces.

Lupin's suit disappeared, turning him back into Joker.

"Good, you defeated them with ease." the boyish voice praised.

"More of them are coming, be careful." the young girl warned.

Just as she said that, more of the ink-skinned monsters appeared from seemingly nowhere. Joker immediately jumped back to avoid a shock batton. Joker leapt up to the top of a pillar and onto a higher balcony.

"Joker, use the door behind you!"

Joker obeyed and made his way to what could be described as the backstage of the casino. In an instant the bright colorful place for gambling gave way to the cold, grey, home of greed.

"You should be able to get out that way, hurry!" Joker's navigator called out once again.

"Dude, can he even hear us?" Skull questioned.

"Don't worry, I'm picking up everyone's voices, just go Joker!" the navigator assured.

Joker moved quietly and carefully through the building. Slowly making his way down stairs, he listened to both his team speak among themselves, but he also listened to the enemy to track their movements and plan accordingly.

As Joker hid under a window, a guard ran passed loudly cursing, "Dammit where'd they go!? I can't confirm the target's location." Joker kept his head down and went in the opposite direction. He used whatever he could to stay out of the guards' sight, letting him sneak past whenever they looked away or moved the search elsewhere.

As he made his way through the building, he past the security office. "He's not alone, find them and kill them all." the head of security ordered. Joker clenched his teeth as he restrained himself from doing the man in himself. He had to trust that they would get away, and so would he.

Eventually they caught sight of and chased him down until he made his way to a large, open area above the lobby, on the opposite side of the room was a large stained glass window. The 'room' consisted only of balconies along the wall and the window.

The bottom floor was totally closed off, Joker took a deep breath as he realized what he had to do. "There's nowhere to run!" the guards were right behind with their guns ready. Joker sighed and jumped up onto the railing and ran across the room, avoiding the guards' fire. He made his way to the window.

"See ya'" he said casually before he gracefully leapt back through the window.

"Hpmh, what a show off. Your so reckless, ya' know that?" the navigator commented.

Joker landed without a cut on him. He was out so now he just had to leave. Before he could act however, he was blinded by the police's lights. He allies all began to panic as the seeming army of cops closed in. Joker rushed to a nearby fire escape and started to climb. Before he made it to the top, however he was met by more cops.

He was stuck in the head by the butt of a rifle causing him to fall into the mass of police.

"Suspect secured."

"Didn't expect to find some kid." Joker did his best to look up a the man who had said that. Joker was pinned down by no less the five full-grown men, but he continued to struggle. The man kneeled and pressed his hand against Joker's head. "You have your teammate to thank for this, you were sold out," Joker lost all fight, he couldn't knowing what the man meant.

He was no longer Joker, he was prisoner P508P54TS, and it was time to be interrogated. "Guess the drug was too strong," one of the interrogators mused.

He was splashed with cold water, causing him to wake up. 'Where am I?' he thought as he struggled to remember. He looked around, he saw a camera and two men.

"No dozing off," one of the men ordered. Joker tried to move his arms, but he was handcuffed to the chair. "You still don't get it do you?" the same man stated, P508P54TS continued to struggle. "Give it up!" the man lost his temper and kicked the prisoner in the stomach, knocking his over his chair.

The man stomped on his head, "C'mon, cooperate! Or do you want another shot!?" The prisoner's eyes wandered to an empty syringe nearby on the floor.

'Is that why I can barely think?' he wondered at the needle. Before long however, his eyes wandered to the security camera that continued to stare at him.

"Huh, what about the camera? Are you thinking it can be used as video evidence?" the man questioned almost sarcastically. The man grabbed the prisoner by the hair and pulled their faces close together.

"O-Of course n-not." the prisoner answered weakly. The man dropped his head.

"There are no laws that will protect criminals like you," the man said coldly as he produced a clipboard to look over the attached paper. As soon as he did however, he delivered a swift kick to the stomach, causing the prisoner to cough up blood.

"Obstruction of justice, blackmail, defamation, possession of weapons, manslaughter too, yeah? Talk about the works. To think all those crimes were lead by punk like this. And you seemed to enjoy every second of it… huh?" those last word drove a spike into the prisoner's heart.

'Was I really enjoying it?' he tried to remember, but his mind was too clouded to find the memory. Before he could continue to look for the memory, he was uncuffed and forced upright. The held a clipboard with an attached pen.

"It's a confession under your name," the man said bluntly.

He considered knocking it away, he considered attacking them, but then he remembered the taste of blood in his mouth and signed. "I understand," 'キラー イチジョ' Kira Ichijo, he wrote, with the proper kanji scribbled underneath.

"Glad to see you can be reasonable. But don't expect to walk out of here in one piece, we're going to make sure you understand that one must take full responsibility for their actions."

'Take full responsibility for their actions?' the phrase lit up a memory, which faded nearly as fast. 'Where have I heard that before?'

Sometime later, Prosecutor Niijima Sae made her down an underground hallway, made her way to the end of all this. When she reached her destination, however, she was met with a police detective. "Excuse me, this area's off-" he started.

"I'm Niijima from the public prosecutors office." she cut him off.

"The Prosecutors office? What business do you have here?" the detective asked, sounding genuinely confused.

Niijima didn't want to waste time with this idiot. "Just let me through; it's urgent. There's something I need to confirm with the suspect." she stated clearly and matter-of-factly.

"Niijima-san, I believe this case is no longer under your jurisdiction." the detective, no longer confused, sounded amused. Niijima scowled at his amusement. "Besides…" he gestured to someone behind her.

"Are you Prosecutor Niijima Sae?" she turned around to see an older man standing behind her. "There's a call from your director. Hurry up and get it over with. To be frank, you're being an inconvenience." he stated simply as her cell phone started to buzz.

Without a second of delay, Niijima answered her phone. She was greeted by a sigh, "I thought I ordered you to stand by," he recalled in a voice that clearly conveyed his disapproval.

At this point, Sae's patience was wearing thin, she would let all her hard work be wasted by this old bastard! "I'm responsible for this case, yet I'm not even being allowed an interrogation!?" it took everything she had to stay even remotely calm.

"I'm calling because I knew you'd bring it up." he responded almost boredly.

"I will not be convinced unless I confirm it for myself," She stated firmly, "This MY case."

The director sighed again, "Good luck to you then, I won't be expecting much though."

Just as Niijima put her phone away, the older detective spoke up, "Ah, prosecutor, I forgot to mention something important. Your time will be cut short, we can't permit you to talk with for long." Niijima let out an annoyed sigh, she knew they would do something like this. "It's for your own sake. His methods are unknown, after all. We don't even know if it's safe to simply meet and speak with him." Niijima knew he was lying, but she could do anything about it.

"I understand." she then turned and entered the interrogation room.

What Sae saw took her by surprise. She knew who the suspect was thanks to the reports, but to actually see him here. She had met Kira Ichijo before, but the man sitting here was nothing like the man she met. His skin was bruised and bloodied. His once proud posture had devolved into a careless slouch. But the most striking change was his eyes, his eyes which were once filled with fiery passion, no showed nothing but despair. Possibly the only things that remained was messy black hair and school uniform. It was such a sad sight that Sae almost pitied him, almost.

"I didn't expect it'd be you." she said solemnly. "You'll be answering my questions this time." she spoke in a restrained calm manner. As she did so however, her eyes caught an empty syringe on the floor. "Those bastards," she muttered to herself. She already disagreed with their methods, but to drug a child? That was a new low.

"Can you hear me? It seems you've been through quite a lot." she spoke in a softer tone then before. "Almost anything can happen here, and I can't do anything to stop them. That's why I need you to answer me honestly. I don't have much time either." Without waiting for a response, she immediately started her questioning.

"What was your objective?"

"Why did you cause such a major incident?"

"I didn't think it was a prank from the get-go, but I couldn't assemble a case for prosecution. It's because I couldn't figure out the method behind it" for the first time since Niijima entered, Kira met her gaze.

"Of course you couldn't," he said so causally that you wouldn't think he was being interrogated.

"True," she conceded. "There's no way I could be convinced of such a... "world" just from the reports."

"Why not, you're a Kamen Rider too aren't you?" Her eyes snapped open. How did he know that? And 'Too'? She ran her mind through the options, it didn't take long, of the four known Kamen Riders, he could only be Lupin.

She shook her head and focused on the task at hand. "When and where did you find out about that world? How is it even possible to steal another's heart? Now, tell me you're account of anything. Start from the very beginning."

Ichijo gripped his head as he focused on remembering back that far. As he focused, something strange happened. The world darkened around him as a blue butterfly flew before him.

'You are held captive' A young, feminine voice spoke in his mind. 'A prisoner of fate to a future that has been sealed in advance. This is truly an unjust game… Your chances of winning are almost none. But if my voice is reaching, there may yet be an option open to you… I beg you, overcome this game… and save the world. The key to victory lies in your memories of your bonds- the truth that you and your friends grasped. It all began that day… when the game was started half a year ago. For the sake of your world's future… as well as your own… your must remember…' the butterfly flew away, and the thief spoke his story.

A/N: Before anything else, there is something I would like to talk about. On November 12, 2018, yesterday, as of this writing, Stan Lee passed away. This may not seem like the ideal place to talk about it, but due to my deliberate lack of social media presence, this is the only place I have. My first superhero was Spider-Man, created by Stan Lee. It is through Lee's ideas that I became the person I am, that I have the relationships that I do. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that thousands, if not millions of people feel the way I do. With Stan "The Man" Lee gone, it is up to us true believers to carry on his legacy, his ideas. It is up to use to preserve the idea of the Superhero that Lee created. Excelsior!

Onto less depressing stuff; how did every like the first chapter of Phantom Joker? Was it good? was it bad? Also, I'm sure the Persona fans in the audience noticed that I'm using the Japanese order of family name given name that isn't used in the English version of the game.

Okay, for one more thing, I would like to ask my audience about crossovers I could do in the future. Before you throw suggestions at me would like to lay out at least one rule: I have no intentions to Amazonz, BUT if you have an idea for Amazonz it has to be able to be a side-by-side story with the regular Amazon, something like how most games with multiple stories handle it. Other then that, go wild and give me ideas, I would love to cover all the Heisei Riders one day. As you can see with this story, if you think a secondary or movie rider, or something like that would work better for a particular crossover, go for it. And if I go for a particular idea, I will credit you for the idea and even ask for help developing said idea. So, until next this is Time-Space lord Eon saying have a Nice Drive!

Major Announcement

Hey, Eon here. Sorry to say but Kamen Rider Lupin: Phantom Joker is officially on hiatus, for two reasons, one is that I've been hit with massive writer's block and I'm having trouble finishing the next chapter, as the amount of time since my last update probably makes apparent, the reason however is hopeful.

Recently there were two major announcements that I think are important to the story, one is Persona 5 The Royal (and P5S,I suspect that that'l just be a port.) which appears be Persona 5's version of Persona 4 Golden. There was also the announcement of the upcoming Kamen Rider Brain Special. So I'm going to wait until both of those are out before I continue with Phantom Joker, in case they feature plot elements and ideas that I think would fit.

But seriously, BRAIN is going to be the final Heisei Rider!? I'm still not sure how to feel. I mean really, they're reviving an april fools joker to close out the last 20 years of Kamen Rider.

Either way, it'll probably be about a year before I return to this, but don't worry, I'll put more focus on Ex-Aid's Awakening as well as another upcoming project that I'll be working on.