Disclaimer: Kamen Rider is the Property of Toei Company.

Note of Interest: This story is unique in the fact that it will be told thru the eyes of a character based off of myself. In fact, many of the characters in this story will be base off real people that I know. Please remember thou that this is a work of pure fiction. This is not based on my real life. Family may be cast as friends and friends may be cast as family. You will not know who is based on whom.

Part 1: The Package

It started out as nothing more than an average night at home. I was down in our house's basement, doing nothing more than working on my computer. My parents had already turned in for the night, leaving me free to enjoy myself by watching Kamen Rider on the internet. I had taken quite an interest in the Japanese show over the past year, and had such researched all nine seasons of the Heisei era. I knew all of the attacks, vehicles, weapons, and fighting styles of each rider from Kuuga all the way to Kiva. Soon, a new series was going to debut in Japan; Kamen Rider Decade. Not much was known about him other than he can transform into any of the nine previous riders and use all of their powers, so I was really looking forward to what the new show had to offer.

Looking at my computer's clock, I saw that it was a quarter past 10. "Holy cow" I said to myself "I'd better get up to bed. I've got to go to work in the morning"

I switched off my computer and made my way up to the second floor. I was just about to head up the next flight of stairs to my room, when I suddenly heard a fast, raping sound coming from the front door.

"Who could that be at this time of night?" I questioned aloud. Moving to the door, I carefully looked thru the peep hole to see who it was, but to my surprise, there was no one there. I opened the door and stepped outside; looking up and down the street from the top of the steps to see if there was anyone out there, but it was as quiet and empty as it could be. Confused, I turned to go back inside when I saw something that made me stop in my tracks. Sitting there, near the right side of the door, was a large metal box.

Why would I be so stunned by a simple box? Well, let me explain. Over the past several weeks, there had been several incidences of strange explosions occurring all over the country. The authorities had told the public that package bombs were the cause of it, and that they would catch whoever was responsible for it, but so far, they didn't have any leads. In the meantime, they had warned all citizens across the nation to be vigilante of anything suspicious. So, as you could imagine, finding a strange, unmarked package sitting on my door step was a very, scary surprise.

At first, I thought nothing more than getting my family out of the house and then calling in a bomb squad to take care of the problem. But my natural curiosity got the better of me, and I began giving the box a throe look-over.

The box in question was simple, made of reflective silver metal, and was about the size of a large briefcase. It had a black handle on its side, which would make it a lot easier to carry around. As I turned it up on its side to examine the back, I saw something on front flash in the porch light. Looking at it more closely, I saw a small symbol etched into the top part of the front of the case. It was a strange mark made up of several black lines. It actually looked somewhat like a barcode, except several of the lines on the inner part of the symbol were all different lengths, some of them much longer than others. To make it even stranger, two small, empty circles were placed in the center of the design, which in combination with the lines, made them look like a pair of eyes. It was pretty creepy, and yet at the same time, it was strangely familiar.

"You know" I said aloud, trying to keep myself from freaking out "I think I've seen this symbol somewhere before." At this point, I had forgone all thoughts of the case being dangerous and had decided to bring it up to my room to have a look at what was inside.

Grabbing the handle, I carefully picked up the case and crept back thru the door, locking it behind me. I then cautiously moved thru the living room and up the stair, being especially careful not to bang the case against the walls for fear of waking my mom and step dad. Finally, I entered my room, closed the door, and flipped on the lights. Setting the case flat on my bed, I unclasped the two latches on the case and, with the swiftness of a jungle cat, I flipped open the lid.

I instantly threw my arms up in front of my face, thinking for a split second that the box would explode soon after I opened it. After a few seconds pasted and no explosion occurred, I lowered my arms and turned my attention to what was inside it. What I saw next shocked me to the very core.

Resting inside of the case were two items. One was an adjustable belt with a very large white mechanical buckle. The buckle was somewhat rectangular shaped with silver handles on each side, each handle horizontally lined with three different colored buttons; green, red, and blue. The center of the buckle was occupied by a clear, circular window surrounded by ten different symbols including the one I had seen on the case. That particular symbol was on a small, green light above the window.

The second item in the case was silver, rectangular, book-shaped device that had a black stripe diagonally across it. A small, silver, cylindrical piece protruded from the top, right part of it, and along the bottom was a black handle on a right side hinge. The symbol from the case was printed in red in the middle of the black diagonal stripe.

I was losing my mind at this point. There was no way that this could be what I thought it was, but then I turned back to the belt and saw the ultimate proof. Etched into the top part of the buckle's silver boarder were six capital letters.

DECADE

I knew exactly what these two items were. The belt was the Decadriver, the transformation device of Kamen Rider Decade. The other item was the Ride Booker, Decade's primary weapon as well as the holder of his rider cards, the source of his power. I knew all this thanks to my constant watch for any information about the new series.

At first, I couldn't believe that this was actually happening. But soon, my reason began to catch up with my senses. "What the heck am I thinking? The Kamen Riders are a Japanese TV show. There's no way they could ever be real." But even as I came to that conclusion, other questions began to pop into my mind. What were these things in the mysterious case? Why did they appear on my doorstep? Who brought them here? Were they delivered here for a reason? Were they even meant for me?

Turning my gaze to my clock radio, I saw that it was now 11:00 PM "Of shit! I better get some sleep." I quickly closed the case, latched it shut, and placed it on the floor near the door. I then changed into a pair of boxers and a T shirt, turned out the lights, climbed into bed, and drifted off to sleep.

"Patrick! You need get up or you'll be late for work!"

"Ok, mom, I'm up, I'm up!" I yelled back at my mom, who was on her way out the door to work. I begrudging pushed myself out of bed and looked at the time. It was now 7:00 AM. "I'd better get ready. I need to be at work by 9:00." I quickly showered, shaved, and got dressed into my work clothes. As I was getting dressed, I remembered the case that had arrived last night. While my first instinct was to just leave it alone, there was something about its contents that just kept nagging at me. Deciding to bring them with me, I opened the case, took out the Decadriver and Ride Booker, and placed both of them into by backpack before heading downstairs to grab a quick bite to eat. After spending about an hour watching TV, I headed for work.

My job is a simple one; I'm an employee at a local drug store about five minutes from my house. My main tasks include running the resister, stocking merchandise, straightening the shelves, and on certain days, helping unload the delivery truck. It's not that great a job, but helps pay the bills while I try to make my way thru school and earn a degree in Computer Electronics.

The first half of the day passed with nothing of particular interest happening. In fact, it looked like it was just going to be a normal, average day. That is, until around noon. My manager was in an extremely generous mood that day and had decided to give me a whole hour for break. I went to the back room to grab my coat and bag when my cell phone rang. I pulled it off my belt clip and looked at front screen, only to remember that it had cracked several months ago so I couldn't see who was calling. Hoping it wasn't another telemarketer; I flipped it open and began to speak.

"Hello?" I said cautiously; ready to hang up at slightest mention of someone trying to sell me something.

"Hello? Patrick?" said a soft, female voice on the other end which I instantly recognized as belonging to my step-sister Alison.

"Alison? Hi, how are you?" I said, both happy and slightly confused. It was very rare for me to get a call from on of my stepfathers girls.

"Oh, I'm doing alright." She said "Listen, I'm in town today and I was wondering if you'd like to get together with me for lunch."

"Huh? Y… you and… and me?" I stammered, completely stunned by the sudden and unexpected offer. Realizing what I was doing, I quickly regained my composer and began to speak again. "Sure? Why not? I was actually just getting ready to go on break. Why don't meet me over at Olympia's and we'll grab a bite to eat."

"That sounds great!" she exclaimed cheerfully "I'll see you in a few minutes." and with that she hung up. Flipping the top screen of my phone back down, I grabbed my things and headed back up front to clock out.

A few minutes later, I walked thru the front door of Olympia's, a Greek themed restaurant that was only short walk away from my job. To my surprise, I found that Alison was already sitting at a table waiting for me.

Alison is the younger of two sisters born to my stepfather Steve, who married my mother about 5 years ago. She's about as tall as I am, only short by about an inch, and is roughly the same age as me. She has brown eyes and short, black hair that is sometimes dyed with a streak of red in the front. Her attire usually consists of black shoes, a pair of blue jeans, and a green, long sleeved button shirt worn over a black tank top. In the short time I've known her; I've found that the two of us have a lot in common. Both of us like to work with electronics and play videogames in our spare time. She's also a very beautiful young woman, and as crazy as it sounds, I've kind of thought about going after her if the two of us weren't related by our parent's marriage. But I knew that neither of our folks would never even think about splitting up at this point, and besides that, she already had a boyfriend.

Alison got up from her seat as I walked up. The two of us shared a quick hug before she sat back down. I quickly moved to join her, hanging my coat on a nearby hook and setting my bag on the floor as I did.

"So, Alison, how have been" I asked "It's been awhile sense I last saw you."

"I've been doing ok." She said smiling, but then her expression suddenly faltered. "Well, actually, there is one bit of bad news. Rich and I broke up."

"Oh." I replied "I'm sorry to hear that." I really did feel bad for her. I had only met her boyfriend Rich once during her last visit, but to me, he seemed like a pretty nice guy.

"Oh, it's okay" She said, her usual pep returning "It was fun at first, but the truth is after the first couple of months, both of us realized that we didn't have much in common after all."

"Well, in any case, I'm sorry things didn't work out." I replied sincerely. Alison merely gave a smile and said "Thank you".

The waitress came soon after that. Both of us gave her our lunch orders (Alison a chicken ceaser salad, myself a cheeseburger and fries) and then talked to each other about current events while we waited for the food to be prepared. When the food did arrived, the two of us quickly ate our meals (I wolfed mine down in about 2 minutes) and continued our chat as I still had about twenty minutes left before I had to get back to work. Eventually, Alison turned the conversation in the direction of the strange bombings that I mentioned earlier.

"It just seems so strange" She said "These explosions have occurred all over the country, and the police still don't have any suspects."

"They're trying their best" I replied "At least they managed to identify the cause as package bombs."

"Actually" Alison retorted "I think that's just a cover up."

"What, a cover-up?" I exclaimed "What makes you think that?"

"Well" She started "Just last week, I was talking to a friend who works near one of the blast zones, and she said she saw some sort of strange figure launched something at the at convenience store where the explosion occurred and that that was what caused it."

"Are you serious?" I asked, to which she gave a quick nod "But then why didn't she tell the police what she saw?"

"As a matter of fact, she did tell them, but they didn't believe her"

"What? Why the hell didn't they believe her?"

"To tell to truth, I think it was because her story seemed kind of ridiculous. She told them that the person she saw looked like a Cheetah that could stand on two legs and that the thing it shot at the store was fired from its mouth."

"Wait a sec; a Cheetah that walks upright on two legs and spits out explosive projectiles? Even I find that story a little far fetched."

Alison took a deep breath before continuing on with her story "That's what I thought at first, too. But later that day, I went online to a forum site where a ton of people had posted clams of seeing weird figures like the one my friend described at blast scenes all over the country, and that they always disappeared right before the cops showed up, so they couldn't prove that they were real. This whole thing is just one big mystery."

Alison's words suddenly reminded me of what had happened the previous night and the things that were now resting in my backpack. Deciding to let her in on it, I stole a quick glace around the restaurant to make sure no one was watching before I spoke again.

"Sense we're on the subject of mysteries, listen to this. Late last night, I heard knocking at the front door. I went to see who it was, but there was no one there. I was about to head back in when I saw a large, metal case sitting on the landing. At first I thought it was a bomb, but for some reason, my mind was telling me that there was something more to it. So, I brought it up to my room, opened it up, and when I looked inside…" I quickly opened my bag, pulled out the Decadriver Belt and the Ride Booker, and placed them on the table "I found these."

I watched as Alison's eyes widened in amazement when she saw the strange pieces of technology now sitting before her. "Whoa, what are these things? I've never seen anything like them before."

"Maybe you haven't, but I have" I responded, trying my best not to sound smug about it "Let me ask you this: have you ever heard of something called a Kamen Rider?"

"Actually, yes" She said to my great surprise "I hear some of my friends talk about it all the time. It's supposed be a really popular show in Japan."

"It sure is" I replied "and these are the transformation device and main weapon of their newest hero: Kamen Rider Decade.

"Yeah, I heard about that, too. Isn't he supposed to be able to transform into all the past riders and use all their powers?"

"Just those of the Heisei era, but that's what they say. I don't know much about him, thou." I explained "The new series hasn't even started yet. There still finishing up with Kiva."

"But, why would these things end up on your doorstep?" She questioned.

"I was wondering the same thing last night." I answered with the questions I asked myself last night still buzzing in the back of my mind.

"Oh well. It's not really that important" She said "I mean it's not like the Kamen Riders are real, right?"

I was just about to answer her when I was suddenly cut off by huge amount of yelling and screaming coming from outside the restaurant. Wondering what on earth was going on, I quickly grabbed the Rider gear, stuffed them into my bag, grabbed that and my coat, and raced out the door with Alison following right behind me. Once outside, I saw dozens of people running in half a million different directions, all screaming their heads off. I started scanning the area for what was causing the commotion and when I finally found it, I began to wish I hadn't.

Walking along a concrete rise that divided two rows of parked cars was a large, muscular, humanoid creature with a head that resembled a Cheetah's. It was covered in yellowish fur with brown spots all over its body. It had clawed feet and hands and had a tail with a small spike on the end. Alison and I watched in terror as it made its way down the row before suddenly stopping at a nearby lamppost. The creature the let out a fearsome roar, showing of its sharp and pointy teeth before taking a swipe at the lamp with its claws, which cut clean thru it and sent it toppling onto 3 cars, crushing their tops and sending broken glass flying in every direction.

All around us, people were scrambling this way and that way, sometimes tripping over each other just to find a safe place or get as far away from the thing as possible. The creature looked around at the ensuing chaos for a brief moment, the reared back and shot what looked like a fireball from its mouth. The ball hit the window of a nearby dry cleaner's and exploded on impact, sending pieces of metal and glass everywhere. Anyone who was in the immediate area was either burned by the flames of the explosion or was struck by offending shards, causing them to fall to the ground, writhing in pain.

I soon realized that the creature causing this crisis seemed to match the description of the thing Alison's friend had seen. In any case, this thing, whatever it was, was now heading in our direction. However, I remained rooted to the spot, completely paralyzed in fear. It was only when Alison tugged on the sleeve of my coat that my body began to function again.

"Come on Patrick, we need to go, now!"

I nodded and was about to follow her away from the beast when I suddenly heard a strange voice in my mind. It only spoke three words, but they were all very clear.

Use the belt!

I stopped in my tracks, dropping my backpack on the ground. Alison stopped running and turned back to look at me, wondering why the hell I wasn't following her. She yelled at me to get a move on, but at this point, I wasn't listening. The startling telepathic message I had just received from out of nowhere had somehow brought me to an even more startling realization. I now knew exactly what needed to be done, and it seemed that I was the only one capable of doing it.

As the monster continued to move in our direction, I reached into my bag, pulled out both pieces of Rider Gear, and then in one quick movement, I flung the Decadriver Belt around my waist and secured it in the front. It was a perfect fit. I then opened the front cover of the Ride Booker to find small space inside that held two cards. I pulled out one that had the strange barcode symbol printed in white against a black background on it then closed the Ride booker and attached it to a clip on the left side of the belt. I quickly glanced at the front of the card to see a gray silhouette of a person's headshot printed on it, then turned to stare the monster right in the eye.

By now, Alison was completely freaking out. "What the hell are you doing?" She screamed at me. I merely turned my head in her direction and responded "What I have to."

"Wait, are you actually planning to fight that thing with those? You don't even know if they actually work!"

"Maybe not, but if I don't try, this thing is just going to keep causing more destruction throughout the country. It has to be stopped."

Alison just stood there, trying to come to grips with everything I had just told her. A few seconds later, however, her expression became serious as she gave me a quick nod, signaling that she understood.

"Alright" I said "Now go find the safest place you can. This could get ugly."

Alison nodded again before taking off to find a place to hide. As she did, I stepped out onto the street towards the monster, which was taken aback by my sudden, bold approach. I guess it wasn't every day it met a human with a backbone.

When I was a least 15 feet away from the beast, I stopped walking and just stood there. All around me, I could hear people shouting things like "Hey, kid, get out of there!" or "What does that guy think he's doing! He's going to get killed!" but I wasn't paying them any mind. I quickly grabbed the two handles of the Decadriver and pulled them outward, causing the white center piece to rotate a quarter turn clockwise, revealing a slot big enough for a card. As I did this, I heard a short mechanical whirling sound followed by these words…

Kamen Ride

Then another, longer mechanical whirling sound began to play, repeating itself over and over again. Acting only on instinct, I held up the card and shouted…

"HENSHIN"

I then slid the card into the slot, and with the palms of my hands, pushed the handles back into place, resetting the Decadriver to its original position, the symbol on the card clearly visible thru the circular window. The whirling sound stopped and in an upbeat voice, the belt announced one last word…

Decade

Suddenly, streams of energy began to rapidly circle around me, and I heard a noise that kind of resembled a movie projector that had just run out of film. The energy spun around faster and closed in, quickly surrounding my entire body. I heard a loud, clanging sound, and the next thing I knew, I was suddenly looking thru some sort of opaque visor. I looked past the monster in front of me into the window of a nearby car, and when I saw what was reflected back at me, I was completely stunned.

I could see by my reflection that I was now encased in full body battle suit of some kind. My legs and arms were covered in armor that was white on the inward side and a pinkish red on the outer side. The two colors were divided by a thick black line that ran the length of my limbs, and my hands were now covered by black leather gloves. My upper was decked in the same fuchsia-colored armor with a with a double line white stripe starting from the bottom right part of my chest and running diagonally upwards all the way to my left shoulder, my right shoulder having a small stripe of the same kind, but in fuchsia. Another white stripe ran vertically down the left side of my chest, the two lines crossing and forming an x-like pattern. The thing that struck me most, thou, was what was covering up my face. My head was encased in a helmet that was the same fuchsia color as my armor with black, vertical lines and a set of large, green eyes, making it resemble the symbol I kept seeing.

The monster was as completely shocked by my transformation as I was. I couldn't believe it at all at first, thinking that this had to be a dream. But soon I realized that as impossible as it may have seemed, I had officially broken the barrier between fantasy and reality.

I had become…

Kamen Rider Decade

TO BE CONTINUDED…

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