Strange signals from King Enterprises

Before you could say anything, Angel Five held a finger up as something came to her mind, as she turned to look out the window. Strolling away from the table suddenly, she put her hand on the glass door leading out to the balcony, and then opened it to stand outside, looking off into the distance.

You quickly followed, stepping to her side. "Something the matter? That was really sudden. A problem with your, y'know, combining?"

Angel Five shook her head. "No, nothing like that, I'm fine. But I've been listening to the internet and I heard something strange."

"...Listening to it?"

"Well I don't know what else to call it," Angel Five said as she turned to you, crossing her arms with a pout. "Listening is the best way I can describe it! Like when data from certain sources move through the network, the side of me that is Tex can detect where it's coming and going from. I don't really get an idea of what the data is, most everything is encrypted nowadays, but Tex found us by listening to signals of the Angel unit when the hardware connects to a network. And I just heard something new, a signal I'm almost positive is Rider Two briefly coming online."

You leaned on the railing, looking out at the horizon as if you were trying to see whatever Angel Five had locked her vision to, but you couldn't make out anything through the other buildings in your way. However, the sense that your morning's plans are now decided sank in, to both your and Angel Seven's disappointment, as you rest her body on the balcony--in these bizarre moments you'd had with Tex, it was surprisingly easy to forget just how strange it was that you were wearing the form of somebody else. "Is it far?"

Angel Five held out a hand, and a tablet screen grew out of her palm with a map on it. You jumped back slightly at the unexpected creation of new objects, but Angel Five only briefly squinted at you before continuing. "Across town. The ping came from a building owned by a company called Witchcastle Corp, which looking at these records..." What records, you wonder, but Angel Five closed her eyes as if she was reading something. You hoped she wasn't just imagining all of this. "...It appears to be a shell corporation, owned by an 'Amelia Crown'."

"Definitely a pseudonym for a certain Emilia King, if I heard one."

Angel Five nodded. "The building itself is pretty new, quite modern, sort of reminds me of the Hideki Tech building. It doesn't seem like the kind of place Rider Two would get lost in and not come back out, you know? But, who knows. Witchcastle doesn't use it for any business purpose, but that doesn't mean King doesn't have something going on there." The tablet and map disappeared, recalled out of phase again by Angel's new abilities.

"So, are we going to call it in and come up with some convoluted reason how you came up with this hunch? Or are we going to make a visit ourselves?" Despite asking, you already knew the answer, seeing how Angel Five fidgeted before you. "You know if we go there looking like SCPD or we get identified, we're going to cause more problems than we solve."

A wide smile crossed Angel Five's lips. "Then I design us new armor! I can make some for you, my lovely redheaded Rider, and I'll make my own Angel design. SCPD isn't the only Angel-Rider operation in Spiral City, and once I'm done the armor goes away and nobody can trace it back to us."

You felt the blush form on your face, as Angel Seven enjoyed the compliment of being considered lovely by your partner. You shimmied your hips a little, trying to shake away the brief swell of thrill your body felt as you wanted to suggest alternative activities for the day, but you nodded. "We'll go, but I'm still team lead so it's my call that we leave if we run into anything sketchy. At best, if we find solid evidence that Rider Two is there but we can't recover him and he's not in mortal peril, we send the evidence to McPhearson as some sort of anonymous tip. Agreed? I know you're full of surprises, but we still have procedures to follow."

Angel Five nodded slowly. "That's a wise approach. Part of me wants to just take care of everything myself, but I know it can't be like that. I'll follow your lead, Rider Five. Let's head out soon, though, the sooner we have those answers, the sooner we can come back and enjoy all those surprises I'm full of!"

The two of you raced to finish breakfast--you weren't going to let something so well-prepared go to waste--before hurrying out of the apartments. Not wanting to be seen, you walked around the corner into an alleyway. Angel Five glanced around, assessing the area. "No cameras, we're clear." She put a hand on your shoulder, as Rider armor specially designed by the Tex side of her formed out of nothingness onto your body! It was nothing like the typical Yabusa armor, it felt strong and light and almost like it was molded directly to you, helmet and all. Of course, that meant it accentuated Angel Seven's body in a quite pronounced manner, particularly at the hips, which you swished back and forth as you tested movements. Of course, given Angel Five's new favorite color, your armor had taken on a matte orange paint job, with white accents all over.

"This is so exciting," Angel Seven said as you acclimated to your armor. "I get to be a Rider! Kind of. And such a sexy-looking one at that... A-Five, I thought the idea was to not draw attention to us?"

"No, the plan is that if we do get attention, all the details point to anyone but Unit Five as the ones involved! After all, Rider Five isn't known to be a lady to the SCPD... besides, we'll need to take new callsigns for our radio chatter." With a giggle, Angel Five begins her transformation, going from plain-clothes blonde girl to likewise a sleek orange armor that at first appeared quite similar to yours in most regards, more so than the typical Angel-Rider designs. However, she had taken some liberties with a few extra components of the design, as her orange and black 'wings' looked almost sinister in their sleekness, with some very aggressive angles and shapes. Atop the helmet, two raised ridges, which almost looked like swept-back ram's horns, grew out of nothingness. You didn't quite understand how everything fit together until Angel Five knelt down, cowlings and wheels coming into place with her horned helmet locking in at the front, where the horns secured the front of the cowling around the windshield and headlights together, making a fully-faired sportbike unlike anything you'd seen before! It looked aggressive, maybe sinister, perhaps even...

Demonic. The word began to inscribe itself on the side of the bike, as if an invisible hand painted it, or perhaps burned it in with a darker orange. By the time your partner had finished decorating her armor, the callsign 'Demon-1' was plainly visible on either side.

"You like it? Since I can't be an Angel right now as far as SCPD callsigns..." Demon One, formerly Angel Five, explained over the radio in your helmet.

You nodded, putting a hand on your living motorcycle's side, causing her engine to squeal a little as it revved up in excited anticipation of the first ride. Strange, it was almost like she could feel your touch through her cowlings now? "So who am I, then?"

Your answer came to you quickly, as the same burnt orange letters appeared to decorate your armor, creating the words 'Templar-1' and a few more decorative lines--including a knightly mark of fabric over your shoulder, for extra effect. Clearly someone was having a field day with these new abilities to generate and synthesize new structures! You quickly swung a leg over the sportbike next to you, getting a feel for this beast of a machine that appeared out of thin air, basically.

"I just thought, y'know, something a little knightlier for your role. Maybe as a Templar, your noble and divine purpose managed to tame this demon between your legs..." You reached out and grabbed at the handlebars, hearing a light moan over the comms. "Oh, uh... one addition thanks to my Tex side is that I can feel your grip on me. In fact, I feel a lot, so... be gentle with me as I get used to this, okay? It'll take me a little time to get used to this."

"Roger that, Demon One. Am I clear to depart?"

"You're clear, Templar One. Let's move!"

With a twist of the throttle, the power that this new design generated almost pulled you off the bike! The front wheel popped up briefly, but those demonic horn-like shapes at the front of the bike acted like a spoiler at higher speeds to create downforce to keep the wheels on the road and get more traction, in a clever design feat. Soon you were on your way at a breakneck pace, headed toward the Witchcastle building with considerable haste!