"Impressive." While Reine studied ID-01's new Valkyrie Mk. 2 armor with an indifferent air, Yareli detected wariness in her voice.
"And I'm about to make her day worse," Yareli thought, slipping around Reine's blindside.
But with remarkable agility, metal ground against metal as Reine used her Rangadriver to block the blow. Fire spread across Yareli's middle as Reine shot her point-blank.
"Out of the way!" Silver filled her vision, and bottles shattered as ID-01 knocked Yareli aside with a wing. Reine howled as sparks flew when Valkyrie's blade connected. A follow-up kick to the face sent Hel barreling through a nearby car, it crumpled like a soda can on impact.
"What incredible power…" Yareli struggled to rise past the bar's counter. A man—the bartender—trembled like a frightened child, clutching the cricket bat he'd used on unruly customers. He regained some measure of calm when Yareli placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Dammit!" Reine's Rangadriver flared, but the Valkyrie's wings deflected each shot.
"You aren't making this easy." The former Valkyrie broke down into amused laughter. The sound unnerved Yareli, who suppressed a shudder. As abruptly as it started, Reine turned deadly serious. "I won't lose to some toy that thinks it's human!" The former Valkyrie pivoted around her opponent, peppering ID-01 with a barrage of bolts.
"Whoa!" Reine skipped back, and the tips of ID-01's right wing slipped past her cheek by centimeters. Not missing a step, Valkyrie slashed at her unbalanced opponent.
"You!" Reine seethed as sparks flew when Valkyrie's blade drove into her chest.
ID-01 pushed her advantage, wings offering protection as she attacked. While Reine's steps were deft and light, the sheer ferocity of her opponent's strikes overwhelmed her.
"Damn!" Reine stumbled when a mislaid step made her foot collide with a chair.
She howled in pain as Valkyrie's sword slashed across her chest. A wing followed up to stab at her exposed back, but Reine deflected it with her Rangadriver, buying the precious seconds she needed to pivot away. While the surface of the Valkyrie's wing smoldered from the impact, it seemed otherwise unharmed. Reine eyed Yareli circling behind her, claws extended.
"A queen knows when best to retreat. This isn't over!" Reine pointed her weapon at the ground and blasted the pavement beneath her. The resulting explosion filled the square with dust, obscuring all vision. With a wave of her wings, ID-01 dispelled the smoke. But Hel had vanished from sight—along with any of her zombie minions that hadn't already fled.
In a single bound, Valkyrie took to the air, searching for any sign of their enemy. When her quarry didn't present herself, she plopped to the ground and withdrew the key she'd used to transform. Yareli dismissed her armor too.
"She got away," ID-01 said, seemingly emotionless, but Yareli detected a twinge of disappointment in her voice.
"The coward, fleeing the moment the situation looked difficult," Abbey said, glaring, teeth bared in a snarl.
"The new driver performed better than my projections had predicted," Pihu said, whipping dust from her casual dress. Blood stained its trim, ruining it.
The results of the battle were ghastly. People moaned and cried out in pain around them. One woman had her legs crushed to a bloody pulp, while another sported a nasty bruise on her head. From the way she was blinking, Yareli concluded she had a concussion. There were bodies scattered among the decaying zombie corpses, too—but thankfully fewer than she'd expected. She thanked God it hadn't been worse.
"You better get going, Fenrir. We'll keep in touch," Abbey whispered, eyeing the police officers approaching to survey the situation. Yareli nodded, wanting to avoid any awkward questions.
ID-01 stared at her, her expression its typical unreadability. Yareli tensed, fearing her counterpart might start another fight. But she turned away, deciding enough fighting had happened today. Yareli sensed, however, that the battle between them would soon come.
There could only be one Ilma Halvorsen.
"Hey!" an officer said, yelling futilely as Johan joined her and they sprinted away. His boar form kept pace with ease. Rebecca and Samuel slipped off somewhere as well, also wanting to avoid the police.
Before Yareli disappeared down an alley, she turned back toward the bloody scene. It broke her heart to see so many people needlessly hurt. Tears pricked at her skeletal sockets out of rage and sadness.
Reine would pay for this.
"Hurry!" Johan said.
After one last glance at the tragic scene, she disappeared deeper into downtown Bifrost with her friend.
///
"Another damn attack," Chief Greer said, fuming. "Bifrost has gone to hell in a handbasket! And we can't do a damn thing about it! What the hell can cause zombies?"
Anderson allowed his boss to vent. Since the Bifrost Police Department Massacre, the man had seemed frayed at the edges. His already thinning gray hair had become patchy, and he'd lost a couple of pounds.
"The lab found traces of nanomachines in their blood," Assistant Chief Dorotea said. "They've somehow reactivated synapses that had long since decayed. Doctor Halvorsen is still working on how that's possible."
"And it's confirmed that they are, in fact, the deceased?" the chief asked.
"Yes." Anderson produced a photo of a smiling middle-aged woman with her mates on a cruise ship. "Pauline LaRue. Died three months ago from a sudden heart attack. She hadn't been taking the best care of her body. She was one of the zombies who attacked Nidavellir's Pourhouse."
"And Reine Beaufort. Have you confirmed she was at the scene of the crime?" the chief asked. "I seem to recall witnesses also placing her at the Data Pirate's Den attack."
Dorotea nodded. "Positive identification. Unlike last time, we've got photo proof." They'd searched for her for interrogation after the previous incident, but she'd vanished without a trace, her apartment unused for days. Still, information about the attack was spotty. Some claimed the presence of a fierce wolf monster in armor, but the reports contradicted themselves. Yareli had been caught in some photos, but thankfully they were so blurry you'd only confuse her for another monster.
"Ymir has denied any involvement and has disowned their former employee," Dorotea continued. "But the damage correlates with the burn marks inflicted on Mark Wilson."
"So, she steals what must be a prototype weapon from her employers and uses it to go on a rampage after killing her boss. Do the attack sites share anything in common?" Anderson asked, pretending he didn't already know the answer.
"The Valkyries were at Nidavellir's Pourhouse at the scene of the attack," Dorotea replied.
"Right. Abigail Lange was involved in her last attack. So, she's going after her previous employers. It likely won't do any good, but assign officers to watch over them." Chief Greer scowled. "We don't have any damn choice. Until we have a better solution, work with Doctor Halvorsen to resolve this issue."
"We can't stop her otherwise. I doubt our new toys will have much effect against her armor." These newfangled weapons confounded Anderson. What did the police need with freaking laser guns? They didn't even have self-driving cars, for flipping sake, back in his day. Besides, their new guns looked more like toys than real weapons.
"We'll need them to confront this new breed of criminal, sir," his partner said. "We can't have the army or the Valkyries solve all our problems."
"True." Anderson suppressed a smile. General Holloway was furious when he learned of Halvorsen's deal with the city council—pushing ahead with these new advanced weapons for police use only. Halvorsen seemed uninterested in creating military weapons.
"Get going!" Chief Greer slammed his fist against his desk. "We're stopping these monsters, whatever it takes!"
"Understood." Anderson hoped that at their meeting tonight they'd devise some sort of counter-strategy for Surtur. Too much was riding on their success.
///
"Damn." Reine rubbed at her chest, still sore from where that fake Ilma had struck her. Another damn Kamen Rider. She couldn't believe the power Doctor Halvorsen had created through this revamped Valkyrie system. She'd assumed the Valkyries wouldn't be a threat.
Not that she was worried. Fenrir was still the weakest of the Kamen Riders. Reine would ambush her in a secluded area where nothing could interrupt them. Hel could always summon more zombies—though her minions' habit of acting on their own volition could prove troublesome. They'd fled to save their skins without express orders from her.
An annoyance, but getting more Angra Armlets proved a more pressing issue. Wait, weren't some seized during the Niflhel raid?
A plan was coming to completion in her head. She whistled a Ymir ditty ironically as she headed deeper toward downtown.
"Wait." A newcomer spoke, and Reine instinctively pointed her Rangadriver in that direction. Her weapon trembled as she saw their identity, unable to believe her eyes.
"President!" This had to be a terrible nightmare. "I—I killed you."
Mark Wilson stared at her with an astonishing lack of emotion, considering she'd blasted a hole through his chest the last time they met. Through the haze of her shock, she noticed he wore clothes quite unlike the dignified man she remembered. Instead of his usual freshly pressed suits, Wilson wore a leather jacket and sunglasses. He seemed more like a biker than the president of a multi-trillion-dollar company.
"I am not Mark Wilson." The man pulled away his sunglasses. Reine stepped back, startled by the smoldering orange eyes staring at her. "I am Surtur."
"S-Surtur…" Wasn't that the name of a super-advanced computer system Ymir had designed?
Reine regained her wits, pointing her Rangadriver at the unknown visitor's chest. "You better explain yourself, or you'll have a hole in your chest like the real Mark Wilson."
No emotion appeared on Surtur's face—not even a flicker of apprehension at having a weapon pointed at his heart. "I was designed to fulfill the original Mark Wilson's wishes. For that purpose, they uploaded my systems into this mechanical body. It's a prototype android created by Doctor Valter Halvorsen."
"Right…" Reine's mind whirled, almost dizzying her. Had Ymir tried to cover up the president's death with this copy? But something about the doppelgänger seemed off. He didn't share the president's stern demeanor, nor the passion the man hid behind his steely gaze. "And why are you here?"
"I need your power," Surtur replied.
"Okay…" Reine waited for the robot to elaborate, but he offered nothing else. "Why?"
"Obstacles are emerging that might interfere with my mission."
"Kamen Rider Valkyrie." Reine spat the name, seeing Surtur's point. The Mk. 2 Valkyrie suits would become quite bothersome if they were mass-produced.
"And the one they call Kamen Rider Fenrir," Surtur said, his emotionless tone growing graver. "I calculate she might become a dangerous, unknown quantity."
"Fair point. And you're suggesting an alliance?" Reine wondered why she was dealing with a robot, but she found herself curious despite herself.
"Correct."
"I see." Her mind raced, considering the possibilities. Did she want this? It would make fighting both Ilmas much easier. Much to her astonishment, she noticed a Rangadriver peeking from a duffel bag.
Reine smiled her best devilish grin. "You're on."
Surtur gave her a slight nod in response. "Those devices you provided your minions—do you have more?"
"Plenty, my friend." She knew just who she'd resurrect next. It would spread pure terror across Bifrost—a resurrected nightmare they wouldn't awaken from.
It was weird fighting alongside the man she'd killed, but he'd suit her purposes well. She'd use him for her own ends. Both Ilmas were in for a nasty surprise in their next encounter.
"Ragnarök approaches ever closer."