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"Mr. Belt, can the Drive Armor let me breathe in space?"
Looking at the projection, Dan asked Kurimu beside him.
Kurimu nodded. "Yep. I've fought in space before with Shinnosuke. Drive can switch to space mode."
Dan suddenly remembered—in that crossover movie with Orange Dumbass, they did go to space.
That got him thinking...
"Mr. Belt, have you ever met God?"
Kurimu froze for a moment, caught off guard.
Late at night, a stream of light shot into the sky.
"Mr. Belt, are we really leaving Earth like this? Won't someone notice?"
Inside the Tridoron, Dan gripped the steering wheel nervously. This was his first space trip, and he hadn't expected it at all. But what worried him more was whether anyone would track him—after all, this wasn't the Riders' world. Earth had lots of big players.
"Relax, Dan. I know the tech in this world is crazy advanced, but don't underestimate me."
Kurimu, mounted in the dashboard, looked completely confident.
Stark Tower
"Sir, I've detected an unknown signal leaving the atmosphere."
In a slick, high-tech lab, JARVIS popped up a message.
Tony Stark was lounging in a chair, studying footage of a red-suited figure.
"Something left Earth?"
Stroking his iconic goatee, Stark frowned.
"What's going on lately? First weird bloodsuckers, now a red-masked mystery guy. JARVIS, track that signal."
"Sorry, sir. It's already gone. Based on calculations, it's no longer on Earth. But I did trace its launch point."
A map appeared in the hologram—Queens.
Looking at the map, Stark glanced at a nearby computer showing footage of Dan's first transformation and his battle with the blood thralls.
"Interesting… Queens, huh? Not even Hell's Kitchen, and suddenly we've got all kinds of drama. Might be worth paying a visit."
Meanwhile, out in space, Dan had no clue he was already on a billionaire's radar.
"Centaurus IV… I can't believe Dimension Cab went that far just to find the right metal."
Kurimu was impressed. That planet was nowhere near Earth.
"Mr. Belt, let's prep for landing."
They found a secluded spot and descended slowly.
"Dan, this planet's tech level is no joke."
As soon as they landed, Kurimu deployed the Shift Cars for recon. The data they sent back shocked even him.
"Yeah, in the universe there are quite a few planets at this level of tech. Earth's still not there yet—nowhere near ready to interact with other civilizations."
After a pause, Kurimu asked, "So what's the plan? How're we getting the metal?"
The control console displayed coordinates for a mining site.
"We'll sneak in. I don't need that much anyway."
Mostly, Dan didn't want to screw up the timeline. Earth wasn't ready for alien contact. If he accidentally triggered something, the Ancient One might come knocking…
"In that case, let's use the Phantom Shift Car."
A purple arc of light flashed. A ninja-themed Shift Car appeared in his hand.
[HENSHIN!]
Yakajin Metal—pretty much the signature resource of Centaurus IV. Even here, it was considered rare.
Using his suit's abilities and the combat skills he'd learned from Blade, Dan infiltrated the mines.
In the dark, high-tech tunnels, crates of raw ore were being hauled toward a massive machine.
"Nope… not this one either…"
Dan quietly checked the stones, but none of them were what he needed.
"Guess even on this planet, what you're looking for's rare as hell."
Dan stayed quiet. He was mentally prepared for this. He knew things wouldn't go smoothly.
He'd hoped to snag some pre-mined stuff, but that plan was clearly toast.
"Sigh… nothing. Mr. Belt, looks like we'll have to go deeper. Maybe even dig ourselves."
Dan hid himself well and prepared for the worst.
"Dan, I need to warn you—your body still can't fully handle the Drive system. We don't have much time, got it?"
"Yeah, I got it."
Brushing it off, Dan kept going.
He dodged overseers and slipped toward the main dig site. And then—
BOOM~!
A loud explosion rang out, and the entire mining area started shaking. Inside the tunnels, the miners instantly fell into chaos.
"What the hell's going on?"
Dan quickly hid himself and peeked out with a confused look.
"No idea, but this definitely doesn't feel like an earthquake. It feels more like explosives," Kurim said as he activated his scanning system.
RATATATATAT!
Before Kurim could finish scanning, a burst of gunfire echoed through the tunnel. A group of alien raiders in weird clothes and with all kinds of skin tones burst in, weapons blazing.
Dan slapped his forehead and looked up to the sky.
"Raiders?! Just my luck… Who the hell robs a mining site? Don't aliens have banks or something?"
It only took a few minutes before these brutal thugs had completely taken control of the entire mining site.
"Boss, we found the goods."
One of the alien raiders brought a box over to the leader.
The boss gave it a glance, nodded, and said, "We've got what we came for. Let's move."
Now that they had what they wanted, the raiders didn't stick around. They planted two bombs and made a clean getaway.
Dan was just about to slip away during the chaos when Kurim suddenly called out to him.
"Dan, the box they took has the metal you've been looking for. And I'm afraid they took all of it."
Dan was stunned. No way—he just got scooped by a bunch of fellow thieves.
But then he thought about it for a second and smirked. Actually, if he just stole it from them, that'd save him a whole lot of trouble.
"Let's go. We're following them."
Outside the mine, everything was a mess. The mine's security forces had shown up fast, but they were completely overwhelmed by the raiders' firepower.
"Wooo! Boss, that was way too easy!"
The raiders were now speeding across the wasteland in a small spaceship.
"Hah! That was nothing," the leader chuckled as he opened the box, greedily staring at the Akar metal inside. He was a mercenary, hired by someone to steal this stuff.
But now that he had it, he didn't really want to hand it over—though he still wanted the money.
BOOM!
A sudden explosion rocked the ship, sending it spiraling down toward the ground.
"What the hell?!"
"We're under attack! Somebody hit us!"
"Dammit! We're the ones who do the ambushing—who the hell dares to hit us?!"
The space raiders stumbled out of the wreckage, dazed and angry—only to spot a red car nearby, with a red figure standing beside it, a tire slung over his shoulder.
"....."