Hopper1, Houtaro, etc. | Kamen Rider Gotchard

Inspired by the Sleeping At Last song Earth (lyrics under dropdown)

I dig till my shovel tells a secret
Swear to the earth that I will keep it
Brush off the dirt
And let my change of heart occur
Sold soon after the appraisal
The hammer struck the auction table
Louder than anything I've ever heard
Fault lines tremble underneath my glass house
But I put it out of my mind
Long enough to call it courage
To live without a lifeline
I bend the definition
Of faith to exonerate my blind eye
Till the sirens sound, I'm safe
Meanwhile, my family's taking shelter
The sparks send the fire down the wire
A countdown begins
Until the dynamite gives in
The echo, as wide as the equator
Travels through a world of built up anger
Too late to pull itself together now
Fault lines tremble underneath my glass house
But I put it out of my mind
Long enough to call it courage
To live without a lifeline
I bend the definition
Of faith to exonerate my blind eye
Till the sirens sound, I'm safe
There was an earthquake
There was an avalanche of change
We were so afraid
We cried ourselves a hurricane
There were floods
Tidal waves over us
So we folded our hands and prayed
Like a domino
These wildfires grow and grow
Until a brand new world takes shape
Fault lines tremble underneath my glass house
But I put it out of my mind
Long enough to call it courage
To live without a lifeline
I bend the definition
Of faith to exonerate my blind eye
Till the sirens sound, I'm safe...

In the beginning, alchemists and scientists were the same - before the codification of science as an institute unto itself, alchemy was science. They lived across the world, arriving at some conclusions together in international cooperation, while others were surprise serendipity. There was struggle, within and without, but nothing proved a threat to communication itself.

And then a demon king arose, seeking to plague the world as well as study it. With sheer power and caustic manipulation, he turned alchemy as a field against its practitioners - causing people, and even alchemists themselves, to fear the power it represented. It was this plague that worked to cast darkness, fracturing alchemy unions among geographical, political, and petty personal lines.

This demon even created life - but could not control it, and for centuries alchemists found themselves wrestling with the same problem. For if they could best the demon at this, at not simply creating life but having it cooperate with them, then they would no longer need be afraid.

This drive found itself realized the world over - at the hands of alchemists who had made it their lives' work, at novices digging into a new problem, and in those of people who had never encountered the demon. This last were especially surprised by their creations - and not all could take care of them.

Over the centuries, these creatures - derived of Alchemy, and thus Chemies - began to congregate, intentionally or otherwise, in the country where the demon's creations had first debuted.

But, even with the creatures in one place, the demon still sought destruction, violence, and to cause despair.

In this time, as war threatened to break out elsewhere, over more mundane struggles, one person took it upon themselves to make the essence of light - drawing strength from togetherness, not among alchemists, but in seeing the creations of them as people.

As friends.

United in one Drive, they struck down the demon together, binding him out of this world with/to the light of the sun, at an intensity and presence such that even a demon could not withstand.

In the wake of this triumph, the alchemist disappeared - leaving few witnesses, and few Chemies who understood what had been done.

...

But as time passes, without more people committed to truly understanding and embodying those virtues of teamwork and trust, those alchemists in power communicate with each other less and less, leaving only the children, and children's children, to break the path anew.