Welcome to Gaia! ::

Kizoku Kodomo
Kamen Rider Knuckle

Kizoku crouched over the mouth of the large hole. “You know, I read up on you, Peach-Girl.” He called out to Inoue. “To be honest, I thought you were smart enough to avoid traps like this. I was expecting more of a challenge.”

The red haired trickster reached deep into his coat pockets. With a heavy sigh, he pulled out an armful of freshly picked Helheim fruit. “Oh well, let’s go with Plan B anyway.” He said, tossing the fruit down into the cavern.

A dozen of the bulbous fruit rained down on the two Riders below. They hit the ground with a hard splat, exposing their gelatinous insides. Within seconds, a scuttering, crawling sound began to echo through the cavern.

“It’s just as well, really.” Kizoku continued. “The creatures down there rarely get a chance to feed.”

Dozens, if not hundreds of Elementary Inves began to erupt from every crevice in the cavern. Overhead, Kizoku had broken out into laughter. Whether it was a laugh of pure joy, or that of a crazy person, could not be determined.

The laughter continued for several seconds before stopping abruptly. He pulled one more thing from his pocket, a Banana Lockseed. “Kill them.” He commanded, tossing the Lockseed into the pit. The fruit was enough to lure the Inves close, but a fully matured lockseed would start a riot. Already, the pale creatures were scrambling to catch the small trinket. The rest had turned their attention to Inoue and Hideyuki, smelling the lockseeds in their possession.

KAMEN RIDER RYUGEN

Rei Kurosawa


Rei stopped as she felt a familiar hand on her shoulder. "Sasuke...?" "Let her have her space." She nodded at her friend's suggestion. As much as it pained her see Hiyori walk alone, maybe it would be best to give her friend time. "I was surprised by how strong you are Rei. You might make a good warrior yet." The surprised girl blinked a few times. Sasuke was...complimenting HER? A slight blush gew across her face from the sudden recognition. "Th-thank you..." Even Baron's leader-one of the strongest Riders Rei knew-had noticed her new strength.

---

Rei lounged lazily on her living room couch. Her hair was unbrushed, and she was still wearing loose black pajamas with cat faces on them. She never was a morning person, and it didn't help that she was having a hard time sleeping ever since the fight with Marika. The half awake girl tucked a spoonful of cereal in her mouth as she stared blankly at the news. A black cat purred next to her, hoping her master would share the spare milk in her bowl.
These past few days had been rough. Momo had been keeping Rei up to date about her sister, and for a couple days Hiyori had basically become a shut-in. News came that she had finally come out of her room and was acting fine, but her friend was quickly troubled by other matters. Her father was a preacher at the only church in Zawame City, and the already tiny congregation dwindled to drastically low numbers as his sermons on not judging a whole group based on a few individual's actions fell on deaf ears. He knew not all of the Beat Riders were criminals, but everyone thought he was merely trying to cover up for his daughter...Finally, Rei's father was asked to step down.
‘…Yggdrasil, which owns many businesses in the city. . .It's my fault he was asked to step down. If I wasn't a Beat Rider, none of this would have happened! '. . . Until recently, the game was increasingly popular with local dance teams until a civilian group, Z.A.I. (Zawame Against Inves) . . .' What am I saying!? I never would have met my friends if not for the games. Besides, none of us committed crimes with the lockseeds. We fought to protect everyone. ' . . . to the sudden appearance of real-life monsters . . .' Dad would have preached those sermons anyway. He was only telling the truth. ' . . . anonymous package was delivered to this broadcast station . . . ' Maybe once we uncover the truth about Yggdrasil and stop this Inves mess, we'll be able to show everyone that we're not the bad guys...Then maybe dad can get his job back... ' . . . contained information implying that Yggdrasil knew about the monsters and were hiding their knowledge from public eye…' See? With this news story, it shouldn't be long before people realize that-WAIT NEWS STORY!?
The once groggy Rei sprang at the TV remote and turned up the volume, spilling cereal all over the carpet. She was too absorbed by footage of a package to notice her mom's scolding or the happy crunching of her cat eating the last remains of cereal. How....How did this happen? There's only one person who could have- "REI!" "H-HUH?"She jumped at her mom's yell, who was soaking up the milk with towels. "I said go get me another towel! This milk is going to expire into the carpet!" Rei blinked, taking a second to process what had happened. "OH! S-sorry, I got caught up in the news!" The middle-aged woman sighed as her daughter scrambled about in the kitchen. "Honestly...what could have gotten you so excited on the-oh..." Her mother fell silent as the news played old footage of an Inves game before switching to the weather report.
Rei was surprised as her mom hugged her. "Eh?" "Listen, I know you're worried about your father, but please remember that none of this is your fault. He still has a few weeks to find another job, and we still have enough savings in case it takes him a little longer than that. Please don't let this stress you out." Her daughter held back tears. Of course she was worried about her dad, but that wasn't all. She wished she could share everything that was on her mind, but how could she? There was no way Rei's parents would allow her to keep fighting if they knew she was...well, fighting. Maybe someday she could tell them the truth. She hugged her mother back. "Right...thanks mom."
This was why they had to learn the truth. Rei was sick of hiding secrets from her parents. She was also sick of having to watch her friends put themselves in danger. Even though Momo said her sister was doing much better, Rei still worried about Hiyori...She had not spoken directly to her since before the fight.
Finally she gently broke from her mom's embrace and rushed to her room. Rei quickly threw some clothes on. "Rei?"First things first. I should go meet up with Koji and see what he thinks about all this. She grabbed her phone off the couch. A small smile graced her lips as she saw that Momo had already texted her. "I'm going to go see a friend. I'll call you later when I'm on my way home." Rei texted away as she grabbed her familiar skelekitten backpack. "Oh uh, okay. Stay safe, and try to be back for dinner this time!" "I'll try to be. Love you!" "WAIT! This cereal-"Rei raced down the apartment stairs, completely oblivious to the fact that she had let spilt cereal behind for her mom to clean up. She wasn't sure how to feel about the news leak. Sure it might help her dad and the Beat Riders, but what was the real reason for this? Her belt clattered in her backpack. Maybe Koji would have some ideas. If one thing was for sure, he was probably "boogieing" away at Team Funkytown's base.



LOCKS: BUDOU, DONGURI, PEPPER

Kizoku Kodomo
Kamen Rider Knuckle

Kizoku could barely make out what was going on down there, but the flashes of light indicated that the two Riders had finally transformed. He took a seat on the purple grass, letting his feet dangle over the side of the pitfall, pulling another ripe Helheim fruit out of his pocket. He brought it close to his nose and inhaled deeply, letting the aroma fill his senses.

"Mmmm." He sighed in enjoyment as he slowly began to peel the fruit for himself.


Down below, the Inves swarm was growing. One of them succeed in grabbing the Banana Lockseed, shoving it into its mouth like some savage beast. It let out a roar as the sudden swell of energy filled the monster's stomach. It's pale skin shed away, transforming it into a large, Mole-like monster. The creature let out a crazed shriek as it leaped towards Zangetsu

Koji was indeed in Team Funky Town's base, Club Funky Flame, but he was not boogieing as he usually would. A few members of his team were scattered about, chilling or dancing, but he was simply sitting in a bean bag chair, sipping a soda. He wore white bellbottom pants and black platform shoes along with his medallion, but he was topless. Covering a few spots on his chest and arms were bandages and gauze pads along with a few more exposed bruises, him putting an ice pack to his left eye, which had become a noticeable black eye. He hadn't felt like dancing lately.

Ever since the whole anti-Beat Rider sentiment settled on the city, the disco-revival club had become a ghost town. Plus, he felt rather angry at himself over how powerless he had been since he was unable to stop Hiyori's Sengoku Driver from being destroyed. Heh... Some hero I turned out to be, he thought to himself. He knew in part he was being too hard on himself, but he still felt like he had more he could have done. "I'm not gonna fail again... I swear," he promised himself as he examined his newest Lockseed.

He had found the Ringo Lockseed while training, the source of his many wounds. With the club basically empty and his team having no one to dance for, he often had his team use their Lockseeds to summon up Inves for him to battle. They were in-game ones, but he had them summon up multiple to make it a challenge. Just yesterday, as he trained by docks, he found a vine of Helheim fruit and grabbed one, forming the Lockseed.

As he sat there, fiddling with his new Lockseed, he was shaken from his thoughts as one of his teammates came into the main dance hall where Koji was chilling, surprising the team captain with news he had a visitor. "You mean we actually have someone here who wants to dance!? Who cares if we really wouldn't open for a few more hours, let them-REI!?" He shouted in surprise to see his fellow Armored Rider come into the room. Shooting to his feet, he walked towards her as his teammate left, putting his drink down and holding his icepack as he said, "Wha-what are you doing here?"

Kuroki Hideyuki
Armored Rider Zangetsu
New Generation Rider Zangetsu-Shin

'Bring it' Hideyuki thought coldly as the Mole defiantly shrieked. He quickly noted in the moments between the Mole's attacks that the horde had started to back off as their numbers continued to steadily decline thanks to Inoue's arrows, he would celebrate later. He had bigger fish to fry.

Zangestsu-Shin swore under his breath as the large boulder was tossed toward him, slicing the stone with a vertical slash. He then quickly pulled back on the Sonic Arrow, allowing the weapon to charge for a moment before releasing the bolt of energy. He hoped the arrow would pierce the gash on the Mole's chest.

Lockseeds
Melon
Suika
Ichigo
Melon Energy
Sakura Hurricane

KAMEN RIDER RYUGEN

Rei Kurosawa


Rei nearly jumped out of her skin as Koji yelled her name. "Wha-what are you doing here?" The timid girl hesitated, distracted by the many gruesome bruises and bandages on her friend's body. Was he still so badly injured after the fight?
Finally she snapped out of her trance. "Oh! D-Did you watch the news?" A couple cat keycharms clattered as she handed Koji her phone. Momo's text filled the screen. "Someone sent a package to the news station with confidential information about Yggdrasil." She looked away from the ice packet covering Koji's eye. "It seems really suspicious...Do you think this was Kizoku's doing?"




LOCKS: BUDOU, DONGURI, PEPPER
[Sorry for the short post. Wordpad always makes them look longer than they really are. ^^;;]

Kizoku Kodomo
Kamen Rider Knuckle

Kizoku was just about to take a bite from the fruit when he felt an unpleasant sensation pressing against his skull. When Baron spoke, Kizoku smiled. "Oh dear." He said sarcastically. "Now this is quite the predicament"

With unnatural reflexes, Kizoku tumbled away from Baron's spear. He stood up brushing the dirt and leaves from his new jacket. "Sasuke." He said in greeting, twirling his hand into the air with a flourish. "Is that a banana in your hand or did you just miss me?" He commented, staring at the Rider's spear

He smirked, returning his fixation to the piece of fruit in his hand, which he was taking his time peeling. "I'm afraid I'm too busy to deal with your bravado today." He sighed. "As you can see-" He said, casually pointing to the large pit with his hand. "-I have dinner guests."