((Three days? Alrighty. (*^^*)
Sorry for the long post guys, this is what happens when I get bored.
xd ))
Armored Rider Gridon"
Sacrifice, huh?" Ryou repeated silently as the holographic image flicker out of existence. The hologram's warning had struck home with the man's own misgivings he had been feeling since it was decided to issue the test drivers to the Beat Riders.
"
But this if for the best, is it?" Ryou repeated to himself, "
to leave that much power to them and without even knowing the dangers?"
He fell silent as he watched as the papers that Sagara had picked up softly flutter to the floor, the same documents that were part of the bios for several of test subjects, "
I think it's time to pay a few of them a visit and see for myself."
Without another word, he left his office and headed into the dark night for home.
Armored Rider ZangetsuHideyuki found himself back home walking along the smoothly paved shorelines of one his most favorite beaches in Fukuoka. The gentle sea glistened as Hideyuki closed his eyes briefly to better feel the soothing breeze that was sweeping past his face.
"
Be careful," a voice suddenly warned from behind him. Hideyuki turned to find himself staring at a blonde teenage girl in a white dress.
He felt his chest tightening up before he asked, "
Who are you?" The stranger looked familiar somehow, but Hideyuki couldn't put his finger on it.
The stranger ignored him as she continued, "
You are being called towards fate. No matter what path you take you now, your world will never be the same."
"
What? What you talking about? I don't understand." Hideyuki he found himself alone again. "
Hey wait! Oi…" he cried out after the girl before his world started to rapidly spin around him. He let out a yell as he put his hands up over his ears to somehow how defend himself before everything went black.
Hideyuki shot up from his bed in cold sweat as he a regained a sense of his surroundings. "
A dream?" He thought out load as he realized as rationality started to again return to him. Still panting, glanced down at the driver that still rested on beside him on his bed.
The past few days had been an absolute blur to him since he first bought the belt on a whim. There was a lot of it, including the belt itself, that he didn't understand. Then there was that dream just now….
Hideyuki found that he could not sleep the rest of the night. He stared emptily at the wall until it was time for him to ready himself for work.
……….
The next three days went by rather uneventfully for Hideyuki. Work was going smoothly and he hadn't heard of any other disturbances or had been involved in run-ins with any other riders. He didn't really mind the change however as he needed time to think.
Sighing to himself, he stopped in the middle of a crowded plaza that he was walking through as he was walking home early from work. It had been a national holiday and Hideyuki had gone in to catch up on some paperwork, but today especially he had felt particularly distracted.
Hideyuki opened his workbag and spotted his Driver and Melon Lockseed that were nestled inside. He had tried forget about the belt for the past two days, but he found that he couldn't. It was slowly creeping into his mind that maybe the belt's power had finally gotten to him. It
frightened him.
"
You know, you probably shouldn't be stopping and showing the inside of your bag in the middle of the street like that," a passerby said, causing Hideyuk to jump.
Hideyuki looked up to see a young-looking man with brown hair and wearing suit jacket with a plain grey, slightly designed shirt underneath, Hideyuki gulped when he noticed that a Sengoku Driver was also resting visibly on the man's waist.
"
Who are you?" Hideyuki asked as he tried to calm himself, he could not help however that his voice had started to tremble. The crowd around them remained blissfully unaware of what was about to happen.
"
Who I am is of little importance," Ryou replied, studying the youth known as Zangetsu, "
let's just say for now that I've taken an interest in some of you."
"
Interset? What are you talking about?" Hideyuki demanded, not knowing what the man meant. In response the observer withdrew his Donguri Lockseed in plain sight of Hideyuki.
"
You're a…" Hideyuki tried to say before Ryou activated his lockseed and attached it to the driver around his waist.
|Donguri| "
Henshin!" the stranger commanded as he struck the Cutting Blade of his Sengoku Driver down.
"~Lock On!~"
~Come On!~
"~Donguri Arms! Never Give Up!~"
Hideyuki watched in horror as the acorn descended and attached itself to Ryou, creating the under suit in a flash of brown and gold energy. The metallic acorn then unfolded as the Donkachi hammer manifested itself into Ryou's hand to complete his brown medieval squire-based form.
"
Armored Rider… Gridon!" he said cooly as he could as the transformation completed itself; causing Hideyuki and the small crowd thad gathered to all fall comically forward in unison at the sheer lameness of the name.
"
That's the best you can come up with?! Take this seriously!" the normally passive and collected Hideyuki demanded in comical annoyance before he had regained some his composure.
Ryou let himself smile underneath his helmet as he watched them all being unable to contain their reactions. "
Now," he said, his tone now becoming serious as he raised his hammer and charged at the still untransformed youth, "
Defend yourself!"
This time Hideyuki didn't even have a chance to dodge as he barely managed to cross his arms above his head to block the war-hammer from coming down on him.
"
Good," Ryou commended him for blocking before whispering into Hideyuki's hear so the crowd couldn't hear, "
but you won't be able to escape."
Hideyuki's eyes widened in fear as it was if the other rider had read his mind. He still hadn't decided if he wanted to continue fighting in this so-called "game" or not. The unknown and risk involved just seemed to be too high.
But yet, there was still something inside of him that made him resolve to continue as he heard the acorn rider announce as he tossed the helpless Hideyuki lazily aside. "
The only way out of this is to fight!"
"
Fine!" Hideyuki declared as he picked himself and took out his Sengoku Driver and Lockseed from his bag before discarding the sack aside. "
Henshin!" he commanded, activating the device.
|Melon|"~Lock On!~"
~Soiya!~
"~Melon Arms! Tenka Gomen!~"
Hideyuki's driver announced, rapidly completing the transform as the crowd excitedly begun to roar with anticipation as the two armored riders sized each other up.
Hideyuki as Zangetsu quickly opened things with a slash from his Musou Saber as he drew it from its holder, assuming that the acorn rider in front of him could not counter as easily with only a small hammer. To his surprise however, Gridon managed to easily bat the attack away with his Donkachi as he then quickly slammed the hammer into Zangetsu's gut, pushing with his legs and using one hand at the base of the hammer head and the other at the bottom for maximum damage.
Reeling, Hideyuki back-peddled away from the force of the attack. He coughed as he struggled to get air back into his lungs. This guy was no joke.
Zangetsu didn't have much time to recover however as he barely managed to block Gridon's next attack with his Melon Denfender.
The impact alone sent vibrations from the shield painfully into his arm, despite his inexperience he could tell that the force behind it was on par or stronger than that of punches from the black walnut rider he had faced a few days earlier.
Hideyuki managed however to push the Donkachi away from him and pull back hammer portion, attempting fire a barrage at Gridon to get some distance between the two of them.
Despite the shots being dead on, Gridon rolled out of the way of the wild shots and deflect the few that would have posed a threat to the himself or the crowd harmlessly away with his hammer.
Zangetsu tried to fire another round, but found that his "gun" was now out of ammo and before he had a chance to reload Gridon closed the gap between him and land another blow with his Donkachi shield before Hideyuki blocked the second hammer hit and counter with the tip of his shield.
"
Impressive," Ryou finally commented as a few sparks splattered from the where the pointed tip of the shield hit on his armor, "
but just defending with your shield alone won't beat me."
"
Your shield is more than just a defensive weapon," Gridon declared, aware of the rookie rider's confusion before emphasizing it further with a strong blow to the melon rider's chest, causing a massive shower of sparks. "
You're not even doing half of what you're capable of with that Lockseed."
Though stunned, Zangetsu managed to hit a charging Gridon in the sternum with the broadside of his shield before attempting to fire another round of Musou Saber shots, this time scoring a hit, but do to Zangetsu's weakened state did little effective damage. "
Why are you attacking me? I don't even play or know about those stupid Inves Games!"
"
Then what are you fighting for? Why did you peruse that power?!" Ryou heatedly retorted back, ignoring the gasps from the shocked crowd at the white rider's statement.
"
Wh…" Hideyuki paused, lowering his guard no doubt caught completely off guard by the brown rider's question. He felt disappointed in himself even in the midst of battle that he didn't have an answer. He was a virtual outsider in this city after all.
"
I see… How disappointing," Gridon said as he pressed down on the Cutting Blade once.
|Donguri Squash| Gridon started spin in around at rapid speeds with is his Donkachi hammer extended until a projection of an acorn started to manifest itself around him until he slammed into the still distracted and weakened Zangetsu at mach speeds.
The impact of the finisher sent the Hideyuki flying up and over the crowd before he landed hard on the ground, rolling of a few times from the momentum until he finally came to stop as his transformation cancelled.
"
Ple….Please wait," the now beaten Hideyuki stammered as his exhausted body tried to push itself up, "
what is with this belt? What is going on here?" he pleaded.
"
I can't give you all the answers," the still transformed Gridon replied as he looked down at the civilian form Zangetsu before he dissolved his own transformation, "
but there's more going on here than you realize."
While Ryou was somewhat disappointed in the rookie for not having a reason for originally buying the driver, he was however interested in the fact that Hideyuki/Zangetsu knew little and cared little for the ploy that was known as the Inves Games due to Hideyuki's outsider nature. It might prove itself useful someday if the youth choose the right path.
"
Before you go any further, ask yourself just what your newfound power means and where it might lead," Ryou said, echoing Sagara's warning before leaving the rookie to his thoughts in the now dispersing crowd.
There was so much he wanted to tell them, to warn of all the armored riders the danger they would face, but he knew he couldn't. Not yet.
For now he hoped as he made his way back to Yggdrassil Tower to think of his next move with another one of the test subjects, that none of them would try to grasp to highly for that they still knew little of.
