Kamen Rider: A New Year, A New Legend (RP)

[Kurou Daijuuji]

"Hey! Give me that back, you reject from a mariachi band!"

He starts to react, but for the second time that night something crashes into him, but this time into his chest and sends him bouncing away from the group, the back of his head hitting the pavement with an audible crack. He finally comes to rest about a foot and a half later, and it seems like an instant later that Nanase is by his side.

"Hey, Hikaru! Are you..?"

"Fine. I'm fine." He pushes himself up to a sitting position, looking at her strangely for a moment then toward the gang of monsters near the others. "Just point me at one of those..three blue ones..and I'll take care of it."

Not really hurt, but I think it knocked him for a loop.

"We have to take them out before any of these people get killed."

"I said already, just point me at one of them.."

She stares at him for a moment to confirm his condition, then nods as if coming to some sort of a decision.

"You're going to hate me for this tomorrow.."

His head snaps up and his eyes get an odd sort of clarity about them, widening a little and staring at her in alarm. She almost smiles, but fixes a serious gaze on him as he tries to stand up, still a little wobbly but coming to his feet after a few tries.

"Oh, Christ. Not that. I can handle this myself!"

"Do you trust me or not?"

"..you know the answer to that as well as I do, Red."

The answer is barely audible in the noise of the alley, and Nanase gives him a little smirk when he uses that nickname. It would take someone looking the right way at the right time to notice her standing and moving behind him, and simply ceasing to be there the next moment. A subtle shift in the color of his eyes takes place, the green obs darkening until they turn purple with a green edge, reddish streaks shooting through jet black hair that crackles with energy for a split second. The clouded over, distant look disappears from his eyes as his body straightens, showing no sign of the shakiness that plagued it a moment earlier.

Just let me handle it, this time.
Yeah, yeah.

Hikaru charges back into the fight, meeting one of the green skinned creatures with a running fist to the face, sending it flying back into a row of trash cans with surprising force, even for a man his size. The collision sends cans rolling about with a great clatter, and he hooks one with the tip of his boot, flipping it up into the air and bringing it down onto the head of another one coming toward him. The green monster looks funny moving around with a trash can covering it's head, but the punishing boot delivered square to where it's face would be that sends it rolling along the ground doesn't really seem to draw any humor from the others.

Tough crowd. I don't think they appreciate it.
Have you been watching wrestling matches again?

"Did you seriously think that a bunch of monster movie rejects like you could take me on?"

Hikaru's now purple eyes dart over toward the wall, where he quickly runs over to and pulls a pipe loose with his bare hands. He hefts it experimentally a few times, before slamming it into the abdomen of the thing he'd thrown into the trash cans, since the other is still rolling about trying to get it off. It doubles over and he kicks it square in the head with his left boot, thrusting the pipe at it's head when the creature is forcibly straightened. The heavy object goes straight through it's head with enough force to pin it to the wall, breaking the brick behind the green monstrosity.

"Stick around."

Hikaru turns and walks away, then points at the blue horse-like creature, curling his hand into a fist.

"And you..you really pissed me off."

Behind him the Worm finally gets around to exploding in a brilliant green fire, leaving the pipe sticking out covered in the inevitable Worm remains.

Are you trying to be an action movie cliche? At least it wasn't 'I'll never forgive you!'.
Who do you think I heard those from?
...just go kill something else.

(These posts always wind up being longer than I mean them to. At any rate, one down, a lot to go!)

 

[Kai Yamato]

Stephen is on a roll here, monsters appearing out of nowhere, and not to mention one of the men transforming into... something! He doesn't care about details, he's taking picture of every living moment for the scoop.

"****, this is sweet! This is so going to hit the front pages!" Stephen said, still taking pictures until someone walks up to him and taps him on the shoulders.

"What do you want? I'm busy-" He turns to the one who tapped on the shoulder, only to pause when he sees it to be a monster. "Oh... Right. Life in danger. Got it." Stephen did what every man could do, run at the sight of danger but before he can make his brilliant escape, the monster grab a hold of his arm, its grip is tight, no matter how much Stephen struggles, the monster's grip is still too strong.

"Crap! I got to do something quick!"Stephen though to himself as he tries to reach for something he could use a weapon, his hand grabs hold of one of the spilled vegetables. He mushes the tomato into the monster's face.

"Eat spilled fresh produce, ya freak!" Stephen yelled. The monster hissed in pain, letting go of Stephen as it tries to wipe mushed tomato off of its face then Stephen sweep kicks it and make a run for it, leaving the group to their doom by the monsters. "Sorry, as much as I could help. But being hero isn't my game! No siree, I don't hang that way!"

 

[Dark Kabuto]

Rose was fairing well against the aggressors, one of the monsters came at her with arms out reached but Rose gave him a swift kick to the chin but the monster didn't seem to be effected by her attack. It came at Rose and knocked her back, two more monsters came from behind and grabbed Rose. Rose lets out a shriek "Let go of me! This is hardly any way to treat a lady!!!!!" She screams and struggles in their grasp.

The man she attacked before chuckles, and approaches Rose and raises his fist against her. Rose lets out another shriek as if on cue, the belt her Grandmother had given to her came active, sparks began to fly but that didn't seem to bother the aggressors. The monster raises his fist towards Rose, and Rose closes her eyes, thinking this was the end for her.

As if on cue...she begins to hear a buzzing. The monsters around her and the ones holding her are suddenly knocked back by a tiny metalic red beetle. Rose blinks at the sight of the metalic red bug the creature would point it's horn towards her bag, at the exposed belt. "W-what? You mean that?" She asks The beetle nods Rose looks at the object in her bag then looks at the beetle and nods.

By this time the creatures recover, and ready themseleves to strike at Rose again, but the beetle quickly flies about, knocking the creatures down once more. Using this breif opening, Rose dives down and grabs the belt swinging it around her waist, she was now acting on adrenaline...and instinct but mostly she was just making it up as she went along.

Rose would then reach her hand out the metalic beetle flies around her, and into Rose's grasp, Rose would then grip the bug and shout: "HENSHIN!!!" She is suddenly reminded of those old TV shows she used to watch as a kid, the ones where the costumed heroes fought the monsters. She slides the metalic bug into her belt, and the object repeats back: HENSHIN! What looked like green clear hexagons began to move across her body forming a suit of armour a pules wave would emit from her body when the armour finishes. "Incredible..." Rose mutters shaking her head

She remembers a conversation with her grandmother from back when she was a child.

Wipe away those tears girl! That's no way for the future defender of humanity to be acting! Yes...you have a grand future ahead of you my girl! A grand future indeed...

"So this is what Grandmother meant...I see."

 

[Captain Chrome]

The elevator wasn't working - a problem which seemed to be emblematic of the whole building. The paint had long since peeled off of the walls and ceiling, leaving little white flakes littered across the floor, most of the apartments in the building were left deserted, their doors still hanging open, and Mark was fairly sure that if he put too much of his weight on the stairs, they'd collapse, sending him to a messy, splinter-filled demise.

Unsurprisingly, Mark was none too happy about having to climb six flights' worth of these terrifying, rickety stairs to get to his destination: apartment 604. He took light steps, cringing every time he heard the wood creak when he set his feet down. I'm amazed, he though to himself, that any place so close to the Garden would be allowed to get this rundown. This can't be helping property values in the neighborhood. After several tense minutes of climbing, and a couple of steps almost breaking out from under him, Mark finally made it to the landing of the sixth floor and looked around for the apartment he sought. Locating it, he tentatively approached and knocked on the door.

"Hello?" he shouted through the decaying wood. He was caught off-guard when the door rapidly swung open, and he was greeted by a pair of grey eyes staring out from behind a shotgun. Mark raised his hands and took a couple of steps back. "Whoah, whoah - look, dude, I don't know what's up, but I got your text and-"

The eyes behind the two black barrels brightened. "Mark?" The eyes' owner asked. He lowered the gun and smiled. "****! Mark, it is you - thank God! Come on in." With the gun out of the way, Mark was now able to clearly see the face of the man who'd contacted him. His hair was brown, he wore a disheveled button-up shirt and dirtied black slacks, and he sported a beard with at least a weeks' worth of growth behind it, possibly two. But there was no mistaking the face behind that beard.

"Jason?" Mark asked. "Jesus, Jason, I almost didn't recognize you." The sight of Jason Rollins, a friend that he hadn't seen since high school, suddenly alleviated Mark's tension; it may not have been wise, but he felt a bit more comfortable now.

Jason stepped back and off to the right, leaning his gun against the wall, and Mark stepped through the decaying doorway. Jason closed the door behind him, and when Mark heard the click of the latch sliding into place, he felt that weight in his stomach return - it suddenly hit home that he was now locked in here with someone who was clearly on the run from something...and was armed. Yeah, great idea. Great idea. He silently cursed his curiosity.

Mark watched Jason walk over to the tattered couch that he'd doubtless taken off of a curb somewhere, and reach behind it. "I want you to have this," Jason said as he withdrew a large silver briefcase from behind the couch; the words SMART BRAIN were printed in large letters across the front, and Jason hefted the case, setting it on the couch.

"Jason," Mark said, "it's been seven years. What have you - ?" Jason held up a finger in the middle of Mark's sentence, cutting him off.

"I didn't call you to catch up, man. I'm sorry, but there are more important things to be dealing with right now. Like, a lot more important. Take a look." Jason opened up the briefcase and Mark came over to look inside. It contained a belt, a cell phone, a camera, and a flashlight that looked more like the scopes that go on top of sniper rifles. All of it bore the same SMART BRAIN logo that was on the outside of the case, and there were illustrations accompanying each object: a stickman firing a gun, a stickman doing some kind of flying kick, and a stickman throwing a punch. Mark was more confused than ever.

"Dude, what is this?"

"It's called Faiz Gear." Jason closed the lid on the briefcase and sat down, letting out a sigh and leaning his head to rest on the back of the couch. "I went to college to be an engineer. Afterwords, I wound up working with this government agency. Or, they said they were government - I'm not so sure now. They said they needed engineers to work on a special project, and they liked my grades and my profile. They even offered to pay for my grad school." Mark nodded; for as long as they'd known each other, Jason was always fiddling with electronics - computers, cars, anything of the sort - and he was always the guy Mark would go to when he had trouble with his computer. It made sense that he'd get impressive grades.

"So they brought me into their project. I worked for a few years, and it seemed fine; this stuff-" he gestured to the Faiz Gear - "was what I was working on. You'll see what it does soon enough. But just recently, I stumbled across some records in their system...some seriously bad stuff. They've got biologists working with them, too, see? And..." Jason trailed off, sighing again. "I don't even know how much of the rest of this you're going to believe. Before I explain too much more, I need to show you something else. Come on." Jason grabbed the Faiz Gear, got up, and headed out of the room, gesturing for Mark to follow.

They left the building (the stairs still weren't any more comforting), and began walking toward Madison Square Garden. As they walked, Jason said nothing, but he kept casting furtive glances around them, as though he was looking to see if someone was following them. If what he'd already told Mark was true, maybe someone was following them. The weight in Mark's stomach suddenly got heavier.

After a couple of blocks, they turned and entered a parking garage. Mark silently thanked God for a working elevator as Jason jabbed the button for the fourth floor. As they rode upward, Jason finally spoke again.

"I think this is going to be it for me, man. There's cameras everywhere now, and...well, they'll have seen me parking it here, I can guarantee you that. But I think it'll still be here - they're probably waiting to take it back so they can lure me out first."

"Parking what?" Mark asked. "Where did you even get this stuff?"

"I stole it."

"You what?!"

"I told you already - these guys are up to some bad stuff, and somebody needs to stop them. I can't use this," he held up the case containing the Faiz Gear, "but I think you can. That's why I wanted you to have it."

Mark closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. This was too much, too fast, and he quite simply couldn't process it all. In the sudden whirlwind of explanation, Mark had even completely forgotten that Jason had lured him in by promising an explanation for what had happened in Akebono City.

The elevator dinged, and the doors slid open. Jason walked out, leading Mark to a gray motorcycle with red highlights.

"This is AutoVajin," Jason said. "I stole it, too. It looks like a motorcycle, but...well, there's something special about it."

Before Mark had a chance to respond, they both looked up as they heard footsteps approaching. Three men in suits and ties had gotten out of a van parked about ten feet away, and were headed in their direction. Jason swore under his breath, and pushed the Faiz Gear into Mark's hands. He took a key out of his pocket and inserted it into the ignition on the motorcycle.

"It's them!" Jason said. "Get out of here!"

"I can't just leave you behind!"

"I said go! There's going to be more of them after you, but you can fight back. Take that cell phone, punch in 555, and put it into the front of the belt. Now get out of here!"

Mark sat down on the bike, but was hesitant to simply leave - Jason had told Mark so much, but he'd really barely told him anything. There were so many more questions that needed answering.

The first of the three men, now only a couple of feet away from Jason, smiled. "Well, Mr. Rollins," the man said, "it seems you've brought a friend. You shouldn't have done that." As he spoke, an odd pattern appeared over the man's face, and the smile dissolved. "The more people you involve, the more people you're going to get killed." As he finished his sentence, much to Mark's amazement, the man changed. It didn't look like transformations in horror movies, where the guy's skin splits apart and he's in horrible pain - he was just a guy in a suit one second, and the next he was some bizarre grey-skinned creature that reminded Mark of a spider; it had a whole circle of eyes on its forehead, with a single larger one in the center, and two long, fanged mandibles extending outward from its mouth.

Mark wasn't proud of what he did next. He should have grabbed Jason and pulled him onto the back of the bike, saving his old friend from the monster. Maybe he should've even stayed and fought. But he didn't do either of those things. Instead, Mark screamed like a little girl, the piercing sound echoing through the rafters of the garage, and pulled away on the bike, fleeing from what he'd just seen.

(Wow, that wound up being way longer than I intended. I need to learn to be a little more concise, I think.)

 

[Oblivion]

"Lately, my whole body had been aching..." a teenage man typed onto his laptop in his blog and on top of the blog was written "Ren's e-Diary." He had spiky redish hair and seems to be asain and also a college student. He was in a Starbuck store, known to be expensive, and nice of course, in his own country. He had immigrated to New York here to study in college and thus far, he's only into his foundations. However, he had made enough enemies in college more than friends, due to his personality. He has a reputation of being a jerk and often arguing with people he call friends. The freshman made a sound, "Tsk!" and shut off his laptop with a very rough handling. "Why do I even want to type things like this into my blog anyways?!" he whispered, ranting to himself. "Then again, the blog's purpose was being a diary anyways..." he was cut off when all of a sudden pain makes him speechless and sweating, it was like he was being slowly burned.

"Hey mister? Are you alright?" one of the waitress of the store asked, looking at the man in pain. "It's...n-nothing." he said, in a heavy tone, and that somehow managed to scare the waitress. "Damn this, this keep happening, and when it feels to painful and I faint, I'll be treated as if I was sleeping when in class. Can't people even tell between fainting and sleeping anymore?!" he grinned his teeth, seemingly to be extremely annoyed and also in pain.

Slowly packing everything he brought to Starbuck, the man slowly moves towards the entrance. He pushed the door open and looked like as if he'd been in hell, since there were no other people inside the cafe beside one weird man with a camera, he did not need to bother with an excuse or anything at al. Almost tripping down the stairs off the coffee house, the man cursed. "Urgh....w-what's happening...? The pain won't go away this time..." he moaned and tripped down onto the floor as flashes from beside him, seemingly to be coming from the Starbuck store. Slowly, his skin was melting or so he thought, while his vision started to blur, he felt panic around him and major burn on his body, as if he was literately on fire. At that very moment, the weird man from Starbuck had ran out and away,

He took in deep breathes and slowly, his vision was clear again, and somehow it was clearer than usually. What he saw was monsters all around, it was much like a nightmare if anything. Ren did not notice at all, but his whole body has mutated into some sort of humanoid insect, he had thick green skins that acts like armors and black stronger than normal human skins. His eyes were insect like and big and red. He looked completely like a monster, unlike those masked figures in the middle of the circle formed by figures that are hidden by shadow. Somehow, his heart was pounding fast and a violent scream could be heard although not too loud, but it could had possibly attracted a tiny bit of unwanted attention. Suddenly the mutant ran forward into the creature that gave chase to the man with the camera before who was taking pictures and violently slashed at it with his sharp fingers. The monster dropped to the ground, although it's glass-stained like skin seems to be holding up very well. Seeming to be frustrated, the green monster grab a hold of the glass-stained monster's neck and tries as hard as possible to chock the thing to death while he keep pushing up and down to make it hit it's head onto the ground.

(OOC : urhh, sorry if I missed anything or made any mistakes. I can't catch up as quick if I read through every single post, I just briefly read through it. >_< 12 hours per day a job is tiring, glad I'm back to morning shift duty.)

 

[Axel Arma]

“What do you 'last four' you little horror movie reject?†Jimon pointed a thumb and nearly poked Kivat in the eye as he watched him, ignoring for the moment the sounds of everything else. Kivat narrowed his eyes at the man for a moment before his mouth opened up and before Jimon could react, he bit the man's hand, hard. “So uncivilized, you should be grateful for what I'm about to do.†Jimon growled lightly at the man, unaware at the physical changes in his face, with multiple stained glass patterns crossing his face and his eyes changing to match them as he watched the bat before seeing several grey chains literally appear out of thing air and wrap around his waist and form a red belt. “Grateful?! You bit me you evil little freak!â€

His eyes settled on the belt, looking back at the bat as he settled himself upside on the belt, muttering down at him. “What the hell did you just do to me, give me some crappy form of rabies? Dope me up with LCD?†He started to say something more but paused as he saw the clear at first, then slight red waves seep forth from the red belt and that strange bat monster and cross over his form. Over both his shoulders would ghostly chains appear and around his right leg they'd appear as well before with a glimmer he'd change. “Shut up, and get to your feet†quipped the creature, who's name he'd find out later. Looking down, he'd notice his frame was noticeably bigger, a tad more slender, and bulky in the shoulders. The second thing he'd notice besides his vision being sharper than it had been was the strange feeling coursing through his veins. He felt stronger, a lot stronger then he ever was, and his tongue settled upon the word “Power.†Whatever the creature had done, Jimon felt a level of strength, speed and agility he'd never known his life. Moving his hands above his shoulders he'd roll his body weight back towards his chest before he'd kip up from the ground. “Maybe you aren't so bad after all, you little freak.â€

He heard a grunt where he was was from the creature before he started to speak, upset clearly at his labeling him a freak, he wasn't a freak, he was Kivat Bat the 3rd dammit. Son of Kivat Bat the 2nd and the wielder of the Demon Imperial Stone. It was all a bit too mystical to explain to somebody like Jimon he bemused, but when he bit the man, he infused him with the Active Force and forced a transformation into the being known to their race simply as “Kiva.†The motif of the bat, from his large red head with the yellow eyes and the large armored like chest and shoulders. Across his right leg was a bulky piece, which he'd explain to Jimon sometime later as Hell's Gate, bound by the Catena Chains and made of Lucifer Metal. He wouldn't tell him why the leg was like that, it was never explained to him by his father, where ever he may be. Jimon turned his head, looking towards the girl who transformed and Hikaru before glancing towards the strange, bug like creature. “I would have thought monsters wouldn't be real, but I was just bitten by a mutant bat thing.â€

Jimon moved, the chains across his leg and shoulders rattling as he closed the distance between himself and one of the worms and shifted his body weight as he jumped, rolling across the top of the monsters head and down behind him. By the time the worm would turn to face Jimon, he was struck across the face with his right fist, which he lead directly into a sharp strike from his right elbow. He'd shift again as he drove his left first upwards and struck it clean across the face with an uppercut. As the worm would stumble back for a second Jimon would grab him firmly in a head lock with his right arm and pull his head past his side as he shifted his foot upwards at a sharp angle and kicked it directly in the throat. When he heard the grunt, he'd put the full weight of his body and summon what strength he'd have and lift the creature from the ground and hurl it directly towards the blue fangire.

“I'm going to enjoy kicking Mr. Ed's ass.†Jimon would point his right hand towards the thing with the red eyes as he'd start to move now towards where the threw the worm and the Fangire. “Would you shut up and just kill it already?†Quipped the little creature from his waist and growling slightly upwards towards the man who became Kiva. “I think you better shut up before I turn you to bat soup.â€

----------------------------

Antonio glanced around, so many people transforming into weird things, first the girl transforming into some kind of bulky..bug thing, and the red haired man transforming into a human bat thing. It was all too perplexing, and frankly, weird, for him. So, he'd do what any rational, sane person would have done in this place, encircled by monsters. He fainted. A solid thud later and the blood covered matador was on the ground, such a swell thing to do after having a strange belt go inside his body.

------------------------------------

The Horse fangire watched Hikaru as he killed one of the worms, grunting slowly as he killed one of the worms. A motion of his hand would result in something dropping down from a close by building. The impact of his landing would crack the concrete and he'd split apart into a swarm of locusts for a moment before reforming. He was the Locust Undead, and that was all he needed for a name. The Horse fangire would point, leveling the tip of his sword at Cecil, “Kill him.†Once more, if he could smile, he would as he stepped to the side, watching with a slight shift of his head the worm flying through the air and slamming into the ground where he stood before turning back to Kiva started to speak. Images of a face, not well seen however would shift through the blue parts of his skin, appearing like a mirror almost as he spoke, as would be the case everytime. “Why don't you three stop fighting? I promise to make all of your deaths quick, but those two, the one who fainted and the other one would die very slowly.â€
----

OOC: Oblivion, I think you missed the part in my previous post that Hikaru, Cecil, Rose, Jimon and Antonio were encircled by at least twenty "men" and the fangires/worms were inside that circle. Not saying to remove it, after all, there is the matter of the Fangire(Spider Fangire), that was attacking Kai's Agito before he ran off. You can have yourself a nice one-on-one brawl with him. ^-^

 

[Kurou Daijuuji]

Are you ready to raise a little hell?
Always.

His right hand moves under his coat and into a pocket, emerging with a small black object that he raises in front of his face. The slightest hint of a smile crosses his features as a belt appears around his waist and he throws the object - his Rider Pass - up into the air.

He reaches down and taps the first button on his belt - red - and a fairly catchy jingle begins to play. A quick kick sends a Worm that was approaching him stumbling off into another, and he raises his arms up to shoulder level and extends them outward, curved up from the elbow and his hands raised.

"Showtime!"

Showoff is more like it, and the word is "henshin"! It's a classic!
Critic. Who's the one in control here?
....

The phrase is timed perfectly as the Rider Pass falls right in front of the symbol on the belt, and [Sword Form] is heard emitting from it in a mechanical voice. Waves of red light surge from the symbol in the center, forming into fragments of mysterious material as the energy gets farther from his body. The Rider Pass itself disappears before it hits the ground, and the hundreds of almost transparent red fragments are drawn back in toward him, forming into the solid armor that protects the system's user. His head is covered by a plain black helmet, but a solid red visor slides over the face from the back, splitting into a pair of large 'eyes" that glow briefly.

Hikaru..now Den-O steps over and grabs the Worm that Steven tripped up by the feet, and promptly begins swinging it around him, knocking over a couple of it's comrades over in the process. As he gains speed revolving around, he guides it upward and lets go, sending the flailing green creature flying skyward and over a nearby building.

You're going to traumatize somebody when that thing goes crashing through their windshield.
That's right, nobody knows about monsters here.
It's going to take me forever to explain this.

His hands move downward, assembling the DenGasher into sword form, striding forward and delivering a slash to a Worm that gets in his way, headed right at the Horse Fangire..

Having someone else in control of his body gives Hikaru time to think, and something about this whole situation is just..wrong. These powers gathered in this place..

Kuuga, Kabuto, Kiva..just what the hell is going on here?

 

[Dark Kabuto]

"Mr.Bullfighter man!!!" Rose shouts seeing Antonio collapse onto the ground, a bunch of Worms began circling him. Rose begins to search for a weapon "Weapon...weapon...weapon...AH!" Inside her suit, the computers on screen displayed what looked like a gun. Rose reaches for the Kunai Gun and pulls it out, "Get away from him!!!" She shouts three lasers locked onto the Worms and she fired twice, the Worms didn't seem effected by this but Rose then switched the Kunai gun to Axe mode and slams the Axe into one of the Worms. She drives the Axe into the Worm's shoulder, and then with all her might, she pulls the Axe down, a big gash could be seen on the Worm's body, before it explodes in a cloud of blue fire.

Rose turns her heads to the Horse Fangire and points her finger to the sky "Grandmother once said: Even in the face of great adversity, one must never give up their resolve." She says, she then points her finger at the Fangire "...It is you who shall be dying today! You Hell spawn!" She cries

 

[Oblivion]

{OOC: fixed my post. Would the spider fangire be important to your story or he's just another villain out there?}

Grinning in a frustrated and angry tone, the green mutant continued to violently try to dismember the monster he had on the ground, from the waist, something sort of like a belt could be seen, and in the middle was a green orb that seems to be protected and held in place by the belt. "Urgh...what the hell are you!?" the monster that looked like a spider vampire screamed and tried it's best to push the green monster aside. The red eyed green monster accidentally let loose of his grip and was kicked back to the ground. Taking advantage of the situation quickly, the spider grabbed the green one by the neck and raised him up only to send him flying into the cafe through the glass door. "Urgh!! What the hell?! My body's moving on it's own now!? What the hell w-was that monster anyways?!" he thought as he slowly pick himself up.

"And...what have I became?! I look like a monster!" Ren asked in panic not noticing that the spider fangire had came into the room. "You look...confused?" the spider asked in low audio and laughed creepily, almost like a maniac. Right after that, he dash over to Ren with a kick of his leg to the ground and slammed into Ren with his thick glass stained shoulder, pushing Ren into the wall. "Arghh!!" Ren cried in pain. "NOW, time for me to repay you." The spider said and started punching Ren over and over again. The third hit was blocked, and Ren, in his current form locked the spider's arms, opened his mouth and bit the spider on it's neck. However, he quickly moved away and kicked the spider on it's stomach in reflex. "Krgh...that was terrible...why did I even had the urge!?" Ren ranted. He choked and once again regained his balance. The spider almost looked like it was surprised, but it quickly put back on that creepy looking look on his face like before.

 

[Captain Chrome]

Mark rode as fast as he could through the parking garage, heading for the exit. The wind slashed at his eyes, and he had to squint to see anything through the tears that were forming in front of his vision - both from the wind and because he'd just turned tail and ran when a friend needed help.

It's okay, he told himself. He told me to go. Told me to leave him behind.

The rationalization didn't help. It didn't take away the sting in his gut, the ever-present needle-prick just below his chest that reminded him of his cowardice. He didn't think anything was going to take that away for a long time.

As Mark rode toward the exit, another van pulled in front of him, blocking his way. Mark squeezed the brakes, skidding the motorcycle - AutoVajin, Jason had called it - to a stop and making a half-turn before he finally came to rest. Mark swore under his breath. Another six men, all dressed in identical dark suits, spilled out.

Looks like I'm going to have to man up here, one way or another, Mark told himself. So, okay - fine. He turned the rest of the way, and drove the bike back up to the fourth floor, where he and Jason had been attacked. When he got there, he heard the footfalls of the new arrivals, maybe twenty feet behind him - How are they keeping up so fast? - and saw the spider-monster standing over a pile of gray dust that spilled out of the disheveled clothes Jason had been wearing. The creature looked up when Mark stopped his bike. Even after what he'd already seen, Mark still would've said that the next thing he saw was impossible, but he knew it happened nevertheless: the spider-creature's shadow changed, coming to look like a two-dimensional, green-tinted version of its human form.

And then it spoke to him.

"I don't know who you are, friend," the monster's shadow said, "but I'll make you a deal: if you give us the Faiz Gear without any further trouble, we'll let you just walk. No fighting, no repercussions, and you still get to live." The monster extended its left arm, palm up, and its shadow did the same. "What do you say?"

Mark couldn't entirely account for what he did next - maybe it was the instinctual revulsion he felt upon seeing something that quite simply shouldn't exist; maybe it was a combination of the anger he felt at the creature for killing Jason, and at himself for leaving Jason to die; maybe it was Jason's earlier words, telling him to fight back. Maybe it was all three, or something else entirely. Whatever it was, Jason grabbed the case containing the Faiz Gear off the back of his bike, opened it up, and secured the belt around his waist. Pulling out the cellphone, he punched in 555 and hit ENTER.

STANDING BY

"I'm not giving you a damn thing," Mark said to the creature, "except this." As he slotted the phone into the front of the belt, he lifted up his free left hand and gave the creature the finger.

COMPLETE

Angry now, the spider monster rushed Mark; at the same time, Mark looked down at himself and saw a pattern of glowing red lines forming over his body. The light from the pattern became more intense, stopping the spider-thing in its tracks as it held its hands up to protect its multifarious eyes from the light. After no more than a second, whatever process Mark had initiated seemed to be done - his vision had been tinted a soft shade of yellow, and he felt some kind of suit encasing him.

He also felt stronger than he ever had in his life. Mark turned his now-armored body and saw the six guys that had blocked his exit running up; he turned back, and saw that the men who accompanied the spider-monster had all turned into monsters themselves. They took a few steps forward, but the spider-monster held out its hand, stopping them.

"I'll take care of him myself," the arachno-beast said.

Mark swore again. It looked like he was going to have to fight. Not that he dreaded that prospect as much as he had a few seconds ago - but nevertheless, the situation remained unpromising. He got into a TKD stance as the gray thing ran towards him, an animal scream rushing out from between its mandibles. Before it got into range, Mark flung his left leg forward in a push-kick, catching the monster in the chest and driving it backwards. As it stumbled, however, it shot a thread of silk from its mouth, catching Mark's armor and using it to pull him forward and down.

Before Mark lost his balance entirely, the spider - now having regained its own equilibrium - grabbed onto the back of Mark's neck, stopping his fall, and spun him around so that he faced the thing. The monster held Mark doubled over as it delivered a series of punishing knee strikes to his stomach, left, then right, then left again, and so on. The suit kept the blows from hurting too much, but they still stung. He blocked the monster's seventh blow with his hands, then grabbed its leg on the way back down. He held the leg suspended for a moment, just long enough to throw the thing off-balance once more, then stood up, bringing the leg with him. As he lifted the leg, the monster tumbled onto its back, and Mark retreated a few steps, putting space between them. He kept his hands up, balled into fists, ready to keep fighting.

As the thing got to its knees, it sprayed more lines of silk, wrapping them around Mark's wrists and neck. He struggled, but the silk clung too tightly for him to get loose. The spider bit the ends of the lines, cutting the silk, then took them into its hands. It began spinning around, pulling Mark's body in a wide arc around the monster. Mark continued his efforts to get free, but they were in vain; soon enough, he felt the momentum the spider-thing had gained lift him from the ground, and at the moment he went airborne, the spider let go.

Mark felt himself hurling backwards, a human shot put, and then felt a moment of rough impact when he collided with concrete. He bounced a few times, and realized the thing had flung him across the street. With the sudden, dawning comprehension of what kind of strength he was facing - the thing had thrown a full-grown man in heavy armor across a four-lane street with little effort - Mark got to his feet and decided that screw it, he was going to run away again.

As if in response to this decision, the spider leaped across the street and landed directly in front of Mark, bending its knees to absorb the impact, then rising back up. Mark turned and began running.

Desperate to get away, Mark pumped his legs as fast as they would go - which was significantly faster than normal, thanks to whatever the suit was - and pushed himself off the ledges of rooftops, soaring across alleyways and side streets like a giant pigeon. The freedom of movement he suddenly gained when he wore the armor was incredible, and even through the red haze of his terror, there was a part of Mark that thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Unfortunately, it was short-lived, as the spider-thing finally caught up to him, slamming into Mark's back in a mid-air tackle. He felt the exhilarating rush of being airborne change, like someone had flipped a switch, into the icy dread of falling.

Mark managed to turn himself around in the thing's grip, and they grappled for another moment as they fell; Mark managed to get on top of the thing, but he was pretty sure they were both going to die. In a last, desperate attempt to save himself, he grabbed onto the monster's shoulders and swung his feet up, planting them against its chest. He braced his legs to kick himself away from it...

And that was when the monster slammed, spine first, into the pavement, with Mark still atop it - though not for the long. The spider bounced once, and Mark fell to the side, landing on his left shoulder. He grunted at the impact, and once he realized that he wasn't dead, he rolled onto his back just in time to see the spider-creature burst into blue flames and disintegrate, leaving behind a pile of gray dust - the same thing that had remained of Jason. Mark obviously couldn't be certain, but he was pretty sure the thing was dead.

As he got to his feet, he finally took a look around at his surroundings, trying to get his bearings...and realized that he was far from alone. He was standing in the middle of a circle of people - or at least, some of them were people. A few of them wore armor similar to his own, but the majority of them were monsters - and completely unlike the ones he'd just escaped.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," Mark cried.