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Armoured Rider Knuckle
by
Cyclone Accel Xtreme
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Chapter I - Ryoji Hase
(Ryoma's Lab, Yggdrasil Tower)
"Put it on the table," instructed Ryoma to the two Kurokage Troopers carrying the corpse of Ryoji Hase, still in his Hekija Inves Form.
The professor himself was sat at his desk, admiring his upgrades to the prototype Drivers used by Kouta Kazuraba and Kaito Kumon. The two were now safely locked up in their cells, the Drivers would never be used, but he hated to see a project uncompleted, he had already upgraded Takatora's Sengoku Driver should he ever need to use it.
The two Troopers hefted the body up onto the diseccion table and left, puddles of green blood formed around the points at which the body touched the table. Ryoma wandered over to the body, deciding to leave off locking up his newest Trooper Belt away for now, he had a much more interesting subject to study.
Although, Ryoma had tuned the new Driver up somewhat, even if a Class C Lockseed was used in it, it could still beat Gaim or Baron, even if they were using Suika Arms. He also adapted it so a Genesis Core replaced the Rider Indicator, he was interested to see what kind of Arms that would create.
"Hmm, you're going to be very interest to dissect, Test Subject #5," spoke Ryoma to the corpse in front of him, "I've never seen anyone capable of surviving as an Inves for that long."
-Mr. Knuckleman-
(Dream World)
Ryoji Hase gasped loudly and woke, sitting bolt upright. The former Rider looked down at his body and was shocked to see it was once again normal, no sign of the fact he had consumed a fruit in the depths his insanity.
"What the hell?" muttered Hase at the sheer whiteness all around him, "Where am I?"
"The dream world," answered DJ Sagara, appearing behind Hase, "A world between life and death."
"I'm dead?" breathed Hase in shock.
"Yes, the Lock Dealer did it," replied Sagara, "But you can to choose to return."
"What's the point?" grunted Hase, "Jonouchi abandoned me, Raid Wild is over and my Driver was destroyed!"
"Jonouchi didn't abandon you," spoke Sagara, "He tried to distance you from the fight since your Driver was destroyed, he even went crawling to Bravo so he could train to be strong enough to protect you."
"Really?" questioned Hase, "But my Driver is still destroyed."
"Yggdrasil has mass-produced Drivers, with no DNA Lock, I'm sure you could get your hands on one," returned Sagara, "If you returned that is."
"Do they really need me?" asked Hase, "What could I do, all I am is a hot-headed idiot who was everyone's punch bag!"
"You were using the least powerful set of Arms," informed Sagara, "Imagine what you could do with more power?"
"And use it for what? This whole Inves Games seems kinda trivial now," muttered Hase, his shoulders slumping in defeat.
"Okay, I'll tell you the real reason I'm here," spoke Sagara, "The world is going to end if you choose to give up and die. Billions of people will die, the Inves will be defeated, but at a great cost."
"And I can stop this?" asked Hase disbelievingly, "How am I important? I'm just some bad boy who got kicked outta school!"
"I've realised I can't convince you to choose to live," said Sagara, "But I can show you the future if you choose to die."
Without warning Sagara reached his hand out and golden energy covered Hase, the future flashing through his mind, Kiwami Arms, Micchi becoming evil, the destruction of Jonouchi's Driver and Kaito evolving into Lord Baron. Hase no longer had the choice to live or die, he had an obligation to live and fight to protect the human race.
"If you live, if you die," spoke Sagara, "It's all up to you, but if you've got any fight in you, now's the time to pull it out."
The golden energy surrounding Hase intensified and his eyes snapped open, his irises pure gold.
"I WILL LIVE!" yelled Hase, his body exploding in a flash of gold.
Sagara uncovered his eyes and smiled warmly, his form shifting and revealing him to be Kouta, his hair a light blonde colour.
"The future is looking much brighter now," muttered Kouta, vanishing in a flash of gold.
-Mr. Knuckleman-
(Ryoma's Lab)
"Right then, let's get to work," spoke Ryoma to himself as he prepared to dissect the Hekija Inves.
Suddenly the Inves's right arm shot up and knocked Ryoma across the room with one swipe. Disbelievingly, the Lemon Rider watched as the Inves corpse stood up, blood dripping out of its wounds.
"Impossible!" muttered Ryoma, "He's dead!"
Gold energy condensed around the Inves, sweep across his body, healing it and transforming back into that of Ryoji Hase. The former Armoured Rider looked very different, wearing black jeans, grey converse, a white t-shirt and a sleeveless leather jacket. His hair was no longer gelled back, now allowed to sit in a natural quiff. However, the most shocking changes were his shining golden irises.
"I was," answered Hase with a grin, "But I got bored."
"Those eyes!" gasped Ryoma, "Those are the eyes of a-"
"Overlord Inves, that's what I am," interrupted Hase, "Part human, part Overlord!"
"Th-That's impossible!" denied Ryoma, scared for one of the few times in his life, "You can't exist."
"And yet I do," replied Hase, approaching Ryoma's desk and picking the new Trooper Driver.
"Don't touch that," warned Ryoma, pulling out his Genesis Driver and Lemon Energy Lockseed.
"I could use a warm-up," smirked Hase, knowing his arrogance was rubbing Ryoma up the wrong way.
LEMON ENERGY!
Ryoma activated his Energy Lockseed and a crack appeared above him, the Lemon Energy Armour Part dropping down through it. Ryoma spun his Lockseed around and clicked it into the Drive Bay. Pushing down the Lock On Arm, Ryoma followed up by sliding the Seaboll Compressor in. The Lockseed popped open, soda flowing into the plastic cup below.
SODA!
Ryoma's blue and black suit materialised around his body, the Armour Part dropping down onto his shoulders and unfolding into Lemon Energy Arms, arming him with the Sonic Arrow.
LEMON ENERGY ARMS! FIGHT! POWER! FIGHT! POWER! F-F-F-FIGHT!
"I think I'll use this Driver," taunted Hase, holding up the upgraded Trooper Driver.
"You are disrupting my data collection," replied Duke, raising his Sonic Arrow.
Hase rolled his eyes and spoke, "Henshin."
A Helheim Fruit sat floating in one of Ryoma's jars smashed through its container and flew to Hase's hand, who opened it as it turned into a Kurumi Lockseed.
KURUMI!
Above Hase another crack opened, an orange and black, walnut themed Armour Part dropping through it. Hase grinned and activated the Cutting Knife, a loud guitar riff sound coming from the Driver.
KURUMI ARMS! MR. KNUCKLEMAN!
In a flash, a black suit materialised around Hase and the Kurumi Arms dropped onto his shoulders, unfolding and arming him with the Kurumi Bombers, which greatly resembled a pair of boxing gloves.
"It's clobbering time!" yelled Hase, charging head first at Ryoma, even death couldn't curb his head-strong nature.
Duke raised his Sonic Arrow and fired off a barrage of shots, only for Hase to block them with his Bombers. The Walnut Rider barrelled into Duke, pummelling him over and over with his fists.
"Hm, long range attack seems to be futile," spoke Duke to himself, the HUD of his helmet showing him an analysis of Hase, "Switching to my personal weapon would be a tactical advantage."
Duke tossed his Sonic Arrow aside and held out his hand, a wicked-looking mace appearing in it. The Lemon Mace was a relatively short weapon, the spiked end resembling a lemon. Duke reached out his other hand, a second Lemon Mace appearing in it.
"Even with the upgrades I made to that Driver, not even with a Class A could you ever hope to beat me," taunted Duke, charging at Hase, swinging his maces.
"Did you ever think to ever stop think about who could be using it?" asked Hase in return, knocking a mace out of one of Duke's hands, "What if they're stronger than you accounted for?"
"Impossible!" spat Duke, "No one is that strong!"
"I just died and came back to life," retorted Hase, "I'm pretty sure impossible isn't really that much effort."
Duke charged at Hase again, who quickly sliced his Cutting Knife down three times, activating his Sparking Function.
KURUMI SPARKLING!
Hase concentrated, three Walnut holograms appearing in front of him. He prepared himself and punched them at Duke, the first knocking his maces from his hands, the second blasting him back and the third forcing him to power down. Hase canceled his transformation and walked over to where Ryoma lay, too exhausted to move.
"What are you?" grunted Ryoma, trying to crawl away.
"I'm Armoured Rider Knuckle," replied Hase, before punching Ryoma in the head and knocking him out, "You'd do well to remember that."
-Mr. Knuckleman-