Ride On Chapter 5 (Original chapter Chapter 139)
Days Later
Taylor's Base
"Will...you...just...get...tightened!?" I grunted as I worked a ratchet on my newly assembled motorbike. It had been a very fortuitous find in one of the other scrapyards, albeit in much worse condition than the first one had been. The engine had been rusted all to hell, the wiring had been chewed on by vermin AND rusted all to hell, and don't get me started on the state of the saddle!
That had been a few nights ago. Now? Now it was still a mess, but it was a mess without useless rusting engines and wiring sitting on the frame, and I'd tossed out the old saddle as soon as I could grab a knife after dragging the thing into my workshop. I had plans to build a completely new engine and electronics into the bike, although nothing fancy beyond letting it be recognized by my Rider Suits as something that could be converted into a new Rider Machine.
Getting the parts was going to be trickier; I'd noticed increased patrols by all of the gangs and PRT over the last few days. It looks as if those dumbasses had finally decided to snitch me out to their leadership. Lung probably wasn't too happy with them, and due to the way idiot criminals gossip and bitch like old women, the Empire and Merchants probably found out only a short time after the ABB.
Deciding I'd worked on my bike long enough, I turned back to my next project...my attempt to create a usable spear for Masked Rider [The First] to absorb and use. While it wasn't a suit I was planning on making extensive use of, that was no excuse for leaving it under-equipped for being used, and getting a vessel for the Windstorm Spear was the only thing left to do for [The First].
Spears were the first weapons to be actually built by primitive man due to how easy it was to make them compared to a sword. Get a meter and a half long length of wood, strip it down of any twigs, knots and bark, sharpen the end, perhaps firing the tip to harden the point and presto, you're done. Of course, just that wasn't good enough for a weapon used in one of my suits. Instead, over the next few hours, I basically took a solid length of steel and worked on it until it was the correct length before adding a leaf-shaped spearhead to the end and fastening it in place with several strong fastenings.
All in all, it looked pretty damned good in my own humble opinion.
For what was probably the last time, I beckoned the Typhoon Grasshopper to me and connected it to my Rider Belt with a [Wind Charge!] declaration.
"One more time." I said to myself as I grasped the haft of my spear and pressed the central button once more.
[Reach to the HEAVENS, Masked Rider! Stand and FIGHT! As of this moment, the SCYTHING WIND is at your command!]
The familiar sensation of the Rider Suit of [The First] enclosed me and I smiled fondly beneath my helmet. I was more than slightly fond of [The First] as it was the first actual piece of Tinkertech that I had made successfully, and without a workshop or proper tools to boot.
The spear, after undergoing the transformation, was basically the same, albeit reinforced to be far sturdier than it had been. It was also colored in the same way as the Rider Suit was. Other than that, the only difference was a pair of turbines, one situated on either side of the spearhead. This was probably for the Rider Windstorm Thrust, although I had no idea what that could entail.
I spun the weapon around lazily, silently marveling to myself about how effortless it was to do so. It had been solid steel before, and whatever material it was made of now wasn't any lighter than steel, yet to me it may as well have been made of balsa wood.
"Shame I won't be using you again." I muttered as I de-transformed. "Still...it seems like a shame to not use you for something...ah, I know!"
I hastily checked the time and then started building another Rider Belt. I may not need it, but if the unthinkable happened, Dad could use it as an emergency way of protecting himself. If that did happen though, it was more than likely that I was probably either dead or captured by the gangs.
I tried not to think about it.
The Next Night
Streets of Brockton Bay
Shadow Stalker grunted as she landed atop a roof. She was right on the border of the Docks area and she was on the lookout for someone.
'A new Indie Tinker comes along right around the same time that Hebert Triggers? No such thing as coincidence.' the former vigilante scoffed to herself. She was relieved though; the fact that Hebert was a Tinker meant that she wasn't a Predator. Look at Kid Win and Armsmaster, not to mention L33t and Squealer! Not a single predator among them!
(She was glossing over the likes of Blasto, Bonesaw, Mannequin and several other incredibly powerful and vicious Tinkers, but Shadow Stalker was no stranger to being delusional, as it was her permanent state of being.)
Anyway, she was going to track down that bitch Hebert. If she actually was this mysterious armored hero that had been stirring things up in Brockton Bay (and driving up Miss Piggy's blood pressure) then bringing her in would be a feather in her cap. How she'd explain the capture out of hours was something that the crossbow user put aside for the moment; what mattered was grabbing Hebert in the first place.
The Tinker had been seen in the northernmost part of the city for the most part, with occasional forays further down south. However, whoever the Tinker was, they made certain to stay away from three locations in particular: the PRT Building, Arcadia High School and the known locations of New Wave's houses. This said that whoever the Tinker was (Hebert), they didn't want to step on the toes of the Protectorate or New Wave.
'Even as a fucking Cape she's being so goddamned weak!' Shadow Stalker thought contemptuously. 'Fucking Hebert. Goddamned prey.'
Her internal grousing about the bane of her life was interrupted by the sight of a black-clad figure emerging from a nearby alleyway beneath her, making Shadow Stalker sit up and become alert. Examining the outfit that the presumptive Tinker wore, she found herself reluctantly approving. Not a speck of skin was revealed and the full-face helmet was pretty intimidating with those bug-like eyes. If they caught the light at just the right angle, they'd be even more so.
For an indie hero, operating alone on the streets with no backup or support, intimidation was an important factor. Even a split-second of hesitation on the part of an enemy could mean the difference between kicking the crap out of the enemy, or the enemy kicking the crap out of you. It was ironically amusing that Hebert, of all people, seemed to understand that while the idiots of the Protectorate, and that PR weenie Glen Chambers, didn't get it it at all.
If he tried to make her 'look less edgy' one more time, she'd shoot him with her crossbow and damn the consequences.
Stealthily, Shadow Stalker followed the oblivious masked person across Brockton Bay across the rooftops. It became a bit more difficult when the Tinker jumped up to the rooftops as well, as she had to make sure to keep her distance and keep to cover in order to avoid having the other Cape spot her.
The Tinker must have been on patrol, because Shadow Stalker found herself going all over the northern areas of Brockton Bay. Much to the former vigilante's continued frustration, there were no crimes happening in the area. No muggings, no carjackings, no druggies, nothing. What the hell was going on?
The bark of a gun echoing out across the rooftops made the Shadow Breaker automatically activate her power. Ahead, the Tinker had staggered as they were hit in the shoulder by the bullet. Looking around, Shadow Stalker spotted a man several buildings over, wearing all-black body armor and aiming a goddamned sniper rifle at the tinker. Before she could line up a shot with her crossbow, he got attacked...by a giant bug.
Blinking in disbelief, Shadow Stalker's jaw unhinged a bit at the sight of a blue, red and gold beetle slashing the sniper rifle in half as it buzzed by on translucent golden wings before flying over to the tinker, who grabbed it out of the air and pressed something on it.
[Masked Rider Pantheon!]
"What the fuck?" Shadow Stalker whispered in bafflement at the declaration from the tinker, even as the tinker slammed the beetle onto their belt.
[Blazing Charge!]
Just as that latest declaration finished, a wave of more black-clad soldiers boiled up across the various rooftops and started to raise their weapons towards the tinker. Before any could pull their triggers though, the tinker defiantly pressed something on their new belt accessory and lit up like a Christmas tree red, blue and golden light pouring off of them.
[Blaze towards the HEAVENS, Masked Rider! BURN brightly! As of this moment, the FLAMES OF RETRIBUTION are at your command!]
Once the lightshow died down, Shadow Stalker (and most of the mercs as well) found their jaws dropping at the armored figure standing in the tinker's place. The heavy armor surrounding the tinker definitely seemed to up the intimidation factor again.
'But where the fuck did it come from?!' the reluctant Ward demanded in confusion, which naturally led to anger for her. 'Even Tinker's can't fully tell the laws of physics to take a hike! A pocket dimension? That has to be it.'
"You all work for Coil, right?" the tinker asked, their voice distorted and disguised. "Seriously, I've beaten one team of you assholes before, and it doesn't look like you have anything they didn't have, so HOW ABOUT YOU ALL PISS OFF ALREADY!?"
The last sentence was shouted at the top of their voice, with the aid of built in loudspeakers. Shadow Stalker winced. It certainly rattled the mercs, with a couple of them jumping back in alarm, but a gruff order from one of them put some steel in their spines, as they raised their assault rifles again.
"I see. The hard way it is, then." the tinker sighed irritably. With a mechanical whine, the pair of gun-like ornaments mounted on the shoulders of the tinkertech armor rotated around to point at the suddenly apprehensive soldiers of fortune.
"Now...[Beetle Vulcans], fire!" the tinker ordered softly. Seconds later, the roar of a pair of machine-guns was heard as flames erupted from the barrels of the shoulder-mounted weaponry and slammed into the mercs like a gale force wind. Several flew back with shouts of pain, but no spray of blood.
Was this tinker seriously fighting using nonlethal ammunition? That settled it, this was definitely Hebert. Only she could have all that power and still be weak.
A few of the mercs returned fire, but their bullets just bounced off the armor as if they were completely inconsequential...which wasn't a bad comparison, really. Any real Cape was above stupid crude weapons like the gun.
The fact that Hebert had access to it made something roil inside of her before snapping. With all the power that suit gave Hebert, she wasn't even taking advantage of it to strike true fear into the mercenaries! It disgusted her.
As the last mercenary fell with a groan of pain, Shadow Stalker's crossbow swung up and fired a bolt wreathed in shadows at the person that she most despised in the world after the bastard who had made her Trigger.
With Taylor
Ordinarily, I wouldn't have used the [Beetle Vulcans] on ordinary humans, but two things made me relax my restraint in this regard. One, the mercs were wearing military-grade Kevlar body armor, which reduced the power of my shots enough that they got away with fractured bones at worst. And Two...I had just about had it with being ambushed by Coil's little clockwork soldiers, so I was taking it less leniently on them than I would have otherwise.
An alarm screamed at me just as he last mercenary collapsed and my guns fell silent. I looked around and flinched as a bolt of shadows shot at me from out of nowhere. I raised my arms instinctively to protect me...and the bolt pinged off my armor, breaking as it did so.
As it fell to the rooftop, the shadowy form fell away from it and I could see that it was a crossbow bolt. Shadow power + crossbow = one Cape in Brockton Bay.
"Shadow Stalker." I breathed out. The infamous former vigilante who became a Protectorate Ward sometime late last year. The one who had, according to a few rumors, been very brutal against criminals. Why was she shooting at me?!
"How the fuck did you no-sell my shadow bolt?!" the Ward herself appeared from the shadows, already reloading a fresh bolt into her weapon. "That should've gone through your armor like it wasn't even there!"
"A better question is why are you shooting at me with a live bolt, knowing it could kill me?" I shot back, turning to fully face the girl who had just shot at me.
"Screw you." the so-called heroine scoffed and shot another bolt at me with the ease of one who had long practice at it. This one didn't fare any better than its predecessor, slamming into my breastplate and its head crumpling like paper. Seriously, my armor could bounce AP rounds and lasers; a mere crossbow bolt wasn't even a challenge by comparison.
Noticing that the mercs were getting up and helping their friends to limp away, I scowled. As impregnable as my armor apparently was, I had no desire to see if it protected me better or worse against close combat attacks, and the knife that the former vigilante was pulling out of her belt looked pretty sharp, albeit with a crude, homemade appearance. I doubted that it could get through my armor, but I wasn't willing to take any chances and decided that now was a good time to become a bit more maneuverable and activated the [Cast Off] sequence.
[Cast Off: Change Stag Beetle!]
In an explosion of armor plates, my armor changed to what it referred to as [Rider Mode] and the two mandibles-slash-horns snapped up on either side of my helmet. I had thoroughly investigated the armor in the days since I had created it and there was one particular system that I was eager to try out, even as Shadow Stalker hurled herself into a full-n charge at me.
"Engage Clock Up!" I ordered, reaching down and flipping the mandibles of my Beetle Zecter into an open position.
[Clock Up!]
The instant after the declaration from my Zecter...the world froze. Or so it seemed from my perspective. Although that wasn't really accurate. Shadow Stalker was moving very, very, very slowly in the air, allowing me to simply step around her before I dialed my strength way down and slammed a punch into her gut. It was rather amusing to see her slowly contort around my punch. Still, I considered a single punch to be more than enough retribution for two failed assassination attempts, so I turned and sped away, leaping across the rooftops at a speed that the normal human eye would see as a blur, leaving Shadow Stalker to fall to her knees behind me, clutching her stomach and doing her best not to retch.
With Shadow Stalker
The former vigilante mightily resisted the urge to vomit as she staggered to her feet, clutching her stomach. That had been a hard fucking punch!
'What the fuck did Hebert build into that goddamned armor?!' Shadow Stalker growled to herself. 'One minute it was a walking fucking tank and the next it...it purged the armor before moving faster than I could see it! Fuck, it moved faster than Velocity can move! What the fucking shit?!'
She had been on training exercises with the speedster and she knew that while he was fast, Velocity had never moved so fast that he turned into a formless blob like Hebert's armor had just done. One minute, the Tinker had been standing perfectly still, and then the next, she'd moved to the side and riven a sledgehammer of a punch into Shadow Stalker's stomach so quickly that there'd been no time for her to switch into shadow state.
Then...Hebert had just...run off. As if she wasn't concerned about Shadow Stalker tracking her down for a rematch. Again, so typically Hebert. So goddamn weak.
'Think you can just fuck me up like this and get away with it, Hebert?' the black girl thought with a scowl beneath her mask. 'You're gonna regret that.'
Her anger against Hebert had risen by quite a bit since the stick-thin twig of a girl had left Winslow. Emma had drawn away from her for the most part, apparently blaming Sophia for her 'best friend' leaving the school, which made the former vigilante want to scream with fury.
Hebert was gonna pay!
Same Time
Office, Coil's Base
"Interesting...very interesting indeed." Coil mused as he watched Shadow Stalker childishly throw a tantrum on screen. While he was, once again, irked about the fact that the tinker could somehow no-sell his split timeline simulation power, the information he had gleaned about both the Tinker and about Shadow Stalker more than made up for it.
'That armor...a double transformation ability.' the supervillain mused. 'Plus those shoulder-mounted guns, which seem to be completely lacking any kind of recoil...I cannot believe that this one tinker is able to create such...powerful equipment. Could there be a noncombat tinker on the sidelines? If so, then I have been missing any signs of TWO tinkers Triggering, which is shameful for my staff. Hmm...'
The more interesting factor here was Shadow Stalker. While a violent sociopath, she did generally keep her violent tendencies to the criminal element, so the fact she immediately attacked this Tinker without hesitation meant that she possibly knew something about the tinker...or the person behind the mask.
Beneath his mask, a smirk crawled across Coil's face. While he currently may not know who was behind the tinker's mask, Shadow Stalker was another matter entirely. Sophia Hess was going to receive a little visit from his mercenaries in one of his timeline simulations. This was the absolute best part of his power. He could do almost anything in his timelines and say with absolute honesty that he hadn't done anything, because he technically hadn't made the decision to do anything if he canceled that particular timeline. This meant he could kidnap Shadow Stalker, torture her for information and then cancel that timeline without any negative backlash on him.
"The noose is closing in on you, little tinker." he muttered. "Soon, we shall see exactly who you are. And as impregnable as your armor may be, without it, you are little more than a target."
The Next Day
Taylor's Base
I made it into my base feeling shell-shocked. After the attack from Shadow Stalker yesterday, I had built a new Zecter in the grips of a fury. It had ended up looking like another beetle of some kind and I had taken it out tonight to initialize it.
"I...I can't use it." I whispered as the golden beetle in question buzzed around my head. "It's...it's too powerful!"
The Rider Suit I made from this Zecter was the only one I had made with a 100% compatibility with my Shaker power...and it was far too powerful. I could barely control it, even to move, which isn't something I've ever had to worry about in ANY of my other Rider Suits. Worse, it had discharged energy that had wrecked half of the scrapyard when I transformed into it.
Grabbing the dangerous Zecter out of the air, I moved over to my workbench and set about altering it, making it impossible for it to be easily used. Unlike with my regular Zecters, it would be utterly impossible for me to just press a button and use it. No, I'd have to...yes, a key-card or something would work the best. I'd have to insert a specially designed key-card into this Zecter before I used it, something which would take an S-Class threat for me to do.
Meanwhile, I'd start doing some research about why I couldn't control this new Rider Suit. I don't exactly get why I had so much trouble with it; I handled [Black Sun] fairly easily and that was a 65% compatibility suit. Maybe...hmm. Maybe it had something to do with how synchronized I am with the suit itself? As soon as I transformed with the new Zecter, I'd felt as if I was suffocating and under pressure, so I'm pretty certain that my hypothesis isn't exactly wrong.
Standing back, I observed the newly modified beetle. Lacking the horns of the Fire Beetle Zecter, it was a lot more compact than that, but it also extended out when it was attached to my Rider Belt and ready to transform. The new Zecter Card sat next to it, emblazoned with a pair of eyes on the card similar to the visor on the new Rider Suit; golden and with a series of golden rings around the main eyes. There was a slot in the new Zecter for it to be inserted once I attached the Zecter to my Rider Belt.
A couple of hours later and I had a pair of small, but secure, vaults in which to place the Zecter and Zecter Card. I placed them on opposite sides of the base to each other and sealed the two items up as tight as a drum. I really, really hoped that nothing would force me to unlock them from their vaults until I had a way of controlling them.
Annnnd...yeah. Taylor just rang the bell for Murphy to come a-calling. She should really learn to not do that. Just saying. Any guesses about the Rider Suit? And no, it isn't Ixa.
So, an update regarding my updates...yeah. This is irritating, as I have my new computer right now and...it ain't working. No clue what is wrong with it, but no power to the tower unit, so maybe something's been knocked loose from where it's supposed to be in transit. I dunno. I'll be taking the computer back to the shop on Monday, and it SHOULD be a quick and easy fix. Should. If all goes well, I'll be restarting my updates on either the 7th or the 14th, although the 14th sounds more likely, so I can play about with the new computer and actually get it to something approximating how I like it. Unlikely as that may be considering it's a Windows 10 OS. (-_-)