Hello all you Boils and Ghouls!
I am alive and well!
Well... Mostly...
I'm having to keep myself sane by trying to write stories once more but it's not really working all that well...
I'll just keep it simple by saying I've been having IRL issues all these years so...
Here's the next chapter of the Paradox of Remnant!
Btw, I own nothing but the OC used...
)-Legend-(
"Yo!" - Speaking
'Is he an idiot?' - Thinking
"Dearest love," - Reading
"Kaishin no Ippatsu!" - Specials
)-First Person PoV-(
I couldn't... I couldn't believe what I was seeing... There was no way that this was real... Yet here it was, laying on the grass staring me in the face as if it were taunting me - the Gashat Gear Dual... I mean for heaven's sake, it's SUPPOSED to be FAKE - a toy out of a kid's show! Not that I actually HAD the toy, I mean I've SEEN the toy and whatnot, but I never had it, but this is just...- I didn't know what to do...
I stared at the Gashat for what felt like hours to me; I lost track of time completely as I stared at it in disbelief, awe and oddly enough trepidatious fear. That's right; Fear... I've seen what one of these kind of things can do to a normal human - I knew what would happen if I should even TOUCH that thing let alone USE it.. I was scared and amazed but that fear soon took a backseat to my curiosity as I slowly crawled ever so closer to it. As I was within arm's reach, I stretched a hand out to it and touched it with an index finger, feeling a surprisingly cool metal instead of what I had assumed was plastic for the brief instant that I had touched it before pulling my hand away as if it were slapped. When nothing happened, I reached for it once more, this time placing all my fingertips onto it and feeling it... It was actually made of some kind of metal and not plastic like I had thought... I picked it up to get a good look at the sides I could not see, having seen enough of the Perfect Puzzle side of the Gashat. I turned it so the knob was facing me and saw that there was a black-border label on the face as well but it was split into two images; the first was what was seen on the Perfect Puzzle label but on the right side of the knob - the left side, however, had what appeared to be a Ryu knockoff with reddish skin, red hair, hilariously long eyebrows, and a pair of red boxing gloves in front of a flaming background of red...
Good god, that's a LOT of red...
The writing on it was in a flaming-styled orange text that read 'Knock-out Fighter' which I had assumed was for the Fighter Gamer form... As I turned it around, I had expected to find a screwhole with panel lines along the outside of the label for Knock-out Fighter to indicate a battery compartment; something to inicate that it was just a toy... yet I couldn't find them... I couldn't even find any speakers on it. I was starting to panic now - this was the REAL deal. As I bolted upright to a sitting position, I was VERY tempted to just throw this thing away; to get rid of it before something bad could happen, before a thought hit me; a thought that I SO did not want to remember...
'Isn't this forest supposed to be crawling with Grimm?'
As soon as that thought hit me, I decided I had to act fast before any of the black creatures of Hell itself came upon me; I had to use the Gashat Gear Dual before they smelled my fear of it. Hesitantly, I reached my free hand to the knob and, thinking it would be easier to learn to use, turned it so the Perfect Puzzle lable was facing down to me. As I turned it, I heard an electronic noise that was... well is... hard to describe... As soon as I finished turning it though, a strange, strained voice called out from not the device but all around me in a way...
"PERFECT PUZZLE!"
As I turned behind me, I saw a holographic display of the game's screen similar to the label appear behind me like a backboard. As it appeared, techno-music began to play as disc-like objects began to fly out of the screen, which prompted my fear reaction to kick in as I crossed my arms and looked away to protect myself, with a new voice calling out once more, though this one was less creepy and more controlled I guess you could say?
"What's the next stage?"
The music and the question kept repeating as I looked around to see what was going on; littered across the forest floor were discs that had different power-up names and images across them. Some were Muscular, some were Speeding-Up, some were Stretch and even a couple were things like Surprise or the like. I didn't have long to look at them all before I began to hear the bushes rustling to my side. I looked to the bushes and before I even thought about it, I had said "Henshin," before I pressed one of the buttons on the side of the device which made a sort of confirmation noise before speaking once more.
"DUAL UP!"
With that, a holographic image of what the Puzzle Gamer form appeared before me, gliding over me as I felt the armor form around me.
"GET THE GLORY IN THE CHAIN! PERFECT PUZZLE!"
But as it finished passing me, that's when I felt it - sheer pain.
Total, unbridled pain. It felt like every atom in my body was on fire and lit aflame with gasoline as the electricity surged through me. How I was able to stay standing I have no idea, but I noticed a number out of the corner of my eye that was rapidly going down. I had no idea what would happen if it hit 0, so I tried to calm myself and push the pain aside which only made it worse. Forcing it to stop was not going to help me so I had try something else... As the pain continued, I spread my legs out and crossed my arms over my chest while curled up a little; trying to imitate what had happened with Snipe when he first reached level 50, before I let out a roarcry and extended my arms to either side of me.
That was all it took for the pain to stop and the electricity to vanish.
A shockwave rolled out from me as the arcs of electricity left my body and left the grass beneath my feet scorched. My first thought was on the fact that everything seemed a little shorter than it was earlier which meant I must have actually grown to accommodate the suit itself. I looked at my hands and saw that I was now wearing blue gloves and armguards with a single golden band around my wrist on the gaurds. Along the back of my hands were golden plates that rested comfortably. I trail my eyes from my hands up my arms and see the all-too-familiar giant blue shoulder pads with orange tops that will eventually become my weapons in Knockout form. My chest housed a golden torso armor with what appeared to be a puzzle design inside it similar to the background of the title screen for Perfect Puzzle. I look down to see the white part of the suit with black, square-like pixels along the sides, a golden belt along my waist, and golden bands like those on my armguards around the middle of my thighs and my ankles. A pair of golden stripe-like armor plates adorned each of my legs; one going just between my knee and my mid-thigh and one covering my knee and going all the way down to my ankle and even continuing over my foot while connecting to my heels which were also that same golden plate. A pair of white stripes also went down the sides of my feet from those golden stripes as well. All in all...
I looked like a mess, but this was Kamen Rider Para-DX in his level 50 Puzzle Gamer for- 'Wait, WHAT?!'
I looked out the corner of my eye and saw that number from before was my Level... and it was set at Level 2! How did that happen!? Was it some kind of limiter or something akin to it doing that? Opposite side of my level, I noticed something like an HP bar and... 'A power bar? I wonder what that's about...' I thought to myself as I looked back to my level and just above it were the letters 'EXP' with a bar between it and my level. At least now I know what's going on but before I could think any further on it, I saw what was rustling the bushes leaping out towards me. A pair of humanoid beasts with wolven features; fur as black as pitch with ash-like whisps seeping from it; bone-like spines jutting out of their skin on their arms, backs and knees; hands and feet tipped with sharp, white claws; and bone-white masks adorning their upper maws and heads decorated with red designs; but their most disturbing feature was their eyes - yellow, glowing eyes that faded into an angry red...
Beowolves, the most common form of Grimm, had finally found me.
Before I could fully come to terms that this was now real, and unlike with the Gashat Gear Dual, the Beowolves gave me no time to react as one of them dashed up to and clawed at me - essentially slapping me upside the head and into a tree. "Gah... That hurt..." I said to no one in particular as I shook my head of the cobwebs before rolling out of the way of another swipe, but as I escaped the attack the other Beowolf swipped at me and barely caught my chestplate and staggered me back a little. As I look to my health, I noticed I had already lost 30% of it in those two attacks.
'Well that's not good,' I thought as I tensed up and looked back at the Grimm, 'I'll need to keep an eye on their actions.'
Doing so was about the best blessing in disguise I could have asked for as I started to backpedal away from their attacks in an almost skipping motion. Despite being able to keep away from them like this, I was wearing myself out and I noticed my power bar going up yet paid it no mind at the moment. I decided that now would be a good idea to go on the offensive and stopped long enough to swing a leg in a high kick at the head of the closest Beowolf, which caught the back of it's head on my foot, before putting all my effort into the kick and sending it into the path of it's partner. Doing so caused the two to careen out of control - tumbling over each other and into a tree themselves as they tried to right themselves.
"Either you two are REALLY young... Or you're the Bulk and Skull of Grimm..." I taunted at them, though I doubt they could even understand what I was saying. Even so, they must have at lest known it was a taunt as the one that got plowed into it's partner got up and ran straight for me. With a quick cry of "Oh crap," I started trying to dodge the Grimm's attacks, only to be hit by a stray swipe that sent me spiraling into one of the power-ups my transformation left behind; making me break it and forcing it to activate...
"LIQUEFACTION!"
Before I could even say "What", my entire body suddenly felt like it had lost the strength to stay up and my view of everything suddenly went from bird's-eye view to worm's view. I tried to look at myself only to find I couldn't move my head; just my eyes... However, I had realized what had happened as I saw an image of the image of the very power-up I had hit; a green medal with what appears to be a puddle with Rider Eyes...
In the words of Sarge and everyone from Red vs Blue...
"Son of a b*tch!"
I was LITERALLY melted into a puddle... Was this how Frosty felt when he melted?
I could not think long on this as the Grimm recovered from it's own shock and made to swipe at me. I braced myself for the incoming hit, but felt nothing even though I heard a splash.
I look at my health and see it only dropped another 5% from that swipe I took earlier and nothing more. The Beowolf looked just as confused before resuming it's attacks, desperate to tear me apart despite not being able to do so. What happened next I couldn't really help...
"HA!" I laughed, "YOU CAN'T HURT WHATCHA CAN'T TOUCH, NOW CAN YA BIG BAD WOLF!?" With that one taunt... I had invoked Murphy's Law...
The law that dictates that anything that CAN go wrong WILL go wrong...
I felt my body solidifying once more and forming into it's old shape before being backhanded by the Beowolf and sent tumbling down a hill. Skidding to a halt as I grip the ground and push my feet into it to stabilize myself, I looked to my health again, saw it dropped another 5% and began to compile my thoughts together.
'Okay, so I have the power to take these guys on but if they knock me into an actual object like a tree or something they can do way worse damage to me...' I concluded before glaring back up the hill at the Beowolves that were then beginning to prowl the hilltop waiting for my move, 'If that's the case, I need to finish them up as quickly as I can... The thing is, they have speed over me as well as numbers, but not smarts or damage so I have to -'
I notice a couple of Power-Ups just to my right that I recognized as the Stretch and Speed-Up items as the Stretch item was a pale pink medal that had the image of a Rider's arm stretching up and outward while the Speed-Up was a yellow medal with the image of a Rider running... 'If I could chain those two together, maybe...' I began to think, 'Just maybe I can actually pull off a powerful attack I can use to finish them.' With my plan in mind, I looked up at the Beowolves who finally grew tired of waiting and started to run down the hill at me in a full gallop. That was all I needed.
"Alright, hellhounds... Game On!"
I ran to them only to turn a sharp right and dodged their attacks which collided with each other and caused them to roll to where I had been at the bottom of the hill. Using my momentum, I climbed to the power-ups and slammed a fist through each of them; shattering them instantly.
"SPEEDING-UP!"
"STRETCH!"
With that, I turn back to my assailants and pulled my fists back as they rush back up to me in a blind fury. With a war cry, I threw a single punch that caused my arm to stretch and shoot out like a bullet from a gun and slam into the head of one of the Beowolves while the other looked on in shock and confusion which gave me a chance to also hit it with a punch similar to my first one but hitting it's chest instead. I threw more and more of these punches until my hands and arms became blurs and after-images of yellow and blue as a flurry of fists pummeled into the Grimm. Before long, I threw one final pair of punches that send the beasts flying backwards and into a tree and a rock respectively. With that, I smirked under my helmet and reached for the Gashat Gear Dual saying "Time to finish you dogs off - wait..." I tried grasping for the Gashat Gear Dual again only to find it wasn't there. 'Where is it?!' I thought as I frantically looked around for it before looking back up the hill as realization dawned on me - I had dropped it when they first attacked me! As soon as that thought hit me, I heard the power-down sound go off as my armor vanished; leaving me vulnerable to anything and everything with intent to kill.
Worst. Rider. EVER!
I looked back at my attackers to find, much to my relief, that they were still recovering from the short beating that they took earlier; so I took my chances and ran back up to the top of the hill and looked all over for the Gashat. I looked around trees, I looked under rocks and stones, I even stuck my head in bushes to see if it went flying into one. I couldn't find it anywhere! Then as luck would have it, I heard something snap before something heavy clocked my head. With a pained shout of "OW!", I looked up to see a branch had broken and looked back down to see what hit me; a blue and black object with a yellow knob - the Gashat Gear Dual!
"Finally!" I cried out in victory, "Now to finish this..." Quickly, I turned the knob back to it's default position before turning it back to Perfect Puzzle. The confirmation noise played out but before it could call out the game's name I hit the button that would transform me with a quick call of "Henshin!" as I did so.
"DUAL UP!"
The holographic screen depicting the Puzzle Gamer form floated over me and formed the armor over me once more, but this time there was no pain. This time...
I was prepared to fight.
"GET THE GLORY IN THE CHAIN! PERFECT PUZZLE!"
I gripped the Gashat Gear Dual tightly in my hand and watched as the Grimm slowly climbed the hill, still rough for wear but more than eager to fight... If only they knew what Hell awaited them...
"Alright, pups... I'm THROUGH playing around! It's time to END THIS!" I yelled out at them as if they could understand me before once more turning the knob to it's default position and again to Perfect Puzzle, but unlike before the voice called out a new command.
"KIMEWAZA!"
The sound of a strange electronic Gong of some kind started to play out as I shoved the Gashat Gear Dual into the black metal holster on my right hip.
"DUAL GASHAT!"
Blue energy began to swirl around my body before concentrating on my right foot and lower leg and glowing brilliantly. The power bar was full and flashed between yellow and blue rapidly as if it were affected by some unknown power-up.
"PERFECT CRITICAL COMBO!"
I knew this was going to be SUPER weak, but I had no choice; I just hoped that I had done enough damage to the Grimm as they charged me. I stepped forward with my left foot before swinging my right leg around and behind me in a roundhouse kick that lopped the head off the first Beowolf; this caused the second one to freeze as if in shock of what happened to it's partner but I didn't give it the mercy of contemplating it long as I threw my leg as high up as I could and swung it down in an axe-kick on top of it's head - cleaving it clean in two with a sickening flesh-slicing sound. Both corpses began to inflate before exploding in a burst of black powdery mist.
"ALL CLEAR!"
I was panting heavily under the helmet from exhaustion... Who knew making two kicks like that in a row would be so draining? I looked at the mist that still covered where the Beowolf bodies used to be was now slowly inching to me before siphoning itself into my chest. At first, I was panicking and about to make a mad dash away from it before I noticed my EXP bar was going up. It reached full shortly after and my level increased to 3 and continued to climb again after being reset before being filled up once more and resetting as my level increased to 4. The bar continued to fill up again but this time stopped just shy of one quarter of the way through; marking the end of the EXP I just gained from killing those Grimm. 'Guess I know how to gain my lost levels now...' I thought to myself as I heard the Game Clear music playing, but instead of Game Clear it gives a different announcement.
"LEVEL UP!"
I noticed that it was not kicking me out of my Rider form so I continued to look myself over to see if anything changed. The only thing I noticed was that my health was back to full and my power bar was now completely empty. Curiously, I pulled the Gashat Gear Dual to see if I could change into my Fighter Gamer form but then... This happened...
"GASHOON!"
I couldn't fight it - I sniggered and chuckled as I tried and failed to hold back my laughter. Every time I heard the Gashat in the show make that noise I just couldn't help but think that it was some buff, super manly man saying that as he was sneezing and was still trying very hard to be manly about it. After letting it out, I simply inhaled and exhaled before looking at the Gashat Gear Dual once more thinking 'This is going to be a long adventure, isn't it?' before I turned the knob to it's default setting and then to the Knock-Out Fighter side.
"KNOCK-OUT FIGHTER!"
Behind me, I looked to see the title screen of Knock-Out Fighter appear as heavy metal music began to play with a simple chant playing over and over with the music.
"THE STRONGEST FIST! Round 1! ROCK AND FIRE!"
I pressed the button with a silent "Dai-Henshin," before placing the Gashat back in the holster.
"DUAL UP!"
I felt a sudden push against my back as the knob on it turned and felt my helmet pulling an exorcist before I felt my weight shift from my shoulders to my forearms. I looked at my arms and saw that the shoulder pads had now been moved over my hands and now were red along with yellow flames along the knuckle part of the make-shift boxing gloves and going up them to my elbow. My blue gloves were now red and my new shoulderpads were angular golden shapes with a red and rounded under-guard with simple flame designs on them.
"EXPLOSION HIT! KNOCK-OUT FIGHTER!"
The announcement was all I needed to confirm that I had attained my Fighter Gamer form. I looked at my stats and saw only one power-up slot was available, as per my expectations, and looked to my level and EXP bar... Only to find the bar was empty and my level was once more 2... 'Great...' I thought in annoyance, 'I now have to level up both forms individually... This is going to be one hell of a grind...'
As I said this, I was startled as a lone Beowolf pop out of the bushes and prepared to swipe at me; however, my fear-driven instincts kicked in as I let out what was arguably a girlish yelp before slamming one of my over-sized fists into it, which sent it flying into a tree...
And exploding it on contact with said tree...
I was shocked... No, shocked was too much of an understatement; I was utterly FLABBERGASTED at what just happened... Through my helmet I stared at the spot where the Beowolf hit the tree, completely ignoring the black mist that glided into my chest as well as the rising EXP bar but what I couldn't ignore was hearing the announcement for leveling up and see I was now Level 3 and had little over 70% of the EXP required to hit level 4... I just... I literally broke down as I gave out a few groaning sobs before punching myself in the face...
"K.O.!"
"SHADDAP!"
There you have it! The next chapter in what will arguably be my most arduous task in fanfiction writing. I won't be able to update at the same intervals as this so don't expect any and I hope you all enjoyed it.