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Armoured Rider Knuckle
by
Cyclone Accel Xtreme
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Chapter II - Knuckleman Throwdown
(Ryoma's Lab, Yggdrasil Tower)
Hase sat in Ryoma's chair, spinning around as the computer copied all its files to a pendrive, creating him an invisible back door into the Yggdrasil System at the same time. Bored at waiting, Hase opened a draw of Ryoma's desk and pulled out a keycard.
Standing up, Hase stepped over Ryoma's trussed up unconscious body and walked over to a heavy vault door, placing the keycard over the panel. The panel beeped and the locks released, the door swinging open. Hase walked in and grinned, inside were racks and racks of Sengoku Drivers, Lockseeds, Genesis Drivers, Energy Lockseeds and many more goodies.
Flitting over to the nearest shelf, Hase grabbed two of the prototype Genesis Drivers, one was missing the handle and the other was missing the cup. Opening the briefcase next to them he placed them inside, shutting and locking it. The Walnut Rider moved on, boxing up all the Drivers and Lockseeds, all of the former appeared to be prototypes.
After near to an hour Hase had finished, holding Ryoma's Driver and Lockseed in his hand, another Lockseed in his other, the entire contents of the vault sat in a pile in front of him. Clicking open the second Lockseed, a crack to Helheim appeared, followed by a second crack appearing in Helheim, leading to Hase's bedroom.
Hase grinned, he'd found this Lockseed earlier, a prototype of Ryoma's which could open a crack to wherever the user could visualize. Slipping the Lockseed in his pocket, Hase picked up a box and leapt through the crack, placing it down in his bedroom.
Over the next ten minutes, Hase took all the boxes he packed up to his bedroom and turned to go back to Yggdrasil when he heard his mother shout up to him.
"Ryoji? Is that you?" called his mother.
Hase internally swore, he must have made more noise than he had intended to do, "Yeah, I came up the fire escape!"
"I do wish you wouldn't do that!" replied Hase's mother, "One of these days you'll fall and break your neck!"
"I'm sure I'll be fine!" returned Hase, "I'm going back out now!"
"Oh, wait!" shouted up Hase's mother, "Hideyasu rang up earlier, he said he wanted to apologise."
Hase smiled and spoke again, "I'll be back in a few hours."
With that Hase opened and closed his window, letting his mother believe he had left the apartment via the fire escape. He then jumped through the crack into Yggdrasil and shut it behind himself with the Portal Lockseed.
"Well, let's go get Kouta and Kaito," muttered Hase, grabbing three Genesis Cores and three different Energy Lockseeds he'd left behind.
With that, Hase turned exited the vault, coming face to face with none other than Yoko Minato.
"Well, crap," spoke Hase sadly, "Things were going so peachy,"
Hase went to fall into a defensive stance but Yoko was quicker, punching in the face with a solid right hook. Hase reeled backwards, but didn't fall, instead turning back to face Yoko as the split lip she gave him healed up, his eyes flashing gold.
"What are you?" asked Yoko, taken aback by his display of power.
"A man with a lotta lives to save," replied Hase, pulling out his Mass Driver and strapping it to his waist.
"Ryoma's upgraded Driver!" muttered Yoko, aware of the power the pre-attached Genesis Core could provide.
"Well, then," spoke Hase, "Let's tango!"
Reaching into his pocket, Hase pulled out his Kurumi Lockseed and Ryoma's Lemon Energy Lockseed, having left the Professor's Genesis Driver in his bedroom.
KURUMI! / LEMON ENERGY!
With a slight flourish, Hase fitted the two Lockseeds into his Mass Driver, the regular Kurumi in the Drive Bay and the Energy Lockseed in the Genesis Core. Above Hase two cracks appeared and the Kurumi and Lemon Energy Armour Parts dropped into view, fusing together to form the Jinba Lemon Armour Part.
LOCK ON!
Hase grabbed the Cutting Knife and sliced down, opening the two Lockseed. The Armour Part dropped down and unfolded, leaving Hase in Jinba Lemon Arms, now equipped with a Sonic Arrow to match those used by the Energy Riders.
KURUMI ARMS! JINBA LEMON! HA-HA!
"Impossible!" spat Yoko, "A new set of arms!"
"Are you going to stand there admiring my Jinba Arms?" mocked Knuckle, "Or are you actually going to fight me?"
Yoko regained her composure, she would need if she was to beat Knuckle. Ryoma had told her of his side-project, upgrading a Mass Driver to create a new set of arms.
"HENSHIN!" called Yoko, pulling out her Lockseed and activating it.
PEACH ENERGY!
Above Yoko, a crack opened, allowing the Peach Energy Armour Part to appear. Yoko clicked her Lockseed into its Drive Bay and pushed the Seaboll Compressor in, allowing the juice of the Lockseed to drain into the cup below.
SODA!
The Armour Part dropped down onto Yoko's shoulders and unfolded, transforming her into Peach Energy Arms and allowing her access to her Sonic Arrow.
PEACH ENERGY ARMS!
Marika launched herself at Knuckle, who blocked her attack with the bladed end of his Sonic Arrow, before firing off two shots at close range. Marika dodged the first arrow but the second clipped her shoulder, singeing the material.
Growling, Marika replied with a barrage of shots, however Knuckle dived to one side, the arrows that hit him marking his chest-plate. Seeing that his Sonic Arrow had been knocked far away, Knuckle reached out his hand and sighed in relief as a Lemon Mace appeared.
Charging at Marika, he smashed his mace into her chest-plate, denting it. Knuckle knew he had to keep at a close range, whilst the Sonic Arrow was an excellent ranged weapon, when it came to close combat it was far outmatched by the Lemon Mace.
Marika slashed at Knuckle, who blocked it with his mace and spun, using it to gather enough power to knock Marika's Sonic Arrow from her hand. Grunting in frustration, Marika raised her hands as a weapon appeared in each, a pink dagger in one and a black scimitar in the other.
Marika swung the Peach Scimitar at Knuckle and went completely wide. However, a wave of energy shot from the end of the dagger and seared into in Knuckle's chest-plate, burning a hole in the armour for Marika to capitalise on.
Knuckle swung again with the Lemon Mace, his blow smashing Marika's scimitar clean in half. Blocking a energy blast from Marika's dagger with his mace, Knuckle knocked the weapon from her hand and activated his Sparkling function.
KURUMI SPARKLING! / JINBA LEMON SPARKLING!
Knuckle held out his hand and his Sonic Arrow flew towards him, the Walnut Rider catching it. Knuckle quickly slotted his new Lemon Energy Lockseed into the Sonic Arrow and pulled back the trigger, charging up the weapon.
In a line from the tip of the Sonic Arrow to Marika, cross-section holograms of walnuts and lemons appeared, alternating from one to the next. Releasing the trigger, an orange and yellow energy blast shot from the Sonic Arrow and hit Marika directly on the chest, forcing her suit to de-materialise.
Yoko hit the ground and didn't move, having been knocked out cold. Knuckle shut his Lockseeds and strode towards Yoko, his suit vanishing as he did.
Hase bent and checked for a pulse, sighing in relief at feeling at strong beat from Yoko. Hase's hands moved to her waist and removed her Genesis Driver and Peach Energy Lockseed.
Standing up, Hase walked over to Ryoma's computer, removing his pendrive when he saw the download had completed. Picking up a discarded satchel bag, Hase place Yoko's Driver and Lockseed inside along with the Gaim and Baron Drivers, both of which had been left on Ryoma's desk.
Hase sorted through the mess, tracking down Kouta and Kaito's Lockseeds as well as a spare Mass Driver. Adding them to the bag, Hase closed it and stuffed the pendrive into his pocket.
Approaching the bound Ryoma, Hase placed two fingers on the scientist's temple. Using his new Overlord Powers, Hase searched through Ryoma's mind, assimilating his knowledge of the Drivers and Lockseeds into his own.
"That'll do," muttered Hase, breaking contact, his intelligence greatly expanded from how it was before.
Hase pulled the Portal Lockseed out of his pocket, sighing that it wasn't charged yet due to the faded grey colour of the pattern on the front. Returning it, Hase snatched up his satchel bag and set out in the direction of the Holding Cells.
-Mr. Knuckleman-
(Beat Riders Hotline Studio)
DJ Sagara sat his chair, deeply troubled. He had decided to meddle with fate and give Kouta Kazuraba an upgrade but soon sensed something very wrong. Ryoji Hase had returned to life and become Armoured Rider Knuckle.
The Snake had reconsidered, the Hase boy would give Kazuraba the power upgrade and he needed all the time he could get to work out a plan on how to set the timeline back in course.
"Sagara," spoke a voice behind the DJ.
"Hello Kouta Kazuraba," greeted Sagara, standing and facing the blonde-haired man.
"That's the Man of Beginning to you," retorted Kouta, "I've come a very long way for this."
"For what?" asked Sagara smugly.
"This!" spat Kouta, raising his hand and firing a constant stream of pale blue energy at Sagara, whose body began to disintegrate.
In seconds the representation of Helheim was destroyed, but Kouta knew he would reform at some point. Seeing that the Beat Rider Hotline was about to restart, Kouta sat down in the chair and changed his appearance to match Sagara's.
"Hello, Zawame City!" exclaimed Kouta, taking on Sagara's persona easily, he would need to gain the trust of Sagara's Yggdrasil coworkers.
-Mr. Knuckleman-
So, wow! I'm kind of astonished at the response Chapter I received, eleven reviews! Basically, I'd like to thank you all for your support and kind words, thank you!