Scene #7682: The Lodge: Johnson Residence

Owner	Pose
Go Shijima	February 28, 1989 (last night Roadhouse VIP Room Twin Peaks, WA 11:00PM) https://youtu.be/euq0sKwbDTg There's a live show tonight. The singer's voice is soft, but the sound setup is good enough that her song can be heard even in the VIP room. The room is emptier, now. Horne should have finished his plan and met back with the other members of Blue Rose. Instead, it appears he's either been caught, or shared the same fate as the Roadhouse's proprietor. The woman with the curt smile, dressed like a bartender from a much classier establishment, fixes eyes like a shark on the sole remaining member. "Little Itsuro," she says sweetly. "Mr. Horne won't be joining us tonight. And BOB doesn't want to play with us right now. I've only ever wanted you to be the best you could be," she coos. Her tone takes a subtle, yet dangerous shift, when she leans forward and sets her champagne glass on the end table beside that high-backed, red leather chair. "This is your last chance to prove you want that, too." Itsuro Takuma retreats within himself and nods once. Whatever it will take to get her eyes off of him--he'll do. Does she know...? "It's time to stop rolling in the mud with the humans--I've indulged that little fantasy of yours because it was cute. But little boys need to grow out of fantasies eventually." Saeko stands up, slowly striding over to the bespectacled man doing his best to avoid eye contact. She gently guides his gaze with a hand on his chin. "I'll be making one of my special deliveries--you've got three days. Don't bother coming back if you can't find us a new member."
Go Shijima	March 1, 1989 Emerald Meadows Cemetery Twin Peaks, WA 11:35AM (earlier today) Years ago, Itsuro would have come to a place like this for exactly the reasons Saeko would want. The bookish, bespectacled man that watches the funeral from the safety of the treeline is not the same man who once shed blood with that woman. "BOB... our plan... it's torn this town apart. Torn people apart." Bobby's shouting, and the sound of Xion's transformation, are carried by the breeze to his ears. He grimaces. If he chooses to go through with his evolution, this is what he'd leave behind--at the expense of inflicting it on others. And if he doesn't, then he's doomed to suffer along with them. An ill wind blows past--a feeling he's come to associate with the passing of the malevolent spirit. He wants to fight this... but he's scared. He's always been scared, inside. March 1, 1989 Johnson Residence Twin Peaks, WA 10:46PM Hamada was able to confirm that Leo Johnson has the Orphenoch gene. Following him around through the day has fortunately shown that he's not likely to encounter any Orphenochs who'd try to turn him. There was one missed appointment where a buyer of his (Leo runs drugs, Haru found rather quickly) didn't show. He's finally home in the late evening. His cover for running drugs across the border is employment as a truck driver, and his wife Shelly is quite used to an empty house. In fact, she seems to prefer it when Leo is absent. Watching the two of them, there is the sense that Leo married her so that he'd have someone to do his chores and satisfy him--that Haru's fears about their relationship were accurate. He hasn't hit her--but there is an unspoken word; a 'tonight' or a 'yet,' which looms in the air the way he looms over her. When he touches her, she recoils. Haru is not the only one who is aware of this. Leo's house is on the outskirts of town, surrounded by those douglas firs so present in Twin Peaks. It is a small and squat house, with a washer-dryer combo on the outside, against a wall and sheltered from the elements by an extension of the roof. Leaning against that wall is Bobby Briggs. From inside the house, music begins blaring. This close to it... Shelly's panicked cries are heard. Enraged, Bobby transforms and breaks into a sprint, only for his foot to catch on something. A thorny whip wraps around the Dog Orphenoch's ankle, sending him belly first to the ground. "Please," comes a faltering voice emerging from the trees. The moonlight reflects a body covered in sharp spines, with a featureless head flanked by two curling antennae. The image of a human man is projected in holographic form upon the exterior wall as the music blares within. "I know what's going on between you and Shelly. But if that man becomes an Orphenoch--" "Then I'll finish the job," says Bobby, tearing the whip from his ankle. "Xion said I was making that spirit's job easier--so consider this making up for it. If you get in my way, you're gone, too." This is going to be one of Those fights. Better call it in!
Hellwarming Trio	Orphenochs? The pair of youkai had been wondering just how long it would be until another one would show up, but for Bobby to be the one stirring the pot after all this time has the two looking particularly confused when they arrive. Utsuho: "So this has to do with him and that... Uh... Delta guy?" Rin: "Tetra?" Utsuho: "Tetra, yeah. But if Leo changes, wouldn't he just be more of a threat to Bobby and anyone that hates him?" Rin: "Right? He coulda waited until he was plastered out of his mind or somethin' first." They glide along a good couple of yards in the air, heading towards Leo's house while sounding utterly confused by his choice of actions. They don't seem to know what to actually do in this situation, either, as they come to a stop in front of the house. Utsuho: "Hey, Bobby! You in there?" Rin: "We're here to... Do... Somethin'! Come on, don't go too nuts in there, bro!"
Hamada Haru	It's Hamada Haru's spying that provides the information, and he relays it freely to Dale Cooper in the hopes that Cooper will relay it to everyone else. His direct associates here -- Xion, and strangely enough Utsuho and Rin -- are given a more direct tag-in communication, though it's brief and clipped. He promptly falls out of contact afterwards as he dons the Tetra belt, the distinctive black-and-white mountain stripe color scheme re-asserting itself across his form. He gazes down at himself uneasily, and then carries on. The confrontation between the Centipede Orphenoch and the Dog Orphenoch gives him pause. Tetra looks between the pair of them for a moment, and the place where Bobby was snared. Clicking an element of his wrist device absent-mindedly, he splits into two. One of the pair remains outside. The first Kamen Rider Tetra, like a bank of flog, slides through the side of Leo Johnson's house towards the sound of screaming.
Shinnosuke Tomari	The Tridoron pulls up down the street, depositing Detective Shinnosuke Tomari. He can hear the shouts inside the house as he takes brisk steps towards the house. Mr. Belt is around his waist, but not active. "Bobby, please. Just because you have this power now doesn't mean...you can't do this, Bobby. Are you really willing to kill a man? Go home, we'll pretend this never happened." An eye towards the other Orphenoch, but he says nothing as he continues to approach Bobby - the other Orphenoch is pleading for Bobby to stop, too, so they're not currently an enemy. "Okay?"
Xion	Down the street, rows of streetlights pierce the evening gloom with cones of muddied gold, hints of leaves in the gutters rustle in the nighttime breeze. A rattle works through metal, creaking quietly as the night-sounds move from crickets to Centipedes. And barking dogs. Walking down the center of the street after Kamen Rider Tetra splits into two, Xion appears to blend into the shade while 'wearing her dark coat' along the road. As she passes under the pools of light cast from streetlamps, she comes into a sharp alpine relief of flannel button-down red-plaid shirts over a baggy t-shirt and jeans. Sharply normal. Then, she steps out, and it's back to hood and cowl, menacingly walking from center street towards the tree. "Itsuro." She begins, familiar and soft. "I know you're afraid." Coat Xion continues, before she steps into the light of the nearest streetlamp and stands there, looking into the tree. "You don't have to be, though. I'm ready to be the hero of your heart too. Please... Don't make this harder on Bobby. You're 'the same kind', now, so you should at least be able to understand the same strange feelings within yourselves!" She extends a hand, from the edge of the light ring out of it -- where it gains a black glove -- and reaches towards the tree. "I'm sorry it's taken you this long to be saved."
Tamamo	After the funeral, Tamamo expected enough time to change back out of her mourning attire and set up some scrying to track the progress of BOB. That another fight would occur this quickly, she hadn't quite planned for, but she sets out as soon as the call from Bobby is relayed to her. What greets her is a confrontation between one orphenoch she's seen, one she hasn't, and some kind of conflict inside. Unaware of Bobby's intentions, and not having been involved in scoping out Leo, she naturally assumes the strange orphenoch to be an enemy. Likewise, drawn to the screams, she assumes Bobby was moving in to do just as she now intends -- to either open or break down the door, and save whoever's inside. Given that, she gives Tomari a confused look, catching only part of what he said, but there's no time for that! "If you are to hold him here, I shall see to the matter in his stead," she says while moving to the door in a hurry, unaware of how that might be taken as a declaration of violent intent. Tamamo can't walk through walls without being very impolite, so, unlike Hamada, she may be interrupted, waylaid, or too slow to catch whatever's happening.
Lilian Rook	Let it not be said that Lilian isn't glad enough that Bobby is still alive. After all, the uncommon viciousness with which she'd treated Jacques for the crime certainly spoke to a certain level of being upset, even though it didn't particularly contain grief. However, the miraculous save coming down to him being primed as an Original is less than desirable. She hadn't found it wildly unexpected that he might come for Leo, with that kind of new power on an irresponsible youth with his kinds of issues. Because of that, Lilian had arrived reasonably well-armed, though it's almost a formality as long as she's wearing her necklace. She's even slipped a tailored shear stress vest under her blouse, gotten out the inserts into thigh boots, and put on pretty overtly protective black gloves, in addition to showing up with what looks like the future equivalent of an MP5, like she's flat out trying to invoke the spirit of the Iranian Embassy siege. The fact that another Orphenoc would also be here, trying to stop him, is something she hadn't predicted. Inwardly, she begins to curse herself for not spending a lot more time over Twin Peaks divinations, but she gives up when she realizes how much of that time has been spent between three other major projects, and decides that she will just have to play it by ear. Or rather, she trusts that playing by the rules will work out. "You know this one, Xion?" Lilian asks as she arrives, secretly relieved that someone honest can exposition here. "An Original? Is he with BOB and the others?" A pause. "How many has he killed, Xion?" Pending a useful answer, she turns back to Bobby, and says "Speaking of, yours is still zero, Bobby. I promised your father that you wouldn't have to be dragged through hell for all of this. Jacques was already a big enough lapse in judgement on my part. Don't make it worse." "I can't allow you to make any more, Bobby." Even to a young man in a maddened state like this, it should be plain that there's a huge difference between the way she says that, and the way she should have said 'I can't let you kill Leo'. "He'll get his. Not 'eventually'. Not 'once we can'. Not 'tomorrow'. He gets it now. But I can't let you become one of them, because then I have to deal with you as one of them, and then I've gone back on my word and failed."
Xion	Xion nods. "I know his heart. It's very honest, but that doesn't mean it's not wounded. One time... He even became Kamen Rider. A long time ago. He pressed the buttons and said the words." She smiles, but it's a bit empty. She knows where these words go. Still, it's Lilian. You have to be honest with your friends. "He wants, deep down, to be human. He's an Original, and in some ways, that's even harder than being turned. One day, his human life ended, but he didn't." Her hand remains, outstretched. "He's harmed people, and ended lives himself. The number only matters at the end." Xion looks back to the tree, fingers curling slightly. "Takuma, please. You can always make the choice to help, and not hurt. You can do your best. The orphenochs and the humans aren't enemies - they're brothers and sisters, but the way you fight is too violent!"
Go Shijima	Cooper is the point of contact, making emergency calls. Mysteriously, Keitarou didn't answer. There will be time to worry about that later. When everyone arrives: "Nuts?! Nuts is letting this go on as long as I did!" Bobby leaps back to his feet. "Stay out of my way!" In a flash of light the Dog Orphenoch's knuckles are overlaid with sets of three long, sharp claws. He makes a start towards the front door, but hesitates when Tomari tries to speak to him. He has to think about it for a second. "...You're wrong. That's /exactly/ what it means, Tomari." Bobby dives through the window of the house, shattering the glass and eliciting a startled shriek from Shelly. The music from inside swells louder. "LEO! YOU'RE /DEAD!/" A half second later there is the sound of clattering furniture. Leo Johnson is hurled -through- the front door of his own house. He lands in the front yard, his head inches away from cinder blocks that could have split it. Bobby leaps after him, and sends both of those heavy blocks flying with a kick. One, towards Tomari, the other, aimed between Rin and Utsuho. As Leo crawls towards his truck in a daze, the record inside starts skipping. Bobby lifts a claw to try and skewer Leo through the back. "You don't understand what someone like Leo Johnson will do as an Orphenoch. People like him... with that kind of power, the world becomes their plaything. I am afraid." The Centipede Orphenoch's whip lashes out again, catching Bobby by the arm and yanking him free of Leo just moments before those claws plunge into his back. "I'm afraid of what he'll do. I'm afraid that Bobby doesn't have it in him to finish what he'll start tonight--and that's why right now, I have to make it hard on him." With a flick of his wrist, the thorns on that whip grind into Bobby's arm. As Bobby writhes on the ground, Itsuro addresses Lilian. "You understand. I'll... keep him busy while you work." "Keep me busy?!" Enraged, Bobby tears it off once more and runs, on all fours, picking up speed until he can run along the side of the house. Springing off at the last second, he makes a double-arm slash with those claws, aimed right for Itsuro's chest, knocking him towards Xion when he blocks. Itsuro can't help that his Orphenoch form is unfortunately covered in poisonous barbs. "Get the hell out of here! ALL OF YOU! This is between me and him!!" Bobby's strength isn't as great as Jacques Renault's, but it's definitely enough to lift the engine block from Leo's daily-driver parked out back, and hurl it towards Tomari, attempting to pre-emptively discourage a transformation from Drive. When Tamamo and Haru enter into the house, they are uninterrupted. At first. The first thing they'll likely want to do is turn off the skipping music. Shelly is curled up in the kitchen. A sock with something heavy in it lies discarded a few feet away from where she's huddled. Haru will probably want to make good on his promise to Leo, now. Shelly could really use someone with Tamamo's level of compassion and quiet reassurance. Unfortunately the bastard responsible for that is right outside, and none too pleased, however concussed he may be. The kitchen is straight back from the front door, which means with Bobby distracted, Leo has a clear line of sight on Tamamo and Haru both. A revolver adds its barking report to the cacophony, bullets zipping into the house as Leo hangs from the running board of his semi cab, the door hanging open. "I'M NOT FINISHED WITH HER!" He is--he just doesn't know it yet.
Go Shijima	A few of those find their way to Bobby and Lilian, too, before Leo has to reload. The bullets cause a shower of sparks as Bobby's altered physiology attempts to mitigate the impact. Though he's standing, it's knocking him off balance like being hit with a bat. "What's the difference?!" Bobby hurls at Lilian, leaping behind the house to find another way to get at Leo--and away from Itsuro. "Why's it a lapse in judgment for me to ice this bastard, but not you?! Why should I step aside?" "You're not doing this because he deserves to die. You're doing it because you're afraid, too. Because you feel small, and you have to prove that you aren't. Someone like that can never finish the job. Someone like that only makes things worse for themselves and others."
Shinnosuke Tomari	Bobby rejects Tomari. A cinderblock comes flying at him, with evasion difficult at that speed but possible enough to force it as a glancing blow on his side (absolutely still bruising and breaking). It hurts the unarmored detective quite a bit, but what's scarier is the engine block. That could possibly kill Tomari, thrown with that strength. He pivots on his heel, a martial artist, and then dives out of the way, narrowly not getting hit. He's panting hard. "Are you trying to kill us? Is this justice to you, or pure rage?!" With Bobby distracted, Tomari quickly takes the time to grab his Shift Car, even if he's much more injured starting out than he usually is. There's a new Shift Car on the brace, but he doesn't grab that one, instead grabbing the usual Type-Speed. "Henshin!" DRIVE! Type -- Speed! With a throttle of the brace, there's a quick transform, a circle appearing around him as armor cycles on and a tire flies off of the Tridoron to lock onto his torso. He needs the armor to deal with Bobby's strength. "Stand down, Bobby Briggs! Please!" There's a blur of movement, as Tomari briefly runs across the exterior wall of the house, before moving to kick off it and tackle straight into the Dog Orphenoch, fists first. Whether he hits or whiffs completely, he rolls to his feet and flicks his wrist out, moving to slam Bobby straight in the chest and see if he can't wind him. He trusts the others can handle the man with the revolver. Bobby's the greater threat.
Hamada Haru	"There will be no need to finish anything," The Kamen Rider Tetra that remained outside says to the Centipede Orphenoch. He folds his arms over his chest, evidently only here to keep an eye on the situation with Bobby-- though Bobby is insistent enough that it demands the Tetra INSIDE come out, because Leo is hurled back out into the open. "You don't understand what I intend to do," he says, coldly. But the Tetra who is inside comes across Shelly with Tamamo first. He looks towards Tamamo, and then back towards Shelly. Rather than leave, he solidifes and takes up a guarding position. Go ahead-- do what you do best, he seems to be telling Tamamo. Gunfire barks. Tetra turns in place and extends a hand towards the oncoming bullet. He does not turn intangible. The bullet turns intangible on contact with him and passes harmlessly through the house, and on into the ether. Since the Tetra inside is standing guard over Shelly, the one outside stalks towards Leo. The wrist-device is tinkered with, a voice announcement rings. DELETION PROTOCOL: C4 Vertebrae Kamen Rider Tetra dissolves into a ghostly fog bank again and descends upon Leo, not really intending to give anybody the opportunity to stop him. But as he does, he speaks: "The Orphenoch resurrection process has weaknesses. Nerve damage suffered before death does not mend. When I am done with you, even if you should die and return, your might will be shrivelled fruit on a diseased vine," Tetra echoes into the surroundings, his voice coming from no particular point within the fog that is his body.
Xion	Trying to shout over Bobby and Takuma is maddening. The noise in Xion's head increases to a loud white static, and she draws her hand back into the light to touch her temple and wince. "You two, stop! Stop! I'm begging you to stop, and realize that your prides are the only things holding you back. You both want the same thing! Fight together!" Instead, Bobby slashes his claws across the Centipede and sends him sprawling back. She sees all the opportunities to get out of the way. She feels the urge to evade. She hyperfixates on each poison spike for a fraction of a heartbeat each, aware of every painful conclusion this would come to. And with an 'oof', just stands there and catches Takuma. Sparks and drips of toku purple poison blot the backs of her over-shirt as she wraps her arms around the plated, spikey man's chest. "Alright. I'll help, this one time. After this, you'll have to do it on your own, but I'll remind you. The code..." In her hand lifts a faded golden medallion that bears an dark mask with a yellow X across the face. In her grip it shines and mirages into the shape of a swing phone. Her arms, around his waist, feel heavy like a belt -- and as they pull away, there's one with a silver cradle there, hanging with all sorts of plastic garbage. A familiar weight for the centipede. "The code is 9-1-3." It didn't work right for me, Takuma, but you can choose to be a protector. If you want to find power, look inside. That belt was made to bring out the power of people like you." She then falls over backwards, deeply owned from Many Poison. She has to mash through the 'ow, my organs' animation for the round, but...
Hellwarming Trio	Rin: "Ya think that guy likes us?" Utsuho: "Who, Delta?" Rin: "Tetra." Utsuho: "Oh. Uh... No, why?" Rin: "I mean... He didn't look like the type to shoot us that info, right? But..." Utsuho: "You're just overthinking it." Overthinking aside, the pair form up with everyone else showing up, taking some time to look between the Centipede and the Dog to just try and comprehend why one of them is also not seeking the path of violence. Shinnosuke being there makes it easier for them to figure out how to proceed, and Xion speaking to the tree/Orphenoch hidden in the tree has them looking over to try and understand where that's all going as well. "Takuma, Itsuro, Bobby, Leo... Are we missin' anyone?" Rin asks as she floats back at the crash of glass and the tumbling of Leo, shrieking when Bobby punts those blocks at herself and Utsuho. Her noise is far louder than the grunt that Utsuho lets out despite the latter actually getting hit square on the arm with it, but they both recover after flipping back a few feet from the hard impact. "If you're trying to get us on your side, you're doing a pretty bad job at it, guy. We don't like him any more than you do." As Utsuho responds, she brandishes her control rod and takes aim at Bobby, but takes note of how fast he's moving and how much potential collateral damage there could be to pay for. Instead, she just starts chasing after him. "But you know... Do you really want him to get stronger when you're trying to do this? It'd just make him worse like... Bug guy said, yeah." Utsuho gestures at the Centipede Orphenoch, then blasts forward suddenly as flames trail behind her, giving her just enough speed to catch up with Bobby briefly. In that moment, she tries slamming her control rod into him from the opposite side of Kamen Rider Drive, aiming to push him deeper into the strike and taking another upwards swing to try and launch him into the air as Rin comes in from above with a burst of flames!
Tamamo	The shouting at least makes things become clear as to what's actually happening here, as well as Xion's explanation. That changes most everything beyond Tamamo's immediate goal. "In curing a sickness, is it not said, 'first, do no harm'?" The phrase is a fairly modern one, but it's the first retort to Bobby that came to mind, and she's distracted. "If you cannot save a life without taking one, then your power is not yet great enough." Reaching Shelly, Tamamo begins to crouch down and reach for her, her aura quickly suffusing the immediate area with a comforting warmth that at once draws one's attention outward, denying the ability to remain withdrawn in the same way as the Summer Sun denies coats and blankets. Reaching for her extended hand would be so much more comfortable, as would moving. "Come, now, we are friends, and we must get you --" This is interrupted by Leo shooting Tamamo. Aimed well enough, the bullet hits a ward, invisible until that moment, slowing and banking it upward in a shower of sparks, not quite breaking, but letting it clip Tamamo's shoulder. She hisses out the rest of her breath in pain, leaving her sentence unfinished, and reaching for the wound. It's only a scrape, really. She was hardly hit at all, but it still bleeds. There's no follow-up shot, Tetra having neatly prevented that, for the moment, though Tamamo only notices that he's there to guard them, and not quite how he did it. She turns enough to address Leo. "That is, truly, enough of that, please. Have you not caused enough hurt? You dig away at the very island upon which you stand, and push away your only escape in spite." Tamamo gropes on the floor, finding the damaged bullet by lucky intuition, not incidentally spreading her blood thinly over both sides of it. That establishes the connection. "A curse upon that which assaulted myself, may it break and shatter in your hands. Blades turn to rust, arrows fall head from shaft, and all ill from your hands instead take your own feet." A curse of decay and tremendously poor luck has little visible component. It simply occurs, vibrating unseen strings that connect one's Fate to another's. Tamamo keeps her other hand extended to Shelly. More quietly, "Come. We must go. You will be safe."
Lilian Rook	"It was a lapse in my judgement to leave you to the others." Lilian snaps back at Bobby. "I gave my word that I'd take care of this, and then you got killed! I trusted people who couldn't do the job, and it's a miracle I'm not a liar yet. So I'm not giving out any more trust to people who still can't; and that means you too, Bobby!" The spray of bullets come at her, but she can pick up Leo's uncontrolled violent intent without even focusing. She clenches a fist, turns a little too fast, even for her, and smashes the side of the slug, taking advantage of a heavy, low velocity pistol calibre, and the bulletproof gloves she's wearing to wing the chunk of lead off into one of those cinderblocks as a show of force. "The Second Code: 'Thy station is thee and thou art thy station. Speak always with its authority, and do not speak that which would tarnish it.' Do you think I don't take this seriously? Do you think it's just pure ego? Putting faith in people I should know better than is how we got this far! This town is a mess, more and more day by day, and I bear part of the blame for being so hands-off! Whether or not you listen to a single word said today, you're doing what I tell you, Bobby, and you're going to thank me later!" Then she teleports over to Leo, and in an instant, swing-kicks the revolver out of his hands, not particularly caring if she breaks fingers or wrist in the process; no, she hopes she does, after he shot at Tamamo. "That's enough from you!" she yells, quickly pivoting once to use to momentum for another toepoint kick to the back of his head. Then she's gone again and right back to Bobby, coming at him with a far speedier pseudo-lariat to clothesline him in his charge and quickly dumpster all of his momentum. "And don't you dare call me a hypocrite! In the first place, I don't have to kill him! Because I'm not weak, Bobby! I have that option! I always have that option, because I don't fail! And if killing him creates more Orphenocs, then even if I can finish the job after, I won't create more monsters! I don't trade human lives for monsters! That's my Seventh!" The fact that she is bludgeoning him with powerful mental influence at the same time as her body is unconscious, but effective. There's no need for her to focus a psychic presence or anything; it's the ire of 'the queen of air and darkness' type of thing that oozes off of her; an absolute winter of cowing authority and life-sapping menace.
Go Shijima	Is this justice to you, or pure rage?! Do you really want him to get stronger when you're trying to do this? "I'm TRYING to get you guys to LEAVE! Just LET ME DO THIS!" There is a lot of rage in his cry back to Tomari and the duo, but when Tomari tackles him to the ground, there's a fair bit of something else in there. Something that is all too familiar for Shinnosuke Tomari. It sounds like Go. It sounds like anguish. This isn't just about Leo. It isn't just about all that time spent hiding from him. It's about the whirlwind of darkness that's sucked Bobby under--one he feels powerless to control. This was supposed to be his escape from it--and he's not thinking clearly enough to see everyone's trying to help him. Like Go, clear thought will probably have to be beat into him. Tomari's fist crashes into those claw weapons, hard enough to push Bobby across the hard earth, leaving tracks in it and kicking up dirt. Before he can get back on the offensive, he has Utsuho and Rin to worry about. His ears twitch in advance of the attack from behind, and he whirls around, trying to snatch Utsuho from the air with a swipe of the left claw. He overcommits, and can't adjust his posture well enough to leap clear of Rin's downward flame blast. It drops him to a knee, scorching his white-tufted tail black and hitting with enough force to crack the earth. "Ugh..." "Why do you guys have to make everything so DAMNED HARD?! I was FINE!!" He wasn't. This is, or was to be, catharsis. He takes a moment to catch his breath, and... retaliates. By leaping forward with his left knee, only to strike with his right, aimed at Tomari's temple. He is, at least, smart enough to know that Tomari is a much more experienced fighter, and so the Dog Orphenoch doesn't let up. The claw weapons contribute probing stabs and slashes, attempting to corral Tomari back towards Tridoron, while mixing in kicks to his midsection to draw his guard lower. Why towards Tridoron? Wouldn't Leo have an angle on the both of them there? Bobby's ears twitch, again.
Go Shijima	The violence erupting around him seems to pass through Itsuro, when Xion calls to him to protect. "...I'm Itsuro Takuma," says the Centipede Orphenoch to Rin, after a considerable pause on his part. He offers Xion a hand up--carefully--if she needs it, and accepts her offer. "But I guess today I'll be a Kamen Rider." He dials 9-1-3. He remembers it. A deep, robotic voice announces that it is STANDING BY. "Henshin." A vocoded, tritonal chime sounds, as a yellow wireframe illuminates and surrounds the Centipede Orphenoch. Purple plates flash into being over a black suit, with the greek character X forming a faceplate with a purple visor. "If you won't stand down as your friends say... then I'll weather your anger until it exhausts you." Kamen Rider Kaixa leaps into battle, soaring across the yard to force Bobby off of Tomari with suppressive fire from a reverse-grip sword-blaster with an X-shaped crossguard. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fobDk2lzvB4 Bobby definitely wasn't expecting that--nor was he expecting the high-speed flurry of slashes from the sword's invisible edge, formed of agitated photons that spark brightly when the field makes contact, illuminating the close melee in stunning contrast to the gentle moonlight filtering through the firs. One, two, hip to shoulder, shoulder to hip, followed by an agile moonsault over his head. His foot plants between Bobby's shoulders, driving him into Lilian's clothesline. In a daze from being put through a thick front door, Leo stumbles from his vantage point on the running board of his cab to try and clumsily shuffle away from Haru. He isn't fast enough to evade Tetra, and the deletion protocol sends him crumpling to the ground before he can fumble another round into the cylinder. His upper body twitches, but his legs don't move. Still--still. He still attempts to squeeze the trigger after slotting one final bullet into the cylinder, and as Lilian's strike knocks it away, Tamamo's curse goes into effect. The weapon turns against him, and instead of harmlessly firing into the night sky, it ends up burying a bullet in his back. Extensive nerve damage on this level in such quick succession causes him to lose consciousness--and he may not regain it. If you cannot save a life without taking one, then your power is not yet great enough. I don't have to kill him! Because I'm not weak, Bobby! There is seething, reproachful anger, and hurt radiating from Bobby. "It must be nice to be strong," he wheezes as he rolls over on the ground. He's getting back up, ill-advised as it may be. "I was too weak to save Laura OR Shelly. How can I not think it's pure ego, if you're telling me I can't even try the way only a weak person could?!" His claws are scraped against each other in rapid succession, sending white-hot, searing projectiles across the yard at Lilian, Xion, and Haru. Conspicuously, he doesn't attack Tamamo. His ears twitch again. The roar of a V8, with the bass of one used for something large and four-wheel drive. Red and blue lights. A cloud of dust is kicked up. It's Sheriff Truman, with Coop in the passenger seat. Dale is out in a flash, opening the rear door so that Tamamo can usher Shelly in. "Get in!" Bobby is clear enough of mind not to attack Coop, Tamamo, or Harry for the fact that they're helping Shelly. But... he's not exactly giving up, either. "What are people like me supposed to do?! Just wait for someone like you to show up and fix everything for us? WHERE WERE YOU TWO WEEKS AGO?!"
Shinnosuke Tomari	The Dog Orphenoch is strong. But Drive is a better fighter. As the blows come in, Tomari's arms move into super-fast defensive maneuvers, raking claws against wrist armor making large sparks and sending Bobby back with an elbow to gain some distance. He realizes... "Bobby, I was weak once, too. I got my partner injured, and he's still in recuperation. I had no power. I had nothing to do. Then, finally, I got it..." Kamen Rider Drive moves in, eyes widened under the helmet at Kamen Rider Kaixa, but there's a nod to his fellow Rider. "And I realized that it shouldn't change who I am. I realized that strength isn't something you use to take lives, but to save them!" His fists start flurrying in, a rapid burst of power, before he suddenly leaps back and clicks the Full Throttle. He's gonna do a finisher, once again early, just so his words have weight. "Would Ronnette want you to do this? Any of your other friends? Is this the only way you can think of being strong?! Of having control?! Because there's another! Join us, Bobby! Help us make a safer world! One without all this killing, this violence, this cycle of hate and despair that pervades through this town!" He's next to the Tridoron. Good. Kamen Rider Drive suddenly leaps backwards onto the hood, and then, makes sure the Full Throttle is active. Full Throttle! Type Speed! Tires suddenly spin up off the car, and around him. Kamen Rider Drive kicks into them, being bounced around, before being launched straight at the Dog Orphenoch. This is lower-test - it's not meant to kill, but it sure as hell is meant to hurt and even incapacitate.
Hamada Haru	Much of what Kamen Rider Tetra does after his vicious attack is re-materialize and ... listen. This is true of each of the Tetras, and several important pieces fall in place as he listens. //Thy station is thee and thou art thy station. Speak always with its authority, and do not speak that which would tarnish it.// //Just LET ME DO THIS!// //Why do you guys have to make everything so DAMNED HARD?!// I'm Itsuro Takuma, but I guess today I'll be a Kamen Rider. "It must be nice to be strong." It was a question that Haru has been asking himself since the Tetra driver began to act out. To begin with he'd always questioned the worth of a miracle; what should be asked in return. But the Tetra driver began to exact an even weightier price than that, and it did so without asking. It did so with his body, even when it wasn't what he wanted. What is power worth? When isn't it worth it anymore? He's certain that many people would answer that power is always worth it. That, at least with power, that you have a place at the table. Without that much, you can't even have that. It's not wrong, he decides, for the price in front of you to be deemed acceptable. It's like Bobby says-- are people meant to just wait for a rescuer if they COULD do it themselves? But it's also not wrong for the price to be too much. Heated projectiles rain across one Tetra and then the other as they collapse towards one another. Tetra Prime -- the one that Hamada Haru directly inhabits -- fidgets with his wrist device. "Fool. Rook is an arrogant god trapped in mortal flesh, she wants you to do what she wants you to do. Cleave to it if you want, but cleave to it because you want to, not because she spat fire at you out of frustration with her lack of control over what has transpired and how that has compromised her," Haru rumbles, clearly agitated. Yet, it's not at Lilian. "You've helped me come to an important conclusion, Bobby," he continues. The sequence he presses into the controller is relatively complex. Like he's putting in passwords. "Thanks for that. As for your frustrations... no, you're not supposed to wait around, least of all when you've stumbled into power. And while I'm tempted to say that it's not even 'your justice' to wield your power as you are right now, I won't diminish what you're feeling by insisting on that. Even so, this is the way of people like us. If one justice clashes with another, it is answered in battle, and only sometimes with words." An announcement sounds. The "secondary" Tetra draws back... DELETION PROTOCOL: TETRA DRIVER And delivers a kick that annihilates Hamada Haru's belt. An implosion of black-and-white spreads out from the point of impact, a sigil like a great scythe dancing in the air before vanishing into the skies. It is not a mutually self-destructive attack; it harms no one, not even Haru, though the second Tetra dissolves to ash with his foot still extended in the air. Balling his hand into a fist, Haru draws back and swings a fist at Bobby's face. If it lands he draws back with an agitated expression, holding the previously extended arm at the wrist. It wasn't a good idea to do that. "Power that rages out of control, whether it is the rage of our own hearts or the rage of the power itself-- that is not worth the price it inevitably exacts. That is my decision, and now you have to find yours," Haru says. Then, he turns and walks away.
Hellwarming Trio	"You're not strong enough to do this. If you were, he'd be dead way before we even got here. We wouldn't even be out here." Utsuho responds with a rather judgmental tone in her voice, interrupted in mid-flight when Bobby's claws cleave right into her shoulder. The impact is enough to knock her off balance and bounce off the ground a few times rather painfully, but she catches herself at the last moment with a few reddening welts on her arms and forehead. "Oh, so Itsuro /is/ Takuma!" Rin finally makes that connection as she catches herself on the side of the house, turning around just in time to see the Centipede Orphenoch transforming into- "Another Kamen Rider?! Oh, come on!" She sounds frustrated about that, but bites back further outbursts while raising her hands and drawing more flames together in a wide circle above her. Utsuho: "It is pretty nice to be strong, yeah. But your strength isn't enough. Not yet." Rin: "Dude's got a point, though. Would you wanna sit around waitin' for someone else to get back at someone for messin' with you?" Utsuho: "Not really. But I'm strong enough to do that myself." Rin: "But that's the point! He ain't strong enough in this form, so what's a dude like him supposed to do?" They're actually stopped in their tracks for a while as they mull over a proper response to Bobby's rage, not quite able to come up with an answer that would even convince themselves, much less the person actually responsible for this. It takes them a little longer to digest the common thread being pushed: That of being protectors instead of vengeance seekers. "Tch... If even that guy can get a cool transformation for protectin' people, then I can, too!" Rin's getting herself fired up as she looks between Xion and Kaixa, taking to the sky again as she points at the Dog Orphenoch. "You're not strong enough to kill him now, but you're probably strong enough to kick his ass if he tries pulling anything else. So just beat him up when he does until he's too afraid to mess with anyone again!" She promptly hurls that ring of fire forwards at Bobby, smaller fireballs breaking off of it moments later to home in on his position. They come in at strange angles, however, curving around to explode behind him to force him forwards, then in front of him to force him back, at his sides to pin him down, and the last few right on top to keep him in place. Utsuho, meanwhile, still looks puzzled over the matter as she joins Rin in the sky. "And if you're still not strong enough even for that, then... You'll just have to find some other power. Maybe something that won't get you all raged up like D.. Tetra said." Backflipping once in midair, Utsuho's body bursts into flames as she dives towards the Dog Orphenoch with her arms and wings outstretched to make herself an even bigger mass of falling flame. "Then you can think up a better plan and try again instead of getting beat down so hard." Unlike Rin, however, Utsuho still sounds like she has some misgivings.
Lilian Rook	"What do you expect me to say? That being strong isn't all that great?" Lilian yells back to Bobby. "No, that's just how it works! Strength means that you have what you need when it counts! Weakness means you can't control anything! That's how this world works! I'm not going to lie to you Bobby; there's no value in being the way that you were or the way you're trying to be; it's terrible to be you, because nobody ever expected anything out of you nor did they encourage you to be anything! Becoming strong enough to take control of things like this is hard! It's not something you can get overnight with a transformation and dumb luck!" Almost to prove the point --no, it certainly is to prove the point, Lilian has easier ways of doing this-- she begins rapidly phasing through the stream of projectiles, appearing in almost half a dozen places at once due to a trail of light-lagged afterimages before arriving at Bobby again. She brings up both hands in something too loose to be a boxing stance, but too tight to be anything starting with a K, and they dart out in rapid succession as she weaves around his claws, hitting him up and down, though oddly enough, not hard enough to make sparks? "Strong people have their own worries Bobby, but part of how I became 'someone like me' was so nothing like this would ever happen to anyone I care about; and you didn't! That's how it is! This didn't happen because you were weak and afraid, but you can't fix it because you were; and are! A new body doesn't change anything about it!" She leaps up and pivots her body completely around to gain the momentum for back heel kicking him as far away from the van as possible. "Weak people get stronger or they call for help! What's the point of strong people protecting anyone if they fuck it all up on their own?! You aren't any more in control of anything now than you were before, Bobby! And you know what? I don't give a shit about whatever happens to that man; so long as it doesn't make more monsters! I wouldn't waste a moment pitying him if one of those bullets ricocheted and hit him in the head right now! But I'm here to get rid of this, and I won't stand for letting more of it happen because someone swears they'll pick up after it later!" The purpose of the flurry of blows is more obvious when Bobby gets away, as a score of parchment strips are plastered all over the orphenoc form, each covered in inkbrush sprawls of a dead Celtic language that nevertheless look incredibly similar to Tamamo's talismans. They have roughly the same effect, in immediately sucking all the energy out of his body, draining the orphenoc transformation through twenty small taps. "If we're looking through hindsight, yes, I should have been here two weeks ago! I've admitted it! But I let other people handle it! And look what happened! Ronette, Jacques, Horne, You! I'm done with trusting now! So I'm not letting you handle this! No more fucking Orphenocs, because I say so! I'm fixing this, and that's it! Next time, either don't be so goddamned helpless, or don't be so goddamned stubborn!"
Tamamo	No longer under attack, Tamamo helps Shelly to her feet, pulling from the stack of healing talismans stuffed up her sleeve to find one for her, and another for herself. There is certainly a tactical use in fresh blood for a variety of magic, but she'd have to admit that her pain tolerance is not very good, if pressed. Along the way to the sheriff's car, she notices that Leo has gone and shot himself. She's still able to find a tiny bit of sympathy for him, even now, but it's drowning under the flood of feeling for what he's done. She didn't know him, nor Shelly, but her thoughs ring clear, 'it should have been better.' They should have had a better life than this. They'd had every chance, hadn't they? After all, he was human. He wasn't forced to be apart. He wasn't forced to swing a sap. If he'd wanted to, he could have chosen just what she'd been looking for, all this time. Why didn't he? How incomprehensibly foolish. "She was right, on that point. Of course." Tamamo stops murmuring and turns back to Bobby, her wound now healed over. "If you can resolve matters on your own, you may choose to do so." ...can't even try the way only a weak person could?! "Did you not think you could remove him without killing him? Did you not think to learn guile, but that your claws were all you had, for they were your newest gift? If killing him creates a monster, and your goal is to stop him from hurting her, then why did you think only of murder? Of course, you should do what you can, if you do not only make things worse than they are! But what of this convinced you that there was only one possible plan, and that it could only be 'his blood' as your goal, and 'your hands' as the means?" While she speaks, her Charm shifts, consciously pushing rippling waves of mostly-subtle effects, communicating a feeling akin to motherly disappointment in a manner tone and volume couldn't possibly convey. It is, most of all, difficult to tune out, drown out, push aside, or otherwise ignore, either physically or mentally, as the feeling is spiritually, mystically 'true,' even if what it seems to describe is objectively false. Tamamo isn't Bobby's mother, and he doesn't have to listen to her -- objectively. But even thinking about rebelling in that way grants the pangs of a gulity conscience. "This is not truly about stopping a tragedy, is it? If that was all you needed, it would not have to be you who does it. It would not need to end in fatal violence. Do not mistake rage and anger, no matter how justified in their direction, for something noble. The reason to fight has already passed."
Xion	Badly poisoned, Xion feels awful. She dislikes being poisoned the most, because it always puts her in the worst possible 'mood'. The regulation of her 'feelings' via understanding her physical state grows complicated and awful when her entire body roiled in mid-grade revolt. Finally drawing Starlight into a left-handed reverse grip from the air and a metallic shwink accopanying the sway of her fingers from the elbow-levered action, Xion catches the blasts and clashes with them there against her guard. As the third cracks into her block, she finally is unbalanced and blasted away, across the street and onto the yard across the way. Her sword remains buried where it fell, in the ring of light she had been standing in, but her black-coated form lays face down in the darkness for a few moments. She snorts into the dirt. "Why does it have to be this hard..." Bringing up her knees and elbows under her, Xion rises. "Is what everyone feels when things don't go their way. But your dad asked me to save you. So I'm going to have to bring you home to your parents who love you, whether you throw this stupid tantrum or not, Bobby." "But I'm tired of you treating me worse than someone you've never met." Her left handpushes aside the black glove and black sleeve of her coat, to reveal 'black' skin underneath, which she peels off like an elastic bracelet with a keyring jangle. The ring of vantablack unrolls into a straight rod that gains a hexagonal set of corners and twists into a long spiral, ending in a cardinal sphere that sloshes some liquid-sand 'blood'. Alternate blade in hand, she points it at Bobby as the hilt of her twisting-black sword curls around her fist. "That excuse worked two weeks ago, Bobby. Now we're here, and I already showed you I can lock away someone's states. I'm not here to say nice things to you, Bobby. I was here to save Takuma. You?" The tip of her blade 'extends' and tesselates out, tracing strange simple patterns in the air with all right angles. "I'm here to stop a murder. X Gravija." From each corner of the jagged pattern-ring that achieves a circle through only taking ninety degree turns, the tip begins charging with a glossy black flare of energy before firing off a saturation beaming of photonegative detonations that, at their apex, implode into a single gravity withered point. Then they return to normal, because it's just Final Fantasy Gravity Spell. This is a PG-13 Show! :)
Go Shijima	I realized that strength isn't something you use to take lives, but to save them! As Tomari's fists crash into Bobby's armor, he's pummeled off balance to the point that his guard is too hasty when that early finisher comes. Would Ronnette want you to do this? Any of your other friends? They wouldn't. They wouldn't even understand. They'd look at him with something resembling shock and fear, mixed together. They'd think 'is Bobby really capable of that? Could I be next?' He knows--because James only recently stopped looking at him that way. The finisher strikes him and lifts him off his feet, sending him flying into a fir hard enough to splinter it and strip the bark as he slides down its bent trunk. Utsuho's charge is bright and obvious. It's still difficult to get clear, because Bobby's just had the wind knocked out of him a second time and he's flagging badly. He can barely get free of that--but even with his enhanced senses screaming danger at him, his body won't respond quickly enough to get him clear of Rin's blasts. He's forced to run on all fours into the forest, his gait ungainly and labored. it's terrible to be you, because nobody ever expected anything out of you nor did they encourage you to be anything! But it's worse than that. At least two people expected something from him. Encouraged him constantly. His parents did. Realistically... lots of people did. He used to be a 'good kid.' Some of the more oblivious teachers and parents in town still think he is. The Palmers probably think he is. What can he even say to that? What words will even come? Nothing, but an anguished, frustrated scream--and only then, after he recovers from being kicked squarely in the chest by Lilian. He weathers her flurry badly, wildly off-balance with anger. The last of his strength is sapped by those talismans, leaving him wide open for Xion's rapid detonations and their subsequent gravity well. It blasts his prone body into a crater. After several tense moments of quiet, he can speak, though his voice is raw. "Just 'get stronger,' huh. Gee. Why didn't I think of that?" It's also wavering. Trying to hold back tears. "If it's that easy I guess I must be a real IDIOT! Why does anyone ever die if the people that care about them can just 'get stronger?!'" But what of this convinced you that there was only one possible plan, and that it could only be 'his blood' as your goal, and 'your hands' as the means? There's no resistance or rebellion left within Bobby. This whole exercise was meant to convince him that he was strong enough to solve his own problems--and it failed, miserably. "He doesn't have an answer. Do you, Bobby? ...I've lain where you do now. Don't take as long as I did to get up." Kaixa detransforms, revealing the spiny Orphenoch body which then melds back into human form. "I hope these pages will grant you some measure of comfort, or perhaps make it easier for you to stand." A black leather book is set before Bobby. The gold lettering is hard to see in the moonlight, until Haru destroys his own belt before Bobby's wide eyes. 'POETRY - W.B. Yeats' Power that rages out of control, whether it is the rage of our own hearts or the rage of the power itself-- that is not worth the price it inevitably exacts. Is Tetra--Haru,now--right? He saw that frustration, the agitation, in Haru's eyes. He is right. All of this is because Bobby can't control his anger. "Just... get me the hell out of here, please," he says to Xion, waves of shame and loathing washing over him as tears streak down his face. "I don't care where." He clutches the book from Itsuro with the last dregs of his strength.
Hellwarming Trio	Even as the flames leave Utsuho's body, she's still steaming in the air as she looks over Bobby and Itsuro following their transformations out of their Orphenoch and Rider -> Orphenoch forms, respsectively. "Yeah... Maybe you are dumb. Or maybe you're a genius because you could keep up with all this complicated stuff? Geh... If being smart's supposed to be this confusing, then..." She looks over at Haru. "Maybe it'd be easier to just stay dumb. At least I wouldn't break the stuff that makes me powerful just to..." She pauses, and then she hurries over to try and catch up to Haru. "Hey! Why /did/ you do that, anyway?" She still sounds baffled as ever, clearly not able to make heads or tails of all that even with the rather blatant explanation about raging power just moments ago. "Aren't you gonna be weak now? Is this more of that confusing human thinking again?" Rin, having missed what Haru had done to the Tetra Driver entirely, just keeps her attention fixed on Bobby instead while looking just a little off to the side when he starts weeping. "Ugh, geez... Uh, hey. Look, bro. You wanna get stronger? You can't just go tall and think you'll get as buff as demons like me or the sun goddess or even crazier humans like Lilian, Shinnosuke, or..." She pauses, looking over at Xion and squinting. "... You're human, right?" Thinking she might actually be helping, Rin keeps at it as she pulls over her wheelbarrow and sets it next to herself. "You gotta go wide first! Get smarter, like me! And then, once you got that down pat..." She hops onto the wheelbarrow. "Then you got a good base to really get stronger with! You get it?"
Tamamo	"Far from my thoughts would be celebration over victory in an exchange of beatings, but even against that standard, I find little joy, here." Tamamo watches Bobby from a distance, knowing that it's as Kaixa said. There is no answer. She can understand it, to an extent. It's a childish wish. For something to be childish doesn't mean that it isn't serious. Her thoughts turn next to Shelly and Leo. "At least one relationship destroyed, though it could be called such only as some cruel joke, and that man..." she says, looking toward the latter, "shall I heal him? I do not wish him death, and in choosing what he does deserve, I have reason to make no such decision, myself." It's a matter of personal principle, related to her divinity. "His injury, here, is self-inflicted, if accidental. I hold some pity, though it was he who fired upon me." She won't take responsibility for the curse doing this to him. He's the one who pulled the trigger, after she'd warned him. <J-IC-Scene> Shinnosuke Tomari says, "...I'd like him alive. Beyond that, if he's in a wheelchair...well, I'm not going to cry over it." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "Stay not thy hand for unnecessary persons." "A doctor I may not be, but these hands of mine do heal. I shall not stay them, then." That's certainly a twisting of what Lilian had said, but she couldn't claim to have come here to prevent a murder, only to leave a corpse, where it's within her power to do otherwise. <J-IC-Scene> Hamada Haru says, "I deleted his C4 vertebrae. Orphenoch evolution can't fix the associated nerve damage; don't fix that much, assuming you can." Tamamo isn't certain what that means, but she assumes it's the fourth one. Up in the neck, then. "How very precise." However he did it, it's impressive work, if rather eery that he could do such a thing at all. "Very well. I shall see what may be done." Tamamo, studiously ignoring the itching in her freshly healed shoulder, sets down by Leo not to study his injury, but to enter a trance-like state, unfocusing herself from the immediately physical to better study the details of the possible futures she's reading. Here, she can find those small possibilities for Leo, and consider her own options. If she does this for him, will he make a full recovery? If she does this, instead, will he die? For the sake of avoiding undoing Haru's efforts, Tamamo puts more care into selecting a treatment that will be just enough to satisfy Tomari's request than she does in actually healing him. She doesn't really understand the Orphenoc evolution business, herself, but she does know they don't want more of them, especially of men like this one.
Xion	Xion exhales and lowers her alternate sword, releasing grip having the sword quickly snap back into a circle and shrink, transmigrating to her wrist. Starlight simply disappears in a curl of metallic photons. Rin asks her an unfortunate question, but Xion nods. "I am one hundred percent human." She confirms, before walking over with a slight limp to Bobby, and lowering a hand to help him up. "I'm the hero of everyone's hearts. I don't ask you to like it. But I will help you. Whatever it takes." The moment he takes her hand, the streetlights momentarily go out, and both Bobby and Xion are cloaked in black, and when the streetlights come back up, both are gone.
Hamada Haru	When he's called to specifically, Hamada Haru pauses. He half-turns to look towards Utsuho. "I always wanted to be Kamen Rider. My whole childhood I looked up to heroes like that, and it was my mother who made more of them. I thought, surely, one day that will be me. But I didn't want to be Kamen Rider at all costs, and I was never anyone's first choice. The cost outweighed my dream, and in the end I'm more afraid of being an unworthy Kamen Rider than of being weak," he explains, simply. He nods towards Tamamo, and then resumes his walk down the road.