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BB	Jinako had made good on her suggestion a few days later. Once again in a tank top - this time yellow, instead of black, and blue jeans instead of grey sweats - she visits the Desire Temple lounge to pick up a melon soda and wait for the others. She does not wait too long, nor does she make a lot of conversation. Waiting, in the way of anti-social people, a sullen-seeming internal dialogue carrying on with her eyes fixed on the counter and her hand slowly transitioning can from lounge marble bartop to her mouth. Fidgeting with her Spider Phone, pulling it out, tabletapping it to check the lockscreen clock and the <Who's Online> app. She waits, until Neon or Keiwa shows up, and then she brightens up to animated (if droopy-eyed and glasses-opaqued) when the gang is assembled. "Did you bring everything? It's really not far, but we can't get there with a warpgate. We have to do a little driving. You ready?" --- Dropping from the Desire Temple back into an alley on the outskirts of Tokyo and walking out towards the Tokyo Bridge where, in a daytime occupied parking lot, meeting a rather standout figure: A spiky-shaggy haired blond man, in flipflop sandals, board shorts, a worn-open hawaiian shirt, and a fishing cap down over his head to quartershade his eyes. European and lightly sun-tanned from a life outdoors, the wiry-built man seems to snap to seeing Jinako after not paying attention to whole crowds of passing people as she leads Keiwa and Neon towards the blue panel van behind her contact. "Hey, Robin." Jinako lifts a hand and waves at the wrist. "Hey yourself, little lady." 'Robin' shoots back, leaning back on the front plate of his van. "These your friends headed to Fuyuki?" "Yep. And one more, he might be coming late." Jinako answers, guiding her new friends into the sliding panel door of the minivan. Inside is the heavy scent of Indian spices and oils, a bit of tobacco smoke, and the chemically sweet linger of sunscreen and lotion. There's a box of takeout fried balls and some perilously full cups of cucumber chutney that WILL spill if opened, and insufficient napkins despite there being an entire extra bag of napkins. The back shelf seat has one seat occupied by a media bag that seems full and stiff-sided on inspection, and the curtain pulled over that side's window. Clambering in -- Jinako to one of the middle two seats, lifting the takeout box onto her lap, and Robin into the driver's seat with pchok-pchok flipflop steps -- Robin waits until everyone is settled, pulls back the edge of his hat slightly to see better, adjusts his mirror to check the kids behind him, and then back to seeing rearview, begins to pull out, and-- Immediately nearly hits a long black sedan rolling into the lot. Robin swears in middle English, flips the stick back to Park, and gets out to start 'now what's the big IDEA'-ing in accented English to a spooked driver. Haru has a few extra minutes to arrive.
Desire Stars	Neon arrives in short order, wearing a variation on the DGP uniform--that distinctive high-collared DGP-branded jacket, but with shorts over leggings, all in the usual navy-black color scheme.      "Hey, Jinako," she says. Palms to her legs, she gives a little bow at the waist. "Thanks so much for doing this." Did you bring everything? It's really not far, but we can't get there with a warpgate. We have to do a little driving. You ready?      "I've got it all here," she says confidently, her head bobbing once as she produces her Desire Driver. And... that's it, really. Just the Driver and the ID core. No Buckles as of yet. ---      "Hi!" Neon says brightly to Robin, when they meet up. "Neon Kurama. Nice to meet you, Mr... Robin," she politely attempts. Into the van, and there's a light cough from her.      "Your van has, um... an interesting--AHH!" Neon clutches her chest as if anticipating a heart attack, when Robin nearly hits the sedan. "Does he always pull out without looking?" she conspiratorially asides to Jinako.
Dark Horses	"Yeah. About lunch. I uh, got another intervi-"      Keiwa arrives, dressed in the usual DGP attire and a cellphone basically glued to his head. He seems to be making up lies again, but really, given the rules, it's not like he has much of a choice.      "No. No, not the Concord this time, it's uh..."      He pauses again, this time looking over Jinako, and then Neon, and finally Robin, as he tries to spin something. He's gotta think fast with what he's given, something he's actually really good at... Ok, not really.      "For being a virtual idol manager??? Yeah! It's err, a new group or something. I'll let you know how it goes! L-Love you!"      He quickly hangs up before his sister can get a word in, folding and shoving the phone in his pocket as he now fully acknowledges everyone here.      "Hey Jinako, hey Neon... Errr, nice to meet you, Robin. Yeah, I got everything."      He quickly greets everyone with a quick bow and hurries himself into the car as to not waste any more time, keeping quiet as he mentally churns over something-      Is Robin American Or like, maybe European. The outfit, the car, the name, it all kind of fits. Jinako must be secretly really popular if she's casually friends with overseas people like these-      "GAH!?"      Keiwa's short-lived life flashes before his life as they nearly hit the sedan. So THIS is western driving, huh? Scary!!!
BB	EARLIER: Jinako had waved her own ID Core and Driver back at Neon, grinning mischeviously while tucking gear back into her bag. "All ready, then. Hey, do you think I'd look good in one of the jackets? You look like you're ready for a hike!" While Jinako had looked ready for a nap. NEAR TOKYO BRIDGE: Robin doesn't brighten in the same cheeky-twinkle way that Jinako does, a cooler guy all around, but he does brighten. Shoulders tilting back and slackening, Robin had lifted a hand in wave to Neon and Keiwa, grinning lopsidedly and using a thumb to flick away his hat-matted bangs away from his left eye. "Nice to meet you--" Robin is about to say something, stops, the lopsided grin flickers, and his eyes saccade away. "--too, yeah. Heh." He had almost said 'you kids'. But, they weren't, were they? Participants in a game of wishes and... transformations. And then Robin almost hits some guy pulling out. The alteraction is brief while Jinako blithely offers around her takeout box. "Yeah, you'd be surprised the places you can only get in a panel van with stains on the floor, actually. Have you ever seen 'Scooby Doo Mysteries'?" Meanwhile, the local European Shaggy is in a shouting match with a businessman in a suit that Robin has both height on and clearly muscle. Still, Robin is leaning and patting on the car, joculating to the unamused. Jinako gives an awkward smile and 'aheheh' play-off. "He drives well, but... not around other people?" Jinako explains gingerly. "His ego comes out behind the wheel." Eventually fed up, Robin raises his hands and walks back to the driver door. The trio inside the van can hear his dark mutterings as he enters. "See how you like it when *your* breaks *don't* work, huh?" Jinako, immediately aghast, turns and looks at Robin as he climbs in. "You *didn't*." Robin, blank-expressioned, looks at Jinako and blinks slowly. Jinako frowns more deeply. Robin turns away, placing his right hand on the wheel and his left dropping outside the still-open door to pluck at -- the air? some wire? a strap? the door? -- and settles fully into the driver's seat. "Okay." He agrees. "I didn't." Jinako doesn't buy it, but sits back in her seat. "Come on, let's just go." Jinako waits. Robin waits, adjusting the rearview mirror. The sedan behind them doesn't move. In park, Robin floors the motor, causing an unholy engine revving racket for a second, which causes the sedan behind to finally move out of the way, anxiously accellerating down the lot and letting Robin calmly and crisply, with a faint smile, let the engine drop down, pull into reverse, and smoothly get out of their space and start driving out over the Tokyo Bridge. "Sorry." Jinako explains, over her slightly spilled cucumber chutney that she's managing. "I really do prefer the warpgates, or, rayshift, but we need to cross this bridge the right way or we don't get there. Once we do, it's not hard to follow, for a while, but that's its own problem. I've texted Dynamic Era the details, okay?" Robin continues driving, merging into dense traffic on the bridge crossing as the midmorning sky transitions to a reddened afternoon. As they drive, somehow, the cars begin to thin out. As they drive, somehow, the sky continues to darken, like a wildfire flows or a city burns behind them, though it remains Tokyo for some time. Ahead, though, the landscape changes. Ahead, though, they approach sooted twilight and the oranged-flamed light of a smoldering snapshot of a ruin. They've perhaps seen places like this, before, in the daytime. During Jyamato attacks. But this is different, the air thick with something other than particulate, a kind of high pressure that stifles breath and sets on the shoulders when not '''supported by their powers'''. As untransformed Riders, the spiritual pressure of the place they approach comes down like a stormfront's edge. Palpable, but... bearable. Robin mutters. "Here we are again." "Fuyuki." He grumbles, like he's taken a daytrip to Arizona in the summer, for fun.
Hamada Haru	The particular tools that Hamada Haru prefers have the extremely straightforward benefit of being able to drive however the hell you like, which is a great benefit when you're operating probably the most expensive vehicle on the planet. The sound of a motorcycle's rumbling could be heard around the van that the rest of the crew was taking for a decent while before it actually appeared-- angling up out of the structure of the bridge and righting itself on it as it came into a 'strange place'. The process of transforming is something that he gets on with before they've even finished transit, as the pressure of the surroundings becomes enough to notify the rider that it's probably best not to carry on untransformed. He reaches into his jacket and produces his transteam gun while driving, the entire MIST MATCH sequence playing out as he pulls parallel with the van. The weapon is replaced at his belt instead of put away when the light brown locust-themed suit crackles into place, very much like a Kamen Rider but palpably not one. "This place feels like an active gas leak," Dynamic Era comments, over the engine noise.
Desire Stars	EARLIER:      Neon waves to Keiwa. "Hey!" she greets back sunnily.      Jinako's question about the DGP uniforms draws a playful affectation of thought, index pressed to her lower lip. "Hm..." The verdict was decided from the beginning of the little act, but she extends it for the sake of teasing. "Yeah," she says, purposefully abrupt as a means of making her opinion seem obvious, in an impish kind of way. "I think you'd look great in one." NEAR THE BRIDGE: Have you ever seen 'Scooby Doo Mysteries'?     "That sounds like one of those morbid crime procedurals my mother watches," Neon notes a little disdainfully. His ego comes out behind the wheel.     After the exchange between a revving engine and an anxiously accelerating sedan, Neon looks disbelievingly at Jinako, to put it mildly. To put it more accurately, she looks at the wish granter like one bystander might look at another, during some kind of first contact with aliens.     "That's ego?" she asks, sotto voce, incredulous. "I felt like I was discovering a new language for a second there." Her eyes sweep slowly away from Jinako, over towards the window.     "Anyway..." Anyway nothing. It's just a little filler word to move on from a topic that wasn't really going anywhere. She idly watches the cars, as they pass, trusting that Jinako knows what she's talking about even if Neon doesn't understand it herself. "I don't know about you," she says idly to Keiwa, "But I haven't been on a group trip like this in... a pretty long time. It's--"     Before she can remark 'nice,' the sky begins to darken. Rain? No--something else. "W-what--where did everyone go?" She leans forward in her seat, as if that might help her see what happened to the other cars. "Jinako, Mr. Robin, what happened here?" This place feels like an active gas leak.      "Whoa, can you guys hear him too, or is that just me? ...well, he's not wrong, anyway. I feel like... like I'm walking uphill."
Dark Horses	"Scooby wha??? Anywa,y y-yeah, he's pretty good..."      Keiwa just sort of tightly grasps onto his seatbelt while saying this as he really, really does not believe Jinako right now. Having your ego come out like this when driving is probably the worst thing that you could do! Then again, it's not like they are dead yet, so maybe, just maybe, she's actually rigvht.      Keiwa considers this for a bit and then immediately goes back to being an unbeliever as the car makes a noise that spooks him. Who is he kidding, they're all gonna die here!      His nerves finally calm down a bit as they reach Fuyuki, the weight of the place almost immediately hitting him. Not just spiritually and physically, but mentally as well. It almost feels like he's seen a place like this before, like deja vu, but he can't quite place it... Well, it's probably just his imagination. There's not even a Fuyuki where he's from for starters.      "Again??? Do you guys come here often or something?"      The answer is definitely yes, given the context, but he could not imagine actively and willingly coming back here. At all.
Hamada Haru	//Whoa, can you guys hear him too, or is that just me?// "I can do ghost things, it's not just you," Dynamic Era replies, bluntly. He's not really certain why some of that stuff stuck from Tetra, but he's not complaining-- and gaining the functions in a less spooky form through the transteam gun was a plus. He cuts the engine on his motorcycle and brings it about, facing it the way they came before he climbs off. //"Again??? Do you guys come here often or something?"// Rolling a shoulder, he replies to Keiwa, "This location roughly corresponds to Futo, where I come from. There's a crime syndicate that runs it, more-or-less... and this location seems to be especially malleable between worlds. I assume it is a site of substantial fluctuation between timeline outcomes. That basically makes it cursed, though. 'Interesting times'..."
BB	Jinako remains calm, through the engine rev, through the incredulity, lifting a dipped fried ball into her mouth and snacking while they maneuver through the 'thinning' traffic. The disappearing people, banished by the spiritual pressure-plane that the European Shaggy Mystery Van found at aggressive laning speeds. The drive is uneventful at the end because 'the event' is a startling lack of traffic, lack of light, lack of breathability, lack of ease, lack of... 'Reality'. They are, really, somewhere Else. The van pulls aside just at the end of the bridge, driving down and around onto a pull-out while Dynamic Era pulls alongside. Robin, at the wheel, glances out the window at the Masked Rider and gives a tightlipped and lopsided smirk, indicating for Era to follow him into the new parking area. It's not really a 'place to park', but literally a small park by the underpass. Drooping. Melted and ruined, blackened and worked by flame. Cranking the van into park, Robin turns around again, though the window besides is rolled down so Era can hear all of it. "In a certain world, in the year 2004, a battle takes place in a certain city 'besides Tokyo'." A headtilt, indicating Era's relation of Futo, corresponds. "The battle takes place between powerful wizards, who each summon legendary warriors to fight. Things happen," A tired sigh, as Robin sandals open the driverside door and steps out onto the soot-crunching ground, narrating as he opens the side panel. The smell of ash settles into the sinuses instantly, an acrid filter on every other thing, if there is any other scent found at all. Jinako curls up her nose and coughs. Robin doesn't flinch at all. "And the war for the wish-granting Holy Grail goes off the rails. A wish is made for 'more wishes', and the cursed chalice explodes. You know: Stupid wizard stuff." Out, down a set of steps, in a courtyard surrounded by blackened and struggling plants, is the signs of battle, and the humanoid silhouettes of shambling figures. More physical than 'ghosts', the ash-smoke that rolls through Fuyuki like fogbanks obscures what's going on in the distance, purpling the sky and orange in the middle distance. "It became a 'Singularity'. A-" Another nod to Haru. "-cursed place. Another word for a 'magical' place. The leftover weapons of that war still wander around, filled with concentrated magic from being at ground zero of wizardly hubris." The humanoid shapes move in lazy packs, two or three at a time, and go about their motions in jerky, unsettling ways. One trio-patrol approaches bearing broken and rusted weapons - blunt metal, 'swords' in melted three quarters, sharpened bones and bits of rebar - and reveals the reddened skeletons in tattered rags that they are. Jinako scoots out of the side panel of the van, pointing at the skeletons slowly approaching. "The outskirts mostly just have those. 'Dragon-Tooth Warriors' - a witch's prepared army that was never defeated with the master. They're like the Jyamato, but, they just mill around here. When we're done, Robin can gather up their bones to sell, if you like."
BB	"Don't get ahead of yourself." Robin grunts, pulling 'his' media case out of the hatchback of the van and shouldering it. "I'm going ahead to keep watch. Since your other chaperone is here." Robin gives a faint smirk to Haru, hanging out at the van for a few more moments. Jinako has a few more outstanding questions. "People... Don't live here any more. 'Normal' people can't survive in an area of high concentration of Spiritron Energy for that long. But we come here pretty often." Robin shrugs. "Bones is good business. Speaking of:" The approaching Dragon Tooth Warriors seem to sense the party more than see them, creak-clattering into a dry snap of aware 'looking' and eerie chattering. Then, they begin to advance! Oh no! The skeletons! They're walking forward! Towards the van, menacingly! Jinako, fumbling with her belt a little, looks to Keiwa and Neon. "Don't worry! With Robin and Era," And Jinako. But she's also practicing. "-we really are safe."
Hamada Haru	Oh, there's a different parking area. Haru follows Robin, because that guy seems to know what he's doing, being the 'driver' in this situation. "Chaperone, is it..." Dynamic Era surveys Robin curiously. He considers the panel van, and then Robin, and adds, "I was going to say that such a vehicle didn't suit you, but... that's wrong, isn't it?" Just because a guy looks classier than something in his own way doesn't mean that it doesn't suit him perfectly-- seems to be the thinking. As they advance into the 'danger zone', he retrieves his transteam gun and gives it a flick of his wrist, a sudden flow of steam seeping out in a straight line from its barrel and terminating abruptly as it assumes gunblade form. To the new Riders, he tutorializes, "It's usually better to transform before you think there will be trouble. You'll usually have the time to get it done, but there's no telling when an enemy will be willing to take advantage of the start-up. If you aren't familiar with your belt's transformation mechanism, get used to it in private. Synchronize your breathing with the motions." Planting his gunblade point-down in the ground, he raises both hands and illustrates with a belt that doesn't exist-- placing a nonexistent core in a nonexistent "Desire Driver" with a quick slap of his hand. "Breathe in." A retrieval-and-socketing motion for one of the more distinct transformation pieces neither of them have. Haru is just guessing with this one, but he gets the motion close enough. "Breathe out." "You'll have to find your own rhythm, but always make a habit of incorporating your breathing into it. First-time fighters often let themselves get blue in the face even in a hobby context," he concludes. A dragontooth warrior moves in on him while he's doing this, and hits him along the collar. A few sparks fly at the point of impact, but Dynamic Era holds steady, grabs his gunblade, and sweeps it underneath the skeleton's extended arm in a wide arc.
Desire Stars	"Okay..." It's scary. It really doesn't feel 'newbie-friendly.' But as Neon steps out of the van, she knows that the buck has to stop somewhere. If it's here, in this ruined, hostile place--then maybe she can start closing the gap between herself and the two 'other' Riders she's thought of, since her demoralizing jaunt to Zephiel's banquet hall.      "You mean all of this was over..." A wish. Over people deciding who most had the right to their desires. She swallows, nervously. Though her eyes water from the stinging taste of the air, she steels herself, forcing herself to look at the shapes making ungainly strides through the haze. At the trio approaching.                                   DESIRE DRIVER!                                        Neon's Driver fastens itself around her waist, her yellow-on-black ID Core inserted. "Dragon-Tooth Warriors," she repeats, with determination. "Thank you, for reassuring me, Jinako. Henshin!!" No windup, or pose--one might come, down the road, but right now, Neon needs even the slightest idea of who Kamen Rider Na-Go is.                                       ENTRY.                                          Plain matte black unadorned armor stops rebar, by virtue of its toughness and not of its wearer's expertise. Na-Go's catlike lenses flash several times as she's sent sprawling and rolling. It was a nasty hit, but... "I'm okay," she says, largely to herself, and quietly. The blow came, happened, and it sucked--but she's in one piece. And on the other side of it, things look less scary.      Haru might have seen brand new riders fight. She isn't graceful, and her left-right-left haymakers certainly aren't efficient. But they're very spirited, and what she lacks in knowhow, the Entry Form can at least somewhat make up in physicality. Her strikes hit, if not overwhelmingly powerful, 'hard enough to matter.'
Dark Horses	"Singularity? Like the math term, right?"      Keiwa does his best to pretend that he's fine by focusing on the meaning of words. It's a lot easier than the alternative of paying attention to how uncomfortable it is being here, at the very least, though now that if he thinks about it, if it's the mathematical version of the word singularity, then they couldn't be here since the place would exist, right? So maybe it's actually like a a focal point of this world. But then, why would it have the letter A added to it implying there's more. Blackholes???      The luxury provided to him by picking apart the word for much longer, however, as skeleton soldiers start closing in, causing Keiwa to reach for his belt and ID core, pushing it in with his thumb as he holds it close to his face, seemingly paralyzed.      Breath in.      Alright.      Keiwa breathes in, sucking the awful air between his teeth as he spreads his legs apart, feet digging into the rubble.           DESIRE DRIVER      He crosses his arms across one another and against his chest, striking a pose.      "Henshin!"      ENTRY      Two holographic pillars make their way up and down Keiwa, covering him in a non descript generic black suit that is eventually topped off with a green Tanuki helmet. He once again, stands there stunned, though he eventually works himself out of his transformation shock, because the alternative to that is dying, and he's not about to let that happen.      That said, it'd be really nice if he had a weapon of some kind, he may have transformed, but he's still feeling rather naked. Hands and feet will have to do he supposes, and much like Neon, he just kind of throws himself into the crowd of skeletons, grabbing onto one of the as he begins pushing and kneeing them into several other unlucky bone boys.
BB	Dynamic Era appraises Robin as a more refined man than he is. The easy confidence of their European driver doesn't come from driving a vehicle mis-matched for his skills indeed. Jinako managed to keep her treats on her seat thanks to her own Riding skill-traits, but Robin maneuvers the minivan like a suburban dad getting his kids to soccer practice - practically, aggressively, and comfortably maneuvering a human-scale vehicle on human-scale roads. Part of the point, it comes across, is that their beat up blue van *is a beat-up old blue van*, well-kept mechanically and ridden for work by a gang of yahoos. There's a towel on the passenger-front seat, and a set of colorful beads hanging from the neckrest, with a bunch of marks on the front dash from someone putting their shoes and heels up on it. Robin, outside, closing the back, glances at Era. "Sorry, friend." Drawls the European, in the agreeable negative, wheat-blond bangs cast over one eye. Era's right on the money, but Robin has his own way of saying it. "I'm no-one special. So I don't ride anything special." Media bag shouldered, Robin steps around the van as if to grab something from the driver's seat but then his presence vanishes as soon as he breaks sightlines and the Dragon Tooth Warriors appear, a rippling distortion breaking through the ash-smoke from the blue van deeper into the city, a distant distortion several hundred meters away of rooftop landing before a second smoke-breaking distortion continues away. 'Robin' will be doing his chaperoning from long range. Jinako's hands shake with a quiet anxiety, not of personal danger and fear, but of performance danger and showing-fear. Would she be cool? The contract goddess of white and black had congratulated her on becoming a Kamen Rider, but... But her accomplice had also 'congratulated' her, many times. Despite the advance of the skeletons, Jinako is in her own little quaking world, right fist closed around ID Core, left hand wrapped about the wide Desire Driver in her hands.
BB	'Congratulations!', she had ruined everything. 'Congratulations!!', she had failed to realize her own strength. 'Congratulations!!!', she lost what she had, and fell into a black pit lit only by the mobius glow of computer screens reflecting glasses lenses, and became less than human and foreign to living. 'Congratulations' 'After careful consideration, you've been invited to become a Kamen Rider.' 'Thank you, for reassuring me, Jinako.' Jinako's shaking stops, as the quivering scaredy-elephant finally exhales her ragged breath like Haru instructs. "Yeah." The shaggy brown-haired woman closes her eyes and stops thinking about the area around her, and crosses her arm across her chest, right hand 'presenting' the empty-ported Driver at her left shoulder. She remembers how Ace did it, how he made it look so cool, though... she lacks some of the pieces, so, she makes do. Jinako breathes in, locking pink core with gold-yellow designs and facing, depicting an elephant with her left hand, and then lowers the driver to her waist where it joins the other two's reports, a softened 'DESIRE DRIVER'! playing while Dynamic Era's slash lifts up one of the Dragon Tooth Warrior skeletons through the ribcage like a metal bar snapping a xylophone through every bar and lifting the reddened armbone it wields its weapon on clean off the shoulder, sending the rattling enemy scattering apart into bone flinders and pieces. Era makes it look artfully easy, three more boney boys leaping on from over a vine-root twisted fence to menace the broken-masked hero and be each easily subject to his relentless Gunblade zoning. Neon calls out an 'I'm okay!', and for a moment the owlishly spooked mid-transformation Jinako's eyes have to decide. She should end it all here! She should just run away! She can, it's entirely free, and going forward is hard! It's too hard! She doesn't want to, but she got everyone into this mess!!! It's...
BB	All her fault, on purpose, because she'd never do her own practice unless the deadline was right now, onrushing, awful. "I'll get in there and help!" She promises to herself, despite not believing it. "Just watch me." Bitter. Please don't. Please don't watch her. Stamping her foot and closing her fists and setting them at her side, Jinako screws up her face. "Henshin!" She shouts, fearfully committed. ENTRY! Wrapped in her own lightly armored black armor suit, with a helmet depicting a dopey-eyed elephant, a pink trunk and ears over the black and silver faceplate, yellow eyes, and two silver tusks sprouting low on the jaw-line, 'Kamen Rider Leffa' immediately pauses to check her arms, forearms and palms, and then pump her fists. "I did it? I did it!" Na-Go's punches prove quite enouugh for uncoordinated skeletons, and after the initial hit, the skeleton seems to have to reset its 'attack pattern', its attack coordinated with a retreat, then a sensing shamble forward before it lunge-leaps again with a melee attack. Punching around the second wave strike, her armor-wrapped fist backed with full spirit shatters the lower jaw and spins the skeleton warrior about with a wrenching crunch that scatters loosened bones about. Her second punch scatters the loosening coherence of the simple magical soldier, volleying a ribcage away. More skeletons leap out as her first is defeated, advancing slowly, lurchingly, in that patterend way. There's a clear gimmick to them, these autonomous soldiers for a wishing war, but little intelligence. There's even less soul to them than the Jyamato -- the personality of a single tooth each and fit only to bite down and retract. Keiwa's struggles - momentarily, with the threat of dying - are a bit less shatteringly effective but no less driving and working, not quite punching but shoving into further danger, and causing cascade reactions through the growing crowd of skeletons as more enter than are defeated, initially, until the jump-ons taper off at a rough dozen of the skeletons. Everything seels under control, as even Jinako gets in on the fight, her own powerful shoves hurling a Dragon Tooth Warrior into one of Tycoon's tanu-knee strikes and causing the skeleton to shatter like a cheap wrestling prop. Then, the *pressure*, which had almost fully abated when Keiwa and Neon transformed, redoubles. From up the stairs, a surge of visible roiling smoke-darkness rises. A fountain of palpable evil - or, 'malice', or just the knowing of directed hostility, rolls from the base of the stairs up. Then, a spear is visible, raised and walking. The top of a silhouette-head, the shoulders of some kind of simple archaic armor, a distant quasi-spiritual chanting like a dirge, and a deliberate pace towards the four in the courtyard. From either side of the approaching spear-wielding figure, a wave of Dragontooth Warriors charge like lines of infantry--!!
BB	The soft whistle-fwips of arrows zip through the ashen mist, fast eyes seeing heavily tipped payloads nearly-silently impact the skeletons charging forward, loud grenade detonations bursting in shrapnel-casting damage near the spearmen and the adds, thinning out their numbers significantly -- support fire, from you-know-who. The spearman slices through the mist like a cold knife through warm cheese, parting the smoke and charging the squad with tripping sweeps of spear and capable, zoning double and triple stabs. As strong as a kaijin, the Shadow Servant spearman's gimmick is readily apparent: Any attack from the front results in a brutal spear-counter if the spearman has reach! Jinako tries to help. "Ah-- a Shadow Servant! It's like ... a special monster enemy! We'll have to work together... Robin, a few arrows aren't enough help!" But no further fire support arrives. "Just try to attack when you can--!!" Jinako suggest, as she's momentarily focused with a series of harrowing spear-strikes she takes as a combination of sparking hits and fleeing avoidance, trying to kite attention away as much as she tries to defend herself. "Attack when he's not -- looking!"
Hamada Haru	"There is a parable here. It was not intentional. Philosophize when you can afford to-- eventually doing so in battle will be plenty possible," Dynamic Era warns Neon. He moves to one side, taking up a position at her flank. He inspects her suit out of the corner of one of those prominent insectoid lenses. It's very... barebones. The helmet is cute, though. "Yeah. Your suit will protect you some, this one looks to be relatively lightly armored-- except on the head. Which is sensible enough, I suppose. Since force dispersal is a major element of every Kamen Rider suit that I know of, learning to roll with the blows is important. Going flying isn't a problem, it gives the energy more places to go than just directly to the point of impact. It's better to give ground in a controlled way than to go rolling around, but you won't be able to avoid that a lot of the time." "Widen your stance to about shoulder width. Don't punch straight on unless you have no choice, twist when you strike-- exhale at the same time, and inhale on reset. If you don't know what to do with your hands, keep one arm raised for defense and the other at your side like this," Dynamic Era plants his gunblade in the ground again, bringing his left arm in close to his body, fist curled, knuckles facing the ground-- his right arm is raised extended in front, the back of his hand facing the dragon-tooth warriors. He doesn't actually drop this stance-- he's waiting to actually demonstrate a little. //Singularity? Like the math term, right?// "Reasonable assumption. Probably wrong, since it's cursed," Haru replies. "Better stance. Don't forget to exhale properly." //I'm no-one special. So I don't ride anything special.// "The guy you leave on lookout isn't the one who doesn't have what it takes to drive off the local problems," Dynamic Era says, simply. He doesn't press the issue because he actually has no idea what Robin's thing is, he just has plain, common-sense observations about the situation. The lookout's got to be good at doing the thing, and it's that simple. //I did it? I did it!// "Yeah. You're all keeping up with the breathing advice pretty well, actually... hm. Animal theme-- an elephant, huh? You might do a bit better with holding those wider stances and guarding, depending on how the parameters add up with these suits..." He's not altogether certain of that one. The situation changes, but Dynamic Era does not alter his course. He's demonstrating something very basic and doesn't want to push out of it right now-- nor does he REALLY feel threatened in a way that necessitates a swerve, at first. Then the explosive arrows start falling and the entire format of the battle changes, and his bracing works well enough to stop him from going tumbling but still earns him an explosion against his forearm-- a block is a block, but this is a bad match-up. Smoke rises from his position, but his gunblade remains thrust in the ground, and from the deluge of sparks that burst out to his right from the impact point, Dynamic Era emerges. He transparently pushes into an unwise frontal assault, bringing a fist -- not even a gunblade -- forward in a positively amateurish charging swing. The inevitable spear counter-attack comes, and... Dynamic Era is not a solid thing. The spear pierces through him without weight, and only once he's through it -- and parallel with the Shadow Servant's shoulder -- does he become semi-solid again. He pushes off the ground in what looks like a shoulder-check, but once again he's not fully material-- his hands are, though. He seizes the Shadow Servant's shoulder and swings the rest of his immaterial body through its torso like a gymnast flipping off of a bar, focusing all of his weight on this one singular point.
Hamada Haru	The intended end result is simply a wholly confusing maneuver, which for most anyone would drag them firmly into the ground from such a strange application of weightless force, in which Dynamic Era arcs up into the air on the other side of the shadow servant, coming down to a stand in a freshly material state and turning in anticipation of an imminent counterattack. That's fine, though-- he's trying to keep that spear on himself. In the distance, his motorcycle rumbles back to life of its own accord...
Desire Stars	Na-Go's desperate flailing is enough to convey to her that even a basic no-frills Entry Form is enough to have a fighting chance--she marvels for a moment at her own balled fist, only to whip her helmet around with enthusiasm to see Keiwa and Jinako's transformations.     "Whoa--Keiwa, you're a tanuki! And Jinako... an elephant?? Okay..." She nods, at Dynamic Era. "Okay!! We can do this. We can do this!"      "Shoulder width," she repeats dutifully, spacing out her legs. A red skeleton comes charging in, and she forces herself to-- "Breathe! Don't punch straight..." So she goes instead for a right hook, stepping into it, and "Breathe OUT!"--shattering the jawbone with a rolling, twisting strike. Novice, but very promising.      "One arm raised..." keeps a mindless sw ipe from catching her in the neck, and lets her retaliate with an advancing knee that cracks a ribcage.      The battlefield is then awash in notifications--three at once.                               SECRET MISSION CLEAR                                   Leffa's HUD displays: Help two rookies get their bearings     Tycoon and Na-Go's, meanwhile: Practice with Entry Form     Lootboxes rain from the sky--these ones pink and black, rather than the yellow-black. One is perched on Tycoon's head, as if he'd otherwise lose it. Another lands at Na-Go's feet, and a third is ziplined in by Leffa's Spider Phone.     Na-Go opens hers just in time for the charging infantry lead by the shadowed spearman to startle her into almost dropping it. "It goes--here!!"                              SET! ARMED PROPELLER!                                   Na-Go's cuirass, after a brief flash of blue DGP tech-light, sports a brace with a cameo of a propeller, and she 'wields' a long-bladed propeller in her right hand. "How did Ace and Michinaga use theirs..." She panic-flails with it for a bit, letting out cries of effort as she bats away charging infantry, the suit's augmented strength doing most of the work.     *It was... Michinaga's sword had that lever, and Ace's gun had...*     "I've got iiiIIIIIT!?" A squeze on the propeller's handle activates its special attack, the blades rapidly spinning up. Na-Go is lifted off of her feet, becoming a projectile as the bladeszip her through the crowds. It's disorienting and awkward and kind of terrifying, but--     "NYAAA!" Not impossible!     Neon trims the advancing frontline before sideswiping the mystery spearman with a propeller-assisted clothesline punch, landing clumsily but on her feet nonetheless, ready for another pass. "Keiwa! Jinako! Look for something -on- the weapons!" she shouts helpfully.
Hamada Haru	"Weapon rhythm does not conform to an ordinary pattern. When you shout, you exhale. Inhale," Dynamic Era advises Neon, as she goes NYOOMING (or perhaps NYAAMING) way over there. He continues, "In martial arts, this is the purpose of a kiai -- a shout. To help establish the pattern of breathing. A mechanical weapon like that one requires you to adjust. When you're wielding it more like a traditional weapon exhaling on strike and inhaling on reset is fine."
Dark Horses	He's doing it, he's winning! So long as he's got this suit, it's going to be alright, even if he's not as armored or skilled as someone like Ace.      "And you're a cat- Wait, a tanuki? Really?"      There's a tinge of disappointment in his voice, but weirdly no actual surprise. He GUESSES his favorite food is tanuki soba, so it makes sense...      He wasn't really going to spend much time sulking about it, but he wouldn't have it either, as the shadowed servant arrives on the field, and with a swipe of his spear, knocks Kamen Rider Tycoon back, a flurry of sparks flying off him as he backflips several feet and lands on his stomach with a thud, right next to Dynamic Era's gunblade, though his attention is actually drawn to a container that drops right in front of him, causing him to pull himself up and pull out some sort of greeble. It's like the one Ace used, only smaller and not as impressive, but it's gotta give him a weapon, right?      With only one way to find out, Kamen Rider Tycoon uses the gunblade to help pull himself up while slotting the Buckle in.      ARMED ARROW READY, FIGHT      Holographic text displaying the word ARROW appears in front of Tycoon, before a bright green light from his right slide slams into him, giving him pauldron and some chest armor, but more importantly, a weapon. A crossbow, to be exact. Perfect.      He takes a few shots at the corrupted Benkei, using both hands to get a good aim before deciding to pick up the gunblade in front of him and run closer. He can skirt what appears to be counter range just fine with this weapon, but getting a satisfactory finishing attack like he's seen people do before just doesn't seem possible.      "Huh? A Button? What do you mean???"      She did mean there's a button on this thing, right, that's how you get the bigger attack. He stops to try and examine his weapon, before ultimately giving up out of impatience. Screw it, he's got something just as good, he'll figure this out later!      "I'm gonna borrow this, alright!?"      He was originally gonna return this to Haru, but after forsaking his crossbow, he has other plans. Plans that involve using the weaker shots of his weapon to strafe around Benkei, before simply charging in with the sword in hand, raising the blade high as he...      Oh, he doesn't know how to use this. His slash is poor, the edge alignment completely off as he slams the Servant with more of the blunt of the blade than the actual weapon itself, but despite this, he continues to put all of his weight into the botched blow, hoping it'll be enough.
Hamada Haru	//I'm gonna borrow this, alright!?// "Grip high unless you're using the transteam gun functions. Two-handed is generally preferred but if you're strong you can manage one-handed. Pull the trigger for increased effect, propulsion, or transteam gun function. Exhale on triggerpull," Dynamic Era tutorializes further. This is all happening in a fairly quick set of moments though, so Keiwa is already making a clumsy swing before he's done. He offers no opinion on this.
BB	Jinako's escape from danger isn't without cost, but Haru's advice is good for her. Planting her feet and half skidding, Leffa's arm comes up in a raised block to guard her face, and-- Benkei's shadow-wreathed weapon sparks and hammers against the running Rider's stand-and-deliver block, glancing off her lightly armored arm and striking against her mask, where the right tusk protudes out. Cracking and breaking and with that part of her mask knocked off in a muted 'pop!', Jinako is knocked to the side and away, more startled than hurt. "Something broke...?" Leffa gasps, though doesn't see her health move that much on her status screens. Something about that is comforting to her, too, in the same way the raw experience calms Neon -- but the gamification gives the Jinako a much more realized relief for her personal purposes. "Huh... I didn't lose that much HP..." Then, some skeletons fall on her with lead pipes and start whacking her repeatedly with loud 'tonk tonk tonk tonk' deflection-off-armor noises, causing a lingering whine before Leffa rises out of the pile and falling tackles both of the bone boys to the ground. "Get off me!" Fighting near the staircase, it's startling to receive close-in support fire. Explosive-strapped arrows fall, carefully placed, around Haru, Keiwa, Neon, and Jinako, as they are outflanked, or as reinforcement infantry close on the sides and leap over the fencing. Haru - Dynamic Era - unfortunately is washed by a too-close hit, but the clear intentional devastation of the skeletal Dragon Toothed Warriors is wreaked by the incoming arrows, freeing up the gang for battle with Shadow Benkei. Haru sets up his block, and despite it being a bad matchup, preparation makes it relatively painless. His charge, straight on, causes a very predictable but danger stab and moment of focus, the identity-marred warrior striking on deep instinct and a well of living skill. The accompanying sweep doesn't happen -- Era has Shadow Benkei by the arm and applies torque to bicep, almost pivot-rolling the Shadow Servant over. All the strength in the world can't grip a boot to ground and he's wrenched along for the Rider's ride, following that 'best practices' that Har spoke of and allowing the wild gimmick roll to cartwheel him around. Landing on a knee and rising out of it in a smooth motion, the shadow servant draws a sword, sheath and all, off their shoulder. Pushing out of the crouch and into the set-up counterattack, Benkei presses against Dynamic Era's realized chest with the scooped tip of his polearm and turns the weapon in-grip, pushing through the thrust while spinning out with the club-like sheathed sword. Keiwa gains his crossbow, and immediately puts it to work shooting at Benkei's back, but the spinning monk's sheathed sword spin knocks several of the green energy arrows to broken particles -- and he counterattacks by thumbing the catch and flinging the sheath of his sword back at the archer! But with Keiwa going for Haru's gunblade... He only hears the wooshing of malice-coated leather past his tanuki Tycoon ears as he hurries to change out his weapon.
BB	Benkei turns back on Haru with polearm gripped high in left hand and sword in right, pushing on Haru with swipes of both in a simple but effectively flowing combo of pressure strikes without Neon's wild first special activation of her new Propeller powerup catches-and-clashes through the back of the shadow-cast monk-militant with devastating effect. Benkei is utterly unprepared even in life to defend from 'a propeller psycho crusher, with super armor, from a catgirl' and the partially magical shadowstuff composing the 'Servant' is ripped apart in a spray of not-quite-blood, but a dark dust of some abyssal void. And there's quite a lot of it, drawn out of Benkei in the ripping whirlwind, in time with incoherent bellowing of bestial pain and 'maddened' autonomous malice. Benkei swings around, after being exspirited by Na-Go, howling in death-throes and not able to visit them in mutuality on the sailing heroine. Tycoon, though? He's close enough. Warding away Haru with spear, Benkei swings in on Keiwa viciously, a strike aimed at the light armor's neck -- and lack of collar. An archer with a sword, up close? Bandit work got a bandit's dispatch. SET! ARMED SHIELD "I won't let you--!" In a moment, with Era checking one of the shadowed monk's weapons, Leffa interposes again, falling forward with her haste and reaching out with the broad blue shield equipped to her right arm. It's more of a punch to the oncoming sword than anything, and the determined elephant-themed girl follows through to awkwardly hugging the howling spirit's other weapon arm. "Get him get him get himmm!" Leffa trumpets, whines, pleads. Tycoon, borrowed gunblade in hand, slams the flat of the blade down onto Benkei's neck. The world takes a breath, and so does Benkei, unleashing a mighty kiop that causes the awkward chop against his neck to bounce off hyper-tensed muscles. A surge of power, a last stand, comes to Benkei. One last spark of determination flares in his shaded eyes, stares back defiantly at Keiwa, through the mask. He won't die, even if he's killed. He's immortal, in his absolute determination, his iron will-- Another 'fwip' whistles over Tycoon's ears and a broadhead arrow bounces off of Shadow Benkei's forhead with a skull-driving-back force, breaking the shadow's iron concentration. At the same time, Keiwa puts his whole weight and Rider strength behind Era's gunblade and pulls the trigger for a grasshopper leg kick of explosive chop-force. The blade falls through Benkei in a searing line of added power, and with a shiver, the shadow turns to mist and Void Dust, some rags, and the soft patter of a cracked gemstone in deep aquamarine, bearing the image of a bronze lance. Pockmarked and dity, the Lancer Gem is run through with structural cracks and fractures, and retains a bare magic. The dust and rags also seem lingeringly magical, another pile or two worth of dust cast across the courtyard. There are now about sixteen skeletons worth of bones in mixed quality, some of which are powdered by explosions, and others are beautifully chopped off. As quickly as they seemed to appear, further vanish -- if there were any at all. Leffa, hanging onto nothing, collapses to both knees, and then sits back, waiting but not being rushed at any more. After thirty seconds to a minute, there's a sharp 'hiriwhit' whistle, heralding... Robin's return, media bag jangling lighter and sandals slap-plapping against his feet like a day at the beach.
BB	"Yyo." Drawls Robin, fingerwaving from his hip and resetting his bag over his shoulder. "That was some good hunting. Sorry," The shaggy blond fully turns to Haru and gives a faint smile and a respectful bow. "-I got a little close to you with the loud arrows. Thought you were going to shift and not stay. My fault." Rising, he looks around at the gang, and then the van. "Did, uh... items rain from the sky on you?" Robin asks, and Leffa makes a low groan, pulling her Buckle out of her driver, like she remembered Ace doing, and cancelling the transaformation with a soft 'kwochit' of dispelling armor and an elephant logo puff. "I... think so? Is everyone okay?" Jinako asks, head swimming a little and eyes reflecting a kind of glazed look.
Hamada Haru	Assailant is too disciplined to stay off target for long-- check that, he's on-target in exactly the way that Dynamic Era wants. He keeps up the tutorializing even as a spear is driven towards him, re-assuming a neutral stance that would be most at home in a strip mall dojo. Even so, he's actually an experienced fighter and knows exactly how he wants to use this to deal with 'fighting a spear'. As the tip plunges towards his breastplate, he raises his withdrawn left arm in a sweeping-mid block, bringing the spear scraping across his left side -- this is patently insane, since it actually arguably brings the weapon closer to his actual heart -- but even as sparks shriek from the point of impact from the spearhead digs across the surface of his side, he brings his arm back down across it, trapping the spearhead between elbow and side. His right hand seizes the haft of the spear. "DELETION PROTOCOL: Polearm," Dynamic Era speaks aloud. There is a faint buzz as a pair of diaphanous-stylized wings materialize at his back before dispersing into a swarm that collapses onto the weapon in a devouring swarm. Almost immediately afterwards, Keiwa swings his gunblade and-- it bounces off? He thinks of what has been said about this world, and nods to himself-- but no further measures are needed. At that moment... the Tetra Machine, its name long since irrelevant, barrels up out of the earth like a ghost, becomes properly material, and slams directly into where Shadow Benkei would be if he was still extant. "It's fine. I normally would have," Era reassures Robin, flicking his hand in Keiwa's direction-- the gunblade de-materializes in a colorful flash of voxels. "I'll be joining you in your vehicle this time, if there's room," he says. Then, towards Robin, "Destination is food. High-calorie. Budget is arbitrary. These three..." Dynamic Era gestures from Jinako, to Tycoon, to Na-Go, "Were supposed to be practicing. This was more intense and stressful than that because of the phantom spearman. Need to recover well." "And I..." Haru de-transforms abruptly, his suit dissolving into a multitude of mechanical locusts. He lifts his shirt and jacket along his left side, grimacing at the rapidly-blooming bruise where he was struck and braced Shadow Benkei's spear against himself. "... could use a cold compress. That guy was no joke."
Dark Horses	Kamen Rider Tycoon just stands there for a bit, his knees barely keeping himself up and the weapon in his hand barely held onto as he just kind of takes in everything that happened in the fight. He begins processing it from the top, first with Haru's advice, Neon's attempted guidance, and Robin and Jinako's- No, it's too much for him. He's too tired for this.      He removes the buckle from his belt once the gunblade in his hand disappears, causing the suit that covers him to dematerialize as he falls to the ground on his back, letting out a pained laugh as he does so. He's covered in sweat, and a few bruises to boot, but honestly, he's just really glad he's in one piece.      "Good work everyone, but just give me a minute, I gotta breath. Alright, breath in-"      Keiwa takes a deep breath, only to cough and sputter when he remembers the air here actually sucks. He's fine, and he'll ventually get up, but he definitely is not looking forward to having to explain to his sister why it looks like he fell down a flight of stairs.      Maybe he could actually say he fell down a flight of stairs...
Desire Stars	Did, uh... items rain from the sky on you?     "Yeah," says Na-Go, before removing her Propeller Buckle. A pillar of light, followed by a quick flash of her Rider emblem--a cat--and she's Neon again. "For completing a 'secret mission,'" Neon said. Robin, despite his insistence to Haru, does not strike her as 'just some guy'--and thus, it seems within the rules of the DGP to divulge information to him. I... think so? Is everyone okay?     Neon nods brightly. "I am," she says, stuffing her Propeller Buckle into the pocket of her DGP windbreaker. Smiling faintly, she adds, "And I don't just mean from the skeletons. Jinako, Robin, Haru..."     She pauses, then, palms-to-legs, bows fully at the waist. "Thank you so much!" She hangs there, for a second, before rising again. "I feel... so much better about my chances, now. I needed that. A lot." Destination is food. High-calorie. Budget is arbitrary.     Neon nods fervently. "Food would be great! Even just getting out of here would be." She makes for and piles into the van, with a bounce in her determined stride.
BB	The air retains its ashen pressure as soon as the transformations fade, but there's a slight reduction in how much it bears down on the neck, shoulders, and soul. If they have grown, or merely lowered the ambient pressure by finishering it repeatedly, it isn't clear - but they breathe a slight measure easier. Robin's path back to the van starts at the back, as he trades media bag for tarps and zipties to gather up the bones. Neon heading back into the panel van's scentful embrace finds that it smells much as she left it, and resolutely not like smoke. Jinako's takeout box aromatizes the chamber in a warding wall of cumin and spices and pepperseed heat, and the smoke smells of dirtily sweet tobacco, and the sun oil makes the waterfront visit almost serene, were it not cast in purple and orange and thick flame-smoke. Jinako's melting to the ground with Keiwa gets a 'oh, you too?' glance and exhalation, though Neon's exuberant energy is a little emboldening in the bright thanks and the reaffirmation. She nods and her eyes well up, cheeks lowering as she wipes a bit of soot on - and tears off - her cheeks. "So much better, huh? Then, you're welcome. I feel..." Haru premises high-calorie food. Jinako's stomach rumbles. "... hungry," An uneasy giggle falls from her, drooping down as she rises up. "Yeah. Let's get out of here." Robin, with an actual pushbroom out, finishes shoving bones and bone fragments onto a tarp, and starts pinching the ends together to heave it into the back of the van. The dust, shopvac'ed into glass flasks, is stoppered and set besides, making a neat collection of materials and a quick recovery. "I think I saw a place on the way in." Robin asides, faintly cheered and pleased-while-working. The last thing he collects is Keiwa, pulling the young man up with a jovial arm-grip and pulling him towards the van himself. "We've got an aid kit in the van," Robin begins. "I'll get it!" Jinako assures, diving into the side door to rummage around the backseat's junk with a metal-and-paper rattle. Within a few minutes, the whole gang is back in the van, the windows are closed and the AC starts blasting filtered air through the cabin. It is a territory, one that was touched by Authorities. Jinako, rummaging complete, takes the inside middle seat and passes an icyhot pack, a bottle of water, some health drinks, and some painkillers to Haru who had settled into the spacious front passenger seat. "Here, and if you need a bandage I have that too." Jinako offers, and then settles back a little tiredly. As Robin pulls the mystery machine-esque van out and back over the Fuyuki-Tokyo bridge, transitioning from flaming desolation into traffic with a smooth roll to stop behind civilization's red rear lights, the shaggy blonde European rolls down the window and starts to pull a cigarette from a package set into the front panel cupholder, glances across to notice Hamada Haru's eye... And gently fingertaps down the raised cancer stick down and fold the cupholder holding his cigarette pack back into the dash. Not tonight. "I think I saw a crab place on the way. I'm thinkin' crab." Robin answers, and guides their relentlessly normal enigma machine towards the fish market on the Tokyo side of the world wall of wishing and wonder.