Scene #8252: Die, Kamen Rider

Owner	Pose
Go Shijima	Go has made an attempt to reach out to Chase. He can only be certain that the Roidmude has seen it, and not completely certain at that--but the message was simple enough. I'd like to talk to you. We can't go on like this. The meeting spot is away from prying eyes, a condemned apartment building scheduled for demolition within the week. The simple message had included the location of the meeting place, namely in the disused lobby on the ground floor. Most of anything of value is gone from it--the front desk bears an empty spot where monitors and keyboards once were. Dust-circled spots on the floor show where decor or potted plants were. Chairs too aged to be worth taking along gather dust beside empty magazine racks and abandoned coffee tables. Go is standing in the middle, straight across from the doors, unarmored. His hands are in the pockets of his familiar white hoodie. He looks tired, in spite of the soft, determined frown on his face. When Chase arrives, Go has a question for him. "Can we talk? Or do we need to fight first?" he asks, fatigue seeping obviously into his voice. "I've... held it together for Xion and Ishirou and everyone. So I can keep it together for a little longer... if that's what you need." There is no anger in him, none of the hatred that Chase noticed in him, the last time that they fought. "I owe you that, and more. But we're stuck spinning our tires, Chase." One way or another, we have to move forward."
Chase	Go wants to meet for what is assuredly an ambush of some kind. That's what Chase thought, anyway, but when he arrives, it's just them, and an offer to talk. There's an eerie quiet as the Roidmude mulls over the question in his mind, his eyes narrowing a bit in thought. Talk about what? Why now? Mach, known for his jokes and baffingly nonchalant attitude, wants to have sincere dialogue? The unnerving silence that had been building up is immediately interrupted as the Grim Reaper pulls out his own Mach Driver, pressing the device firmly onto his waist as a pair of belt straps shoot out from it to fasten themselves around him. "Talk is meaningless without resolve. If you have something to say to me, Mach, show it to me in battle." Chase, frankly, does not believe him, both for a multitude of very legitimate reasons, but also because, in the back of his mind, he simply doesn't want to believe in Kamen Rider. He can't believe in Kamen Rider. Sliding open a chute on his Driver, the Grim Reaper slots in a silver and black motorcycle. Signal Bike//Viral Core! The belt cries in a jumble of it's usual cheery tone and the garbled voice of the Break Gunner as a playby loop of cheery samba music plays, before violently being cut short and replaced with a confirmation noise as Chase pounds the opened chute shut. REAPER CHASER A series of holographic rings surround the Roidmude as he's armored up in what looks to be his usual Mashin Chaser attire, before suddenly breaking apart to reveal a silver undersuit with the distinct NEXT system style underneath. A Kamen Rider, though his belt (and Chase) seem to disagree. "Now. Suit up and die, Kamen Rider." Unholstering his Break Gunner, Chaser points the weapon directly at Go as he waits.
Go Shijima	Go sighs. "Okay." Go straps on the Mach Driver. It's blue and silver, looks kind of like the muffler of a motorcycle. He lifts the tiny bike, inserts it into the belt, and presses down. The familiar lances of flame burst twice from the 'exhaust,' and a jaunty jingle follows, seemingly made of bike horns. Signal Bike! RIDER!! His usual pose is there--but without the smile, without the showmanship. Chase had asked to see resolve, and through Go's apparent exhaustion, it burns. "Let's..." His right arm is held up, bent upwards at the elbow, left hand resting beneath the elbow. There's a dramatic flourish to reverse their positions, and a nod. "Henshin!" MACH 555! The FiveS armor is sleek, aerodynamic, an homage to the beloved sport of racing, with hints at the lineage of performance superbikes and supercars alike. It's white, with two red racing stripes down the left side, left shoulder sporting two striped shoulder capes. At the right side of the sleek armor's cuirass, a wheel snaps into place with the hubcap facing Chase, bearing a familiar golden 5 on a field of red. "Then this is what I have to say!" Despite the protests from his muscles, Mach is on the move. Constantly. "Every time we've fought before, all I had to say was 'I hate you!' Well..." It's a new style of fighting from the last time they'd done battle--no pauses for grandstanding or banter. Tires squeal against tile floor, the rider seamlessly vaulting a low table to fly laterally through the air at Chase. "I'm tired of saying it!" He twists nimbly, making an overhead strike with his heel meant to crash into Chase's gun arm. Momentum carries him past and over, and the tires at his ankles squeal as he lands behind Chase. "I'm tired of feeling it!" The landing has scarcely been made before Mach channels the backwards momentum into a juke meant to read Chase's inevitable reprisal, before twisting with a rev of his Driver to strike a whirling deflect into a flurry of punches aimed at his chest. "You, and I, and the Roidmudes... we're all Banno's children. He's dead--so why does he get a say in anything at all?! Why does his abuse and neglect matter, for how we all treat each other and the people around us?!" The strafing flurry of punches is laborious for him to keep up, his panting transmitted through the suit--but keep it up he does, until he breaks away with a handspring to once more race across the room with the suit's assistance, surreptitiously catching his breath.
Chase	Punching against Chaser's chest is much like punching a concrete wall. The Roidmude barely moves from where he's standing, instead slowly leaning closer and closer towards Mach even as yellow sparks fly each time he's hit. "Do you think the rest of the world will accept us just because you have?" The Grim Reaper reaches down to push the button on his belt, and there's a visible skip in his movement as he appears to have finally powered through the micro flinches he was previously experiencing. Now free, he grabs hold of the opposing Rider's helmet as he's in mid retreat, grasping onto it with a crushing death grip as he slowly starts to pick him up by the head. "Do you think that because you understand what you have done wrong, that you can be forgiven? Your feelings cannot bring back those you have killed." Holding him up for what's probably a second but what feels like eternity, Chaser finally lets him go, but not before pressing the button on his belt again. Time pauses once more, and he takes advantage of it by throwing a punch directly into Go's gut with the Break Gunner, the sheer force of which creates a large purple shockwave, before letting time continue again and allowing the momentum of his blow to send Mach barreling forward. "Banno is dead and irrelevant. My problem is with you, Kamen Riders. Those who cannot even save a single life cannot claim to save the world or be heroes. You are nothing but murderers applauded by the public."
Go Shijima	Every attack against Chase is made at a cost. His helmet grabbed, he instinctively funnels the momentum before it's wasted, legs wrapped around Chase's arm in an effort to blunt the impact. "Of course I don't think that! It isn't mine to ask for--rrk!" He's dropped unexpectedly, before the reversal can happen, unprepared for that brutal gutpunch. This new style of his--it seems focused on redirecting force, as Chase can hear in the moment following that impact a shaky but ultimately controlled exhale. Flying through the air, he twists, palm making contact for just long enough to bring him upright. "But what saves people now, Chase?! Because it isn't this!" Still careening towards a wall, Mach rapidly punches a code into the dialpad on the FiveS car in his belt: 525 - JCK Pneumatic jump-jacks sprout from the back of his boots as he feathers the thrusters on his armor to force a front-flip. The wall cracks from the abrupt impact of jacks against plaster, sending Mach rocketing back towards Chase. His legs rain down a hail of piston-assisted kicks before he lands, twisting and twirling to deliver an elbow to Chase's temple as punctuation. "You and Heart are good people, despite everything that Banno was. Even if the rest of the world doesn't think you belong here, I do! I'd rather fail helping you than succeed in hurting you, and I don't care what the world thinks about that!" The spin is accelerated with a rev of the Driver, adding a leaping back kick, aimed at Chase's stomach, powered up by another snap of the jump-jacks.
Chase	"You are right, Mach. Kamen Rider is not the solution. I'll destroy you to make sure you can no longer hurt anyone else." Chase knows what Go meant, but he openly twists the meaning to justify himself. There's truth in what he says, after all. This fight won't solve anything, and it was never going to. But, if he doesn't fight this man- If he doesn't fight Kamen Rider, then why does he exist? It's that nagging feeling that borders on compulsion that pushes him to continue, even as Mach slams his knee directly into his helmet, causing him to reel just slightly enough for him to get the follow up with a kick to the gut. Unfortunately, despite the impact creating visible force, Chaser simply powers through Go's attack yet again, his arms now wrapped around the Rider's leg as he yanks him upwards. "It is meaningless if the world doesn't accept Roidmudes. You know this. Heart's dream is subjugation of the human race solely so that we do not have to live in the shadows and in fear of the Rider Services. He will not allow for anything less than that." As quickly as Chaser yanks Mach up, he swings him back down, slamming the Superstar's back directly into the asphalt below with enough force to splinter and crack it.
Go Shijima	Mach is slammed into the ground, sparks flying from his suit, but with another one of those controlled exhales (a grunt of pain mingled in), he wills himself to last even as his body screams beneath the suit. A kip-up quickly becomes a thruster-assisted whirlwind of limbs, a frenzied tangle of attack angles from low-sweeping hands to mid-striking elbows, to a surprise rising roundhouse aimed squarely across the jaw. "THEN I'LL MAKE THEM ACCEPT YOU! I don't care if it's Rider Services or the Paladins or the Concord!" Back on his feet again and moving, he steps between Chase's legs and guns the accelerator, tires squealing as he makes a superspeed shoulder-check to force Chase over his leg and send him to the ground. "You're not going to kill me now, or ever! Because you don't get it!" Peeling out, he leaps and twists in midair, thrusters blasting brightly to make a red-and-white cyclone of him, adding extra force to an axe kick that promises to crack the ground beneath it. "I'm not doing it for your forgiveness, I'm doing it so you can all have lives and dreams of your own!" He dips forward into a somersault in pursuit, both jump-jacks firing arythmically as his heels sail over and under. "If I have to drag you and the whole world kicking and screaming to that future, then THAT'S WHAT I'LL DO, CHASE!"
Chase	Chaser's knocked down, and Mach's able to capitalize on it as his axe-kick lands square center on his torso, the sheer magnitude of the blow embedding him in the concrete below as cracks spread throughout. Despite this, however, he's still capable of moving, more than enough to push the button on his Driver yet again to stop time, deemingly disappearing from his asphalt hole as he's now reappeared behind the Kamen Rider, a hand placed on his shoulder as he's spun around violently to face him. "You can try, and you will fail. Even if you manage to do so by force, none of us will- /I/ will never accept you so long as you wear that belt. It does not matter what you say, how much sense you make, every word you speak is poisoned so long as you wear it." He doesn't shout, but Chase's voice is noticably raised as he speaks and punches Go straight in the helmet while still holding onto his shoulder. He now pushes him forward, punching him again, and again, alternating repeatedly between his head and stomach until he's ultimately pinned him up against a wall, his last punch missing Mach's face by millimeters. "Do you understand?"
Go Shijima	"Yes." Smoke rises in steady curls from the armor, pushed near to its limit--the Rider inside pushed far beyond his. His breathing is ragged, the visor of the helmet cracked from the impact of Chase's fist. It disappears, entirely, when Go removes the FiveS car from the Driver. What's left is a boy with burnt patches on his cheeks, his wrists, a thick sheen of sweat matting his auburn hair to his head, chest laboriously rising and falling as he peers holes into Chase's visor. "So that means if I take it off... you have to listen to me." "I'm luckier than most people. Even though my mother is gone, even though our father never could have loved us, I have you. I have the Roidmudes, and I have Kiriko. A big family, right?" He smiles weakly, but winces when his split lip takes to bleeding again. "One that I'm responsible for having hurt. I don't want to be like Banno was," he says, his grip on the shift car too weak to keep it from clattering on the ground. "I don't want to look at all the hurt I do, and dig my heels in and do even more," he says, his voice simultaneously rising and wavering. "If it hurts you so much, then I'll put away the belt. But Chase..." Unable to keep the well of tears from his eyes, or halt the spread of the anguished grimace across his face, Go grabs the Roidmude by the collar of his armor. "What am I supposed to do without it?! What am I supposed to do, Chase, if I can't help protect that family, or anyone else? You want to protect them too!" He shouts, teary-eyed, hoarse of voice, fists beating uselessly against Chase's armor. "If our positions were reversed, would you give that Viral Driver up?! Would you give up the Break Gunner?! CHASE!" Go shoves him, hard, letting out another tortured, hoarse shout. "If you were in my place, using something made for killing to protect--would you be able to give it up?! Would you, if it meant giving up the strength to fight for Heart's dream?! ANSWER ME!" He screams, unclasping the Mach Driver and throwing it with all his might at Chase, as tears streak down his cheeks. "YOU DON'T GET TO LOCK UP! YOU DON'T GET TO RUN AWAY! THE BELT IS OFF! SO ANSWER ME!" He howls, as the Driver clatters to the floor. "...you don't get to ask that of me, when you know you couldn't sit back and watch people you finally let yourself care about get hurt."
Chase	"I-" Chaser trails off as his head turns away from Go. Though his eyes aren't visible, it's easy to tell his gaze is drifting off as he thinks. If their positions were reversed, would he give up his weapons? No, of course he wouldn't. And unlike him, he doesn't have any reason to, as unlike a Kamen Rider, a Grim Reaper doesn't kill. It would be easy enough to give this answer, and yet, Chase doesn't. There's something about it that annoys him, something that he can't quite put a finger on as the feeling in the back of his head gets worse, becoming notably sharp and debilitating. "I don't care, just die, Kamen Rider." It doesn't matter. Go threw away his belt. It's over. He can end this. Shaking his head in an attempt to clear it, Chaser pulls out his Break Gunner once more, raising it up into the air as he prepares to throw it directly into the boy's face. His punch only gets about half way through before he stops though, freezing up as he begins fighting against himself. Why? Why is he doing this? Grim Reapers don't kill, and yet, he's been tasked with destroying Kamen Rider. If he doesn't do it now, he'll... he'll... he'll... Chase simply cups his head in pain and begins convulsing as the silver and purple armor that covers him shatters, revealing his 'human' appearance. That too, however, would also crumble away, if only for a second, revealing a plain Roidmude, lacking any of the monsterous animal traits usually associated with his kind, but more importantly, revealing his number. 000 Just as quickly as it's revealed however, Chase regains his disguise, letting out an annoyed grunt as he simply shoves Go to the ground with a rather half hearted effort as he begins stumbling away and out of view. The sound of a motorcycle reving up and burning its tires against the concrete as it drives off can be heard in the distance.
Go Shijima	>I don't care, just die, Kamen Rider. Go feels something rise up in his throat, raw and sore and tangled. He starts forward, defiant, intending to challenge that. He doesn't get the opportunity. "Chase?" It dies in him, that anger, in that moment. "Chase!" Exhausted as he is, when Go runs closer, he is easily pushed over, falling onto cracked tile and gasping in pain. "CHASE!" His aching muscles won't obey quickly enough to get him on his feet, and the best he can do is a half-scramble, half-stumble towards the door in time to see the Roidmude leave. Go collapses in the doorway, hands reaching up the side of his tear-streaked face to grasp tightly at his hair. Again, anguish rises up within him and he lets it out with a gradually rising shout, beating a fist uselessly into the floor beneath until even the energy to do that leaves him. Curled up on his side, he rasps, to himself, "I told you you weren't allowed to leave..."