01 - The Rudest Awakening

[birdinthehand]

A - Joji Yuki's Place - Closed

There was pursuit. An almost endless chase after a man in colorful clothes. That was the most important thing, to keep that man in his sights. He couldn't let him slip away, couldn't, but he felt a pulling, felt something dragging him back, away, into-

Moments after the red medal halves were fused together, the newly whole Core Medal began to clatter wildly on the workbench. There was life in this thing, along with some sort of unnatural magnetism. Loose bits of the same material that had forced the medal back together were being drawn in from the edges of the work bench, and other things resting on shelves and in drawers were rattling around and eager to get in on the excitement, too. As more and more pieces clung to the core, a shape began to take form... and then with a flash of red light, the entire mess solidified into an inhuman, red-armored hand and forearm. It twitched, its fingers curled, and then it let out a ragged, human-sounding gasp.

"...what the heck?!"

B - Generally Out and About in Venture City, Early Evening - Open

Ankh might not have been able to remember much, but he knew things. He knew what he was, knew what he ought to be able to do, and knew that he was missing entirely too much of himself. He wouldn't find any of it just hovering around inside that damned scientist's workshop. He'd have to go and find it himself.

Which is why there is a disembodied armored hand and forearm floating around, looking about as curious as a hand can manage to be. He's peering over shoulders to read newspapers, rifling around in unattended bags, and sizing up passers-by for their potential usefulness. If they haven't got some sort of strong desire, well... maybe he can smack them upside the head, latch onto their arm, and siphon some knowledge out of their head. His English skills aren't what they really should be, given that he's now in the United States. If he can't complete himself with more Cell Medals, then he can fill up on knowledge instead. He'll take anything. He'll take it all.

Comments

B!!!!!!!

[hinavelous]

Venture City was a city of possibilities. Of new languages, new faces, new opportunities. Hina had packed her things, moved to another country, and started on her career. She was going to do well here, she just knew it. The whole being a superhero thing was a pretty nice perk, too.

And so she was seated on a park bench paging through a magazine with a sketchbook in her lap, taking notes both from the magazine and people walking by of their fashions. American fashions were very different from Japanese fashions, and she wanted to ensure she could incorporate enough of both worlds to be interesting but not outlandish.

...Of course, Ankh's disembodied arm was about the very last thing she expected to look up and see pestering a gentleman across the way reading a paper. She shouted, standing and dropping both her sketchbook and the magazine, and walked right up to him to grab him by the wrist of his gauntlet.

"Ankh??"

[birdinthehand]

The shout was a warning that something was incoming, but he had no idea how he should actually be dealing with it. Startled, Ankh's hand snaps back and he pivots in Hina's direction, fingers twitching in something akin to astonishment. She knows his name? "How-hnngg!"

And now she is grabbing him, and he does not like it at all. "Let me go! Hands off!" He thrashes in her grip at first, but if that doesn't prove helpful, he'll start to simply try and wriggle free with smaller motions.

[hinavelous]

Immediately she's biting her lip and letting him go, afraid she'd hurt him (she was abnormally strong, after all), and taking a step back, smoothing her skirt in a nervous gesture. The man Ankh had been pestering threw his paper on the ground and ran off down the sidewalk, shouting about monsters. Hina ignored him.

"What-- but how?" She reached out again, not actually touching him this time, but looking like she wanted to.

[birdinthehand]

Ankh also paid the newspaper guy little mind. (It was only worthy of attention because it meant that he could have the guy's newspaper. He liked that.) This girl was much, much more important.

"I'm the one asking the questions!" He recoils from her attempt at touch, fingers curling inwards. "Who are you!? How do you know me?!" It's loud and angry and almost desperate-sounding. She knows things. And he needs that knowledge.

[hinavelous]

The shouting was nothing at all new about Ankh, especially about Ankh in a new place. And, you know, alive again. It was what he shouted that temporarily took the breath from her lungs. She stood there, aghast for a moment, and worked her mouth silently until she could formulate a response.

"...Ankh?" She asked, her voice small. "Come on, this isn't funny." He'd never really been one to play jokes, but that had to be all this was, right?

[pyreseer]

[Rei's evil senses are tingling. This is just like the guy with the doll, only this time it's a floating monster hand. Even if Rei couldn't sense evil, she'd be pretty sure this thing wasn't a good guy.

Luckily, she's made another ofuda since the doll guy. She looks around to see if anyone else is nearby and when she doesn't see anyone, she pulls the ofuda out of her back and slaps it down on the hand's wing.]

Evil spirit, begone!

[If she's going to do this on a regular basis, maybe she should start wearing some sort of evil fighting outfit like those Omegafriend people.]

[birdinthehand]

[Way to make completely baseless assumptions, Rei! (Ones that are actually right, but that's just being nitpicky.) The monster hand is only consulting one of those big plastic tourist direction boards, trying to get an idea of where in the heck he is in relation to everything else. It's perfectly innocent. Sort of.

He's so absorbed in all this map-reading and detail-absorbing that he only has time to make a befuddled sound before that ofuda is slamming down onto him.]

Gah!

[He goes stiff, flops onto the direction board, and then gravity kicks in and he goes tumbling to the ground.]

[pyreseer]

Ha!

[Rei picks up the ofuda'd hand, examining it. It looks kind of rubbery, but she's pretty sure that's how monsters are supposed to look.]

Now what do I do with you?

[She speaks Japanese to the hand out of habit.]

I don't think I can call Grandpa. It's early morning back home and I don't think anyone would pick up at the shrine.

[birdinthehand]

Let me go! What do you think you're doing!?

[How interesting! It knows Japanese, too!]

What the heck did you do to me?!

[Ankh is trying very, very hard to squirm, but there's only the slightest twitching of his fingertips. How could something make him so vulnerable so easily? How could a human do that?]

Let me go! Let me go now!!!

[pyreseer]

[... okay, the monster hand talks.]

What in the world are you?

A

[forgottendecade]

He knew a little about the Core Medals, knew that each one held a certain power, and that at one twist in Shocker's operations, they had tried to use the Medals for some kind of plot. Of course the Kamen Riders defeated them, but still, Joji needed to look at a Medal himself and see exactly what it held.

The inhuman arm appearing was not exactly one of the scenarios he was expecting to see. Joji pushed up his working goggles and studied it for a moment as it twisted and then reached over to one of te vibrating items and pushed it back from falling off the shelf.

"Good evening." He might as well see just how much the enity remembered before Joji repaired it.

[birdinthehand]

"Hn..." The hand grunts as he flops himself over, and then with considerable effort wills himself to float. Why is it so difficult? Why is he so weak? He hovers there, wrist limp, trying to compose himself. This is wrong, very wrong. And confusing. And infuriating. And next to him, right nearby, it's...

"Who the heck are you?" There's a moment of pause and then all his energy is being used to snap himself upright, fingers gesturing and grasping demandingly. "You're not him. Where is he?!"

[forgottendecade]

"Joji," he said, watching the hand move about or trying to move. "You can say I am... a neutral party between the Riders and other forces."

He would take the side with the Riders if he felt they were in the right, but he would not consider himself one of them. The other version of him may feel otherwise, but Joji knew that realities never truly meshed with each other, only move towards the same goal.

"I don't know. I was given your pieces by someone who needed some cash and felt that you should be restored."

[birdinthehand]

"Riders?" There's confusion in the way Ankh is holding himself. Riders. He should know what that is. He's heard the word. But it's not coming together. Besides, the rest of Joji's explanation was extremely alarming. He snaps right back up to attention, lunging in towards the man.

"Pieces?! I was in pieces?! That... That would destroy a Greeed! I only have one Core Medal! That's impossible!"

[forgottendecade]

"Kamen Riders. Those few who have the strength of monsters but use it to protect humans."

Hmm, so being broken had harmed the memories of the core? Fascinating. Joji reached up on the shelf and extracted a small colorful coin from the pile of junk an held it out.

"One wrong movement and the Core would have been fine dust. I did what I could to restore the cracks, but I think you will need some more of these, correct?"

[triggeredrebellion]

Okay. First there was a Hell Pride, and now there was a floating, disembodied arm running around. Dante was starting to get pretty concerned about everything that he was seeing. As far as he knew, Venture City wasn't supposed to have a ton of demonic activity. So to see this much of it within a couple of days of him getting here?

Well, that wasn't good. He could tell that much.

Of course, he couldn't exactly just shoot the thing like this. Not with it around a bunch of civilians. So instead of doing what he'd like to do, Dante reached out to grab that hand by the... forearm instead. Hopefully this hand demon thing would prove to be a slippery little thing, because Dante was not in the mood for a slapstick chase right now.

[birdinthehand]

"Hrrk!" For a creature with no visible neck and likely no windpipe, Ankh could make a fantastic choking noise when grabbed. While the armored parts were seemed more like scales or chitin than metal, the rest of him was indeed squirmy. One good thrash, and he was moving to break free from Dante's grasp and strike him across the face.

"What's the big idea?!" Do you speak Japanese, Dante? Because this floating hand-thing is speaking Japanese.

[triggeredrebellion]

Huh. This thing was pretty strong for something that didn't have many visible muscles. And... speaking Japanese. Which Dante only knew enough to recognize which asian language it was.

Not that Dante was going to sit around and let the stupid hand thing hit him, and he ducked out of the way before moving to try to grab him again. "Okay. So you don't speak English. No big deal, it's not like I can't take care of you anyway."

After all, this thing was clearly a demon and going to cause trouble. Surely the team wouldn't be too adverse to him using force if he needed to, right?

[birdinthehand]

Ankh's comprehension of the English language was a little sketchy, in turn, but he was getting the idea that this jerk had it out for him. That 'take care' didn't imply that he wanted to buy him a popsicle and give him a place to stay. Ugh, why couldn't he just be terrified of the weird floating hand, like a normal person?

He darted backwards, out of Dante's immediate grasp. Alright, alright, what English was appropriate to use here..? "Screw off!" And his retreat continued, although he seemed one wrist flick and a re-positioned finger away from making a very rude gesture.

[triggeredrebellion]

"Oh. You do speak English," Dante began, before pulling out one of his guns... and remembering that there were still civilians present and shooting magical demon fire or whatever at them was not a good idea.

This had was really starting to be more trouble than it was worth. He re-holstered the gun, and glared up at the hand. Before running forward and jumping towards it in an attempt to grab the thing again.

After he had it, THEN he could shoot it. Of course, before he could actually shoot the stupid thing, he needed to catch it first.

B

[talktothedoll]

The last thing Maki had been expecting to sense in this miserable city was another Greeed. Yet he did, and it was so faint a sense, Maki had to wonder if perhaps he was imagining things. He's a bit troubled as he walks down the street with his creepy little doll perched on one arm, though it does not show on his face. But he was searching for this other Greeed presence, however faint it might be. The doll on his arm was holding a tiny model metal detector, posed as though it was searching for something. Maki certainly looked more interesting than many of the other humans out there, if not a little unsettling.

[birdinthehand]

Just as Ankh was about to attempt to swipe a smartphone from someone's purse, he sensed the unmistakable feeling of another Greeed approaching. This was it! This was an even bigger chance than what he was about to steal! Another Greeed would have Cell Medals. But as he floated upwards and spun about, trying to get a better feel for where the Greeed might be, another thought came to him. It would likely be stronger than him. He was at a large disadvantage. He'd have to play this smart.

The first place that he saw to hide was a bench, and so he zipped beneath it and clung to the underside, waiting for that familiar-but-not presence to draw closer.

[talktothedoll]

Maki drew closer to the bench, and, as luck would have it, he stopped right in front of it. That almost-presence was very close now, and it was stronger than Maki had felt it. "Where are you?" he murmured under his breath as he looked to his doll, which was still posed there with its tiny model metal detector.

[birdinthehand]

Ankh remained silent, clinging to the bottom of that bench with all of his (limited) might. He didn't like this Greeed, but it was in a different way than the way that he disliked the ones he remembered from 800 years ago. Which was strange. Because there was no name to go with the voice, or the feeling of him, looming nearby.

Though when he shifted himself to get a more comfortable grip on one of the bench's crossbars, it let him actually peer through a gap in the boards and get a look at that doll. "What the..." Okay, now that's just weird. Also, it gave him an even larger feeling of dislike and dread. Why?

[talktothedoll]

If Ankh takes his attention off the doll for even just a second (like, say, if he were to blink, if floating disembodies arms could blink), he'll notice that it's now looking right at him. Maki is now peering down underneath the bench. His eyes are flashing purple, and he doesn't look happy.