17 | Superhero Time

[chalicejoker]

Who: Hajime Aikawa and you!
What: Hajime got a weird transformation back, and he hasn't told anyone. Turns out his motorcycle's affected by this one for some reason, so now there's a weird armored guy on a weird motorcycle riding around town looking for trouble.
When: Backdated to the evening of December 30.
Where: All around Locke, particularly Japantown. He'll be trying to avoid heavily populated areas, and he's keeping a special eye out for Blood Keys activity.



After he and Shou had tangled with the Blood Keys, Hajime realized he now had yet another card. He'd quietly tried the card out in his apartment, only to realize it wasn't like his other possible transformations. It was a sleek, armored form, and it wasn't as monstrous. He could easily pass for a man wearing crazy armor.

He hadn't been able to see himself in many of the memories he'd gotten back, but he was pretty sure this form was the third he remembered spending much of his time in. If these memories were any indication, he could fight in this form. He'd quietly been transforming in secret, getting used to this new form. It moved a bit differently from the hulking bugmonster form he was most used to, but he felt confident this way for some reason.

It had been a total accident when he found out that transforming near his bike made the motorcycle transform, too. But when that had happened, he got an idea. He looked like he was wearing armor, his motorcycle looked like something out of some superhero TV show...

Turning into a superhero sounded like a much better alternative to turning into a terrible monster, so Hajime decided to do something he would have given anyone else a hard time about--he decided to go out on a superhero's patrol. He effectively had a mask, his bike had changed to the point it couldn't be easily traced...it seemed like a good idea at the time. He didn't know what he was going to do if he actually came across any trouble, but he decided he'd handle each situation as it came.

Comments

[sun_sun]

When Annie spotted a maked, armored creature of unknown origin lurking in Japantown, her first thought was of the thing she fought underground. Definitely ThunderCorp devilry.

Her second thought was to call the only other active member of All Star Precure and arrange to head the thing off. That's why, at some point during his patrol, Hajime's route was intercepted by a teenage girl running out into the street ahead of him. It's go time.

"There it is! PRECURE, SMILE CHARGE!"

[pianistofraielin]

Russel did not have the benefit of a magical transformation, but he was nonetheless dressed for the occasion in his own precure costume. He joined Annie in the middle of the street, ready with a dramatic pose and dramatic soundtrack.

"Your reign of terror ends here, monster!" he announced.

[chalicejoker]

Hajime's motorcycle screeched to a halt whenever the girl ran out in front of him. He was just about to tell her not to jump out into the street in front of oncoming motorcycles when she did her little flashy transformation thing. "Uh..."

Before he could go out and guess that she was from the network, too, Russel jumped out there with his soundtrack. He reflexively looked down at himself whenever Russel called him a monster; it didn't hurt to make sure he hadn't accidentally transformed into his horrible bug monster form again. But no, he was still armored. He looked back up at the two teenage would-be superheroes. "Reign of terror? You've got to be kidding me."

[sun_sun]

"Nothing kidding about it!" Cure Sunny adopts something approximating a battle pose. "Whatever it is you're planning, we're here to protect Locke City!"

[pianistofraielin]

Bugman armour was good enough for 'monster' to apply in a theatric sense. And theatrics were what mattered when you were a hero!

"If you're here to hurt the good people of this city, you'll have to go through us!"

[chalicejoker]

Hajime just scared at the would-be superheroes. "You're both making a mistake," he said evenly, trying to figure out how his life had come to this. "I'm not trying to destroy the city or anything."

[sun_sun]

"You're not?"

Pause. This wasn't in the script.

"Then why are you going around in creepy bug armor?"

[ursoreckless]

He had been spending way too much time thinking about his last encounter with a Blood Key. The kid - and somehow he felt okay in calling the gangbanger that - seemed normal. He probably was the same way the kids on the network were normal - sure they all had weird memories or powers, but they were still just kids. Shou didn't like the idea of attacking kids and hurting them just because, but he couldn't leave the area alone either.

So there he was in the middle of the night, walking down the street in his long white coat he pulsed back, hair in its braids and a gun sitting easily on his hip. He felt a little odd, but not as odd as he felt when some guy on a weird-assed motorcycle appeared.

Shou recognized that kind of outfit from childhood tv shows, so it made perfect sense to jump out in front of the bike. Hey maybe he could get the guy to stop before he got hit, right?

[chalicejoker]

Why did so many people think it was a good idea to jump in front of a weird motorcycle? Hajime gave silent thanks for his superhuman reflexes as the motorcycle screeched to a halt. He was about to tell the guy in the white coat off before he realized exactly who he was dealing with.

Shou. Of course he managed to accidentally ran into someone he knew. He hesitated, not wanting to be found out. His armored form was taller than he was as a human but shorter than he was as a bug. The motorcycle didn't look at all like his own. He was essentially wearing a really good mask, and maybe he'd be able to get away before Shou realized who he was talking to. Still, he kept quiet, looking at Shou like he was both waiting for the other to speak and a bit impatient to get going again.

[ursoreckless]

"You know, this isn't exactly Tokyo," he said, taking out a smoke and lighting up. He was smiling a little, just taking in all the absolutely oddness of seeing a tv character in the middle of the street driving a custom-made bike. What was next? Some guys in rubber suits jumping out screeching 'Die'?

[chalicejoker]

Crap. Shou was starting an actual conversation. Hajime still did not want to be recognized, so he did the only thing he could think of that wasn't the guilty-looking action of driving away very fast in the other direction. He lowered the pitch of his voice and tried to put a bit of a growl in it thereby channeling Christian Bale's Batman. "It's still as good a place as any to ride."

Man, talking like that was hard on the throat.

[ursoreckless]

Unfortunately, Shou has good ears. It comes with the entire territory of being in a musical family, playing musical instruments and expected to be able to tell the difference between a harpsichord and a piano by one note. so when he heard that voice growl at him, he sort of made a face and leaned in close.

"Are you trying to disguise your voice?"

[chalicejoker]

"...maybe." Hajime kept at it, but gave up the growl once he started coughing from the strain. Lowering the pitch was easy. Keeping that stupid growl in there was not. "It's a work in progress."

[professorwolf]

Lyall was on the whole a homebody. He didn't leave his house much except for errands and work-- and lately, ever since he'd started hearing things at an increased volume and complexity, a walk in the evening when it was a little quieter and he could try to sort out the things he heard. It was the only way he could think of to try and desensitize himself to the overwhelming amount of sensory data he was getting. And hey, it had worked with his nose, on the whole... even if scents weren't usually quite as distracting and painful as sounds.

It also helped him keep on the lookout for odd things-- such as that extremely strange motorcycle and stranger fellow halfway up a tree. Upwind of him, he couldn't get a good scent, but obviously it had to be someone from the network. Who else would be wearing that ridiculous get-up?

So he crossed the street to see what was going on, and if he could help.

[chalicejoker]

Hajime really wondered what his life had come to. He'd ridden around on his motorcycle playing superhero, realized he might be getting lost, stopped to get his bearings...and heard meowing from up in the branches of a tree. That sure was a kitten there looking cold and scared. What kind of superhero would leave a kitten up there like that?

He wasn't sure what he was going to do with the kitten once he rescued it. Maybe he'd take that as a signal that he should head home, and in the morning, he'd call Mitsuko. Maybe one of her friends would want it.

Hajime was so focused on his climb up the tree to grab the kitten that he'd failed to notice Lyall's approach. If he had, he would have jumped right back on the bike and gotten out of there before Lyall could realize who this mysterious masked man was. He wouldn't put it past Lyall to be able to sniff out the truth.

[professorwolf]

The new transformation didn't entirely mask the smell, no. As Lyall came up under the tree, peering up, he could catch whiffs of something familiar-- rather like the kind of familiar... when Hajime was in bug form, in fact. He paused, not quite directly under Hajime just in case he jumped down or lost his footing when he realized he was being observed, but not far from it.

Peering up, he began, " ... spot of trouble, there?" Just in case it wasn't Hajime... which he was doubting a bit, now, actually... he didn't start off with a name.

[chalicejoker]

Almost there, almost there...and then Hajime jumped at the sound of Lyall's voice. He didn't fall out of the tree, but he shook it a little, causing the kitten to puff up in surprise. "No, no, everything's under control..." He tried to disguise his voice by lowering the pitch a bit, but it was probably a futile gesture when it came to dealing with a guy with superhuman hearing. He reached up, snagged the kitten, and jumped out of the tree.

Though maybe he should have stayed up there; now he was face-to-face with Lyall, holding a kitten, and in some weird armored form he had been trying to keep secret.

[professorwolf]

The kitten didn't seem pleased to be quite so close to someone who smelled so heavily of "wolf", and Lyall prudently stepped back before the little fluffball could do damage to Hajime's costume. Because that was definitely Hajime. He looks vaguely disappointed at the kitten's reaction-- he was more fond of cats than most other pet-type animals, if just because they were easier to manage-- before turning a puzzled look a bit further up at Hajime's masked face.

" ... new pulse?" he guessed.

[chalicejoker]

Hajime struggled to keep a grip on the kitten, for he was not good with animals to begin with, and this one didn't seem happy. He gave Lyall a sheepish nod. There was no point in trying to deny it. "I was trying it out. I wasn't expecting the bike to change, too."

[seishindairingun]

Inga really shouldn't have been out at night; even though she was a goddamn adult and could go wherever she damn pleased, it struck her as extremely irresponsible to be out on the streets at midnight when there were rumors of gang activity floating around. Not to mention all the other bizarre stuff she'd found out about ever since she'd gotten this string of numbers stuck in her head and had decided to write it down.

She hadn't gotten into any trouble yet, she told herself. And she didn't think the chances were high that someone could be stirring for trouble this close to Japantown. Even so, she kept her hand around the ring of keys in her pocket.

She couldn't help but flinch when she heard the sound of a motorcycle. I'm being paranoid, she told herself. She clutched her ring of keys, and only then did she realize there shouldn't only have been just her keys in that pocket. She patted her other pocket—just in case—and whirled around. Her phone... she'd dropped her phone on the street.

[chalicejoker]

When Hajime had set out to try this whole superhero thing, he'd really been hoping he might find some more Blood Keys and beat them into giving up their life of crime. Instead, he'd been accosted by a magical girl and boy, rescued a kitten from a tree, and had now spotted a lost cell phone in the street. Truly, the life of a superhero was one filled with excitement and adventure.

He stopped the bike to pick it up, unaware that its owner was nearby.

[seishindairingun]

Approach the TV mascot, or leave her phone? She hadn't heard about anyone using mascot costumes as a cover for violence or anything, but there was always a first time. And since he was wearing that thing, the key defense would be pretty much useless. On the other hand, there was a chance that he couldn't see properly in that thing.

"Uh... Hey!" she yelled from where she was. "Can you toss that over?"

[chalicejoker]

"Hm?" Hajime looked down at the phone, then back to the woman. He shrugged and tossed it over, taking care not to do so with too strong a throw. Just a gentle underhand toss that still probably had just a touch too much force behind it for that distance, thanks to his nerves at actually interacting with someone else while in this armored form. "You might want to be more careful with that in the future. The streets aren't safe." He was trying to keep the pitch of his voice low, the better to go with his superhero guise.

[seishindairingun]

"Safe from what?" she said as she slipped the phone into a pocket—her pants pocket this time. She surreptitiously shook her hand out; it stung a little, partly due to this guy's throw and partly because it was cold and she wasn't wearing gloves. "You sound like you have something in mind."

[chalicejoker]

"Haven't you been watching the news? There's a lot of gang activity going on these days." Hajime leaned on the motorcycle. "Lots of people have been getting mugged. That's why I'm out here--I'm going to stop them before they can jump anyone."