Herotales: Divided Lines

[YoungX]

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Ken Asters
Being out of energy, Ken finds himself down on the ground and out for the count. Being within the realm of unconsciousness either results in a dream or well it's still a dream regardless.

He would be staring at a white landscape. There was nothing to it but white. Ken found himself alone in what seems to be an empty white world and he wasn't sure what was going on. Of course this is all a dream so naturally he wouldn't exactly feel like he was dreaming. Once he wakes up he should know it's a dream but for now that's all there is to it. After walking around for a bit, he would find that the scene drastically shifted towards a burning city with Ken already becoming Drift Rider. His instincts told him to fight and so he did. It was going rather well as Drift Rider fought mook after mook... that is until he encountered a floating blazing figure in the sky. He tried to do what he could but in the end he would be taken down with a swift and painful strike. Now he was on the ground with the figure landing onto the ground and gave Drift a choice: the figure either burns an infant or everyone else. He couldn't decide and thus the figure proceeded to just burn everything in sight. Drift Rider only watched in horror as he failed to save everyone... again but then the scene shifted once more to that white landscape.

Ken woud be back to his regular state as he then saw a strange in front of him. The figure's face was hidden by a hood but it was clear that the attire he wore resembled the same stranger that saved him on that fateful day.

'I... I couldn't do anything. I wasn't ready to fight off such a dangerous villain but I did and... and my pride costed me lives. I should've at least said popcorn or something... It's so ridiculous! Why didn't I just play her game? Now because of me that building and the people in it had to suffer my consequences!' Ken was deeply hurt by his mistake and he felt that he had no right to call himself a Hero after that horrific mistake.

The figure stood there and said, 'You stood up against a foe you weren't sure you could win. Yes lives were lost but that's something that can't weigh you down forever. You chose to be a Hero and now you have to bear the weight of your mistakes. No matter how much stands in your way always remember that being a Hero means more than just fighting crime.' The figure started to move backwards and fading into the distance though Ken would try to catch up to no avail.

Ken then woke up in some alleyway with some bandages all wrapped on his wounds. He wasn't sure what had happened but he figured someone saved him and just brought him to this alleyway... though that wasn't really a smart idea in hindsight. Still it seems he had everything in his possession, even his Drift Bracer. Though next to him was a suitcase which contained a few items.

A few of those cars that looked like the one he had used earlier and a note. The note simply said: Use these engines next but do not use the Primary Engines. They are the Heat and Cyclone. First Gear cannot handle them yet but you will find that in you is power. Find the Hero within yourself to shift into Second Gear. Leave the suitcase here.

That was all the note said. With that said, Ken would take everything out of the suitcase and carry it with him. As for the suitcase, well the note said to leave it and it was just a suitcase so he did as it said. Now Ken would be heading back to his apartment to either go for a drive or just rest. Today was a heavy day and the more he thought about earlier the worse his day could get.


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[Assailant]

Max smiled at Alistair as he called his men. "Thank you," he said graciously. The men began to be taken off, and soon the majority were gone. "I presume you're the chief?" He asked the man who had helped him.


Sanshiro looked around as he walked through the airport. He was aware of he stares he was getting, and he felt sufficiently awkward. Not for being looked at as strange, he knew he was strange among the modern man, but rather because he had so many eyes looking at him. He was not used to being seen so much, he was a creature of stealth, after all. Despite that, it HAD happened, he was on the S-Force after all, so he sucked it up and kept moving.

He hadn't been to America much, but he had made a stop or two before. He'd had targets to kill in exotic locations before, and the United States was no exception. He'd even been in this very airport, though he'd never had much time to explore, not that he would even had he been able to. Despite not going to America much, or even the likes of England, he had learned to speak fluent English. He still had a decently thick Japanese accent, but he could speak the language itself fine. Not that he'd had reason to speak it much before, but should he ever need to... Sanshiro always valued preparedness, and he knew plenty of skills he was almost sure he'd never use.

Sanshiro grunted affirmatively to Yumi's first question. He would probably be pretty hot in the LA sun, but he could manage. He always wore this suit, so he'd learned to wear it at any temperature. It wouldn't be comfortable, but it wasn't designed for comfort. He would be fine. As for the second one...

Sanshiro looked through the luggage claim before finding his bag: a simple black bag. He didn't care for complexities. It was large enough to fit all of his equipment from home, so he didn't have to worry about rationing it out and deciding which he might need. It was supposed to be a routine trip, so he likely didn't need any of it. However, always be prepared.

Minako

 

[Assailant]

A man casually walked down the street not too far from Drift Rider and whistled to himself. A purse swung from his hand as a woman behind him yelled for someone to stop him. He simply laughed. "Yes, please, someone stop me!" He yelled out. After a moment, he stopped and grinned. The woman kept yelling, but the man waved her off. "Hush, lady, someone's about to come. You can stop your yelling now."

YoungX

 

[YoungX]

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Ken Asters
Ken was walking when he heard a woman pleading that someone be stopped. A purse snatcher? But if it was just an ordinary purse snatcher then surely there could've been someone to stop it? Maybe not.

Still regardless he feels thst it would be better to do this as Drift Rider. He hid and pulled the Drift Bracer turning him into Drift Rider First Gear.

From there he inserted the Dash Engine and began to run. He had a sense of how fast he could run and soon he would make a quick spburst of speed, a dash, that left very faint afterimages. As he dashed he would deliver a human-powered kick to his legs as he began to use his legs to perform a drift within close proximity. Basically his body was near lying as this drift occured while he was raising one leg to perform a swift kick to the legs.

Assailant

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[Assailant]

The man turned around and casually jumped over Drift Rider, landing behind him as DR skid. The man laughed. "Well then, you're not one for monologues. Not one for introductions either." The man grabbed a fedora that rested on his head and tipped it. "How do you do? You look... interesting."

YoungX

 

[YoungX]

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Ken Asters
As Drift Rider had just entered into his 'Fine tuning mental status,' he hadn't expected the man to jump over without even a look of being caught off-guard. Had he known Drift Rider was already on the move? That was some quick reaction. He decided that it was best that he be careful.

"Drift Rider. You look like a purse snatcher but... your a bit too fancy to be a regular purse snatcher."


Assailant

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[Assailant]

The man held the fedora in his right hand and bowed. "Guilty as charged, thank you for noticing." He waited a moment before standing back straight and placing it on his head. "You can call me... hmmm..." He thought for a moment. "Uh... you can call me Charles. Yeah, Charles, why not?" He chuckled. "You can try to take me on, but I doubt you can beat me." He grinned. "You'd never see it coming."

YoungX

 

[YoungX]

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Ken Asters
Drift Rider wondered what he meant by not see it coming. Still he had just fought a heavy battle before so he really shouldn't be fighting too hard. Though his wounds seemed to have healed somewhat thanks to whoever patched him up, he really shouldn't take it too hard. This would be a more careful fight if anything. For a test he materialized his Door Gun and shot right near the man's right leg. If the man can see these things coming then it would at least prove his theory right.

Assailant

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[Assailant]

Charles lifted his leg, letting the shot miss his foot entirely. He pursed his lips. "Well, you missed, but now I guess I know you're not trying to kill me. Which is nice, but then it begs the question of why you chose a gun as your weapon."

YoungX

 

[YoungX]

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Ken Asters
"I just needed to prove something," Drift Rider dematerialized the Door Gun realizing that he really didn't need it in this scenario. Charles had simply lifted his leg, almost possessing some extreme reflexes and reaction time. If that was the case then he really shouldn't overstep his boundaries. He had to make moves that count and something that even he could be caught off-guard by. But what?

He would put his left foot forward followed by his right foot. Then he started to gauge the distance between him and Charles knowing full well that a basic attack is most likely going to result in a miss. Even if Charles possessed superhuman reflexes, there must still be some weakness. Is there something even he cannot avoid?

For now he would rush forward and prepared to throw a punch towards Charles's stomach. Though as he was about to he immediately pulled back as it was a feint. Instead he quickly pulled out a left punch aimed for his chest area but to make it tricker that was a double feint. He retracted that left punch and went for a quick right punch to the stomach. But... he retracted it as he would go for a simple leg sweep aimed for the knee section of Charles' legs. In total it is a triple feint.

Assailant

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[Assailant]

Amazingly, Charles didn't react to any of the three feints. Instead, right as Drift Rider began, Charles moved to counter the leg sweep right off the bat, stopping him before he'd even truly begun the attack. With the leg sweep halted, Charles moved in and struck at his stomach, followed by an uppercut right under the chin.

YoungX

 

[YoungX]

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Ken Asters
Drift Rider had token the blows to his stomach and an uppercut at the chin but thankfully he was still as Drift Rider so really it was fine. He used this opportunity to recover and dashed behind Charles seeing as he still was using the Dash Engine. With opportunity present he would deliver three fast blows. The first blow was aimed at Charle's direct back, the second was a few inches off from his left and the third was a few inches off from his right.

Assailant

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[Assailant]

Charles turned around to meet Drift Rider before he ever got a chance to get behind him and dodged all three with relative ease, swinging his arm out just ahead of Drift Rider to meet him where he would end his third strike. He grinned and chuckled. "You're fast, but I'm afraid that's not gonna help you here pal."

YoungX

 

[YoungX]

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Ken Asters
'That reaction speed... It's not by human standard. This guy definitely has some super power to help with that but is there anyway to land a direct hit? Maybe... I have to distract him via unconventional methods?' Drift Rider really wasn't sure what would even make such a fancy man like himself off guard. If anything the man could just outlast Drift Rider in this state and given his current condition... that wouldn't be too long.

He retracted his arm back and went for another right punch to the chest but... he instead took his left hand and slapped both hands together right in front of Charles. A loud unexpected clap right near the opponent's face.

Assailant

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[Assailant]

Charles didn't move, simply blinking as the man clapped. Charles sighed and shook his head. "Eh? Was that the best you got? Well, I'm glad you've realized that you're going to have to try something other than constant punching. You'd be AMAZED how few people realize that. But..." Charles kicked at DR's groin.

YoungX

 

[YoungX]

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Ken Asters
As he slowly got used to Charle's attack speed, Drift Rider barely to the right just enough to avoid getting kicked at the groin. A man like him punching another in the groin? By the goodness gracious that isn't good! Using this opportunity seeing that Charles had kicked, Drift Rider would use this opportunity to perform another unconventional move. He just straight up charged at Charles while he knew that Charles would immediately recover.

Though he knew full too well that wasn't enough and so while in the midst of charging, Drift Rider spun his body towards Charles. Using that momentum, he materialized his Handle Sword in his right hand and swung diagonally from left to right at Charle's chest. So far from what he had gathered, Charles possesses great reflexes and agility far more than what he could do currently. He can't just rely on the man getting tired so he had to push him into a position where he can't dodge.

Assailant

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[Assailant]

Charles's eyes followed DR, and as he charged Charles, the man jumped back on his one leg to avoid the attack. While the attack did miss Charles, he stumbled backwards on the landing, but he payed very careful attention to keep his eyes on Drift Rider.

YoungX

 

[YoungX]

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Ken Asters
'This is it. I'm getting closer and closer. Time to hit not for the sake of hitting but for the sake of missing,' Drift Rider thought to himself as it was working as planned. Now it was time to up the moves and make it count with one flashy execution.

He starts off with a right kick towards Charles' right side. Then he uses that momentum to get low and perform a right spin kick at his ankle area which should force him to either jump or move back, the first being more likely. From there he uses his hands to flip a bit off the ground and follow it with a spin left kick. With that he would flip back into standing position with a final right punch aiming at Charles' chest as he would move forward.

Assailant

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[Assailant]

Right as DR was starting off his combo, Charles jumped back using what momentum remained from his stumbling, jumping outside the range of the strikes. Charles landed on his back and quickly rolled over to push himself to his feet.

YoungX

 

[YoungX]

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Ken Asters
While impressive how Charles managed to avoid the combo, Drift Rider pushed the initiative while he still had it. He dashed to where Charles was and would deliver a sliding right kick to Charles' current side that was facing him. He had to push Charles to his limits so that Drift Rider can end this dragging fight. He took his Handle Sword in his left hand and swung down at the center expecting Charles to move. Drift Rider felt that he was getting close so he had to seal in the deal. He took his right fist and would bring it down to wherever his gut area would be.

Assailant

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[Assailant]

Charles rolled out of the way of the kick and the sword swing, but stopped just short as the punch landed in his stomach. He grunted and chuckled, getting to his knees. "Been a long time since someone's made contact..."

YoungX

 

[YoungX]

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Ken Asters
"You know despite not having a single weapon and armor on hand you basically kept on par with my attacks. That's not something any ordinary person can do. If someone hadn't made contact in a long time then that means you're more experienced than most others." Of course Drift Rider had confirmed Charles was a Super with his own set of enhanced physical capabilities but he had to finish this as it was dragging for too long.

"It's probably better to stop dragging this fight. If you keep this then I'll have no choice but to keep going to stop you."

Assailant

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[Assailant]

Charles shook his head. "I mean... isn't that the nature of a fight?" Charles hummed. "Tell ya what? I'll give the purse back, and you let me go free. I'm kinda tired of fighting as well, but I'm not keen on being captured, so there's my offer."

YoungX

 

[YoungX]

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Ken Asters
"I could just take the purse from you and turn you in to the authorities. You only stole a purse you know," Drift Rider said since honestly there wasn't much stopping from getting the purse in the first place. If anything that was one of the worst deals he had heard of in a long while.

After a moment of thinking, Drift Rider knew that purse snatching isn't the highest of crimes but this was a villain with enhanced physical capabilities. The man clearly isn't a good guy at all but even then larceny of this scale is more or less a high fee. Still... why the purse snatching? After all the man clearly isn't the type to just snatch up purses and with abilities like those he'd probably go for bigger crimes. So... what exactly is the point of this?

Then he realized that he may as well let him go.

"Fine I'll take your offer. Just remember that if you do this again then I'm sure someone will try to stop you again."

Assailant

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[Assailant]

"Cool." Charles twirled the purse before tossing it to Drift Rider. He waved. "Maybe I'll see you around some other time, hero. We can do battle then. Today is my lazy day anywho." He turned and placed his hands in his pockets, casually walking off.

YoungX