Kamen Rider Noble (Episode 2: Incognito)

Kamen Rider Noble   Chapter 2: Incognito   by WhatAttackGoesBust and thetrans4master   WhatAttackGoesBust (talk)   Haru got the next day off school to recover, but when Friday rolled around, he had to go back. There was no actual class that day, due to administrative problems, but everyone still had to go, for some reason. When he arrived at school in the morning, it didn't take long for him to realize that the kids there were hyped about his alternate form and the fight he'd been in. "Did you catch his wicked moves on the news? I want to meet him so we can see him do it again!" o ne boy told to his friend as they played some basketball. "He looked s o mysterious and dreamy.. ."  a  girl bragged to a group of other girls. Some kids were even trying to imitate the moves that Haru had done as well. Haru felt self-conscious all of a sudden. Trying not to let it show, he shouldered his backpack as usual and made his way through the schoolyard, before noticing a pack of kids standing around a table and egging on two boys playing a game of some kind. "Yeah! Rough him up, Nicky!" "Go get 'em, Keith! Use your Maximum Drive already!" When Haru heard 'Maximum Drive', he went rigid. 'W-what's going on? What are those kids playing?! It can't be... No,  it... it can't!' Haru tried to get closer to the table of kids and saw, to his dismay, that the kids were playing with the same type of cards that he had in his  Co mmand  G ate collection. One girl noticed him standing behind her, and raised an eyebrow. "What? You've never heard of Rider Wars before?" she asked rudely. Haru looked at her and then back at the game. "N-N-No,  I haven't. H-how do you play it?" T he boys at the table that weren't playing  laughed at him a little. "You mean you don't know?     Never heard of Rider Wars... Wow, you really are out of touch, huh, Haru?" one scoffed. "H-hey!" he protested. "I'm not that weird, am I?" "Yeah, you are," the girl snickered. "Rider Wars is the newest card game on the block! It's a smash hit." Haru was relieved that they hadn't figured out his alternate identity,  but was a bit upset that they were treating him like he was a rock with no feelings. "Can you at least teach me before you get so  mean ?" h e mumbled. "Nah. You probably don't even have a deck," the boy laughed. At that, one of the boys who were playing ended up winning, and just as he did, he collected his cards and gave the girl a glare. "Knock it off, L e e. Just because Haru's a little weird doesn't mean you get to treat him like dirt on a shoe," he said darkly. He smiled at Haru. "I'd be glad to teach you how to play, Haru. I'm Nicky. You're in my AP Literature class, right?" Haru recognized Nicky immediat e ly  (what other kid in his class had pink hair?)  and was thankful that at least someone was willing to help him out. "Y -y e ah,  I remember you now. When did this game get so popular ?  I haven't heard of it before, " Har u said s hyly , putting his hands in his pockets. "Really?" However, Nicky noticed the Command Gate, loaded with cards, clipped to Haru's belt. "Why do you have a Command Gate, then?" he asked. Haru cringed. "I-is that what it's called?" he asked. "My grandfather gave it to me, for a gift. Didn't tell me what it was, just that he'd gotten it from some company for beta testing." If there was one thing Haru was good at, it was coming up with fiction on a moment's notice, but once again, he beat himself up internally for lying. Nicky showed Haru his own  C ommand  G ate and then asked. "What cards did you get? You get at least 50 per  C ommand  G ate, all with different powers and actions.I'll show you mine if you show me yours.  Mine are from the Kiva series!" Kiva series? Haru didn't know what that meant, but nodded. "S-sure. Can we go somewhere private to do it? I'm kinda uncomfortable around all these people..." Nicky thought about it. "I know just the place!  Follow me." Haru looked confused as Nicky led him to a quiet place at the back of the hall and pulled out the cards in his own  Command Gate. He lay them on the ground with each picture showing properly for Haru. Haru didn't recognize any of them. A lot of them appeared to depict a Kamen Rider with red and silver armor, with large yellow eyes on his helmet and a fanged mouth guard. "This is Kamen Rider Kiva, from 2008! It's my favorite Kamen Rider series," Nicky said cheerfully. Haru smiled a little. "He does look pretty impressive. Vampire,  I guess?" Haru asked, beginning to feel more comfortable around Nicky now. "Yeah! He's a vampire!" Nicky beamed. Then, a thought struck Haru. "Wait, Kamen Rider is a series? I thought it was just that one guy on the news." This caught Nicky by surprise. "Oh you heard about that guy too,  huh? That's funny ,  I don't remember them announcing the guys name on the news. But yeah ,  it's an amazing  Japanese  TV series that became a card game, as you can see! The idea is you use your cards in your  C ommand  G ate to defeat your  opponent,  who has the same style of  C ommand  G ate but different cards. There's rumours that there's like ultra rare cards like the Maximum Drive which I have one of. No doubt you heard me use it earlier , " Nicky explained. "Can I see your cards?" "U-uh, sure..." Haru gulped and removed the cards from his Command Gate, spreading them out on the floor. Nicky examined them closely. "Hey, these are of that real Kamen Rider! Wow, what if that was a publicity stunt to announce a new series? These are really cool! Let's see... there's the rider himself, his sword, his bike, some magic stuff... holy-!" He held up one card with a w e. "You have a MAXIMUM DRIVE!" Haru wasn't sure  whether  to panic or to run or to grab the cards back. "Y-y-yeah,  I do... you said it was rare ,  right? So that's a g-g-good thing ,  isn't it?" He was now unsure it had been a good idea to show Nicky the cards after all. "Good?! It's brilliant!! Do you know how long it took me to find my  Kiva's Maximum D rive?  T hey're so rare, I had to go to a dealer in  J apan to get mine. How did your grandfather get hold o f  this pack? This is amazing!" Nicky was ultra excited now, hopping up and down. He was quite short, so this looked rather comical to Haru, but this wasn't the time for jokes. "Apparently the company developing them wanted to release a full set of cards for this guy, so they gave a preliminary set to my grandpa to beta test..." Haru rubbed his arm nervously. "Um.. can you teach me how to play?" Nicky nodded enthuastically. "Sure,  Haru! I can teach you! This is exciting! Not only do I know someone now that has a new brand of cards, but I get the chance now to teach them! Oh you won't regret this, Haru! Not at all!" Nicky took Haru's cards into his hands and dealt them out on the ground above his own and began to eagerly teach what each card did and how powerful they were. "This is a Rider card," he said, first pointing to the cards depicting Kiva and Noble. "They're your main offensive force in the game. You play them to attack other Riders and monsters, and deal damage to your opponent's Life Force." Haru nodded, understanding completely. That had been clear when he first became  Kamen Rider Noble, so at least there was something helpful there. "And how powerful are they?" he asked. "Every Rider card has their own power level, listed below their picture." Nicky indicated a gold 4000 written on Noble's card and a gold 6000 on Kiva's. "You compare the power of your attacking Rider to the power of your opponent's defending Rider, and the one with the higher power wins battles." Haru thought about that carefully. "So yours is 2000 better than mine? Man that stinks ," he  grum ble d. He had hoped his  card   would be at least 5000, since he had felt extremely powerful when he had become  a R ider. "Well,  yeah ," Nicky admitted,   " but sometimes the power level is n't  the most important thing. Look at your fighting abilities there. " He pointed to a golden number at the bottom right corner of the cards. " See how mine says 7/10 but yours says 9/10 ?  That means that your Rider is actually smarter and probably a bit quicker with fighting abilities. Most likely yours lacks in quick time r e actions, where you need to respond to the aftermath of an attack, or possibly healing abilities." Haru looked up. "Wait.. healing abilities? These guys can heal themselves?" Nicky nodded. "Yeah! You don't even need  to do that much,  but it only happens 3 times for one card." "How do you do it?" Haru asked. "You detransform the card." Nicky pulled out another card from his pile, picturing a young Japanese man and bearing the name "Wataru Kurenai". "Since every Rider has a human form, you can place the card of their human form over them, and they can't attack, but on your next turn you can remove the human card and the Rider comes back at full health! Some humans even have special abilities when you bring the Rider back. Wataru here lets you search your deck of cards for one of Kiva's allies and add them to your hand!" Haru avoided looking relieved since he was still trying to keep his cover, however he replied. "What about the magic cards? What help would they have for the game?" Nicky took a look at Haru's magical cards and studied their statistics carefully. "Well, magic cards can be played in a battle to amplify your Rider's abilities, deal damage, heal, or whatever." Nicky picked one of his up, and showed Haru. It appeared to be a purple hammer of some sort. "This is Kiva's Dogga Hammer. You equip it to Kiva to give him an extra 3000 power!" Haru looked at his cards. "What about mine? What do mine do that are special?" He asked, getting very curious now. "Take a look and see." Nicky smiled. Haru did so, and noticed Excaliblaze first. The description on the card read: "(Noble only) +2000 power; +1000 power when fighting DARK opponents." Haru thought about how he had gone as Kamen  R ider the other night and then asked,  "What if there was one that could allow you to disguise yourself as a villain? Perhaps to trap them? Is that possible?" Nicky thought about that. "I am not sure. I've heard there is a card like that but I've not seen it. Maybe you have it ?" Nicky checked out the deck again. "Hm... no, you don't seem to have one. Sorry!" "Aw..." Haru snapped his fingers. "That would be really good to have in a game." Nicky smiled. "Ah well, can't be perfect the whole time! But hey you've got quite an awesome deck! I'd love to verse you some time. But not today, I gotta give  Keith  a rematch and then see what my other friends are up to, but this was brilliant fun Haru! Enjoy your deck of cards and I hope I've been some help." Haru smiled. 'You have no idea how helpful you've been.' He thought as Nicky ran back to his friends in the school courtyar d. Putting his cards back in his Command Gate, he smiled and whistled a tune as he walked over to the library for a good book to read. However, as he passed someone at their locker, he felt a chill in the air. He wasn't sure why he felt it, but when he looked around at the person he passed, he saw they disappeared around the corner to go somewhere else. He hadn't even gotten the chance to see who it was properly. He tried to shake the feeling off and continued heading to the library. Was he just imagining that feeling? It could've been just that he was feeling tired or scared about school. He didn't know. He only knew that right at that moment he wanted to relax for a while, tired of lying to cover his identity and excited about the abilities he now knew about from his cards. When Haru got to the library, he saw the librarian, a friend of his, smile. "Hello, Haru. Enjoying your day off classes?" "Yup. I still have to take my medication, though..." Haru sigh e d. The librarian nodded solemnly. "Well,  I'll keep an eye on you if you fall  a sleep once you have it ,  alright ?  And if you need anything, let me know." "Right." Haru went to a table and picked out a book. However, he soon became restless and bored of reading, wanting to know more about his cards. He looked around again, checking to see if anyone was watching. When he saw that the coast was clear and remembered the library didn't have any video cameras, he took out his cards and  spread them out  again, wanting to test out one he hadn't yet. He was eager to, and was about to as well,  when a scream got his attention. "What in blazes is that monstrosity?!" h e heard the librarian shout in fear. "Monstrosity!?" Like a flash, Haru was at the librarian's side, looking out the library window. What he saw was NOT good. There was another monster outside, in the schoolyard. It was an enormous, hawk-like creature, pure white with blazing red eyes. It was rampaging through the yard, destroying tables and benches and attacking students. Haru could see several kids unconscious, or maybe worse, on the ground. "Not again," he breathed. He knew it was up to him to stop the creature, so he went to run behind the hall to change when suddenly... " Monster ! You will not hurt any   more  on  this day!" Everyone gasped in surprise as a mysterious figure appeared on top of a classroom. Haru didn't have to take another glance to guess that it was  a Kamen Rider  like he had become,  but... how could that be?! Wasn't he the only one? WhatAttackGoesBust (talk)   "Keheheh.... the second pawn in the game has made his move at last." WhatAttackGoesBust (talk)   Stupefied, Haru ran outside. Standing atop the classroom building was- no doubt about it- another Kamen Rider. There were similarities in their armor. He (she? they?)  had a cape like Haru's but it was red and black in a diamond pattern, and  they  had a  black dragon emblazoned  on  their  outfit, instead of a  gold and white one. They  carried a large sword  with a  black  blade,  glowing  with  embers of orange and purple,  in  their  left hand ,  and  the card panels of their   Driver  w ere  violet col o red. T heir   mere presence made Haru shiver with   dread, even though he hadn't met whoever it was before. T here was something about this Rider... something ominous, that really made Haru wish that he was the only  R ider in town. The mysterious Kamen Rider jumped from the building and landed with a soft thud on the ground, making the hawk monster turn and let out a shriek of surprise. "I am Kamen Rider Burst," the new Rider declared softly, revealed to be male by his voice. "And by my hand, you will perish." He pulled on the Shift Lever of his Driver, causing the cards (Burst Drives, perhaps) inside to move counterclockwise. Then, he pressed the black triangle on his Command Gate. "MAXIMUM DRIVE, KICK UP!" the Driver announced. Haru, along with the  other students, saw that  Kamen Rider Burst  suddenly flared up  with a  bright red  aura,  and every movement he  made was now  at  an inhuman  speed, barely visible to them. The  D river cackled a vicious laugh,  and  Burst  dived t owards  the monster which had been about to attack a boy with a kangaroo  design  on his shirt. "Rider Flare Slash!" It was like a bolt of red slicing the monster in two. If Burst had been slowed down somehow, this is what everyone would have seen:   As soon as Burst leapt towards the hawk, the black sword whistled as it shone through the air, burning with white fire, and the hawk screamed in agony as the sword drove through it, Burst himself plunging through the hole his sword rent through the monster and coming out the other side. The monster only managed to make one pitiful  whimper,  before its life was turned into ash before everyone's eyes. The Rider panted and grunted, covered in ash,  as the crowd applauded, except for Haru ,  who stood near the back ,   still watching , wondering what this Rider 's  deal was. Kamen Rider Burst suddenly let out a loud snarl, almost like a real dragon, as he turned to address the crowd. "Is that IT?! Is that all that can challenge me?!" he growled. E veryone went silent as they saw the  Rider's horned visor, which betrayed nothing of the eyes behind it but somehow made him even more frightening. A few younger kids started to cry. "Come on,  then! Who's next?!" he yelled. And then, in a moment of what might have been bravery, but was more likely sheer cussed stupidity, Haru stepped forward. "Knock it off!" he said firmly. "Don't you start terrorizing everyone!" The Rider looked Haru up and down, not believing that some-one like him would even dare to step forward. He laughed with menace. "You think you can tell ME what to do? Huh? Who do you think you are? You're no body ! I 'll  rule this town, you'll see! Soon everyone will know m y name !" He shifted back a bit and then threw a dart at Haru, trying to catch him off guard. Haru  whirled away to dodge  it, just in time,  and turned back ,  to  f ind that the Rider had vanished. The dart he had thrown had embedded  itself  into  a  brick  wall ,  luckily prevented from harming anyone. As soon as Burst was gone, gossip began breaking out. "Did you see him? He took that thing down in one shot!" "He was scary! What was this guy's deal!?" "Can you believe HARU stood up to him?" Haru tried to back away from the crowd and shrink off into the shadows, unnoticed, because he felt truthfully quite sick and intimidated. Not physically sick, but more that this new  R ider meant something really awful to him. And he had just stood up to  said R ider. But before he had the chance to walk away, Nicky came up to him, awe on his face. "Woah! You have some guts, buddy!  T hat was intense! What made you want to stand up to that  freak ?" Haru mumbled and fidgeted with his iPhone, pulling it out of his pocket to check the time. "I- I just... dunno what came over me... sorry, Nicky... I'm gonna go to the library..." Nicky could see that Haru was still shy and scared about the whole affair and nodded, understanding completely. "Alright my friend. You go to the library. And tell you what, just so you know you can trust me, I will make sure no-one bothers you while you're there. I know a few ways to do s o, " Nicky explained, patting Haru on the back softly. Haru smiled weakly. "Thanks, Nicky... you're a good guy." He hurried away to go read before he had to take his medicine. As he did, he sighed and wondered about this strange, scary new Rider. Who was he? What was his goal? Was he on the same side as Haru, or was he after something totally different? He continued to think about the new Rider and  after a while,  realized that the time was now about  11:30. The day had certainly gone by very quickly, and he realized now as well that he needed to take his medicine again. So, like a  good boy, he   took out his medicine and had his usual dose, making sure he informed the  l ibrarian of his actions. It didn't take too long before he found himself drow s y, almost falling to sleep whilst reading  " To Kill  a  Mocking b ird ". In fact, he did end up falling asleep while reading, falling backwards onto a beanbag with the book over his face. When he woke up, h e  was a bit groggy and numb on his chin, but he was surprised to see a note on the table next to him. It read :   " You are braver than you first appeared. I think it ' s time we discuss this. Meet me at the  art  hall  at 1 PM.  ~E "     Haru was confused and worried. Had someone worked out who he was? Who  Kamen  Rider  Noble  was? Had he somehow blown his cover, on the second day of being Noble? H owever, he knew deep down  that he had to see what  this mysterious note  was about, just to make sure it wasn't some crazy hoax. WhatAttackGoesBust (talk)   "Keheheh. Everything will be okay, little Haru. For me, of course."