Ep 2: Kamen Rider

Kamen Rider is the second episode of Hell Rider.

Synopsis
Trying to cope with what he's done, Ben returns to the Nishihori home. However, the next day, the ring summons him to another crime scene.

Evening
Hell Rider pounds the three would-be museum thieves. Once they are all down, he transforms back into a bewildered and scared Ben Hernandez. Taking the parchment and ring without thinking, he runs for it. Heading home, he gets inside and checks his injuries. Mysteriously, he has none; there are no signs he was even in a fight.

The rest of the Nishimori family is home--parents Eiji and Hiroko, Kenta and his younger sister Miki--and they ask where he's been. Seeing he's had a rough day, Mr. Nishimori tells the others to leave him alone. Ben turns down dinner and goes to his and Kenta's room, trying to process what he did to those thugs. He falls asleep, still dressed and wondering what's going on.

3 A.M.
Detective Chris Savage and the other police are investigating the scene of the botched robbery. He and the medical examiner he usually works with discuss the scene--particularly the fact that the three would-be robbers had been killed by blows to the head or battery, respectively, and there was no sign of who'd done it. Savage finds the box the ring and parchment were in.

Meanwhile, Ben wakes up in a cold sweat, having had nightmares of Hell Rider riding a silver stallion through the wrecked city streets, trampling sinners crying out for mercy. Kenta turns on the light and asks him what really happened. Ben explains, though Kenta finds it hard to believe, but he finds the hieroglyphs on the ring's stone and the parchment intriguing. However, they're both tired, and they drift off, Ben back into the same dreams.

Morning
Ben wakes up feeling much better; last night's events feel like a distant memory, and he has no classes today. He and Miki start play-fighting, but Eiji stops them so his children can get ready for school. Kenta shows Ben the newspaper: Four Found Dead in Botched Robbery.

Detective Savage meets with Brady, the man in charge of the museum, to find out what was in the box. It was the "Prophet's Ring," from an excavation in the Levant. The hieroglyphs weren't in any known language, but they were working on a translation.

Late Afternoon
Ben, trying to get his mind off the ring, is doing his homework when he overhears a news report that members of a gang belonging to notorious drug trafficer Stonewall are being beseiged by the police in a condemned building. Once more Ben becomes angry, and once more he feels the warmth of the ring. Running upstairs, he retrieves it, trying to put it back but unable to resist its call. Finally he puts it on and gets his motorcycle.

Kenta, borrowing his Dad's car to pick up Micki, is at a stoplight when he sees Ben race by on his motorcyle. With a sneaking suspicion, Kenta follows him, and witnesses him transform into Hell Rider--only this time his motorcycle changes as well.

Cooped up with his gang, Stonewall seethes about the delivery gone wrong, only to be distracted by the sound of an oncoming motorcycle. Ben, unable to stop, crashes right through a window into the building. He attacks, breathing fire, absorbing their bullets and hitting them when he gets close enough.

However, when Hell Rider reaches Stonewall, he discovers that the man's skin is as hard as rock. Stonewall fights hard, but the motorcycle intervenes on its own, giving Hell Rider the chance to recover and deliver a powerful kick that throws Stonewall into the ocean. Ben leaves before the police can do anything.

Evening
Back to normal, Ben and his bike are found by Kenta, who saw everything. Kenta asks what he'll do now, and Ben decides to keep the ring, saying that the law isn't enough now. On Kenta's suggestion, Ben names his bike Antares, and Kenta himself suggests that Ben call himself Kamen Rider. Ben reminds Kenta that he should have picked up Miki, and he hurries off, while Ben takes his own way home.