Vial 01 - Bat Out of Hell [OPEN]

[Henry Pretorian]

Running.  Footsteps breaking through the thick flora of a jungle somewhere south of Joburg, Henry jumps over a small depression into a a small stream, narrowly dodging the rapid bullets coming from a smoking AK-47. The clear voices of rough and damaged men yelling in Swahili serve to fill in the gaps between bouts of gunfire. Wet and tired, Henry got up and surveyed the area, then felt his pockets for his Biojector.

"Well, crap.  Don't tell me I lost it again! This is what I get for underestimating small tabloid articles...nobody told me they hid out in the middle of a jungle", he exclaimed.  Unfortunately for Henry, the sudden yell attracted the small gang of bandits that were tailing him.


"YOU IDIOT," he quickly realized, facepalming right before dropping down to the streaming water, his hands digging through the waves to find his Biojector.  All the while, the ululating screams of the bandits became louder and louder.


"Find the bastard!" yelled the one wearing kevlar over a white tank top and a pair of cargo pants.  He seemed to be the leader, what with his gear looking the most expensive among the rest who seemed to be content with plain clothes, pistols, and used rifles. As the rustling of the grass became louder and louder, Henry's eyes lit up when his hands felt the familiar cold metal of the Biojector.  He grabs onto it and stands up, drenched and dirtied by the elements, and readies himself.  He inserts the nozzle into his hidden injection port, his teeth gritting, and his free arm outstreched forward for the incoming impact of the shot.


VIAL READY!


"HENSHIN! STRANGER!" Henry calls out, the pierce of the Biojector feeling as warm as it had before.


STRAAAAAAAAAAAANGER!



He feels his body violently vibrate for a mere split second, his clothes are absorbed and hidden by his utility belt, while his skin disintegrates into dust.  He takes out the Biojector and holsters it, and his antennae rapidly stand up as he assumes a battle pose.


"Kamen Rider, STRANGER! My own directive has spoken.  Prepare for extermination!" he quips, just as the bandits arrive, their rusting guns at the ready.  He jumps up, his vestigial wings outstretched, allowing him to land gracefully with a swift kick to the gang leader's chest.

[Henry Pretorian]

The leader of the bandit troops falls and crashes like the stock market, Stranger's foot firmly entrenched in his face. As the two fall to the ground, Stranger flips forward, landing on his two feet. Still clearly in awe, the other henchmen have no time to react as Stranger shoots their guns with the Biojector, hitting their rusting armaments with corrosive fluid, quickly dissolving them. The goons drop their guns in horror as this happens.

"What was that human idiom again? Ah, I remember! Works like a charm! he croaked, his voice resonating like the wings of a beetle. He holsters the Biojector in his belt and charges forward, engaging the remaining four bandits in hand-to-hand combat. The first immediately falls with a swift punch to the throat, and the second is hit almost immediately with a series of three kicks to the groin,chest and the head. The last man standing pulled out a knife and tried to slash at Stranger's back, but the metal became instantly dull at the moment it met Stranger's enhanced carapace.

"I do not enjoy delivering less than positive news," Stranger quips, the last goon falling to the ground in fear, "but your rudimentary offense cannot possibly harm me," before giving the last goon a swift punch to the face, knocking him out.

"Their base can probably yield more information," said Stranger as he got up, dusting the mud and grass that had stuck to him ont he ground. He pulls out the Biojector and attaches a vial with unremarkable flesh-colored fluid, injecting it into his neck port, reverting him back to his human disguise. At the same time, his utility belt releases and attaches his civilian clothing to him. Calmly, as if nothing had just happened, Henry calmly walked back in the direction of the east.

[Henry Pretorian]

"Find the bug...he needs to be squashed," noted Henry, dribbling out the written words. He had reverted back to his human form and reading a note tucked into a ledger that the bandit leader kept in the decrepit ramshackle hut that was the raider hideout. Whoever hired them was either on a low budget, or completely underestimated Kamen Rider Stranger.

"The question now would be, who's trying to end my lifecycle, and by what means did he ascertain my existence on Earth," he trailed, stuffing the note in his pocket as he took another good look at the disgusting mess that he'd found himself in. For people who referred to him as a bug, their abode was certainly dirtier than the most unkempt hive cell back in Hive-01. Henry kicked aside some porno mag that was falling apart, and was about to walk out of the door when he heard a familiar voice call outside.

"Couldn't finish the job, insect!  I'm right here!" yelled the bandit leader, limping back to the front of the raiders' hut and holding what looked to be a bottle in his hand filled with a viscous orange liquid.  With no point in hiding, Henry stepped out and was prepared to rip the bandit leader a new one, but stopped in the middle of his tracks as he realized what exactly the bandit leader was holding.  The silence that followed the stoppage of his footsteps was followed by the violent howl of the wind, taking pockets of dust into the air.

"If you think m'boys and me are easy pickin's, then you're dead wrong," he growled, opening the bottle and drinking the thick orange liquid. Whatever didn't go past his lips slowly dripped down to the dirt below him.  By instinct, Henry pulled out his Biojector, but realized that he didn't bring any extra vials with him.  Crap.  As the bandit leader's flesh began to bloat and ripple, forcing his body to violently change into what resembled a bipedal bat monster, Henry turned around and began to run.

[Henry Pretorian]

Running like a bat out of hell through the wild foliage of the African landscape, Henry scolded himself repeatedly, in between deep breaths, because he failed to anticipate the bat monster.  To be fair, however, NOBODY would expect that a small-time bandit would suddenly turn into the living, breathing personification of the Man-Bat.  The flapping of the winds were getting louder, and there was only a cliff in front of him.

"Deploying Thorax Cycler!" he yelled, pulling out a small, rectangular device that resembled the shell of a Stag Beetle, and pressing on the center button that protruded slightly. With the cliff only a few more steps away, Henry takes a giant leap, gravity pulling him down almost immediately as he begins to fall. The bat monster leaps as well, but Henry's sudden fall allows him to evade the zip forward by the human-bat hybrid.

Only after a few moments does Henry hear a quick buzz across the sky, and with a surge of human adrenaline, time comes to a snail's pace.  Henry is able to see the maw of the Thorax Cycler, the pilot's pod of his crashed spacecraft, opening in order to extract him, allowing escape.  The bat is too late to give chase, and the alien vehicle begins to gently descend.

"I suppose we can glide down gracefully," quips Henry, but soon enough he feels the thud of tree branches hitting the Thorax Cycler.  He tucks his head under his arms as the pod comes to a crashing halt somewhere near the main road to Joburg. The Thorax Cycler only allows momentary flight, it would seem.  This could either be a purposeful design choice, an unintentional design flaw, or the blatant lack of biofuels to power the Cycler.