The End Of Diend? [CASS]

[Ezekiel Iris]

Well this had turned into an outright disaster ... Ezekiel ducked into a doorway as a petrol bomb hit the ground and ignited the dirt beneath his feet. There were about a hundred different mercenaries all over the bombed out city, he fired a shot into the fray and peeked into the square.

It looked like he was going to have to call out the big guns. He slotted a torn up card into his gun and fired it upwards, breaking the brickwork and knocking a sniper he hadn't even noticed into the floor. The warped purple spikes approached his body and turned him into Chinomanako.

Then he stepped out into the street.

A group of men turned around when someone screamed. The whole bombed out city froze in fear as Ezekiel walked into the road. Almost every single gun went off in his direction, he staggered backwards towards the stairwell while his chest erupted with sparks.

There was another pause, their magazines were emptied. Ezekiel looked up, every eye on his body blinked along with a cascading sound like an army of cicadas. He looked up and chuckle.
"My turn ..." He said, removing two cards and holding them up.

KAIJIN RIDE EAGLE UNDEAD

KAIJIN RIDE MAGMA DOPANT

Red and green lights flashed before the mercenaries, rebels and civilians caught in the ensuing "scuffle" (As Ezekiel insisted to call it). Two figures appeared, one clad in leather and chains, the other wreathed in flames.

Then everyone started running.

[Cass Hoban]

Cass and his men were part of the large group of mercenaries. Cass had been able to stay towards the middle rather than up front during the ensuing conflict, and as such could see the monsters being summoned when they were attacking. He shouted for his men, but his voice was drowned out. He lifted his rifle and started to fire on the Undead, moving for cover as he fired.

He might have to become DiEnd it seemed. But that enemy...he looked like DiEnd. How was that possible? The man had told him that he was the first of his name. Was this the second? Or was this something else entirely?

[Ezekiel Iris]

The Magma Dopant roared and stomped on the ground, a stream of lava erupting in geysers and approaching a few abandoned houses sending people running. Ezekiel hopped over it and scanned around with his gun for potential targets.

There was a sudden movement. Something heading down. It hit the floor and vanished. The Eagle Undead? Someone had shot it down. Ezekiel looked around and saw a figure run into hiding. He chuckled and walked forward.

"Neat trick!" He called, his voice deep, sharp and booming. "Not afraid to fight ... I like that ..."

The Magma Undead kept lumbering forward, pieces of wood and debris catching alight and smouldering.
"Show yourself." Iris commanded.

[Cass Hoban]

He ducked behind the wall he had found, drawing his handgun and putting his rifle aside, letting it fall to his back. He moved out of cover and quickly fired one shot for Iris, just to see what would happen, and not to waste his rifle shots.

He wasn't ready to transform. Not quite yet.

[Ezekiel Iris]

Ezekiel saw the bullet heading towards him. He reached out a hand to grab it and-

-was off by a centimetre. It hit him in the chest and he growled, clutching his side.
"Lucky Shot ..." He said, stepping forward and peering through the smoke. He couldn't see anything.

"So ... whose side were you on?" He called out "Koobus? Christopher? Or those nice men in white who just came here?"

There was a huge explosion as the Magma Dopant reduced a house to smouldering ashes. Ezekiel glanced over his shoulder and watched three hazy outlines scatter as it faded from his view and existence.

"Interesting isn't it?" He called, stepping through the smoke "This was supposed to be a simple little guard mission. We were looking over a small mine, then ... this,"

There was a sound as Ezekiel inhaled the smoke all around him.
"It's glorious in a way," He declared "How human nature turns even the simplest of tasks into pure ... undiluted ... bloodshed ..."

[Cass Hoban]

"The mine that you were supposed to be left to the people," Cass told Ezekiel as he holstered his gun and pulled out the DiEnd Driver, taking aim at his foe with it, "Recognize this?"

[Ezekiel Iris]

Ezekiel froze. That was impossible, a gun, just like his own. Every eye on his body squinted as he took a step forward. It couldn't be ... but it was.

He raised his own gun up and looked at it, then drew a ripped up card from his belt. Diend? The real Diend? Not the corrupted and warped version that he was?

"Well ..." Iris said, putting his card back into his belt (He still wasn't sure how they vanished from the gun and back to his belt) "This is certainly interesting ..." Ezekiel stayed his distance, he knew what he was capable of but the other man was a wild card ...

... a wild card who wasn't using warped abilities like he was. A wild card with proper, fully working powers. Probably. Ezekiel took a small step back and raised his gun a little, a card in hand just in case.

"Where did you get that?" He inquired in the terrifying hiss of Warp Diend "Just between you and me ..."

[Cass Hoban]

He pushed his weapon forward, loaded his card and pulled back, pointing his gun straight up as he watched Iris, "That's none of your concern, whoever you are."

He pulled the trigger, sending a blast up and forming the copies of his armor. They flew around his body, intersecting and then converging on Cass's body, forming the DiEnd armor, instantly leveling his weapon at Iris as soon as it was on, "Now then, let's take care of things."

[Ezekiel Iris]

Iris chuckled and aimed his own gun, circling Cass.
"Bring it on ..."

[Cass Hoban]

"Tell me. Are you really a soldier?" he asked.

[Ezekiel Iris]

"I fight," Ezekiel answered, continuing his circle.

If you considered where he had been before as 12:00 he was at about ten past nine on his rotation (He was going counter clockwise).

"By my definition, I am a soldier but the term depends on historical, cultural and of course your own personal feelings," He was just past nine, heading towards eight O'clock.

"I see a soldier as a person who fights. Plain and simple, I've heard people say that a soldier is someone who fights for justice, ones who claim that soldiers fight for blood and violence and others who simply say that a soldier is a man, or a woman we live in a modern world," The last bit was added off hand, he raised an arm in a gesture of "Time Out" before continuing on past quarter to six "-that fights for money or possessions,"

He climbed up the rock positioned on four O'clock and kept walking, his gun trained on Cass.

"What sort of soldier are you? Or do you even see yourself as a soldier at all?" He asked, walking past three O'clock and waiting for Cass's answer as he advanced towards 12:00 ...

[Cass Hoban]

He smiled a little under his helmet as he continued to circle, very wary of his foe's moves, "My question is if you know how to fight. Or did you just pick up that weapon and become a Rider? Do you know what you're doing?"

He lifted his weapon, bracing his right arm with his left, feeling that a fight might begin very shortly, "I was a soldier. I know how to fight, how to kill, what to do. Do you know any of this? Or did you just pick up a weapon and start killing?"

[Ezekiel Iris]

"Oh I see, a man trained to fight," He said, moving slowly now, he was inching over half past one.

Ezekiel paused, not his feet, his feet kept moving but he didn't speak.
"No ..." He admitted "No I am not a soldier in your terms I was a thinker, not a good thinker, not an important thinker not even a thoughtful thinker. I obtained this gun through-" He chuckled a little "It doesn't matter how I obtained the gun, just that I got it."

He stopped on twelve O'clock and cocked his head.
"But ... but if my weapon is anything like the one you're aiming at me, then you weren't trained to kill with it either." Ezekiel asserted, straightening up a little "You took the gun, a weapon that I don't even think is native to our world, and started battling with it."

Chinomanako straightened his own gun arm, his finger bristling on the trigger.
"Now ... I got mine in an ... interesting love triangle gone horribly, no, horrifically wrong. How did you get yours?"

[Cass Hoban]

"I got mine for doing my job, and killing people," he said, his finger near the trigger, "But killing those who threatened the peace of those who couldn't defend themselves. This gun might not be of this world, but that doesn't matter. A gun is a gun, and I've used this one enough to get it. I'm a skilled gunman, this is but another type of gun. I have you outmatched, it sounds like."

[Ezekiel Iris]

~If this feels a bit like Godmodding just tell me :/~ Cross

Ezekiel laughed. Slowly drawing a card, it was torn up but he'd been able to make out "Barrier" on it. He was already developing a plan of action in his head, all he needed was a distraction.
"I'm better than you give me credit for," He boasted.

Ezekiel slowly lowered his gun and then jerked his arm forward, sliding his card through. If this man was as good as he claimed then he'd have pulled the trigger and fired upon Iris. Which was why Iris's gun declared ATTACK RIDER BARRIER[/color].

The plan was simple, in theory, Diend would shoot at the barrier, his shot would rebound off of the shimmering blue circle while Chinomanako slid two cards into his gun and pulled the trigger.

KAIJIN RIDE CROW IMAGIN

KAIJIN RIDE EAGLE UNDEAD

The two monsters appeared in the nexus of spinning silhouettes of red green and blue, bristled their wings and then jumped into the air soaring straight upwards. Now came the tricky bit, the barrier had disappeared two minutes ago and Ezekiel was wide open to attack ...