The Hunger, the Medals, and a New Hero
This is a retelling of Kamen Rider OOO, with someone else in place of Eiji and Hina-chan
In the depth of darkness, a conscious mind floats though the void, desperately wanting to be free. "I must be free" it thought, before slipping back into eternal sleep.
One warm Sunday afternoon, a young man was walking through a city, on his way to meet some friends of his. He was wearing baggy cargo shorts that reached past his knees. He had a zebra striped V-neck shirt, and a blue life jacket like vest. He felt the wind whip through his hair, cementing it as windblown. He had lived in Crown City for all his life, so he knew its layout like the back of his own hand. Today, he had agreed to meet his friends in the local park for one last adventure before school started up on Monday, but as the temperature was rising, he was beginning to have some serious reservations about this idea.
He dodged through the streets, being careful not to get hit by the cars. He was walking through Downtown, on his way to a park. He soon saw a large building coming into view. It was the local science museum, a place he loved to visit as a child. "Ah why not, it's too hot to be playing in a park" he thought, deciding to detour into the cool interior of the museum. "Man I miss this place" he thought, taking in all the signs for current and coming attractions. He went up to the ticket counter and handed the woman there 15 bucks. "Thank' ya darlin' and don't forget to check out the latest exhibit on the lost cultures of Great Britain!" she said in a perky voice, handing him a ticket.
He walked through the museum, taking note of all the animal statues in the main hallway. Tigers, Lions, Gorillas, an Orca, there seemed to be a large variety of statues decorating the hall. He climbed to the second floor, deciding to see what this "Treasures of Great Britain" was all about. He found himself in one of the halls reserved for special exhibits. As he wandered through it, he took note of the tapestries, each depicting a different set of animals, each in a different color. In the glass cases he saw several silver coins piled up, with pictures of the same animals on them. "Ok, this is weird" he thought, "None of this seems to be British related" he soon came to a room that was clearly meant to be the main attraction. It appeared to be a sarcophagus, with a strange handle like object on the top of it. It seemed a little out of place and a little small to hold remains. Attention all, the museum will be closing in one houra voice over the intercom said. "Guess I got here too late" the kid thought, glancing at his watch, showing it to be 4 pm. He turned to leave, as the consciousness woke up again. "Wait" it thought "It can't be, could he be...?" the voice thought, sensing the boy nearby. "I have to be free. NOW" a small explosion created a crack in the coffin, allowing a solidary red coin to roll out.
"The hell?" the teen wondered aloud, noticing the coin. Suddenly, the coin rose in the air and flew towards the boy's arm, attaching itself to his hand "Hey, wait, wait!" he yelled, backing into a case containing the silver coins. He inadvertently broke the case open when he stumbled into it. The silver coins began to form on his arm, and suddenly, they raised his arm up, and they dragged him toward the coffin. He tried to resist the coins, but they were pulling him closer until his hand was directly on the handle. He felt his arm turning the slab, opening the coffin.
A large explosion rocked to room, throwing the man across the room. He saw his arm was now free, and as he looked towards the coffin, he saw it had been reduced to a large pile of the silver coins. He noticed several multicolored coins resting on the pile. They began to glow, rising into the air, drawing the silver coins onto themselves, forming what appeared to be bodies. "That's it, I'm outta here!" he cried, scrambling to his feet, not noticing that a red coin had fallen into his pocket. He ran out of the museum, and followed the masses of patrons evacuating under the pretense of a terrorist attack.
"YES!" one of the bodies proclaimed, stretching his arms, having assumed a green insect like monster. The others took the form of a black and yellow cat monster, a grey mammal monster, and a blue sea creature form. "It is so good to be freeeeee!" the blue creature said, twirling around. "Hurray, we free!" the grey one said, rushing to the female's side. "Hate to ruin this party" the cat one sneered, "but we aren't exactly complete you know" the others looked at their bodies, noticing that each was missing a part of their armor. "OUR MEDALS!" the girl shrieked, "where are they?" the grey one asked. "I think I saw Ankh making off with about one of each of ours" he laughed, throwing his hands behind his head. "We WILL find him" the green one replied as the four monsters became medals once again, and flew out of the museum, punching holes in the walls.
Once the man was safely outside he turned to look at the museum, not seeing any traces of the medals but he did see the approaching police cars. So he decided to avoid talking to the police for an hour by hiding in the local zoo. As he walked toward the entrance, he failed to notice a disembodied red arm following him.
The man walked through the zoo, grumbling about how much the price had risen since the last time he had been here. "25 bucks for a ticket my ass!" he thought, shooting a dirty look toward the ticket booths. He didn't notice however, that the arm was staring at him from behind a bush. "I want it!" it whispered, following him. The man passed the concessions, and noted his growing hunger. He reached for some cash from his pocket, when he felt the coin. He pulled it out and looked at it. It had grooved edges, the rim seemed to be made of gold, the inside of the coin was like a ruby, and it had a strange engraving on it, which resembled a nondescript bird.
He was turning it over in his hands when he lost his grip and dropped it, and the coin rolled under a vending machine. "Oh Great" he sighed, crouching down, trying to see the coin. "Do you need some help?" a cheerful voice asked "yeah, i lost something under there." He noticed the person he was talking to was a girl about his age, with waist length red hair. She was of Irish decent, as was the young man.
"Don't worry kid" she said, grabbing the vending machine on both sides. Suddenly, she lifted the machine three feet off the ground! "Well?" she asked, and the man quickly stopped being amazed at her strength and reached down to grab the coin when he came face to face with the floating arm. "AAAAHHHHH" the girl screamed, throwing the machine a yard away before she ran away herself at top speed. "w-w-What the shit?" he stammered, backing away in panic "I just took back what was mine" it said, trough no visible mouth as it reached for the coin." The man quickly grabbed the coin and continued running. "I don't care if it is his" he thought. "He CAN'T get it back without some effort"
Meanwhile, at the gift shop
The green monster was pacing around the shop, looking at the cowering shoppers. "Humanity really hasn't changed that much" he thought, before grabbing a man from the crowd. "Show me your desire!" the monster said, before taking one of the silver coins and putting in the back of the man's head where a coin slot mysteriously appeared. A strange, white bandage monster fell out of the man, and stood up, before immediately "eating" all the travel postcards in the shop. "Excellent" the main monster said, wriggling his fingers in a maniacal way. Soon, after devouring half the postcards in the shop, the monster seemed to molt, revealing a monster that resembled an Atlas Beetle. "Good, now go and get our Medals" he commanded of the monster "Right away, Lord Uva" the creature said with a bow, and it took flight, following the trail of the arm. "Soon, we will be complete!" Uva thought, before he left to return to his fellow monsters.
Back in the Zoo, near the Bird House
The young man had been running for what seemed to be hours, desperately trying to lose the arm, but no matter how far he ran, he still could not shake his pursuer. "He must be able to sense this thing or something" he thought, resting to catch his breath, before a new sound came to his attention. It was the sound of people screaming in terror. He followed the screams till he saw the source, a strange beetle like monster was there, attacking everyone. He soon saw that the monster was holding the arm, and it was clearly in pain. Even though he was scared of the arm, he knew he couldn't stand by and let this happen "Oh no you don't!" the boy yelled, jumping off the ledge he was on, trying to deliver a kick to the monster's head. However, the monster seemed prepared for this, as it whirled around, and shot a beam of electricity at the young man, sending him falling back. It was able, however, enough to loosen its grip, as the arm was able to escape, and was about to flee, when it heard the man's screams.
The man was about 3 seconds from smashing his head on the pavement, when he suddenly felt something grab him by the shirt, saving him. He opened his eyes to see that the arm had grabbed him. "Hey, kid, you just going to lay here?" it asked "What's your name?" it inquired further "A-Austin, Austin Whitaker" he replied, feeling relief he was not about to die. "Well, Austin, I've got a little problem on my hands, and I could use your help." The arm said, gesturing toward the monster at the top of the stairs. "S-Sure" Austin replied, getting to his feet. The arm quivered and something fell out of the hand, which Austin immediately recognized as the slab that sealed the coffin. The arm put it around his waist, to which it began glowing, then the stone shattered, revealing it to be more modern looking, and forming a strap around his waist, making it look like on oversized belt.
"You know that medal you have?" the arm asked, seeming almost curious, if an arm can look curious that is. "Yeah this one?" Austin asked holding up the red coin Medal. "Yeah, that's it. Here, use it with these" the arm said, holding up two more medals, a green and yellow one. Austin took them, and noticed that the yellow one had a carving of a tiger's face on it, and the other had a grasshopper on it. "Now, put them in the belt!" the arm commanded. Austin noticed in fact that the belt had three slots, and the medals had stripes on the back, referring to the order they went in.
"Don't listen to Ankh, you will regret, as will all of us!" the monster said, walking toward the two. "Now, who am I going listen to, the guy who saved me, or the one who tried to kill me?" Austin said, slotting the medals into the belt. "Here" the Arm instructed, pulling a ring-like object off of the belt an giving it to Austin. "Scan the Medals and say HENSHIN! Then hold it up to your chest" Ankh explained. Austin slid the scanner over the medals, the device making a ping like sound as it read each medal. "Henshin!" he yelled, holding the ring up to his chest.
Three energy rings appeared around him, one circling vertically, and the other two circled Horizontally, all containing five Medals, of the same colors Austin remembered seeing on the tapestries at the museum. "TAKA. TORA. BATTA!" the scanner seemed to sing. "TATOBA. T-T-T-T-TATOBA!" it finished as the rings interlocked, creating a new symbol containing the bird, tiger and grasshopper. The symbol landed on Austin's chest, and energy flowed from it, creating black lightweight armor all over his body. Then, green energy gave him accents on his legs, yellow energy gave him folded up claws on his arms, and red energy seemed to land a bird on his helmet.
"This is so cool!" he said, admiring his new armor "And it even sings?" "Don't mind the song" Ankh said as he slapped Austin in the head "I don't know why it does that, but any way, get ready!" he advised. The monster swooped with its arms, but a tiger's roar escaped from the symbol, and the claws on Austin's arms unfolded, catching the monster, as he sliced it with his other arm. "Aw yeah, just like Wolverine!" Austin said, chasing after the monster delivering more slices. However, the monster ducked, and caught him off guard. He proceeded to deliver a series of powerful blows to Scott, which caused the Tiger part to flicker, as if it was losing power.
"Kid, here, put this in the middle!" Ankh yelled, tossing a new, blue medal towards Austin. The medal had the engraving of what appeared to be an Eel. "Alright, let's rock!" Austin said as he switched out the medals, being careful to put the Tora medal in the little medal case on his belt. He scanned the Medals again. "TAKA! UNAGI! BATTA!" The scanner sang as a new ring replaced the tiger, adding white lightning bolts down the sides of Austin's arms, and white tubes connecting his wrists to his shoulders.
"Let's see what you can do!" he said as a blue flash engulfed the tubes as the moved from their holders to Austin's hands, and he saw that they were now whips. "Alright! Let's whip it good!" he cried, noticing that both the monster and Ankh were NOT happy with this pun. "What? Too much?" he said, as he struck the monster with the whips, and a jolt of electricity traveled down the whip and connected with the monster, electrocuting it. He continued to strike at the monster, and every time he struck it, more silver medals fell out of the creature, almost as if it was bleeding them. "Now kid, scan them again to finish it!" Ankh said, clinching himself in victory. Austin ran the Scanner over the medals once more, and it sang "SCANNING CHARGE"
Suddenly, Austin saw a targeting symbol appear on the monster from the eyes of the helmet. He launched the whips, holding him in place while electrocuting him. His legs then seemed to morph into grasshopper like legs, and he jumped in the air, almost 20 feet of the ground, before he finished the arc by connecting his foot against the monster, which immediately exploded into a shower of Medals. "Wow" Austin thought as he returned the whips to their holsters. He walked over to the pile of medals, and saw Ankh wriggling in them, seeming like he was bathing in them. "So many! So Many glorious Cell Medals!" he cried, and absorbed a few, making a noise that sounded like he was eating them. Then, there seemed to be a swarm of cell medals on the back of Ankh that formed into an ornamental bird on the back of the arm creature. Lurking in the shadows however, a man in his late twenties was watching this. "He's the one we're supposed to count on? Pathetic." He sighed as he picked up a red and grey soda can, popped the top, flipped it over, and it unfolded into a bird like design. As it took off, thirty or so similar cans at the man's feet sprang to life, unfolding into similar forms. They all flew towards the duo, forming a wave of mechanical birds, ready for the attack.
Count The Medals:
Taka X2
Batta
Tora
Zou
Unagi
All credit of this story goes to LiamX315