Tired Days [Open]

Dark Kabuto hacked and deflected a few of the other Rider's armor pieces as he continued his approach, jumping in a roll over another car's roof to land on the other side to avoid the incoming fire. He'd gained half of the distance between them; not bad against an armed opponent but still not the A-game. Then again... her aim was sloppy, she didn't have the focus a real marksman would need to survive an encounter like this. On top of that, her fatigue was showing; she nearly plowed into the car she was currently standing on before trying to gain the high ground.

"Hmph!"

Dark Kabuto leapt forward into a roll toward the car, and finally found the perfect spot just away and under her line of fire- she was too wide open. He slapped quickly at the pad on the right side of his belt.

]CLOCK UP[

The whole world around Marcus slowed to a crawl almost instantly. He could see several of the bullets from the other Rider's suppressing fire slowly sailing through the air in his general direction; some of the debris from where many of her shots had gone astray was just barely beginning to bloom outward from respective points of impact. This was his field now; the high ground didn't matter when the enemy was too close for comfort. He wasted no time in putting his left hand, Kunai Gun grip and all, under the back end of the car that the girl was just trying to dismount from, angrily hurling it upward to try and throw her balance off... and then he ran around to her other side, where she was trying to run to get away from him, and threw a furious boot toward her midsection with a growl. He knew the car would still be moving in his direction, but the idea was to put his opponent's back into the car, using the force of the airborne vehicle to sandwich her with two impacts and possibly even divert the car's trajectory with her direction of travel.

Dark Kabuto rolled forward and to the girl's side, missing two shots but catching one across his left shoulder with a spray of sparks. Looks like if she was pinned down, she knew what to do if she had the time... and she'd also activated her own Clock Up.

"Perceptive, aren't you?"

He leapt forward to close the gap between them, slashing downward with the butt of the Kunai Gun's grip in his left hand, toward her weapon arm, and hacking out to her left with the kunai in his right hand, across her torso. He didn't have much longer left...

He couldn't believe it as he heard her Zecter's announcement, and he knew exactly what it meant. Five years of training with his own Zecter had taught him that much: Masked Form wasn't meant for speed. He ducked low to the ground, a couple pieces of her armor scraping across his own as he did, sparks flying everywhere. He'd taken heavy hits trying to pull the same maneuver before, but it always came at a cost; in his experience Clock Up had always been canceled out as soon as the Put On command was issued. Armor or not, she'd fouled up royally thinking that maneuver would give her time against a faster opponent. His left hand tossed the Kunai Gun's grip aside, and flew to the buttons on the top of his Zecter.

]1 2 3[

He stood up quickly as he watched the last of her armor flying toward her in slow motion, reforming her Masked Form... the tachyon burst flowed upward from his Zecter to the Kabuto Horn's top, and then flew down toward his right foot.

"Rider Kick!!"

]CLOCK OVER[

Marcus whirled around to his right, his right leg coming up as the tachyons gathered around his foot, and he threw his momentum into a heel kick aimed at her head.

]RIDER KICK[

...He absolutely couldn't believe it. Either this girl was an absolute klutz, or she had the devil's luck. Either way, that dog wouldn't hunt, not on Marcus' watch.

The girl's armor burst apart as his kick sailed through thin air... but the next thing to follow through was a furious kunai slash across many of those armor pieces before he took a torso piece to the gut and a couple arm pieces to his right shoulder- one narrowly scraping across the side of his helmet. His right foot stomped angrily behind him, sending the kick's energy into the pavement as he braced himself... the pavement all around them seemed to shatter with the explosive force, sending bits of asphalt and stone flying and even causing the trunk of a nearby car to burst open. Luck or not... he wasn't about to let this kind of embarrassing excuse for fighting keep up much longer. Another furious slash flew toward the girl's gun arm, and his left hand hovered over his Zecter again.

"Are you for REAL?! You aren't even worthy of that weapon, missy... and your absolute lack of skill makes me SICK. Stay down!!"

]1[

She'd gone for an obvious move; she now had her arm around his attacking arm but she only thought she was dealing with someone who had her kind of experience. His free hand hit the second button on his belt.

]2[

Then, instead of immediately going to the third button, his left hand came up over the top of the girl's weapon, his fingers wrapping underneath the barrel in a solid grip as he shoved downward at it, his head moving in quickly to headbutt at hers in an attempt to divert her attention. If successful, he would attempt to disarm her in close; if not, he would at the very least be controlling the direction of her fire.

"...BIG mistake, little girl. Guns at close range don't do the trick."

Dark Kabuto also maintained his grip on the weapon, and though she couldn't see it, he was grinning like a madman under that helmet. He'd managed to keep her gun's barrel out of the way, but clearly she was at least going to put up -something- of a fight. Pity it was that late before she did... he wrenched his arm free of her grip as she stumbled away, dropping the Kunai to the ground and hitting the last button on his belt.

]3[

"You lost your right to determine where -that- goes the minute you hid it from me. If you won't let it go, DIE WITH IT!"

He pulled the Zecter Horn once again, the tachyons charging for another burst.

"See you in hell... RIDER KICK!"

He flipped the lever back into place, the energy coursing up to the Kabuto Horn once more and down to his right foot... he yanked on the girl's weapon in an attempt to bring her closer in, before throwing his now-charged right foot up toward her gun arm's forearm.

]RIDER KICK[

Marcus let the weapon go after the kick connected, leaping back to avoid taking damage from his own attack... and shook his head. The girl had no spirit, no talent... but she had tenacity. Over all, she was a diversion, a simple distraction. He landed in a crouch, straightening up as he watched the girl for a few moments, and folded his arms....