Red Rider

It was a perfect day. Everything was going according to plan.

A relatively handsome man in a suit was walking along a busy street with a female friend.

Her brown hair was pinned up neatly, and she wore a nice, yet casual dress. It was obvious this was a daytime date of some sort.

He glanced behind him. A shadow darted at the edge of his vision. He could feel fear grip his chest, as he took the hand of the woman and started a brisker pace.

She was having trouble keeping up but did not complain. It was not unusual for him to rush on occasion.

The couple found their way to a street filled with vendors operating various carts. The two laughed and browsed the wares on display.

He glanced around. It had only been his imagination...

He froze when he spotted a shadowy figure just beyond the crowds. He stumbled backwards and took the hand of his companion. He pulled her away from a jewelry vendor much to her alarm.

"H-hun! What's the rush? I thought we were having fun?" She asked him.

He stopped at a corner and responded, "We are. I just thought of something that I wanted to show you!" He turned and gave her his best smile.

She returned his smile and gripped his hand tenderly.

He continued along his hurried pace. Occasionally he would glance behind them, but this would only confirm the shadow's continued presence.

They arrived at a quiet intersection where a female street performer strummed a simple guitar.

The tune almost sounded like something out of a western. She played the same cords several times before she began to sing.

"In the eye of a Rider, all the innocent strangers
May not know what evil lurks in the dark."

The performer looked past the man, and he followed her gaze. The stalking figure was closer now.

"Devious monsters seek to undermind what we know is right
It's up to the Rider to uphold justice."

The man froze briefly in fear, and his companion tugged on his arm. Her voice was quiet as she said. "C'mon... This song is kinda scary."

He nodded and tugged her away from the corner and eventually down an alley.

She was beginning to grow uncomfortable with how the day was progressing, and now they were in a grimy alley? She yanked her hand away and walked past him. She stopped in front of her companion and demanded, "What IS really going on?" She put her fists on her hips and waited.

"I'm... hungry..."

She stared at him. His response was the strangest thing she had heard from him.

He looked up at her and licked his lips. A strange pattern of mismatched geometry appeared along his jaw and neck. His eyes went dark like painted glass, and he spoke again.

"I am SO hungry."

She screamed and backed away. Her heel caught on some refuge behind her, and she fell. She continued to scramble backwards. Any logical thought fled her as fear took over her mind.

An image that seemed to be made of glass formed around her attacker. The glass filled in and became an entirely different body.

He was still humanoid, but it seemed most of his body was made of portions of stained glass and black iron frames. His head was shaped vaguely like the head of a rat.

He curled and uncurled his clawed hands, and a small shiver of anticipation raced through his body.

A pair of double pointed, blue teeth appeared in the air above the woman. She shrieked again, then a voice drifted through the air.

"And the Eye of the Rider is watching you! Any evil act you do, he'll see.
When you unleash your true monstrous form. The rider will be there to stop you."

It was the chorus of the song they had heard earlier, but it was sung in a different voice... A male voice...

The fangs vanished and the monster turned towards the source of the singing.

A man in a long red coat stood at the entrance to the alley. He pointed at the monster and shouted, "Hey! I know you've been working on this meal for a while, but I cannot let you hurt her!"

A golden bat with large gem like eyes swooped around the man and spoke, "That was kiiinda cool, Adrian. But you didn't need to sing...

He sighed slightly and shrugged a little.

"You bastard! How about I kill you instead!" The monster interrupted.

Adrian smirked and called, "Kivat! Let's do this!" He tossed his coat to the side of the alley and held out his hand.

The bat spun in mid air, before he flew into his ally's grasp and declared, "Bite~!"

The man pressed Kivat to his wrist and allowed the bat to bite down on his flesh. He felt the power begin to course through his veins.

Orange stripes made of many tiny triangles crawled along his cheeks. Multiple chains appeared from nothingness and spiraled around his waist. They joined and formed a wide belt made of red metal. The massive buckle had a bar for Kivat's claws to grip.

"HENSHIN!"

Adrian shouted and hung Kivat on the belt buckle. Visible ripples radiated from Kivat. His eyes began to flash repeatedly.

Glass armor began to form around Adrian. In seconds he had a full set of clear armor. Kivat's eyes shone brightly and the armor shattered, sending shards in all directions.

Beneath the glass, though, armor had really formed. Red plating with black stripes covered his chest. His pauldrons and right boot were steel colored and bore the patterns of wings and chains wrapped around them. The rest of his suit was black with few steel colored embellishments.

His head was covered by a black helmet with large gold eyes that arced higher than the top of his head and plunged low enough to frame the steel face guard.

The monster growled and charged at Adrian.

He crouched low and as his foe neared he rolled onto his back and thrust his right foot against the beast's chest. His momentum caused him to sail over Adrian and crash into some trash cans on side of the street outside.

Before the monster could rise to his feet, Adrian jumped onto his shoulders. He locked his legs around the beast's neck and began to rapidly punch the creature's head.

He tumbled forward from the assault and Adrian released him. He punched the ground once before he turned to lunge at his foe.

Adrian jumped off the ground slightly and put all of his strength and momentum into one fierce punch.

One punch which crashed into the fangire's face.

He tumbled across the ground and struggled to his feet. "Wh-Why can't I feed! I've been building her up for so long! This was going to be the best meal in decades!" He growled.

"Because. This is a rider's job... Despite what the people hear... We protect without thought for ourselves!" Adrian shouted in response before he pulled a mostly clear whistle like object from his belt. He placed the whistle into Kivat's mouth.

The bat stirred and flapped his wings. Despite his mouth being full, he declared quite clearly, "WAKE UP!". He flew up and swooped around Adrian's shoulders.

The sky blackened to night. The moon rose. Oddly enough it was the waning crescent moon that hung in the night sky above them.

Adrian crossed his wrists above his head and drew them down to his chest. He crouched low and exhaled slowly.

Kivat swooped between his legs and flew tight circles around his ally's right leg. The chains binding the steel boot shattered and the wings parted to reveal gleaming red metal.

Adrian launched from the ground and curled into a tight somersault. At the apex of his jump he uncurled upside down.

The fangire looked up and stared at him hanging there, framed against the moon. Again fear gripped his chest and his breath caught in his throat.

Adrian rolled slowly, as he began to plunge down. He extended his right foot forward and plummeted towards the beast below.

His foot connected with the monsters head and drove him to his back on he ground. The force of the impact caused a crater in a vague bat shaped symbol to embed itself into the ground beneath them.

Cracks began to form along the monsters body. As the the cracks covered more of his body, various shades of blue filled in the placed that had been simply black before.

"Disappear..." Adrian said calmly.

As if responding to his command the monster shattered into millions of minuscule pieces of glass.

He stood and glanced towards the woman, who was standing now. She held her hands together in front of her stomach and spoke, "You saved me.. Thank you."

Adrian waved it off and replied, "Just doing my job."

She started to speak again. But before she could utter a word, Adrian jumped upward to the top of a short building and ran off, disappearing from sight.

She smiled slightly and thought that perhaps... He might be off to save someone else...