Ranbu Escalation (PMMM/Gaim)

[X] Accept the challenge. Beat Baron again.

Team Baron led the way to the stage, with Madoka and her friends following behind a few metres. Homura seemed rather anxious as she walked, but wasn't saying anything. It made Madoka think that something was going to happen here, but if Homura wasn't giving a warning, surely it wouldn't be too bad?

...It'll be fine. She beat Baron once. She'll do it again. And this time, she knows she has the sword and can throw the dagger to make it explode. She'll be able to do even better this time, all things considered.

After a moment, the two teams came to the stage near the school. Danza was usually around this one, but weren't here now. Madoka wasn't sure if they came back yesterday, though, so maybe they found somewhere new after Sayaka had beaten their Magical Girl?

A crowd had gathered behind Madoka as she followed Baron, as people realised what was happening and hurried to watch the fight. Madoka... Guessed they recognised her, from the Armoured Rider thing. Maybe. Maybe they were just here to follow Baron, but Madoka wasn't going to guess she was lucky enough to go completely unnoticed.

Team Baron ascended the few steps to the stage, and the majority of the team quickly rushed to the far side, as Kumon Kaito casually stepped past the centre of the stage and turned around. He waited, as Madoka stepped up from the road and onto the stage herself. The Driver was on her belt, and the Strawberry Lockseed in her hand. She was ready to do this. She was good to go. She had this.

Kaito was way to confident about this, but she wasn't going to back down in front of Homura. She needed to look as strong as possible for her.

She just needed to finish this quickly, so she could go and have fun with her friends afterwards. Without waiting another second, Madoka popped the lock on the Lockseed.

Someone nearby must have had DJ Sagara's show on their phones, because Madoka heard his voice as she inserted the Lockseed in the Driver.

"It looks like we have a rematch already, folks." Sagara declared. "Armoured Rider Berry has accepted a challenge from Team Baron, this time. After yesterday's defeat, Kumon Kaito must be confident indeed to look for a round two. Does he know something we don't?"

The rip that formed above Madoka's head quickly manifested the helmet-armour-strawberry-thing, which slammed down around her as the undersuit of the transformation formed around her. It only took a second for the transformation to complete, and the holographic array of the arena to form as Madoka stepped into it.

"Well, let's do this, Kumon." Madoka challenged. "Bring out your Inves."

Kumon smirked, as he removed his hand from his pocket. He only had a single Lockseed this time, coloured slightly yellow. Definitely a more advanced form, probably one tied to an advanced Inves like the Strawberry was, but if Homura was to be believed, it wouldn't be enough to stop someone with a Driver.

"Inves?" Kaito asked, as he popped the lock.

Madoka's eyes went wide. The Lockseed was declaring itself? But that meant-

Kumon Kaito parted his jacket, revealing the Driver at his waist, as he stepped into the arena himself. He slid the Lockseed into the Driver, and smiled.

"We are beyond such trivialities." He continued, as a giant banana fell from the rip in the sky, onto his head. The points of the banana formed into shoulder guards as he stepped forward, a spear forming in his hand as his helmet came into view.

Kumon had a Driver.

He already had one? Madoka knew that it wasn't going to be long before other people started having some, but she expected it to be more than one day. Madoka hadn't even practised with hers yet, she didn't think she was ready to fight someone with a power comparable to hers.

"Wow!" Declared Sagara, over the sound of the shocked crowd. "Another Armoured Rider? On Team Baron this time, too. I suppose this makes him Armoured Rider Baron!"

This wasn't good. When did Kumon get his Driver? Did he get it yesterday and have time to practice with it? Did he get it this morning, and have all of that time Madoka was in school and he wasn't to figure out how it worked?

Madoka's thoughts were interrupted when Kumon rushed in, slicing through the air with his spear. Madoka threw up her hand, the one with the dagger, and let it go a second before the spear would have hit it. The dagger exploded, and Madoka was sent back from the force of the blow, but had braced herself enough to keep her footing.

Kumon hadn't moved and inch, and kept on advancing. The crowd was cheering, as Madoka pulled for the sword on her waist. Immediately reaching for the gun part of it, she aimed it forward, and fired.

Her first shot missed, but as she tried to correct her aim with the kind of precision Madoka knew she didn't have before now, Kumon charged forward. Stepping to the side, Madoka twisted her arm and hand to try and swipe at Kumon's elbow.

The Banana-themed Rider closed his arm around the blade and held it still, and as Madoka struggled to pull it away, his spear swept through the the air, slamming Madoka into the edge of the holographic arena.

...This wasn't good. Just as Madoka thought, she wasn't much compared to someone who knew what they were doing...

"Just as I thought." Kumon spoke, from behind his helmet. "You're still hesitating. You could have commited to your swing and cut into my elbow easily enough. Instead, you saw me do something unexpected, and your offence fizzled out."

He kicked up, knocking Madoka off of the knees she'd climbed back up to, and his spear darted forward into her before she could recover.

"You relied completely on an advantage nobody else had." He continued. "And when the advantage was met, you lacked all strength altogether."

"Oi, Oi..."

Kumon stopped at the voice, and pulled his spear away from Madoka, stepping back. Thankful for the fight being interrupted, Madoka looked to see who had spoken, and came face to face with Lockseed Dealer Sid walked through the crowd.

"What is it?" Kumon asked, his spear still in a position to strike at Madoka. The girl dressed as a strawberry took the opportunity to stand, and catch her breath.

...She needed to commit to things more. Kumon was right, she was still weak, she wasn't able to deal with something unexpected. This interruption might have been the only reason she wasn't still getting beat up.

"This is hardly an Inves game now, is it?" Sid asked. "Even when there were Magical Girls and Berry, it was still against one Inves. Now it's just two dudes in armour hitting each other. Or, well, one dude in armour hitting a child in armour."

Even Sid was taking chances to insult her performance, now...

"So the way I see it." Sid continued, reaching into his coat. "We need a rule change."

He pulled two Lockseeds out of his coat, and threw them up. The Banana Rider caught his, and the Strawberry Rider caught hers a moment later.

"On the house." Sid offered. "Lock Vehicles. Newest tech. Unlocking them turns them into a motorbike. They're only prototypes, but I assume you're not going to turn down free Lockseeds? Or is it too much for you to handle?"

He looked right at Armoured Rider Baron during the final question, and it took Kumon a moment to reply.

"...I believe I have already proven my dominance in one field." He declared, looking down at Madoka. "Now, I will demonstrate it in other."

He unlocked the Lock immediately, as he threw the Lockseed forward, and it transformed into a bike in mid-air before landing in the open space between the stage and the crowd. Madoka looked at hers for a moment, without doing anything, just thinking.

Sure, she was losing against Kaito, but...

"And in case the underaged girl is worried." Sid continued, tipping his hat. "The Driver's are programmed to adapt for inadequacies of the user. You'll know what to do, at least for the basics. Unless you're willing to admit defeat that easily?"

...She couldn't lose in front of Homura. She'd already taken a beating before she could react, so if the Driver was supposed to carry her through enough that she wouldn't crash...

Her Lock Vehicle had manifested next to Kumon's a moment later, and Madoka stepped down to ride it. She looked for a moment towards Hitomi and Homura, and take in their reactions. Hitomi seemed mostly confused, whereas Homura wasn't reacting at all. She was being almost suspiciously unresponsive...

"Well, put on a show." Sid declared, turning his back on the two Riders as the part in the crowd wipened enough for the bikes to go through. "First one to the edge of town and back, I suppose. Go."

Kaito went immediately, and it took Madoka a second to realise that she had to go as well. Revving the bike, she shot forward. The crowd was screaming, and Madoka thought she heard her name from somewhere behind her as she shot through the crowd, but couldn't hear well over the sound of the bike.

She followed Baron for a while, as she tried to pick up speed. He'd had the advantage, but she was closing the gap, it seemed like. Not quickly, but she was accelerating from slower speeds faster than he was at higher speeds, and the disadvantage of Madoka having no idea what she was doing was countered by her knowing where Kaito was going.

After a second, it properly dawned on Madoka what she was doing.

She was riding a motorbike. Really? She was... She was actually doing this?

She didn't have a license for something like this. She could get in trouble if the police tried to pull her over right now! This was a bad idea!

A... Rather exhilarating bad idea, but still a bad idea. Even if riding the bike was kind of fun, actually. It was-

Some kind of holographic display appeared above the handlebars, and it took Madoka a moment to realise what it was. Some kind of bar was portrayed on it, like a meter that hadn't been filled, and a number that didn't seem to match up to the speed Madoka was going was displayed on it. She looked away from it for a second to turn a corner after Kaito, and noticed a similar display on his handle bars.

The meter filled quickly, before Madoka could work out what it was, and a second before hers filled up, she saw flower petals falling from the sky out of the corner of her eye.

She looked up towards it, and say some kind of holographic flower forming around Kaito's bike. Then her meter filled up, and a similar flower seemed to form around her.

"What the-" Madoka objected out loud, as the flower solidified in appearance, becoming less transparent and more-

"Madoka!"

Homura's voice filled Madoka's ear for a moment, and a second later, her bike buckled under a sudden weight. Madoka looked back for a second, to see Homura in her Magical Girl garb on the back of her bike.

When had she-

Oh, right. Time stop. In that case, why had she...


Madoka looked forward again as the flower faded into transparancy again, and slammed on the breaks before she could hit the tree.

Why was there a tree here? She had been driving straight, towards a building, and then-

...This...

What had happened?

She had been in a city a second ago, but one her bike stopped, she found herself in a forest-

The exact forest she had seen in her dream, Madoka realised.

"What is this?" Kumon's voice called, as he got off his bike. It turned back into a Lockseed once he stepped away from it, and returned to his hand.

Madoka got off hers as well, and the same phenomenon occurred.

"...What just happened?" Madoka asked.

"T-THe bikes..." Homura stammered. "They... Helheim transportation."

"Helheim? Kumon's voice called, as he looked towards Homura. "You seem to know a lot about this place, Magical Girl."

Homura froze up when Armoured Rider Baron spoke to her, and took a step back.

Kumon observed Homuta for a moment, then turned away, towards the trees.

"And what is this..." He mused, stepping towards it and reaching for a fruit on the tree branches. He plucked it from the tree, and observed the fruit for a moment. The fruit began to glow as he hold it, and as the glow faded away, Madoka saw that the fruit had turned into a Lockseed.

...What?

"Acorn..." Kaito said aloud, as he held onto the Lockseed. Then, looking to the side, he looked towards another tree, and moved towards the fruit on that.

...The fruit here were Lockseeds?

How...

"Homura, what is this place?" Madoka asked, turning towards the Magical Girl.

"Helheim." Homura replied. "It's... It's not safe. Inves, here. A-And..."

Her voice hitched, before she rapidly began to say something else.

"W-We shouldn't stay long!" She forced out, quickly. "And... S-Stay away from... I-If I say we n-need to stay away from s-somewhere-"

"I understand." Madoka nodded. "Some places we shouldn't go."

"...S-Should've warned you." Homura muttered, low enough that Madoka barely heard it, and she doubted Baron would be able to hear it. "I... B-Before, S-Sid did this b-between Gaim and Baron..."

"It's fine." Madoka promised her. "But how do we get away from here?"

"T-There's places w-with enough clear space." Homura promised. "Y-You can ride out. B-But we, we can get L-Lockseeds, first."

Madoka looked after Kaito, who had picked another fruit from a tree, but threw the Lockseed away in disgust.

"I-Inves... T-There's Inves in the forest." Homura warned. "Don't g-get surrounded."

Madoka nodded, as she thought for what to do next.

[X] Gather Lockseeds. Go a different direction from Baron, to avoid him for now. He might want all the Lockseeds...
[X] Follow Baron, and take Lockseeds. He would probably want to know what Homura had said about getting out...
[X] ...They should leave. They could come back later, when Hitomi knew about it, but for now they should find the clear area.