Kamen Rider Dullahan

Chapter 1: Pilot

Cramped, hot, dusty, tangled up and covered in cords. A situation not at all unfamiliar to Colin Walsh, the young man in charge of the Sound Tech crew of the Henshin Academy's Theater Department. He was currently working underneath the ramshackle excuse for a stage the stagecraft crew whipped up overnight, and Colin barely trusted it to hold a person's weight without the plywood sheets snapping. But, if they could build a two-story tower on casters that held together for 3 weeks of daily rehearsals and 8 shows he could trust it long enough to hook up the podium mics.

He stuck a hand out from under the stage. "XLR please." He listened as Hunter, Sound crew member and resident layabout, shuffled around in a tub.

He yawned. "Why did you choose me to help you with this?" Colin took the cable and pulled it under with him.

"Because you're the only one who ever listens to what I say." He hooked the cable up and wriggled his way to the other podium. "Did they bring the rest of the speakers?"

"There's supposed to be other speakers?" Colin sighed.

"Yes." He stuck his hand up through a hole and fumbled around looking for the mic cord till wrapped his fingers around it and pulled it through. "XLR." Hunter was already on it and dropped the cord through the hole on Colin's face. "Thank you." He attached the cord and slid out from under the stage. "Alright let's test this out..." He walked over to one tower of amps and flipped them on. He gestured to Hunter to go to the mic and start speaking. Hunter stepped up to the Henshin Academy Podium and tapped the mic causing feedback to screech from the speakers. Colin covered his ears and twisted some nobs and the feedback slowly went away.

"Check check 1 2 1 2 check check, are we good?" Hunter's voice boomed. Colin nodded and crossed to the stage where his bag was, he sat on the edge and pulled out his laptop.

"And now we wait for the other speakers to get here."

"Why weren't they here with the others?"

"Because Sweezy doesn't give a shit about sound till it goes haywire because the stuff is broken, outdated or falling apart. Then he yells at me about it and to fix it." Colin loved doing sound, for the most part, and he loved working with the Theater but he absolutely hated the Department Head, Mark Sweezy. He paid more attention to the actors and the Tech Director than the crew heads and very often refused to replace broken things or buy something new unless it was absolutely required. "And if they don't get here in time we'll just have to daisy chain the hell out of it like we did for Miracle last year."

"God that production was fun wasn't it?"

Colin nodded. "Oh yes. I loved having over half the mics blow out during mic check and rewriting all the switches after spending all day testing out which cables worked, connecting them and taping them down so the idiots don't fall backstage."

"Sometimes I wonder why you keep doing this, you sound like you hate it half the time." Hunter asked, taking a seat next to him and sipping on his coffee.

"It's the people I like and I'm the only one who actually cares."

"I care." Colin looked at him over his glasses.

"That's what you say"

"That's what I mean." Colin returned to his laptop.

"Ok." Hunter smiled and shook his head.

"So when are people supposed to start arriving?"

"The Headmistress said the hall opens at 6 and they have to be here by 7." Colin checked the clock. "So we've got about 40 minutes before doors open."