JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure:
Steel Shadows
Chapter 31 -> 40
Story By; Sakusha Rei
Art By; Lukama (if he does more stands)
Poster Image: Captain Jack
Additional Art by: N/A
Contents Table;
- CHAPTER 31: Dream Theater
- CHAPTER 32: Fueled By Anger (1)
- CHAPTER 33: Fueled By Anger (2)
- CHAPTER 34: Jericho (1)
- CHAPTER 35: Jericho (2)
- CHAPTER 36: Maroon 5 and 7 Pillars (1)
CHAPTER 31: Dream Theater
Joachim struggled in his bindings. He pulled as hard as he possibly could without displacing his own joints, but it proved futile.
‘Don’t worry, Joachim Jovi, you are in good hands now. But first… you’ll give me some… inspiration’, Solon said in a slow enchanting tone. Whatever she may say, Joachim knew he was in the opposite of good hands.
She readied her paint brush, holding it high up in the air. What followed were a few swift strokes of paint and the stinging pain of his skin being flayed open. Joachim screamed out in pain as dozens of shallow but painful cuts appeared all over his arms.
‘Oh! Such beautiful red!’, she exclaimed, bringing her free hand to rest on her cheek. Solon tilted her head and Joachim could swear he could see her blushing. ‘You just can’t get this exquisite color with boring normal paint!’
It was only then he noticed all the paintings decorating the walls of Solon’s workspace shared the distinct color of blood-red. Somehow, Solon was bleeding her victims to death only to use them for paint.
Joachim turned back to Solon and saw a crazy shine to her eyes. “Do they all have to be freaks?”, he thought to himself. He had to get out of here, but he was alone with a freak and a brainwashed kid in the other room.
‘Fistful Steel!’, Joachim shouted, balling his hands to fists. His stand moved forwards, approaching Solon quickly, but fell short only a few centimeters before being able to touch her easel. Something appeared to stand between it and his stand.
Joachim figured her stand had something to do with the canvas she was painting on. If he destroyed that, maybe Solon’s stand would de-activate and Joachim would be free. Fistful Steel was still reaching out to the easel, stuck in place, when Solon’s stand appeared behind her. ‘Behold, Dream Theater!’
A dark green bodied stand appeared beside her, it looked to have several paint stains all over its body. It held a brush in one hand and a paint-board in the other, and instead of legs, its lower body ended in a giant brush.
The stand swept its brush across the canvas and immediately Joachim felt the stinging pain again on his face. It was a shallow cut, but a precise one, like the others. The cut leaked so much blood, Joachim could already taste it in his mouth.
Just when he was about to lose hope, something caught his eye. From the door, outside of Solon’s vision, a purple papercraft stand had stealthily slipped itself halfway through the tight space between the door and its frame. Blink-182 pointed its thin but deadly blade arm at the keyhole. When Joachim’s eyes hit the keyhole after following the stands indication, he saw someone staring through it from the other side. Before Joachim could fully grasp the situation, or question the particular stand’s user’s intentions, he had already blinked in astonishment.
Within the fraction of a second, Joachim felt the weight clamping his arms and legs in place be lifted. Sukiba had jumped into the room and released him from his restraints, cutting through the soft sofa with ease.
‘Sukiba?!’, exclaimed Joachim.
‘Gomen’, she replied simply. Sukiba was holding him by the arm, pulling him upright.
‘What! You little wretch!’, screamed Solon, her once stern face distorting into one of boiling anger. ‘You dare defy your own mother?!’
With furious strokes, Solon and Dream Theater prepared an attack of sorts. By now Joachim was able to figure out the basics of her ability. Whatever she drew became a reality, but only visible on the painting.
Before the attacks were unleashed however, Blink-182 had teleported behind Solon. Joachim could barely follow as Sukiba started deflecting invisible projectiles with her two kunai. Skillful swipes and blocks protected Joachim, but a few struck Sukiba anyway, it was too much for her.
Solon laughed as she kept painting new threats. Even though the trained assassin’s stand loomed right over her shoulder, Solon seemed to be completely ignoring its presence as she executed her own attacks.
‘I knew you wouldn’t have the resolve to even injure me slightly, child! This is going to be my finest work yet! My name will go down in history thanks to these priceless pieces of art! Thanks to the blood you shed for me!’, mused Solon.
‘Joachim, the couch’, Sukiba said.
As soon as she mentioned it, Joachim could feel the heat emanating from the cut up, but otherwise unharmed seats.
‘Fistful Steel!’, Joachim called, and straight away, his stand put a gear on the sofa. His punch was fast enough to not get burned by whatever was happening to it. Joachim willed the gear to spin, and Fistful Steel started moving it in Solon’s direction.
‘Get down!’, shouted Joachim, to which Sukiba followed his lead towards the ground.
The sofa smashed into an invisible wall that stood between them and the artist.
‘There’s a wall’, Sukiba said, as monotone as ever.
‘You don’t say’, gasped Joachim. But that explained why his stand wasn’t able to reach Solon earlier.
‘The painting moves’, she also mentioned.
‘What do you mean?’, asked Joachim before being interrupted.
Unfazed by the crushed, burning sofa, Solon kept painting. ‘Okay, hold that pose for me sweetheart’, she said, trying to sound endearing. Which came over as immensely threatening, considering she was laughing like a maniac all the while.
‘Joachim, dodge to the right’, warned Sukiba.
Joachim wasn’t sure what he was dodging, but he was glad he did follow Sukiba’s call, because not even a second later, something smashed into the floor where he had originally stood. The only thing visible about the attack was the impression of a line on the floor, like an axe had fallen, aimed to dismember Joachim from his limbs. He felt a shiver rolling over his spine, as he pressed himself against the wall.
‘You god damn snitch! This is not how I raised you!’, exclaimed Solon furiously.
Joachim needed a plan, and quick. Invisible attacks were thrown at them left, right and center, but Sukiba could see through them. Blink-182 was still around Solon’s neck with Dream Theater behind, but neither stands made moves to eliminate one another. This must be how Sukiba was seeing the attacks, even though Joachim had never been able to perceive what Fistful Steel did, other than damage.
‘Sukiba, can you…’, Joachim started, but he hesitated to finish that sentence. Joachim thought for a second having Blink-182 harm Solon was the easiest option. But he realised that would mean asking Sukiba to hurt her adoptive mother. Even though Solon would classify as a bad person in every sense of the word, they still had a familial bond. And those were not to be underestimated.
Sukiba stared at him, waiting for Joachim to finish his sentence.
‘Can you tell me what the wall is made of?’, asked Joachim, to save himself from a very awkward situation amidst the chaos.
‘Glass, bullet-proof maybe’, Sukiba answered.
Of course, for Solon to make it possible to paint new things to attack Joachim with, she had to be able to see them on the canvas. If what Sukiba meant is that Solon’s canvas is a real time picture, a wall of bullet-proof glass would indeed be the strongest barrier to allow that. If it had been normal glass, it would have shattered easily when Fistful Steel rammed the couch into it. If it had been concrete or steel, Solon simply wouldn’t see a thing on her canvas. But how to break bullet proof glass?
‘I can take that’, Joachim stated, confidently summoning Fistful Steel at his side.
Joachim cried out loud as his stand unleashed a barrage of bullet-speed punches. The glass must have been slowly giving way, because small cuts appeared on his knuckles and Solon’s swarm of projectiles had stopped.
‘Stop! Whatever you are thinking about doing!’, Solon screeched, while clutching her canvas.
She must not be able to see much right now, except for cracked glass, and the haze of punches. Joachim kept going until he felt he could finish off the barrier with one last punch. On his command, Fistful Steel charged up its arm and crashed it through the bullet proof glass, and straight through Solon’s canvas.
Sukiba gasped in shock at what Joachim had done. Joachim didn’t really think beforehand about what a hole in a canvas that brings everything on it to life really meant.
‘What have you done…’, said Solon, awfully quiet, her fury smothered by disbelief. Even she didn’t seem to expect what would happen next.
There was a certain delay to it, just long enough for Sukiba to jump on Joachim and throw him aside. Both fell on the ground in the middle of the room as a huge hole was brought into existence that ran through the entire building, annihilating everything on the canvas where Fistful Steel had punched a hole through it. There was no blast, no loud bang, only silence. And a hole.
Joachim tried to get up, but his body felt heavy and his head hurt from smashing into the floor. He groaned and when he came to, he saw Sukiba’s face hanging closely above his. He felt his face go red and looked away as fast as he could.
When Sukiba got off of him and both got up on their feet again, Joachim noticed she had only narrowly avoided the creation of the hole, since it seemed to have claimed most of her long pony-tail and red scarf.
He wanted to ask her if she was okay, but the corner of his eye caught Solon scrambling for a new canvas. Sukiba had noticed it too, but didn’t dare make another move.
Joachim stepped it, once again summoning his stand, which now could perfectly fit through the hole in the enforced glass barrier created by his punch. Before she could get a stroke of paint on her new canvas, Fistful Steel grabbed her by the neck with a single hand, readying the other to attack. But before he did, he glanced over to Sukiba, who nodded, granting him permission to end the fight.
A strong and precise punch knocked Solon out cold for a good twenty seconds. Joachim used this time to assess the gravity of his new wounds.
When Solon came to, her eyes widened in wonder.
‘Is that…?’, she gurgled, a broken jaw was probably to blame for that. ‘Is that my own blood?’
‘Seriously?’, asked Joachim rhetorically.
‘It’s an even more wonderful red than others! I need more!’, exclaimed Solon, now frantically fingerpainting on the canvas with her own blood that was seeping from her mouth.
No longer deeming Solon an immediate threat, Joachim turned to Sukiba.
‘Are you okay?’
‘Yes, but… if it weren’t for my weakness…’
Joachim saw her facade starting to fall apart at the sight of her adoptive mother in this pitiful state.
‘You aren’t to blame for anything, you saved my life there!’
‘Even after confirming… the truth’, Sukiba stuttered, ‘I still couldn’t stand up to her.’
Joachim could see tears slowly bubbling up in Sukiba’s big eyes, she was trying her hardest to fight it.
‘It’s okay, let’s get out of here’, suggested Joachim. Though Joachim was curious to see what’s behind Sukiba’s facade, this was not the way he wanted to see her.
They exited the art gallery through the hole that had been made during the fight. Only now did Joachim realise the destruction it had caused, for as far as he knew, the hole continued through the entirety of Patras. Through cars, through family homes, through stores, through… Joachim tried to force his thoughts to a stop. The streets were in a state of complete panic. He couldn’t bear to imagine if it had taken people who were in the exact wrong place at the exact wrong time.
‘Joachim?’ Sukiba’s voice snapped him back.
‘Yes? Oh… I’m okay.’ It didn’t sound convincing. At all.
‘Where to?’, asked Sukiba.
‘I would say, “where my friends are”, if I knew where that was…’, admitted Joachim.
‘As promised, I’ll help you find them. But after that, I’m coming back for her’, she pointed back at the destroyed art gallery.
‘Why would y-’, Joachim stopped himself once again. ‘Deal’, he finally said. But something still didn’t feel right about it. He tried to imagine himself in her shoes. Would he protect his mother even when she turns out to be a cold-blood killer? He concluded he wasn’t able to give an answer to that. Maybe that was keeping Sukiba’s mind busy the whole time as well, torn between protecting a mother figure and destroying a murderer.
Sukiba figured they couldn’t all have stranded too far apart, so their best bet would be to return to the beaches of west-Greece and search for traces.
CHAPTER 32: Fueled By Anger (1)
Isaac woke up from the cryo-stasis. He felt water washing against his legs, and a pulling force from behind. He tilted his head backwards to see Max pulling him out of the ocean’s waves.
‘Max? Where are we, where are the others?’, asked Isaac, recovering from Snow Patrol’s effects.
‘Don’t know’, Max replied.
Isaac remembered what happened on the ship. The distraction he made allowed his friends to slip past the guard. When he heard a loud bang resonate through the ship, the guard was immediately on high alert. He pulled out his gun and wanted to go down to check where the noise came from. Isaac couldn’t have that, so he knocked the guard out. That’s when Nathan appeared behind him. He had reassured Isaac that he wasn’t an enemy and that he knew a short-cut to pull off a pincer attack on the real enemy. Isaac hadn’t questioned anything he said after he witnessed Nathan freeze several guards alive, all while the mysterious fellow explained his plan…
‘We got saved thanks to Nathan, but it seems we’re split up now…’, said Isaac, getting up on one knee.
‘What now?’, asked Max.
‘We gotta find the others, they can’t be far.’
‘Can we call them?’, suggested Max.
‘No, our phones are probably dead now, the salty water damaged them’, Isaac took out his phone, tapped away on it and indeed it did not respond. ‘Not even Darwin will be able to fix this either. We’ll have to find a different way.’
Isaac turned around to take in his surroundings, but could see nothing more than an empty rocky beach and a coastal road where he saw the occasional car drive by.
‘What are the chances of finding some sort of telephone along that road?’, Isaac formed a sunshield with his hands, hoping to get a better view.
‘Let’s find out?’, Max said.
The road laid a few meters above sea-level, elevated by a stone slope. It was not fully vertical, but steep enough to make climbing it a decent effort. Together they climbed the wall to reach the road.
‘Well, let’s start searching’, said Isaac. He started down the road in the direction the most traffic was going, figuring if they followed them, they’d reach a town or settlement at least.
Not even ten minutes of walking later, they found themselves on what looked like the edge of a town. A bit further still, Isaac noticed a signboard which read “Kaminia”.
‘Kaminia, huh? Is that close to Patras by any chance? Although the ship never made it to the Patras harbor, maybe the others are working their way there too’, thought Isaac out loud. Max silently agreed as they continued walking.
‘As long as the Order doesn’t show up, I’m actually quite enjoying this little stroll. Though the sun could do with a little less burning’, said Isaac. ‘Oh well, at least my clothes are almost dry already.’
‘Isaac…’, started Max.
‘What’s up?’
‘We’re getting closer to…’
‘I know Max. I know’, said Isaac, reassuring Max. ‘I know you are worried, we all saw what we saw in Owl City’s vision, and I know this is where it all began. But for now, we just gotta keep going, I’m confident we can put an end to everything.’
‘Thanks.’
About fifteen minutes further down the road, Isaac saw a small bus stop. He immediately headed straight towards it, hoping there would be a map.
‘Look, Max, apparently this is the last bus stop in a line that goes directly to Patras!’
‘When is the next bus?’
‘Hold on…’, Isaac dragged his finger down a list of arrival hours.
‘The clock up there says it’s two in the afternoon’, mentioned Max.
‘Great! Looks like the next one will be here in about five minutes! Lucky!’
While waiting on the bus to arrive, a distant rumbling sound caught Isaac’s attention. It was the signature sound of a heavy motorbike approaching. A little down the street, Isaac could see said motorcycle. The man was speeding down the street and wasn’t even wearing a helmet. Isaac’s eyes and the driver’s met as the motorcycle dashed by them. It made him uneasy, yet he couldn’t say why. Like an underlying feeling he should know who this man was.
Whatever the case, Isaac decided not to dwell on it, as their bus arrived right on time. They both stepped inside the pretty much empty bus, and tried to communicate with the driver to buy a ticket. They found themselves two seats near the front of the bus, behind the driver. Other than them, there were only an old couple, a businessman, and a teenage girl in the vehicle.
‘Do you think we’ll find everyone in Patras?’, asked Max.
‘I’m certain of it.’
The bus ride went quite smoothly, despite more traffic showing up on the streets as they neared Patras. But still Isaac couldn’t help but feel something was off. He looked behind and saw an empty street, as if the traffic only existed in front of them, and disappeared behind them. As the bus passed another car, Isaac saw what was going on. The man on the motorcycle was right behind them, and beside him, on the car’s hood, appeared to stand a red robotic stand, shaped somewhat reminiscent of a depiction of a virus. A tripod with, in between its legs, a drill sucking up the car’s fuel until it stopped running.
‘Shit!’, said Isaac.
Out of curiosity, Max peered over the seats to where Isaac was looking too. The man on the motorcycle waved to them as if he knew they had finally noticed him.
‘We got company’, concluded Isaac. ‘He must be an Order official then.’
‘Didn’t the boss warn us about a stand user that made taking the road unsafe?’, mentioned Max.
‘Now that you say it, yeah. This must be him. Get ready to fight.’
Isaac stood up and shouted to the driver to keep driving, to not stop at any moment. But it wasn’t enough, the Order official was multitudes faster than the bus and crept up to the window besides Max and Isaac. Now that he was up close, Isaac recognized the man. The long messy brown hair, the perfectly kempt beard, the leather jacket he always used to wear, even the scar on his forehead… There was no mistaking it.
‘Impossible…’, gasped Isaac.
Almost playfully, the man pointed to the backside of the bus, as to divert Isaac’s attention. Isaac did as instructed and saw a smaller version of the stand he saw earlier drilling into the neck of the businessman, who was seated behind him, instead of another car.
‘What the hell are you doing to that man, Franky!’, shouted Isaac to the window keeping him separated from the Order official.
‘Franky? Do you know him, Isaac?’, asked Max, who held onto his seat, his knuckles turning white.
‘That’s my aunt’s fiancee…’, admitted Isaac, ‘and I’ll put an end to him myself’, he continued as a terrible shadow moved over his face.
Taking that as some sort of cue, the man named Franky sped up and moved in front of the bus now. Lingering there, Isaac tried to think of a plan to take him down.
‘Max, we must figure out how his stand functions’, said Isaac.
‘I… I have no idea…’
By now the stand had disappeared from the businessman’s neck, who had subsequently sank down from his seat. The other passengers had huddled together in the back of the bus in a panic.
‘Where has the stand gone?’, asked Isaac rhetorically.
‘Is that man… dead?’, something shivered in Max’s voice.
‘I don’t know’, replied Isaac.
‘Ack!’, yelped Max. The virus-like stand had gripped onto Max’ neck now.
‘This little thing… Vengeful One!’, called Isaac, and with a swift punch, Vengeful One flung the little droid to the other side of the bus. It had landed all the way at the back of the vehicle and disappeared.
‘Thanks’
‘I have a feeling this won’t have taken care of him…’ said Isaac.
A crash alerted Isaac to turn his gaze to the front of the bus again. Another red robot had jumped through the bus’ windshield. This one looked different from the one they saw earlier. It had a more crab-like appearance, with a tough looking upper body, crawling on four long appendages, wielding bloody chainsaws instead of pincers.
‘What even is that!’, shouted Isaac.
It seemed to look dead ahead to where Isaac had launched its tinier version, and readied an attack.
‘Max, get down!’
In an instant the whole backside of the bus was cut open. It was still moving down the street, except there was a gaping hole in the back of the vehicle now too.
‘The passengers and everything?!’, shouted Isaac in disbelief. A strong air current now moved from the front of the bus down the middle, courtesy of the broken windshield and missing back.
Franky once again appeared beside them, still on his motorcycle. In a rage, Isaac had Vengeful One punch out the window.
‘FRANKY!’, yelled Isaac.
‘That’s Alexander for ya! Come to look for yer parents, kiddo? They ain’t here no more, hahaha!’, shouted Franky over the sound of his own massive motorcycle.
‘Come face me head on, coward!’
‘I’ll pass, Black Fuel works best on the road!’
Isaac balled his fists until he could feel his nails digging into his palms. He turned away from the man taunting him and faced Max.
‘Max, get your stand ready, just in case’, Isaac said, doing his best to sound calm.
‘What are you-’, started Max, but Isaac stopped him.
Isaac stepped into the aisle to face Franky’s, or Alexander’s stand, Black Fuel. The thing immediately took notice of him and attacked, chainsaws pointed at its prey.
Isaac dodged the dangerous weaponry and Vengeful One attacked it with ferocious punches. Vengeful One’s innate strength crushed the stand as if it was a tin can.
‘Looks like this thing is not very defensive, huh?’ said Isaac.
Searching for his adversary, Isaac looked around the street. He saw Franky driving next to them still, having his grin wiped off his face. He sped up and overtook a car driving in front of them. As soon as he did, Black Fuel’s drill half appeared on said car, sucked it dry of all fuel in a matter of seconds.
‘What is he doing?’, asked Max.
‘I think I get how his stand works now’, answered Isaac. ‘His stand can only be active when his target is moving. As soon as he overtakes a target, he can summon either part of his stand. A drill to suck up anything he can use as fuel, be it gas, or even blood it seems. With that, the other part can move and attack’, explained Isaac.
‘Another Twin stand’, noticed Max.
‘As long as there is fuel to be harvested, you won’t get rid of me that easily, kiddo!’, Franky appeared next to them again, that nasty grin back on his bearded face.
‘What happened to my parents! You know, don’t you!’, yelled Isaac.
‘Hah! I’m sure you have other things to worry about. You always were such a rude, stubborn, misbehaving kid. It seems nothing has changed.’
‘Tch! You haven’t changed either, asshole!’
‘Isaac behind you!’, shouted Max.
CHAPTER 33: Fueled By Anger (2)
Max’s warning was futile, Isaac knew. He knew Black Fuel stood behind him, he knew he would be struck down. He had left his back completely open, hoping Franky would take the bait. But he wasn’t prepared for the pain.
Black Fuel revved its chainsaw arm loudly and plunged it in Isaac’s lower back. The spinning blade came back out through the front of his body in a bloody mess.
‘Isaac, no!’, Max screamed. Shock was written all over his face.
Vengeful One grabbed Black Fuel by its robotic neck with one arm and its chainsaw arm with the other so it couldn’t move. This was all according to Isaac’s plan. Now, he figured he had only a minute at most to execute the rest of it without losing consciousness. Isaac felt his muscles try to contract to no avail. Breathing became incredibly hard and he almost passed out there and then.
However, now wounded by his enemy, Vengeful One’s chains came to life as well. They rushed out of the broken windows of the bus and started chasing Franky, who sped up significantly.
From behind Isaac, Franky’s static voice came through Black Fuel. ‘Ha, invited by Number One were ya? What a pathetic excuse for a potential new leader.’
Vengeful One’s chains seemed to come just short of reaching their target. Now panic began welling up within his mind as well. If Franky gets out of range, he won’t be able to execute his plan.
‘Shit’, he coughed up warm blood. ‘He’s out of range!’
‘Isaac, wha- what should I do?’ Max asked, at the verge of tears.
‘We need to catch up to him, get the driver to floor it’, Isaac said calmly to preserve his remaining strength.
Max ran past him to the front of the bus, and soon, Isaac felt the bus speed up. ‘What is happening?! What is wrong with you people?!’, he heard the bus driver shout at Max.
Now was not the time to worry about speeding tickets. Everyone’s lives on this road depended on them, and so did his revenge.
Isaac focussed his rage and roared at the top of his lungs, pushing his stand to the limits. The hooks finally caught up to Alexander and pierced his body in the same place as Isaac’s wound. Instantly Vengeful One’s ability activated, wrapping the immediate area in the stand’s shadowy pocket dimension. Now, another variable to his stand’s ability would be put to the test, because he wasn’t sure what would happen if someone hit the border.
Closest to the border was Franky, naturally. ‘What… What is this then!?’, Black Fuel said in Franky’s voice seconds before he crashed into the wall of shadow at full speed. Franky’s bike exploded in bright orange flames and Black Fuel crumbled along with it. Quickly, Isaac disabled his own stand, as to not be the next to crash in the same way.
Back in reality, he found Max now standing next to him. Isaac felt his strength come to its limit. The pain of the open wound was overwhelming and seemed unending, but with his last energy and resolve, he pushed himself off of the chainsaw of the now lifeless stand and he commanded Max to do what was necessary.
‘Use the Angel, NOW! Ugh…’ The shout caused him to cough up more blood than he could handle. If Max hesitated for even a couple of seconds, this would be the end of him, and he would never find out what happened to his parents.
‘Ack, Angel of Death!’ With a yelp and without hesitation, Max summoned his stand. Looking away, Angel of Death threw a halo towards Isaac and almost instantly he felt his grievous wound healing rapidly, preserving his life.
The Demon caged in Max’s stand opened its eyes and the green veins surrounding it flared up. Then a gurgling sound of a man dying came from the front of the bus. Within seconds the bus started swaying wildly from left to right.
‘Shit, of course it was transferred to the driver!’, Isaac stood up and ran to the driver’s seat, dragging the body of the driver out of his chair and he took over the wheel.
‘I… I…’ he heard Max sob. Now was not the time for him to feel remorse for their actions.
‘It was necessary, Max, you saved my life, that is the blessing of your stand’, Isaac said, bringing the bus safely to a halt.
The traffic passing them by had come to a stop, seeing the destruction and havoc they caused. Together with surviving passengers, Isaac and Max stepped out of the wrecked bus. A little down the road laid the remains of Franky’s slick black motorcycle.
‘ISAAC!’ Came Franky’s roaring voice.
‘Of course that wouldn’t be enough to kill that roach…’ Isaac mumbled.
Isaac stomped over the pavement towards his former father figure as Max quietly followed. Rage still welled up inside him, and he was sure that if he didn’t have questions to ask the man, he would have smashed his head on the concrete there and then.
‘You’ll never get to Draco!’ Franky barked at him. ‘What makes ya think ya can achieve what yer parents couldn’t?’
‘We’ll use these stands he gave us against him’, Isaac said, trembling while trying to stay calm.
‘Y’have no idea what you’re up against. There’s a reason us officials follow him. None can stand up to him.’ There was the smallest undertone of fear, not of Isaac who stood over him, but of the man he served.
Isaac crouched down, bringing himself closer to Franky. ‘We’ll punch through, just like we’ve done for the past several days.’
‘Ya wanna know about yer parents, don’tcha?’ Isaac’s ears flared up, finally he was willing to talk. ‘Somehow they sniffed out Draco’s plans, I don’t know who tipped them off. They were powerful stand users themselves, but even together, they didn’t stand a chance.’
‘It doesn’t matter. What happened to them?’
‘Draco is a man that respects power, especially stand users. When they failed to kill him, he offered them to join him first. When they refused, he had no choice but to…’
‘Kill them’, Isaac finished the sentence. He had always known, but the certainty of this answer felt like it settled a lifelong debate within his head.
‘Then Draco noticed they had a ‘lil twerp back home. He took immediate notice of your future potential and sent me and my wife to keep you in check, nurture ya just how he wanted, a ‘lil shit with anger issues who’s easy to control.’
Isaac couldn’t believe his ears, Franky was sent to raise him because of that? Is his aunt not even his real aunt? Was everything a lie?
‘Hah, now you’re interested, ain’tcha?’, Franky spat out.
‘Those years were just all lies then? I never regretted it anyway, but now I’m even more glad I ran away’, Isaac threw back. ‘Thanks to that, I found a real family and real friends at the orphanage’, he added, looking at Max.
‘Ever wonder why you met him at that orphanage?’ Franky laughed, but it sounded painful for him after the crash.
Isaac’s attention flipped to the man laying on the concrete again.
‘Can’t you see everything was pre-ordained? Your green haired friend over there once escaped Draco’s clutches before. I hear t’was a bloody massacre…’, Franky continued. ‘Draco had ya find him, to become friends, so you could bring Max back to him’, he paused. ‘And y’are about to succeed in the mission Draco gave ya without even knowing it!’
Isaac felt even more anger welling up in him again. If he showed any of it, it would mean Franky, no, Draco had won. They had planted this hatred in him. But he couldn’t stop his fists from shaking in anticipation of demolishing this man’s face.
‘What’s wrong kid? Aren’t ya going to kill me now? Like Draco would want you to do?’, Franky taunted. ‘Don’t tell me you got over those anger issues of yours!’
‘No. You deserve to suffer, so I’m not killing you yet, I won’t give you the satisfaction’, Isaac said as he stood upright. It also was a side of him he didn’t want Max to see.
‘You’ve grown into a big softie.’ Franky laughed, but before Isaac realised it, his own fist shut Franky up. Isaac felt his breathing speed up. There’s no way Draco had planned all this, that he orchestrated every encounter in his life. Were Marie, Nikola and JoJo also part of his grand scheme?
Then he turned to Max with one burning question. ‘What does he mean you escaped Draco before, Max?’
Awkwardly, Max shuffled a few steps backwards, away from Isaac. Then he sank to his knees.
‘I… I’d rather not talk about it’, Max said, shivering at just recalling his past with the Order.
‘It’s fine, Max, you don’t have to, the past doesn’t matter now. I’ll hunt him down and pay him back for the both of us. For all of us.’
Max breathed in deeply to calm his emotions. This ordeal must have been a lot for him, Isaac realised. Not only did he watch his long-time friend almost die, it was him that then forced the decision upon him to kill an innocent person in order to save his own life. “All for the cause”, Isaac thought. If he wasn’t here to put a stop to Draco’s tyranny, who else would be able to stand up to him?
‘What do we do now?’, asked Max.
‘We need to find the others. They must either be close to, or also heading to Patras.’
‘I hope they are safe…’
‘I don’t know, we have to hurry, they might have encountered Order members too.’
In the distance, police sirens were approaching. ‘Come on, Max, we can’t be dealing with Greek police right now. I can see buildings over there, that must be Patras.’
Isaac hoped the local police force would write it off as a tragic accident. “Busdriver lost control over the wheel because of a reckless motorcyclist” sounds like a believable story.
After a short sprint away from the scene, Isaac slowed his pace. ‘Man, that city isn’t coming any closer. Seems we still have some walking to do…’
‘Should we try and get a lift?’
‘There’s barely any cars coming through now, they probably blocked off the road.’ The police sirens suddenly grew louder again, as they sped down the road. ‘Seems like we’ll get our lift if we don’t start running!’ Isaac shouted as he picked up the pace again.
It was no use, four police cars came to a sliding halt around them, blocking them in. Any attempt to run from or fight local authorities would leave them in an even worse position.
One of the cars’ doors flung open, and laying bloodied on the backseats was Franky. ‘Those two attacked me and the bus, officer’, he said, pointing at Isaac and Max.
Six police agents stormed out of their cars and drew their firearms, pointing them in their direction.
‘You are under arrest, put your hands up and don’t resist!’, spoke one of the agents through a megaphone.
‘Isaac…’, Max started as he raised his hands, ‘What do we do? We shouldn’t fight them.’
‘We’ll do as they say’, he replied, also raising his hands in surrender.
CHAPTER 34: Jericho (1)
‘That’s it’, Nikola said, refusing to take another step, ‘this is getting us nowhere, I’m going back.’
Marie and the stand user that froze him solid on the cruise ship stopped too and turned to face him.
‘Nikola, I believe we should…’, Marie started, trying to convince Nikola for the sixth time or so. But Nikola wouldn’t have any of it and cut her off.
‘I don’t care what snow-boy says!’ Nikola strided towards Nathan and poked his finger against Nathan’s chest. ‘He made ice cubes out of us all and now we’re split up, walking in Order territory like easy prey. We should be looking for the others, not some made-up saviour.’
‘I should freeze you again and carry you there’, Nathan said, straightening his back to appear taller.
‘Why don’t you go ahead and try?’, Nikola taunted.
Nikola didn’t understand why Marie trusted this guy so easily. It’s true he saved their lives from a watery grave, but that doesn’t give him the right to boss everyone around. Nikola woke up from cold sleep last, after Marie and Nathan, and by that time, Marie was already on board with his plan. At first he didn’t mind having Nathan around, but when he suggested looking for Joachim and the others, Nathan flat out refused and Marie didn’t seem to want to help convince him otherwise either. Nathan then explained his plan instead, and was voted for, two against one.
‘Nikola, if we can find this person, it might greatly increase our chances of beating Draco’, Marie said, trying to calm him down, but Nikola only got more frustrated at the fact that she only seemed to defend the other guy.
‘Every minute we waste, Draco is hunting down our friends, Marie!’ Nikola fought back.
‘I… I understand, but we have to trust in them.’
‘They’ll all be going to… What was the place called again, Patras? Is it really that hard to meet up with everyone there first?’
‘We’d be wasting time’, Nathan said. ‘That bridge over there, going over the gulf is the Rio-Antirrio bridge. The place where we’ll find Jericho is a small mountainside village called Argyra east of Rio, there’s a road that directly connects to it from here. Like I told you already, Patras is way further south than Argyra is to the east, it would cost us several hours’, he explained.
Nikola grunted. ‘Why can’t you just go find your buddy, me and Marie will go find JoJo and the others?’
‘It’s because…’, Nathan hesitated. ‘It’s because he’ll be guarded by an order official at all times, and I…’
‘You only thought of telling us that now?!’, Nikola interrupted him.
‘I’m obviously not strong enough to fight a person like that on my own. They probably know how Snow Patrol works too, they can just kill me before I can get the area cold enough.’ Nathan turned away from them as if in shame of admitting his own weakness and began chewing on a new piece of mint candy.
‘We’ll have a much better chance if it is three against one’, Marie added.
It would still be quite a walk navigating through Rio until they could get to Argyra, but since they had already come so far, Nikola admitted defeat.
‘FINE, fine. But I need you to tell me more details, snow-boy’, Nikola challenged. ‘Like, who this Jericho guy is, how you know him, and how in the world he can help us end Draco.’
Nathan did as Nikola asked, because he had made it clear enough by now that if Nathan didn’t explain, he would turn back.
‘First, I know the things I’m about to tell you because my father used to work together with Jericho at their company’, Nathan explained. ‘Jericho is Draco’s younger brother, and together they ran one of the world’s biggest bio-engineering laboratories.’
‘And now he runs a corrupt cult?’, asked Nikola, poking fun at the absurdity.
‘While I don’t know exactly what happened, from my father I heard the experiments the lab was conducting grew increasingly extreme and un-ethical. My father quit before its eventual downfall.’
‘That’s starting to sound more like him’, Nikola snickered.
‘That must have been around the time he would join the Order then?’, speculated Marie.
‘Very likely, yes’, Nathan confirmed. ‘Now, Jericho is still alive and kept hidden somewhere, and I was tasked to find him.’
‘Tasked by who?’, asked Nikola with a heavy undertone of suspicion.
‘The man codenamed Pythagoras’, he answered without hesitation.
‘JoJo’s dad?’, asked Marie, shocked.
‘You guys may be the primary one, but you aren’t the only taskforce sent in to undermine Draco’s actions’, Nathan clarified. ‘In fact I was supposed to find Jericho before meeting up with you guys, but, oh well…’
They had been walking for nearly half an hour now. The buildings around them seemed to thin out and roads were getting narrower. Nikola guessed they were nearing the edge of Rio.
‘When did you meet Pythagoras?’, asked Marie.
‘I never actually met the man’, Nathan shook his head, ‘I heard he was killed shortly after you met, I’m sorry.’
‘Shortly after we met? He got stabbed to death by a stand right before our eyes!’, Nikola corrected angrily. ‘It must have been Draco, we were lucky he didn’t chase us then.’
‘R- Right… Let’s continue to Argyra, the sooner we’re there the better’, Nathan said to change the subject.
Nikola’s legs were starting to feel like jello. The hot summer sun had been beating down on them for almost two hours now. Sweat dripped off of his face and his cap did its best to shield his neck from getting sunburned. He’d rather face off against some order officials again than to walk another minute in this scorching heat.
‘If you’re gonna make us walk in these conditions, uphill’, Nikola emphasized, ‘at least do us a favor and use your stand to cool us off a bit.’
Nikola glanced at Marie and saw she wanted to throw a snarky remark his way, but was too exhausted to actually bring herself to say it.
‘You got free water from your own stand, do it yourself’, Nathan, who walked in front, also on the brink of exhaustion, shot back.
The town up ahead must be empty, Nikola was convinced, because not a single car, nor bus had passed them on this winding road to nowhere. They couldn’t even get a lift if they tried.
Nikola deemed Nathan’s suggestion worth a try and summoned his stand. Acid Rain, whose water inside of its body looked extra bubbly, held its hand over Nikola’s head, and sprayed a soft rain of lukewarm water. It wasn’t fully refreshing, but it did wonders nonetheless.
‘You want something refreshing too, Marie?’, Nikola asked, directing Acid Rain to move towards her.
‘Nikola, no! You might be immune, but I’d like to keep my memories, thank you’, she replied as she scuttled away, closer to Nathan. Nikola saw something like an ear flick around in Nathan’s overly fluffy scarf.
‘I knew it, he was using his stand all this time’, he mumbled to himself.
Another painful hour later of walking in silence behind Nathan and Marie, they finally re-entered civilization. Argyra was indeed as Nathan had described it, small. The town couldn’t be more than a few streets large and counted maybe 200 inhabitants at most.
‘Well, if I wanted a cosy village to spend my summer vacation not fighting an evil cult, this one might be high on the list’, Nikola said jokingly.
‘Now, where do we find Jericho? He lives here somewhere, right?’, asked Marie, completely ignoring Nikola.
‘I don’t know more than he should be in Argyra. But if an Order official is permanently stationed here to keep tabs on him, as Pythagoras said, we shouldn’t go around knocking on every door’, Nathan answered.
‘I’ve been meaning to ask, if this Jericho person is supposedly dangerous enough for Draco to lock him up in this village, what’s stopping Jericho from breaking free? Surely he can handle one Order member?’, Nikola asked, trying to get involved in conversation.
‘Draco doesn’t fear Jericho, he fears people like us getting to him’, Nathan explained. ‘I’m pretty sure Jericho also has a stand ability, but your guess is as good as mine on what that ability is.’
‘If they are looking for outsiders potentially coming in, we might have already been spotted’, Marie said nervously.
Nikola followed Marie’s eyes and now saw him too. A tall skinny man fully dressed in black was walking towards them, crossing the main road of Argyra.
Nikola got ready to summon his stand, but Nathan stopped him by spreading his arms as if to say; “Stay behind me and stay put.”
‘Jericho?’, Nathan called out to the stranger.
The stranger did not acknowledge Nathan’s shout, and started running towards them. His face was pale and there was something sad in his dark eyes, unkempt dark crimson hair fell over his shoulders as he ran. Nikola almost felt a sense of pity for the man, like how one would pity a beggar on the street, but he couldn’t explain why. Jericho or not, Nikola summoned Acid Rain, ready to fight.
‘Get down’, the man said, already out of breath, and from one moment to the next, his right shoulder and arm vanished. Next to Nikola, Marie screamed in terror. There was no blood, only missing space as he fell in Nathan’s arms.
‘I don’t know how you found me, but you need to run’, Jericho said before collapsing.
‘No, we need you,’ Nathan pleaded to the dead man.
‘I knew it. We gotta get out of here!’, Nikola shouted, scanning the area for cover. He chose for the quickest course of action and jumped over an old cobblestone wall, crouching down behind it. Nathan and Marie followed.
‘Oops, I missed and accidentally hit the prisoner!’, a new voice spoke, mockingly loud so Nikola and the others would hear. ‘I wonder where the intruders are!’
Nikola heard something snap on the other side of the wall, like an arrow being shot from a bow, and moments later, a perfect hole was eaten out of the wall they were hiding behind, just a meter or two away from Nikola.
He dared to sneak a peek over the wall to scout out their aggressor. In the middle of the road stood a middle aged man with short black hair, a buzz-cut with a weird circling pattern shaved into it. He wore a black tank top and camo pants with a strange star motif. Nikola figured he must be an ex-military. On his right arm he wore a massive glove that reached up to his elbow with the same camo-star pattern. Fixed on top of his wrist stood a small, purple, crossbow-like construction.
‘There you are’, he said, pointing the wrist-mounted crossbow directly at Nikola. ‘System of a Down’, he spoke calmly, and the bowstring snapped.
‘Move away, now!’, Nikola commanded.
All three of them rolled to the right, away from their previous hiding spot and immediately, the wall that had been covering them disappeared without even a sound except for a low lingering hum.
‘What is going on?’, asked Marie. ‘Is this the guard you mentioned, Nathan?’
‘It must be him, the Order official who goes by the name Pericles’, Nathan said, trying to get his own breathing under control.
‘He’s the guard? He god-damn obliterated Jericho before he could even speak!’, Nikola argued. ‘Even for Draco that is a wild move!’
Before they could think of a plan of action, several more holes appeared in walls and buildings around them.
‘If you don’t come out of there, I’ll make the whole town disappear!’, Pericles threatened.
‘I’ll get him.’ Nikola gathered all his courage and jumped out of hiding, preparing Acid Rain for a local shower over the Order official’s head. Nikola shouted in unison with his stand, but summoning a proper raincloud took time and Pericles was quick and had already lined up a shot.
Before either could attack a massive shockwave of what Nikola identified as stand energy gathered between them, where only now Nikola realised laid a pile of ash instead of Jericho’s body. From the ash rose two black wings, made of obsidian feathers, and with one stroke of those wings, a whirlwind of ash kicked up. It should have been impossible, but when the wind settled down, between Nikola and Pericles stood Jericho. He was alive and breathing, no missing limbs, just as he was before… Except for the two large obsidian wings.
He softly spoke three words; ‘Crippled Black Phoenix.’
CHAPTER 35: Jericho (2)
Jericho stood between them, literally risen from the dead. Nikola couldn’t believe his eyes. There were stands powerful enough to raise the dead, was this why Draco kept his brother hidden and under constant surveillance?
‘You’re back already?’, Pericles grinned, he almost sounded disappointed.
Jericho’s wings crumbled and fell to the ground before disintegrating into thin air. ‘Leave those kids alone’, he said, his voice no more than a whisper.
‘And how exactly will you stop me from obliterating them for trying to come to your rescue?’, Pericles toyed with Jericho. ‘You may be immortal, but you have no combat capabilities at all. You are useless, dead weight on a battlefield.’
‘Kid, listen well’, said Jericho, directed at Nikola. ‘His stand shoots microscopic black holes that utterly destroy-’
Before Jericho could end his sentence, the top part of his torso and head vanished, leaving his legs and arms to slump to the ground.
The shock of it happening the first time still hadn’t fully settled yet, and once again Nikola’s stomach sank. This could just as easily happen to one of them too. This destructive power was unlike anything he’d seen before.
‘Oh shut up’, Pericles said, unfazed by the horrible act he’d repeated again. ‘You saw that? It’s what’s going to happen to you too. Except, he’ll be back in a minute or so, and you won’t.’
Nikola’s reply was simple, a good, deserved shower of Acid Rain. Jericho’s revival was enough of a distraction to allow Nikola more than enough time to charge up his attack.
‘There, you’re done for, you won’t even remember why you’re here’, Nikola said while drenching the man with rain.
Marie and Nathan came to stand next to him, now that the danger had settled.
‘You got him!’, cheered Marie. ‘Thank God we won’t be deleted off the face of the Earth.’
‘That’s like, the third Order big shot I’ve beaten down’, Nikola announced to whomever it may concern. ‘I might just be the most powerful out of all of us!’
‘Yeah yeah, your ego is already big enough’, joked Marie.
‘Well, I’m glad we convinced you to come along in the end. We would’ve been done for’, Nathan added.
‘Yeah, you’d be a goner if it weren’t for me, so consider that the debt of you saving me from the ship settled’, Nikola said, holding out his hand expecting Nathan to shake it.
‘Now I’ll just need you to drop that awful nickname’, Nathan said, answering the handshake.
‘Don’t know about that, snow-boy’, Nikola grinned.
Suddenly Nathan lost his balance. His expression changed to one of horror as he fell like his legs were swept away by an invisible force. Nathan’s grip on Nikola’s hand tightened, tugging him down with him.
As if sound had entirely left the universe he heard his own voice reverberate through his own head as he called Nathan’s name.
‘Nathan? Nathan?! What happened?!’
He heard a short shriek, which must have come from Marie. The next few seconds felt like they lasted for minutes, as Nikola took in what just happened. Nathan was still breathing, conscious, but in a daze from the shock.
‘I…’, Nathan stammered, ‘I can’t feel my legs.’
That’s because they were gone. Nikola was looking at two stumps where Nathan’s legs used to be attached.
Nikola glanced at the source of the damage done to Nathan’s body. Pericles, drenched in Acid Rain’s water still stood there, his arm raised, aimed in their general direction. He was preparing a next shot, but he looked confused. His eyes were wild, zipping from one place to another, as if he were looking for something. And whatever he was looking for, he looked scared of it.
Slowly, Pericles’ new reality must have settled in, causing him to go berserk. He began screaming and shouting, running around firing his stand at everything that moved.
‘Nikola! He’s gone mad! We have to get away from here!’, panicked Marie. She grabbed Nathan under one of his shoulders, wrapping his arm around herself.
Together they carried the unfortunate Nathan away from the mayhem caused by Pericles.
Holes appeared everywhere Pericles pointed his arm at, first indiscriminately, then he started aiming for them again.
‘Over here!’, shouted a voice from behind a nearby building. It was Jericho calling out to them. He must have revived in the midst of the chaos. They took a sharp turn to join Jericho’s hiding spot.
‘I’m sorry about your friend, but you shouldn’t have come here in the first place’, Jericho said, there was a certain calmness to his voice that ticked Nikola off. “Of course he can be calm, he’s goddamn immortal, it’s not like he’s in any form of danger”, Nikola thought.
‘Nikola… how do we defeat him?’, Marie looked at him for answers, but Nikola didn’t have any.
‘I can… stop him’, Nathan said, breathing rapidly. ‘Snow Patrol can put him in cryostasis, but I’ll need some help.’
‘How?’, Nikola questioned. ‘By the time you’ve cooled off this village enough to freeze ‘em, the village will be gone.’
Nathan hurriedly explained his plan. This time Nikola agreed immediately, this was the best shot they had at incapacitating another rampaging stand user let loose by Draco.
‘Ok, I’ll be fine, I can do this’, Marie said to bring her own morals up a bit. She summoned her stand, and with a feather she kept from Kepler the seagull, Chemical Romance took the form of the big sea-bird.
Chemical Romance then flew off, and Jericho followed. Nathan’s plan required those two to distract Pericles, while he and Nikola prepared their part.
Only after Chemical Romance tried to claw out the Order official’s eyes did he cease shooting indiscriminately and began shooting his stand at the bird. Jericho approached Pericles from behind and tried to grapple him, however the trained fighter easily overpowered him, reversing Jericho’s hold and throwing him on the hot asphalt.
‘You wanted to cool off, right?’, asked Nathan suddenly. ‘Let’s bury the bastard under snow.’
‘I’m ready’, Nikola said, preparing himself for extreme cold. This was the only part of Nathan’s plan he wasn’t looking forward to. But if his idea works, it would be damn worth it.
Nikola summoned Acid Rain by Nathan’s side and put a piece of cloth in his mouth. It was uncomfortable and hard to breathe, but if he didn’t put it there, he’d be the one in cryostasis again as soon as his teeth chattered. Snow Patrol wasn’t that selective in its targets, Nathan had explained.
The icy-white fox-like stand appeared on Nathan’s neck, and he started breathing extremely cold air directly at Acid Rain. Nikola felt the same cold go through his own body, making him shiver.
Marie sat hidden next to them and was still directing her stand to attack Pericles. Disguised as a seagull, Chemical Romance didn’t do much damage, but that wasn’t the goal anyway. Jericho had more trouble keeping the black holes from being shot in their direction. He had resorted to grabbing Pericles’s attention by announcing himself a living target. Of course he knew that if he was to be shot again, he’d rise back up from the ashes later.
Nikola was starting to feel like his skin would freeze off any second now. Acid Rain’s appearance didn’t look like it was faring much better. The liquid inside of its body had frozen solid, causing difficulty to move for both the stand and its master.
‘Are you ready?’, asked Nathan quietly.
Nikola nodded. “I sure hope this works the way he said it would”, he thought. He stepped out onto the empty road, Acid Rain following him closely, radiating cold air like a moving icecube. Then, just like he summoned a raincloud before, he channeled Acid Rain’s power to summon another.
The cloud hung above Pericles, menacing and casting a dark shadow over them. The maddened stand user didn’t seem to register it, and kept up his rampage. Then, the rain fell. It wasn’t really rain, though, but more so small bullets of ice. Pericles desperately tried to shield himself from the barrage and Marie’s stand escaped before it got hit in collateral.
‘Nikola, try softer rain, smaller drops, create snow’, Nathan said.
Nikola, who couldn’t talk because of the cloth in his mouth, let out a grunt that meant something along the lines of “don’t order me around, snow-boy!”
He followed the advice, though, and soon, it was snowing over the small Greek village. Nikola focussed to make the snowfall heavier, directing each snowflake at Pericles. The snow began piling up on his shoulders and head.
Pericles finally found the source of the snow. He pointed his stand directly at Nikola and shot.
Nikola’s eyes widened. “Shit!”, he thought, “They didn’t give me enough time!”
Someone jumped in front of him to take the hit. Once again, Jericho had saved his life by offering his body as a shield. Once again his body was reduced to ash.
It gave Nikola just enough time to increase the snowstorm he has been controlling. Pericles was already lining up another shot from System of a Down.
Nikola opened his mouth, letting go of the cloth that stopped him from turning into a popsicle himself to shout. ‘Come on! Work!’
Just in time, the fluffy tail of Snow Patrol wrapped itself around Pericles’s head. He shot a last micro black hole, but missed his target entirely. Ice seemed to crawl out of the Order official’s mouth and crept all over his body until what remained was a pillar of ice and snow.
‘We… we did it’, said Marie with slight disbelief.
Nikola felt a shiver go up his spine, he was still cold, so cold like he was standing on the north pole in nothing more than a T-shirt. He quickly bit down on the cloth again, so as to not end up like Pericles… again. Then, he blacked out from hypothermia.
Nikola groaned as he woke up. Groggy from the fight that happened, he took in his surroundings. He was laid in a sofa, several blankets were covering him, tucking him in warm. Nearby glowed a stove, radiating a homely warmth. He couldn’t see any of the people he was with.
He pushed himself upright, causing several heat packs to slide off his chest. He removed the blankets and threw his legs out of the sofa. Other than a slight headache, he felt fine.
‘Guys?’, he called out.
‘Oh, you’re awake, that means we can finally put out the stove. It’s already hot enough outside, the heat is killing me’, Marie complained. Nikola had expected at least an “I’m glad you are ok!”, or something.
Marie came to stand beside him to turn off the stove. It was already warm enough outside as is, it was no weather to sit by the stove.
‘Where are we? How long was I out for?’, he asked.
‘Jericho invited us into his home to let you recover from the cold I put you through’, Nathan explained.
Nikola looked around the room and found Jericho sitting at a table with Nathan. Reality struck him once again when he saw Nathan’s lower legs still missing, wrapped in bandages. The man nodded at him.
‘Nathan… your legs, are you…?’, Nikola swallowed the rest of his words.
‘Hah, not gonna call me Snow-boy anymore, Raincoat? It’s alright, at least it doesn’t hurt…’, Nathan answered.
Nikola smiled. ‘What the hell is up with “Raincoat”, huh? Summoning a blizzard was cool and all, but let’s never do that again’, Nikola said as he let himself drop back into the comfortable sofa.
‘Now that your brave friend is awake, it’s time to have a talk’, Jericho said. ‘The fact you are here means my brother made his next move.’
‘That’s right’, Nathan said, as Marie rejoined them at the table. ‘Pythagoras put his faith in us to put a stop to him. He asked me specifically to find you, sir.’
Nikola sat upright to follow the conversation. Time to get some answers.
‘I assume by this point, he’s no longer with us?’, Jericho asked. The lack of an answer from them told him enough. ‘Alright then what would you like to know, I’ll answer what I can.’
‘Then… What is Draco’s goal?’, asked Marie. She didn’t shy away from asking the big question right away.
‘My brother’s goal… is the evolution of humankind’, he answered.
‘Evolution? How?’, asked Nikola, confused.
‘Bio-engineering…’, Nathan mumbled to himself.
‘That’s where it started, yes, until he discovered a virus that granted him a frightening stand power. His interests quickly shifted to human experimentation, forcing me to do… unspeakable things.’ Jericho choked up at recalling the things he’s been through.
‘What is his stand ability? Can we defeat him?’, asked Nathan, in an attempt to direct the subject away from Jericho’s painful past.
‘You have cards, right? The black cards?’, Jericho asked.
All three of them reached for the cards in their pockets. Nikola had it stashed in the chest pocket of his shirt. There it was, still showing the number seven on it. Marie and Nathan showed their cards to Jericho, showing their own distinct numbers, four and twelve.
‘The invitation cards, what do these have to do with…’, Nikola halted his sentence as a realization dawned.
‘It can’t be…’, said Marie in disbelief.
‘That’s right, these cards you’ve been carrying with you are part of Draco’s stand, Nero Forte. The ability to grant a person a stand, by cutting them with the sharp edge of these very cards. If the target can’t hold the power given to them… they’ll die, so Draco found a way to carefully choose his targets, at the cost of many test subject’s lives.’
‘So his goal of “evolving” humans is by…’, Nikola started.
‘Experimenting with stands… Creating a society of stand users, ruled by him, of course. He’ll reduce stand-less people to something sub-human’, Jericho continued.
CHAPTER 36: Maroon 5 and 7 Pillars (1)
Joachim searched along the rocky shoreline with Sukiba for a significant amount of time. And although they found a large amount of confused people that were also on the ship, his friends were not among them.
Eventually they strayed too far away from Patras and made the decision to go back and wait for the others to do the same, it would be the most logical place to meet up again.
The longer they didn’t find anyone, the more panicked he became. Subconsciously, his pace quickened while he fidgeted with anything he could find on his person. His hand hovered over the badge his father gave to him and sensed a faint amount of stand energy radiating from it. By now he had learned to recognize these auras.
Joachim looked over his shoulder. Sukiba was still quietly following him, eyes darting to every shadow as they followed the street back into Patras. There were still plenty of people on this busy day, but now he could hear a few sirens echoing through the city. Joachim just wanted to get away from this place as soon as possible.
Suddenly, a hand on his shoulder stopped him. A shudder went through him, releasing whatever stress had been building up inside him. He turned around ready to fight, but it was just Sukiba.
‘We’re being watched’, she said, retreating her hand.
‘Watched? By whom? The Order?’
Sukiba simply nodded in the direction of a narrow street feeding into the main street from in between two stores. Around the corner of the building, a face was looking at them with empty compounded eyes. As soon as it was noticed, the unknown stand raised an arm, ominously pointing directly at him. The thing was a shade between purple and red and where its nose and mouth should have been, stood a big “1”.
Joachim glanced back at Sukiba, who stood completely still, frozen in preparation for an attack. When he looked back, the creepy stand was gone from the alley.
‘It’s gone!’ Joachim looked around him wildly to find the damn thing. But what he didn’t expect was that he would find two of them walking slowly across the street and sidewalk, in their direction, still pointing at him and at Sukiba. The new figure looked the same as the first one, though its shade was slightly darker and instead of a one, there was a two on its face.
‘They’re coming at us… In slow-motion?’, Joachim said. He meant slow-motion literally, the stands looked like they were moving through a thick honey. ‘Sukiba, what should we do? Do we fight those?’
Sukiba still stood quietly behind him for a bit, observing the stands, before finally giving him an answer. ‘The user… Find the user.’
Joachim kept his focus on the two stands, finding their master would be an impossible task in this big, open city with this many people out and about. The user could literally be anyone!
‘Not going to lie, I think it might be best to just run’, Joachim suggested, but when he turned around, he spotted two more similar figures. ‘Shit! There’s more? Are these all one person’s stand?’
Sukiba stayed silent, keeping up her guard. There was so much tension in her muscles that she could explode into action at any second.
“Follow”, spoke a sudden voice behind Joachim. He spun around, summoning Fistful Steel’s fist to strike the stranger and hit the soft malleable body of a fifth iteration of the stand they were being caged in by. The punch didn’t seem to have any effect at all, feeling as if he just punched a balloon filled with water.
The stand, bearing the number “5” where its mouth should have been, didn’t care much for the punch. Instead the five stands spoke together, each a word in turn.
“We.”
“Mean.”
“You.”
“No.”
“Harm.”
Each word came from a different direction, produced by unidentifiable means. It didn’t sound like voices, more like a recorded sound, a mimicry.
‘Stands can talk?’, asked Joachim in surprise.
‘Only a rare few’, Sukiba answered bluntly.
‘Who are you?’
It took the stand a moment to respond, line they were calculating a result.
“Maroon.”
“Five.”
“Is.”
“Our.”
“Name.”
‘Maroon 5?’ Joachim turned to Sukiba, placing a hand on her shoulder, signalling her to relax. ‘They don’t seem to be hostile, luckily.’
Sukiba released some tension, but stayed wary, like a cat being handed food by a stranger. ‘It has to be a trap.’
‘Well, I can’t exactly rule out that possibility, nor do we know what exactly its power is, it looks like we don’t have much choice.’ Joachim looked from one of the Maroon 5 to the other, their heads perfectly representing their numbers.
“Come.”
“With.”
“Us.”
“For.”
“Help.”
Another mechanical sounding five word sentence, spoken by the stands in order of rising number.
‘Help with what? How can we trust you?’, Joachim demanded. In unison, all stands dropped their arms that were still ominously pointing at the two of them and raised them in other directions without looking away from him.
“We.”
“Can.”
“Find.”
“Your.”
“Friends.”
Those five simple words echoed through Joachim’s head and eliminated any arguments he had to not follow the weirdly talking stand.
‘Joachim, are you sure about this?’ Joachim could read the worry on Sukiba’s face, like she already knew his decision was made.
‘Yes, I will take my chances.’
Joachim and Sukiba ended up following Maroon 5, moving ever so slowly which got on Joachim’s nerves multiple times. They led them into the city and then back to the edge of it to an abandoned looking hangar. He was glad Sukiba agreed to follow too. If anything were to go wrong, they could put up a good fight.
When they got to the heavy sliding door that gave access to the hangar, the stand that led them here vanished. With a loud groan, the heavy door started sliding open. Looking into the hangar felt like Joachim was looking into another dimension entirely. Behind the rusty door and walls in disrepair was an interior much like a national library. The large space was filled with rows of bookshelves that themselves were two stories tall. All of them were filled with neatly sorted books of all sizes and ages. Above, hanging from the steel framed ceiling hung a row of expensive chandeliers.
‘W- Welcome.’ The quiet voice came from inside the hangar. Joachim, too impressed by the intricate interior of the shabby hangar, had failed to spot the girl standing in the doorway. She was looking down, tapping away at an analog calculator. Her shy demeanor made her look small, but Joachim estimated she was a couple years older than him. She wore perfect rectangular glasses and wore a neat black suit, contrasted with the maroon coloured tie decorated with various random equations. Her dark-blue hair was tied back into a wavy ponytail.
‘What is this place? Who are you?’, asked Joachim.
The girl flinched at the questions, but stuck out a shaky hand towards Joachim and Sukiba while the other hand kept working the calculator. ‘I… You… you can call me Euclides, I’m… I’m the one that guided you here.’
‘Euclides? That’s a weird…’, Joachim started, then it hit him. ‘You are an Order member?!’
Joachim recognized the codename and got ready to go on the offensive. Sukiba must have sensed it because she had drawn a knife from somewhere now.
The girl, however, fell backwards onto the floor in fear at the brandished weapon, even dropping her calculator. She whimpered and held both hands up to guard her face. Joachim immediately felt sorry for her and dropped his fists.
‘Well now I feel bad’, he said.
‘Hearing what you’ve been through, JoJo, that was a fair reaction. But please do go easy on my colleague.’ The gentle but authoritative voice came from behind one of the bookshelves. Joachim was sure he had heard this voice before somewhere, but he couldn’t place it. Then there was the fact that he used Joachim’s nickname, that bothered him the most.
A middle-aged man holding a heavy looking, leather-bound book appeared inside the library. He wore a beige dovetail suit, patterned with a sempervivum motif. Joachim didn’t recognize his face, but something still gnawed at him.
‘Greetings, my name is Ptolemy. As you have guessed, we are Order officials.’
The name Ptolemy jogged Joachim’s memory. A few days ago, in a dream, he had seen through this person’s eyes. He had seen what two other Order officials had done to Adam. It had been a warning, and a trap set by that little rat Wilhelm. In that dream, however, Ptolemy was clearly working together with Plato and Socrates. Could he trust these two’s offer of finding the others? For now, Joachim decided to proceed with caution.
‘Why would-’, Joachim started, but Prolemy immediately cut him off by clicking his tongue twice.
‘No no, from now on, I’ll be asking the questions. I promise yours will be answered. Please, follow me inside to my desk.’
Joachim glanced at Sukiba, she looked back at him, confused. But they did as Ptolemy asked and followed him inside as the heavy door was closed behind them.
Ptolemy’s desk stood central in the large space of the hangar. It was cut from dark wood and decorated ornately. The desk’s four legs were cut to resemble marble pillars of older ages. Ptolemy sat down in his large chair and slid a few stacks of books to the side.
Joachim and Sukiba stood awkwardly in front of him, like two bad kids sent to the principals office, awaiting their punishment. Euclides was nowhere to be found, as if she had completely disappeared.
‘Where’s-’, Joachim dared to open his mouth and would immediately regret it.
‘What did I tell you, boy? I’m surprised the assassin standing next to you has better manners.’
Next to him, Sukiba flinched at the word assassin. She was raised to be one, after all.
‘She’s not just an assassin, not anymore!’, Joachim countered.
‘What? It’s the truth.’ Ptolemy sighed and summoned his stand. ‘Wisdom truly comes with age. I’ll have to take it upon myself to teach you those manners. Behold my stand, Seven Pillars of Wisdom.’
CHAPTER 37: Maroon 5 and 7 Pillars (2)
COMING SOON
