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- >The alleyway’s dark, but your eyes have almost adjusted.
- >It’s been a week since you last attended CHS.
- >Keeping your head down around cops is enough work without being chased.
- >None of them have their paws on you yet, though.
- >Unfortunately, it’s also been a week since you last saw Wiz Kid.
- >He was going to be the ultimate addition to your little army.
- >When you had one.
- >Turns out the higher-ups in this wargame could’ve disbanded you all at any time.
- >You just hadn’t made them angry enough yet.
- >Now that you had, they were out for blood.
- >The only thing that made day marginally safe was that they had to keep going to school.
- >They mostly had parents who gave them attention, who wouldn’t take kindly to hunting other students off-grounds.
- >Not to mention that what you’ve stolen gives you a powerful bargaining chip.
- >If you can get it to a safe area.
- >You tried hiding it at your house, and someone broke in during the night to take it.
- >Your Stand was the only thing keeping you alive.
- >This stone needs to stay out of everyone’s hands.
- >The coast looks clear.
- >Midmorning and no cars, only half a city to go.
- >You make a break for it.
- Trixie Lulamoon’s Curious Caper, Episode 6: Magical Mystery Tour
- >Canterlot is a city in a loose sense.
- >It’s got a few tall buildings and looks imposing on a skyline, yes.
- >But there’s very little bustle, especially at the right hours.
- >No one’s chased you for the last few blocks.
- >And you’re starving.
- >Actual food might not hurt you, but vending machine fare is livable.
- >At least until you get to that place…
- >You walk into the nearest business-looking building, one of those rented out by a bunch of tiny companies.
- >It’s in the closest stairwell, that tall friendly box.
- >Vending machines are the great comfort of modern civilization.
- >In WWII, some were invented which dispensed paperbacks instead of food.
- >On the other side of the world, there are machines which solely vend illegal goods.
- >No risks.
- >No one to impress.
- >Just crackers and water for loose change.
- >Civilization is wonderful.
- >You make your selection, shove your food into your jacket pockets and go.
- >You’d wear a bag or a backpack, but it would make you much more noticeable.
- >Unless you wanted to pretend to be a hitchhiker.
- >Not that anyone would hitchhike here…
- >It’s only when you make it back out to the front that you see the motorcycle.
- >A girl’s sitting on it, wearing a helmet, running it on the street just outside the door.
- >Just… waiting there.
- >There’s another girl sitting behind her, and her face is in view.
- >Her skin’s almost the same shade as yours.
- >She glances down at some sort of watch, or locket.
- >Then she snaps it shut and pockets it.
- >And turns to look at you.
- >You activate your Stand immediately, watching her mouth words through the glass.
- “「Abracadabra」!”
- >The helmeted one turns the motorcycle as soon as you summon your Stand.
- >Its wavy star-speckled form dances over your head like an amoeba as the motornoise rattles the ground.
- >She accelerates directly into the glass of the door.
- >A high-pitched voice enters your hearing.
- >“-OT THAT WAAAAY!”
- >The rider screams, pressing her face into the driver’s back.
- >Shards fly everywhere, but she lands in the entryway.
- >And she doesn’t stop.
- >She’s right on top of you.
- >…And then she isn’t.
- >You’re over at the stairwell, and she’s back at the door.
- >You run up the stairs and out of sight.
- >“Goddammit Indigo, we’re supposed to rendezvous with the others!” >They’re following you, on foot now. >How many exits are there?
- >How far do you have to get to lose them?
- >The second floor’s a good start.
- >You wait outside the door, but they aren’t coming up.
- >“Look, I know what I’m doing, alright! We’ve got code set up. Thumbs is a victory, middle finger is danger.”
- >“That’s a seriously underthought code.”
- >“Look, if we can just tire her out, we can take her. You ever hunt rabbits?”
- >“Murdering animals is a filthy hick activity, and you’re wasting our time.”
- >“You wouldn’t say that if you ate the stew, Sugar.”
- >“I would and you know it.”
- >Chuckling.
- >“Yeah.”
- >A pause.
- >“She’s still here, right?”
- >“The stone hasn’t left the building. It’s above us. They’re probably calling security on us by now.”
- >“Good. Most of it. You take over and get nearby, I’ll go after her.”
- >You get away from the door.
- >This looks like it’s a three-story building, but there’s only one set of stairs.
- >If you kept climbing, she would see you now.
- >Looking around, you see a handful of doors leading to podunk offices, some bathrooms, bad carpet…
- >An elevator!
- >You hit the call button, and it dings politely.
- >Without a wait the doors open.
- >You dash inside and jab the button for the third floor.
- >It lights up.
- >The doors don’t respond.
- >You stand in one corner and keep hitting the button.
- >It doesn’t do anything.
- >You feel your blood pounding in your ears.
- >Your power isn’t meant for fighting.
- >You’re just good at putting distance between yourself and others.
- >Finally, they react, and slide shut.
- >You let go of a breath you didn’t know you were holding.
- >“A-ha!”
- >A light tan hand slaps between the closing doors in a karate chop.
- >Attached to it is a blue-haired girl with goggles on her head, grinning like the Cheshire Cat.
- >“Gotcha, lady.”
- >You activate your Stand.
- >The doors haven’t been stopped yet, so you separate them a little more.
- >Then you let out your best attempt at a yell, and smack her wrist.
- >She doesn’t retract it.
- >In fact, she doesn’t act like it hurt at all.
- >With a sudden twist, her hand’s gripping yours.
- >She’s having a spectacular time.
- >You call up your Stand and separate her from you.
- >She’s still smiling outside as the doors close the rest of the way.
- >The look on her face unsettles you.
- >Wasn’t it a victory to make it to the third floor?
- >When the elevator opens, you can already hear her jogging up the stairwell.
- >You bolt out, looking around.
- >Offices, more offices, and a long hallway with a plain door.
- >Over it, the words “Fire Exit”.
- >That has to be it.
- >The next step toward getting to that place.
- >Your Stand creates more space between you and the elevator, propelling you down the hallway.
- >She bounds after you tirelessly.
- >You throw open the door and run up the stairs beyond.
- >Almost all buildings are required to have a set of stairs that grants access to all areas.
- >This includes tricky places like roofs, basements, subbasements and back-areas, where the average person might get lost.
- >However, most businesses and owners wish to keep regular people from trespassing in these places.
- >For the average company, fire exits fulfill both of these needs.
- >But proper alarms are often expensive, and wiring them in is tedious.
- >Especially in cheap buildings, if you can’t see a mechanism affixed directly to the door, you should take the alarm warnings with a grain of salt.
- >Especially especially in a building without alarms on its glass front doors.
- >You’ve made it up to the roof safely, and from this vantage you have a pretty good view of the nearby city.
- >There are some rooftops close by, but the further out they get the taller and shorter they become.
- >A long way away, you can even see the park through a few of them.
- >You know that these people are tracking you by range.
- >Or else the stone.
- >And you know that they have extra trouble finding it if you’re in a crowd.
- >Once, one of them muttered about there being “too many living things nearby” when you slipped away.
- >These facts are the basis of your plan.
- >Indigo makes it up to the roof and stops.
- >“You gonna run?”
- >You don’t respond, backing up to a far corner.
- >“It doesn’t matter if you do or don’t. You’ve already lost. 「Nails for Breakfast」!”
- >You flinch and prepare for battle, but nothing happens.
- >Then she pulls out a little pill bottle and pops the cap.
- >She grabs a few… tablets? And swallows them.
- >“This is ALD-52. It’s called a prodrug, because it gets turned into LSD by the body. You can buy it online if you shell out a little cash.”
- >…
- >She stands there like you’re going to say something to her.
- >Then you start to feel lightheaded.
- >“Since LSD takes time, I made sure to mix it with everything else nasty I could get my hands on, of course.”
- >You start to feel like your body’s too loose.
- >You resist the feeling, and start to feel your body heating up instead.
- >How is this happening…?
- >Indigo walks over, cracking her fists.
- >One of her thumbs shimmers like a mirage, and then it’s longer, and a darker orange.
- “A-「Abracadabra」!”
- >You jump backwards, and suddenly you’re on the next roof over.
- >The distance is too long to jump without a Stand.
- >Indigo frowns at you over the distance, and cups her hands around her mouth.
- >“Fine! We’ll do this the hard way!”
- >You feel your left leg go numb, and you realize, dimly, it’s hers.
- >You wonder if you’re hallucinating more than you realize.
- >While you head for the exit, she’s jumping in your peripheral vision.
- >It’s like she’s bodyslamming an invisible man, or ragdolling.
- >Then she cries out.
- >You ignore her and make your way into the building.
- >And then your leg comes back.
- >You cry out as it flares up with pain, collapsing underneath of you.
- >Stumbling, you fall down the first flight of stairs.
- >Only with your Stand to help do you land on your back, leg up in the air.
- >Your vision’s becoming jerky. It’ll start swimming soon.
- >You are not doing well.
- >You test your leg on the floor, leaning on it a little.
- >Then you seethe and retract it to your chest again.
- >Sprained ankle.
- >You know she did this, but figuring out her Stand isn’t in your power right now.
- >She’s going to come over here, or call over the others.
- >They’re going to find you in a stairwell unable to walk, and they’re going to take the stone.
- >Your fear and pain keep you grounded enough to summon up your Stand.
- >Until you learn why people wanted it so badly, you can’t relinquish that rock.
- >Especially not given what they’ll probably do to you after they get it.
- >You scoot on your back to the nearest flight of stairs and create some space between you and the nearest wall.
- >In a diagonal shot, you’re halfway down the stairs.
- >Another, and you’re on level ground again.
- >You repeat this process as quickly as you can, ignoring the pain.
- >Sometimes you fall anyway, and the stairs buffet your spine like a bad massage.
- >But you make it to the ground floor.
- >You need to get to a hospital.
- >But first you have to make it.
- >You have to get to that place!
- >Outside, you’re in the lobby of a closed business.
- >All the lights are out.
- >The architecture’s the same as the last building, but it’s cleaner, dimmer.
- >You prop yourself up on a wall and lean as you hop toward the entrance.
- >The blue girl, Sugar, is already outside on the motorcycle.
- >She’s staring at you, expressionless.
- >Unmoving.
- >You grit your teeth, and your Stand unlocks the door.
- >You lean on it, swinging, as it opens.
- >You want to puke.
- >You, Trixie, are a lightweight.
- >But you’ve already seen your objective close by.
- >The pain hasn’t cleared your mind, but it’s forced you into only one mode of action.
- >You know what to do now.
- >Sugar gets off the motorcycle and waves in the direction of the building you just escaped.
- >Indigo emerges on ground level.
- >In the distance, you see a couple more motorcycles.
- >You ignore all of them, hopping determinedly like a woman on a mission.
- >You look ridiculous, and you don’t care.
- >Sugar sees where you’re heading, and stands between you and the motorcycle.
- >“Is the stone on your person?”
- >She stares at you, undaunted.
- >You hop closer to the back end of the bike and balance yourself.
- >She turns a few degrees to keep eye contact, holding out her arms to block you.
- >The others approach.
- >You look only at Indigo.
- >Even though you’re sweating and there’s a buzzing in your head that won’t go away, the thespian in you can’t resist the moment.
- >You raise your voice so all of them will hear you.
- “Trixie isn’t just a showstopper, she’s a patron of the classics. And two-thousand years ago, a man in China wrote The Art of War. He said ‘Build your opponent a golden bridge to retreat across’.”
- >Indigo blinks.
- “Desperate people take chances. The more desperate, the more bizarre their tactics get. And if you leave anyone with only one way out, you’re adding pressure to the barrel of a gun in that one direction.”
- >Your Stand appears over your shoulder.
- “That is why you lost on this day to the Great and Powerful Trixie!”
- >You create space between the road and the motorcycle.
- >Before Sugar can turn around, the vehicle crashes into her from behind.
- >As she pratfalls, you reach out for the seat.
- >You grab hold of it, and your Stand helps you up the rest of the way.
- >As soon as you’re not about to fall off, you create more space and put yourself back on the road.
- >And you peel out.
- >They’re right behind you, of course.
- >Buildings rush by as your Stand pushes you along.
- >You’re moving too fast to stop or turn now.
- >The buildings thin out a little, long roads leading into neighborhoods nearby as you race past.
- >You never stop hearing them.
- >Even if you had unlimited fuel, you wouldn’t outrace them in your state.
- >You only barely understand how you’re not crashing right now.
- >You feel your right hand shimmer and go numb.
- >Over your shoulder, you see Indigo wave at you with your own hand and reach out for the side of the road.
- >No.
- >You swerve, still zooming forwards, and swing her hand at a parked car’s side mirror.
- >You hear her yelp over the turbulence.
- >In a flash, your hands switch back.
- >Just in time for your Stand to stop the collision.
- “Agh!”
- >It still hits your ring finger and pinky.
- >They’re bent badly.
- >You wobble in your seat and vent the pain by groaning into the wind.
- >The motorcycle keeps running along underneath you.
- >You’ve only got enough strength to use your Stand one more time.
- >The stoplight ahead’s green, and you can see your goal now.
- >You grip the accelerator with your three good fingers and reach into your jacket with your other hand.
- >Everyone sees the glint of the red stone in the daylight.
- >You’ve almost made it.
- >You spent endless summers in Canterlot Park.
- >It was huge, and almost entirely wooded.
- >It was also out of the way enough that not too many people came there.
- >That is, it was populated, but not popular.
- >Now, as you barrel toward it, you tense your body.
- >Straight onto the green!
- >The motorcycle jerks onto the sidewalk, past the gates, and off the stone path.
- >When your front wheel hits the grass, it starts tearing into the turf.
- >It digs ferociously into the same spot, but doesn’t move forward.
- >Your momentum bucks you off, and you go sprawling end over end into the grass.
- >Part of your impact gets your ankle screaming again, and you lay there.
- >You’re not getting up.
- >The others stop.
- >There are five of them, on four motorcycles.
- >Sugar and someone else got left behind so Indigo could make the trip.
- >She dismounts first, letting hers thump against the stone, and scrambles over to you.
- >Clenching your good fist tighter, you summon your Stand one more time.
- “「ABRACADABRA」!”
- >You say it loud enough to echo.
- >Indigo braces herself, but no space appears between you.
- >As soon as she sees that, she rushes over and grabs your wrist.
- >“Hand it over!”
- >She places a knee on your ankle, and you cry out.
- >Your hand spasms and opens involuntarily.
- >“…”
- >She looks at you, getting her face close.
- >“Where is it?”
- >You smile through the pain, if only because the lightheaded feeling is getting worse.
- >You wiggle your fingers in her grip and wink.
- “Presto.”
- >She’s losing it now.
- >“Where is it?! I saw it, you had it!”
- >She reaches into your pockets, crushing the crackers, but finding nothing.
- >You cough and speak.
- “I threw it underneath of the wheel when I went over. I-into the hole.”
- >A female voice you’ve never heard before calls over.
- >“It’s not in here!”
- “「Abracadabra」 put distance between it and the motorcycle. It’s one foot underground somewhere in this park, and only I, Trixie, know where.”
- >Indigo grabs you by the collar.
- >“Where?! Where is it?!”
- >You bitchslap her with your good hand, and then fall limp to the ground.
- >She recoils, partly in shock.
- >Before she can react, you turn your head to the others.
- “I don’t know how her Stand works, or why you want the stone, but if I die of an overdose you’ll never get to it. You’d better call Trixie an ambulance.”
- >They’re silent for a moment.
- >Indigo glances back at the one standing closest.
- >Something passes between them.
- >He nods.
- >She turns to you.
- >“This isn’t over!”
- >Then she rips the bike from the earth and sets it back on the path.
- >A few minutes later, paramedics arrive.
- >You’re the only one there.
- >By the time they load you into the car, you’re barely there.
- >But you’re alive, and the stone’s safe.
- >For now…
- 「To Be Continued」
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APGJM37aRy0 [Owner of a Lonely Heart (Stulp Phiction)]
- Stand: 「Abracadabra」
- User: Trixie
- Ability: Creates space between a pair of objects or surfaces.
- Stand: 「Nails for Breakfast」
- User: Indigo Zap
- Ability: Switches body parts with any person the user’s touched hands with.
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