'...what?'

Some of Nick's fury is quenched for a moment as he registers the absurd request of the vampire. He wants to see my... stand? Nick asks himself. Like a nightstand, or a music stand, or something? Yet he put so much importance on the word, like it meant something significant... The Kaiser Chief decides rather quickly that perhaps this is something to be figured out for another time, since right now, he has a vampire to slay.

'If you wanted a nightstand,' Nick continues soon enough, cracking his neck to try and regain his momentum, 'you should have gone to the furniture store! All you're going to get here is filled with daylight!' The Ripple Master takes a step back as he says this, breathing inward, his fists beginning to crackle with the life energy that is so lethal to the undead beings of the world, then throwing his palm forward toward the monstrosity's face with a yell of 'Wide Crack OVERDRIVE!' The technique, though not one of Nick's preferred punches, will nonetheless hit (if allowed to) with enough force to shatter a normal human's jaw on impact, forcing a shockwave of Ripple energy through the target, essentially striking the entire front of their body at once. In a normal human, this would forcibly fling them back quite some way; against an undead creature like this vampire, it will charge their entire bloodstream with the Ripple at once, instantly disintegrating them and ending their foul life on the spot, scattering their ashes to make sure those can't be recovered just to be sure.

@Kafka Komedy

A COLLAB POST BETWEEN Matteo DiAngelo and Malcolm MacTavish

The streets were uncharacteristically full of chatter and buzz on their way downtown, the sun beaitng down on them, the humidity wrapping around them like a heavy blanket, or so it seemed after their day. Matteo and Malcolm were heading down the street after leaving Malcolm's house. They had had a baseball game earlier that day so both were famished. Sure, a stand can help you play the game but it was still hell standing around in a field in the heat. Matteo pushed his hair out of his face and let out a playful whine.

"I'm so hungry... Where the hell is there to eat for..." he dug into his pockets and grabbed a handful of change and a couple of bills, "Five dollars and eighty-seven cents.".

"No worries man I can cover you this time around. Groping around his own wallet for any money, figuring he might have made an empty promise. Thankful though, he found two 20 dollar bills. Pulling them out showing Matteo with a half-hearted smile. "Well, we can't go anywhere fancy, and we'll probably have to buy items on the cheaper end but hey, it's something. I hear that Chinese restaurant close by has pretty good prices." Searching for the name of it in his mind, Malcolm suddenly hears it in wave of noise all around them. The name kept popping up. Malcolm stopped abruptly; now intently tuning in on the chatter.

"Golden Peking was just robbed."

"Someone at the Golden Peking was just shot."

"I heard the Kaisers where there"

"Dude I saw a girl appear outta a ball of light."

The last comment caught Malcolm's attention. He shot around, turning to Matteo. "I think we should go there but not for food. Everyone's talking about something crazy going down." Affirming his suspicions Malcolm heard faint sirens of police cars.

Matteo cocked an eyebrow at his friend and and smirked ever so slightly at the urgency in his voice. Of course this buzz wasn't for nothing, but he didn't think Malcolm of all people would be the one wanting to get them involved with it.

"I mean if you insist, but I still think we should see if we can get food. You can't eat mysteries and intrigue, you know." He knew the way there though, so he picked up the pace some and started to lead the way, weaving through the crowd as he did. The gossip was hard to ignore, and the general concensus seemed to be that the Golden Peking was a place to avoid. Rules be damned, Matteo supposed. If it meant something interesting happening in this town and they were going to get involved then he would bust through any barrier to get there, even if that was a mob of people gossiping like high school girls.

The Golden Peking was coming into sight, and it had seen better days for sure. Matteo slowed himself down slightly and felt something amiss in the area. He stopped for a second and turned to Malcolm, looking up just a bit to match his friends eyes.

"If things this weird have actually been happening, do you think we should get our shadows out? Just in case."

Taking a breath of the thick, dry air Malcolm contemplates the question, "Well I was thinking we can see other peoples shadows, meaning they can see ours. We can show them to the world but that might be a beacon to well," Malcolm takes a beat to try to think of the right word "unfavorable people. I say we only whip them out if we see other people's shadows out, or if we see them doing other types of weird shenanigans. For all we know other people's shadow's might be able to hide or be the size of an ant or something."

Malcolm was starting to get giddy which is dissimilar to his typical behavior. He's much more laid back and relaxed, only getting passionate about superheroes, music and baseball really. This sudden and very real prospect of other people having abilities excites him to no end. Unbeknownst to Malcolm his subconscious has plastered a smile onto his face.

This is all stripped away when they get closer to Golden Peking. Without needing much inspecting Malcolm notices the dead bodies litter in front of the restaurant. Never having seen a dead body (let alone multiple) the image of them were seared permanently into Malcolm's memories. "Oh shit."

All that talk about people possibly seeing their "shadows" was getting to him. Would they finally get to engage in more than a fleeting moment with someone with a similar power to theirs? It was exciting to say the least, but the childlike excitement was thrown off at the sight out front of the Golden Peking. He'd seen some grisly sights before but this one was just odd, how had it happened? He tried to shake it from his mind and simply continue on their destination. Hopefully this was everything they had hoped for. He saw a girl exit the restaurant and decided that maybe entering wasn't the best idea, but if they wanted answers then they'd have to get them somehow. He threw open the door and looked around at the almost empty venue, realizing it might be a little tactless to just walk in here after what was apparently a murder.

"Pardon me? Is there anyway anyone could tell me something about what ever the hell happened out there?" Yup, tactless.

Sabrina felt like she was too hard on the guy. He apologized and left. Something that she appreciated and yet felt bad about. She had just thrown him out with loud barking. That would turn bad on the image of the restaurant. Then again, there was a murder not too long ago and all that she wanted to do is keep all those noisy people out. She turned to Reinhardt and told him to leave once more.

@Eviledd1984
((Unless you react yourself, I just let your character leave))

Speaking of noisy people. This time it were two that barged in and acted like they needed to help. "For Pete's sake and all that is holy!" was all Sabrina could bark out, before she just slammed a fist on the counter and pointed at the door. "Will you noisy hillbilly pea peckers stop coming in like there are not some dead bodies outside and ask if everything's fine? I mean what the f- blue cat?"

She looked at the destroyed window sill and spotted a cat and indeed it was blue, idly licking its paw and meowing relaxed. It looked around without any care for the world and then simply jumped off of the window sill back outside. "That was a blue cat...", Sabrina muttered once more, pointing at the destroyed window.

Shaking her head, the girl barked another "Restaurant's closed! Out with you!" before walking to the back. With an almost comical slamming sound, Sabrina was almost thrown off by her mother coming out of the kitchen. The old woman - much like her daughter did - barked around that the restaurant is closed and that this place is peaceful and does not want any trouble.

The young woman on the other hand dashed off. She would need her Steel Balls and see what the fudgesickle is going on in this town. First a murder, then a blue cat, all at the same place. This cannot be coincidence, at least not from the girl's point of view. She would see to herself what is going on.

--------------------Somewhere else, near the Kaiser's hideout--------------------

A young man of punk-ish appearance walks an alleyway towards the Kaiser's hideout, kicking trash bins and other objects around. A baseball bat was at his disposal and his wonderful 「Courtesy Call」. Something to finally not get arrested anymore and do whatever one pleases.

A slightly drunk homeless person coughs up and spots the young man approaching. "Got some change, sir? Just a penny would be fine." The young man stopped in his track and turned to the homeless person. A bright grin painted on his face and he walked over to the person. "You think I am some kind of charity?"

He cracks his knuckles and mutters "「Courtesy Call」" from under his breath. Unbeknownst to the man, a creature emerged from the punk's body, cracking its knuckles like its owner. Like the man, the creature began brutally punching the homeless person. In the street, the loud banging sound of punches and the barks of "OH NO! OH NO! OH NO! OH NO!" can be heard, an "oh no" coming from the punk for almost each punch he dealt to the drunken sod.

When the man was almost passing out, the punk pulled back and readied a devastating uppercut, which he finished with barking "OH NO YOU DIDN'T!", making the man crash unto the ground, heavily bruised and passing out. The clothing from the man, which 「Courtesy Call」 had focused on punching, was 'repainted' in red, which quickly caught fire along with some trash around the guy. High-fiveing 「Courtesy Call」, the punk continued on his way to the Kaiser's hideout, whistling an innocent tune.

Rodger stepped out at his stop and waved to the bus driver as he made his way down the sidewalk in the sweltering heat. His stop wasn't very near his home. The city was reticent to place a stop directly within some of the lower class neighborhoods, but he didn't mind. Walking did a man good. He enjoyed it.

What he didn't enjoy was the sounds coming from an alleyway up ahead. It sounded like some kind of street fight and that wasn't something he wanted to get caught up in. It didn't surprise him to hear it, this being the Kaiser's territory. He slowed down to a casual stroll as he listened. Probably just some punkass who'd bitten off more than he could chew from the way he was begging. The Kaiser's wouldn't kill someone like that, but Rodger decided to wait around to see whether the poor guy could use some help afterwards. He leaned up against the wall and waited for the sounds of violence to stop.

When they did and he heard the sound of footfalls echoing away, he pushed himself off the wall, dusted himself off, and made his way into the maze of alleys that he'd heard the sounds from. It was then that he noticed the smell, the distinctive smell of burning trash. That was odd, and he quickened his pace. He sniffed the air, the smell getting stronger and stronger until it lead him to the scene. He saw the fire.

At first he was confused. Why was someone burning trash in an alleyway? Did the person the Kaiser had beaten do this? But then why would they leave the fire if they'd taken care of the firebug? He rushed forward, intending to put the fire out, when the relity of the situation came into sharp clarity.

"Oh my god!" Rodger yelled as he recognized the form that was wreathed in flames. "「VITALOGY!」" The Stand leaped into action in an instant, dragging the man (he thought it was a man) out of the fire around him and hastily beating at the flames, trying to put him out. It a few moments Rodger realized that was useless, and willed his Stand to tear off the mans flaming clothes. It wouldn't have been hard even if they weren't weakened by fire damage, and he tossed them into a corner of the alley before Vitalogy began working to snuff out him flaming hair.

Once the man was out Rodger knelt down and pressed his ear against the mans (yes he was certainly a man) mouth. He had to see. He had to check to see if the man was still breathing. Was he? Was he!? He couldn't tell! Either this guy was dead or his breathing was so shallow he may as well be. Rodger slipped a seed out of the packet in his pocket. The old guy had burns over most of his body, ruined skin everywhere you looked. This was not going to be pretty.

"Sorry about this." Rodger said breathlessly. Technically he had nothing to apologize for but that wasn't going to make this any more pleasant. A full body healing never was. He tossed the seed to Vitalogy and in an instant the Stand had grabbed it and plunged it deep into the mans chest.

The man began to convulse and spasm almost as soon as the seed had gone in, and Rodger placed his hand in the guys mouth and held him down to keep him from hurting himself anymore. The first to fill up was the small hole that Vitalogy had made to plant the seed, a small white flower blooming up out of it. Rodger felt his hand slide freely over the mans chest as his ruined skin shed off of him, revealing a new layer of green underneath. His hand was forced from the mans mouth from a volcanic eruption of throat and lung tissue was expelled to make way for a new layer made of roots and leaves. The mans hair grew even grew back, green with the occasional flower poking out of it. When the man finally stopped shaking and Rodger was able to sit back, he was unrecognizable from the charred mess he had been. He might even look healthier than before someone set him on fire. Even the cavities in his teeth would have been repaired by the power of Vitalogy. Rodger had no idea if this man would ever look like a normal person again. He supposed that the guy would shed his green skin and hair as his body healed, but who knew if the internal damage could be repaired naturally by the body. That is, if this guy was still alive.

Rodger bent down over the man again. "Hey, buddy?" He said desperately, shaking him a little. "Come on guy, talk to me if you can. Are you all right?" He put his ear down next to the mans mouth again, to check his breathing.

(I'm going to let @Dark Eternity decide whether this man is dead or alive)

(*Edit* He lives!)

Rodger nearly collapsed with relief when he heard the old timer taking in deep, steady breaths.

The man was understandably upset about his new condition, but Rodger was able to placate him. Rodger had been right, the man was healthier than he had been before the fire. No more back pain, no more two pack a day voice, no more loose teeth. After a few minutes of talking the man told Rodger everything he remembered about the attack, which wasn't much. A young punk had indeed been the cause of the disturbance, but as to his features and how he had set the man on fire there was only a blank spot in his memory. The only notable thing he remembered was a phrase the punk had said before he'd started pounding him.

"Courtesy Call."

It was because of those words that Rodger was now pounding down the alley with considerably more spring in his step than when he'd heard the beating. He and the man had parted ways, Rodger leaving him with only instructions to find some place sunny and drink lots of fluids. And the money Rodger had meant to spend at the Golden Peking today. Rodger had even repaired his pants. The man hadn't wanted to go to the police. Even if they looked past both the freakishness and homelessness to believe his story, they weren't going to put much effort into finding some punk that beat up hobos.

But Rodger, whose apathy had almost gotten that poor man killed, felt like he had to find him. He hoped it was just a normal punk. He prayed that this was just some normal psychopath. Courtesy Call wasn't exactly an odd thing to say before beating someone up, if you squinted and turned your head a little bit, but Rodger was already jumpy. He's seen men dead in the street and had met another Stand User already today.

He hadn't seen anyone come out of the alley the way he'd gone in so if he followed this path quickly he could probably lay eyes on the punk, and when he did find him the two of them were going to have words.

@Dark Eternity

"Fine fine you just have to ask nicey...." Reinhardt said shaking his head walking out of the restaurant,Today was quite exciting and this was something that was going to make his day.This would be something that he would write about in his journal,Making his way outside of the restaurant taking a cigarette pack out of his pocket pulling one of the death sticks form the pack and lazily resting it in his mouth.

Lighting up and blowing smoke rings out of his mouth taking deep breaths trying to clam himself down.

Milo's ecstasy quickly dropped off as he registered Nick's confusion. It was a particularly straightforward request, maybe this man wasn't as smart as once thought. His mention of nightstands confirmed he knew not the power he wielded, but at the mention of sunlight, Milo was on edge. The man reeled back and breathed in, before launching an attack. His entire fist was covered in some bizarre lightning, and, although Milo dodged, his confusion left him a little more open. Luckily, jets of blood exploded from his legs, flinging him back far enough to avoid the strike. From where it almost hit him, he could feel it. The distinctive feeling of a UV ray. This man wielded the power of the sun.

"Bound Stand- or was it Integrated?" He asked aloud, on guard, but still wrapped up in his own mind. "Either way, you don't seem to know what that is. A 「STAND」. An extension of one's self. Or so they say." Milo explained, sure of the information he had gathered. He spun 「HEART OF GLASS」 Around on his finger, feigning lackadaisy. "This glass box is one too, 「HEART OF GLASS」. It refuses to obey me, but I know it is powerful. You will help me unlock it, so I can destroy my father."

As Milo explained himself, he heard something outside, close to the hideout. It sounded odd, like something had suddenly caught fire, and he heard shouts. But he was sure it was nothing, this was a gang street, and though the Kaisers put on a good act, they had some bad apples. Must have. Still, Milo stayed on guard from all sides, ready to dodge the stand user or any others that would join the fray.

The blood jets were certainly a smart move on the vampire's part. What it proved to Nick was that this fight was going to be rather tougher than the fight against Baines; this guy was clearly a lot more intelligent and crafty than his prior foe, who had barely figured out how to extend his blood vessels out of his body for a longer-ranged attack. And then again, he kept on going on about "stands"... no, 「Stands」. Again, the emphasis on that word made it seem exceptionally important, and it seemed like the vampire was spinning something around on his finger, something apparently called 「Heart Of Glass」... and yet Nick saw nothing but air, despite its description as a glass box. What was going on here? Was the vampire attempting to trick him, or... or was there perhaps some other supernatural ability that Nick had not been privy to up until now?

And then he heard the commotion outside, and realised the vampire's ploy. His presence was a distraction, so he could sneak his zombies into the warehouse under cover of daylight and sneak attack the Kaisers at night, when the undead were at their strongest! 'Hah, nice try!' Nick exclaimed. 'As if I'd help a vampire like you do anything, especially after trying to sneak your ghouls into my abode! How about you stay there, and I'll get back to you in a moment, huh?' Nick felt rather proud of himself for figuring out this plan, and perhaps a bit cocky given the assumption that the vampire would stay put until he returned, but he had zombies to deal with, and no time to waste. He charged toward the nearest window, stopped to open it up and climb out, then began running toward the source of the noise, hoping to catch whatever overly sun-shielded zombie presented itself to him, so he could pummel daylight into it. Or just tear the clothes off the walking corpses, since they were so stupid as to come out in the light in the first place.

@Kafka Komedy@Dark Eternity

The punk made his way through the alley, knowing all too well that at close to the end of the back alley, he'd find a door to the left and that would allow him to get to the Kaisers' hideout. With a big grin on his lips, he kept walking, his Stand 「Courtesy Call」 floated next to him, halfheartedly imitating its owner's movement. The baseball, which he did not use against the homeless guy, was resting on his right shoulder, timidly tapping against his right hand.

Before he could take the second to last turn, he heard footsteps behind him. For a moment he thought like he missed something, like he did not beat up the guy properly, but then he looked at 「Courtesy Call」 and shook his head. Nevertheless, he heard the footsteps, and some more coming from the way he was heading.

Damn, the Kaisers heard this.

Kicking off the lid from a trash can, he made his Stand throw up some of the trash inside of it. With a smile, he observed the trash in the air before he made 「Courtesy Call」 punch most of it. The paper trash it hit were recolored in a green shade and some cans and plastic packages were recolored red. Then with a swing of his bat, the punk tossed the trash into the direction of the Kaisers' hideout to keep whoever would show up from engaging too soon. Of course, a little fire would not last too long as a hindrance. Enough to get the person that is following the punk to piss off.

As he walked back the way he came to face his stalker, the trash that he spread into the alley was reacting. The green trash began to grow, as if tiny pieces of the original were growing unto the main part, almost as if a tumorous mutation was occurring, while the red trash looked like it started to melt. Some pieces were close together and the red pieces seemed to be hot enough to ignite the green paper pieces, quickly making patches of fire. It would not develop into a complete fire wall, but it would take some courage to dash through there, or at least some time to extinguish every piece.

Rodger's nose twitched as he shouldered his way through the door, the smell hitting him like a sack of bricks. More fire. A quite fear settled in his stomach and he pressed on, following his nose.

He rounded the corner and found himself face to face with a young guy, back lit by a ranging fire that consumed the alley behind him. Floating behind him, like some sort of guardian angel, was his Stand. Rodger bit his lip. This was bad. He had hoped that this was just some ordinary psychopath, but now it was a psychopath with an drawn and deadly weapon. His only luck was that their path had taken them so close to the Kaisers hangout, but he had no idea whether that was good luck or bad luck. They couldn't exactly fight someone like this, no matter how tough they were. You couldn't beat something you didn't understand.

But Rodger did hold one real advantage. Vitalogy wasn't out. He was by all accounts an ordinary man. He acted the part. "Oh my god." He shouted while approaching, using his hand to shield him from the heat. "Are you okay? What was it, some sort of gang violence? Was anyone hurt?"

All he had to do was bring that guy into Vitalogy's range and take him down before he realized what was happening.

Milo growled as, again, Nick stood their, befuddled in some manner. Though this man discerned Milo was a vampire immediately, he couldn't seem to even grasp what was happening. He didn't even glance at the 「Heart Of Glass」, just in its general direction. Could he not see it? He wielded that special power, but... something didn't add up. None of this was making any sense, and Milo hated not knowing things! He would get to the bottom of this.

Nick interrupted Milo's train of thought, denying his command and insisting Milo had attempted to sneak zombies into the warehouse. A poor theory. Firstly, minions created loose ends. It was always Milo's policy to knock someone unconscious before draining them of some of their blood. No dead bodies piling up, no zombies that could wander out of the house. Besides, such an odd plan would never work. Nick would obviously notice something was amiss, or one of his lackeys. That didn't stop the Kaiser Chief from bolting from the warehouse and hopping out a window.

Milo huffed, before re equipping himself with his trenchcoat and gloves, and following the gang leader out through the window. The two of them were greeted with flaming trash, a horrible stench that filled the alley. Milo quickly disabled his own nose, before investigating his surroundings. Nick was standing there, near Milo, and opposite of them was a common man, albeit one with horrible fashion sense. In between the all of them was a young man with a mohawk, and hovering to his side, was a Stand.

It was a mechanical looking thing, gears and sprockets evident from the small breaks in it's metal shell. Peering through 「HEART OF GLASS」 confirmed the punk looking man was, indeed, the owner. Milo decided that the man could be useful, and waited to see his abilities. Something still bothered him though, so he asked Nick a question. "Do you see that robotic creature hovering by that punk?"

It didn't take long to notice the smell of burning garbage near the warehouse, and it only got worse as it came in sight. On the other side of the wall of flames were two people: some punk-looking jackass with no relation to the Kaisers at all, most likely the firestarter himself, and a more middle-aged person trying to talk the kid down. That wasn't good; from the looks of things, the kid was more than willing to beat up people out of his age group, and if Nick couldn't get to him before then... also, that fire could well burn down the Kaisers' warehouse if it wasn't put out soon, and then what?

And then there was the goddamn vampire, asking him about some robotic creature hovering by the punk. Again with that 「Stand」 stuff! What the hell was he talking about? At the very least, he could deflect attention from the question: 'You and your one-track mind,' he stated nonchalantly. 'I ought to flick that hat off your head, let you burn up in the sun, you creep.' And speaking of burning, Nick had just thought of a way to solve multiple problems at once: it seemed like all the trash had been clumped together a bit to create that fire wall, so if he could get it to stick together some...

Time slowed to a relative crawl again, as Nick took a step back, then ran full speed toward the wall of flames, charging the energy of the Sun into his right foot specifically, then skidding on his left to a point just before the blaze where it was closest to the warehouse as he kicked out at it, the Ripple coarsing through the trash pile (and shielding his foot from the worst of the blaze) and finding just enough biological waste to clump most of that side of the wall together neatly... though it seemed like most of it was already stuck together anyway? Odd, but it hardly mattered; the clump of burning garbage had been sent soaring, on a direct collision course with the punk kid himself, and even if he noticed and turned to whack it away with his bat in time, all he'd really end up achieving would be spraying burning refuse across a wider area... and from the looks of things, Nick supposed the older guy would be shielded from any spray by the punk's body. He'd help put him out after the fact if not.

"Some bastards came into the place and robbed it i thought people would know that by now thanks to the leeches coming here right away" A voice could be heard behind the two men, Standing behind Malcolm and Matteo was Reinhardt who was towering above them with a scold on his face. "I think it would be best we leave before the old woman or the girl comes and yells at us to leave...i will tell you what happens over at that cafe?" The tall blonde said calmly pointing to the cafe across the street with his thumb.

He needed some place to speak with someone since he was very excited, Usually nothing exciting happens in his life. But this robbery had gotten him excited and he needed to talk to someone about it.

@Gentlemanvaultboy
The punk gave the man in front of him a look like he could hardly understand. "Huh~?" He tapped the baseball bat and grinned at Rodger. With just one step taken closer, he already readied the bat to be swung. "Who the f*** do you think you are dealing with, huh? I am the guy about to kick your sorry ass if you don't leave now!"

@Kafka Komedy@BCTheEntity
The trash that Nick lifted and kicked over to the punk was on the way of hitting him. Hearing this happening, the punk only peeked over his shoulder a moment, making sure that 「Courtesy Call」 could take aim properly. Turning in an instant and punching the trash pieces one after another, the 「Stand」 screaming "Oh no!" with each punch in a metallic echo that could belong to the user. Each piece was once more recolored, this time in a blue shade, which extinguished the fire from the trash and made them look like they were frozen solid.

「Courtesy Call」 turned back to Roger a moment, aiming for a larger piece of trash, which it gave a good punch aimed straight for the man. The Stand once more added the peculiar "Oh no you didn't" line from before, as the punch connected and launched the projectile. The punk on the other hand waited for the trash to pass him, before he made his way over to Rodger with the baseball already aimed for a powerful swing.

--------------------Somewhere else--------------------

Sabrina left home, Steel Balls in her fashioned belt pouches. Even her special ones were with her. A total set of ten fist-sized Steel Balls rest on her hips. Talking about overcompensating, but that's how Sabrina trained herself. Even her teacher was not very fond of this idea, scolding her from time to time about the weight issues she would have to deal with, sometimes referring to her rather cropped clothing and the fear of exposing. She didn't care. A distraction could turn the tides in her favor quickly.

With these items and a strong determination to find the blue cat, Sabrina made her way through town. She passed the restaurant, seeing the cops already clearing the place and making a few last photos of the area. She knew her mother would explain everything to the policemen. No need for her to be there.

Then her stomach grumbled.

Sighing, the girl almost passed the cafe that was across the restaurant. "Eh~ You can't fight with an empty stomach, stupid", she complained to herself, giving a fake punch to her temple. Entering the cafe, she takes a stand in line, wallet in one hand, a spinning Steel Ball timidly circling on top of her index finger of her other hand, like people usually do it with a basket ball.

((This should happen roughly ten minutes+ after Reinhardt and the rest got into the cafe, IF they did))

Hesitation was something understandable and forgivable, but ten seconds had already passed since the silence between Rachel and Vinnie became awkward. The brown haired woman ignored his glove, said nothing, and didn’t even seem to really notice him at all. All desire to sustain a conversation with this person drained out of Vinnie as if someone had pulled the bath plug. Without a single word exchanged, the two people steered around one another and continued on with their lives as if the meeting had never occurred. Now wearing a frown, Vinnie pulled his glove back on. “Today’s just not my day…”

Had he assembled a list of different leads he could pursue, he might have been able to simply move on down to the next point of interest, but following the heartily disappointing ‘encounter’ with Rachel, Vinnie’s figurative to-do list lay blanker than a high school student’s expression on the first day of Calculus. In the spirit of trying to discover something new, however, he settled for walking downtown to an area of Angel Springs he practically never visited. Nothing in his heart set him against this zone, but other than driving past it on his way to work each morning he never found a reason to consider it. On the way, he suddenly gave a smile to the blue sky, thankful for the temperate weather today that meant he wouldn’t sully his suit jacket with perspiration.

In less than five minutes at a casually intent pace he arrived at the unfamiliar district, a more claustrophobic area of the town than the area containing the Golden Peking. Following a spur-of-the-moment gut feeling, he turned left down the mainstreet, and found himself surrounded by old, run-down buildings. Every structure here felt dingier yet more cultural than those of the pristine, very modern districts of Angel Springs. The people here, too, sported a somewhat distinct look from the typical town inhabitant. Poorer families and a more closely-knit community meant that new trends in fashion caught on like wildfire and mutated just as quickly to produce fashions that were paradoxically uniform and unique at the same time. Vinnie guessed that, even if gangs didn’t dominate this area of town, that sort of lifestyle held a substantial influence on the way people acted. Here, the restraint and niceties of the clean, organized parts of town dissolved. Everything, Vinnie thought, gave off the impression of emotion, vigor, rawness—in short, personality. The same sort of intimate local culture one might expect to find in a rural town that lived by its own rules seemed nestled here in the city’s heart. All this fascinated Vinnie, but as a definite oddball around here, he kept both eyes open.

In fact, to avoid sticking out like a sore thumb walking along the street, he detoured onto a sidestreet under construction to take a look around without scrutiny. Immediately he noticed that pretty much nobody inhabited this little avenue, and it outdid the rest of the district in grunginess. Interested in what might lead to such a distinction, he sauntered down the sidewalk with commendable posture and his hands in his pockets until he spotted two individuals leaning against a building comprised mostly of dark gray bricks. They were speaking freely to one another, and to Vinnie they seemed rather drunk for it being so early in the day. Their clothes, halfway between casual and formal, could have belonged to someone of pretty much any profession. Vinnie could imagine them behind the counter of a video shop, convenience store, pool hall, whatever. In short, they did not stand out in any respect except for their exuberant mannerisms, and Vinnie didn’t pay them much mind.

A noise drew his attention. Across the torn-up road, a door set in a building that Vinnie assumed to be closed had opened, and from it walked two women opposite him. Neither one appeared to notice him, which suited him just find, because for a moment he couldn’t stop staring. Accentuated by their similar choices of clothing the ladies’ ample chests bulged prominently and actually bounced with each step. After a brief moment, Vinnie noticed other things. Their hair, auburn with dyed green streaks, matched exactly, and their eyes shone the same color in the light of a sunny noon: acidic lime green. Had Vinnie not known better, in fact, he would have said that their eyes glowed with an almost radioactive luminescence. He watched them strut straight toward the two drunk-looking men, whom Vinnie suddenly noticed had sobered up. After a moment, the two pairs stood opposite one another, and the whole scene took on a menacing tone. This is too weird… the besuited onlooker thought worriedly, only realizing a moment later that he was looking for weird. Feeling the tension and wondering what might happen, he stowed himself out of sight to observe.

The silence was broken by one of the women. “Last I checked, the boss doesn’t like losers hangin’ around his crib like TV gumshoes on stakeout. Think you boys oughta run home before things get messy?”

With a chuckle, the man in sunglasses replied, “If we didn’t want you to find us this time, we woulda tried a little harder to hide, doncha think? Maybe it’s time the four of us hit the town. How’s a double date sound?”

The other woman tossed her hair angrily and crossed her arms beneath her busom, turning sideways. Her companion turned the other way, putting both hands behind her head. “Big talker, huh? You won’t like getting smashed with us.” She breathed in deeply through her teeth and called, “「Bottoms Up」!”

“「Gin and Juice」!”

“「Capitol King」!”

“「Lynyrd Skynyrd」!”

Vinnie saw four distinct flashes, but afterward, he couldn’t believe his eyes. Not one but four ghostly things appeared, one for each person he saw. Two of them were strange; above the long-haired woman’s shoulders floated what looked like a teapot with four legs, four disturbingly human eyes, and a tongue coming from the spout, and the pigtailed woman now held a fancy serving dish with a strange champagne glass on it. The remaining two, however, nearly caused Vinnie’s eyes to bug out of his skull. The man with sunglasses stood side by side with an animatronic gladiator with dull grayish-brown armor and tomato-red flesh. A huge helmet not unlike a kettle with holes drilled in completely obscured the head. Meanwhile, the bespectacled man in a polo shirt stood above a crouching robotic butcher, complete with apron. Each of its hands exhibited only two fingers, albeit long, segmented, and thin enough to be razors, and instead of a head it appeared to sport a giant potato peeler with hammerhead-esque eyes on either end. As ludicrous as these things looked, these four looked intent on some kind of fight. Vinnie Pantera, meanwhile, dared not breathe. The reality of other spirits existing, and responding to their hosts by name, had just settled in, and he would rather die than miss what happened next.

Rodger almost called out when the leader of the Kaisers appeared behind the flames, blasting a chunk of it off toward the punk, but bit his tongue. Not that it mattered because the punks Stand had noticed anyway, putting out the fire with a flurry of blows. No, wait, that wasn't right, he'd done something to it. At least Rodger didn't have any more doubt that this was the man that had set the hobo on fire. That battle cry was unmistakable.

He tried to run forward while his back was turned, but then the Stand finished up its combat by knocking the now now blue clump of garbage at him. He didn't have a choice, he couldn't block that with his arms. Another arm erupted out of his, whipping out to knock the projectile into the sky. He brought up his arms and a bold of pain as the bat impacted him in the forearm. That didn't matter though. He was close enough.

Vitalogy exploded out of him, off to the side, and whipped its arms out at the punks Stand from either side intent on wrapping it up. At the same time he drew back his other arm and threw a punch right at the punks chest. If he could knock the user off balance his Stand might not be able to retaliate, and if he could wrap the Stand than the user wouldn't be able to move.

'Well, that went swimmingly,' Nick muttered sarcastically to himself as... well, he could only describe the event as "freezing the burning trash", or at least extinguishing the flames, all of which ended up dropping to the ground, save a single piece inexplicably flung toward the older man. Which, alas, left the guy open to being badly injured, or so it would seem. Evidently, there was no time to waste: with but a few meters between Nick and the other two, the Kaiser Chief charged round the wall of fire, ready to beat the crap out of the punk, who to him was little more than another bully.

Or, better yet... in the short time it took Nick to complete the distance, he managed to pop the top off the oil cylinder, then draw out with his other hand the oil-soaked bat which was his signature weapon before replacing the top on the tube. The Ripple coarsed through the weapon, lending it and its user force and damage, and as he drew near, Nick gave a yell of 'Rainbow Smash OVERDRIVE!', using the force of his charge to increase the power of his swing toward the punk's head in an effort to K.O. him good and proper. Little did Nick know, of course, that this could well prove itself the other half of an effective pincer attack, given that the young man could hardly use his Stand to defend against both Nick's assault and the middle-aged guy's own Stand, never mind whatever the vampire was doing.

@Gentlemanvaultboy@Kafka Komedy@Dark Eternity

A gruff huff escaped Milo's mouth as Nick dodged Milo's question and then insulted him. He briefly wondered if the Kaiser was truly worth keeping around if he had no idea what a 「Stand」 was and kept threatening his life. But Nick had yet to make good on his threats, and that power he possessed was just the thing to get rid of his father. Though the Kaiser would not be a good teacher, as a weapon, it was too good an opportunity to pass up.

Nick displayed his power again as he launched forward at a quick speed, not faster than Milo obviously but, Milo digressed. The lumped together garbage was swiftly launched at the assailant like a huge fireball. The young man turned around at this, for just a quick second, to assess the situation. After that, that metallic creature, his stand, launched an attack. Each of the strikes colored the refuse blue. The splattered trash extinguished itself once the colors were applied. Was this his ability? To freeze things? Seemed possible, certainly. Lastly, the man's stand launched one of the frozen clumps of garbage at the flower-y man, while also charging at him, bat at the ready.

Simultaneously, both the flower-y man and Nick went on the offensive. Nick charged at the punk from behind, unsheathing a bat of his own, charging it with the power of the sun with his Stand. Pink on the other hand, revealed he too, had a stand, an odd looking thing with lanky arms and a mask-like face. Though the two would surely be able to combat the punk with ease, Milo would stand by, at the ready, just in case he had to launch a Shine Beam or two.

@Gentlemanvaultboy@Kafka Komedy

The pincer attack would have had an admirable effect on the punk, as the combination of surprise and brute force may well have gotten to him before he could react. Unfortunately, 「Courtesy Call」 was substantially faster than 「Vitalogy」, and the punk saw the attempted grapple coming very quickly.

'You've left yourself wide open, you old geezer!' he yelled into Rodger's face, his Stand charging directly at 「Vitalogy」, and delivering a barrage of punches to its unprotected chest, accompanied by yet another repeated "Oh no!" emerging from the Stand, and each hit transforming the colour of the Stand- and Rodger himself, via the Stand's transitive quality- to something random; this time, though, its final yell of "Oh no you didn't!" was accompanied by a kick to the chest of Rodger himself, throwing the human back even as the Stand was propelled in Nick's direction. Should Rodger have looked upon himself at that moment, he'd see that his entire body- though notably not his clothes- was a bright green colour, akin to what is usually considered the basic green on an art program like MS Paint, and despite the situation's severity and the pain of bruises emanating from his chest after the damage he'd taken, he'd find himself incapable of feeling any emotion other than sheer, unadulterated happiness, comparable to the sensation of learning you're going to be a father or a grandfather, though more abstract for its lack of focus.

As 「Courtesy Call」 passed the punk, it grabbed the bat from its owner's hand, and held it at both ends like a shield over the punk's head just as Nick's own bat fell upon it. Naturally, the bat bent slightly against the stronger impact, not helped by the surge of life powering its movement, but it held well enough, and the Ripple energy that would have surged through the psychopath's skull instead passed through the bat, and promptly fizzled out against his Stand's fingers, unable to harm the entity.

---

'What the-?'

'Aaah, Nick Rix, the Kaiser Chief himself! Exactly who I wanted to talk to. Hmm, tingly.' With a shove, 「Courtesy Call」 pushed back against Nick's attack, throwing him off and sending him skidding back a short distance.

'Well, that's not normal,' Nick stated blithely, noting the opponent's own baseball bat as it returned to its usual shape, only to float back into the punk's hand. Was that, perhaps, related to...? 'Maybe this is a stab in the dark,' Nick asked, 'but you just fused some garbage together and set it on fire, then turned that older guy green and made your bat float in mid-air. Would that happen to be the effects of a, ahem, 「Stand」?'

'Ooooh, so you HAVE heard of those!' the punk lambasted, grinning with wide eyes that showed off his heterochromic irises. 'And I was told you didn't have one of your own... though if how useless that lightning you just produced is anything to go by, is that still a wrong assumption?'

'...let's just say I'm new to the concept,' he admitted, not wanting to show off just how new to it he was. 'But trust that if my Ripple had hit you directly, you'd be toast. Now what do you want?'

'Well, hang on, I haven't even introduced myself yet! Rude bitches don't get treats.'

'What did you just call me?!'

'They call me Leeroy Jenkins, yes like the internet video. Now, I dislike gangs,' he began, ignoring Nick's anger. 'Actually, that's a lie, I fucking HATE gangs. If I had my way, I'd beat you to death right here, and walk away without a care. But, I actually need to talk to you about something pretty important, without those two pricks getting involved.' He gestured behind him, at the middle-aged man who had been the victim of Leeroy's assault, and then again at the vampire standing somewhere behind Nick, not that he even knew vampires existed. 'Do you mind making them fuck off so we can chat in private?'

'Hey, free country, I don't control them,' the Kaiser Chief responded, shrugging with bat still in hand, and not feeling particularly co-operative at that moment. 'And I imagine at least one of them is pretty upset with you right now. Isn't that right, mister green skin back there?' he called to Rodger, evidently unaware of what effect Leeroy's 「Courtesy Call」 had had upon the mechanic.

"Wha?" Rodger said, coughing and sputtering to pull some wind back into his lungs. He looked over at the Kaiser Chief, and smiled. He liked the Kaiser Chief. In a gang full of good boys he was by far the goodest of the boys. Rodger gave him a smile, and waved, the bent over and clutched his chest. He looked up again and saw the punk. He liked the punk. In a city full of punks he was undoubtedly the punkiest. He gave him a smile and a wave. "Nah man, he's cool. This guy can do crazy things. Damn fast too, holy cow." He then laughed until it devolved into a coughing fit. He leaned back against his wall and looked up at the sky. God it was a beautiful day. The sky was beautiful. The clouds were beautiful. The world was beautiful.

"You guys, you go off and do your thing. I'm gonna chill right here. Hey kid," he called out to the kid in the big hat. He liked the kid in the big hat. Of all the hats in the city his was undeniably the biggest. "You want to hang out while they talk?"

@Kafka Komedy@BCTheEntity