Chapter 15: Say It Ain't So
Anna-Rose had been shaken up after hearing about the battle with Copy, the assassin Stand with no user. "You two are lucky to be alive, I swear. The fact that Stand could be held in by physical objects is almost a miracle."
"Hey, it couldn't be recalled, right?" Delaware chuckled. "I thought it through."
Anna-Rose nodded, looking out at the heavy rain outside. A summer storm. Humid, windy, and horrible. Daisy snickered a little. "This makes me feel at home, y'know? The only kind of rains I'd ever seen as a kid were hot ones. Put up with it."
"You sure you didn't take Australian weather with you on that plane?" Anna-Rose peered over her large book. Daisy shrugged.
"Hey, it might be global warming kicking in, finally." She flicked on the television. "Anyone wanna watch something in particular?"
Delaware walked over, looking at the television guide. "Nothing here tickles my fancy."
"Okay…" Daisy sighed, turning on a dumb comedy. "Something for background noise, I guess." Thunder struck outside, and Anna-Rose jumped out of her seat, prompting Daisy to begin giggling uncontrollably.
"What's so funny?" Anna-Rose was still startled.
"Oh my god, that was amazing! I can't believe that scared you!" Daisy completely lost it, falling on the floor in laughter. Anna-Rose sighed.
"You're the worst, Daisy." She kicked her friend lightly.
Daisy wiped her face, standing up. "Okay, okay." She stared out the window. "God, it's horrible out today. Really windy."
"Put up with it." Anna-Rose chuckled. She looked over, and at that moment she saw a shadow cast upon the wall. It wasn't being made by anything, and it shifted of its own accord. From that shadow, an arm toting a switchblade rose out of the wall, and readied itself to attack Daisy. "Look behind you, Daisy!"
She turned, and saw nothing. "Ha ha, funny. What was that for?" Anna-Rose bit her upper lip. The shadow's arm had faded back into the wall.
"Daisy, I think someone's in here with us. A Stand user." She looked around. "He can turn into shadows, or something. He was going to attack you."
"You're seeing things. Clean your glasses or something. How could a Stand user get in here without any of us noticing?" Daisy sighed, but Anna-Rose quickly interjected.
"He could have been here since we walked in! He can probably hide quite easily if you don't look closely enough-" Suddenly, a thrown knife hit Anna-Rose in the stomach. Daisy looked to where the knife was thrown from, to see a grown man, half-embedded in the wall and covered by a dark cloak.
"You… Delaware, fix her up." She summoned Bullet With Butterfly Wings and fired her stinger at the man, who phased back inside the wall. "What the hell? What kind of Stand is that?"
Anna-Rose breathed heavily as Delaware patched up her wound using They Might Be Giants to quickly clot her blood. "He's a shadow on the wall… you can catch him by making sure he doesn't leave your sight."
Just then, another lightning strike hit, and the power went out.
"Shit." Anna-Rose grumbled. "Okay, now we have a problem."
Daisy sighed. "That strike of lightning gives us a reason to be afraid, I guess… or not, you know." Daisy's body began to glow. "Plenty of insects have bioluminescence, including fireflies. This will let us see if he's attacking but not where he is."
"How helpful," Anna-Rose hissed.
"You got a better idea?" Daisy shot a glare at her friend.
"I suppose I don't." The physicist looked away a little.
Delaware chimed in. "So, wait. Lemme get this straight. We're fighting a dude with an ability where he can become darkness… while in the dark." He sighed. "We're dead."
"Don't use that kinda attitude!" Daisy chuckled, trying to raise spirits despite the dire situation. "We'll be fine, just hold onto some hope." She gulped. The shine coming off of her body grew brighter, as she looked around for shadows that didn't match any existing objects.
Anna-Rose stood slowly, summoning Eulogy to her side. "You're afraid, aren't you? Your whole body is shaking." She grabbed onto Daisy's shoulders, both to keep her upright and steady her friend's nerves. "Calm down. He'll beat you if you freak out." After a moment, she pulled her hands away. "…your skin is thinner. You're creating this light for us at your own risk." She rubbed her eyes a little. "I don't understand why you do this kind of thing."
Daisy smiled weakly. "If I can do something to help somebody, there's no sense in not doing it."
"You follow that philosophy to a fault. I'm incredibly glad we met the way we did, Daisy." She sighed. "Well, let's leave the sentiments behind for a moment and think about the matter at hand. How on Earth are we supposed to fight this guy when he attacks so stealthily?"
"You have the best reactions, so I guess you'll have to keep a lookout." Daisy continued to check all around the three of them. "Delaware, can you get the door open from over here?"
Delaware nodded. "You got it." He slowly unlocked and opened Daisy's apartment door. Anna-Rose was the first to sprint out into the dark corridor, Daisy swiftly following. Delaware left last, locking the door behind him. "Okay, what now?"
"This space is more narrow. Less places to attack in secret." Daisy was still shivering. "Ugh. There's not enough light." She kicked off her stockings and undid the top button on her dress to let a bit more light out.
"Uh, we could use some more." Delaware looked around in worry. Daisy slapped the back of his head. "Right, sorry."
Daisy was suitably annoyed. "God, think before you speak. This is as much light as I'm willing to give."
"You'd rather die?" Anna-Rose asked, looking into Daisy's eyes. The entomologist looked down a little, her thin cheeks going a little pink.
"Well, my core gives off less light, because of organs and such. It's not worth the shame, really. Plus, nobody wants to see my intestines."
"Some people might-" Delaware immediately bit his tongue.
Daisy shook her head. "At least we're staying jovial."
Anna-Rose looked around slowly. "Where do you think he'll come from?"
Delaware thought for a moment. "Well, Daisy's not the tallest, so he'd get the best angle up on the ceiling, right?"
The two girls looked at each other, then they looked up. A pistol was pointing out of the ceiling directly at them. They scattered as the first shot was fired, Daisy falling because of the lack of muscle she had to allow in her legs to give the amount of light she was. Anna-Rose tossed a steel ball up at the pistol, and hit it dead-on. It was because of the glint of light coming off of it that gave it away. The hand, now clutching a broken pistol, pulled back into the wall. The lights flickered back on.
"What? How?" Anna-Rose was startled.
Delaware smirked. "Well, these lights aren't incandescent, but the fuses are all made of metal. I just switched some switches from up here."
"You know where the fuse box is?"
"Of course. All tenants get a floor plan of the complex, and I studied mine." He helped Daisy up, who was essentially acting as a lit target.
Daisy sighed, before beginning to glow a bit green. "Oh god, someone get a bucket or something…" Delaware yanked over a trash can from across the corridor, which Daisy promptly vomited neon colour into. "I don't think that's normal…"
Anna-Rose sighed. "Daisy, the lights are on, just turn back already." Daisy stood wearily, and turned herself back to normal.
"I'm never doing that again. I felt really sick."
Delaware bit his lip a little. "I think you lost weight. Your arms and legs look really weak."
Daisy sighed, moving her limbs around a little bit. "I guess I must have. At least it kept us alive, at the end of the day… That, and Anna's speed." She smiled at her friend, who was still very distressed at her condition.
"Daisy, you need a hospital. You're really underweight. You seriously can't be here in that condition." Anna-Rose used Eulogy to hold Daisy up. "I'll take you outside."
"Don't do that. You need to stay here and fight this battle. Your reflexes are the only thing that can win this fight, Anna." Daisy looked almost pitiful in her weakened state. "Right? You can win, can't you?"
Anna-Rose began to shake. "Don't put so much damn pressure on me." She looked into Daisy's bony face and began to tear up. To save her friends, this girl had driven herself way beyond breaking point. She almost removed all of her body mass just to give the maximum amount of light. Her skin barely even had colour. "You need to survive, okay? Delaware, call an ambulance or something."
"Okay." Delaware nodded, calling up an ambulance. Anna-Rose wiped the tears from her eyes, before noticing something. There was a faint outline around Daisy's eyes… a shimmering rectangle, in a perfect golden ratio…
"Holy crap." She looked around the room, and began to see more golden rectangles, in things she had never even realised were golden ratio. "I've done it. Eureka." She looked around, noticing a rectangle in the shadows of the wall. It had to be a face of some sort. She walked up to the shadow and closely watched it move. From the way it moved on the wall… "Nice try. Alright, give it up. I've got your Stand cornered."
In desperation, the shadow pushed a knife outside of the wall, trying to stab Anna-Rose in the gut. However, she was prepared this time, and grabbed his wrist tightly, using Eulogy to extract the rest of his body from the wall as well. The grown man in the shadowy cowl was now laying on the floor, at Anna-Rose's complete mercy. The look on her face was now a mixture of anxiety and rage. She picked him up by the collar and glared at him.
"I hope you spend longer in the hospital than she does."
She tossed the man up, and called Eulogy to throw an absolute barrage of Spin punches at him. Daisy and Delaware were incredibly taken aback by the speed that Anna-Rose's Stand was demonstrating, and every hit was charged with a devastating Super Spin. After about 50 punches, the man was sent flying to the wall, his cowl dissipating. Anna-Rose walked over to him and crouched nearby.
"Did Tiffany send you to attack us?" The man shook his head slowly.
"I dunno her name. She just gave me pictures of you and called herself "Prime Minister". She talked about her boss wanting that one gone." He pointed at Daisy, who was now sleeping. Anna-Rose grumbled.
"Prime Minister? That bitch has a system of government now?" She sighed. "How much were you paid?"
"Why do you have to know? I haven't been paid yet, anyway." He tried to crawl away.
Anna-Rose sighed. "Well, don't bother us again, and you won't be held back from another paycheque by us."
Delaware chuckled as the ambulance pulled up. "This is the girl who fought me back then, I can tell." He took Daisy downstairs as Anna-Rose collapsed from the adrenaline overdose.
Stand Name: "Say It Ain't So"
Stand User: Unnamed Assassin
Power: N/A
Range: N/A
Speed: A
Durability: E
Precision: N/A
Potential: E
