"Well, shit," Kelly says, looking at the crater where Dr. Braifa stood. The light that surrounded Braifa has disappeared, leaving only a hole surrounded by warped black wood in the center of the stage.
For a moment, there is quiet in the small auditorium. Then, the screams start. Kelly spots bright lights out in the dark rows of seats, one of which moves back towards the auditorium entrance. After a moment, three more explosions rock the building, one after another. The screaming stops.
Bright lights turn on as a security guard jumps up on a chair. She's a tall, buff woman, with her hair tied into two grey buns. She places a finger on her lips and shushes, a powerful shush that sends shivers down the spines of everyone in the auditorium. The security guard begins to glow.
Then, after a few seconds of silence, the glow disappears. "Be quiet," the security guard whispers. "Loud things are exploding."
Kelly walks up to the security guard, carefully stepping down from the stage to avoid making a sound. The other people in the small theater join up with him. Kelly feels a tug on his pant leg and glances down at Camellia. You good? he mouths. She nods.
He looks around at the various people gathered around the security guard. Among them is the teenage girl with pink hair, who rubs her stomach and looks bummed out, presumably over her cell phone exploding. Next to her is an old man wearing a black bowler cap and supporting himself with a cane. Finally, there is a lanky young man wearing a mesh tank top.
The man in the mesh tank top wears black leather jeans, blue eyeshadow, and a flowing violet cape. His hair has been meticulously gelled into a large spike that juts out above his forehead. As Kelly looks at him, he feels an aura of menace radiating from his beady eyes.
"What's going on?" the teenager with pink hair says. For a split second, she glows gold. As quickly as it appeared, the glow disappears, leaving the teenager confused and scared.
"Is it not obvious?" the old man whispers. "Sources of loud sound, like your cellphone, Dr. Braifa, or the three people who screamed at the chaos, glow gold for a few moments before exploding."
"How unfortunate," the man in the mesh tank top says, his voice sounding as smooth as a glass of bourbon.
"You seemed to understand this before the rest of us," the old man says, gesturing at the security guard. "Is this your doing? Has the zoo ordered you to silence those who spoke during Dr. Braifa's presentation?"
"What? No!" she says. She glows for a moment and freezes. A bead of sweat drips down from her nose and falls to the ground. The glow disappears and she sighs in relief. "I don't know what's happening, or even how it's happening. I'm just observant."
"Is this some sort of magic?" the teenager whispers.
"It isn't magic, magic isn't real. It's a Stand attack," Kelly whispers. "Wait, are Stands magic? Camellia, are Stands magic?"
"I dunno," Camellia replies.
"What are Stands?" the security guard asks.
"Something that may or may not be magic," Kelly whispers.
"Arthur Clarke wrote that magic is just science we don't understand yet," the teenager whispers. "Thus, Stands are only magic if we don't know understand them. Also, what are Stands?"
"Something I don't really understand," Kelly says.
"Which means Stands are magic," Camellia chimes in.
"Good, now we know what's going on. Loud things are blowing up because of magic," the teenager says. A beat goes by. "Wait, that doesn't help explain anything."
"Oh, how distressing. A supernatural disaster is happening and we have no idea how to stop it," the man in the tank top says.
"We could, and this is just a suggestion, leave," Kelly whispers, rolling his eyes.
"That isn't an option," the security guard whispers, pointing at the exit to the auditorium. Kelly gets a better look at it and realizes that one of the explosions damaged the doors, welding them shut. "That's the only way in or out of this building. We'll have to wait here until someone comes and breaks it open."
"Wouldn't breaking the door open cause the person on the other side to explode?" the pink haired teenager asks.
"Yeah, probably," Kelly says.
"Oh, who could be behind this horrendous event?" tank top shouts. He starts glowing and slams his hands on his mouth. He sighs in relief when the glow disappears.
"Hold on, who says that someone is behind it?" the security guard says. "It could just be a curse or something."
"No, someone's behind it," Kelly says. "Someone in this room is controlling these booms. If we want to get out of here, we need to figure out which one of you is behind this."
"Hold on, what do you mean, one of us?" the old man asks. "You seem to be the one who knows about these Stand things."
"Well, I know I'm not behind this. Camellia can vouch for me," Kelly says. "Camellia?"
"Kelly probably isn't behind this," Camellia says.
"See, I have an alibi."
"That isn't what an alibi is," the old man says.
"Agree to disagree," Kelly says. "Now then, which one of you is the bad guy? My money's on the guy in the tank top, he seems really suspicious."
"What? Who? Me?" the man in the tank top shouts, extending his vowels as long as possible. "What about me could possibly come off as suspicious? I am frankly insulted by the implication that I could be an evildoer!"
He begins to glow and stops talking immediately. Only, this time, he doesn't stop glowing. "What! I have gone silent! Why do I still glow!" he shouts.
Everyone backs away from him, not wanting to be caught in the explosion. Everyone but Camellia, that is. "Please, have mercy, dark god that has slated me for death!" tank top shouts.
A brick flies out of Camellia's backpack and hits him in the head, knocking him out. He crumples to the floor and the glow surrounding him stops.
"So, it wasn't him," Kelly whispers. "Good job, Camellia."
"He stopped talking, why didn't he stop glowing until he was knocked out?" the security guard asks.
"It's getting more sensitive," the pink hair teenager whispers. "We have to figure out which one of us is behind this before it's too late."
"What?" Kelly whispers.
"We need to figure out which one of us is behind this before it's too late."
"I can't understand you because you're whispering."
"I said, we need to figure out which one of us is behind this before it's too late," she says, raising her voice slightly. She glows for a moment and closes her eyes, waiting for the imminent explosion. Fortunately, the glow disappears before she explodes.
"Oh shit, we really need to figure out which one of us is behind us before it's too late," Kelly whispers.
"Are we the only ones in this building?" the old man whispers.
"I think so," Kelly whispers. "Wait, no, my friend Sandra Dee's also here. But don't worry, she isn't behind this. She's lying unconscious by the stage. She was knocked out when the phone blew up."
"Your friend is lying unconscious by the stage?"
"Well, she's really more of an acquaintance."
"And you just left her there, instead of making sure she was still breathing?"
"When you put it like that, it kinda makes me sound like an asshole," Kelly whispers.
"I'm a doctor, take me to her so I can make sure she's alright."
Kelly sighs and leads the old man to the front. The old man bends down and examines Sandra Dee carefully. "She has a concussion, but she'll live," he says.
"That's good," Kelly says. He glances up at the stage and sees the orangutan staring back at him from the edge of the stage. He shudders. "Creepy."
He hears a bang and jerks his head back towards the door. The security guard is security bashing the door, trying to break it down. She begins to glow and stops dead in her tracks, daring not to even take a breath. The glow disappears and she bashes the door again.
Kelly runs, or rather, quickly tiptoes while carefully avoiding making any sound, to the door. He stares at Camellia, the guard, and the teenager with disbelief. "What are you doing?" he whispers very indignantly.
"Trying to get out before we all blow up," the security guard says bluntly.
"If you make a noise, we will get blown up!" Kelly whispers angrily. He glows for a moment.
"We can't just wait around," the teenager says. "It's getting more sensitive. We've started glowing for whispering too loud. We need to get out before we blow up for breathing too loud."
"Fine, but at least be smart about it," Kelly says. He leans down and whispers a plan in Camellia's ear. "Get as far away from the door as possible, I'll open it."
The guard and pink-haired girls back away, dragging the tank top man with them. Kelly takes a deep breath and places his palm on the meeting point of the doors. Two metal doors, fused together by heat. Too strong to break apart with your bare hands, but still far weaker than solid sheets of metal.
Kelly exhales and lightning flows from his fingertips into the doorway. His Stand, Greased Lightning, pierces the metal, coating its bonds, making them slippery, weakening the welded seal. Kelly takes a step back and releases his tense shoulders. He's never used his Stand with such precision before.
He nods at Camellia and a dozen bricks fly from her backpack. They move together, forming a giant fist, and fly forward, slamming into the doors. The force of the bricks breaks the doors open, knocking them off of their hinges.
At first, Kelly smiles. His smile disappears when he notices that Camellia's bricks are glowing. Camellia raises her arms and the bricks fly up, into the auditorium's rafters. The explosion shakes the building and blitzes the room with falling rubble.
Kelly crawls out from a pile of wood and brick and wipes it off his jacket. His eyes dart around the ruins, searching for Camellia. He doesn't see her. His eyes land on the stage, where he sees the Dr. Braifa's orangutan staring back at him. "Oh, I'm an idiot, aren't I?" he says quietly.
Suddenly, a patch of rubble raises up, lifted up by a shell of white bricks. Camellia's protection against the falling debris. The bricks slide away, revealing Camellia, alive and well. Kelly sighs in relief.
Then the orangutan stares at Camellia and she begins to glow. "No," Kelly whispers.
"No!" he shouts as he runs for the stage. "Hey, asshole! You want to get rid of loud things? I'm pretty loud!"
The orangutan turns and stares at Kelly. The glow on Camellia disappears as Kelly begins glowing. He leaps from a chair to the stage and slides towards the orangutan. Kelly reaches the orangutan and slams his hands on its ears.
The glow disappears. Camellia floats up onto the stage and lands next to Kelly. "Are you okay?" she asks.
"Yeah, I think I'm good now," Kelly says. He looks at the orangutan. "Hard to believe, this thing was behind all this. Hand me the headphones, would you?"
Camellia hands him the headphones Braifa knocked off and Kelly places them on the orangutan's head. "Thing must have sensitive ears. Braifa put headphones on it to keep it calm, but knocked them off by accident during the show. The sound must have overwhelmed him," Kelly says. "I didn't know animals could get Stands. Guess it makes sense, considering how instinct-driven the explosions were."
"You saved me," Camellia says.
"I did no such thing," Kelly says.
"Yes you did, you screamed so it would target you instead of me."
"I don't remember that."
"You're braver and more selfless than you act," Camellia says, putting a hand on Kelly's shoulder.
"Don't tell anyone. If Johana and company find out, they'll probably expect me to start helping them out."
Camellia and Kelly walk out of the ruined auditorium. The security guard is talking to other zoo staff about the situation. The pink-haired teenage girl is calling emergency services on a payphone. The old man is tending to tank top and Sandra Dee, who sit on a park bench; he pulled them from the building as he ran.
Kelly walks up to the security guard and taps her on the shoulder. "Hey, by the way, everyone was dying because Braifa took away the monkey's headphones. Keep them on if you want to live," he says.
Kelly turns back to discover that Sandra Dee is awake and hugging Camellia. "And you're sure you're okay?" Sandra asks.
"Uh huh, Kelly saved me," Camellia says.
"Did he now? Well, that's good. I'm sorry that I got taken out so soon and wasn't able to do more. It's good Mr. Zuko was there for you," Sandra says. "Has Woodstock been treating you well?"
"Not really," Camellia says with a slight frown. "But it's okay, I have Kelly and the others to look after me now."
"I wish I could be around for you more, to protect you from people who want to hurt you," Sandra Dee says. "But...I can't. Not yet."
"I understand," Camellia says quietly. "After this is all over, can we go to the zoo together again, like we used to do before daddy died?"
"I'd like that very much," Sandra Dee says.
She glances over her shoulder and notices Kelly standing next to her awkwardly. "Sorry, didn't want to interrupt this...whatever it is," Kelly says.
"No, you're fine," Sandra Dee says. "I was just about to leave, actually, there's something I need to do."
"You have to leave so soon," Camellia says. It isn't a question; rather, it's a halfhearted statement of sorrow.
"Look out for her," Sandra Dee says as she passes by Kelly.
She walks off and Kelly looks down at Camellia, who's struggling to hold back tears. Kelly sighs. "Hey, kid, wanna go get ice cream?" he says. Camellia nods and the two of them depart, off to find more adventures.
As Sandra Dee walks away, she notices a man following her. She turns around to see the old man with a cane and a black bowler hat from the auditorium. She sighs and summons her Stand. He summons his.
"Woodstock sent you, I presume?" Sandra asks.
"Woodstock told me of your location, I came here of my own accord," the old man says. "I would have taken out sooner, but that business with the orangutan got in the way and I opted to stay on the sidelines and let it play out."
"Who are you?" Sandra Dee asks.
"I have gone by many names, over the years. You may call me Kaiser," he says.
His Stand flies forward and strikes Sandra Dee in the chest. The force of the blow sends her flying.
To be continued in
Chapter 41: Fortune Family and the Eagles, Part 1
STAND STATS
Name: The Blond-O-Sonic Shimmer Trap
Dub Name: The Golden Sonar Glow Snare
User: The Antarctic Monkey
Namesake: "The Blond-O-Sonic Shimmer Trap" (Arctic Monkeys Song)
Appearance: N/A
Abilities: Shimmer Trap is an automatic Stand that targets people and devices that are too loud for the Antarctic Monkey's fragile ears. Targeted objects glow for a few seconds. If they do not become quiet immediately, targeted objects explode.
Stats:Power-B, Speed-E, Range-C, Durability-N/A, Precision-A, Potential-E