"This will be an exciting end for the three of you, don't you think? I couldn't imagine anything better."
Venga stepped forward slowly, arms still outstretched as if she was going to give Celine a big bear hug.
Ace of Base continued to glow, and 4 glowy arms came from the indents in the Stand's body. The shiny, glowing arms wrapped around Celine and gave her a hearty squeeze.
"Ha! Take this!" Venga exclaimed.
Celine stared down at the arms. The arms shone and pulsed with silvery light, and Celine stood there waiting for the shoe to drop. Would she collapse and become a puddle of mushy goo? Whatever it was, it had to be horrid.
"Now, let my Stand's power take effect!" Venga declared. "Do you 'feel' different yet? Have you completely lost all hope to continue on?"
Celine stayed silent, but Rosalinda wasn't having it with all these unnecessarily long pauses.
Pantera appeared near Venga's feet, but didn't make any sudden movements.
"You aren't gonna hurt my friends," Rosalinda said. "What'd you do to Celine?"
Venga glanced over to Celine.
"I…" she began, but then stopped herself and frowned. "Is this some kind of bluff? Am I being bluffed here?"
Celine stood there silently as ever, her mouth still in the same inexpressive line as usual.
'Has anything happened yet? I feel… unremarkable,' she thought.
Even Dani was slightly puzzled, he turned his head to look at Rosalinda.
"Is this normal for her?" Dani asked, and Celine glanced over to him. She hoped to be included in the discussion, but decided to let bygones be bygones.
"I'm not sure," Rosalinda said. "But I'm sure enough that this isn't good."
Venga's lips curled into an annoyed frown. She stepped forward, every step brought a jingle or jangle or some equally ear-catchingly noisy sound effect.
"That's really strange. Usually it takes effect by now," Venga said, as she studied Celine.
'Strange would certainly fit this situation…' Celine thought as she tried to break free of Ace of Base's continued bearhug. Nothing happened, of course, much to Celine's unexpressed annoyance. Dani managed to escape this odd bearhug, surprisingly.
"I would almost say you should be proud. I've never had this happen before- But don't you dare be actually proud, because you're ruining the moment!"
"Can we go now?" Dani asked, like a bored student eager to leave class.
"Don't give me that look! What do you three think you're even doing?" Venga replied with a frown. "I don't know what you're trying, but I'm not going to leave until my Stand actually does what it does!"
"And that would be?" Celine replied, unamused.
"Pah- like I would tell you what it does! Where's the fun in just giving your plan away?" Venga replied, her tone dripped with annoyance.
"Now wait just a darn second," Rosalinda said. "You're not going to hurt my friends."
"Well does it look like I'm doing that?! I'm trying to do what I'm supposed to do, but Miss Prissy over here is somehow completely ignoring it!"
"I am not prissy," Celine replied as she stood there in Ace of Base's grip. There was still a shocking amount of nothing going on.
"Well I wouldn't not call you prissy," Venga replied. "You over there, on her back. If you tried very very hard to make a positively spectacular entrance and somebody ruined it, what would you do?"
"I don't know," Dani replied. "I've never done that before. I'm not really a dramatic entrance person…"
"I don't care! Actually, forget what I just said, I do care. Which is why you need to answer the question! Would you just let her step all over your intricately designed and well thought-out entrance? Would you?"
There was a pause between the two of them. Pantera stared down Venga, Venga stared down Dani, and Celine stood there in Ace of Base's grasp.
"Yeah, probably. She's not stepping on anything at all right now," Dani finally answered, looking at the ground.
"That was figurative! You people are a hopeless cause," Venga said as she shook her head. "What does a stunning lady such as myself have to do to make a good entrance?"
"You do not always have to talk so loudly," Celine said. She would have grimaced, or sighed annoyedly, but… she didn't feel up to it right now for some odd reason.
"What, you think I'm not stunning?" Venga replied, in an offended tone.
"I never said that," Celine said. "Could you just talk… less like you are talking right now?"
Venga scoffed.
"You know what? No. I'm not going to let my plans be ruined by some random farm girl, a stick in the mud, and… whatever you're supposed to be."
Venga cleared her throat.
"So, I'm going to try this again and this time only," she said.
Celine shimmied her hand around, slowly and carefully. She couldn't break free, but there was something else she could do.
'There has to be a way to get out of here. Dani is in danger, I cannot just stay here and do nothing the whole time,' Celine thought to herself. 'All I need is the right moment, and the right trajectory…'
"Ace of Base! Ability now, and this should work!"
Still nothing happened. Celine still felt completely unremarkable. A little bit more unremarkable than usual, but otherwise the same as always.
Venga was about to spout out another annoyed response, when an unknown projectile smacked directly into her face. Venga looked down, it was a phone.
"What?!" Venga replied. "Who threw that?"
"I did," Celine replied.
"That was… that was amazing," Venga said as she stepped back. "Such a wild attack, you caught me by complete surprise!"
Venga rubbed her hands together as she stepped closer to Celine, boot heels clacking against the pavement. It was only then that Celine took her awareness from being trapped by Ace of Base, to really take in her surroundings.
They were still standing on the sidewalk, after all. A small group of people decided to ogle the situation. Usually Celine would be annoyed about how nosy they were. However, she wasn't as bothered by this as she usually was. Instead of a small grumpy annoyance, she just felt… unremarkable. Unremarkable to an almost remarkable degree.
Celine said nothing. Maybe it was something she ate. Or maybe she didn't eat enough.
"Let me tell you, greatly appreciated!" Venga said as she clapped her hands together with a dramatic flourish. "Can I keep this?"
She held up the phone and looked over it.
"This is yours, yes?" Venga asked.
"Give that back right now," Celine replied.
"I'm not a stealer, no no. That would be even more pathetic than watching this fight flounder. Here you go."
Venga walked over to Celine and handed the phone back to her. Just for a moment, the two brushed hands and stared at each other. There were a few things Celine could've done in that moment. She could've gone in, figurative guns ablaze, and tried to dissolve part of Venga's hand as they kept contact. Yet, she was reluctant to. This woman was being very rude, and the poison still crept through Dani. Despite all that, she hesitated and decided to headbutt Venga instead. That would most likely be less harmful, and perhaps break the concentration enough to dematerialize Ace of Base.
"Ow!" Venga said as she leaned back. Blood streamed down her nose.
Well, there went the idea of a move that caused less pain.
"You, you, YOU!" Venga said. "What did you do to my nose?! What's wrong with you?"
With the gap in attention, this was the moment that Pantera decided to strike as well. The feline Stand pounced onto Venga and knocked her down.
Dani tried to summon Hozde to contribute to this attack, but due to his Stand-induced paralysis, Hozde was also stuck in place. Dani sighed and unsummoned Hozde.
"Don't worry, Dani. We'll find Akrillic and fix you soon," Celine said.
Meanwhile, Venga still had Pantera at her feet. Rosalinda stared her down but made no sudden movements.
Venga sat there on the ground. She stood up, and glared at Celine and Rosalinda annoyedly.
"Ow," she said. "I will make this even-sided."
She used Ace of Base's arms to lift Celine up into the air. As Celine's feet left the ground, she braced for the worst and did the one thing she hated most: act on her instincts. Without a moment more to hesitate or think over the schematics of it, she took Dani and tossed him- gently as she could- into the grass.
And it had paid off, since the next thing Celine noticed was that she was being chucked at the sidewalk below.
The green-haired lady slammed into the asphalt or maybe concrete. It was hard to tell. But regardless of the sidewalk's ingredients, Celine almost skidded across the sidewalk, and rolled to a stop in the freshly cut grass. The impact jostled Sunglasses At Night out of place which made it hang very diagonally across Celine's face. Splotches of dirt and grass stains patterned the previously spotchless dark blue fabric of Celine's jacket, and also patterned her track pants in a slightly less noticeable way. Her vaguely macaroni-shaped hair noodles were now hopelessly out of place. And that wasn't even the worst part. Her watch had been crushed, the digital display broken.
Oddly, she felt nothing about this. Not one bit of annoyance for her carefully combed hair, no annoyance at the sheer amount of laundry stain remover she'd need to use for her coat and pants later. Not even sadness for her poor wristwatch, who was crushed beyond repair.
It was as if someone had just blasted all the things she felt with a big fiery explosion, and left nothing behind but a dingy pile of ash.
For a moment, she laid there as she grouped her thoughts back together. She sat up and looked over at Dani, who in turn looked at her with wide eyes.
"Celine! You've got… dirt all over you," Dani said, since he couldn't quite put words to the shock he was feeling.
"I know, trust me," Celine said as she stood up. Her clothes may have been stained and maybe even a little torn, but it would take more than that to keep her down.
"Oh! Again? You would like to be thrown again?" Venga said, with more confidence now that Rosalinda's Pantera was checking to make sure Dani was unharmed.
Celine stayed silent. The figurative emotion-destruction was almost a welcome idea to her. It was strange, yes, but she could very clearly hear in her mind what she wanted to do. It was a clear cut idea, and her mind's eye saw the schematics clear as crystal.
She approached Venga, and looked up. Ace of Base hovered behind Venga, the several arms still outstretched.
The Stand moved to grab Celine's leg, and the speed of it almost surprised her. Almost.
With a readjustment of the accessory, Sunglasses At Night was back and ready. Celine cast the small area into darkness, stepped far to the left, and watched as Ace of Base blindly missed. There were background sounds of background people, who yelled in a background way.
"It won't be that hard to catch you," Venga said. "If I keep grabbing out, I'll find you eventually."
Celine backed up, out of Ace of Base's range, but not too much so that Venga would be outside of Sunglasses At Night's area-of-effect.
What Venga wasn't accounting for, however, is that panthers have an excellent sense of hearing. And it's very easy to hear someone if they're wearing 8 noisy bracelets.
Pantera ran over from Dani's side, pounced on Venga a second time, and knocked her onto the grass. In the time it took for Venga to stand up again, Pantera had already wrapped a few blades of grass around her neon-haired foe.
Venga tripped, but broke the blade of grass as she did so. Ace of Base missed again with three of its arms, but the third managed to wrap around a street light. The next three wrapped around Venga, as she lifted herself above Sunglasses At Night's range.
Celine deactivated Sunglasses At Night and thanked her (mostly unlucky) stars that Venga had chosen to wear shorts underneath her dress that day.
She was out of range of Pantera and Sunglasses At Night. However, she was also too far up to reach Celine and Rosalinda with Ace of Base's arms. The three stared at each other in a stalemate. However, the stalemate was much more short-lived than expected. Venga quickly lowered herself to the ground, as far away from Celine, Rosalinda, and Pantera as she could get, and proceeded to have Ace of Base carry her. The Stand carried her with two arms, and the other two arms tried to emulate a run as best they could. Venga got farther and farther away, until she was just an incredibly noticeable speck in the crowd.
With sudden fervor, Celine frowned. The watch had been a gift! It was made just for her by her mother! How dare that random, no-good, eye-bleedingly dressed stranger ruin it!
And to that, she was surprised. She was actually angry about something again! No longer were her feelings zapped into a pile of tiny cardboard crumbs, they were actually there and being felt. That was progress, in some form, but Celine was quick to put herself back in check before she let her anger get the best of her.
"We... aren't we chasing her?" Dani asked over from his seat in the grass. Celine walked over to him and placed Dani on her shoulders again.
"There is not enough time," Celine said. "She might cause more chaos, sure, but right now we need to find Akrillic's user."
But also because she didn't want to let her anger overtake her and hurt Venga, no matter how uncaringly the wristwatch had been broken.
Rosalinda unsummoned Pantera and nodded, probably for a different reason.
"I'm sure she can't cause much more damage," she said. "C'mon, Celine, let's get moving. I'll bring you to a laundry place later."
And they did move, specifically away from the crowds of assorted extras who couldn't believe what they had just witnessed.
As Celine walked, she noticed that some of the window fronts she passed had tacky little skeleton decorations.
'Already?' Celine thought to herself. 'Seems too early to be decorating for Halloween.'
But otherwise, she paid them no mind and continued to walk. She glanced around, before she heard a small but familiar crackle of a speaker.
Right down there. Or… maybe over to the left? Celine could hear Akrillic but she couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from.
What a pesky Stand this was, she was getting awfully tired of its noisy sounds. It would be much easier to just turn around and go home.
'No, not when Dani's safety is on the line,' her thoughts chastised. 'Are you mad? Do you want that on your hands?'
No, Celine decided, she did not. In that case, she had to find Akrillic's user… wherever that would happen to be.
She pointed out Akrillic's sounds, and they would go off after it. But they could never exactly catch it. It would always slip away, which became annoying just as quickly as one would think.
More of Dani's movement began to fail, and this fact fell heavier on Celine's shoulders than having to carry Dani around everywhere.
But then again, Akrillic would occasionally pop up again and give them a tiny smackerel of hope. The three of them (or two, since Dani was still being carried) did their best to follow after the strange robot-esque Stand.
Celine's thoughts were preoccupied with Akrillic, and Dani, and that odd young lady from before. She had no clue what Akrillic and Follin's intentions were, nor did she know if there actually was a cure for Dani's growing paralysis.
Every so often, though because her watch was broken she wasn't certain how often, she would ask to duck into an alleyway. She'd activate Sunglasses At Night, come back, as if nothing had happened.
"Celine?" Dani asked in a curious tone.
"Yes?"
"Why do you… need to do that? Is it a vampire thing?" Dani then asked, as they walked on. They were reaching the shorefront districts of the city.
"I already told you, I am not a vampire. I am a 'Pillar Man'. And yes, I do need to do that. Otherwise I will die a horrible and painful death."
"That sounds really morbid," Dani replied.
"It is. That is why I cannot forget about it, ever."
"Alrighty then," Rosalinda said. "That's real interesting, Celine."
"...You think so?" Celine asked.
"Well of course. Everybody's got differences. Besides, I like hearing you talk. You've got a nice voice."
"Oh… thank you," Celine said, with a nod.
"Hey you two," Dani said. "Remember that robot that stung me? I see it. I see it! It's over there!"
He turned his head to indicate the spot. Surely enough, there was Akrillic. It scurried towards a large square building, more accurately a warehouse, and slipped in through a small hole that may have been made before by a rodent.
"I think we've gone and found our place," Rosalinda said.
"That must be it, then! The stuff that I need is in there. Let's go in!" Dani said eagerly.
"Now, hold on. We cannot afford to just rush in there," Celine said. "We need a plan."
"We HAVE a plan. We go inside, get the thing, and fix me."
"Yeah, but how? We've got no clue what's in there. Could be nothing, or it could be an entire party waitin' to get the jump on us."
"Let me go in first," Celine said. "If anything bad happens, I would be most likely to survive it."
"I have the only Stand that can move right now, I'll go first," Rosalinda replied.
"Why don't we both go in right behind each other?" Dani suggested.
"I did not think of that…" Celine said, as she went to scratch the back of her head before she remembered that she would be accidentally scratching Dani's head instead.
"It's settled then. We'll go in- together," Rosalinda said in a matter-of-fact way, and that was that.
Celine approached the door, which to her surprise, was unlocked. She opened the door slowly, as if she expected the very worst to happen. Which she did.
Rosalinda was immediately behind her, with Pantera close to her User.
Celine stepped inside. The place was dark and smelled of tin cans. She felt for a light switch and turned it on. An overhead light suspended from the ceiling sputtered to live with a consistently low hum.
It all seemed empty, as if no-one had used this warehouse in a while. It made sense, since the place was much too dirty and rundown for Celine's liking.
There was a sound of footsteps that echoed from the metal walls, but Celine and her friends were still.
A gruff voice spoke, and she recognized it as a more clear version of the voice that came from Akrillic's speaker.
"Hey there," it said, as if this was a casual meeting.
A loud noise, ear-splittingly so. Distant screams, one and then two. A sizzling, painful feeling that spread and blossomed.
"...Gotcha."