Johana crawls out of a pile of broken glass and spilled liquor, irritated. "I don't enjoy being blown up," she says. "Who are you?"
"My name is Santiago Spaghetti," Santiago says.
"No. It isn't."
"I think that I know my own name."
"Your name is not spaghetti. I refuse to believe that anyone would have that dumb of a name."
"Believe what you want, it will not make a difference when you walk through the gates of Hades."
"Ooh, was that a threat?" Johana asks. Her Stand, Twisted Sister, appears at her side. "Because I don't like being threatened."
Santiago walks around the edge of the emptied restaurant, staring down Johana. He sits down at an empty chair and puts his feet up on the table. "If you hate being threatened so much, then why don't you do something about it?" Santiago says.
Johana approaches him, walking through the restaurant. As she reaches the center of the restaurant, she hears a click. Instinctively, Johana jumps ten steps back with her Stand. The center of the restaurant explodes. As Johana lands, the ground before her clicks again. It explodes before she can react, throwing her into a table with enough force to shatter it.
Johana crawls to her knees and takes a deep breath, flooding her cells with Hamon. The blasts have been weak, but two different explosions in as many minutes has taken its toll. "So, your Stand allows you to create landmines, and you've hidden a few around the restaurant?" Johana asks.
"Close, but not quite," Santiago says. He picks up a piece of bread and butters it with a knife.
Johana thinks for a moment. "The part of the floor that just blew me up, I walked over it earlier and nothing happened," she says. "Here's my guess: you have filled this entire room with landmines that only activate under specific circumstance."
"Perhaps," Santiago says, taking a bite of his bread.
"And, because I don't know what sets the mines off, I can't approach you without dying."
"You've figured out the question, but that's meaningless without an answer," Santiago says. "If you try to approach me, you die. If you just stay there, my brother kills your friends then helps me kill you. You're in checkmate, Johana."
"Yeah, things look pretty bad," Johana says. "But, I wouldn't say we've reached checkmate yet. You forget, I don't need to approach you to beat the shit out of you."
To demonstrate, Johana picks up a chair with her Stand and throws it at Santiago with the same force she uses to shatter bricks. Santiago jumps out of the way and the chair hits a wall with enough force to embed its legs in the plaster.
Twisted Sister spins its gauntlets and punches the air a few times, sending blasts of spinning wind at Santiago. The air blasts strike him in the chest with the force of a punch, knocking him off his feet.
Santiago dives behind and overturned table as Johana's Stand throws a knife at him. The knife flies over the table and curves back, stabbing Santiago in the hand. He grits his teeth and tries to pretend he doesn't feel the searing pain.
"Turn off your mines so I can go chuck your brother off a cliff," Johana shouts.
"No, I don't think I like that plan very much," Santiago says. He pulls the knife out of his hand and runs for the restaurant's entrance.
Johana sighs and runs after him. When she reaches the center of the restaurant, which almost blew her up earlier, she leaps, landing on a table. She jumps off the table, landing right behind Santigo at the entrance of the restaurant.
She swings at Santiago and he barely dodges it, diving past her. Johana turns around, kicking Santiago in the stomach with her Stand. The kick slams Santiago into the ceiling of the restaurant, shattering a light.
As Santiago falls, he pulls out the knife and stabs it at Johana's throat. She steps back to dodge it. The ground beneath her clicks and explodes, throwing Johana out of the restaurant and Santiago to its center.
Salvatore flies down to the brick platform where Kan hangs. He steps down on Kan's fingers and she screams. "I think I just heard a crack. It'll be hard, holding onto this platform with a couple broken fingers," Salvatore says.
The Doors appears above Kan and flies at Salvatore. The pointy bird crashes into it, stabbing it in the wing with its beak. Blood spurts from Kan's right arm as her grip slips.
The pointy bird hold the injured hummingbird up for Salvatore. He laughs. "Hold on, is that your Stand?" he asks. "Holy crap, that thing is tiny."
"You're mean," Kan grunts, barely holding onto the platform with her one uninjured arm.
"I mean, I know size isn't everything, but what is this thing even going to do?"
"She makes holes."
"Right, right right right. Those little temporary holes I saw you put on things earlier. Cool ability. Absolutely useless in a fight, but it's cool," Santiago says.
The pointy bird throws The Doors into the air and slashes it with its beak. Kan's Stand falls from the platform into the abyss below. Santiago stomps down on Kan's remaining hand and she lets out a high pitched wail.
"Listen, can you hurry up and drop to your death already?" Santiago says. "I need to go check on my brother."
"You have a brother? That's neat. What's your brother's name?" Kan asks.
"Shut it," Santiago says, still crushing Kan's hand.
"Sorry. I talk a lot when I'm nervous. I noticed that you also have a bird Stand. I only have the one, though. Do your birds have different names?" Kan asks.
"You're annoying me."
"It's weird that your birds don't have names."
"My birds have names!"
"Really? Then why aren't you telling me them? Are they some sort of secret?"
"Disco Strangler, Outlaw Man, and Desperado," Salvatore says, pointing at the bird with the glowing eyes, the large bulky bird, and the quick pointy bird respectively.
"Those are cool names-"
"You're stalling. You're trying to distract me to get a few more seconds of life."
"I'm stalling?"
"I said, shut it!" Santiago shouts as he stomps down on Kan's hand.
Kan loses her grip, falling from the floating platform. As Salvatore stomps down, his foot slips through a small hole in the platform, created by The Doors and hidden by Kan's hand. The fire around the hole disappears and the hole tightens, sealing tight against Salvatore's leg. He squirms, trying to free his foot.
The top platform lowers down, pressing against Salvatore's head. Slowly, the two platforms push together. Salvatore realizes that, in a few seconds, he will be crushed to death beneath two brick walls. He grabs his leg and tries to yank it out of the bricks. He fails.
Right before the two brick platforms crush Salvatore, the bulky bird, Outlaw Man, crashes through the bottom platform, shattering the bricks and setting Salvatore free. He flies away, Disco Strangler serving as a pair of wings.
As he flies up, he notices something below him. He flies down to find Camellia Floyd floating twenty stories up, using the bricks in her backpack to fly. Kan Nijimura hugs her tight, literally holding on for dear life. The Doors sits on Kan's head, nursing its injured wing.
Minutes earlier, when The Doors was thrown from the platform, the bird flew to Camellia and screeched at her. Camellia, who'd been controlling the platforms from the ground via text messages, realized something was wrong and flew up to help Kan.
"Goddamnit, how many of you losers are there?" Salvatore asks.
"Camellia, we can't beat him in a fight from this height," Kan says. "You need to get us to the ground so we stand a chance."
"What about Johana?" Camellia asks.
"Johana's strong, she can take care of herself long enough for us to beat this guy. Besides, we won't be able to help Johana with him standing in the way anyway."
Camellia lowers herself and Kan, moving towards the ground. Salvatore points at Camellia with both arms and his birds dive bomb at her. The pointy bird, Desperado, reaches the girls first. Camellia summons bricks away from the floating platforms, creating a wall in front of Desperado. The pointy bird banks right, narrowly missing the wall.
The bulky bird, Outlaw Man, slams through the wall, crashing into Camellia and almost making Kan lose her grip. Desperado curves around to behind Camellia and flies across her backpack, splitting it open.
The bricks hang in the sky as Kan and Camellia plummet. Camellia calls down her bricks and they surround the girls, carefully slowing their fall. When Camellia and Kan are falling at a safe speed, the bricks reform into a protective sphere around them.
"We need to go on the offensive," Camellia says.
Part of the sphere slides away, creating an opening that Camellia spies on Salvatore through. Camellia waves her hand and half a dozen bricks fly away from the sphere, hurtling towards Salvatore. Outlaw Man manages to block two and Desperado manages to slice through three more, but the rest of the bricks slam into Salvatore, one striking him right between the eyes.
Salvatore plummets, half unconscious, downward, falling past the Camellia's brick sphere. His birds disappear for a few moments, unable to exist without him thinking about them. Salvatore slowly opens his eyes and the birds reappear. Disco Strangler grabs onto his back and the other two grab onto his arms, flapping their wings as hard as they can. By the time Salvatore has reached the fifth floor, they manage to bring him to a stop midair.
Salvatore, blood dripping down his forehead, glances up at the sphere of white bricks. Strangely, it seems to be growing larger. And larger. And larger. Camellia's sphere slams into Salvatore as it moves towards the earth like a falling meteorite.
Right before the sphere hits the ground, Salvatore's birds pull him out from under it, saving him from being crushed. The brick sphere crashes through the awning of a bus station at the base of the tower, thankfully not hitting any people. The sphere unwraps and the girls step out of it. Salvatore flies down, landing on the other edge of the bus station. Civilians flee as the three Stand Users ready themselves to complete their dual.
"Bringing a little girl into your battles, really?" Salvatore says.
"Hey! I can fight too!" Camellia says, pouting.
"Yeah, I'll give you that. You're a hell of a lot stronger than your friend or the guy I chucked through a window," Salvatore says. "Guess I'd better go all out and take you out before you do anymore damage."
Desperado and Outlaw Man fly to Salvatore's hands and he grabs them by their feet. The birds fold in their wings, changing shape. Outlaw Man transforms into a shield and Desperado transforms into a sword. "Let's go," Salvatore says.
He flies up to Kan and Camellia, so fast they can barely track him with their eyes. He slams his shield into Kan, knocking her away, and brings his sword down on Camellia. An archway of bricks appears over Camellia's head, stopping the slice. Salvatore kicks Camellia in the face.
The bricks reform into a massive fist, punching Salvatore in the chest. Salvatore flaps his wings, climbing over the brick fist, and flies past it, charging for Camellia with his sword poised to strike. The bricks reform to create a wall in front of Camellia. Disco Strangler opens its eyes, creating a great flash of light that blinds Camellia.
In her blindness, Camellia loses track of Salvatore. She doesn't see him fly around to her back, avoiding her brick wall. "Sorry about this," Salvatore whispers into her ear. Moments later, he plunges his blade in her back.
Johana stands at the entrance of the restaurant, panting. Her nose is bleeding and her hat has been knocked backwards. She throws off her coat, revealing arms covered in bruises. "I'm going to kick your ass," she says, furious.
Santiago chuckles. "Oh, but you forget, you can't approach me without-"
"You filled the room with landmines that explode when you go somewhere you've already been," Johana says. "That's how your Stand works, right?"
Santiago's turns white. "No," he says quietly.
"Yeah, I'm going to kick your ass," Johana says.
STAND STATS
Name: Fortune Family
Dub Name: Lucky Family
User: Santiago Spaghetti
Namesake: "Fortune Family" (American Rap Duo)
Appearance: Fortune Family takes the form of thousands of small bugs, covered in reflective shells that make them nearly invisible.
Abilities: Santiago uses his Stand to fill rooms with small landmines. When someone steps on a mine, it becomes primed. When the same person steps on the same mine, it releases an explosive shockwave. These shockwaves are relatively weak, with three or four explosions needed to kill most people.
Stats:Power-C, Speed-E, Range-C, Durability-B, Precision-A, Potential-C
