Sunday, October 18th, 2020
A rusty red bicycle lies overturned in an overgrown field. An open backpack rested on top of its frame. The roofs of several parking garages could be seen over the tops of the tall wild grasses that covered the land. It was here where a flimsy target was pinned against one of the field's few trees. On a stump nearly, a laptop sat perched atop a small tree stump not far from the target. It ran on power saving mode to make the battery last longer in the semi-wilderness, and as such the screen was darker than usual. However, the overcast sky was still serviceable enough for Oscar to stare at the glowing screen, as well as the brunette that stared back at him from it.
"So, what do you plan to do now that you're all set up? Punch the tree?" Monika asked. The normal classroom background that she usually presented herself in had changed to that of a scenic forest, where she sat on a virtual tree stump similar to the one her laptop was resting upon.
"I think we've played enough Minecraft for now." Oscar joked. He stood facing both the tree target to his left and the stump to his right. "I just want to see if there's any other hidden powers you may have that we don't know about."
"What makes you think that we need another power?" Monika cocked her head to the side, her bangs partially covering her sprite's eyes. She moved them out of the way with her hand, even though both movements were unnecessary for the AI. "Are you not satisfied with my current skills in information gathering?"
"Oh, no, I'm grateful for everything you can do, don't get me wrong." Oscar backtracked. "However, we currently have no direct offensive capabilities. Most of my friends' stands have some sort of attacking capabilities, and I just don't want us to get caught with our pants down."
"I guess that's reasonable. However, how do you plan to see if I have some hidden power I'm unaware of? You'd think I'd know if I had more powers, given I'm an AI."
"Partially an AI." Oscar corrected, pointing at her. "No program I know of can transmit itself between devices via human touch. You weren't aware that you could do that. Therefore, since you are also my stand, there must be something else to it." He explained with arm gestures. "As for how to find it, I honestly have no clue."
"Well, this isn't a stand power directly, but I could attack by messing with technology around a person." Monika exclaimed, a literal lightbulb appeared above her head on-screen. "Are you aware of a little game called Watch_Dogs?"
"I've heard of it, but never played it." Oscar raised an eyebrow. "Where are you going with this?"
A devious smile crept across the brunette's face. "Let's say you have a rival that's in a car, at an intersection." A video appeared next to Monika on the screen. The top-down graphic showed a car with a red X over it, approaching an intersection with a red light. "Well, traffic lights can be rather… inconsistent, if you want them to." She explained in a devious tone as the video changed to a clip from Watch_Dogs where the main character changes a stop light to cause a major crash at the intersection.
"You sneaky little fox." Oscar commented, stroking his chin. "You're making me concerned for your sanity."
"It doesn't even have to be traffic. It would take a while to learn how to break into all this machinery, but any technology people rely on can be tampered with for our advantage, given enough time." She clenched her fist in a triumphant pose.
"I admit it's a great idea, you little terrorist." Oscar gazed back at the target on the tree, wondering why he even put it up there. "Look into it more, but please be careful." Monika gazed at him with a confident smile on her face. "In a more literal sense, with your capabilities..." Oscar continued, cracking a grin, "...knowledge is power."
Suddenly, wind began to swirl out of nowhere as Oscar and the laptop glowed red. As his eyes widened, a massive, unrelenting force shot from his body to the tree he was looking at. The force of the invisible blast blew the tree completely from its roots, toppling the target along with it as the trunk fell to the ground with a thud. The pair of stand and user stared in awe at the toppled tree, and Oscar held up his hands to inspect them, as if they were weapons.
"What the HELL was that?" Monika exclaimed, jaw dropped.
"I have no goddamn idea." Oscar whimpered in a stunned quiet.
"Well whatever it was, it was amazing!" The brunette beamed from eye to eye. "If that;'s some sort of new power, can you do it again?"
Oscar bit his lip in thought. "Problem is, I don't know what I did to cause it."
"That is a problem, alright." Monika sighed, before resting her right arm atop her left and pointing to the destroyed tree with her thumb. "Either way, I wood-n't want to be that tree." She grinned after emphasizing her pun.
"Boo." Oscar moaned in disapproval before his right hand suddenly shot upward, a shallow hole appearing in the dirt below it as dust shot everywhere. He staggered back in confusion.
"The hell? I didn't even do anything that time!" Oscar grunted, wiping the dust from his clothes. The two stared at the depression in the dirt, both in thought.
"Is this power voice activated? Why was it weaker than the first blast?" the dirt-coated boy asked aloud. He shifted his gaze towards the slightly dirtied laptop screen, noting that Monika was now frowning in a realization that he lacked.
"I don't think so, or it would be happening again right now." Monika responded. As Oscar watched, his 2D stand sighed, exasperated.
"I really hope I'm wrong here, but there was a common thread that tied both of those blasts together." She explained.
"What do you mean?" Oscar pressured her, confused. "The first time I was speaking, and the second time you were. What was similar?"
She gave the freshman a blank stare. "We both said a pun right before each blast."
All the confusion on Oscar's face melted into an annoyed stare as his shoulders dropped. "You've got to be joking." He said flatly.
"The only way we can find out is if we try it again."
"Fair enough." Oscar groaned and aimed at the remains of the tree with his hands before clearing his throat. "I guess that tree's bark was worse than its bite!" He forced out with another groan. This effort was rewarded with only a light puff of force out of his palm, barely swaying the leaves of the fallen foliage.
"So the lower the effort the pun is, the more pitiful the attack will be?" Monika snickered.
"Hey!" Oscar shot an annoyed glance at his digital detractor. "Don't expect me to come up with masterful wisecracks on the spot. I'm not much of a comedic genius." He only received a few more giggles from Monika, further provoking him. "Alright then, how about you make one?"
Monika's expression deflated a bit as she struggled to think. "I can't really think of a good pun right now, we're too far away from campus for me to get wifi on this machine." Oscar's annoyance at her excuse spurred her to continue: "Plus, puns tend to land better when they fit the mood or scene."
Oscar relented and smiled a bit. "They do work better if they come naturally, I'll give you that."
"Well, what are we going to do with this new power? I think-" Monika was cut off by the ding of a laptop notification, a low battery warning covering her face. She tried to physically push the window away with her hands as Oscar rushed to the device.
"Hold that thought. We can talk more once I get you plugged in." The student spoke as he hastily stuffed the laptop in his bag. The two fled the scene on his bicycle, right before one of the campus groundskeepers drove up to the area on a golf cart. He got out of the vehicle before inspecting the tree that had been standing the day before.
"What in the blazes happened here… There wasn't even a storm last night..."