Hello, King Spike Rules here and here is the next chapter to Lonely Wars. Here the fight continues with the group against Brett Micheal as John's Stand continues to grow through the fight.
Chapter 14: Growing like a Weed part 2.
The wind blew harder as the group of four stared down Brett Micheal, who was standing in front of them and seemed ready to fight. By this point, each of them was wary, guards up and ready to react should vines attack again. He didn't, which gave them the feeling he was setting up another trap. But John took advantage, having Lonesome Dove gently bring Franky down from the bubble.
"Franky, you okay?" John asked, patting him on the back with a concerned expression, keeping his eyes on Brett the whole time. Behind them, Kite looked on with his eyes narrowed.
"Y-yeah, I was just caught off guard, that's all," Franky replied, standing up and revealing he had nothing more than bruises on his body. Kite stepped forward and stood in front of all four of the others.
"Alright, Franky, you and I will get Mary. The rest of you, keep him distracted," Kite said and the others all nodded, looking right at Brett, who gazed back at them with a smile on his face.
The two groups split up, Kite and Franky running to the right. Meanwhile, Keith, Doc, and John dashed straight for Brett. Vines quickly shot out from the ground in the trio's path. In response, Keith summoned Rhinestone Cowboy and unleashed a barrage of bullets, destroying the vines and letting them get closer. That is, until Doc suddenly tripped.
"What the-?" Doc exclaimed, looking at his feet and seeing a pair of hands holding onto them. He started shouting as they squeezed his ankles tighter, blood gushing from his wounds.
"Doc!" Keith cried out, Rhinestone firing at the hands to force them back underground. The explosions barely avoided injuring Doc, leaving Keith to sweat nervously while John checked on Doc's feet. His eyes shot up towards Brett, who wasn't even moving; he just stood there, smirking at them.
"Keith," John started while standing up and walking towards him with an intense expression, leaving Keith anxiously staring back. Less than a foot away, John stopped and lifted his arm, making Keith flinch. His Stand seemed ready to fight back against an attack...until John's hand patted his shoulder. "Don't beat yourself up."
"Huh?" Keith said, watching with confusion as John walked past him, stopping in between them and Brett, who looked on curiously.
"Thanks to you, I've figured it out. His Stand isn't just the vines; that was a hand that grabbed Doc. So his real Stand must be hiding and using its ability to attack us from a safe place," John explained to them. Brett began to chuckle at them.
"Wow, you actually figured it out. That's pretty smart," Brett said with vines bursting through the ground and surrounding him. They spun around quickly, forming a barrier against whatever the trio would come up with next. "Let's see just how smart you are."
Meanwhile near the diner, Franky and Kite were trying to get to Mary. Graceful Door was making steps in the wall to help them get closer to her.
"You might want to hurry up, guys," Mary said, wincing as she felt the thorns pierce her suit and dug into her skin.
"Don't worry," Kite said, straining his neck to see her from behind Franky, who was only a few feet from the top. "You'll be free soon."
With a final push, Franky reached the roof. Graceful Door punched the vines, separating them with a door and pulling her out of the trap. Kite nodded at them from the side of the roof, and after wrapping a portion of Renegades around them for safety, they began making their way back down.
They were nearly to the ground when the vines suddenly pulled from the walls into the ground, shaking the diner. Kite made his hands into claws to keep them from falling and looked towards the others. The wind picked up, as though it was a sign. "Franky, we need to hurry. They need help," Kite said. Franky nodded as they continued their descent to the ground.
The trio covered their eyes as the spinning vines kicked up dirt around Brett. Through narrowed eyes, John watched as the wind slowed down and the vines pulled back into a figure, standing in front of Brett. The figure was humanoid with purple skin under green vine armor on its arms, legs, and chest, along with a matching helmet. As it appeared, roses bloomed all over its body.
"Say hello to my Stand, Poison Rose," Brett said, smiling as he looked at it. He turned to them, and seeing that they had their guards up, he smirked at them before saying, "And I believe you're used to his ability, Overgrow." Vines shot out of the ground in front of him and launched towards them. Keith used Rhinestone Cowboy to blast them with the Stand's exploding bullets, protecting them from the assault.
"I hope Kite gets back soon," Doc said, having to sit on the ground from the cuts on his ankles. He looked at Keith keeping them back before he added, "Yeah, we could definitely use his and Franky's help."
Brett smiled, watching his vines launch towards them. Keith continued to fend them off until one shot out from under the rest, wrapping around Rhinestone Cowboy's arm and squeezing it. This made Keith's arm begin to bleed, throwing off his attacks. More vines quickly wrapped around Rhinestone's legs along with his other arm, binding him tightly. The vines squeezed, causing Keith to wince as more blood trickled down his body, severe cuts forming across all his limbs.
Lonesome Dove suddenly threw a punch at Keith, forcing a bubble to fly through the air, which popped when it hit the vines holding him. With a massive boom, it destroyed all of the vines holding Rhinestone, freeing Keith. John stood next to him and looked down at him with a worried look on his face.
"Well, you guys still have me," John said, taking off his overshirt and ripping it, tying them around Keith's cuts to stay the bleeding the best he can. Once that was done, John walked forward and put himself in between Poison Rose and them, confusing both his allies.
"J-John," Doc called out to him, a look of surprise on his face as he asked, "Did Lonesome Dove punch? But doesn't it normally use its palms to make bubbles?"
"Yeah, I wanted to try being more in on the fight." John said, Lonesome Dove standing next to him with its fists clenched. John looked at Brett with a serious look on his face, who sent vines shooting straight towards him. John poses with his left hand holding his belt and his right hand behind his head, slicking his hair back as Lonesome Dove launched forward towards the vines.
"LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLO!" Lonesome Dove yelled out, throwing out over a dozen punches, several bubbles launching out towards the vines. The vines and bubbles collided, making loud pops as the two Stand users faced off against each other. Their attacks seemed to be in a stalemate.
But Brett smirked, his vines appearing behind John. Ready to finish him off in an instant, the vines shot towards John's back.
"Behind you!" Kite yelled out loud, jumping behind John and cutting the vines before they got near his teammate. Seeing the injuries of Keith and Doc, he shouted, "Tell me what happened!"
"Guy attacked from behind, nearly killed Keith with his vines," John said, his focus more on having Lonesome Dove continue its battle with Poison Rose, whose vine attacks were beginning to slow down. Brett started to sweat, summoning less and less vines, keeping them closer to himself. Kite watched, noticing the more serious look on John's face and the way his Stand was attacking with its fists.
"John, I think you should pull back. His Stand is powerful; we should regroup and try to take him on when all of us are prepared," Kite said, worried about John's lack of concern for the vines that nearly killed him.
"I can't," John responded, maintaining his attack against the vines. As Lonesome Dove continued to shoot bubbles, John explained, "His Stand isn't making infinite vines; there's a limit. I think he needs to spread seeds before they can grow. If I slow down, he'll just release more seeds, and we'll all be in trouble. No, I have to keep going until there's an opening."
Suddenly, Lonesome Dove broke through the vines onslaught and landed a punch on Poison Rose's left arm. This made Brett wince and looked down to see his arm was slowly glowing, a bubble forming in it, much to his horror and Kite's surprise.
"D-damn it." Brett said, holding his hand and looking at John standing there, his mind filled with thoughts. 'How did he see through my ruse to spread the Overgrow seeds?' His mind quickly returned to his arm, with both the bubble and the pain steadily growing larger with every passing second.
"John, w-what did you just do?" Kite asked, looking at Brett's arm while Franky and Mary looked up, having been checking on the others. John took a few steps forward.
"Kite, I learned what my Stand's true power is," John said, doing his pose again while looking at Brett, who was still struggling with his arm when John spoke again, "Have you ever heard of a sonic boom?" Hearing this question, Kite racked his brain on any info he could have read about the subject.
"Y-yeah, if I'm right, it happens when something moves faster than sound," Kite said, looking at John and waiting for him to tell him if he was right.
"Correct, and that's what my bubbles contain," John said with Kite's eyes widened and so did Brett's, listening to them talk and seeing his arm was getting near its peak of stretching. "The air inside them is always moving, so fast that each of my bubbles has the force of a bullet behind them."
'Shit, he's more trouble than I thought he would be.' Brett thought, feeling his arm was getting close to bursting. His eyes were covered in shadows while he seemed to think for a few moments. Then Poison Rose launched an attack at Brett, stabbing his arm where the bubble was, shocking both John and Kite with his actions.
The vines pulled out and then wrapped around the wound to stop any bleeding with Brett thinking, 'He could be serious trouble for even the Major. I can't let him leave here alive.' Seeing how his body stood, John's eyes narrowed and he took a few steps forward.
"Kite, I'll take him out," he said, looking at Brett checking on his arm. Kite was left shocked, and was about to say something when John continued, "You make sure the others are safe so I can focus on the frontal attack." Kite opened his mouth to tell him off, but stopped and looked at his team, at the condition they were in.
"Alright, I'll keep them safe," Kite said. John and Brett stared each other down, their Stand's floating next to them. They seemed to be in another stalemate.
"Alright kid," Brett said, finishing up with his arm and looking at John. A smirk formed on his face while he said, "I thought you guys were just lucky in your wins against the other privates, but I can see that was disrespectful of me. To make up for that, I want to end this fight, one-on-one." As he talked to him, more vines began to come out from the ground, ready to strike him from behind again. Kite saw and quickly turned Renegades into a blade, prepared to stop it.
"I'm not falling for your bullshit," John said seemingly unfazed by Brett's speech. Lonesome Dove launched a bubble behind him, destroying the vines before Kite could even move. He looked at John and saw that Brett was starting to lose his cool.
"You know what, you little punk, no more mister nice guy," Brett said, standing straight in spite of his injuries. They stared each other down again, leaving Kite feeling that something was wrong. Something seemed to have taken this fight in a direction he could not have seen coming.
TBC.
That is it for this chapter and please leave a review if you would like. There are no slots left for Stands in this fic, but I could use more reviews to tell me what you think.
