Hello, King Spike Rules here and here is part two to the Streak battle. John and his group have to find a way to fight an enemy in the woods they can't see, or hear.

Chapter 22: Hunting Starker Part 2.

The man's voice echoed through the forest around the trio, each on high alert. They inched closer to one another until their backs were touching, looking around in worry as they tried to find any indication of where he could be.

"We need to make a plan," John whispered. A branch rustled from the corner of his eye, and his head shot back to look back at it. "Found him!" John yelled out, sending his Stand to attack. Lonesome Dove shattered the branch easily, but there was no sign of his actual target. The three stared at the spot in confusion for a moment, only for a large slash to appear on Franky's back. He cried out in pain and clutched to his back, trying to stem the bleeding with his shirt. Keith immediately holstered his gun to check on Franky, while John looked on in confusion.

"Shit, I know what his Stand is," Keith said standing up from looking at the cut and turning to John continuing, "His Stand is a ghillie suit."

"A what?" Franky asked slowly standing up straight the best he could while still holding his back.

"It's a suit made up of grass and other things hunters use to hide from his prey," Keith explained carefully looking around the area and looking at any details before he added, "His Stand must work in a similar way, with it hiding him inside the environment and making it nearly impossible to see him."

"So, we have to find a way to get him out of the environment to beat him?" John asked. Keith nodded, still scanning the area. But their next sign wasn't exactly subtle; a loud whistle, sounding from somewhere deeper in the forest. They each looked at one another and then towards where the whistle had come from, slowly walking towards it until they saw the briefcase in the middle of a small clearing in the forest. "Oh, great. A death trap."


Back in the cabin, Doc was hard at work listening to everything in the area while also trying to keep an ear on the others. Sitting next to him was Kite, also listening closely to anything in case they needed him for backup, as well as Mary, who was watching them from a nearby chair. Her eyes were focused solely on Kite, her brows furrowed and mouth occasionally opening. She seemed ready to ask something, but remained quiet.

Suddenly, Kite looked up from Doc to meet her gaze. "Yes, Mary?" he prompted. Mary, who was admittedly caught off-guard, took a few quiet moments to collect her thoughts.

"What's your deal with John?" she asked him, watching his face shift from worried to annoyed. He sighed, rubbing his temple as he turned to the floor.

"It's nothing personal, I just...feel like he's not really one of us," Kite said haltingly. Both Mary and Doc, who had briefly paused to listen in, were thrown off by his blunt statement. In the silence, Kite let out another sigh, wondering if his words had really expressed what was on his mind. After a few moments, they all resumed what they were doing before the conversation.


The trio stayed hidden in a bush near the clearing, staring at the briefcase not twenty feet away from them. Sweat dripped down their faces, but none of them dared break their cover.

"Oh shit, what do we do?" Franky asked, eyes still fixed on the seemingly empty clearing. John glanced at him, trying to figure out the best way they could get to that briefcase.

"Franky, do you think you can use Graceful Door to get the briefcase?" John asked him. Franky nodded, using Graceful Door to make a hole in the ground in front of them. He pulled it open, preparing to dive into his self-made tunnel, only for his eyes to widen in shock.

"What is it?" Keith asked as he and John both looked into the doorway. Soon, their expressions mirrored that of Franky, as they beheld a small steel object blinking under the ground. An explosive, and it wasn't alone. The entire clearing had been turned into a minefield.

Franky slowly put the door down and they remained in silence, beginning to realize how much trouble they were in. "Fuck, this...this is what he was doing while we were in the cabin. He planned to put us under his boot the whole time!" Franky yelled, forgetting to keep quiet.

A sudden glint of metal was the only warning they had. "Franky, get down!" John shouted, pushing him back behind the bush. There was a dull thud and a cry of pain. Franky could only stare at the hunter's knife embedded into John's right hand.

John grabbed the handle, and slowly removed it with clenched teeth. Yet he didn't ask for help. Instead, he looked to his friends and asked, "Franky, you okay?'

"Yeah. Thanks," Franky said numbly, standing up and helping John to his feet. Meanwhile, Keith looked around the area, the threat of his revolvers the only thing keeping the enemy at bay. John looked at his hand, watching the blood run from it and his eyes widened in shock as a thought popped in his head. John watched the field and held up his hand before looking at Keith.

"Keith, get ready," John said to him, catching his friend's attention before he swung his arm out. As blood splattered across their surroundings, some of it seemed to stop in midair. Kieth took his chance, taking aim and firing at whatever body part had just been revealed.

The bullet shot into the man's leg, carving a deep wound through his calf. The man shouted incoherently, his outline becoming more visible as his leg was soaked in blood. "Fucking assholes!" a voice screamed. The outline moved towards the bushes, hopping to cover just before Keith leveled his guns at him.

But Keith only smirked, taking aim at the bushes. As one, he and Rhinestone Cowboy fired, two shots from his revolvers and two of Rhinestone Cowboy's exploding rounds. All four hit their target, exploding the bush in a burst of twigs and scorched leaves.

After wrapping a cloth around his hand and tightening, John moved towards the bushes to check for a body. "See anything?" Keith asked him, still aiming at the bushes and keeping an eye out for movement around him. John looked around the bush and saw a few drops of blood against the leaves. Yet the trail ended there; there was no path leading off into the forest.

"Wait, how did he-" John was cut off by a sudden stab to his chest, just kept from his heart by his ribcage. Blood gushed from the wound. John cried out and dropped to his knees, while Franky began to run towards him with an angry shout.

"Franky, stay back." Franky came to a halt at the sight of John's serious expression. He looked around the area in front of him, covered in tiny beads of blood from his wound. There was no sign of the man, confirming the question in his mind. "Shit, he can adjust his Stand to change how he looks in comparison to the environment, even my blood."

"So your trick will only work once?" Keith asked rhetorically. John gave no answer, but stood up and slowly moved to regroup with the others. He carefully avoided the minefield, moving in an arc until he was sitting beside them once again.

"So, any ideas?" Keith asked, looking at John, who was holding a hand to his bloodsoaked t-shirt and breathing heavily from the blood loss.

"N-no, not really," John said, looking at the area. He closed his eyes, falling into deep thought while trying to figure out what to do. Until finally, an idea popped into his head. "Franky, mind giving me a light?" John asked, reaching out his hand.

Franky looked at him as if he had lost his mind. "Is now really the time for a smoke break?" He asked, wondering what could be going through his mind. Until John turned and Franky saw that he had a confident smile on his face.

"Now is the best time for a smoke break," John said. Franky, rather used to outlandish ideas at this point, decided to give John a chance. He took out a cigarette and lit it. He took long drags while John collected any ash from the butt he could.

"That smoke is nothing," the voice called out to them, causing them all to tense up. This seemed rather funny to the man, who began laughing quietly. "I've seen the smoke, so your plan can't work. My Stand is already adjusted to it."

Yet John remained silent, not responding to his taunts. Finally, as the cigarette burned out, he said, "The smoke wasn't the plan." Lonesome Dove appeared and clapped its hands together around John's uninjured one. Keith and Franky stared in shock, hoping that John wasn't hurt.

But as Lonesome Dove retracted its hands, it was clear something entirely different had occurred. A giant bubble had formed around John's hand, which John opened to reveal all the ash he had managed to acquire. Releasing it into the bubble, he pulled his hand out.

"This is. GO, LONESOME DOVE!" Lonesome Dove clenched its fists and threw several punches at the bubble, dividing it over and over until dozens of bubbles floated through the area around them. While the others looked on in awe of the display, John just smiled, looking on at the field of bubbles before having Lonesome Dove launch just one more at them. Instantly, the bubbles began to pop, one after the other, until the area was covered in ash.

Soon, a figure emerged from the ash. Keith grinned, leveling his gun at the now obvious target before pressing the trigger. The bullet went right through the guy's head and out the back, killing him instantly. As he crashed to the floor, his body became visible to them for the first time.

Keith lifted a smoking revolver to his hat, pushing it up while sliding his other one into it's holster. Posing with a wide smile, he said simply, "You did great, partner."

With that problem taken care of, the trio went to work on how to get to the briefcase, which was still surrounded by a minefield. After throwing around ideas for a minute or two, John snapped his fingers with a sudden realization.

"Franky, how big of a door can you make?" John asked, looking at Franky, who was in the middle of smoking another cigarette. A wide smile grew across their faces, and Graceful Door got to work.


A little bit later, the trio returned to the cabin with the briefcase in hand and placed it in front of them.

"Mission, accomplished," Franky said with a tired smile. He and Keith had been supporting John on the way back, in an attempt to avoid worsening his wound. Thankfully, Mary healed them all up as soon as they sat down.

In just a few minutes, the six were sitting around the table with the briefcase placed in front of them. Mary looked at all of them and saw they were eagor in see what info they got from the Foundation.

"Here we go," she said, popping it open. As she looked inside, her anticipation slowly turned to confusion. She reached inside and pulled out a pair of black-and-white pictures. "What are these?" she wondered aloud, looking them over and then placing them on the table for everyone to see.

"Looks like some of those old pictures from the last Great War," Franky pointed out, noticing how old they looked and they all looked closely, scanning them when John's eyes widened.

"Hey, look," John said, pointing to one of the pictures and they all looked, their eyes widening when they saw what looked like a young Brett Micheal in the pictures.

"Wait a second," Keith muttered as he scanned the people in the pictures. His eyes widened when he saw it, pointing at it while saying, "That's the guy I fought at the motel."

"And he's the guy who attacked me and Mary there too," Doc said, pointing to his enemy. The group all looked at the pictures, marking who they had seen throughout their journey. This continued until only five people had been left unnamed.

"So, Clearwater is one of these people," Kite said. The group studied their faces, trying to commit them to memory.

After a while, Mary took a deep breath. "I think it's about time we made a plan," Mary said, drawing the attention of the others.

TBC.


Here is the end of this chapter. I hope you enjoyed reading this and please leave a review to tell me what you think.