King Spike Rules here and here is the next chapter to Lonely War. Here we have a fun battle with the final battle coming with them getting closer to Clearwater.

Chapter 23: Desert of Doom Part 1.

The sun beat down on the Mojave Desert, distorting the air with waves of heat. The group's van drove through the wasteland, just as it had been doing for the past few hours, out of the fear of being attacked by the enemy. They were driving off the road at this point, passing across Death Valley on their way to California.

"Ah, they're here," a figure said from atop a small hill. A smile appeared on his face as the van approached his position. "All those whippersnappers couldn't cut it, eh? Good for me."

He smirked wide, walking leisurely down the hill towards the van. Sand billowed around him, surrounding him in an almost unnatural fashion. As the van made a turn below, the cloud of sand dissipated, only to reveal empty air.


The van zoomed down the path, the occupants struggling to keep themselves cool in the face of the overwhelming heat. They were about halfway through Death Valley when their van began to act erratically. It began to spin uncontrollably, the driver only just keeping it from flipping over.

As the van finally skidded to a stop, the old man appeared, showing green eyes and a head full of grey hair. A long beard covered his face, and the rest of his form was hidden under a long cloak. He absently wondered who would be the first to attack him, though after a few moments of no movement, he decided that they might not have seen him.

With that in mind, he adopted a friendly smile, and began to speak. "Good afternoon, gentlemen. I do hope you aren't too terribly injured. You see, I was-"

Suddenly, an air bullet was fired through the front window and slammed into the man's chest. He was knocked several feet away, landing on his back in the sand.

"I think I got him," John said, climbing out of the passenger seat. He wore a proud smile as he looked at the enemy, whose face was covered with bits of blood and phlegm.

"We should have waited until we were sure of what he could do. You never know with these guys," Kite's voice could be heard from the driver's seat. The man himself peered out to look at John, who seemed rather annoyed at Kite's tone.

"Why should we wait when we could catch him off guard?" John snapped back. Kite was starting to get annoyed himself when the van started to wobble under their feet. This shocked two of them before something was shot out from under the van and through it. Freaking them out, they jumped out of the car and moved away from it while seeing the old man stand up.

"You really think that would work on me, you limp dick bastards?" he yelled out, wiping the blood from his face. The sand around him slowly formed into a humanoid body with long, spindly arms and elongated fingers. Its tail looked like a strange combination of a snake and gator mixed together. Its face was serpentine with goggles in place of eyes.

"Prepare to die, at the hands of my Whooly Swamp!" With a horrid screech, the Stand launched towards them. Kite gritted his teeth, summoning Renegades and throwing a right hook straight into its face. But when his fist made contact, Whooly Swamp's form dissolved into sand, leaving no lasting damage. Kite shook the sand off his arm, while the old man said mockingly, "My Stand can't be hurt with any physical attack. And he has more than just that up his sleeve." As those words left his mouth, Kite and John noticed that the ground was moving under them.

"W-we're sinking," John said with a panicked expression, trying to lift his feet. Yet the more he tried to move, the faster his legs sunk into the sand.

"It's quicksand, don't struggle," Kite ordered, trying to remain motionless. But his mind was working at a mile a minute, thinking over what he should do to get them out of this situation.

The old man watched their efforts, content to let his Stand finish them off. He chuckled. "So, still think it was such a great idea to separate from your group? The others haven't come this way yet, but they can't be too far behind you. I doubt more than an hour off," the old man said, looking down the road with clear anticipation. His gaze returned to them. "So if I want to leave them a surprise gift, I don't have time to hold back."

John, who had stopped trying to move by this point, still looked at the old man with a determined expression. "We're not down yet," he said, summoning Lonesome Dove and having him strike at the sand with a barrage of punches.

"What are you doing?" Kite asked him, baffled by the pointless attack. After a few more hits, Lonesome Dove stopped punching the ground, and John looked to Kite with a grin.

The ground began to balloon under them, until a large bubble emerged from the sand with the duo atop it. "Simple. We're getting out of here." The bubble steadily floated into the air, with the two struggling to hold onto its uneven surface. The old man and his Stand craned their heads to look at them, but otherwise remained motionless.

Safe for the moment, Kite looked down at the older man and sighed, realizing this was the best choice they had for the moment. 'And John was the one who came up with it.' Just the thought soured his expression. He glared over at his companion, who had a cocky grin on his face. 'It's like he thinks we've already won. Ugh...Why did I agree to this?'


A few days ago, the group were sitting in the cabin where they had defeated the Streak. They all sat in the room and looked around at each other as they were listening to Mary.

"Traveling in a group is dangerous. I think we need to split up until we get past the desert to get to the mountains." Mary said pointing to the map and looking at all of them before she continued, "We need to keep the van up front since I'm sure they know what we were driving and they're looking for it."

"So, a group heads out with the van and another follows in that car." Kite said pointing to the car the Speedwagon Foundation members came up in.

"Exactly. So me, Doc, Keith, and Franky will take that car and follow you two in the van." she explained to them with Kite taken aback as he turned to look at her while the others looked at her confused.

"Why does that have to be the set up? Couldn't I...say, go with someone else?" John asked, while the others remained silent. Kite looked from Mary to John, as if trying to decide who he most disagreed with.

Luckily for Mary, she had already prepared her case. "Well, my group should have more people, since they're specifically coming after me. Doc can scout ahead with his Stand, Keith's range is invaluable, and Franky can help us get out of trouble. Besides, you two can handle just about anything. Isn't that right?" she asked rhetorically.

John tried frantically to change her mind, but his efforts proved fruitless. Kite remained silent, recognizing the logic in the argument, though his displeasure was still obvious.

After John begrudgingly accepted the plan, the duo set out on the van two hours ahead of the others. From the cabin, Mary looked worriedly at the van until it had disappeared behind the trees. "I hope this pays off."


The duo hovered high in the air, eyes locked with the older man on the ground. "I heard you two had tricky Stands, but air control...well, that's a whole different beast," he remarked, before a smirk spread across his wrinkled face. "Good thing I have this."

Whooly Swamp's arms dissolved into sand, reforming into the shape of blades, which it pointed at the two. "That bubble won't be able to protect you much longer."

But John seemed unperturbed. "I wasn't planning on staying up here," he said simply, before Lonesome Dove punched a hole in the bubble. There was a burst of wind, launching the two onto the van with a dull thud. The shockwave even reached the old man, whose cloak billowed in the winds.

Kite was the first to sit up, having been largely protected by his Stand. "What were you thinking, pulling a stunt like that?" he asked John, who was groaning in pain and holding his back gingerly.

"What do you mean? His Stand's long-range; he was going to attack. I saved us," John replied, speaking as though it was an obvious fact.

Kite's eyes flashed red, grabbing his collar and pulled John towards him until they were face to face. "Listen here you asshole, I'm the boss here, and I am TIRED of watching you take over. Hell, even Mary's trying to do it nowadays! Stop pretending you're part of this group!" Kite yelled out at John, who was confused and himself getting annoyed from Kite talking to him like that.

"I'm not taking over, idiot. You're just a jerk who thinks that because I have ideas, suddenly I'm the enemy!" John shot back. The two glared at each other, about to get physical, when they noticed the van starting to sink underneath them.

The old man watched them with an amused smile. "Sorry, but I think you two need to pay more attention to me if you want to live," he said. Sand shifted out from under the tires, slowly dragging the van into a massive pit. The man watched it all, cackling under his breath with obvious glee.

"Shit, this is bad," John asked, wondering what they could do. Kite looked at the old man, assessing his options before slamming his hands onto the roof of the van. He extended Renegades' powers into the metal, which distorted and shot towards their enemy.

The man almost managed to dodge the attack, but one of the sharp edges caught his shoulder, leaving a shallow cut. Still, a confident smirk remained on his face. "Ha, is that all you got? I've seen better." Sand began to pour into the van, causing it to sink faster with every passing second.

"We need to jump," John realized. Before Kite could process what he just said, John grabbed hold of him and leaped off of the van. He landed on the sand nearby, Kite in tow, and rolled a little until they finally came to a stop.

As he regained his feet, John summoned Lonesome Dove, which launched numerous bubbles at high speeds towards the man. But barely a foot away, Whooly Swamp emerged from the sand to intercept the attack. After the last bubble had hit, the Stand gathered the surrounding sand, reforming without a scratch.

"You need to do more than just that," he said. Whooly Swamp dove onto the ground again, leaving them to scan their surroundings in the hope of somehow evading it.

Faced with the overwhelming odds, Kite came to only one conclusion. "We need to retreat," he said.

"No," John shot back. "We wouldn't get anywhere; his Stand can just keep ambushing us. And even if we could get away, he'd go after the others once they got here. We have to settle this now." He took one step, then another. Soon he was running across the sand, leaving a confused Kite in his wake. Kite was confused as John ran around with Lonesome Dove out and launching air bullets, which were all promptly deflected by Whooly Swamp.

"Oh please, haven't I already taught you? It's all useless," the old man said. John's foot started to sink, stopping him from moving any closer and nearly causing him to trip. John managed to steady himself, and his eyes moved over the quicksand he was now trapped in.

"I know your range. About fifty or so," he remarked, before giving a resigned sigh. Lonesome Dove punched the sand around his feet, forming a bubble and immediately popping it, allowing him to fly a few feet back on the sand.

He groaned from the injury he got on his ankle, struggling to stand on a foot that could barely support his weight. Still, he tried to show Kite a smile. "Kite, you're out of that range. I got this from here on," John said standing there with Lonesome Dove next to him and ready to fight, it was then that Kite noticed that he was on the east side of the van.

"No, he couldn't be..." Kite said, eyes wide with shock. Kite had realized exactly what John was doing, and his mind immediately raced to find a way of stopping it. Yet in spite of his panicked thoughts, John stood tall, without even trying to run away. The old man eyed the wound, licking his lips before giving a wide smile. He'd caught sight of injured prey, and he wasn't about to let it escape.

TBC.


That is it for this chapter and I hope you enjoyed it, please leave a review and I hope to see you next time.u next time.