Quietly would have been best when sneaking into enemy territory. Instead, Tia thought it best to charge down the stairs, I kept slipping and Griffin yelled our presence. Like Daiki said, we were met with 3 opponents. One girl with bleached blonde hair standing tall with high heels. A bulky third year sitting in the centre. A boy next to him with white hair and bags under his eyes. Griffin stood in front of both of us, with his hands crossed and in his blazer pocket. At any moment this could go south and we could get attacked. Hopefully he'd try and sort things out.

"So, what's the deal with airplane food?"

I stood in shock. There was no way he actually just said that. Tia's hand was tensed on her Warhammer; I'm sure she was considering hitting Griffin. While everyone was contemplating what was just said Griffin pulled out Black Parade. His shots were made with ample resistance. The girl unleashed her Stand and created some sort of barrier. There were three translucent shields floating in the air. A blue shimmer appeared on all of them. Bullets ricocheted from the shield onto the ceiling and walls. Tia dashed forward and slammed her hammer into a shield. Only a small crack appeared on it.

None of our attacks could even dent them meaningfully and they were only using one Stand. Where were the others? Maybe if I could get to them then we'd win this fight. I slowly shifted over to the exit. All eyes were focused on Tia's aggressive attempts to break through the barrier. Just making it out and calling for help would mean we'd win. Once their back had turned I sprinted for the exit. I made it two steps before their defence was activated.

The boy with white hair and blue highlights activated some sort of perimeter ability. Shocks of electricity launched me down the stairs. A blue dome was cast above us. Now we really had to fight. I launched my Stand and black tendrils reached far enough to hit the girls arm. She fell and called out for help.

"Kaito!" The electricity boy relinquished the dome and created strands of electricity headed for Tia. No way in hell she could block in time. Thinking quickly, there was nothing else I could do. I used my Stand to absorb the electricity. Waves of pain surged through my body. Tia flinched but used the opportunity to attack the blonde girl. A shield shattered and her ribs took a heavy hit.

The boy in the middle hadn't moved at all during our encounter. I'm guessing he was the leader, but that was no excuse not to fight. Lead by example, not by being lazy. The girl moved over to him and crouched down. He whispered in her ear before letting her stand up. He called her Hina. I'm unsure if they gave each other nicknames or were using actual names. Either way, it didn't matter. We were losing a 3v2 and one of our members had a gun. No, Griffin had two guns. How the hell were we losing?

Ducking back, I got close enough to my friends to communicate with them effectively. Running wasn't an option anymore as Kaito recreated the forcefield around us. Slowly, it started to shrink. We'd be forced into conflict with them and we'd have no chance at winning.

"Griffin, got any ideas?" I asked.

"Black Parade: Runaway!" He shouted. His pistols lit up blue and I sensed a different aura coming from them. He hyped this up to be a devastating attack, yet the aura was calm, tranquil. Like gazing into the ocean late at night. Though I wasn't calm when he pointed the pistol at Tia's head.

One moment, she was standing. A loud bang and she was falling to the ground, lifeless. Her eyes were glassy. Not like she had been crying, but like any substance had just been drained, ripped even, out of her. Next, Griffin pointed his gun at me, and the other at his head. I closed my eyes and didn't even try to dodge.

Ringing from my eardrums woke me up. I gasped and found myself on the carpeted floor of a bedroom. Was it mine? Slowly, I stood up. The room was mostly bare. Gazing around you could see the room was cramped and full of mementos. A few ripped posters on the wall with baseball bed sheets. A shoddy desk with one leg missing. A bookshelf with countless books; more were scattered across the room. Candy wrappers littered the floor but the room smelled distinctly sweet. Bottles lined the floor with brown liquids oozing out of them. Dust and other powders lingered in the air. Bits of the roof were cracked but no light came through. Whoever lived here wasn't doing a good job of keeping it up.

"This is my bedroom, you know." Griffin said. His voice startled me and I faced him. He was sitting on his bed, laughing at our bewildered expressions. "Don't worry, we're all alive. My ability, Runaway, transfers our consciousness to a different plane. For some odd reason it chose my childhood bedroom." He said that like he was reminiscing. At least we were safe here.

"What about our bodies. We're defenceless in the real world." Tia said. She raised a good point.

"Time works differently here. For each hour here a second passes in the real world. And our bodies don't age. I mostly use it to study." He grinned at us. Now knowing our bodies were safe we could work on a counterplan.

Electricity, shields and another hidden ability. We needed to counter those abilities.

"My weapons have different abilities depending on what's summoned. My whips can absorb elemental attacks, it'll probably work against Kaito. The problem is the shields. That bitch Hina won't let me get close enough to attack." I thought hard for a moment. A lightbulb appeared over my head.

"What if I use my Stand?" I suggested. Tia's face was deadpan; she looked like she wanted to die.

"Don't joke around like that. Your noodles can't do anything." Tia said. I frowned and moved over to the desk. Summoning my Stand, I started spinning it in my palms. The friction caused my hands to become warm, but more importantly the shape of my Stand changed. The top was as sharp as a spear. I reached for a book and it was instantly pierced by my tendril.

"Griffin could provide cover fire for Tia. Hina's gonna try and stop the attack but she won't expect me to go for her. We'll both break the shield and Griffin can take her out. Don't kill her." I added a heavy emphasis on the last part.

"Don't worry, my bullets don't usually kill." He said. "Now, are we ready to go back?" We all seemed more certain than before. We were going to stop them.

Being forced back into my body was far more nauseating than I expected. Momentarily, the world shook and spun under my feet. I felt sick. Luckily I managed to stomach it and moved to attack. Griffin provided cover fire as expected while Tia aimed for Kaito. At the last possible second she spun on her heels and swung the Warhammer at Hina. My tendril made a dent large enough for Tia to shatter her shield. But a punch stopped us both.

There was no doubt about it, Tia had been punched. I found it odd that they didn't have physical stands. Out of all three of them at least one should have something humanoid. The Stand was hidden, maybe by someone's ability. Probably the bulky guys. A shimmer of a blue and pink hand was seen before it pulled back. So invisibility, shields and electricity. We could definitely work with that.

By now, I'm sure all three of them had figured out we could leave at any moment. Kaito called back his electricity into direct attacks. If he decided to attack us when we were in corporeal form it could end badly. Electricity travelled fast. If I was paying attention in science class I'd actually remember. So if we travelled back into that dimension again I'd be in trouble.

Tia's Warhammer flashed before forming into a sabre. It had a blue handle and silver blade. She didn't seem too bothered about being attacked, as she ran for the trio. She was met by ample resistance; Kaito shot waves of electricity at her. The blue waves travelled fast but Tia was quick enough. Her sabre released a wave of energy at Hina. Since her shields were recharging she couldn't even defend herself. The third year paid her no mind as she tumbled to the floor. Her Stand was finally revealed. It was mostly humanoid, with rings like Saturn's protruding out of the body. It was mainly blue and had specks of pink dotted around the body in sporadic bouts. The Stand slowly fizzed away into the atmosphere. I checked and still saw breathing. A sigh of relief left my body. Hina was safe.

Before Tia fell down exhausted, she chucked her blade at Kaito. Using the sabre was an energizing ability; she told me that at lunch today. It landed in his shoulder, digging quite far into his body. Blood started pouring from his wound and stained his dirty uniform. Normally, I'd offer help, like a normal human being. But Griffin was shooting bullets at the handle of the weapon. It inched further and further into his body and he yelled with pain. I paused and realised the agonizing pain he was in. Quickly, I used my Stand to pull the blade out. Unfortunately I could only pull so far and it ended up making the wound worse.

"Oh my God I'm so sorry." I said. Nothing I said mattered. Kaito was probably in so much shock he couldn't hear me. Griffin walked over and roundhouse kicked him in the back of his head. Finally, we were almost at the end of this cursed journey.