Chapter 3: Joseph Joestar Can't Stop.
The stand Can't Stop used in this chapter is not my original creation. I am using a stand created and visualized by the Youtuber Purmello. Please support the original creator and consider this fanwork of their fanwork.
Authors Note: For the few people reading this, sorry for the long wait between chapters. I started another project and had to knock this down the priority list. Also sorry for me taking down chapter 2 to edit it some more. I haven't been very statisfied with these last two chapters, so the next chapter will take a while as well. Please enjoy!
Shizuka knocked a few times on the door. Suzie opened the door, obviously in a good mood. "Oh, hello sweetheart! Finally you're back from the hospital. This must be your new friend!"
She shaked Mellos hand vigorously before running back into the apartment while humming to herself. "Welcome in."
Shizuka took off her sneakers and immediately threw herself into the sofa of the living room to start watching some cartoons on a huge television. Mello looked around the huge apartment. Even though his family were doctors they never really earned that much, since they never charged their clients more than necessary, so this huge apartment impressed him. A glass wall looking out over New York, two floors and vines hanging over the entrance to the kitchen.
Suzie returned into the room with a brick of tea that she put down on the coffee table. She turned to Mello. "Sit down, sit down! Shizu's father will be here in a few minutes." Mello sat down and tried to follow what was happening on the TV.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door. It opened. An old man with a cane wandered into the room with a wide smile on his face. Even though his body seemed like it could fall over any second he still gave off an energy of warmth and kindness, like he would live forever. Shizuka stood up on the sofa and loudly declared "Your next line is 'What the…'" Joseph Joestar, Shizukas father, looked down at his foot and muttered "What the…" Shizuka gave off a hearty laugh. "It's an invisible egg! I placed it there so you would step on it, you dumbass!" Joseph gave Shizuka a fake angry stare, before he himself started laughing. "Ha, ha! I have taught you too much. You need to learn some basic respect!" Mello was surprised by this interaction. He would have been grounded for days if he had done something similar.
Joseph sat down in a chair and picked up a cup of tea. Suzie returned into the living room. "Oh, Joseph!" She ran up to him and gave him a kiss. "You have to warn me before you disappear so suddenly!" Joseph chuckled. "Sorry about that." He shook hands with Mello. "Mello Clayton Jr, sir." Joseph did a sort of old man giggle. "Sir? It has been a while since someone called me that."
Shizuka put down her tea. "Dad, I have something I need to tell you. It might have something to do with what you did in Washington." Suddenly the warm energy disappeared from Joseph, replaced by an air of seriousness. "What is it?"
Shizuka told the entire story, that she and Suzie had been attacked by Mello under the control of vampire flesh, Mello's meeting with Hellstrom, the fight with the priest, Bloody Sundays ability, everything. Joseph sat still for a few seconds and thought about it.
He then started talking. "The reason I was in Washington was to investigate a break in at the Speedwagon Foundation. The shard of the Stand arrow that was in their possession had been stolen. If someone had the ability to break through the security systems and you suddenly encounter mysterious stand users, it's pretty obvious. There is a vampire using stand abilities on the loose."
Shizuka stood up. "And Mello and I are going to defeat him!" Joseph shook his head. "Over my dead body." Shizuka was surprised at the answer, and the surprise went into anger. "What are you talking about!? Of course I'm going to defeat him! You did it, Jotaro did it, so should I!" Joseph answered in a stern tone. "The Joestar family is plagued by a curse of dangerous and horrible adventure. My grandfather died at a young age, your nephew had to watch a dear friend die before his eyes and your brother was nearly killed. I don't want you to have to face that kind of danger."
"Mom!" Suzie Q was nervous about the sudden confrontation between the nearly inseparable Joseph and Shizuka. "Shizu, you are my only child. I want it to be clear that the story about your fight at the hospital scared me. You were dealing with an armed criminal! It's best to just call in Speedwagon operatives or your nephew to deal with this."
Shizuka and her parents continued to argue. Mello felt uncomfortable so he went into the kitchen to get some water. The kitchen was shining white, with expensive looking utensils and a view over the New York skyline. He looked out while drinking some water, and for the first time since his encounter with Hellstrom he felt at peace.
The window was bashed in, and glass shards blasted out across the room. Mello quickly guarded his head, and dulled the pain with Bloody Sunday. "Mello? What was that?" Asked Suzie from inside the living room.
A man dressed in a white and orange rubber costume and motorcycle helmet climbed through the window and stood up on the kitchen sink. "My name is Hayloft, and I declare that I will assasinate Shizuka Joestar!"
Mello's doctor-instinct to analyze the danger of the situation kicked in. He had to get the old and vulnerable away from the battle. "Suzie, Joseph! Go up the stairs!" He then threw a handful Sundays at the intruder. With incredible speed the man hit them out of the air.
Suddenly the wall between the living room and the kitchen turned invisible, allowing Shizuka to see what was happening. Hayloft was bouncing up and down in anticipation for the fight. He jumped off the kitchen sink, and kicked Mello to the ground.
At double normal running speed he ran into the living room towards Shizuka. He sent out a punch towards her head but hit the invisible sofa and tripped head first into the coffee table. Shizuka turned invisible and started moving through the room. As she did she created illusions of herself in order to confuse the enemy. Meanwhile Mello started sending out Bloody Sundays from the kitchen into the living room.
Joseph was watching all this from the stairs. He felt proud over how quick his daughter was adapting to the situation. Then he got a hold of himself and fled into the bedroom.
"Using cowardly illusions instead of standing against me in true combat? How dare you call yourself a fighter if you don't have a manly spirit!" Hayloft scoffed. He then smashed the televisions, sending glass shards all over the floor. He started picking them up and throwing them at incredible speeds through the room.
Shizuka had to duck in order to dodge the onslaught of glass. Even then one of them was sent straight into her arm. Invisible blood spurt out over the mattress. She had to bite down on her lips in order to not make a sound. "Hmm, so you won't reveal yourself?" Hayloft grabbed a vase that was standing by the door and threw it towards one of the large windows.
When the shards spread out, some of them landed on Shizuka, hanging weirdly in the air. She quickly turned them invisible.
"Do you think I wouldn't notice that? My eyes are moving at superhuman speeds, I see everything!" Hayloft ran towards Shizukas location, and gave her a near superhuman-speed kick. Its force was enough to send her up into the air. She landed on the sofa with a stifled sound.
Hayloft raised his arm. "Not so fast." said Shizuka. She threw a Bloody Sunday that she had picked up from the ground onto the enemy's face. He screamed and desperately tried to get it off, but it had grasped too hard onto his skin. It was slowly but surely working its way up his face, sending horrible waves of pain through his body everytime it moved.
The stand grabbed onto his bangs hoping to climb under his helmet, but unfortunately Hayloft was a quick thinker. The hair grew into a thick curtain over his face, wrapping the Sunday. He then ripped off the new hair and chucked it and Bloody Sunday to the side.
Mello appeared out of the kitchen, with his hand wrapped in Sundays. He ran towards Hayloft and tried punching him in the head. Mother reacted quickly, and dodged, but the Sundays jumped off of Mellos hand and once again landed on the one opening to his face.
Hayloft shaked his head so fast it became a white blur. The Sundays spread out over the room. Hayloft realized that he wouldn't be able to handle both Shizuka and Mello, so he went into overdrive. At ten times the speed of a normal human's punch he whipped Mello in the face.
Mello was sent onto the floor. Hayloft turned around to finish Shizuka off, but she wasn't there.
The loud, attention-seeking sound of a gunshot fired from the stairs. Hayloft made an impressive leap into the air to avoid the gunshot towards his leg. But just to hurt Hayloft wasn't Shizuka's only objective. While Hayloft was busy dodging her shots she gave Mello time to run up the stairs.
Hayloft was running out of energy from the fighting, so he ran into the kitchen while dodging Shizukas shots. Suddenly, the apartment went quiet. There was only a faint slurping sound coming from the kitchen. Shizuka went up to the second floor to check on her parents.
Suzie was tracing back and forth. Joseph sat deep in thought. "So, what's the plan?" she asked Mello. "Well, we have to take the fight outside the apartment somehow, in order to get Joseph and Suzie out of danger." Shizuka nodded. They needed to get information on Hayloft, so she turned the floor invisible in order for them to get a good look at what he was doing.
He was at a steady pace emptying their fridge. In the blink of an eye he drank five cartons of milk, licked up an entire jar of jam, and poured raw bacon into his jaw. Shizuka felt a little queasy, while Mello was trying to understand how the man could eat that fast without
choking. Suddenly it clicked for both of them. "He can move incredibly fast, but the suit also speeds up his bodily functions, so he needs to eat." explained Shizuka to her parents. "We just need to mess with him until he becomes tired and escapes." she continued.
Hayloft took a break from chomping down on some leftovers and turned to check the kitchen door. Shizuka was standing there, watching him with a cold stare. He lunged out towards her, and the fist went right through. Of course it was an illusion, and he got pretty mad at himself for not seeing through it. He quickly returned to eating.
A single Bloody Sunday jumped from the stairs down on the back of Hayloft's suit, and started climbing down Hayloft's arm. As he was about to stuff his face with another sandwich the Bloody Sunday jumped on the sandwich, and got into his mouth.
The second it activated Hayloft felt the scathing pain of a punch and realized what's happening. He tried reaching for it, but it had gotten too deep into his mouth. If Mello was able to get Sunday down his throat, the fight would be over.
Suddenly, a huge amount of water shot out from Hayloft's mouth. The Bloody Sunday fell with them down on the kitchen floor, and got destroyed by a swift kick. "I can choose to speed up any process I want, including the production of saliva!"
Shizuka was equally surprised and grossed out. But, she also realized something from the head-on approach Hayloft fought with. If she and Mello wanted to beat him, they would need a mix of fighting and trickery.
She jumped two steps at a time down the stairs, and with caution looked into the kitchen. He wasn't there. She was about to turn to look through the living room when she saw him in the corner of her eye. He had climbed up into the ceiling, waiting to lunge like a carnivore. She jumped out of the way just in time to not have him break her neck. He landed and immediately jumped towards her.
When his hand was an inch away from her face Shizuka managed to grab it with Achtung Baby´s white hands. His muscles tightened with effort as he tried to get through to Shizuka, but then an idea struck him like lightning. His nails grew incredibly fast and stabbed Shizuka in the forehead. She immediately let him go and took a few quick steps backwards. Crimson blood ran down her face.
"First you talk about honor or some shit and the next you stab me in the face! Get off your high horse, dumbass!"
Shizuka became invisible and created an illusion in front of her as a precaution against his next attack. Hayloft didn't answer, he only flashed a malicious smile.
In a blur of white and orange he disappeared in front of her eyes. Shizuka looked around herself trying to figure out where he went, when she heard a loud crash in her right ear.
When she turned she saw Mother crashing through the window towards her. She immediately understood what was going on. He had jumped through the destroyed window, grabbed the edge of the wall and then swung in through this window.
She didn't have time to block. His kick landed her right in the head and she fell down on the floor, a splitting headache consuming her mind.