Stand User: Cole

Stand name: Take on Me

Power: B

Speed: C

Durability: C

Precision: A

Range: D

Potential: A

Stand ability: Can make drawings into real objects or beings, and can turn real things into drawings. Works on any piece of visual art.

Donny entered the arts center, seeing a wide central room with paintings hung on both sides of the wall. He felt out of place. He was a teenager in a leather jacket surrounded by older adults in fancy clothes. As he was running through the arts center, he bumped into an older man.

"Hey!" He exclaimed, "watch it kid!"

"Shut up!" Donny pushed him out of the way. The older man scowled at Donny, offended.

"I said, watch it-" As he went to grab Donny, Champion left his body and smacked the hand away.

The reason Donny was running so carelessly was because Take on Me was jumping from painting to painting. Apparently, the stand itself had the ability to enter anything anyone draws. Take on Me was also carrying the sketchbook, which Cole himself began so that Take on Me could bring him between the paintings.

"Face it, Donny! You're shit outta luck! You're in my element now!" Take on Me left an abstract panting and slid into a set of doors, breaking the lock with a tug of the handle. Donny ran through to find he was in the gallery. Only a few feet separated one painting from another. Cole could spring from one panting to another, attacking Donny from behind and pull him in.

But he felt confident. Champion was fast enough to keep him safe, he thought. He entered the gallery. He closed the door behind him. The only sound was the light whirring of the air conditioner.

"So, where are you?" Donny called out. He watched each painting he passed by, making sure that he was ready. He didn't look like it, though. His hands were in his pockets, he was sauntering nonchalantly, he leaned his head back. He was hoping that his cool attire would lead Cole to attack.

"I'm obviously somewhere in here," Cole's voice sounded out, "You just need to find me. Shouldn't be that hard, right?"

He began to walk down a path between two showcases, paintings on both sides of him. He knew that Cole would try to attack here. "Yeah, I just need to follow the sound of your whiny voice," Donny mocked.

Cole laughed in response, "You know, Donny, I'm surprised you got a stand at all. Do you even have the resolve to do anything?"

"Pssh," Donny scoffed, "What, you insulting my character now?" Donny spun around behind him, hoping to catch Cole. He didn't, but he continued, "You think that's gonna make me angry or something?"

"I suppose you're right," Cole replied, "Nothing I say will insult you, and you can't insult me. We are opposites of each other, after all."

"What?"

"I, a sophisticated artist with a girlfriend, and you, a sad stoner with no girlfriend."

"Well, you especially aren't gonna insult me with that," Donny laughed, "Think of something a little more deep than what my friends tell me every day." He got frustrated at the fact nothing was really happening, "Come on you pansy, come out and attack me already."

"How about this, Donny?"

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, stepping out of one of the paintings as if climbing through a window, Cole stepped out onto the floor a few feet away from Donny. He held eye contact, then spread out his arms. "One free shot," He said, "I don't even have my stand out yet. Try as best as you can to beat me."

What an idiot! Donny thought, If this guy is trying to show off the speed of his stand, there's no way he's faster than Champion! So, the wrestler stand sprang outward in a gust of wind, and slammed Cole across the face with no resistance. Donny smiled at his accomplishments, but became confused when he saw that Cole began to dissolve into black dust. His body was breaking apart. Almost as if he was, himself, one of the sketche-

"Shit."

At that moment, he felt his back split open. From behind him, Take on Me had plunged its hand deep into Donny in a free punch. He heard Cole's voice, "I can make any drawing I want come to life, whether or not its colored. And I'm a very convincing artist, Donny."

When Donny went to counterattack, his enemy was gone. Jumping from painting to painting around him in a blur, Take on Me managed to break Donny's shin before disappearing again. Champion tried to punch it, but only ended up tearing a hole in an expensive painting. The next attack came with a kick across Donny's face, sending him flying and sprawled up against the wall. Already, Take on Me put a choke hold on him from behind.

"Donny," Cole said, "It's time."

Then Donny looked at his fingers, and saw that he was beginning to turn into graphite dust. He was caught by Cole, but he had one last trick. Cole called to him, "Your time is up, Donny!"

Donny Falcon might be your stereotypical skater bro, but he didn't become that way out of a genuine interest in skater culture. His parents are inheritors of major wealth, having found gold from the pioneering days of Riverford. Despite living near a town with such a rich history of stand users, nobody before Donny gained a stand.

This is because the Falcon family are the most classist people you'll ever meet. Donny's house is in the richest neighborhood in Riverford, far away from any of the places he'd make his friends. He could go to a good local private school, go to a good college, and be set for life off of the patronage of his parents. Instead he rejects "high culture," he caused enough trouble to get kicked out of the private school in his first week, and he refuses to make friends in his local neighborhood.

Donny doesn't tell anyone about why he rejects his parent's wealth. When asked he usually says, "that life doesn't suit me." The truth is, Donny hates the lifestyle. Not being rich in particular, but being wealthy without work. And even if you have earned your wealth from skill, the pretentiousness and ego of many wealthy people he's met disgusts him. If he becomes rich, he promised himself he would do so from his own skill, and that he would never flaunt it like the posers he hated so much.

With a spark from Champion's fingers, the painting lit aflame. Cole looked at it, and then saw that Champion was dragging a spark all around him, trapping the stand in a circle of fire from within the painting.

"Wha-what are you doing, Donny?"

"You said that if you burn your stupid sketchbook, my friends will die," Donny growled, "So if you're caught in a flaming painting, you'll die too, right?"

Take on Me pushed Donny away before lunging at him from the painting. But this time, Donny was ready. Champion socked the enemy stand, and pushed it up against the crumbling painting.

Cole formed into being behind his stand, staring at Donny. The fire alarm began to go off. Donny mocked Cole, "have you come out to get a breath of fresh air before I beat the shit out of you?"

"YATA-TA!" Take on Me was hit across the head, and the next hit from Champion broke Cole's fingers, which he was using to try to quickly make another sketch to throw at Donny. Cole screamed in pain, and narrowly avoided falling into the sprawling flames behind him. The other paintings began to light on fire, creating a wall of fire in front of Donny.

And, as Cole's hand broke, he dropped the sketchbook. Donny slid it back towards him. Simply by being out of Take on Me's range, his friends began to manifest before him. Graphite dust began flowing out of the pages, and slowly forming back into its human shape and color.

"You fucking prick!" Cole shouted, holding his broken hand by the wrist, "Do you know what this kind of injury will do to me?!" Take on Me clenched its fists.

"Don't try it!" Donny warned, "Champion is faster and more precise than your stand. It can block any attack you throw at me."

Melvin and Jordan were halfway formed, but that isn't enough. The truth was, he used up a lot of his stand power. Champion was a lot slower than it was earlier. He wasn't sure if Take on Me used energy whenever it used its ability.

Take on Me launched a barrage of punches, and Champion rushed to block as many of them as possible, but its fatigued state simply didn't allow it. Take on Me, a normally slower and weaker stand, punched through Donny's defenses. Cole pulled back the sketchbook, Jordan and Melvin turning back into clouds of dust before slipping between the pages once again. Then, Cole ripped out a single page, and, in a skilled move of his hand, transformed it into a paper airplane.

"Sorry, Donny, but I'm not going to get blamed for setting an art gallery on fire. Good-bye!" He, his stand, and the sketchbook, turned into graphite dust that slipped into the fold of the paper airplane as Cole tossed it forward. The airplane bent the corner, as it was clear that Cole was experienced in the piloting of folded paper. Donny went to run after him, only to remember that his shin was shattered, and promptly ate shit on the ground.

"God damn it!" He pounded the floor. He looked at Champion, who was poking the wound on his back with little sparks of energy to get it to heal. "God damn it!" Donny shouted, "Heal the leg you idiot! The leg!" The muscular beast just kept poking at his back, "God damn it, what's the point of having you if you don't listen to me?!"

Frustrated, Donny began limping across the hallway, using the paintings on the walls as a secondary balance measure. While limping, Donny wondered why Cole didn't just throw Jordan and Melvin into the fire right behind him.

As Donny went around the corner, he saw that a door labelled "staff only" was just closing. Donny followed Cole's trail, limping as fast as he could towards the door, pusing past, and dreading the fact that immediately behind the doors were stairs. He did his best to struggle up the steps, his dangling leg kicking against them and sending sharp bolts of pain through Donny each time.

He burst through the door at the top, and saw that it was opening at a lounging area just outside some offices. A few feet past that was a beautiful glass and metal bridge overlooking the main hall. Because it's an art center.

Cole looked at the main hall, leaning on the handrails waiting for Donny. Donny limped forward until the reached the bridge, and saw everyone was gone due to the fire alarm.

"The fire department will be here soon," Cole said. Blood from his hand dripped onto the glass. Take on Me held up the sketchbook. Cole held up a lighter.

"Cut the shit," Donny said. He stumbled against the handrails, "If you wanted to burn the pages, you would have done it earlier. Like when there was a bunch of fire right behind you."

"In that moment, I was in between a rock and a hard place," Cole said, "But now, the odds are perfectly in my favor." He flicked the lighter. The corner of his sketchbook began to burn, letting off just a bit of smoke.

Donny began stumbling forward, Champion prepared to fight. The book began to burn more and more, but as Donny was just about to get in range, Cole threw the sketchbook aside, off of the bridge. Bits of burning paper were sent into the air.

"Now, die, Donny-"

Cole prepared to see Donny lunge forward, but instead, Donny lifted himself upward, and swung himself over the bridge. He was going into a nosedive toward the sketchbook, using Champion to reach out and grab it.

Cole assumed victory. He smiled to himself, thinking that Donny was idiotic using his stand to grab the sketchbook when they were 20 feet above the ground floor. Donny, however, thanked Cole for this opportunity.

Up until this moment, Donny thought, I had relied on Jordan's stand to do anything. Even to use my own stand. But lucky for me, this guy doesn't know how my stand works at all!

A leathered, spiky hand grabbed onto the railing next to Cole. He jumped back, unsure what to think. Surrounded by a red aura, Donny hovered midair. He called out to Cole, "My stand, Skate or Die, becomes more powerful the more dangerous stunts I do."

"RAD!" Donny launched upward, landing right back onto the bridge in front of Cole, kneeling with his one good leg.

"I'd say jumping off a bridge to certain death to catch a book is a pretty dangerous stunt, wouldn't you think?" Donny lifted up the book, showing the flames gone and clouds of graphite flowing out of it.

"Ok, ok!" Cole began to back off, "I'll leave! I'll leave you alone!"

"I would take that," Donny said, "but you gotta be de-cubed. Sorry."

"'De-cubed?'" Cole squinted, letting down a lot his guard, "What in the world does that fucking me-"

"RAD-RAD-RAD-RAD-RAD-RAD-RAD-RAD-RAD-RAD-RAD-RAD-RAD!"

Under the immense barrage of Skate or Die Rank A, Cole's stand broke apart. He was launched across the bridge, landing in a classroom on the complete other side of the building. The cubes in his head were suspended in air where he was hit. And, in a second, Skate or Die returned to the tiny stand it was before.

Riverford trivia: The Riverford Arts Center was known for a wide art gallery, before there was a strange fire in its gallery. Now, it focuses on plays and drama.

Jordan bumped the side of his head to get the rest of the graphite out of his ear. Melvin used his medics to start to heal Donny's leg under a tree in the park. In the distance, the firefighters carried Cole out in a stretcher.

"So how was it?" Melvin asked, "Fighting with two stands?"

"Well one of my stands is useless half the time," Donny shrugged, "So normal, I guess."

Jordan walked over to Donny, and crouched beside him. He looked at Donny for a long time in silence, then put a hand on Donny's shoulder. It was strange. Melvin and Donny were silent, ready for him to pour his heart out. "Fuck you, Donny," He said.

Donny blinked, "Well, fuck you too, Jojo."

Then, Jordan smiled. He got up, and yelled, "Quick, Melvin, kick my shi-" Already, Melvin was throwing a kick at Jordan, aiming right for the knee.

"YATA!" Melvin was knocked five feet away, flat on his ass. Jordan fist bumped Champion hovering behind him.

Donny started clapping, "You got your stand back!" Jordan began punching the air in celebration. Donny said, "Hey, Melvin, clap. Melvin. Melvin…..hey, are you awake?"

"Oh shit, I think I knocked him out."