Ch. 14
Jones was finished reeling from the pain of Gyro's attack when he finally said, "You arrogant fool! You cannot attack me and expect to live!" At least, that's what he wanted to say. But the hollow holes left by Gyro's ball would not let much sound out of them. Fortunate enough for him, his regeneration abilities were quick to heal him up.
"I'll smash you to bits! You can't just attack a servant of Dio like thi-" His words were cut off as Gyro threw two of his steel balls at Jones, this time striking near his jaw bones. But the balls stayed on his face, leaving two round indents on the skin. As they flew back to their owner, Gyro's smile turned into one condescending look as he spoke to his enemy.
"I think it's about time you shut your trap. How about I help you with that?"
The round indents on Jones's jaw suddenly began to rotate around themselves, creating little knots in the Zombie's skin. As they stopped, they did not revert back to a smoother form, effectively sealing his jaw shut.
"MMMMM! HMMMMM! HMMM! MMMM! HMMM!" Jones could not get any words out of his mouth, as his jaws would not open due to the force of the imprinted rotation.
"Hey Caesar, Avdol," Gyro called out, " How's about you help me finish this guy!"
"With pleasure," Avdol gladly responded, sending Magician's Red out to summon another Red Bind. This time, one of the Stand's hands created a lasso around the Zombie's legs, while the other went around his neck. That being said, it wasn't enough to fully immobilize Jones, as shown by his rampant struggles.
"This isn't gonna be enough to hold him down!" Avdol yelled, trying to keep his opponent contained.
"Then let me help with that," one of the students spoke as green vines wrapped around Jones's arms and torso, prickling him while keeping him tied.
Next to Avdol, Shiozaki stood firm, her white hero robe flowing and her hands cupped as her vines continued to wrap around her enemy. All the while Jonathan's words from their training session were coming back to her.
There may be times where the enemy has you in a precarious position, such as this, your head could be swirling with emotions and full of dilemmas. The best and first thing to do… is breathe.
She took a deep breath as she uttered to her opponent, "May God forgive you for your sins, you undead heathen!" She detached the last bits of the vine around Jones as she grew her hair back to its normal size.
"Hey Trish!" Caesar yelled, "Catch!". Caesar used the soap on his hand to launch a bubble that was small, but larger than those cast by Bubble Launcher. As Trish touched the bubble, it maintained its shape whilst making it softer and more permeable. She caught it like a baseball before throwing it up high in the air and calling out "Gyro, throw it!"
Gyro smiled as he threw one of his green steel balls with a great curve behind it. Both of the objects missed Jones but collided right behind his back. The ball was able to stop the bubble in its tracks without popping it, colliding for a second before the ball surprisingly entered the bubble.
Despite all this, the ball did not lose its spin momentum. Rather, it transferred it onto the bubble it was enveloped in, effectively making the ball the captain of the ship. The combined sphere channeled both its spin and its Hamon energy as it impacted and made a hole in Jones's back. The Hamon circuited much quicker and faster thanks to the spin of the ball, and with that, the body of the Zombie began to disintegrate into thin air, ultimately before the bubble popped and the ball spun back to Gyro.
"Nicely done Trish," Gyro spoke enthusiastically to the pink-haired girl standing next to her, "I think Bruno's gonna love to hear about the progress you're making!"
"Well, if it weren't for your help," Trish responded, "I'd be Zombie food right now."
"You know your friends here put up just as much of a fight as you and I did," he returned the dialogue, "So you should thank them too."
"I sure will," Trish said as she smiled even brighter now.
Vlad King walked up to Gyro as he was getting back on his horse.
"That's a lovely steed," the teacher commented, "What is its name?"
"Valkyrie," Gyro answered, petting his horse, "A beautiful stock horse if I do say so myself."
"Thanks for the backup," Ectoplasm said, "But do you have any idea what's going on outside?"
"Yeah," Gyro got serious as he spoke, "I do. The group with Lisa Lisa and Joseph just took care of the two Zombies commanders blocking the entrance. There's still one more that Will and Jean-Pierre's group have to deal with. Of course, my partner is making his way over there right now. So too is Aizawa. If they can do that, then there will be significantly less Zombies coming to UA. That being said, there are still great amounts of them both on and off campus. So we need to take care of the ones on campus, before we'll have to deploy to areas with mass amounts of them."
"Very well then," Vlad King affirmed before turning to his students, "Ok Class, we're gonna do a sweep of the grounds to confirm if there are any Zombies left. Afterwards, we'll be heading to Ground Beta to help out Class 1-A. Once that has been taken care of, Gyro and the others will send you to areas around the city with numerous Zombies. Let's go!" he yelled as the students began their search across the grounds.
Ground Beta
If it wasn't used for Combat Training by UA, Ground Beta could have functioned as an independent city. Every kind of building and other kinds of infrastructure you could think of was stationed there. The only other factor stopping this metropolis from becoming reality was that it was not populated at all. Or at least, not by a human at this late into the night.
After encountering Cementoss, the remnants of Class 1-A (including the new students), as well as Present Mic, Kendo, Tetsutetsu, Pony, Bondo, Manga, Will, and Polnareff, had split up into groups to navigate the large grounds and deal with some of the Zombies running around.
The Students were easily able to take care of the Zombies which they encountered in the alleyways. It ranged from fighters like Kendo, Tetsutetsu, and Sato easily beating them against the walls, to being paralyzed by Kaminari's electricity or stuck to the buildings by Mineta's purple balls or Bondo's glue and Pony's horns. That being said, they were not able to fully eradicate the Zombies. Mina's acid, Aoyama's Navel Buffet, and Hagakure's Warp Reflection were able to affect the Zombies, but only Zeppeli's Hamon and Polnareff using Steel Chariot were capable of actually defeating these Zombies. But there were methods of dealing with them.
Will spent his time running up and down the streets of the grounds. Every street he stumbled upon with Students and retired Zombies, a mere flick of his white and black checkered hat would send enough Hamon onto the Zombies to actually defeat them. Polnareff would do the same thing, but it took longer to summon and use Silver Chariot's abilities.
Once a majority of the Zombies seem to have been taken care of, Will made his way back to the top of one of the buildings, where a girl with purple hair, a black jacket and pants, and a red shirt was stationed. Over her ears were blue headphones and where her earlobes were supposed to be were instead long cords, looking sort of like earphone jacks. These jacks of 1-A Student Kyoka Jiro were plugged into the ground, serving as a locator for the group. Next to her, Narancia stood with a hovering red radar, held in the air by a small propeller.
"Tell me," Zeppeli instructed, "Any update on the location of the commander?"
"Negative," Narancia said, "I'm not picking up any signals from one. They're not releasing any carbon dioxide. The other Zombies have let out some, but I can't find the commander's breathing."
"I can't detect a heartbeat," Jiro said, one of her hands on the side of her headphones.
"Hmm, it seems they're playing hide-and-seek with us," Will spoke, as he put his hands on each of their shoulders, "Looks like we'll have to do some greater seeking!" His hands channeled Hamon through Jiro and Narancia's bodies, further enhancing their detection capabilities.
"Now," Zeppeli instructed again, "Can you pick up anything?"
"Yeah," both Narancia and Jiro said, "In the river!"
A large river flowed through the grounds, over which a large bridge rested. A few meters away from the bridge was where their target was located.
(Author's Note: For reference, use the first episode of MHA Season 5).
"Very well then," Zeppeli said, removing his hands from their shoulders, "Narancia, when I give the signal, you must draw the enemy out." After an affirmative nod, he jumped down from the building, and began running towards the flowing body of water. He then pulled out his phone and made a call.
"Polnareff, the enemy is in the river. Send a few Students towards me and then make your way there. You'll have my coordinates shortly."
As he disconnected, he got down to the bank which the river was in. He lifted his right hand in the sky, with only his pointer finger extended. Through it, he discharged a large amount of Hamon into the sky, creating a large beam visible throughout campus.
"Alright, that's the signal!" Narancia exclaimed, before turning his body to the side, slightly crouching and extending his arms out. "Let's go, Aerosmith!"
High in the sky, a small, red and grey plane began to fly down, its front propeller spinning rapidly. It extended its wheels out before landing on Narancia's left arm, and then began to move forward, as if it were landing and taking off on a runway. As the plane reached the end of Narancia's right arm, it took off and made its way towards the river.
Once the launch sequence completed, Jiro looked and asked, "So your Quirk is a mini plane? And it's named Aerosmith?"
"Yep!" Narancia answered with nothing but full confidence.
It's silly, but at least it's got a rockin' name, Jirou thought to herself.
The plane quickly soared towards the river, heading in the direction of Zeppeli's signal. Once Zeppeli had a visual of the plane, he used his left hand to point to the exact location of his enemy. It was then Aerosmith used the little machine guns under its wings to fire into the water. Meanwhile, Zeppeli began to move his right hand downward towards the water, carrying the released Hamon with it. The Hamon made contact with the water, scattering it all throughout the river as Zeppeli shouted, HAMON BEACON OVERDRIVE!
The machine gun and the Beacon Overdrive were enough to send the figure hiding in the waters into the sky, where he stayed in the air for a few seconds. The Zombie was covered head to toe in yellow, metallic diving gear, complementing his wide stature. At least, half of his body was covered; whatever wasn't was a dark shade of brown. His face was the most divisive feature of all, with one half of it being hard yellow gear with a solemn eye, while the other half was brown and looked as if it was facing to the side. Not to mention, that side was the only one which had a moving mouth.
The students began making their way over to the river, as well as Polnareff as the Zombie began his introduction.
"So you dare to fight against Bonham, one of the Four Commanders of Lord Dio?" this yellow Zombie inquired.
"I would dare to fight you if I couldn't win," Zeppeli responded, "But since I am more than confident in my abilities as a Hamon user…" He jumped high into the air, heading towards the flowing waters of the river. However, instead of making a big splash, he landed right on the water, not breaking the surface tension whatsoever. Little bits of Hamon were crackling at the bottom of his feet, keeping him above in the air whilst creating small ripples in the water.
"This is merely just another scuffle to me. It is you who has dared to fight!"
Bonham let out a dark laugh, "Oh how brash!" on the left, brown side on his hand, a large amount of veins shot up high before disconnecting and falling into Bonham's hand. The hardened vein mass took the shape of a sword, extremely sharp like an actual blade.
"How's about I cut you down to size, eh?!" Bonham yelled as he lunged forward for his first attack, which Zeppeli dodged with grace, all the while keeping himself on top of the water, whereas Bonham's knees got submerged with every step he took. When Zeppeli went for a karate chop or Zoom Punch, Bonham would simply sink down to dodge. This pattern of attacks went on for a few seconds, each not able to land a hit on the other.
Zeppeli then took the decisive move of throwing his hat, charged with ample amounts of Hamon, towards Bonham, who blocked contact with his vein sword. Despite Bonham's struggles, he was able to maintain equilibrium with the spinning hat...until a gust of wind shaped like the letter ボ (bo) moved the hat a few inches to the left, ultimately changing its trajectory. After that, a large ビュッ！(ZING!) onomatopoeia appeared on the hat, sending the hat diagonally downward and slicing the skin on Bonham's chest, leaving a nasty Hamon-filled mark.
(Author's Note: If I incorrectly spelled the Japanese effects, please let me know and I'll fix them. Thanks!)
From outside the banks of the river, a character with red and blue clothing, as well as white and black ink bottles. His head, lacking a solid form, was white and looked like a thought bubble, but the mask that covered his face was a blank manga panel. Comicman, better known as Manga Fukidashi, had provided the onomatopoeia which helped the hat land a hit on his target. To Manga's left, Koichi stood to the side as his Stand, Echoes - a green, metallic and armored figure with a large green tail - hovered right next to him.
"POW!" Fukidashi yelled, "That's gonna leave a mark!"
"I appreciate the assistance, Comic Man and Reverb," Zeppeli remarked, fixing his hat back on his head, "But we'll need to come up with a more clever strategy to beat this undead beast back from whence it came. Tell me, what is Dio planning?"
"Hasn't it been obvious?!" Bonham laughed as his chest wound began to heal itself, "He wanted to amass a large undead army to control the world. Or at least provide such an army to the Noble One."
"The Noble One?" a nearby Present Mic inquired.
"A future Dio who defeated the Joestars and achieved his plan to become ruler of his world!" Bonham proudly declared. "And we are to provide the troops to help lead his conquest of this one! Because of our loyalty and his kindness, we have been granted greater power and ascended beyond both our human and undead forms. Tonight, he makes his Grand Entrance, a great wakeup call to this society which he plans to reassemble to his image!"
"So the Dio we saw at the top of the classrooms…" Koichi inquired towards Zeppeli.
"...was his younger self. The Noble One will show up elsewhere." Zeppeli responded.
"Well, I'd say this is getting boring," Bonham remarked, jumping high out the water and towards the riverbank with the students, "How about we kick things up a notch eh?!" He was a few meters away from striking Koichi, Manga, and the other students when Polnareff and Silver Chariot stepped away to block his blow. Rapier met sword as the two forces collided against each other! But unbeknownst to the others, some of the veins on Bonham's face wrapped around Aoyama's stomach area, dragging the two to the side.
Bonham put his sword right near the neck of his captive, shaking slightly, while his smile was wrought with fear. The veins were wrapped tightly enough that Aoyama couldn't use his Quirk.
"Take another step and I'll slice this kid's neck!" Bonham yelled before laughing loudly and evilly. This raucous laughter was soon interrupted by some small object, which tore through the sword, the veins wrapped around Aoyama, Bonham's left arm and right leg. The objects landed right nearby which revealed them to be… two fingernails?! Having cut the limbs off and freed Aoyama, Bonham fell to the ground as everyone saw a figure and his steed galloping across the nearby bridge.
The first, most noticeable feature of this man was all the blue the horseback rider was donning. From the light blue shirt with purple cuffs and a black feather sticking out to the blue pants and knit cap with small purple stars on it. The knit cap had a yellow horseshoe on the front, whilst any of his blonde hair not covered by the cap ran down towards the neck. He sat comfortably on his white horse with blue saddles as he lifted one of his hands. On the hand, two of his blue-painted fingernails were missing.
As he made his way towards Bonham and the other students, the rough rider jockey Johnny Joestar uttered not one single word, his blue eyes glowing brightly in the night sky. Once he got closer, the jockey finally spoke.
"Heard you've been causing trouble, partner."