Joshua couldn't imagine a worse situation to be in. He was trapped underneath a weight machine that was continually applying weight on top of him. This machine - which was powered not by electricity, but by some sort of Stand ability - would crush him if he didn't escape it. But he was too exhausted to move, and Imagine Dragons was quickly losing strength as well. Jake Elwood, the Cobalt Order Stand user who had trapped him underneath the machine, was alternately taunting him, kicking him in the head, and interrogating him about the location of a fragment. He wasn't paying attention to any of this, however, as one question continued to bounce throughout his mind.

How can this machine carry so much weight?

It was a fair question to ask. The machine may have been powered by a Stand, but it's functionality was entirely in the realm of technology and logical explanations. If it could really apply up to three tons without breaking itself, then there must be some secret as to how. The same could be said of the machine's safety lock: it apparently could instantly catch up to three tons of weight, but if that was true it would put an incredible strain on what had to be a small piece of machinery. No, there must've been another explanation to how the machine worked, and Joshua knew that if he could figure it out he had a chance to turn the situation around. One thing's for sure, he thought as he glanced upward. That weight sure doesn't look like three tons of metal. Imagine Dragons, though it strained under the pressure of the machine, tapped the weight with one claw. Wait, Joshua thought. That's not metal, it's-

Elwood's boot struck him in the head again. "Are you listening to me? I don't want to keep asking like this, so spit it out already! Where's the Fragment?" Elwood spat. "I know you know you where it is!" Elwood pointed to a dial on the side of the machine. "That weight is almost at a ton now. Your Stand won't be hold it for much longer. Tell me where the Fragment is, now, or you'll be crushed!"

KRCK! Suddenly, a sharp snapping sound echoed through the room, causing Elwood to jump. "What the hell was that!" he exclaimed. "Some kind of internal mechanism breaking?" he shook his head. "Doesn't matter. Even if a machine is broken, as long as Rubber Biscuit activates it, it will keep going until I say so!"

"It wasn't...internal…"

Though he had been beaten bloody, and was too exhausted to move, Joshua still could speak. "Look at...my Stand…" "What the hell!" Elwood shouted. Somehow, Imagine Dragons' claws seemed to have broken through the exterior of the weight. "Your Stand! It's hands are inside the metal!" Elwood looked down at Joshua. "What the hell is this?!" "Not metal…" Joshua slowly replied. "See for yourself…"

Hesitantly, Elwood tapped the weight with a hand. "It's plastic!" he exclaimed. "That's right." Though Imagine Dragons still strained under the weight, it seemed as though some strength had returned to Joshua's voice. "It looks like a weight, but it's not a weight at all. It's a hollow plastic shell covering the real source of weight." Imagine Dragons' hands clenched the bar inside the faux weight. "It's a press! A hydraulic press!" "So what?" Elwood sneered. "It may not be a real weight, but it will crush you all the same. It makes no difference!" "Wrong! A weight is a weight, and a press is a press!" Joshua shouted. "If this is a press, that makes all the difference in the world!"

"GRRAAAAA!" With a roar, Imagine Dragons lurched forward, pulling the weight down with it. The machine toppled, crashing on the ground with a slam. Elwood had to quickly jump back to avoid getting crushed by the machine himself.

"See, if that had been a weight," Joshua explained as Imagine Dragons helped him to his feet, "I would've had to lift it up to throw it off me, and that would've been impossible. But it was a press applying a force, which meant that I could use its force as leverage to throw the machine off of me." Steadying himself on Imagine Dragons' shoulder, Joshua pointed at Elwood. "Now, it's time for me to ask you a question. What are you going to do now, Jake Elwood? Because it doesn't matter if you activate that machine any more. It's not a threat!"

"[Rubber Biscuit]!" Elwood shouted. The robotic Stand slammed its right hand on the left hand's red button, and there was suddenly an intense flash of light. The gym's lights, which had previously been turned off, simultaneously activated and exploded, sending shattered glass everywhere. After shielding his eyes from the flash, Joshua looked up to see Elwood running out of the main gym room into the lobby. "No," Joshua muttered to himself. "I can't let him let away." He had regained the strength to move, but not very fast, and so he stumbled across the gym. The receptionist was still collapsed on the floor, and both men who had been on the ellipticals had fled. "If he gets away, we'll lose our only lead on the Cobalt Order."

As Joshua entered the lobby, he saw the girl who had been exercising in the studio looking around worriedly. "What's going on?" she asked him. "The power went out, and then there was a loud crash." "Don't worry about it," Joshua wearily said. "Did you see a man run by here? Short, kind of shabby looking?" "Um, yeah," the girl responded. "He ran into the pool area with some kind of robot thing at his side." she tilted her head to the side. "Are you okay? You look like you were run over by something."

Something about the girl's comments struck Joshua as strange, but he was too tired to care about it. "I'm fine. Look, you need to get out of here. I don't have time to explain, but that guy's super dangerous." "But what-" the girl tried to say, but Joshua was already running - as much as he could run - off.

The pool room seemed to be as empty and quiet as the rest of the gym. Elwood was nowhere to be seen, but Joshua saw the door to the sauna and hot tubs close just as he entered the room. Still limping, but with a strength that seemed to be returning, he made his way to the door and threw it open. Elwood sat on the edge of the hot tub, Rubber Biscuit at his side. The Stand slapped the button on its hand, and a large jet of water burst from the hot tub directly toward Joshua's face.

"[Imagine Dragons]!" The scaly Stand appeared in front of Joshua and let out an intense breath of fire, which collided with the jet of water. Steam filled the room as fire and water continued to collide, and soon Joshua could only see Elwood's silhouette. "You've done it now, kid," shouted the silhouette. "Rubber Biscuit doesn't just activate machines, see. It also can push them well beyond their limit. This hot tub jet now shoots water farther and faster and hotter than it ever could before, and it will continue to shoot water until I tell it to stop. Now, if you still won't tell me where the Fragment is, I have only one question left. That is, will the pressure of the water knock your head off your body, or will the temperature of the water cook you first?"

As much as it pained him to admit it, Joshua knew he was stuck again. Imagine Dragons' fire was holding back the water for now, but Joshua could feel himself running out of breath. He wasn't sure if, when he did run out of breath, he could dodge the jet of water in time. And anyway, there's no guarantee that Elwood doesn't have other jets aimed at anywhere I could go, Joshua thought. In fact, it's pretty likely that he does. The exhaustion from earlier was starting to return to Joshua's body. He needed to come up with a plan, and quickly, or he would-

Suddenly, the pressure from the water jet disappeared. Imagine Dragons stumbled from the sudden lack of pressure against it, and almost fell forward as it stopped its fire breath. Joshua looked into the steam-filled room; there had previously only been Elwood and Rubber Biscuit, but now standing next to them was another figure - no, make that two other figures. As the steam cleared, Joshua recognized one of the figures as the girl from the lobby. The other figure…

There was no question about it: the other figure was a Stand. It looked almost human, but its body was bright gold and shiny like a statue. Though it was short, it was incredibly muscular. The muscles on its arms and legs were a deep red color, and were ridged like scales. A long, wavy mane of golden hair flowed down to its shoulders. Its face was incredibly handsome, but its blank expression was more than a little unnerving. In addition, it appeared to be wearing a small black bow tie around its neck.

Elwood was pointing furiously at the girl, his face twisted and red with rage. "What the hell was that?!" At his side, Rubber Biscuit repeatedly tapped the red button on the back of its hand. The hot tub continued to refuse to spray another jet of water, and Rubber Biscuit's tapping grew faster and more impatient. "What the hell did you do to the hot tub?"

The Stand turned to the girl. "Shall I tell him, mistress?" it asked.

The girl put leaned head against her hand, appearing to consider the Stand's question. "Well, he certainly doesn't deserve it. But I'm still in a good mood, so we might as well." "Very good," the Stand said as it gave a short nod, before turning back to Elwood and Rubber Biscuit.

"It is a very simple explanation. I touched the hot tub's pump, thus stopping it." "That's not an explanation at all!" Elwood protested. "Rubber Biscuit should still be able to activate the jets even with the pump disabled. So why is it-" The golden Stand put a finger to Elwood's lips, shushing him. "You have misunderstood me. I did not 'disable' the pump. I stopped it. When I touched that pump, every molecule inside of it came to a sudden and complete stop. This, in turn, caused a flash freeze within the pump that turned all of its water into ice. You can activate the jets as many times as you like, but it will not change the fact that pumps cannot move ice!" "Incidentally," the girl added, "the pump on a hot tub is generally located in front of the heater. So you can't melt that ice quickly either."

"Now," said the golden Stand, "I will continue to follow mistress's orders by - how did you put it?" it asked, turning to the girl once again. "Beat the ever-loving shit out of him?" Elwood's red face suddenly turned very pale. "Hang on now," Elwood murmured. The girl nodded. "Quickly and efficiently, if you please." "Hang on now," Elwood was beginning to back up against the hot tub. "Hang on now." "Very good," the Stand responded with a short nod.

The beatdown was indeed quick and efficient. It was also very, very brutal. Elwood flew backward screaming in pain, before landing in the hot tub with a splash. The girl turned and rushed to Joshua, who at some point had sunk to the floor in a mixture of shock and tired resignation. "Are you okay?" she asked, standing over him. "Are you badly injured?"

Joshua registered her questions, but he did not answer them. His mind was spinning with questions of his own. Who are you? How do you have a Stand? Why did you save me? It was almost too much to think about at once. Amidst this whirlwind, one question repeated itself over and over. It wasn't a question, really - it was a statement, but one that could not account for the events that had just transpired. This apparent contradiction rammed itself into Joshua's mind until he could bear it no longer. Finally, he spoke:

"Stands can't speak!"

"Oh yeah, Stands can totally speak," Daniel said. "Didn't you say that slime Stand spoke to you?"

"Well, yes," Joshua responded, "but I thought that was just the Stand user talking through the Stand. With her it's like, her Stand is a completely different person."

The two looked over at the girl - Alexa, as she had introduced herself to Joshua. "And this guy is YMCA," she had said, gesturing to her golden Stand. "He does pretty much whatever I tell him to do." "Pleased to make your acquaintance," YMCA had said, extending a hand toward Joshua while simultaneously bowing. Currently, Hiram was explaining their situation with the Cobalt Order to Alexa, while Joshua had pulled Daniel to the side to confront him about her strange, seemingly independent Stand.

"Right, well, it's not that common, but…" Daniel hands fidgeted as he trailed off, searching for words. "You know I told you that a person's Stand corresponds to their mental state? Well, most Stand users - you and I, for example - perceive our Stands as simply an extension of ourselves. However, some Stand users externalize their Stands, perceiving them as a separate entity from themselves," he shrugged his shoulders toward Alexa, "and that's how you get Stands with their own personality." "Oh," was all Joshua could say. He shook his head. The more he learned about Stands, the less he felt like he understood them.

"So that's what's happened, more or less," Hiram was saying. "Now we're trying to find out more about where the Cobalt Order is hiding and what their plans are. It hasn't gone too well so far, since the only times we've encountered them have been when they ambushed us, but-"

"I get it," Alexa said, suddenly interrupting Hiram. She glanced toward the door. "Look, can I go now? I have an appointment in half an hour that I'd really rather not be late too." "Hang on," Joshua said, looking up. "Don't you want to hear more about this? We have a-" "Sorry," Alexa said as she shook her head, "but I'm not interested in getting killed in a stupid suicide mission against a secret organization that's much larger than me. No offence to any of you, though, I'd just rather not die."

"But-" Joshua was starting to feel desperate. This girl had saved his life, and now she was just going to walk away? "But don't you think the Cobalt Order needs to be stopped?" "Sure," Alexa replied, "but I'm not going to be the one to do it. I saved you because you were in trouble, but that doesn't mean I want anything to do with your crazy schemes. I don't want to be a hero, and I especially don't want to die trying to be a hero." Alexa turned and began to walk out of Hiram's room.

"It's too late!" Hiram said suddenly. "You've already fought with the Cobalt Order. They're going to come after you just like they come after us!" Alexa paused at the door and shrugged. "Then I'll deal with them on my own." And with that said, Alexa was gone.

"Ah, forget her," Daniel said. "We don't need her anyway." He turned to Joshua. "So what happened after the fight? Did you get any good information from him?"

"Well, not much, but…" Joshua thought back to the aftermath of the fight. Just as before, a slimy green Stand had suddenly appeared and absorbed the enemy's barely conscious body before disappearing without a trace. Joshua had been trying to interrogate Elwood at the time, and though Imagine Dragons had tried to block the Stand, it had just passed through Imagine Dragons' body like it was nothing. "Before he was absorbed, Elwood did say one thing."

"What was that?" Hiram asked.

"A location. Seward Warehouses."

-To Be Continued- The Longest Night (Act 1)

Stand User: Jake Elwood

Stand Name: [Rubber Biscuit]

Power: D

Speed: B

Range: C

Durability: C

Precision: B

Developmental Potential: B

Activation: Rubber Biscuit can remotely activate any nearby machine. This includes activating machines that are turned off, lacking a power source, or broken and unable to function otherwise. Rubber Biscuit can also control a machine's output, and can even overload the machine's maximum output to be several times more than it should be capable of. Rubber Biscuit can also prevent machines from activating when they would otherwise activate.