"You didn't crush them, I'm afraid," Woods said through the phone. "One of them saw your golems falling, and they put a shield around the car before it landed."

"That's a shame," Gary said flippantly, "But I'm not too worried. These golems are good for more than just landing on things; and anyway, these are just the beginnings of my arsenal."

"Subdivisions is projecting only a 15% chance that these golems will win," Woods responded curtly. "Is this the best your Stand can do?" "Oh? So your Stand does data analysis now?" Gary returned. "Relax, I'm not expecting the golems to win. This is just a warm-up round. By putting such a basic type of monster against my enemies, I'm able to better understand their capabilities and find a counter to them. After that, it usually only takes a couple more rounds before they're defeated. Limelight requires a lot of information to operate, but in situations like this it's practically invincible."

A loud bark distracted Gary from his thoughts, and the large man looked up to see a small brown dog standing a few feet away from him, muscles tensed and teeth bared. "Clear off, mutt," Gary said, waving the dog away. "I don't have time to play fetch with you, I'm busy." The dog responded by drawing back and growling.

"Oh, I get it," Gary said sweetly, turning toward the dog. "You're upset because I'm on your lawn, is that it?

The dog was still growling when Gary's boot collided with its snout, sending it tumbling backward head over tail. The dog rolled to its feet and ran away, letting out pained whines. "Take that, you lousy mutt!" Gary called after it. "This is my lawn now!"

Gary was thankful the neighborhood he had set himself up in seemed to be empty. He knew he would seem strange to bystanders: a large, chubby man on the edge of a lawn, surrounded by boxes and hunched over what appeared to be a small table with a monitor on it. That strangeness would draw them in, and would only increase as they got close to him. They would notice that the monitor displayed a radar as well as lots of unknown names and numbers, that it was actually built in to the table, that on the table were five small figures roughly made of clay, and that the boxes were full of similar figures made of other materials and objects. Explaining what he was doing to onlookers would've been very tedious, and so Gary was glad that none had appeared so far.

After watching the dog run off, he turned back to his Stand, examining the radar pings and flashing numbers across Limelight's monitor. "These are the kids who defeated Power and took the Fragment, huh?" Gary said to himself. "Well, let's see how they do against my modeling clay golems."

"The Stand user has begun an attack!"

As if in response to Stan's yell, the giant figures suddenly started to run toward him. The closest raised one of its large arms and slammed a fingerless fist on the ground, with Stan barely dodging to the side. "[Birdhouse in Your Soul]!" he called as he dodged, and the purple Stand flashed into existence behind him. Five claws shot out of one of its hands, embedding themselves in the giant's chest. Birdhouse in Your Soul then pulled back its hand, causing the giant to topple over. Its bumpy head cracked as it hit the ground.

Joshua had been watching the giant fall over when he heard Hiram call, "Joshua! Above you!" Joshua looked up to see the huge fist of a similar giant barreling down upon him. He dove forward, narrowly avoiding the slam, while Imagine Dragons shot a fireball directed at the giant's face. It exploded upon contact, and small chips of dried clay rained down on Joshua; he looked up to see that the fireball had destroyed the front half of the giant's head. He quickly got to his feet and ran out from underneath the giant, half expecting it to topple over onto him.

But the giant didn't fall over. It remained standing, and continued to move despite the lack of most of its head. At the same time, the giant Birdhouse in Your Soul had knocked over slowly stood up, dried clay falling from its cracked head. Joshua looked around to find that the group had been surrounded by the five giants.

"What's the plan?" Hiram asked as the group gathered in the middle of the street. After a moment, Stan responded, "These things seem to be completely made out of some kind of clay. They aren't affected by Birdhouse in Your Soul's fear gaze, and they don't appear to feel pain, but they are slow and can be damaged." He turned away from the group to face the approaching golems. "Hiram!" he yelled. "Have your Stand shield us if we're about to get hit, but don't overexert yourself. Everyone else, pick a golem and destroy it! Target their limbs; if they can't move they can't fight!"

As the rest of the group split off, Joshua found himself facing the giant missing half of its head. "Alright," he said, as Imagine Dragons flexed its claws beside him. "Let's finish this."

The giant reacted as Joshua ran toward it, rising up and swinging one of its arms down again. Joshua didn't try to dodge the arm; instead he continued to run forward. With Imagine Dragons launching a fireball at an especially thin-looking section of its arm. The arm exploded, and the broken limb fell behind Joshua as he approached the giant's leg.

"GRAAA!" With a swipe of its claws, Imagine Dragons broke a large chunk of clay off of the giant's leg. The scaly Stand continued to hack at the leg, until the rest of it crumbled under its own weight. The giant collapsed, with chunks of its body breaking off. It attempted to stand again with its other arm, but Imagine Dragons cut it off at the elbow with a single slash. Falling to the ground one final time, the giant's body broke apart into several large lumps of clay.

Looking up from the destroyed giant, Joshua saw that Stan and Alexa had each defeated a giant as well, while Daniel had already moved on and sent Sabaton flying toward the final giant. "These guys aren't so tough after all!" He called as Sabaton kicked a large hole in the giant's chest. The giant attempted to slam the longer of its mismatched arms into Sabaton, but the pink Stand disappeared. Sabaton reappeared behind the giant's head, striking it and sending the giant toppling against the ground, where it smashed into pieces. "Those were the weakest enemy Stands I've ever fought!"

Stan shook his head. "Those things...they were probably were created by a Stand, but those weren't Stands themselves. If they were, they would've been affected by Birdhouse in Your Soul's fear gaze. As things are, our opponent's attack may have only just begun." "Well, we know where this goon is hiding," Daniel said, as he began to run toward the house, "so let's go get him before he makes any more big goons!"

"Umm, Mr. Istanbul?" Hiram said nervously. "If there are going to be more attacks, I'll need to conserve the use of Off the Wall's shield so I don't overexert my soul. So, umm…" he trailed off, turning his head toward Stan's car. Joshua noticed that Off the Wall's silver shield was still projected over the car.

Stan sighed, shaking his head. "Fine," he nearly groaned, "do what you have to do." "Okay," Hiram quietly responded. "Release." CRUNCH! In an instant, the car's roof collapsed, blowing out the windows and setting off the car alarm. Stan raised a hand to his mouth, his eyes suddenly moist. "I hadn't even finished making payments," Joshua thought he heard Stan say under his breath.

"Ow! What the hell?!" Joshua looked over to see Daniel sitting on the sidewalk in front of the house, rubbing his nose. "Daniel? Are you okay?" Joshua asked.

"Aghh! No, I'm not. I ran into something and now I think my nose is bleeding." "Ran into something?" Alexa asked, walking up to Daniel. "What could you have run into? There's nothing…" She suddenly stopped, holding a palm out in front of her. "Huh. That's strange." She held out her other palm, and began to move them through the air like a mime. "Alexa? What are you doing?" Joshua asked.

"I think," Alexa responded, "there's an invisible wall here."

"They've discovered the barrier. Are you sure nothing can cross it?"

"Listen, man," Gary responded through the phone. "You're the one with the information Stand. What does Subdivisions say about their durability?"

The barriers of Limelight are the boundaries of its game. They cannot be harmed or passed through, wrote Subdivisions.

"Anyway, it would appear that my golems have lost," Gary said. "Did they manage to harm anyone?"

"Nope," Woods answered. "One of their Stands - Sabaton - took a hit, but Off the Wall had put a shield around it first. Off the Wall's user has had a small amount of damage done to his soul, but nothing significant."

"Hmm. Between this and the car, it seems like that shield of theirs is our biggest obstacle. Does your Stand have any suggestions for how to deal with it?"

Woods looked at the notes Subdivisions had written on the weaknesses of Off the Wall's shield. "Well, attacks absorbed by the shield damage the user's soul. If you send out enough golems we'll eventually wear him down."

"No good," Gary said. "It takes me a while to make these figures, and I'd prefer to use as few as possible. Anything else?"

"Well, let's see," Woods replied. "How about this? The shield is conductive."

"Meaning?"

"It can't block electrical attacks. They go right through it."

"Electricity, huh? Let's see here." Over the phone, Woods could hear Gary rummaging through the drawers where he kept all his figures. "Alright," Gary said. "I've got a couple good five-stars that will do the trick."

"Really?" Woods peeked out the window again. Despite what Subdivisions had written, the way they were messing with the barrier made him nervous. "They won't lose like the last golems did?"

"The modeling clay golems were only two-stars. These battery golems are five-stars, and that shield's weakness. In terms of strength, there's no contest; Limelight's figures will beat them."

"Well, what do you know," Stan said. "There really is an invisible wall here."

The five of them had moved the edge of the enemy Stand user's lawn, where the invisible wall apparently was. Joshua pushed his arm out, trying to move closer to the house; sure enough, an invisible resistance immediately stopped his arm.

Far above him, Sabaton hovered in the air, also prodding the wall. "Seems pretty high too," Daniel said. "Sabaton's at its limit and I can't find the top. It just seems to keep going forever." "What about you, Alexa?" Stan said to the girl, who was running up from the side yard to join them. "Any luck?" "No luck," Alexa replied. "The wall surrounds the entire house." "We couldn't find any cracks either," YMCA added.

"Fantastic," Daniel grumbled. "Not only is this goon completely unharmed, but he's protected by these invisible wells." "Hang on," Joshua said. "Daniel, can't Sabaton just teleport through the invisible wall?" "Well, yeah," Daniel said, rubbing his neck, "but Sabaton's power decreases the further away it gets from me. I'm not sure if sending it after the enemy at this range is safe."

"Guys? Something's happening to the broken pieces," Hiram said. As he spoke, the pieces of the giants began to float in the air, before rocketing away from the house. "Curiouser and curiouser," Stan said as the pieces disappeared in the distance. The neighborhood was once again silent, albeit much more damaged than it had been before. "So what happens now?" Hiram asked. "I don't know," Joshua said cautiously. "Probably more giants fall from the sky and attack us."

No sooner had he said this when two large figure landed in the middle of the road. They seemed to be smaller than the clay giants, though they still towered over Joshua and the others. Their bodies were cylindrical and metal, and they didn't seem to have a head, with only a small round stub sticking out of their torso. Their arms and legs were thick and colored bright red, seemingly made of a mass of thin tubes. They had brown metallic hands - no, they weren't really hands so much as they were a tangled mess of thin claws. A deep humming sound seemed to emanate from within them.

"More big goons? Fine! We'll take them down no problem!" Daniel said, as Sabaton appeared in front of one of the giants. "EEEEEEAAAAHH!" It screeched as it wailed on the giant's silver body, but to no effect; Sabaton's fists didn't seem to even dent the giant. "Crap!" Daniel swore.

"Daniel! Look out!" Hiram yelled as Off the Wall's shield appeared over Sabaton. "Crap!" Daniel swore again, as Sabaton barely dodged the giant's lightning-fast strike. "These things are much faster!" As he said this, the giant's other arm caught Sabaton right at the spot it had teleported to and-

KRACK! There was a flash of light, and Sabaton and Daniel were blasted back into the invisible wall. "Daniel!" Hiram worriedly called. Shakily, Daniel stood up, coughing. His hair was sticking up in all directions, as if he had rubbed a balloon on it, and one of his shoes had been blown off. "What the hell, Hiram?!" He said angrily. "I thought you were shielding me?!"

"I was, I swear!" Hiram said. "I don't know how it happened, but the attack went through the shield." "So, these things are tougher, faster, stronger, and their attacks ignore Hiram's shield?" Alexa asked incredulously. "And there are two of them?" As she spoke, the giants rose their arms over their heads, and a large, crackling ball of electricity appeared between their hands.

"Yeah," Joshua said. "And they can do that."

-To Be Continued- The Most Dangerous Game (Act 3)

Stand User: Gary Patton

Stand Name: [Limelight]

Power: D

Speed: C

Range: A

Durability: C

Precision: B

Developmental Potential: A

Game Creation: Once the location and number of nearby enemies is entered into Limelight's system, its ability activates. While Limelight is active, the area around the enemies becomes linked to Limelight's grid. Handcrafted figures placed on this grid cause giant monsters of similar structure to appear in the surrounding area; however, these figures all have a cost which correlates to their strength, and the total cost of figures on the grid cannot exceed the cost set by Limelight. In addition, should the monsters be destroyed, their corresponding figures are also destroyed. Clear panels can also be placed on the grid to create invisible walls, at no cost, but these walls cannot completely block the path to Limelight or completely surround the enemies. The enemies' locations must be continually updated to keep Limelight accurate, and Limelight can only focus on one group of enemies at a time.