United Arab Emirates, 1470 Miles from Cairo
Swirling heat pulses around Avdol's legs as they carry him up another flight of stairs. From the look of things, he's almost to the top, as the framing becomes more and more sparse, the stairs fading into scaffolding walls and girder floors. Even the tarps hang looser around the building, glints of the city lights playing amidst the licks of flame surround Magician's Red.
"Polnareff! Do you see it?" As he calls out, the response is less words and more clanging metal. Across many steel beams, Avdol can make out the sparks of Silver Chariot slashing away, Polnareff himself moving between the beams in a fluid dance.
He's keeping the Stand busy...This ismy chance to catch up! This N'doul...
Avdol looks up. There are no more stairs. Simply hoists and lifts. All too easy to be cut by a wayward claw.
Climbing it is, then.
Rushing up to one of the interior beams, Avdol kicks off the ground, planting one foot against it before kicking off. By no means an all star athlete, he only makes it an extra foot or two up, nowhere close enough to grab the next beam up. However, Magician's Red flares into a spin, a gush of flame unleashing into the beam Avdol jumped from. The extra force propels him all the way above his target, his feet shakily planting into a landing.
"Ah, the one time I'd prefer Hermit Purple. One wrong burst and I'm flat and filleted."
Steadying himself, he rises to his feet. By his count, there's less than three more floors worth of beams to ascend before he's at the top. A blinking light flashes intermittently at the top, an aircraft warning beacon for the cold night. In the distant, brevity of light, his squinting eyes make out a kneeling figure, a cane or something similar in hand as they rest it on the beam beside them.
Feeling the vibrations, as I thought. I suppose that last burst might have attracted his attention...
His eyes darting down to where Polnareff was, Magician's Red roars to life, sending a wreath of flame down. A shimmer of illuminated water catches his eye as it snakes between the beams.
"Polnareff! I have it! Jump to the light at the top!" There's no response, not in time for Avdol to hear anything but rending metal. The claw slices cleanly through the girder below Avdol, who barely makes it away with a burst of flame at his feet. White hot metal flecks past his face as he sees the water droplet retract its claw and cling to the beam above.
"Crossfire Hurricane!"
On the Sixth Floor of Silver Tower, Facing Two Vampires
Kakyoin steadies his breath.
Remember what you noticed. Nonchalant. Confident.
His lungs drag in air again. His mind pictures the crackle of Hamon, the unflinching face of a fool across a chessboard.
The wet footsteps appear in front of him. In the near pure darkness, he can only vaguely make out the forms in front of him. Barely humanoid in silhouette, a second more of studying reveals that the figures each appear to be missing an arm, one left and one right, along with a misshapen torso on the same side.
"Stand back. Or I'll blow you away." Kakyoin changes his pose, similar to the one he takes when preparing an Emerald Splash.
In that moment, he sees them flinch, just for a moment.
They're not Stand users...
"You cannot stop both of us. Not in the dark, KAKYOIN..." The voices belch out sopping words, his name leaving their mouths like a toxic cloud.
"You're right. Hierophant Green!" Flinging the putty knife behind him, the split second of air time sends a thump through his chest as he desperately hopes that luck is on his side.
A mechanical click. Hitting its target, the putty knife tumbles to the ground after colliding with a work light's switch. A bright beam of light blasts through the darkness behind Kakyoin, casting his shadow on the two vampires in front of him. The sight before him chokes his stomach with nausea.
The two figures in front of him, unveiled by the work light, pulse and ooze from their putrid green skin. With a mangled jaw each, sounds burble from their mouths in sync as they raise an arm to cover their eyes from the light. Still, they look to be mirror images of each other, skin wet with pus and slime.
"I may not be able to put you down for good without Hamon," Kakyoin postures as he points at them, "But my Stand will destroy you again and again until my allies arrive." Huffing extra breath from his nose, he does his best Jotaro impression.
Silence lingers for a moment as the vampires look to each other. In this spare moment, Kakyoin focuses distantly, through the eyes of Hierophant Green. Having slithered up a corner beam, nearly to the top, he can see Avdol launching a Crossfire Hurricane in the distance.
In the vibrant light of flame, Hierophant Green locks onto its target. N'doul, perched at the very top of the building, light flashing intermittently above him. Perfectly matching the description, with the red jeweled cane resting against steel and orange headband holding ebon hair up.
With Avdol blasting his senses, Hierophant Green has a clear shot! I just need to stay safe for a bit longer for Polnareff and Avdol to join-
"Your Joestar will not come. Bastet has his corpse pinned downstairs." A wicked, cruel laugh tumbles from the vampire's throats at the same time, bring his focus back to the 6th floor. Assessing them for a second, Kakyoin quickly notices that they also spoke the same words together, in the same voice.
They just got in...assuming it was an ambush, they would likely have no way to know if Mr. Joestar is...Bastet? A Stand? He wouldn't be defeated by just a few vampires...
Lost in thought for just a moment, his senses kick in again as he feels his heart in his throat. The vampire on the left is only a foot or two from Kakyoin's face, though a swift pivot and duck has him rolling underneath the right arm of the lunge. The work light, while bright, only illuminates a wedge of the floor, the rest swallowed in darkness. Indeed, the other vampire had slipped into it while he had been thinking.
Scrambling to his feet, he recenters himself in the light. The lunging vampire from before had disappeared behind the work light, leaving only the circling gurgling noise from around him the only indication of where they went.
Come on, Mr. Joestar. I'm counting on you...
Chained to a Pillar, 25 Days to Save Holly
"His voice is like silk on my ears, his stern, intense gaze sending shivers down my-"
...I was expecting a few sentences. Not a few minutes.
Joseph stifles a cough as the chain presses into him tighter. The quiet interruption sends silence through the woman's lips.
"...I would say you were stalling for something, Joseph Joestar, but you know as well as I do the longer you last, the more my Bastet's magnetism will crush you."
"I-I...I know." His tone slips into one of desperation and pleading, though his still pushes with all his might to keep air flowing through his lungs. With how much tighter the chain as gotten, he can only send the Hamon down his left leg...
"Then, shall you beg for death, Joestar? It's a shame, I had heard stories of your cunning."
"Please...let me go..."
"Ah, but you're just a disappointment. You don't look half bad, though." Her eyes appraise his face as she approaches him, though with the look of a hungry spider rather than an admirer.
"Then...can you please let me live? Undo the magnetism? My body has almost collapsed, I won't fight back!" Joseph's voice drips with shameless begging.
Ngh, she's too close now...
"Hm...No. Lord DIO has my heart, my soul, my everything. And soon, your corpse." Her fingers slowly, cruelly loosen, the needles straightening in Joseph's direction.
"Ah." His voice returns to full confidence. "I tried."
She steps back, stunned at the sudden changes of tone. Joseph's eyes shine with cockiness in response, his foot twitching with Hamon.
"Aha! I knew you'd step there! Overdrive!" Hamon pours through his battered torso, down his leg and into his foot. As the woman looks down to see the movement, she sees a peculiar sight extending from the Joestar's foot.
A perfect line of nails, magnetized base to tip one after another, extending nearly 6 feet from Joseph's booted toe.
The spear of nails hardens and gleams with the Hamon pouring through it, strengthening the material as he flicks his ankle from left to right. Arcing six feet in front of him, the point of the furthest nail screams through the dusty air of the construction site. The woman has no time to react, her leg sitting exactly six feet from Joseph.
With a splatter of blood, the Hamon empowered line of nails slices cleanly through one of her legs, halfway up the thigh, sending the assassin tumbling to the ground one way while the leg falls limply in front of Joseph. Her handful of needles flings from her hand, far off the mark of Joseph's vitals, making Joseph's leg and a pincushion between the chain links. The pain, however, is completely mitigated by the fading Hamon in his leg.
"Ha! Walked right into-" His triumph is cut short by another increase in magnetism, the chain wrapped around him digging tighter.
"Uggh-" The woman tries to clamber up against a beam, but the massive outpour of blood running from her now stump leg has the color fading from her face.
Damn, I was hoping it would go away if I damaged her enough.
Vainly struggling against his binding, Joseph hears footsteps pour into the building. Listening intently, they are far faster than a normal person.
Vampires? They must have had them just outside...
Sure enough, some misshapen individuals pour in, the light only barely showing their faces and forms. Two swoop in and grab the assassin, whose face bobs and twitches from the shock and pain of being delimbed, while two other ones linger in front of Joseph.
"Oi, step off. I'm a Hamon master, this is just a death sentence." The vampires don't move, their bodies silhouetted by the light behind them. As they draw closer, he can hear their drool spatter the floor as their fingers prepare to dig into his flesh. Joseph can hear the heavy drops of blood fade into the distance.
C'mon, c'mon, c'mon! What makes this damn Stand stop worki-
Just as the vampires get close enough to feel their breath on his skin, Joseph feels an immense relief of weight across his whole body. The chain clatters to the flooring, painfully impacting Joseph's foot as the bloodsoaked nails scatter across the floor. In surprise, the two minions in front of him wordlessly step back, shaking as Joseph steadies himself on his feet, brushes some hardware off of his shoulders, and looks up at the two.
Hermit Purple menacingly crackles with Hamon from both of Joseph's arms, the large man straightening up as he coldly looks at the vampires.
A deep breath. Air floods into Joseph's noise as he puffs himself up, despite the intense pain from his cracked ribs.
"Run."
END of INTERLUDE 16