No fancy intro this time. Star vs the Forces of Evil is owned by Disney and Stands are the creation of the brilliant and talented Hirohiko Araki. Enjoy.
Flowers and Brimstone: Chapter 10.
(Echo Creek, California: the following afternoon)
The situation was looking grim.
It had been almost three days since Jackie and Kelly's abduction and the team was no closer to finding them or their mysterious captor than when this whole mess started.
And to make matters worse, Marco was still recovering from his fight with the Diamond Dogs; despite having all his physical injuries healed by Jefferson, his sight had yet to return. The older Stand User believed his condition to be psychosomatic and that his eyesight would return once he came to grips with whatever trauma he was reeling from.
Personally, Marco thought this was a load of bunk, but regardless if it was true or not, the facts remained the same. Jackie and Kelly were in danger and the team's ultimate weapon was out of commission.
Yes Sir, things were looking bleak.
Fortunately, Jefferson was as proactive as he was chemically dependent, so he wasn't taking any of this lying down. Which is why he'd gathered them all together for what he called an 'Algonquin Round Table' in Marco's living room after school; in the hopes of unearthing a solution that wouldn't end in bloodshed.
"Okay, let's get this show on the road." The older Stand User said in a commanding yet tired tone from his position in Marco's dad's easy chair. "Star, you first. How are Jackie's parents holding up?"
"Well, the mind control spell worked like a charm." The young princess replied, trying to sound optimistic. "Right now, they're probably trying to give cough syrup to a stuffed unicorn."
"Which I'd like back when this is over." Annie said sharply, only to be ignored.
"That's the good news. The bad news is that the spell only lasts about a week. And once it wears off it won't work on them again."
"I see. Then we'll need to come up with a contingency plan just in case… er… well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Jefferson said awkwardly, before shifting his attention to the blind 'God of Destruction'. "Okay, Diaz. What's the word on your… situation? Anyone at school getting wise?"
"No, not yet. Although people keep asking me why I'm suddenly wearing shades all the time." The young Latino answered, before letting out an exasperated sigh. "Having Kung Fu Fighting be my eyes is pretty handy, but it's also exhausting. And Skullnick noticed me sweating in class today. We need a more long-term solution."
"I'm working on it." The older man replied, his tone suggesting that he wasn't going to elaborate. "But in the meantime, we need to focus on our biggest problem. Namely, the unidentified hostile running around and ripping people's heads off. Janna, have you turned up anything?"
"Nope, I got nothing." The young Filipina answered sullenly. "I turned this whole neighborhood upside-down and the only other Stand User I could find was some fat guy in a black van. And I'm pretty sure he's just tailgating."
"Maybe she's not here anymore." Star cut in speculatively. "I mean, whoever this is stole Marco's Dimensional Scissors. So, she could be anywhere in the universe."
"No, she's still here. I can feel it." Marco replied bluntly. "When we were talking on the phone, she demanded that we not let the police get involved. She wouldn't do that if she was just gonna up and leave. So, she must want to stay."
"Of course, she does." Jefferson interjected. "Echo Creek is her home. It's her hunting ground. She's not just going to abandon it. Not after all this time."
"What do you mean?"
"I called an old associate of mine yesterday and asked him to do a little digging in the local PD's database. Turns out our innocent little Echo Creek isn't so innocent after all. Seems that over the last nine years there've been over eight hundred unsolved murders in this neighborhood alone. Each one a dead ringer for what happened to the Diamond Dogs. But since the victims were all either homeless or illegal immigrants the cops have been sweeping them under the rug."
"Good Lord." The young Latino muttered, disturbed and disgusted by what he'd just learned. "And did your associate turn up anything else?"
"No, nothing useful. Although this information has helped me form a profile of our mystery killer. And unfortunately, it's now clear that we're not dealing with some lucky amateur. Whoever this chick is, she's smart. Crazy smart. Smart enough to massacre over eight hundred people and stay off both the police's radar and the Biederbeck List. In short, we're dealing with a pro. Janna, any thoughts?"
"Well… based on the information, the subject seems to have no regard for human life. But up 'til now she's only killed people whose deaths wouldn't make the papers or warrant a lengthy investigation. So, she kills for pleasure but likes to play it safe."
"Good. And why do you think that is? Anyone?"
"Um… she doesn't wanna get arrested." Annie supposed.
"No, with her powers she could probably take down the entire LAPD. Hell, she all but threatened to do just that when she talked to Marco. No way she's scared of the cops."
"Maybe she just doesn't want attention?" Star interjected. "I mean, if people knew what she was or what she was doing, they'd be after her all the time. And not just the cops, but other Stand Users. She'd never have any peace."
"A killer who just wants to be left alone. I can almost relate. Almost. But tell me, if she's so obsessed with staying under the radar, why did she suddenly break her pattern? Why kill a bunch of high profile psychopaths like the Diamond Dogs and then kidnap a young, attractive, high school student? Someone whose disappearance would be all over the news?"
"Well, I think I can explain the Diamond Dogs part." Marco spoke up suddenly. "I mean, they were fighting me, after all. And with our combined reputations, it'd be easy to fool the Stand User Community into thinking we all just killed each other."
"Uh… what do you mean by 'your reputations'?"
"Star, shut up. Paco here's on a roll."
"Er… right. Anyway, I think that was her plan. But then she got her hands on my Dimensional Scissors and everything changed."
"Yes… little girl gets her hands on a shiny new toy and just has to play with it. Sounds like we've got a regular Audrey Freemont on our hands."
"Yeah, I have no idea what that means." Janna said bitterly. "I also don't see how any of this helps us find Jackie."
"It helps us because now we have a better idea of what we're up against. Now we're not just rushing in blind." The older User answered, trying not to sound condescending. "And speaking of the visually impaired, there's something I've been meaning to ask you, Diaz. When our mystery psycho stole your Scissors, what was her reaction?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, did she know what they were right away, or did she have to work you over for information?"
"Um… well, I'm not sure. I was pretty out of it, remember." He replied, before something clicked inside his brain. "Wait… now that I think about it… I think… Yes, she did know what they were. Only… she didn't know what they were called. She called them Magic Scissors instead of Dimensional Scissors."
"Is that right. Huh… And tell me, how many people on Earth know about Dimensional Scissors?"
"Uh… I don't know. Everyone at school, I guess. And most of the teachers too. Star isn't exactly shy about the whole Magical Princess thing."
"Uh-huh… well then, that narrows down our list of suspects quite considerably."
"Wait… you don't think it's a student, do you?"
"Either that or a teacher. But given how much the kidnapper already knew about each of us, coupled with her childishness and total lack of empathy, I'd say a student is much more likely. After all, there's nothing as cruel or as vicious as a high school girl."
"Voice of experience?" Janna asked slyly.
Unfortunately, before Jefferson could think up a clever retort, Marco cut them both off.
"Now hold on." He said, his voice dripping with skepticism. "There's no way it could be a student. We'd 've sensed her at school by now. Hell, even I can't keep my aura cloaked for that long."
"You could, if you're aura was unreadable." The older User replied cryptically; earning several confused looks from his students.
"Is… is that even possible?" asked Annie, sounding more than a little worried about his answer.
"Unfortunately, it is." He said, before letting out an almost mournful sigh. "Ever since this mess got started, I've been getting a weird sense of Déjà vu, and now I finally know why. Hope you're comfy, kiddies. Cuz I've got a story to tell."
As always, Jefferson took a moment to pause for dramatic effect, before he continued.
"It all started back in the mid-14th Century. In those days, the area now known as Britain's South West Peninsula was under the dominion of a cruel and twisted Stand User by the name of Count Rupert Murray. Now, I have no idea what kind of Stand he had or what it could do, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that Murray was a total psycho. Every night, he'd go out and kidnap random people from the local villages. Then he'd throw them into this crazy, trap filled maze he had built under his castle and he'd offer them a deal. If they got out by sunrise, he'd let them live. But if they died or were still in the maze when the sun came up, he'd… eat them."
Suddenly, Star let out a horrified squeak and the blood started to drain from her face.
"Yeah, like I said, a total psycho. Sigh. Anyway, for ten long years, Murray the Man-Eater terrorized the countryside and every morally conscious Stand User who dared to get in his way ended up with their head on a pike. And this was because, somehow, Count Murray figured out how to make his aura unreadable. And when I say unreadable, I mean unreadable. He could be standing ten feet away from you behind a tree and you'd never know it until after he gutted you. Hell, even animals couldn't sense him. He was like a ghost. No one could sense his aura, so no one ever saw him coming. He could always get the drop on anybody and everybody was terrified."
Marco stiffened just a bit; not so much from anxiety, but from anticipation.
He could sense that Jefferson was about to get to the good part.
"But then one day, a stranger came to the Count's domain. A wandering Italian by the name of Edoardo Zeppeli. Apparently, word of Murray's twisted games had reached his home in Naples, so he sought to end him and free the people of the peninsula from his reign of terror. Idiotic, I know, but bear with me on this. Chivalry and selflessness were still in style back then. Anyway, my source was a little sketchy on the details, but apparently Zeppeli was also a Stand User and somehow, he was able to get the drop on the Count and do him in. The villain was slain, the people were saved, all that crap. But unfortunately, this wasn't a fairytale, so the story doesn't end there."
The older man paused again, this time to fix a crick in his neck.
"Ah, that's better. Anyway, Count Murray wasn't a storybook villain, so he didn't live in his big castle all alone. He had a wife and nine children, and they were all just as twisted as he was. So, fearing for future generations, Zeppeli decided to hunt down and massacre the entire Murray family. Now, as I recall, the wife and the five sons died the same night as the Count, but the daughters all managed to escape. The eldest, I believe was thrown from her horse the next morning and broke her neck. The two middle ones died three weeks later; both of them hanged due to a case of mistaken identity. Miraculously, the youngest daughter managed to get across the English Channel and fled to France. Of course, by then the Black Plague was in full swing, and with so much death and hysteria going around, Zeppeli lost track of her. After another three months of searching, he eventually gave up, assuming she'd been killed in the epidemic, and returned to his home in Naples, where he spent the final forty years of his life content in the knowledge that he'd rid the world of a great and terrible evil. The End."
The story had come to a close, and yet nobody had anything to say.
Somehow, they all knew that Jefferson wasn't finished.
"That story was told to me by the great Italian master, Caesar Zeppeli, so I know every word of it to be true. However, just imagine for one second that the elder Zeppeli had been mistaken. What if the Count's daughter didn't die in the plague? What if she survived, grew up, got married, and had children of her own? And what if she shared with those children her father's secret for an unreadable aura?"
"Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa!" Star interjected suddenly. "Are you saying that someone at our school is the descendant of a superpowered, mass murdering cannibal?"
"I know it sounds farfetched, but right now it's the only explanation that makes sense."
"Okay, let's assume for a second that you're right." Said Marco out of the blue. "What do we do about it?"
Jefferson didn't answer right away.
Instead he crossed his arms and furrowed his brow in concentration.
After about a minute or so of this, he straightened up and said,
"Kid, I have no f***ing idea."
End Notes:
I just want everyone to know that editing this chapter was a bitch and a half.
I hope you all appreciate how much effort I put into this.
Anyway, thanks for reading and I'll see you in the next one.
Peace.