Pudong International Airport. Not the quietest and the most comfortable place to rest, after having narrowly avoided an airplane hijack. Josh leaned back on the hard, hole-filled seats. He and his mother would have been on their way to California right now, if it weren't for those damned terrorists. The captain had to land in Shanghai and sort this mess out before anyone could transfer onto a new flight. The world went to hell the moment he stepped out of Hong Kong.

A murmur hustled through the crowd, and Josh heard cameras shutters clicking. He opened one eye and saw the terrorists, all five of them, handcuffed and escorted out from the jet bridge by a group of police officers and FBI agents. The fanatics were miserable. Each and every one of them looked downcast, face swollen and purple with huge chunks of fresh bruises. It's very likely that their broken jaws, noses, are chins are fractured beyond repair.

They were the ones who started this, Josh rested his hands behind his head. You only acted in the self-defense. Who knows what might have happened, if the terrorists got their way?

It was a good thing that he kept his eye on the most dangerous one among the bunch. The one who looked the most normal, wearing the blue shirt and the khakis. Rest assured, he is the biggest threat, the one with special powers, just like him. As the crowd pointed and gawked at real, live, and captured terrorists, Josh noticed that the one he had his eye on wore a wicked smirk and puffed up his chest for a deep inhale.

He immediately stood up. Not again. This guy might have the advantage this time, with all the open spaces…

The terrorist then convulsed violently. His eyes went white and he fell to the floor completely limp. Josh blinked. He saw that a young, Caucasian girl stood behind the terrorist, and she held a Taser in her hand, sparks burning.

"Nothing to see here, folks." The FBI agent beside her picked up the unconscious terrorist and propped him against his shoulders. "Sit tight, and we'll get you all on a transfer flight within the next few hours."

Some of the seated crowd started to groan. Josh could sympathize. While not exactly in a hurry to move back to his childhood home, anything beats having to sit around a Chinese airport doing nothing. As he slowly sat back down, he now kept his attention on that girl. How did she know that he was going to summon his tornado? The FBI don't just tase people out of the blue, do they?

She saw him, and after a moment of meeting his glance, stopped what she was doing. The girl tapped the agent who carried the terrorist and said something to him, who proceeded to leave what he carried to another officer. The two of them walked towards Josh. Great, he thought. Now they are going to question him and his mother, who somehow still had the nerve to sleep.

"Joshua Jiu," the girl said as she approached him. "That's you, right?"

Josh nodded at her statement of a question. Westerners are not an uncommon sight back in Hong Kong, so he was used to her delicate looking locks of gold and her jade eyes.

"Were you the one who dealt with the terrorists?"

"Yes."

"Oh man, we were trying to get these guys for months." The FBI agent beside her said. "We had no solid evidence of their activities, but my gut kept on telling me that they were up to no good. And guess what? My intuition was right all along. They happened to hijack the wrong plane which I happened to be on!"

Josh frowned. "You were on the plane?"

"Yeah. I was the guy in the bathroom."

"Oh."

"Nice work on subduing those guys, by the way." He continued. "Not many could find themselves staring down at a terrorist who held real, live ammunitions."

"How did they pass the airport security, anyway?" Josh asked out of curiosity. "I'd imagine rifles like those would get detected in a heartbeat."

"Good question." The girl said. "But leave the investigating to us. Let me ask you something, Mr. Jiu. Why did you fight back?"

"Excuse me?"

"You realize that, as 'noble' as it is to play the hero, you are risking the lives of everyone on the plane by confronting them, face to face?"

Josh raised an eyebrow. "How is this even a question? They were trying to hijack it, for god's sake. Also, self-defense is a thing, Miss FBI."

"…I'm just kidding. You really don't appreciate jokes, do you?"

"That didn't sound like a joke." She had a good point, though. The terrorists might have taken hostages if they were not too fixated on watching him and the other one fight. Depending on how it went, innocents would have been shot.

"Anyway, you might want to know this," he told them, trying to not think of the alternative results. What has happened, happened. "One of them announced to me that they were originally going for Times Square."

"New York?" The girl narrowed her eyes, then turned around and studied the terrorists thoughtfully. "And they told you because…"

Because he was about to kill him with his wind djinn and wanted to do the bad guy speech? There are some things in life you just can't tell, and having the ability to see strange manifestations, as well as having one of your own, is one example.

"Oh you are not suspecting him, are you, Alicia?" The agent said. "He saved everyone on the plane!"

"True, I suppose." The girl she studied him with an analytical gaze, and Josh could feel she might even know what he's thinking. "You are a Stand user, are you not?"

"…Stand user?" The terrorist did say the same thing, calling his djinn and his knight as 'Stands'. But he thought it was just a term the guy came up on his own, presumably originated from Arabic.

"It's fine. We are not your enemy."

To his amazement, which he only dared to display inside of him, a cable of pure, glaring white that stood out like a foreigner in China enveloped around the girl's body and wrapped itself from her arm to shoulder. At its end was a USB head, and for a second Josh thought the whole thing was just a cord, were it not for the strange way it appeared.

"We are Stand users as well." The FBI agent said. The girl nodded and retracted the cable, which promptly disappeared and faded away inside of her.

Josh did not know what to make of this. But he learned to not give trust so easily to strangers as a lesson many years ago. They may be onto some sort of conspiracy here. It's better to just play safe. "Stand user? I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Hey, you don't need to play dumb around us. We knew at least one of the terrorists has a Stand, so in order to have defeated them, you must have one of your own."

When he did not reply and faked them a confused expression, the girl sighed. "Here, how about this. You lived in California as a kid, right? In Westingdale?"

"How…do you know about that?"

"I was the girl whose father was a policeman. Well, I think that's what you all thought, anyway."

"Police…?" Josh tried to think back, to relieve the hazy memories of his first seven years of his life living in America. He lived in the city of Westingdale, and he remembers that he hung around with a small circle of friends in kindergarten. One of them was particularly wary of a certain peer, now that he thought about it. "Oh. You were that scary girl."

For some reason the FBI agent broke off into a huge laughter. He laughed so much hard he doubled over and began coughing. If people weren't looking at him before, with them seemly questioning him, now they are. They went back to what they were doing when the girl flashed them a grim expression.

"Scary, huh." She said when she turned back to him, not realizing the irony. "Well, at least you are honest."

"Everyone was scared to mess around with you because they thought your father would go and arrest them."

"No wonder they were all nice to me."

"Hey, if anyone bullied my daughter, I would have gone and asked them questions," the FBI agent spoke as he wiped a tear from his eye. "But now I know why she has never been bullied."

"Because she's so scary?" Josh stated. The agent went back to laughing again and had to sit down on a nearby seat to calm himself.

"…I assure you I have no ill intentions," the girl spoke and held out her hand. "Alicia McCall, if you still remember that name."

He took it. "Yeah, I think I do."

"Great. Now, as your former classmate, I will ask you again: are you a Stand user?"

Josh pursed his lips. He could do this all day, but is it really wise to argue with an FBI agent, outside of Hong Kong? If he still had the gang as support, sure, but now he's on his own. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to establish some connection.

"…I didn't know they were called Stands." He admitted a little sheepishly.

"They appear as if they are standing right behind you when you summon them." Alicia crossed her arms. "For the humanoid ones, anyway. Someone then got the idea to call them Stands. As you can see, mine will never live up to its name."

"Do I need to show you mine?"

"No, long as you admit it, that's fine. We, as the FBI, just had to make sure you are not an enemy."

"Is the FBI full of Stand users, then?" The American movies he saw sure gave him a different impression.

"Only a small division of us are, and even then, only the top brass knows of our existence. Normal people don't know about Stands, and we'd like to keep it that way."

"Why are you telling me this?" Josh asked. "Isn't this confidential information?"

She gave him a smile, though it was on the professional side. "Because we could always use some extra hands."

"Am I compelled to agree?"

"No, but if you don't, you can't tell anyone else about this, or else, well, ever watched Hollywood films?"

"I've seen my share."

"Not all of the FBI's ways of finding you are exaggerated, let's just say that."

"Hey," her father said, "you should stop scaring him. Isn't he your friend?"

"I'm giving him a warning because of our former acquaintanceship," she replied. "If it was anyone else they would have been dragged away without a word."

Josh looked at his mother. Is it right for him to join the FBI, after a life he had? "You know, I—"

"Used to be involved with the Triads in Hong Kong?" Alicia finished for him. "Or at least, your father did. Background checks are mandatory before we recruit anyone."

"…So despite all that, you still want me to join?"

"Say what you what, but I'm the type to believe in change."

Josh looked at her father, who gave him a hearty smile and nodded at him. He reminded him of a kid who had so much fun they never fully became adults. Clearly his daughter did not inherit that trait from him.

"I'll…decline." He replied with a degree of hesitance. "For now, at least. My mom wouldn't let me do anything until I finish high school."

"That's acceptable," Alicia said. "The offer still stands, if you ever change your mind. Are you going back to Westingdale, by the way?"

"Yeah. A friend of my mom's found an apartment for us to move in."

"If you want a recommendation, go to Thomas Edison High. I'm a junior there, and it's not a bad school with the kind of education system we have."

"Thanks. I'll consider that."

"If that's all, then later. We have a plenty of work to do." She turned around, and her dad stood up.

"You are not going to question me?"

Alicia stopped and exchanged glances with her father. "Well, we were thinking to let you off the hook, considering what you've done, but since you've offered, rules are rules."

Josh sighed. That'll teach him to speak the first thing on his mind. Oh well, it's better than sitting around doing nothing for the next few hours.

Stand name: Cydonia

User: Joshua Jiu

Appearance: A knight in shining jet-black armor with blue markings over its body, it wears a helmet that has what appears to be sharp cat ears protruding from the sides. I'm not too into European history, but did the knights from the Crusades really wear helmets like that?

Destructive Power: A

Speed: C

Range: C

Durability: A

Precision: C

Developmental Potential: C

Abilities:

Momentum Absorption - The Stand Cydonia is able to "absorb" the force of any external impact to its armor and store them as potential energy, waiting to be used. It could use the stolen force to empower its next swing, or distribute them equally throughout its arms to unleash a barrage of punches with the same speed its opponent struck with.

Substantial Plates - Cydonia is unique in that the damages it receive don't transfer to its user, despite being a close ranged Stand. Josh will only get hurt if any attack goes through its armor and hit the insides, which is already stronger than solid steel.

Bulwark - Josh could also make his Stand to surround him as if it's a real set of armor, covering his body from head to toe. And much like a real set, his physical movement becomes very limited. He also loses the ability to absorb momentum so long as he is encased inside, in exchange for its durable protection.

Notes: Overall superior in terms of pure combat abilities, Cydonia suits Josh well when it comes to raw fighting. But for someone so passionate and fond of East Asian cultures, particularly the Chinese, I find it rather interesting and mildly ironic for him to have a European knight as his Stand. During the rare times when he spoke of his past, Josh told me that his father, a Triad gangster, used to tell him of a story of a gallant knight named Cydonia as a child. He was the epitome of the classic portrayal of heroes: brave, just, and honorable. Josh said his Stand is named after him as a tribute to his father.

Fun fact: I am the only one who he had ever told his story of his Stand's name that was based off from a story...to. Wow, I just realized how that sounded.