Mista stood across the large, flat table from Joanne and Scorpion Queen, his gun aimed forward at them. Sex Pistols Numbers 3, 5, and 7 floated around him.
"So you're called Scorpion Queen?" he said, continuing to hold his gun level with the Stand's head. "And you're this girl's Stand?"
"That's what I said,'' Scorpion Queen replied coolly. "The name, anyway. I'm not familiar with the term 'Stand', but based on the way you use it, I surmise that I must be one. As are those six bullets of yours."
"Yeah, you got that right," Mista confirmed. "Now, let's get a move on! I already said you're coming with me to see my boss, and I'm starting to lose my patience here! Hop to it!"
Joanne tilted her head, looking at him with a mildly amused expression on her face.
"Why would I do that?" she asked.
Mista stared blankly at her. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" he said.
"Why would I go see this boss of yours?" she clarified. "I mean, I don't know the first thing about them, besides that they've got a dumbass like you working for them, which isn't exactly the most glowing positive review."
Mista held his gun up, attempting to make its presence even more obvious, and took a step forward.
"How about because I'm pointing a goddamn gun at you, you idiota?" he said.
Are you?" Joanne said in a mock-innocent tone.
"What's that supposed to-" Mista started, then noticed that, while he was still holding his gun, he had unconsciously moved it to point down. "The hell?!"
Scorpion Queen vaulted over the table in the center of the room. Mista swung his arms up to point his gun at it, but before he was even halfway there, it slammed its right fist directly into his stomach.
"MUDA!" it shouted. Mista flew backward, crashing into the now-closed door.
Merde! he thought. How come I put my freakin' gun down like that?! That's a rookie mistake!
He slid down the wall and rolled to the side just as Scorpion Queen's other fist collided with the place where his head had been, denting the door. He shot to his feet and brought his gun back up, aiming it at the Stand.
"Okay, that's it," he said. "I tried to be cool about this, but I guess we're doing this the hard way!"
He fired off a bullet, which flew directly at Scorpion Queen's shoulder, but the Stand tapped its side and suddenly ducked and rolled to the side in exactly the same way Mista had dodged its punch only a couple seconds ago.
"Nice shot, dumbass!" Joanne giggled.
"You're damn right it was," Mista said. "Sex Pistols!"
Number 3 peeked out from behind the bullet, grinning widely.
"Right!" it shouted, and kicked away from the bullet, sending it careening toward Joanne's left leg.
"I figured you'd be able to avoid that shot," Mista said, looking down at Scorpion Queen with a grin. "That's why hitting you was never the plan. I've got no idea what your 'ability' is, but it doesn't really matter if I take out your user!"
"So," Scorpion Queen said from where it was crouched on one knee on the ground. It touched its palms together, clasping its hands. "Your Stand… Sex Pistols, if I heard you correctly. They can change the 'trajectory' of bullets in midair, correct?"
"Yeah, but what about it?" Mista asked. "Knowing what my Stand does won't let you-"
"That's all I needed to know!" Scorpion Queen shouted, whipping towards Joanne and flicking its arm outward, extending its hand. Some kind of flat disc spun from its hand toward her, fast enough that Mista couldn't tell exactly what it was. "Joanne!"
The disc flew past the bullet Number 3 had kicked and landed directly on Joanne's leg, flattening out and allowing Mista to see what it was.
A… tattoo? he thought. Freakin' hell?! What's that thing supposed to do?
Sure enough, the item Scorpion Queen had thrown was a symbol in the shape of a glimmering black heart with a circle around it, which flattened itself onto Joanne's body like a tattoo, directly in the spot the bullet was headed. As the bullet collided with it, instead of shooting through her leg, the symbol flashed bright yellow, and the bullet flew back at Number 3 at the same speed it had kicked it.
"The hell?!" Number 3 yelled. It was almost too shocked to react in time, but it just barely managed to swerve to the side, avoiding being hit by its own bullet.
"What was that?" Mista asked, confused. "How the hell did you do that?!"
Joanne tilted herself to the side and splayed her hands out, one in front of her chest facing her and the other to the side of her face facing outward. Scorpion Queen walked up next to her, striking the same pose next to her with its hands in the opposite directions.
"Scorpion Queen has an incredible 'ability'," she said. "It's gotten me out of a lot of tough situations. It can create a 'trigger' based on any 'action' performed within a certain range of me- I'd say about 50 or 60 meters. And we're gonna use that power to kick your ass for messing with us!"
She dodged to the side and grabbed three knives out of a knife rack, throwing them at Mista. Mista dodged to the side, holding his gun up into the air and knocking into a shelf.
"Hey, be careful!" Joanne complained. "I know some of the guys who work here at this restaurant, so don't go messing up the kitchen! You might make their jobs harder, and they gotta do enough work as is!"
"Stop throwing knives at me, then, stronzo!" Mista shot back. He leveled his gun at Joanne and fired it again, this time with Number 7 riding the bullet.
"Yee-ha!" Number 7 shouted as the bullet flew through the air. It stopped when the bullet was just a few meters from Joanne's head and kicked it directly at her.
"Joanne, get down!" Scorpion Queen yelled.
Joanne ducked, and Scorpion Queen clapped its hands together again, creating another trigger of Sex Pistols kicking the bullet, preparing to throw it onto Joanne's body.
"I thought you were just trying to incapacitate me," Joanne said. "That sure as hell looked like a killshot to me! And did you seriously forget about Scorpion Queen's 'ability' only a couple seconds after I told you what it was?"
"Nah," Mista replied. "I just went for a headshot like that to make sure you'd duck like that. Yeah, that's right. You totally fell for it, idiota!"
Joanne looked up. Above her was a metal shelf covered in clean plates, which was hanging from the wall by two hooks, and Mista had just shot one of them clean off the wall. The shelf tilted downward, creaking under the weight of the dishes.
Shit! Joanne thought. That asshole was never aiming for me to begin with! He's right- I totally fell for it!
The shelf collapsed, dumping a load of plates on top of Joanne's head and causing them all to shatter. A few of the shards cut her on their way down, causing her to start bleeding from two gashes on her face and one down her arm. She dropped down out of Mista's line of sight. As the dishes hit the floor with a loud crash, Scorpion Queen suddenly disappeared.
Mista walked around the table in the center of the room to look down at Joanne. She lay on the floor with the shelf and broken dishes on top of her, dazed and unmoving.
"Huh," he said to himself. "That's all it took to knock you out cold? Thought you'd be tougher than tha-"
He stopped as Joanne's eyes shot open and she flipped, crouching low to the floor.
"Scorpion Queen!" she yelled, and Scorpion Queen appeared out of nowhere, already in the middle of swinging its fists at Mista.
"MUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDA!" the Stand shouted, slamming its fists into Mista repeatedly. It finished up with a left hook, sending him flying across the room and crashing into the wall.
"Freakin' hell!" Mista said in a pained tone of voice. "How'd you get Scorpion Queen to vanish and then reappear like that? That's not how Stands work!"
"My Joanne had me create a 'trigger' from the 'action' of her vanishing from your line of sight," Scorpion Queen said, putting a hand on its hips and holding the other out in front of it, angled diagonally downward and splayed out with the back facing Mista.
Joanne stood up from behind the counter, casually leaning on it with her uninjured arm.
"And then, to make it look like I was knocked out…" she continued.
I get it! Mista thought. She made her Stand vanish from my vision for a couple seconds, because that's how long she was out of my line of sight, and then it reappeared just as it was about to hit me!
"You know, you're pretty good," Mista said. "But not good enough! Sex Pistols!"
He quickly brought his gun forward and fired off three shots, each of which was ridden by one of the Sex Pistols. One bullet flew towards Joanne and Scorpion Queen, while the others went past them, one to the left and one to the right. All three of the miniature Stands kicked their bullets simultaneously.
"Shit!" Joanne said. "Scorpion Queen, where'd they kick those bullets?! You gotta tell me fast!"
"I don't know!" Scorpion Queen answered. "I had no idea which one to focus on, so I didn't see any of them!"
"Hey, idiotas!" Number 3 shouted.
"Try lookin' up!" Number 5 added, pointing up.
Joanne and Scorpion Queen simultaneously jerked their heads up as the light fixture above them fell down from the ceiling, speeding down towards them.