The hospital staff room had been taken over by police as the hub for their forensics teams and security detail. Things were starting to quiet down with staff coming in from a sister hospital to assist with the wounded nurses and doctors. Were Johnny in another mindset, the scene would seem exciting, like something out of those Hong Kong action movies he loved, but the reality of his surroundings sobered his imagination.
Sitting across from the table was Lieutenant Spears, the broad-chest officer in charge of the forensics team whose legal pad was full of notes before even arriving to start questioning. Tapping his pencil twice, Spears stood up and walked over to grab a cup of coffee from the employee's kitchen area.
"Either of you two needs something? After a stressful experience, it's usually recommended to get some sugar in your system to help take the edge off." Officer Spears asked.
"No thanks." Said Fred, leaning forward and resting his head in his hands.
"Nah, I better not. That stuff makes me a little jittery." Said Johnny.
"Suit yourselves." Shrugging his shoulders, Spears sat back down and blew on his beverage before setting it next to his notepad. Turning his head to Fred, he curled the corners of his mouth as he talked. "So, from what we understand, it's pretty simple. Fred Jones age 24 resident of Coolsville Ohio, were staying here with your friends, you heard the attacker downstairs, you set up an elaborate trap, and after a brief struggle, the gunman jumped out the window. Is that about right?"
"Yes, Officer." Said Fred, keeping his composure to stay quiet. How Johnny had ever convinced him to not cooperate with the police, he still wasn't sure.
"And you, Johnny Bravo age 24 resident of Aron City, show up after getting a text from one of the girls upstairs, you find the hospital is under attack, you engage the gunman without knowing the situation, and in the struggle, he bursts open a bag of donated blood, which is why the room upstairs, and your clothes, are covered in blood. Are you telling me that's what happened?" Officer Spears had a great poker face because Fred was not sure if he was patronizing them or not with these questions.
"That's the long and the short of it." Said Johnny. The expression on his face might have been called cold or stony on another man, but on him, it came off looking a little dumb and naïve.
Lieutenant Spears wrote a few additional notes before closing the pad and finishing his coffee, pausing a moment to let the steam from the cup fade from his glasses, he nodded.
"A few final questions. Do either of you know the attacker, or did he identify himself? And do you know if anything was taken from your possessions upstairs?" Officer Spears seemed particularly interested in who would answer which question.
"When I confronted him, no he did not identify himself." Said Johnny.
"And I have not had the time to do a full inventory upstairs." Said Fred. "I understand that our possessions and research materials might technically be counted as evidence now, but I wonder if we could come to an understanding about letting us keep our journals at least."
"My team upstairs will be finished processing most of that by now, I'll let you know by the time you and your friends are cleared to leave the hospital about our decision." Officer Spears stood up from the table and extended his hand, shaking both of theirs in turn. "It may be a bit early in the process, but from what I understand you both were able to keep your heads cool in this situation, and you have my respect. I'll go see if you can go back upstairs now."
"I'm glad I told Scooby to stay put upstairs. Hopefully, there's no funny business with the investigators. I'm usually not so suspicious about dealing with police, but you put a bug in my ear, Johnny." Said Fred.
"Oh, I know what you're talking about. You're good-natured, trusting, you believe in the goodness of others. Like how you don't think that a group of people you just met will side with your weird aunt and leave you tied to a tree in the middle of nowhere." Said Johnny.
"Guess you're still a little sore about that." Said Fred.
"Not really, but I think I have the right to tease you about it a few more times." Said Johnny, giving Fred a light nudge.
"Fair enough." Said Fred, chuckling back.
A wave from a member of the hospital staff caught their attention as they were escorted back upstairs, as the elevators were still down from the power outage. Yellow tape marked the hallway where Johnny, Fred, and Scooby had fought Magenta, with several agents still being careful where they stepped to avoid contaminating evidence and stepping on the still wet floor. Peeking into the room, Scooby-Doo gave Fred a slight salute as he nodded towards the research table.
"I just finished checking on your friend's conditions. Their fevers are coming down and they were unharmed from the attacks." A petite, Hispanic nurse said as she dodged a forensics agent.
"Hey Johnny, let's let them rest. We'll talk in the empty room next door." Said Fred, leading the way. With the two of them finally alone, Fred took a seat and steadied his breathing.
"That was pretty heavy, you okay?" Asked Johnny.
"I've been through a lot, this isn't the first time my friends and I have been in danger. But it never gets easier to deal with it." Said Fred, letting out a long exhale.
"Well, you did better than I did anyway." Said Johnny, poking his fingers through a bullet hole in his t-shirt.
"About that. How are you still alive?" Asked Fred.
"Probably something to do with my Stand. I remember being shot and crawling across the floor to the doorway. As soon as I reached it, I heard a massive crack and I felt my entire body itch as the bullets were pushed out of my chest." Said Johnny, checking the hallway to see if anyone was watching, he lifted his shirt showing that he didn't have so much as a bruise from the gunshots.
"That Magenta guy kept talking about his 'Stand'. What are they?" Asked Fred as Suspicious Minds appeared underneath the hospital bed on the other side of the room, giggling to itself at the discovery of a stray hairpin it found on the ground.
"For all I know they're some sort of 'punch ghosts' or something, that's how it was explained to me. How we get them or where they come from, that's not something I know." Said Johnny.
"Is that all you know?" Asked Fred.
"Only people who have Stands can see them. Otherwise, they are invisible, and from what I understand they are unique to people who have them, and they're all named after songs for some reason." Said Johnny, flexing his arm seemed to summon his own Stand, a gaudy reflection of himself in pink, red, and yellow.
"Do you know how people get them? I've seen aliens, ghosts, vampires, witches, and super villains but this is new to me." Said Fred, unsure if he believed what Johnny was saying.
"Look, man, what do you want me to say? I've only been seeing these things for a few days myself. If I had to guess, I think it's some weird mojo having to do with my family. Which is another reason I don't want the cops involved because I get the feeling that these things can be wildly dangerous." Said Johnny.
"For now, let's say we're on the same page. But when the rest of the gang gets better, I'm telling them everything that's happened and if they want to cut and run we're gone." Said Fred, hoping that he came off as firm instead of uncaring.
"I wouldn't hold it against you. You look, tired man, get some rest and I'll keep watch okay?" Said Johnny.
Realizing that he hadn't slept last night and how fatigued he was from the fight, Fred nodded and loosened his ascot as he got on the spare hospital bed and closed his eyes, half-hoping that all this was just a bad dream.
The four-digit code to the back door was changed on a weekly basis. After two chances, Magenta finally remembered what it was as he punched in the keys before throwing open the back door to the corporate offices. The dim hallway was lined with boxes of things he could only guess at, twisted before he reached the service elevator that would take him up to the upper offices where Joyce would be waiting for him. Tracing his fingers along the scar that covered his face where his left eye was, he grit his teeth and punched the metal wall of the elevator in frustration.
Reaching the top floor, he walked straight across the hall and pushed on the fake wall which opened as a door directly into the private offices of the head of the Bravo family business. Sitting at her desk, Joyce seemed more like a high-end fashion model than a dangerous and calculating business-type, though perhaps it was naïve of him to think that a beautiful model could not be as dangerous as the president of a company. Despite being forty-one, she could easily pass for a woman in her twenties.
"News reports are coming in on all the channels. A brazen attack on a hospital, five dead, twenty-six injured, and twelve in critical condition because of the power outage. No picture of the suspect, and due to the power outage, no accurate sketches have been drawn from witnesses on the scene either. You seemed to have managed a clean escape, well mostly clean." Joyce Bravo's kept her head as level and even as her breathy tone of voice, but her eyes looked disapprovingly at the bite wound on Magenta's lower leg.
"I've got good news and bad news." Magenta said as he tapped a panel on the wall which opened into Joyce's private bar. A splash of whiskey on a towel he filled with ice was perfect to help soothe the wound the dog had inflicted on him.
Pushing herself out from her desk, Joyce stood upright and reached for the remote on her desk, turning off the televisions along the far wall, she walked to a table behind her and opened an antique tray which held dried fruits and nuts. Taking a handful of kola nuts, he popped them in her mouth and seemed to savor the bitter flavor.
"Always start with the bad news." Said Joyce, as she turned around and leaned back. In any other woman, Magenta would think how alluring the curve of her spine was, but he knew enough about Joyce and her family to stay on his guard around her, moreover, the debt he owed them made him more of a servant than a free man.
"I didn't get my targets. Would have been easy, but I ran across four other Stand users, including a cat and a dog. From what I gathered from a glance, it's clear that those kids are investigating your family." Magenta said as he sat down to rip open the hem of his pants to expose his leg.
"You moved to fast sending in Curly Neal mother. That peace offering will only wind up making them suspicious after this failed attack on the hospital." Appearing out of nowhere, Brandon Bravo stepped into the room and combed his skunk-striped hair back into a pompadour.
"Didn't I tell you not to style your hair like that?" Asked Joyce.
"That you did mother, but after seeing cousin Johnny wear his hair like this, I think I've taken a liking to it." Said Brandon.
"Your cousin? The blonde-haired man with sunglasses?" Asked Magenta.
"Yes. Of the lesser Bravos." Said Joyce.
"He was there, I put six bullets into him." Said Magenta.
"Oh, that is good news then." Said Joyce, reaching over her shoulder to grab her bowl of dried fruit.
"No, that wasn't my good news. This was." Setting down the bag of ice, Magenta reached into his jacket pocket as he walked to the desk where he set down the bone he had found in the box at the hospital.
"Mother is that what I think it is?" Asked Brandon.
Carefully selecting a dried apricot, Joyce put the bronzed piece of fruit in her mouth to savor its complex sweetness. Licking her fingers, she smiled as she walked to the desk to run her fingers along the petrified human rib.
"Brandon dear. Why don't you get Mister Shankar and bring him up to the office and let him know that we're in business." Said Joyce, smiling as she effortlessly sat on the desk, she winked at Magenta as an electric blue aura encompassed her body, causing a face to appear over her left shoulder which let made an unnatural sound which only a madman would think was a laugh as it slowly spun clockwise.
References:
Officer Spears - Ken Spears (the other co-creator of Scooby-Doo)
Stand Guide:
20th Century Boy (1973 song by T. Rex) - Stand of Magenta Magenta
Power - N/A
Speed - C
Range - N/A
Durability/Endurance - A
Precision - D
Development - C
Magenta Magenta's stand Appears as a purple and light blue set of armor around his head and shoulders, with thin blue hands which stretch around his body, protecting it from all damage. It is less that 20th Century Boy "protects" and more that it "deflects", but redirecting incoming forces into the ground and air. The drawback is that to use this power, Magenta Magenta must take on a kneeling posture, or otherwise remain motionless. However, the advantage is that this protection is absolute, to the extent that neither dynamite, nor drowning, nor even the passage of time (apparently) has an effect on Magenta while his Stand is active. In the course of Steel Ball Run, Magenta Magenta fell into a river and was presumed dead or missing, yet somehow he survived and feels indebted to the Bravo family.