Accademia Magistrale
Venice
Afternoon

Tires screeched and the van lurched forward as the driver slammed on the brakes. The van skidded on the wet road. It was a white van, unmarked of course, except for a simple black eagle logo on the two rear doors. The driver was panicking, trying to find a park in the busy street.

"｢Hotel California｣!"

The blind eagle sprung out of the van's rolled down window, its attitude as frantic as the user, flying through the light rain.

Gatrice Beneficci all but flew out of the van as soon as she found her park. She sprinted full speed down the path of Accademia Magistrale, and had Hotel California start searching windows for Stand users. She had no idea where anything was in this school, and if she was to find either Esposito or Giovanna, she'd better start looking right away.

After asking the front desk where the students stayed (and flashing her SID badge to show that she was not, in fact, a pervert), she commanded her Stand to switch buildings as she ran after it.

She was halfway up the first flight of stairs where Hotel California noticed something peculiar in one of the dorm room windows.

'Stand Aura': the indication a Stand battle was occurring. Her Stand had a second sight, of sorts, that could sense when Stands were being entangled.

Stands act like representations of energy - the power of the user's fighting spirit. Yet somehow, for reasons unknown, Stands and their users experience a force of attraction, not unlike magnetism. Though subtle, the aura and energy of a Stand, especially when released, attracts unwittingly those who share the same power, however far the distance may be.

This, in some respects, is the 'gravity' of a Stand and its user. An unending, unseeable force which ties all who have such capabilities together.

Hotel California can see this aura. It may be blind, but only to what people can normally see. And from one particular room, it saw two– no three Stand users interacting. Third floor, south side.

Despite Beneficci knowing about this 'gravity', she approached the disturbance nonetheless.

When she got there, the door was already open, and she could hear only one voice inside.

"My name is–"

Viale held the phone close to his ear as he booked it to the principal's office.

He still was not familiar with the school's layout, so as he made it to the main building, he decided to go around the outside rather than inside.

'Besides, this will attract less attention,' he thought, 'I don't want anyone else getting involved with this. Esposito is in enough danger as is, having bystanders won't help.'

The ground was still muddy from the rain. The dirt splashed all up his leg, creating patterns of splotches that made him long for a nice warm shower. What did not help was the school shoes he was running in. The numerous Stand fights he'd been in recently had not been kind to them, and he was not about to use Giovanna money to buy new ones.

He made it to the cement path and kicked his legs into the next gear. Running on pavement was way easier than grass.

Something caught the corner of his eye – maybe someone running – but paid it no mind as it was likely just a schoolkid who had forgotten his homework.

His legs ached as he made it to the foyer. The receptionist was there as always, making a copy or something on the printer. She didn't seem to notice Viale, who had run up to the desk like a bat out of hell, until he rang the bell.

"Oh, Mr. Giovanna? I'm sorry but the Principal is in a meeting right now–"

"Is he in his office?!" Viale whisper-shouted. His hair was still soggy and was falling over his face. Overall, he was rather dishevelled.

The receptionist, startled by this whole encounter, stuttered, "Y-yes, but it's a really important meeting. That's what he said."

"That's right, Giovanna. It's an important meeting…"

"...and we don't want you disturbing it."

Viale whipped around to see two men hanging their coats up on the coat hanger. One's hair was blonde, the other's was brown. They were both dressed in formal wear. Blondie wore a green dress shirt, while Brownie's was pink. Both sported the same golden skull pin that the user of It's Raining Men had.

'Enemies. They have to be.' He thought. "Hey lady! Get out of here! These people are dangerous."

The receptionist sputtered before slowly making her way to the exit, hugging the wall as she sensed the danger. Blondie tossed her coat at her as she fled through the door.

Brownie spoke up, in a heavy English accent, "Despite appearances, we don't actually want to kill any—"

"We specialise in capturing, not combat." Blondie interjected, in a similarly strong pom accent.

Brownie slowly turned his head to face Blondie. "I was getting to that," he said in annoyance, "What did I tell you about interrupting?"

Blondie's excitement quickly turned to shame. "…to not do it?"

Viale was sensing a real older/younger brother kind of relationship here. And honestly, he just wanted to skip this part and get to the fighting. Or if he was lucky, just get them to go away.

"What I was going to say," Brownie continued, "was that we don't want to kill anyone, but we can, and we will."

"That's a nice sentiment, but you'll find me pretty hard to 'contain'."

Viale bolted to the right hand staircase — both staircases leading to Esposito's office — but found them mysteriously bricked over. Seriously. There was a brick wall blocking his way. He tried pushing against it to no avail.

｢Mr. Blue Sky｣ sprang out of his body and tried to break down the wall with force, but again, it didn't budge a bit. A quick glance to the other staircase revealed it, too, was blocked.

Viale sighed. "Let me guess – this is you guys' doing." It was a good guess, as Viale turned back to find Brownie glowing, with a monument of bricks stacked behind him, clearly not like the clay ones you'd find in a building.

"You're right. These 'bricks' are just a part of my Stand, ｢Wonderwall｣. You won't be interrupting this meeting." His expression was calm and confident. The large pillar of what Viale could only assume were unused parts of his Stand let out a low growl. How a stack of bricks could make that kind of sound, Viale would never know.

"Brownie's Stand is amazing!" Blondie declared, "it can move into whatever form he wants–"

"Blondie, what did I say about revealing our Stands?"

He looked down in shame. "...to not reveal our Stands?"

"Exactly."

"Sorry."

"Wait, you guys' names are actually Blondie and Brownie?" Viale stepped back down to ground level. "I've been calling you that in my head this whole time. What a coincidence."

"We're getting off–track!" Brownie yelled, "You're not going nowhere."

Viale pointed off to the side. "I'm just going to go through a window." Viale sprung back into action, bringing Mr. Blue Sky out, ready to smash a few windows. But before he could make it out, a large wall of bricks surrounded and trapped him in a box.

Mr. Blue Sky let out another flurry of punches, but it did nothing to the interlocked slabs.

On the other side of the blocked-off Giovanna, Blondie knocked on the bricks, "Do I use my Stand now?"

"No," Brownie shook his head as he pulled the younger one away from the box, "Not yet. Let him panic." A sadistic smirk appeared on his face, "Boss said not to kill him. Doesn't mean we can't play with him."

"We have to leave?!" Sana asked, slightly out of breath as she tried to keep up beside the two older women.

"Yes, it's no longer safe here. For you, or any of Viale's other connections."

"Any? What about that other guy – the one that was with you when–"

"Yeah! Vuoto! We have to go get him!" Sana directed the other two downstairs and through a few more halls, and to another door.

Sana hastily knocked, and yelled, "Vuoto! You home? Come out!"

A slightly dishevelled Vuoto opened the door, still in his pyjamas. "What do you want, Rossi?"

Sana took in the view. Sleepy Vuoto, blinds still closed, letting no light in. "Did you just wake up? It's two o'clock."

Before Vuoto could respond, the black-haired girl interrupted. "We don't have time for this – get a change of clothes and your favourite teddy bear – we're leaving. It's not safe here anymore."

Vuoto looked for Sana's confirmation. "What about Viale?"

"We're getting him next." Someone else answered.

They turn another corner to find a man they thought entirely out of commission, standing and ready for action.

Viale heaved as he commanded Mr. Blue Sky to try and break out yet again. Again and again in vain.

"It's no use!" Brownie called out from the other side, "I've covered you from all sides! My Wonderwall is unbreakable, it's like diamonds! And as we all know, diamonds are unbr–"

He was cut off by a loud crunching noise, accompanied with a shaking in the floor. A technicolour fist shot out a few paces from the box, and another pried open the floor, revealing thin wooden floorboards above an empty space.

Viale jumped out, tumbling a little but eventually catching his balance. "Can't go over it? Can't go through it? I'll have to go under it."

He sprang forward, his Stand's fist winding up towards Brownie's direction.

'Shit! Wonderwall isn't fast enough! I won't be able to protect myself!'

Viale's angry expression filled his vision, but was cut off. His eyes widened as Mr. Blue Sky disappeared. Viale tripped and fell off-balance, landing hard on the floor. Brownie's eyes flew to Blondie, who had his hand held out towards Viale.

The box disassembled and remade itself into a large wall, stopping Viale from reaching the two.

"What?!" Viale looked at his hands as he got back up. "Where's– where's my Stand?!"

Viale strained his head, trying to bring out Mr. Blue Sky to no avail. He could still feel his spirit – it was still there, in his head, only refusing to materialise.

"Having trouble?" Viale heard the voice over the wall, "I'm afraid you'll have trouble with your Stand, because of my Stand, ｢I'm Still Standing｣!"

"What? Say that… again?" Brownie said.

"Huh? Why?"

"That didn't make any sense. You said 'Stand' three times, and you said 'have trouble' twice."

"Yeah? So what?"

"Your Italian needs work, idiot. Learn some different phrases." he said in English.

"Piss off, git."

While they were arguing from the other side of the wall, Viale was experimenting.

'Mr. Blue Sky won't come out, but why? Blondie's Stand seems to be the culprit. 'I'm Still Standing'? What a dumb name. Who names their Stand 'Stand'? That's like naming your dog 'Dog'.' He paused and shook off that thought, 'What can I do, though? I can't fight without a Stand.'

He pondered as he slowly crawled around to the end of the wall. Wonderwall stretched from wall to wall, not giving him any opening. As soon as he heard the still-arguing voices slowly fade away, he tried putting his hand in the creaky floorboards below him. He breathed a sigh of relief as his digits phased inside.

'So I'm locked out of my Stand… but not the ability. That's really scary. It's like having a bullet with no gun, but…' His eyes scanned the room around him, 'I think I can work with this.'

"Oh, my god, you're useless!"

"Shut up! You're the one who brought and chose me to come along!"

"Yes, because despite your sheer inexperience and immaturity, your Stand is kind of useful."

"And you owe my Father a favour."

"That too."

They had been arguing for five minutes. It didn't matter, as Blondie had practically neutered Giovanna from the other side of the wall. Now all they had to do was either dispose of Giovanna, or stall him until the Boss was done upstairs with whatever he was doing.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much productivity on their side of the wall.

"Can we please just decide what to do with Boy Wonder over there?"

Blondie shrugged and took a moment to think. "What if we just… close the walls in on him?"

"Wow," Brownie chuckled, "that's actually an alright idea. Did it hurt?"

"Shut up. Let's just get this over with."

"Haha. Wonderwall, you know what to do."

As Brownie's voice passed over the wall, it shook back to life and began inching forwards, the two chaps following it. The wall rose a bit to drag over the rug on the floor as the faux-bricks passed over it. 'No use ruining a perfectly good rug.'

As they took over more and more of the room, they imagined the boy squirming at the notion of his new home being a sardine can. The Stand formed and shaped around a very tight space where Brownie could feel Giovanna pressed against. The floor was brought up so he couldn't dip into the floor at the last second. A brick slotted out, giving their voice a route to get to the soon-to-be jam's ears.

"I'm a firm believer in last words, Giovanna. You got any?"

Viale's eyes shifted around from inside the prison, taking in as much information from the room as he could.

"Umm, yeah! Blondie! Can you move a bit to the left?"

Blondie looked to his compatriot, who shrugged, and back to the trapped kid. He scoffed. "Wow. You really think I'm going to fall for that?"

"Yes?"

"Ha! Okay, well I'll move a bit to my left, sir." He said in a patronising tone. He sidestepped left, away from Brownie, but before he could bring his other leg over, a knife shot out of the floorboard, and right up in between his legs.

Every man in the room felt what he felt.

He howled in agony. Brownie whipped his head to face his ally, the bricks loosened, and Mr. Blue Sky burst out of the encirclement.

The multicolour fists shot out towards Brownie.

"W-w-Wonderwall! Come to me!"

The Stand that had been flung away in many directions flew towards their user, but Mr. Blue Sky quickly grabbed one, and swung it into the Brown-haired mafioso's head, knocking him out instantly. The Stand faded away.

Viale himself stepped out of the disappearing brick and mortar. He looked over the room one last time, before heading for the stairs.

"Pretty clean for a two-on-one," he huffed. "Now it's time for the real show."

"Sounds like the fighting has stopped," the man with blood-red hair said, "I doubt those clowns really dealt with him, but they have their uses."

"You're a fool to underestimate a Joestar, and you're a fool to underestimate me." Esposito regarded as the larger man's associate approached him from behind.

"You're just a disloyal little man, Espie." He said. The boss shot him a look.

"Get real, Tizio, you're just a lapdog."

Tizio grabbed his arms, "May-be. But at least he doesn't put his trust in a teenager with an annoying tendency for battle."

"Gioviale's more than that–"

"Not that I don't appreciate the praise, but I'm over the small talk already."

Tizio and Esposito turned to the flight of stairs, while a shadow fell over the unnamed one's face.

Viale's dirty blonde locks did nothing to cover the venom in his eyes. His eyes locked with the deep red pair across the room. "You've all overstayed your welcome, so the door is this way, if you would be so kind."

To Be Continued ===