Accademia Magistrale Principal Office
Venice
Evening

"Gioviale Bruno Giovanna. It's a pleasure to meet you. You resemble your father immensely."

The broad-shouldered, towering man turned around. His suit, immaculate. His hair, ravishing. His shoes, shiny. His face, a storm.

"I am Scuderio Mercurio. Or Boss, to my associates."

"How do you know my middle name?" even he didn't know his middle name. "Also it's Viale, not Gioviale."

"I know many things." He pulled out a cigarette, and in a flash, faster than Viale could see, it was lit.

'That was his Stand.' Viale thought. He looked over to Esposito, sweating bullets but keeping his composure, despite someone restraining him.

"I also know that you have made my life very difficult over the last few months." He puffed a breath of smoke absentmindedly, "Harming and maiming my coworkers left and right."

"Yeah, because they were trying to kill me."

"And you know that for sure?" Viale raised an eyebrow. He started slowly moving closer towards the principle. "They were merely protecting me and my goals."

"Is that what you call it? 'Protecting?' I call it endangering children."

"I call it loyalty and working towards a greater goal."

"You're insane."

Mercurio chuckled, and fetched a notepad from inside his blazer pocket. "Well then, let's just go through the list, shall we?" He cleared his throat, "Brothers Chubby and Checker, performing a stakeout, captured an enemy detective. You hung them off the side of a building and gave one a concussion. They have post-traumatic stress disorder and a fear of heights now." His eyes glanced up at Viale's still eyes. "No remorse? Okay, next. Fuoco Esercito, admittedly not our brightest, sent to eliminate two enemies, and was arrested with many fractured bones and even a ruptured kidney."

Viale's look faltered a bit. He didn't know that. "Self-defence."

"If you say so." He flipped to another page. "And just recently – today, in fact – I got a report that you broke many ribs and the jaw of dear Maria outside. My men have informed me that she has hypothermia from being left out in the rain."

"She must've lost her umbrella."

A figure shot out of Mercurio and slammed into Viale's stomach, and Viale fell over, the wind leaving him before he could even defend himself.

"Don't even get me started on what you did to your fellow students. One was nearly paralyzed from chemical inhalation. The other was tortured until he lost consciousness."

"That was–"

"–wasn't you? You sure did nothing to stop it. Who are you to judge these men and women? Espie's nephew is still in the hospital after the beating you gave him. Where's your quippy response for that?"

"Stop it, Diero! He's just a kid!"

"He's also not my biggest problem right now. That would be you." He turned to Esposito, still being held. "I really, really, don't want to hurt you Espie. So just tell me where it is. For Signore Giovanna's sake."

"Don't tell him–augh!" Mercurio grabbed Viale's hair and forced him back to the ground. The figure appeared around Mercurio's leg as he reeled it back and into Viale's gut. ｢Mr. Blue Sky｣ attempted to catch it, but was easily overpowered by the force of the kick.

He was sent flying, past the desk Esposito was being held on. The wall rattled as Viale collided with it, Mr. Blue Sky cushioning the blow a small amount. He groaned. 'I'm feeling that tomorrow.'

"You're outmatched, Giovanna. Stay down," Mercurio returned his attention to Esposito. "I know it's in here somewhere, and I care about you enough to not rip up all of these tasteless posters you like so much. So," he leaned down to Esposito's prone body pinned to the desk, "I'll ask again. Where. Is. It."

"I'll never tell you."

There was an uncomfortable silence as they stared each other down. It felt like an eternity, but Mercurio lifted his head begrudgingly. He made his way to the other side of the room, to a certain poster.

"American Psycho 2: All-American Girl. What a horrible movie. A stain on the magnificent first movie. And also…" his fist shot out, punching clean through the poster and into the wall behind it. The room shook from the impact, and dust fell from the roof at the sudden shaking. "... a very obvious hiding place."

He tore his hand from the wall, along with the picture frame, revealing a safe embedded in the wall, with a large fist-shaped indentation where Mercurio struck it. Before he could pry it open, he heard rustling, and a figure shot out from the back of his head, catching Mr. Blue Sky a centimetre from striking his cranium.

"What…?"

Mercurio pulled the safe out of the wall and turned to face Viale, still slumped against the wall across the room. "I think you'll find that you can't sneak up on me, Giovanna."

"What is with you?!" Viale asked, exasperated and still feeling the last attack.

"My Stand isn't like yours or your father's."

The hand pushed forward, bringing more and more of its ripped body out of the Boss. It was covered head-to-toe in brown fur, had short claws on the end of its fingers and toes, and had the head and tail of a rat. Its pinprick eyes were red with blood, and it had red, yellow and blue wires running in and out of its skull and down its back. It was just as towering as its user, maybe moreso, as it was also bulky beyond belief.

"It's name is ｢Electric Light Orchestra｣, or ｢E.L.O.｣ for short."

"How?! How are you here?!"

Vuoto was already panicking from the imminent and very real threat that his friend Viale was facing, but now that this person had revealed himself, he couldn't help but not shriek.

"ZEPPELI?!"

The broad-shouldered, large man stepped out, revealing himself. A few of his injuries remained, but otherwise, he was in great health.

"She called me." He pointed at Beneficci, who tensed, "She told me that if I helped you, one of you could heal me."

Although no-one moved, everyone's attention was turned to Sana. She felt the familiar tensing in her heart that came when someone expected something of her.

"You'll help GioGio?"

Zeppeli sighed. "Don't forget my uncle is up there too."

By now they were outside, and within viewing distance of the principal's office. The black-haired girl nudged Beneficci.

"Can you see Giovanna and the others?"

Beneficci startled. "Oh, right."

Her Stand appeared on her shoulder, and quickly took off towards the other building.

At the first sign of flapping of wings, Mercurio turned his attention to the window. His subordinate, Mario, did the same.

"It looks like we have company."

From Mario, a green aura lit up, and what was quite obviously a Stand appeared beside him. It was adorned with an army uniform – an exact replica of the uniform once used by actual military officers. Green, with sashes running down and across its body, and a cadet's cap with a crosshair badge on it. Its face was completely blacked out, with the only discernible features being a nose and a mouth. Another thing of note would be that it was absolutely kitted out, with a rifle, a set of grenades, a white parachute on its back, and a knife tucked in its holster on its thigh.

The Stand efficiently pulled out its rifle and aimed at the window, the crosshair instantly falling over where ｢Hotel California｣ had just appeared. A loud bang was heard, and the bird fell out of the sky.

Mario let out a breath. "Enemy down, sir."

"Excellent." Mercurio noticed something else from the other window, the one facing the entrance of the school, and watched as around eight or nine cars pulled up. "Our reinforcements are here. Tell them to stay on alert."

"What do you want from us, assho–grrk!" Mercurio's foot inserted itself once again into Viale's sternum, winding him again.

"You've done enough talking, Giovanna! I won't even waste my breath on you, as you'll be dead soon."

Many people had said that to Viale since he arrived at Accademia Magistrale. A few gang members, a few students, and even a teacher had said it to him. He rarely believed them, especially in hindsight, as he so handedly kicked their asses. But this time was different. He hadn't even managed a hit on the man, and was in the process of getting his ass kicked. This time, he believed the enemy.

Mercurio kicked him away. He scurried away, behind the desk which Esposito was still seated at.

'How the hell am I going to beat this guy?! Is this… is this it?' Viale shook his head as he tried to regain control of his breathing. 'No. There's always a way. Esposito could help me and double-team this guy with two Mr. Blue Sky.'

As he sat up to get Esposito's attention, he noticed the look on Esposito's face. Fear. Much more than what Viale had.

"Principal," Viale whispered to the man above him, "I need your help. We can get him. You just need to attack with Mr. Blue Sky at the same time I do."

Esposito's breathing grew more steady as he whispered back, "You don't understand," he watched Mercurio warily, "even if I were to agree, his Stand is way too strong."

"Where'd you go, Giovanna?" Mercurio sounded exasperated.

Mario was still watching the windows with his Stand in case someone else was to pop up. He couldn't see any enemies. Viale groaned, finding Esposito to be of no help. He got out his dice, the same one that had helped him fool that umbrella lady earlier, but found nothing useful.

"Get out from behind there, Viale. You aren't going to get any help from ol' Espie. After all, it is his Stand I'm after." The rat-like Stand grabbed Viale by his scruff and yanked him over to the taller man.

Viale grunted. "I thought you got what you wanted?"

He pulled the safe all of the way out of the wall, and E.L.O. appeared to pry it the rest of the way open. From inside he pulled out a mask, with only eye holes and various detailings etched into it. One of those details was a mouth, which didn't seem to have a hole for a performer to speak through. A very inefficient design indeed. The mouth did, however, have fangs coming out of it.

"Is that a Stone Mask? I've never seen one in real life before." A woman's voice sounded out from nowhere, startling Mercurio. E.L.O. shot out and swiped the direction he'd heard the voice.

"Wow, that's kinda rude. Do you hit all of the women that get close to you?"

"Who said that?!"

Mario turned his attention away from lookout as he readied his Stand to shoot the first thing that appeared.

"What happened to the guy downstairs? Did someone take a look at his face, then decide that the world didn't need more Brits?"

"Who are you?! Show yourself!"

"Shouting "reveal yourself" to an invisible girl… that kinda ruins the point, man."

Mercurio felt a pair of hands slide over his eyes, and in a flash of light, they were gone, replaced with black sockets. "My eyes!"

E.L.O. rushed ahead of him, and managed to hit a bit of the invisible woman.

"You're fast! And on the floor!"

Mercurio felt his knees give out as two punches to the underside of them made him fall backwards, his Stand catching him. "Mario! Shoot her!"

"Sorry, your friend is currently unavailable." Another, more masculine voice, said. Zeppeli appeared from thin air next to Mario, who flinched and fell over instantly. Zeppeli's missing arm soon returned once Mario slumped over. "I had to mess around inside his veins, sorry."

Mercurio let out a yell of anger. E.L.O. appeared once again, and in an astonishing display of speed and agility, disappeared and reappeared in front of where he last saw Viale, and stamped down.

Viale, who had forgotten to move, felt his leg crack, as something invisible slammed into the Stand. He looked as he saw the Stand continue to bring its foot down. Although the Stand itself was fast, he watched as if in slow motion as his right leg gave out, and the bone snapped in half, the skin keeping it together.

To say Viale believed the actual mob boss in front of him saying 'you'll be dead soon' was now an understatement. Lightning shot up his body, frying his brain with pain and adrenaline. His eyes shook and were pricked with tears. He could feel the shards of his bone in his muscle, and his leg lagged behind as Mercurio kicked him away like a used rag.

"No!" The invisible girl felt her power falter for a second, as her own invisibility faded, along with the power preventing Mercurio from seeing.

"There you are."

In the blink of an eye, E.L.O. closed the distance between its user and Shizuka Joestar, backhanding her across the room and towards Viale.

"Joestar!" Zeppeli disappeared again, and went straight for Mercurio.

"I can feel you, Zeppeli. You aren't fooling me."

E.L.O.'s hand straightened out into a 'chop' shape and sliced through a seemingly random space in the air. From somewhere above Mercurio, Zeppeli's ear appeared and fell to the floor, severed and unusable.

Zeppeli still stayed thin, however, and Mercurio felt his arm be pierced. His Stand chopped again, this time when Zeppeli came up for air. Just as his head appeared, blood hacked from his mouth. His pupils were needles, and he looked at Esposito before the rest of his body appeared. Or rather, the upper half of his body appeared. His stomach and legs were next to Mercurio.

Shizuka screamed something, but she was cut off.

"You really ought to train your employees more, Espie."

Viale, propped up against the far wall, watched as his teacher-turned-enemy-turned-ally bled out, in the place he was meant to feel safe. He felt the venom and fire leave his eyes.

"Bring out your Stand, Giovanna."

He barely registered Shizuka's Stand grabbed Esposito's chair and threw it through the window, and he could only feel his flopping leg as Shizuka's Stand carried him through the onslaught of gang grunts on the school grounds.

"No!"

Shizuka felt her invisibility slip for a second before she was backhanded across the room. She stumbled hard but got her footing next to Viale, who was now sporting a new leg joint.

But that wasn't the end of the pain. Just as she was getting up to help Zeppeli, she looked around to find his lower body and legs separated from his torso and head. She knew this could happen. This had happened before, plenty of times, on plenty of missions. But this time, she couldn't help but see her friend Sergio, who had an uncanny resemblance to Zeppeli, get sliced in half.

"Zeppeli–!"

'Damnit! Never fast enough! Damnit, damnit, damnit!' Hopefully they'd be able to find a healer at the Speedwagon Foundation. 'Where's Mona when you need him…'

But she needed to focus. Her mission was to protect Giovanna which she had already failed so she had to get out of here.

There was also the fact that this was a really strong Stand user with a Stone Mask (which shouldn't even exist anymore).

She battled in her mind, but hastily made the decision to leave Esposito there. Gioviale was family.

｢Houdini｣ shot out once again and grabbed Esposito's intricate (and kinda gaudy) chair, and slammed it into the window behind her. Houdini grabbed Viale, who was still staring at Zeppeli's mangled body, by the collar, and put him over her shoulder.

She vaulted over the broken glass and out the window, and used Houdini to break her fall, making sure to keep Giovanna's leg intact. She turned around to find a crowd of very angry gang members all staring at her. In the front row was, coincidentally, the two mobsters she'd beaten up the other day.

"Get 'er!" the big one from the other day said. He now had a bandage over his nose from where Shizuka had punched it. His lanky friend next to him instantly jumped Shizuka, but was easily batted away by Shizuka's Stand.

'God I hope none of these guys are Stand users…' Her aura flared as she and the nearly unconscious student she was carrying disappeared and left in her place five perfect replicas of her person. Each clone ran a different way, leaving the now very confused regular people scrambling to follow one. Meanwhile Shizuka slinked away to the road, where a white van with black stripes wrapping around it pulled up.

"Get in!" Beneficci shouted from the driver's seat.

Shizuka yanked over the door, where she took shotgun and handed Giovanna off to Rossi, who was in the back seat.

"Is everyone here?" She turned in her seat to see Rossi and Segnaposto buckled up, very concerned that their friend's leg was mangled and Zeppeli hadn't even returned. "I'll explain on the way. Drive!"

Beneficci looked at the school one last time before carefully indicating and moving off the curb.

"You're really going to let them leave?"

"It doesn't matter what they do. We have capos all over the country – we'll keep track of them." Mercurio turned to his associate, "They must be going back to Naples. I want you to stop them in their tracks."

Mario's expression steeled, "Of course, sir. They won't stand a chance against ｢Super Trooper｣. But what will you do?"

He turned away to look over the newly conquered school. "I'll make sure they have nowhere to go."

To Be Continued ===