CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Need You Tonight - Part 1



The sea rocks and wave beneath the boardwalk. Before anyone has the chance to do anything, the Stand that appeared from nowhere has grabbed Shizuka around her waist and carried her 30 feet in the air. She shrieks in surprise as it climbs even higher. If any of the nearby audience were to look, they would see her apparently levitating into the sky, as if abducted by aliens.

Without hesitation, Kilo has summoned SATURN BARZ. Taking a classical athlete’s pose, a javelin of frozen air forms in right hand. He aims with his left arm outstretched, accounting for its ascent and hurls the spear at the Stand. Rather than dodging, it stays where it is, hanging in the air, clutching Shizuka. The spear pierces its ragged cloth body… and passes right through, causing no damage to what is revealed to be regular cloth with nothing underneath.

“What are you doing?!” Trish shouts, gripping Kilo by his shoulder and swinging him around to face her.

“What’s it look like?! I’m saving her!”

“By hurling spears at it?! Even if you had hit the Stand instead of her, she’s already 50 feet up! If she were to fall into the sea at height, she could die instantly!”

“So what the hell do you suggest?! That fucking thing is taking her!!! What the hell would you know anyway?! Just go do your little concert and stay out of my way!”

Trish speaks calmly, firmly. “We have no choice but to follow after her, and find a way to get her down. Without damaging her.”

Kilo bites his lip, and turns back around. Shizuka is a dot, only just visible in the night sky by the twinkling of her metal accessories and the sheen of her yellow hair. Hissing in frustration, he turns back to Trish and nods once. She nods back, and together, they run, away from the stage and down the boardwalk toward the mainland.

The moment they are gone is when C-King hops backstage, sweat running down his forehead but smiling, pumped up with adrenaline. “Yo, Trish, it’s time!” he calls, “Yo, it’s your time to shine! Come on, where you at?! … Ey listen, I know you was mad at me for bein’ late, but you know I appreciate you comin’ out here just for me! I’m tellin’ ya, this thing SOLD. OUT!! My agent said I was crazy, but you and me about to prove them damn wrong!… Trish! Hello?! Come on out, gurl! … Trish…?”

If he had not been sweating already, he would have started to.

—

Far away, a strange, skinny man howls with rage. “NO!!” he screams, “NO, you useless piece of SHIT!! TRISH UNA!! I wanted you to catch TRISH UNA!! Who even is that puta you grabbed?!! I’ve never seen her before! Is she a groupie or something?! Some valley girl SLUT?! You trying to make a fool out of me?!! Huh?!! You FUCKER!!! HIJO DE PUTAAA!!!!”

All of this he shrieks into the screen of a laptop. To a normal person, the video footage on the screen would depict the live image of Shizuka levitating through the air. Only this man and others like him can see the Stand; his Stand, carrying her, clutching her arms in a steadfast grip.

The lanky man inhales deeply, then exhales, running his fingers through a receding hairline. Then, he picks up his laptop and hugs it as one might hug a small child. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it~” he croons into the screen, “I’m super happy I stole that weird disc off that gangster and awakened your power~. Thanks to you, my life has gotten so much more convenient~! I haven’t had you for very long, so of course you’ll make mistakes~”

Smiling cheerfully, he sets the laptop down and stands over it, hands on his hips. On the screen, the Stand has stopped moving. It has not descended, but simply hangs in the air. “Now that we’ve made our apologies, we can start over. Just drop that nobody and go and get-… wait, what the fuck is that?”

He crouches and peers at the screen. In the corner of the frame, he can see people on the ground. Like ants from the height the drone is at, but it is a good camera with high resolution. He can tell easily that this pair are running towards his Stand. One of them he picks out as the black guy who was with the valley girl, and the other is…

“… NEED YOU TONIGHT… Hold that thought about dropping anybody. You just keep on coming back. Bring her to me…” The little man grins and scratches at his chest beneath his clothes. On the front of his clothes are four letters: CONE. “Bring Trish Una to me…”

—

“We need to keep them in sight!” Kilo shouts. He is running a pace ahead of her, but Trish Una keeps up with him easily.

“Indeed we do,” she answers.

“It’s fast! Faster than us on foot! What we need is wheels!”

“Sí!”

“But if we lost sight of the damn thing, it won’t matter if we’re on wheels or not!”

“Quite!”

“Yo, do you have anything to add to this?!” he barks. Then, after a moment of thought, “Wait… you can see that thing!?!” Kilo demands, pointing at the Stand.

“I can!” It doesn’t surprise her that he only just realized this. A lot has happened in a very short span of time, and other concerns took priority.

“You have a Stand too or somethin’!?”

“I do!”

“Well I suggest you do something and do it fast! If you’re not going to make yourself useful, then just head back to your little show!” He faces forward again, straining his eyes upward to keep Shizuka in sight.

Therefore, he does not see the humanoid figure, pink-and-gold, emerge from Trish’s being. By the time he makes his next sprinting footfall, her Stand, SPICE GIRL, has punched the ground beneath it over fifty times. When his foot lands on the pavement and his weight lands with it, rather than striking solid ground, he instead sinks into the earth.

For a moment, the surprise knocks the breath out of him and he spins to defend against whatever enemy has done this to him. But then Trish Una takes hold of his wrist, and when he turns to look at her, her smile is confident and sure.

“Have faith, Kilo Staples,” she says, “And stay close to me!”

After a moment of hesitation, he grabs her wrist to keep steady. The sink further into the ground, it having been given properties similar to rubber. “Now SPICE GIRL!!” she cries, “Change it back!”

At her command, the pavement turns back into its former composition with an audible SNAP! The force of the reversion causes the ground to crack. A concrete trampoline that catapults Kilo and Trish into the air with alarming speed, straight towards NEED YOU TONIGHT and Shizuka.

Shizuka sees them and locks eyes with Kilo. Struggling against the cold claws holding her, she manages to reach out her hand, and Kilo does the same. They draw near to each other as he sails through the air. The peak of his ascent is reached, just about at NYT’s level. He reaches. Their fingers touch.

And then he and Trish begin falling and Shizuka slips out of his grasp. If their ascent was fast, their descent is even faster. Kilo hardly notices, cursing “DAMN IT!!” as he falls away from her. The ground comes up to meet them, and only well-timed strikes from SPICE GIRL save them both from death. Their collision with the ground is like falling into a feather bed, but Kilo takes no enjoyment from it as he watches Shizuka being flown away from him again.