//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: Let the Bodies Hit the Floor // Story: SuShi's Bizarre Adventure: Fantasy Friendship // by Jojoleopard //------------------------------// “I can’t believe I was so easily controlled just like that!” Rainbow Dash complained on their way out of the Canterlot stadium. “You girls know how awesome I am. My mind isn’t that easily taken over.” “Pffft, as if.” Applejack folded her arms. “But it ain’t up to ya, Rainbow. Whoever’s behind this, takin’ control of our minds and all, they’re powerful. It must be their Stand power.” “It makes it better when you say it like this…” Pinkie snickered, then puffed out her chest and stuck one arm to her side, then the other diagonally up. “STANDO POWAH!” “Ah mean, Ah guess…” Applejack leaned away from her. “So, uh, other than that, what’s our next course of action now?” Sunset Shimmer asked. “We’ve gotten everyone back. What do we do next?” Jojo toyed around with the cap on his head. “That’s right. Rainbow, do you recall anything else? Anything in your time as an enemy Stand user.” “Not much, I can tell you.” Rainbow threw her arms down. “The last thing I fully remember before you guys saved me was heading to the mall to get some new sports pants. After that it comes in bits. A cold dark room, smoke and shadows, groups of others who were like us, even jumping from rooftop to rooftop with Running on Ice, but nothing concrete. I’m sorry I can’t give you more.” “It’s more than the last time...” Fluttershy said. “Each time one of us is released from the master’s mind control, we seem to remember a bit more. It’s almost like they built up a wall and each time we take a piece out of it, the entire thing weakens.” “Maybe. But that’s all maybes. We’ll have to test this theory.” Jojo pulled at the corners of his leather jacket. “Sushi here’s already learnt much about her own Stand, Pegasus Fantasy. My word, she can even merge with it to become the Stand herself. I’ve never seen anything like that done.” “So what are you getting at, Jojo dear?” Rarity asked, never once breaking eye contact with the man. Sunset laughed internally at her incredible infatuation with him. “What I’m saying is Sunset can handle herself. I think whatever comes our way, no matter what, we’ll be able to find a way to beat them.” Jojo smashed a fist into his palm. “Cool and awesome and all, but who’s Sushi?” Rainbow interrupted. “Seriously, who is it?” Sunset sighed. She didn’t want to have to keep explaining this whenever they rescued someone. “That’ll be me, Rainbow. It’s sort of a name my old friends used to call me. Just the first bits of my name, Sunset Shimmer.” At first, Rainbow continued to raise one eyebrow and stare blankly at her, but that slowly shifted and both eyebrows went up, then the corners of her mouth. “Oohhhhhhh, I get it! Nice. Good on you, Sunset. It makes me think of food.” “I know, right?” Pinkie zipped out from between her legs and in front of her. “It makes me want to get something to eat! We should go to the mall! They have sushi there!” “Then to the mall we go.” Jojo flashed a smile that made Rarity’s knees feel weak. “We’ll have to keep an eye out for any more enemy Stand users. Once we take them down, perhaps we’ll get another piece of the clue as to who our evil mastermind really is.” Sunset hadn’t realized it until now, but she was indeed hungry. She hadn’t eaten anything all day and fighting Rainbow earlier had made her want to get a bite, so perhaps this was a good idea. So it was decided they would go to Knightland Mall, the closest one to the stadium. She once again went with Jojo on White Buffalo, while the other five girls piled into the red car they stole. Sunset guessed they wouldn’t have much longer to use it. The owner must already be looking for it. If they didn’t want the authorities coming after them, they’ll have to do something about that ride once they get to the mall. It was only a four minute ride to the mall from the stadium and they found a quiet spot in an alley to park where no one would see them. Once the girls got out of the car, Sunset used her Stand to reset it, removing all their fingerprints and dead skin cells to make sure it would remain a mystery as to who took this car. “I quite liked this ride, but I guess finding another one wouldn’t hurt.” Rainbow began to whistle as they walked away from it. Being summer break, the mall was quite packed and there were already plenty of people just standing or sitting around the main foyer on the first floor, just chatting with each other or using their phones. It would be hard to spot an enemy Stand user here, but it might also deter an open attack. Sunset was sure to still keep her eyes peeled, no matter what. “There, the sushi place!” Pinkie ran there excitedly, her legs looking like pinwheels as she sped off. “I’ll get us a table!” The inside of the restaurant was dim and the black painted walls were decorated with red flower designs, while the backings of the booths and seats were all layered with nice wooden frames. There was a conveyor belt going through most of the place, and people could take the plates of sushi they desired as they moved through the restaurant. Pinkie was seated at a booth near the back of the restaurant, and she waved at them vigorously once they came in sight of her. “Nice place, right? I know! I know! Maud and I have come here a few times. Everything’s prepared so well!” “But sushi is raw, ain’t it?” Applejack let the others shuffle into the booth seat before she sat at the end. “Ain’t much cookin’ to be done.” “Sushi tastes better when you cut it just right!” Pinkie explained. “Wait, is this true?” Rarity asked as she pulled up a menu. “How does cutting change the way it tastes? Sounds like a myth to me, darling.” “I guess it really is up to your opinion.” Jojo looked at the rest of the place. “Not bad finding a seat here, Pinkie. Doesn’t look like there are many other seats right now. This must be a good place.” “Of course it is, silly!” Pinkie stretched her arm over to the conveyor belt and grabbed a plate of salmon. “I know a good eatery when I see one! Perks of being a Pinkie Pie.” Sunset picked one piece up in her chopsticks and shoved it down her mouth. True to Pinkie’s word, it was indeed tasty, but she couldn’t verify all that talk about the cut making it taste better, but still, she would eat more of this. It had a curious taste, eating a fish raw, but it wasn't a bad one. “We should come here more often,” Rarity commented as she swallowed a mouthful of fish. “This sashimi is divine!”  Applejack was having trouble, and while the rest had finished plates of food, she was still on her first, trying to figure out how to use her chopsticks. “How in San Hill am Ah supposed to use this black magic?” Without missing a beat, Pinkie reached into her pocket and pulled out a plastic fork, offering it to Applejack. “I’ll have to show you how to use chopsticks sometime,” she said as she picked up a plate of tempura prawn off the conveyor belt and started eating it. “If we end up having to go to Japan or China everyone will be using them.” “Well this ain’t Japan or China, this here’s America. And here in America, we use knives and forks.” “Spoons…” Fluttershy reminded. “What?” “We use spoons too.” She mimicked digging a spoon into something and then putting it in her mouth. She suddenly wobbled and put a hand to her head. “Or you could just forget all that garbage and use a splayd,” Rainbow said with a nod. “A what?” Rarity queried. Then she too put a hand to her head. “Ouch…” “It’s like a fusion of a fork, knife, and spoon,” Rainbow explained. “I saw it on…” she blinked a few times and took a deep breath. “Does this place seem a little too small to you guys?” “It actually does…” Jojo wiped a drop of sweat from her brow. “I think it’s too cramped sitting here with you girls and my big muscles.” “Ah’m feelin’ it too and Ah’m out in the aisle.” Applejack took off her hat and started fanning herself with it. “This ain’t a nice feelin’.” Sunset started feeling it too. It was as though the walls on all sides were closing around their booth and their booth was closing in around them. It was like the restaurant was trying to bury them and it was taking away her ability to breathe and to move. “Air! I need air!” Rarity tried to exit the booth, but slid onto the floor in a faint before she could properly get out. Rainbow began grabbing at her throat, then stumbled over Rarity’s legs and smacked her face into the floor and stopped moving. “This ain’t normal,” Applejack told Jojo. “We can’t all be havin’ panic attacks all at once!” Jojo nodded and clenched his fists, trying to keep himself under control. “This must be the work of an enemy Stand.” "He really likes to say that," Sunset said. All around them, other patrons in the restaurant also started feeling like they couldn’t breathe and some of them were falling out of their seats and gasping on the floor. Pinkie was still sitting, but she seemed to have locked up, a piece of sushi halfway to her mouth. “We need to find the one behind this…!” Sunset got up, but her vision started turning dark around the corners. Before she knew it, she fell back into her seat and curled up, unable to breathe as she felt the walls press against her from all sides. “I refuse to be done in… by a Stand user who won’t even show themselves and fight…!” Rainbow gasped out from the floor. She had regained consciousness somehow. Sunset then saw the arms of Running on Ice pressing against Rainbow’s chest and back, cooling her down and helping her think a little more clearly. “They must be within sight. They must know we’re in here.” Jojo tried to take calm breaths. “Look out for anyone not suffering from this! White Buffalo, go!” Jojo’s Stand wisped into action and drove through the closest wall, smashing it to pieces and allowing him to step outside. Out here, the air was cleaner and the claustrophobia started to dissipate. “So it works on smell…” Jojo looked back inside to see everyone still struggling with the cramped feeling. “It hasn’t affected anyone out here. The Stand user must be inside.” “Observant, aren’t you?” A figure in a white dress with a train made out of netting. The arms of the dress split into four strips that flailed around as she struck a pose with her head tilted to the side and her left hand touching her cheek, while her right pointed at Jojo like an arrow. “My name’s Sweetie Drops, and yes, my Stand, Drowning Pool, induces the feeling of claustrophobia, and it makes all the bodies hit the floor. Except yours, it would seem. Once my effect has taken enough hold of them, their hearts will cease to beat from the extreme sense of the feeling of being crushed!” “Unless I stop you first.” Jojo slid one leg forward, then crossed his arms like he was holding two guns. “Now that I know your secret, you won’t affect me.” White Buffalo spun around and drove towards her, its skull poised to strike. From within Sweetie Drops emerged a Stand that looked like a drenched red skeleton cloaked in faded blue tatters, except it didn’t have a lower half. Its body ended in a sharpened spine, which floated over the ground. It grabbed the horns of White Buffalo and stopped it right before it could crash into Sweetie. From its skeletal eyeholes, nose and mouth, it spewed gas into the motorcycle’s face. Jojo was quick to grab a handkerchief from his jacket and tie it around his face, but he still inhaled a bit and he started feeling like the mall was now closing in on him. No, she won’t get me. Pressing the handkerchief tightly against his nose, Jojo held his breath and willed for his Stand to attack. White Buffalo’s horns extended from the skull, spiraling up into the air before they split in two directions. Drowning Pool caught the first one in one hand, but the other came around behind it and speared it right through the stomach. Blood sprayed from its decaying skeletal form somehow, and then did the same from Sweetie Drops’ abdomen. “Aah!” She gasped and backed up, clutching at her gut as her dress began to stain red. “I’ve still got some tricks up my sleeve.” Jojo waved a hand in front of his face, then pointed both his feet together. Drowning Pool recovered and reared its spine end up, brandishing it like a bee’s stinger. It floated forward, stabbing it towards White Buffalo, who reversed, then launched its skull towards the enemy Stand. It stopped the skull again, but as the two horns shot out of it like twin snakes, it managed to grab both of them in a tight grip. “You can’t use the same trick twice on me. I learn,” Sweetie Drops laughed. “Who said I was still using the same trick?” Jojo flicked his greasy fringe to one side. “I call this move Faster than Fire!” From the motorcycle’s headlight below the skull blew fire in a steady stream, covering all of Drowning Pool except for its arms. Sweetie Drops was instantly set ablaze like her Stand and she began flailing around as she stumbled around the inside of the Japanese restaurant. Once Jojo was satisfied with his damage, he stopped the fire and Drowning Pool fell away from White Buffalo, still on fire. “That’s that.” All of a sudden, a huge wave of panic hit him and it was almost like the entire mall had suddenly shrunk in a single breath around him, trapping him in a space the size of a shoebox. He tried to inhale, but he found no oxygen filling his lungs and he crashed to his hands and knees on the floor. From above, the water sprinklers activated from the fire he had set and began putting it out. Drowning Pool rose to its upright form, wagging one finger in front of him. “You didn’t think breathing in Drowning Pool’s panic gas was the only way for me to get to you, did you?” Sweetie Drops stepped out of the restaurant’s hole, the fire on her also put out. “While you breathed your fire on Drowning Pool, it was the perfect chance to mask its attack as it stabbed your Stand with its spine. The tip of its spine also acts as a syringe, injecting your Stand and you with the gas’ chemicals. It is already seeping across your body, making its way to your brain and once it reaches there, it will be more potent than just inhaling the panic gas. Why, you might just die instantly as your heart gives out.” As Jojo fell to his side, he tried to think of anything to stop Sweetie Drops, but with the claustrophobia closing in all around him, he could do nothing more but pass out as the water sprinklers continued to douse him.