“Wow.” Was all Josher Joyride could say as they walked through the main doors to Weather Alternate’s headquarters.
The doors, which were made of heavy duty carbon fiber glass, slid open with ease once a camera above it scanned Joshi Horner, bringing them into a stark white lobby with a marble counter and four hologram screens at reception. People in suits were walking in and out of the building and there was even a travelator leading somewhere deeper into the facility. Josher could also see a wing for the Crusaders Foundation towards the east side of the building. He remembered his mother telling him that they had teamed up with Weather Alternate to help make the world a better place, but he didn’t think they would be working this closely together.
“Sehr gut, ja?” Joshi stretched his arms out as he walked. “This was where it all began. The reconstruction of Berlin. And now it will be the answer to finding Die Die Riches’ roots to cut them down once and for all.”
“So how does this work? You have some kind of secret room where you monitor everything?” Cajole asked, looking around from ceiling to floor. “Honestly, that’ll be pretty cool. No wonder Weather Alternate could always find us when we traveled to Berlin.”
“And we’re going to find Die Die Riches now.” Joshi curled his arm close to his face and gave them a thumbs up. “Do not worry! Weather Alternate will find them and we can put an end to this meager threat before it's too late!”
Joshi watched the two Joyrides as they walked to the center of the lobby, where a giant sigil of Weather Alternate, which was a cloud and a radio tower, was engraved into the smooth ground. He was still young himself, but he knew that Weather Alternate had come far ever since the Battle of Berlin. About four years after they had changed directions, his father, Dolfy, had met a beautiful blonde woman, his favorite kind, and they eventually married and brought Joshi into the world. His father had remembered his promise all those years ago and named him after Summer Shine and Cajole Joyride, the Berliner Helden.
Ever since he could speak, Joshi had wanted to meet these so-called heroes for himself, hoping to eventually meet them some day. He never thought that day would come, but here he was today with one of them and his own son. They were everything his father had said they would be. He was here today with actual heroes, and perhaps he would have the chance to even fight alongside them.
“Let me bring you to the information center,” Joshi waved. “We can get a better look at all the data we have in there. Maybe even find a pattern to Die Die Riches’ movements.”
The two Jojo’s followed the boy down a wide hallway past reception, going through a series of folding gates that blinked green when they passed.
“We’ve been tracking some suspicious overland cargo,” Joshi said as they walked. “We deduced that since Die Die Riches is made up of less wealthy people, they wouldn’t use an airplane to move their goods. Besides, airport security is very tough in Germany. Using land vehicles is much cheaper and has fewer inspections.”
“But if they’re using land vehicles,” Josher reasoned. “Then their base can’t be that far away. At least, it must be able to be reachable over land. Right?”
Joshi snapped his fingers. “Ja, correct. I’m betting they’re from Poland. But we’ll have to wait to see.”
Josher and Cajole shared a look, then both shrugged and kept going.
The hall they were in led by various control rooms, filled with rows and rows of computer stations and giant screens at the front of each room. Wires ran along the floors like vines, with some even going up and through the ceiling. Joshi explained that all these rooms were used to coordinate efforts for restructuring cities and sending out aid for those that needed it, though usually, the aid was handled by the Crusaders Foundation. Another function the rooms had was to keep tabs on unsavory folk, and Die Die Riches was one such group they had been monitoring.
Eventually, they arrived at a larger and more empty room, with only a few computer stations at the sides. Three giant screens were plastered on the walls, with the exception of the wall that housed the entrance. The floor here also had a huge logo for Weather Alternate and people were swiping through screen after screen at their stations. This was the information center, where all valuable data was checked and sent out to their various divisions. Everything Weather Alternate learned would first come through here.
To their surprise, there was a hunched old man standing by one of the large screens, looking up at it. He didn’t have shoes on, so Cajole could recognize a pair of metal legs sticking out from under his pants.
“Papa, you’re here,” Joshi said. “I thought you weren’t coming down?”
The man turned around, and when he saw Cajole and Josher, one arm shot up into the air at a forty- five degree angle as he leaned forward more.
“Mein Berliner Helden!” he said at the top of his voice. “You’ve returned! As spry as you always have been, I see. Unlike me.”
Dolfy Horner had aged considerably in the last twenty years. Most of his fine blonde hair was gone, turned grey with age, and his face had sunken lower, along with his body.
“Dolfy! Good to see uh, that you’re doing well,” Cajole said before shaking his hand. “Not bad. For an old man. And this is Josher, my son.”
“Hello, sir.” Josher held out a hand for Dolfy to shake.
After shaking it, Dolfy turned his hand over to see an ace of spades in it. “Oh. A trickster, eh? That’s good, I didn’t even see it until I felt it.”
“The ace of spades.” Josher flicked his fingers as the king of spades appeared between two of them. “You can never go wrong with an ace.”
“So what’s our situation here, paps?” Joshi joined him at the large screen. “Have we found anything else?”
“I think it’s safe to say they’re coming from the west,” Dolfy said and tapped the screen, bringing up a map of Western Europe. Lines began to draw themselves over the screen, indicating trucks or other vehicles. “See how they start to thin out the further east they go? They’re not coming from Poland.”
“Ach. I thought for sure it would be Poland,” Joshi slapped his fist, making a smack sound. “Alright, if they’re not coming from Poland, it must be somewhere else that is near the west. Let’s go over the data again. They will not be further than Spain, that’s for sure.”
Dolfy’s fingers skated over a holographic keyboard as he gestured to the map. “These are the major trade routes that Die Die Riches have been using to move their people around,” He pointed to several thin red lines that were scrawled on the map. “You know, the name Die Die Riches is funny to me. Because, in German, it means ‘The The Riches’. Ha! I bet an Englishman or an American founded this group.”
“Uh… right.” Josher spiralled a card into the air, not even bothering to catch it as it began floating back down like a leaf. “What do they even hope to gain by killing all the rich? The world’s not going to change just because there’s no more rich people.”
“I see it as a takeover of the world,” Dolfy groused. “If they eliminate every rich person in the world, including our world leaders, they would take over all the governments by force and enforce their will. Who knows what will happen if someone without knowledge of politics and leadership takes over.”
“They can’t possibly take down whole governments, can they?” Cajole threw a fist downwards and then raised one hand and placed it over one ear. “We’ll stop them. We’ve fought against tougher enemies, Dolfy. We’ve saved the world before. We can do it again.”
The elderly man laughed. “Just what I like to hear, Jojo. I mean, Weather Alternate had the resources to awaken the Nugget People and face them in battle! What could a group of ragtag poor people do to the likes of us?”
Just then alarms began to sound throughout the facility, coming out of speakers in the ceilings. They sounded with two quick ones, followed by a longer drawn out blare, repeating over and over again.
“We’re under attack!” Joshi bent lower and raised both arms to his chest level. “It has to be Die Die Riches!”
“Kotzbrocken!” Dolfy swung an arm down. “They think they can attack us in our own headquarters?! How dare they! Do you know how long it took us to get established here?! I took years to find Berlin on the map, and this is what we get now?!”
Dolfy yelled and flipped a chair, throwing it into one of the computer stations, smashing the screen to pieces as the technician there got up and hopped away.
“Papa, calm down.” Joshi raised both hands. He knew his father’s angry problem, but this seemed different.
“I won’t calm down until I figure out what’s going on!” Dolfy clenched both fists as his Stand appeared behind him, standing tall and proud.
Joshi had never seen his father’s Stand, Dragonforce, in action before, but he knew the stories. He had burned masses of people down with its flames and if the Berliner Helden hadn’t made him see the light, they would be in a completely different place today, perhaps as a different Die Die Riches, trying to takeover the world.
“Dolfy, stop it.” Cajole put a hand on his shoulder. “We’ve got other things to worry about.”
From outside, there was a rattle of gunfire and everyone instinctively ducked. There were shouts of surprise, followed by more gunfire.
“We need to deal with this, now!” Joshi looked at his companions and his father. “I’ll handle this. Electrical machinery is Blitzkrieg’s forte!”
“But guns aren’t electrical,” Josher said.
“I mean I can handle this. Just make sure my father doesn’t burn this whole place down, please.” Joshi looked at his father’s blue and orange Stand, its long teeth gritting together in a snarl.
As the doors slid open, Joshi Horner peeked his head out, not wanting to run into a group of armed men if they were just outside in the hallway. Fortunately, from where he was, he couldn’t see any armed assailants, but the gunfire was louder out here and from the sound of it, Weather Alternate was already firing back. Weather Alternate security used HK520’s, the latest in a line of pure German genius. With the advancements of technology, the HK520 had a unique magazine rail, allowing three other magazines to be swapped in with a push of a button. He doubted Die Die Riches would have the level of tech they did.
“Time to lend my hand.” Joshi ran on with Blitzkrieg floating along behind him.
Just before the main lobby, Joshi spotted a firefight between their security and a group of armed humans he didn’t recognize. They didn’t wear any notable gear to determine where they were from and instead, most of them were dressed in normal clothes, with the exception of combat gloves and vests. From where he was, he could see they carried older rifles, AK12s, by the looks of it, the predecessor of the Russians’ AK65.
They fired against the Weather Alternate security, who had already deployed their bulletproof glass shields, using them as cover as they shot down more Die Die Riches members.
“Time to engage the Blitzkrieg defenses.” Joshi smiled and cracked his knuckles.
With Joshi’s Stand in mind, Dolfy had gotten the engineers to build defenses into their headquarters that only Blitzkrieg could use. With its mastery over electrical machinery, it could activate any of them at a whim, should any emergency like this one occur.
Joshi had never once got to try them out, but today, he would have the satisfaction to do so. Most of them had been built with the intention to keep Nugget People at bay, should they return, but they could still serve well against regular humans.
Nodding to his Stand, he watched as Blitzkrieg placed a hand against the wall, its eyes glowing a light red as electricity sparked from its fingertips.
From above the reception table, two giant bulbs descended from the ceiling, facing the approaching enemy force. They suddenly activated, blazing bright blue UV lights into the enemy eyes, temporarily disorienting them. The security used this chance to open fire, taking down three armed soldiers before the rest began scrambling back for cover amongst benches and potted plants.
“Next up…” Joshi’s Stand transmitted another set of instructions through the circuits in the walls.
A buzzing sound began to fill the air and all of a sudden, the ground under the assailants crackled with electricity and they all immediately stood up, stiff as a board as they began convulsing on the spot.
Weather Alternate security took this chance to finish them off while they couldn’t move.
“Blasted poor people!” One of the guards threw his rifle to the ground hard and stomped on it. “Why do they have to do this?! Do they not see how we’re trying to help the whole world?!”
“Hey, calm down!” a female guard yelled at him. “You don’t have to shout in my ear!”
“Don’t yell at me, sandwich!” He turned to her and to Joshi’s horror, he picked up his rifle, pointed at her face and fired.
“Scheiße! What have you done?” Another of the guards exclaimed.
They all looked at each other, emotions swapping from shock, to confusion, to horror, then to anger as they began pointing fingers at each other. One by one, all their rifles were raised at each other and Joshi threw his hands over his ears as they began firing on each other.
Weather Alternate’s security wore plated body armor, able to blunt standard projectiles, but their faces were unprotected and one by one, they began to fall as they fired to kill. Eventually, only one guard remained and he stood there, panting, his face a picture of anger and anguish. By now, Joshi wasn’t the only one in the hallway to investigate the gunfire and more people were coming out of their respective rooms.
“You maniac!” one scientist yelled and ran towards the guard. “What do you think you’re doing?! Du forellenschnuffler!”
The guard turned his angry eyes on him and leveled his rifle with the man’s chest. Joshi realized he had to act now, or there would be even more casualties.
He had Blitzkrieg initiate another of the building’s failsafes and an automated turret dropped from the ceiling, sporting purple glowing lights and twin steel barrels. It turned to the guard before he could fire and shot out two circular purple discs. They attached to his back and conducted electricity through his armor, knocking him down on his face. These were non-lethal rounds, to maybe knock out Nugget People by assaulting every nerve in their body in order to study them. They worked just fine against normal people too.
With the guard down, Joshi had been sure that their troubles were over, but behind him, he started hearing scuffling and he realized to his horror that the other Weather Alternate staff had begun fighting each other, with one even biting deep into the arm of another.
“What is going on?” Joshi watched his father’s colleagues tear into each other. Something was amiss, and he could only think of one thing that could be the cause of all this. “There’s an enemy Stand about.”
As Joshi stood there, a small metal cylinder bounced down into the hallway, where it exploded into a thick cloud of white smoke with a hiss. Joshi covered his mouth and backed away into a corner, waiting to see what this was.
In the smoke, the faint outlines of people could be seen, people dressed in military gear and holding guns.
Joshi leaned further into the shadows. Thankfully he was rather short and was able to hide behind a piece of the air conditioning unit nearby. Peeking out through a gap in his hiding place, Joshi watched as six armed men came out of the smoke. Behind them was one that shimmered with a telltale light that told Joshi he was the Stand master. But where was his Stand?
“Area secure, Commander Jalebi,” A soldier with numerous badges and patches on his uniform said. He had an accent that Joshi couldn’t place. “All hostiles down. It seems they took each other out.”
“Excellent work, Other Yusuf,” The Stand master, who was presumably Commander Jalebi said. His accent was thicker than the previous man’s and had a lot of spit in it. He turned his head around to survey the surroundings. “There was less resistance than I expected. But then I had expected no resistance, so maybe not.”
Joshi continued to watch them, keeping silent behind his piece of cover. These people seemed too well armed and equipped to be from Die Die Riches. But there was no mistaking it, their leader was a Stand user. He had a thick moustache that curved around his lips and bushy, greasy curly hair that stuck out from under a bright red fez hat. Below, he wore a brownish suit with white stripes going down its entirety, and he had something that looked like a jellyfish coming out of his jacket pocket. Unlike his comrades, he wasn’t wearing any protective gear.
“Spread out and eliminate everyone,” Jalebi ordered as he struck a match against his suit. “Remember to keep your emotions in check. We don’t want another casualty like Muggy Sandals.”
“He was a good man, sir.” The one called Other Yusuf saluted with a stern face. “Breaker, Khaki, you’re with me. Ali, you Gazi and Wheels take the left hall.”
The six gunmen split up into threes and three of them began heading down Joshi’s hallway. The boy began to panic as they came towards his position. If they came around the processor, he would surely be seen. He was going to have to try something he didn’t know would work or not.
It’s better than getting shot.
Joshi pushed one finger against the processor and his Stand appeared and did the same. The metal folded around the point of impact and began moving itself apart, shifting and breaking apart as it opened up.
“So far so gut. Now let’s see if we get electrocuted from this…” Joshi held his breath as the hole grew as big as him. He shuffled himself inside and flicked his finger in a down motion. The processor’s surface began to fold back as the group of gunmen got closer, sealing him inside silently. “Now the moment of truth…”
Careful not to touch any wires, Joshi kept quiet as the men began to pass, slowly making their way forward as they checked from room to room. He would’ve been content to just wait it out here, but then he started hearing gunfire and he remembered they were picking off the rest of the building systematically. That would mean they might eventually get to his father, Cajole and Josher.
His father’s anger had been uncalled for earlier and after seeing the guards turn on each other, he now knew why. That must’ve been the enemy Stand’s ability… to amplify feelings of rage. Whoever this was, he had been working his power through the building even before the gunmen walked in.
But Joshi returned his focus to his friends and his father. Who knows how much they’ve been affected by anger now. It was like a spreading virus, jumping from target to target when they felt any bit of anger from the way their colleagues and friends were behaving. He took a deep breath, trying to steady himself and his emotions. That was the key, like Jalebi had said earlier. If he was to keep his emotions in check, perhaps he could find a way to stop him.
But first, he had to deal with the other gunmen, and as long as he could see them, he could deal with them with the building’s defenses.
Joshi had the processor’s surface that faced the wall open up slowly, giving his Stand some space to put a hand through as it pressed a palm against the wall. Energy passed from Blitzkrieg’s hand into the wall, through all its hidden circuitry and machinery as it searched for the means to take out the armed troops.
And there it was. With a flick of its index finger, Blitzkrieg brought up a tempered glass frame in front of the doorway the men were headed towards. The sudden hiss of air and the rising of the frame caught one of them off guard and they started firing at it. The bullets scratched at the glass surface, forming grooves across its sleek form, but otherwise did not shatter it. From above it, three nets were fired from tiny holes embedded in the frame. The gunmen were already stunned from the frame appearing and two of them failed to get out of the way as the nets enveloped their bodies, knocking them to the ground as an electrical charge began to pass from one side to the other.
“We’re under attack!” the one Joshi remembered was called Other Yusuf cried out and scrambled away, the last of his group of comrades who had been incapacitated by the electric nets. “Breaker and Khaki down!”
Joshi wasn’t done with them yet. Through Blitzkrieg, he sourced through the facility, finding a station one section down that housed one of his pet projects. And by pet project, Joshi literally meant a pet project. Activating it, a small door buzzed open and a four-legged machine darted out, its claws clacking against the smooth floor as it raced for his location. Where its head should be was a single bulb with a red eye and it had a long and wiry tail that ended in a stub.
He called this the Jaeguar, designed to help survey territory and coral targets back towards them for capture. In the event their target could not be captured, the Jaeguar was also outfitted with three dagger-like claws on each leg that could tear through the likes of steel. As he had said, it was a pet project and he had never thought he would ever get to test it out.
“Hey! What’s taking so long to capture this base?” Jalebi’s voice yelled. “I wanted this done now, not in four hours!”
He groaned and walked over to the right hallway where Other Yusuf had responded earlier. Instead of seeing dead Weather Alternate people, he saw Other Yusuf on the ground and Breaker and Khaki spazzing on the ground, caught in nets.
“Other Yusuf!” Jalebi exclaimed. “What has happened here? Who took down Breaker and Khaki?”
“Traps, sir. This building is boobied!” He pushed up and grabbed his gun tightly.
Jalebi looked annoyed. “Well then, we must find the command room! If there are traps, there must also be a way to disable them. Now let us go! The only thing I had for breakfast was Gatorade and chicken jerky, and my stomach feels like it’s about to fly off to the right and explode with emptiness.”
“Yes, sir!” Other Yusuf saluted and marched off. “Ali, status.”
“Proceeding, sir. We’ve captured one room. A mail room. There was something. A trap. Gazi is down, but Wheels and I are untouched.”
Joshi licked his lips. Gatorade and chicken jerky sounded like a good snack right about now, but it was no time for a nibble. He had to stop these foreigners from seizing control of the compound. He went back to the Jaeguar and commanded Blitzkrieg to take over it as it rounded the corner, catching sight of the two assailants.
“Oh ja,” Joshi smiled. “Time to give you a ride to hell, you scoundrels.”
The two men stopped walking as they saw the Jaeguar coming toward them. “What is that?”
Other Yusuf fired upon it, but the Jaeguar leapt from side to side, avoiding most of the bullets as it ran. The bullets that pelted against it slid off, leaving nothing more than grooves along its metallic surface.
“And now to cool you down,” Joshi grinned, triggering the fire extinguisher system in the hallway where Other Yusuf was. Jets of thick, freezing mist gushed out of vents in the walls, obscuring the vision of everyone inside. Joshi, however, was watching through the cameras mounted on the Jaeguar, and they were not hampered by the fog at all. Jalebi’s Stand might work on annoyed or angry people, but Joshi was having a great time.
It suddenly cleared the fog, claws already raised above its head as Other Yusuf tried fanning the air in front of his face. He only realized where the Jaeguar was too late and its claws raked through his combat vest, tearing through fabric and skin, as blood splashed out against the white walls in three lines. Other Yusuf spun on a heel and went down with a yell.
With him incapacitated, that just left Joshi with Jalebi and he sent the Jaeguar on, keeping it moving as it tore through the smoke, claws raised as it poised itself to attack again. But before it could take down Jalebi like it did Other Yusuf, the man suddenly brought both arms together, faster than Joshi thought was possible. His gun was tossed aside and all of a sudden, his body shimmered, glowing white before dark red metal that resembled segments of an insect’s exoskeleton formed over his body and his head, leaving only his eyes and nose out, covering him in a protective coating just as the Jaeguar’s claws slashed his body. Sparks flew, but no blood was drawn.
“Was?” Joshi was taken aback. He had not been expecting this from Jalebi’s Stand. It appeared that its ability to make people furiously mad was only one of its powers.
“This must be the work of a Stand master…” Jalebi clapped his armored hands together. “Come now, master! Come and face me! Come and kill me! I am but a man, not a god! I will give you a fair fight.”
Joshi kept his Jaeguar back, its body low and its legs bent as he did his best to analyze his project through its eyes through his Stand’s eyes. It would be unwise to attack Jalebi again so quickly without first learning more about what he could do. If he made a presumptuous move here, he could very well end up like Other Yusuf on the ground, maybe except not as lucky.