//------------------------------// // Chapter 12: Callenish Circle VS Blitzkrieg // Story: SuShi's Bizarre Adventure: Twilit Curtain Call // by Jojoleopard //------------------------------// Yusuf Jalebi was born in Pakistan in 2033 to a single mother who owned nothing more but a shack along the Nurri. Everyday, once he was old enough, she would send him and his six siblings out into the wetlands to fish for anything they could get their hands on. Without money to buy even fishing rods, Jalebi and his siblings learned how to fish with their own hands, learning to be quick enough to catch passing fish or crustaceans.  One day, as Jalebi was out fishing, he heard the screams of a man who was being attacked by a crocodile. Yusuf quickly jumped into the water and wrestled with the reptile, getting him off the man. Jalebi fought the crocodile for two hours, until he finally managed to kill it by drowning it in the water. During the battle, he had discovered the ability to cover his body in a protective shell, defending him from the crocodile’s teeth throughout his battle. It was only later that he learned this was the power of a Stand. As it turned out, the man he had saved was a high ranking member of a terrorist group that was being hunted by the Pakistani local government. As a show of thanks to Jalebi for saving the life of one of the captains, the terrorists took him in and offered to look after his family for him. Over the next fifteen years, Yusuf Jalebi honed his skills as a soldier of fortune and Stand master and helped the terrorists overthrow the Pakistani government and install a new leader. Once everything in the country had settled, more or less, Jalebi had started up his own private military organization, selling his soldiers and military might to the highest bidder. Standing in a firefight gave him a thrill like no other, especially as he watched whole squads attack each other because of his Stand’s power. It was there, after a takedown of a group of special forces sent to take out a guerrilla camp in Bolivia, that he met Duckie Deluxe, the charismatic leader of Die Die Riches, a group bent on eliminating the rich of the world to balance the economical gap that was only getting worse every year. Coming from a lowly background, Jalebi happily accepted her offer, knowing that too many people like himself had suffered over the years because of money. The rich had been in power long enough, but no more. Today, they would feel his might, his rage. And that was what he and his Stand, Callenish Circle, had come to do today, except now another Stand master stood in his way. “Show yourself!” Jalebi called again. “You hide and cower while your machine fights for you? But your machine can attack me, meaning it must be controlled by your Stand, because only a Stand can harm a Stand.” “Astute observation…” a voice crackled from the machine. It sounded like a young male, no older than fifteen. “But I will stay where I am while my Jaeguar deals with you.” “The power to control machines?” Jalebi folded his arms across his chest and stuck his pelvis out and forward. “Not bad for a child. But can you handle the likes of my Stand, Callenish Circle? I’m sure you’ve already seen it at work.” “Ja, but you underestimate me because I am young. I’ve defeated one of your Die Die Riches members before. I can do it again.” “But I am not of Die Die Riches.” Jalebi struck an arm out, before pulling it back into a curl under his waist. “They have simply hired me to take down the richly powers of this world. I gladly accepted.” “How did they even hire you? They’re poor.” “My money is received from what I find from the rich,” Jalebi said. “Duckie bought me with the promise of vengeance against the world. And with blood and rage of crimson red, I will carry my duty out and eliminate every single one of you!” “Duckie, huh? That’s a name to check out once we’re done here…” Jalebi narrowed his eyes and stuck both arms out, one on top of the other, both palms facing forward. “You won’t survive to do so!” Rushing forward, he was the first to attack, swinging a haymaker downwards, crashing a fist against the paneled ground, bending it at the point of impact as the Jaeguar moved, throwing itself against the wall before kicking off, spinning a tail swipe in his direction. But Jalebi raised an arm, blocking the whip as he grabbed it with his other hand. Ducking low, he threw the Jaeguar over his shoulder, then smashed it against the ground, sending pieces of metal flying off from its body. “Do you like it that I’ve damaged your machine?” Jalebi called out as he pounded a fist into the Jaeguar’s back. “Do you feel your anger rising? Let it out! Fall to my Stand’s power! Once that anger takes over, you will become reckless, you will become thoughtless. All you will feel is rage and you’ll take it out on anything around you!” Then he threw another fist at the Jaeguar and shattered the glass covering its single eye. Joshi Horner sat in his air-conditioning processor, watching everything through his Stand, which had tapped into the building’s camera feeds and his very own Jaeguar. He gritted his teeth as the Jaeguar’s protective head casing shattered into a million pieces. It was made out of the same tampered glass that Jalebi’s men couldn’t get through earlier and he had just destroyed it with a single punch. “Not only does his Stand form a protective shell around his body, but it also amplifies his strength,” Joshi evaluated and tapped a finger against the processor’s flooring. “He was able to break glass that not even gunfire could break with a single punch.” Joshi took a deep breath. Then another. He could feel his anger rising, his want to destroy this enemy Stand master that had invaded his base and damaged his Jaeguar. But he couldn’t be angry. If he did so, he would lose this battle. He had seen what his father’s colleagues had done to each other under the influence of Jalebi’s Callenish Circle. He would not make that mistake. No. He was going to win, and they were going to stop Die Die Riches. “Not now, Joshi.” He looked at all the wiring around himself. “If I get angry and lose control, I could very well electrocute myself. I have to remain as calm as possible. I cannot allow him to get under mein skin. Nein. He will be the one to lose today, for I have German engineering on my side.” Before Jalebi could deliver another punch to the Jaeguar, Blitzkrieg activated the sprinklers above them, sending water cascading down all throughout the hallway. That momentary distraction allowed the Jaeguar to squirm out from under Jalebi, spinning its tail out as it hit the man’s left ankle. The blow sent Jalebi falling to his side and before he even hit the ground, Joshi had Blitzkrieg overcharge his Jaeguar. The lights all over its body blazed brilliantly, glowing brighter than ever before as its plating hissed hot air and smoke. It leapt at Jalebi and slashed at him with one leg, and as the man raised an arm to protect himself, the appendage suddenly sped up and slashed deep grooves through his armor, before the Jaeguar kicked off his chest and landed six feet away. “That’s right,” Joshi spoke through his pet project. “My Stand has the ability to overcharge any machine, making it perform far better than it had originally been made to do, at the cost of wearing down its durability the more I use it. You might’ve been faster than the Jaeguar earlier, but now, it’ll move faster than you can say Deutschland.” “Fast, yes.” Jalebi looked at the cuts on his Stand’s armor, then raised the arm to show Joshi. “But it’s nothing but a scratch. I’ll get through your emotions before you get through my armor, I assure you.” “We’ll see about that.” Joshi made his Jaeguar shift one leg back, then stretched two more forward. “Jaeguar, overclock flight!” Crouching low, the Jaeguar threw itself off the ground, jumping from wall to ceiling to floor all around Jalebi, becoming a blur of motion. The mercenary kept his arms up in front of his head, ready for anything as his eyes lost track of the speeding machine.  Blitzkrieg’s power was still surging through the Jaeguar, though Joshi knew that if he didn’t pull this off, his own Stand’s power might render the machine inoperable for another strike. The Jaeguar’s jerky and rapid movements reminded Joshi of a bad old movie he had seen once, one that had featured an undead tiger. “Hey Jalebi, want to play a zombie game?” Joshi muttered as he closed in on the enemy Stand user. “You’re gonna be the zombie.” The Jaeguar slashed at him as it passed back and forth, still gaining speed as it bounced from location to location. Jalebi kept up his defense, unable to hit the Jaeguar as it passed, cutting more grooves across his armor. The latest one actually got through his armor and it sprayed blood against the walls from his arm as it cut deep enough to eat into his skin. “You think you can keep this up with me doing nothing?” Jalebi suddenly raised a foot before the Jaeguar could strike, much to Joshi’s surprise. It slid under his limb, then crashed against the floor as Jalebi brought his foot back down on top of the machine. “I learned to catch fish with my bare hands! I learned to be patient and to watch, to look out for signs of movement even when I couldn’t see it. And now I have just caught your mechanical fish.” With one foot on top of it, Jalebi began pounding it, fist after fist, smashing metal apart as cogs began to fly from the Jaeguar’s body. Joshi winced with each blow. He couldn’t feel the blows his pet was receiving, because it was just machinery being controlled by his Stand, but watching all his hard work break apart like that didn’t sit well in his stomach. But that was Jalebi’s mistake. He shouldn’t have done that. “You’ve lost now, Jalebi,” Joshi said, his voice intermittent through his Jaeguar as its right leg was torn off and tossed across the floor. “Oh?” Jalebi stopped punching the Jaeguar and leaned closer. “What makes you say that? Your machine is destroyed. Surely your anger must be burning now. Rage! Do it! Give in and surrender!” “Not today, Jellybean.” Joshi raised an arm and held the top of his head. “You forgot what transpired earlier. Look all around you. Did you remember me activating the sprinklers?” The mercenary looked all around and true to Joshi’s words, the floor was still coated with a layer of water, further adding to the reflective paneling. Then he looked back at the Jaeguar, but it was too late. The machine sparked and hissed, tilting its head up to him. “My Jaeguar, my amazing creation, has been damaged by you. My Stand, Blitzkrieg, is able to overcharge machines, if you recall, even if it means breaking them. I cannot break my Jaeguar further than you already have. For bringing it to its destruction, I will never forgive you, so it pleases me to know you just delivered some payback to yourself! Blitzkrieg!” The Jaeguar pulsed a wave of electricity as it shot back on its three legs, turning the entire floor into an electrical death trap. Jalebi had Callenish Circle to protect his body from physical harm, but its armor was a perfect conductor for electricity, especially after getting wet. Blue sparked through his body from his legs and his eyes bulged through his helmet and his nostrils flared bigger than ever. His voice erupted from within his helmet, echoing around the hall as his body spazzed from left to right. The Jaeguar shook on its legs, then its body exploded, blasting Jalebi back as it crashed back to the ground, its power cells spent from going overdrive for too long. “You’ve… served me well, Jaeguar…” Joshi saluted his fallen project. He could always build another one, but it was sad to see all his hard work give its life up to protect them. “Go and rest.” Jalebi’s body continued to shake and convulse as Joshi exited the processor with Blitzkrieg floating out behind him.  “That’s that. The anger should have worn off. That means no more killing each other…” Joshi breathed a sigh of relief. “I had been afraid my father would burn this whole place down. It looks like I managed to stop him in time.” Joshi went to pick up what remained of his Jaeguar, looking at the pulpy wreckage that was one a state-of-the-art German machine. A tear rolled down his cheek as he dug through it for anything he could salvage. He had spent two years putting this together and it was time he wasn’t getting back. But he resolved his next Jaeguar would be better, stronger. If he could’ve learned anything from this fight, it was that he needed to make the Jaeguar’s plating thicker and maybe give it more weaponry that Blitzkrieg could control. “In time. I’ll get back to you in time, don’t you worry now…” Joshi stroked a hand down the Jaeguar’s destroyed back and stood up. A hand clasped around his foot and he squirmed back, only to trip and fall on his back when he couldn’t loosen the hand’s grip. “Was?” “Did you think… that was it?” Jalebi yanked him closer and got to his knees. “It’ll take more than some corporate child to stop me. Nyah, see? You done fu-” “Blitzkrieg!” Joshi called out as his Stand ran in and punched him in the face. Unfortunately, he still had his Stand wrapped around him and all the punch did was tear Blitzkrieg’s knuckles open, doing the same for Joshi. “A-Aaagh!” “It’s over, child. You put up a good fight with your machine, but now you die.” He raised a fist back as he grabbed Blitzkrieg by the hood. Joshi closed his eyes, but then he heard the sound of footsteps and someone jumped over him. He opened his eyes to see Josher standing in front of him and his Stand towering over Jalebi, anchor in hand. “So you’re the one, huh? The one who caused Dolfy to go berserk with anger.” Josher raised both hands as cards flew from his left to right. Jalebi tried to swing a punch at his Stand, but Down Under stomped down on his arm, its strength cracking the ground as it pushed it down into the plating. Jalebi’s armor might’ve saved his arm from being crushed, but he couldn’t get it out from under Down Under. Then he remembered something Duckie had told him about the Stands that he had to go up against and looked down. “Water increases the power of your Stand! Of course the rich people have such powerful Stands!” he exclaimed. “Just because you come from the land of plenty!” “That’s right.” Josher cracked his knuckles and punched downwards, with his Stand doing the same with its anchor. Down Under continued to smash its anchor down upon Jalebi’s back while keeping him trapped under one foot, sending cracks snaking out from his back as Callenish Circle’s armor began to break under pressure. To Jalebi’s horror and Joshi’s interest, Down Under’s swings only continued to increase in speed and soon, he was through Jalebi’s Stand, hitting him straight on before delivering a final kick to his head, knocking him back towards the entrance where he lay on the ground, unmoving. “That takes care of that…” Josher gave one hand a flick as his Stand disappeared. “Thanks for the backup,” Joshi said as he continued to watch Jalebi’s body. “Hey, you’re the one who wet the floor for me.” Josher pointed down. “Plus, you handled most of them.” Joshi’s eyes widened. He forgot there had been another group of mercenaries in the other hallway. “Hold your horses, you’re thinking about the other mercenaries, aren’t you?” Josher stopped him. “They made the mistake of crossing your father when he was raging away. My dad managed to stop him from melting one of them and he’s tied up in the back. Maybe he can get us the information we need.” “Sehr gut!” Joshi let his excitement show and he gave Josher a fist bump. “Maybe now we’ll finally get somewhere!” Joshi remembered the name Jalebi had mentioned. Duckie. Duckie must’ve been the leader if he or she had been the one to hire him. They were going to make this mercenary talk, one way or another. This was the final piece of their puzzle and through him, they could finally find the head of the snake and cut it clean off. Die Die Riches was about to suffer a devastating blow, that he knew as he followed Josher back to the control room. But first, they would have to assess their situation and see how much Jalebi had damaged.