“So, what do we have on him?” Josher Joyride leaned closer to the camera’s screen as Dolfy Horner interrogated the man inside, yelling and slamming the table between them repeatedly. The man had a mess of curly blonde hair on his head and a nose sharper than a kitchen knife. Under that was a black shirt and a green utility vest with ammo pouches, and similarly green pants and boots.
“His name is Desert Wheels. Thirty years old, from Pakistan, same as Jalebi and the rest of his crew.” Joshi Horner held up a transparent screen that was projecting data on the mercenary. “When he was five, he lost his entire family of sixteen to a flood and eventually joined up with Jalebi’s group when he stumbled upon them as they attacked a magnate in Hyderabad. Nasty pieces of work, these guys.”
Cajole stood behind them, but after a while, he sighed and walked over to a larger screen in the control room, where the face of a woman was being projected. She had black hair that was tied up behind her head and she had on a white suit and white gloves. There were multiple photographs of her, one of a close up of her face, another of her walking through a prison hall, and one of her from behind.
“Duckie Deluxe,” Cajole read out from the text on the screen. “First incarcerated when she murdered her older sister when she was just six, then again when she got out on a murderous rampage in America. Of course, the prison couldn’t hold her and she got out again, this time staying hidden since. “Sounds like a real piece to me.”
“I’m at least seventy-five percent sure that this is the Duckie Jalebi was talking about,” Joshi said. “A criminal like that would surely want the world to change.”
“We’ve got nothing on her location?” Cajole pointed at her profile, then at the camera feed. “If we have her, we don’t need to keep interrogating this guy. Even Dolfy can’t get him to break, it seems.”
“You can’t expect them to be easy. They’re mercenaries.” Joshi stuck up a finger as he explained. “Imagine if they broke each time you quizzed them on who hired them. They have to know to be tough and resilient to all forms of aggression.”
“Well, I can think of a different kind of aggression we can use.” Cajole looked at the door to the room. “Joshi, your next words are, “What do you mean?””
“Ja, I know where you’re going with it. Go on,” the boy replied. “I’ll see what I can dig up on Duckie in the meantime.”
“Right. Let’s see what I can help wring out from this guy…” Cajole shook his shoulders and pushed the door open into the room, shutting it behind him.
A mechanical hiss and whirring gears let him know that the door sealed him in. Joshi had explained to them how the lock worked earlier. Anyone could open it from the outside, but to prevent dangerous criminals from escaping, even at the expense of the interrogators, the door would never open from the inside and whatever deadly force was at work inside would never see the light of day. Literally, since there were no windows in the room.
“Dolfy, how’s it going?” Cajole asked. He first needed to get a read on how far the German had already pushed it.
“Ah, Jojo, you’ve decided to aid me. Wunderbar.” Then he glared at Wheels. “He will not break, even when I threatened to burn him into nothing more than melted bone.”
“I will never tell you anything,” Desert Wheels spat at him. “Do you think you are the first to capture me? I have never broken, not under any circumstance.”
“Yes, but no one’s coming to save you. Not this time. Your whole team is dead.” Cajole walked closer as Dolfy wiped his face with a handkerchief, already seething with anger. “And Die Die Riches owes you nothing. They won’t be here to help you either. You can either tell us and go, or stay here for the rest of your life.”
He struggled against the fibrous cables holding his hands to the steel table that was built into the ground. “I will tell you nothing! I will get out of here on my own power. Then you’ll all pay!”
“Yeah, sure…” Cajole looked at Dolfy. “I think we’ll have to rethink our methods.”
“I could always just burn him into a schnitzel.” He raised a hand and Dragonforce appeared behind him, snarling at Desert Wheels.
Cajole knocked on the door and Joshi opened it for them. He ushered the elderly German man out before continuing. “We still don’t know where this Duckie is holed up at. If we burn him, we lose that.”
“And he knows it…” Dolfy grumbled. “That pompous schwein…”
“I don’t think you can call him that in this day and age, vater,” Joshi said.
Dolfy just shrugged. “Old habits die hard. I need a drink.”
He reached for a mug on a nearby table filled with beer, but before he could touch it, it moved just out of reach, sliding across the table. Everyone standing there saw that and Josher rubbed his eyes.
“Did that… just move?” He looked at his dad.
All of a sudden, one of the technicians in the room was lifted off his feet. His hands instantly went for his neck and he began choking and gagging as though something was strangling him.
“Meine gute, what is going on?” The other technicians got up and backed away.
The floating man’s neck suddenly twisted and his body dropped back to the group in a heap.
“What just did that?” Josher looked around, stowing his cards. “I didn’t see an enemy Stand.”
Dolfy’s mug flew across the room and hit him in the forehead, shattering it and sending him down on the ground. “Ach! Mein beer!” He began lapping around his mouth with his tongue.
“Where is it? I don’t see anything.” Joshi whipped round and round, trying to spot their assailant. “Blitzkrieg!”
His Stand glided out from his position and planted both hands on the floor. Joshi took control of the camera systems and analyzed each of them. There were four cameras in the control room, each one at a different corner of the room and it was through the north most camera that he spotted a fleeting shadow. If he blinked, he would’ve missed it, but he could keep his eyes open long enough to spot something dark darting past him and to his father.
“Vater, look out!” He reached a hand out.
Something lifted Dolfy into the air and he summoned Dragonforce, which started blazing with fire from head to toe. Whatever was holding him suddenly dropped him and he activated the jets on his mechanical legs to land upright.
“It’s moving!” Joshi signaled to the others. He could see the shape flying around the room, never once touching the ground. Whatever this ghostly apparition was, it didn’t seem to have legs, nor did it obey the laws of gravity. “How do we fight this thing?”
“We know we can hurt it. It fled from my fire.” Dolfy patted down his collar. “We just cannot see it.”
“But I can,” Joshi said with a nod. “If I can tell you where it is, do you think you can hit it?”
“We can certainly try.” Cajole rammed both fists together. “Just point us to it. Tenacious D has you covered.”
Another of the technicians got picked up and Dolfy sent Dragonforce out there as it projected two ethereal hands around the man. It stuck a finger between them and pushed out, feeling something bouncing off before catching the man with the other hand.
“We need to get them out of here. Go to the safe rooms! Gehen!” Joshi ushered the other non-Stand users. “I’ll seal this room.”
Once the last technician was out, Blitzkrieg shut the doors, keeping them and the enemy Stand in.
“Come on now…” Joshi kept his eyes on the camera feeds.
The enemy Stand was moving now, zipping around the room like a shadow cast by a swinging lightbulb on a motor.
“The Stand master has to be somewhere.” Joshi pointed to the right. “It’s there now, but it’s moving fast. I think it’s inspecting us. Looking for our weakest point before it strikes.”
“The technicians are all gone. What if I leveled the place?” Dolfy had Dragonforce rise up and lift both arms. “We have money. We can always repair the room.”
“If you do that, I’ll lose visual on it,”Joshi warned. “We’ll have to keep damage to a minimum. Josher, behind you!”
Tucking into a roll, he brought up Down Under behind him, which stowed its anchor and thrust out both arms, one above the other. He felt its right fist connect with something and a faint cry of pain coming from another room. A very nearby room.
“Wait a minute…” Cajole quickly ran to the interrogation room feed.
“Don’t break off on your own!” Joshi quickly snapped his fingers. “Cajole, it’s coming for you. On your left, eye level!”
“Tenacious D!” Cajole shot a hand out.
Tenacious D swung itself up on its arms and smacked its wheels down, but then its arm got grabbed and it was thrown against one of the monitors, smashing it to pieces. Cajole dropped to the ground and tipped to one side as Josher was next to go over, summoning his Stand to protect himself as he helped his father up.
“It’s swerving around the room. It’s coming right for you, Josher!” Joshi warned. “Above Down Under, left shoulder!”
Down Under bent lower, then tilted its body and jerked back up. But instead of feeling an impact this time, he felt hands wrap around his Stand’s bicep, but Down Under held strong and kept its feet on the floor.
“Dad, you realized something, didn’t you?” Josher had Down Under grabbed the invisible force with one hand, feeling a thin body within its grip.
“It was when you hurt it earlier.” Cajole sat up. “It’s Desert Wheels. I’m sure of it.”
“I thought he wasn’t a Stand user.” Dolfy flung the door open. “I guess some of them hide it pretty well.”
Desert Wheels jumped when the door was thrown open. His blonde hair had streaks of blood coating it, likely from when Down Under had hit his Stand earlier. His bindings had been undone and he backed away into the corner.
“So it is you!” Dolfy tilted one of his legs up and a section opened revealing a trio of small gun barrels. “So, shall I be the one to finish you, Herr Wheels?”
“Not yet! Death Grip, to me!” He yelled and at that moment, Down Under’s fingers were pried open and he felt the Stand escape.
Dolfy felt something wrap around him from behind, then it started to squeeze. He called forth Dragonforce again, and with its flames, it began to heat up the Stand, along with Desert Wheels, whose clothes started smoking.
“It’s no use. You tell us where your boss is now or die!”
As his Stand tried to escape again, Dolfy found the end of it and grabbed it with Dragonforce, holding it back as it projected an ethereal hand and clamped it to the surface of the table. Desert Wheels dropped to the ground, his face pressed into the floor as he struggled to move.
“I’ve got him now.” Dolfy called back. “Find out what you can before he breaks free again.”
“You’re gonna tell us now, where is Die Die Riches working from?” Cajole rushed in and grabbed Wheels by the vest. “Where?”
Dolfy pressed down harder on his invisible Stand and the man gasped in pain.
“You better give us something now or there isn’t going to be anything left of you to salvage,” Cajole swatted him across the face. “Your next words are, “Alright, I’ll tell you.””
“Eat my boots, American!” Wheels spat.
“Why you…!” Cajole was about to hit him again, harder this time, but his phone began ringing and he took it out to inspect it. “Prism?”
“Really? Now?” Dolfy looked at him with bewilderment. “Get it over with first!”
“Hang on, it could be an emergency, you said Die Die Riches was attacking all over the world, did you not?” He accepted the call and held his phone up so his face would be seen. “My wife could be in danger. Just keep him there, will you, Dolfy? Prism, what’s going on?”
“Jojo, are you okay? Is Josher okay?” Prism’s face appeared on his lightphone. She had on a sports cap and her hair was damp. She had likely just finished a training session. Cajole had already told her all about the attack in Berlin and the attack in the elevator, but since then, he hadn’t called back.
“We’re fine, honey.” Cajole gave her his best smile. “We’re just trying to wring some information out from a mercenary sent by DDR. I think he can tell us where Die Die Riches’ main base is located.”
“Oh. Well, that’s why I’m calling,” she said. “Summer just called. Apparently they’ve struck in Japan as well. Japan, can you believe it? And they’ve been through Canterlot as well. It’s all nuts! You know why? I missed everything! I can’t believe I didn’t get to see a single piece of action! You know how long its been since I’ve used Coldplay to fight evil?”
Cajole nodded and whipped his eyes from Dolfy to Josher and Joshi outside as his cheeks colored. “Uh, honey, now’s not the time. What are you calling to tell me? Keep going.”
“Hey, don’t interrupt me when I’m going on.” Prism sighed. “Whatever, you broke my train of thought. Uh, oh yeah, anyway, Summer told me that they found out that Die Die Riches was working out of some French city called uh, Angers. Yeah, Angers. Pretty sure that’s it. Weird name for a city, right?”
“Sure is…” Cajole smiled, then looked back down at Wheels. “You sure that’s the one?”
“Pretty sure. Summer said her mom and daughter got it straight from a pet shop’s computer system.”
“Nicely done. Tell her that for me, will you? Guess we won’t to continue our interrogation now. Dolfy, all yours. I’ll take my call outside.”
“Gut.” The German man looked at the now fearful Wheels, whose breathing began to grow shallower and quicker.
“Wait, Dolfy is there too?” He heard Prism’s voice say. “As in Dolfy Horner? That madman who woke up the Nugget People?”
“I told you, we met his son, remember?” Cajole’s voice trailed off as he got further away.
“So, Herr Wheels, as you’ve heard. We have the location.” Dolfy cracked his knuckles and smirked. “You know what that means for you now.”
“No, please, let me go and I’ll stay away. I won’t even attack you again when you least expect it,” the man pleaded.
“You’re breaking much too late, mein freund. Dragonforce. Do it.”
Dragonforce pushed down harder and Wheels’ Stand sunk into the ground. His body did the same and all the bones in his body shattered.
“Joshi, Angers,” Dolfy told his son. “Crosscheck that with Die Die Riches’ travel routes. I’m sure this is it. And what do you know, we have Sushi to thank for this! The Berliner Helden saves us again!”
“Already on it.” Joshi had Blitzkrieg tap into their computer systems and was already inputting information on Angers and bringing up the travel routes. Josher walked over to inspect the screens as the city of Angers popped into view. “There. They’ve been sending their agents through Angers to Le Mans, to Paris then to Brussels before branching out to the rest of the world. Clever. But not clever enough. We have them now.”
“I guess that’s where we’re heading then.” Josher clapped his hands together and he made an ace of spades appear between them with a buzz of energy. “My very own adventure. So this is what it’s like.”
“I’m coming too.” Joshi put his hands on his hips as Blitzkrieg appeared beside him and put both palms together. “I want to see Die Die Riches removed permanently. It’s the only way we can continue to make the world better. Or at least, stop it from getting worse with them involved.”
“Yeah, why not?” Josher gave him a fist bump. “Glad to have you onboard, Joshi. You can get us a nice new ride for our trip there.”
“Ja! I hope there’s another Marecedes that’s decent nearby.” He chuckled. “The one I used the other day was really wunderbar.”
Josher looked at his father on the phone, then at the two Horners. He had only known Joshi and Dolfy for a few days, but he felt as though he had already known them for weeks, especially Joshi. And he had never seen his father so pumped up and quick before, and he had gained some newfound respect for him since coming to Berlin. Perhaps adventures did change people.
This was it. This was the turning point in their fight with Die Die Riches. They had their destination. It was time to stop them for good, to make sure no more innocent people would have to die just because they were rich.
Deep in the catacombs under Angers, Duckie Deluxe spun in her seat as an associate of hers stood before her desk, her eyes rolled back and her mouth gaping open as though she was gasping for air.
“So they know now? Because of… a parrot?” Duckie flicked at her fingernails under her gloves. “This is most inconvenient that they’ll be coming here to stop me.”
The woman before her desk suddenly collapsed, her body bending back as her knees tipped forward.
“Oh, looks like it caught you.” Duckie eyed her body as two more of her assistants dragged her away. I hate being told bad news. The rest of you, remember that, oui?”
She spun her chair to face seven of her agents, shrouded in darkness. After witnessing what she had done to their colleague, just because she brought bad news to Duckie, they knew better than to cross her as well. When she was mad, she was like a real live wire.
“We’ll take care of them, Duckie. We’ll make sure they never get here.”
“See that you do. I have plans, you know?” Duckie looked back at the Nugget People carving by her desk. “But because of our unexpected heroes coming to play, we’ll have to push our plans forward. Forget America for now. We’ll start with France itself. Our president will be the first to fall. An opportunity is about to open to us in a few days.”
She stood up and gestured to her agents to leave. The seven of them nodded and hurriedly got out of her room. They feared her, and that was good. Fear kept people in line where money couldn’t. Duckie herself had come from a wealthy family, but all of that had been lost to her once she murdered her older sister in cold blood. Ever since then, she had been on the run from the authorities to see who she could kill next. Her goals might not have been the same as the rest of her organization, but at least they wanted the same thing. They wanted the rich gone and what better way to ensure that than to do it themselves.
She sighed as she pictured all the other agents who had fallen around the world. They had been taken out of commission by other Stand users. She should’ve guessed there would be Stand users that would resist her, but no matter. The other seven were stronger than the rest and now that she knew these Stand users were coming, she was going to be ready.
Duckie scattered pieces of paper across her desk, detailing the faces and abilities of the Stand users that opposed her. It wasn’t complete, but there was enough about each of them to know what they were and what they could do. And that was how she was going to beat them.
“As the old saying goes, ‘Know your enemy’. And I will know my enemy well. That’s if they do make it this far. They will wish they hadn’t.”
Duckie sat back down and kneaded her fingers together. The world was going to change and it was through her that everything was going to be better for the less fortunate. The rich had their time in the light. Now it was time for them to return to dust. Literally. At least, that's what the bombs were for.