Subterra Shiver was the first to poke her head out of the cave when she noticed the thunderclouds had moved eastward, freeing the skies above them from their destructive power. Sun rays shone down, lighting the grasslands before them in patches, working to break through the remaining clouds.
Birdsong could be heard from somewhere outside as creatures returned outdoors once more. Leilani joined her, walking out and leaning against the rocky wall as she smiled at the morning light.
“Ah, God’s creation. Beautiful as ever,” she said as she brushed a hand through her black hair. “What are your thoughts, Subterra?”
The girl looked over the land as a squirrel ran by, throwing itself up a tree. “All I’ve known before this was the island TWI kept me on. Day after day, she tested me, trained me to use my Stand’s powers, to learn, to adapt, and whenever I was unable, I was beaten down by those she set against me.”
“What could she have possibly wanted with you?”
Subterra shook her head. “She never told me. But I could tell she needed me. That’s why she’s trying to capture me again.”
“We’ll stop her, Subterra. We will.” Leilani gave her a firm tap on the shoulder. “No one person should have control of the entire world. Only God can do it.”
“I might not believe what you believe, but I’ll agree with you there.” Shiho walked to the cave entrance, carrying her coat behind her back. “The world is not meant to be ruled by one person. TWI’s going down. And I’m saving my grandmother. The old geezer has to be in her eighties now. TWI better not be subjecting her to physical abuse.”
“Your grandmother, you mentioned she’s from Equestria,” Ocellus said, plopping herself down on a rock beside them. “What’s her name?”
“I doubt you would know her. Sunset Shimmer,” Shiho responded.
“You’re right. Can’t say I’ve heard the name.” Ocellus shook her head. “She must’ve left a long time ago if she’s in her eighties.”
Shiho sighed and shoved her hands into her coat pockets. “I’m gonna beat the crap out of TWI this time.”
“Didn’t you say you already did that?” Ocellus lifted a hand in question.
“I’m gonna beat the crap out of her a second time.” Shiho kicked a loose pebble away. “I’m gonna finish what I started. I won’t let her get away again.”
“Even if she repents and seeks forgiveness?” Leilani asked.
Shiho looked at her and raised an eyebrow. “No. Not even if she begs me to. Not like she’s going to.”
Leilani shrugged. “You never know. The Lord works in mysterious ways.”
“Good grief, this woman…” Shiho stalked outside the cave. “Hey, which way? Where are we going, Subterra?”
Shiho showed her a map on her lightphone, and Subterra pointed to the island they were on. “Malden Island. That’s here.” She drew a finger across the phone’s projected screen, back down towards the Polynesian islands. “Here, towards Nuku Hiva. This is the rough area.”
“You don’t have the exact coordinates?”
Ocellus slapped Shiho on the shoulder. “What, did you think she would have exactly where TWI is? You can’t be that dense.”
“You… uh, can’t exactly find the island. Not really.” Subterra stopped them before they could carry on. “It’s defended by Imbibed Man. He’s another Stand user TWI turned to her cause.”
Shiho pounded her fists together. “Nothing we can’t punch through.”
But Subterra shook her head. “You won’t be able to punch through this one. His Stand, Ocean Man, it doesn’t have an offensive ability. Instead, it hides TWI’s island. You can’t simply walk onto the island.”
“We’re not walking to it, we’re sailing to it,” Shiho said, unimpressed. “I don’t care how many Stand users TWI has managed to sway to her side. They’re all going to end up face down in the dirt by the time we’re done here.”
Subterra nodded and joined Ocellus and Leilani in picking up their belongings in the cave. The night before, they had grabbed some towels and blankets from the boat, using them to lie on the cave’s cold floor and to warm themselves as well. There had even been a steel pot in the boat’s cabinets that allowed them to cook some frozen rations.
With everything packed, they were bound for TWI’s island. Subterra swallowed hard as she pictured the steely woman in her head. TWI had a goal, a good one at that, but to rebuild the world, she first planned to destroy it, and that wasn’t something anyone should stand for.
“We’ll kill her, Subterra. We’ll end her…” Crafteon whispered in her ears. “Once we return, there will be opposition, but we will stop her.”
“Killing her is the only way forward, huh?” Subterra stuffed some blankets under her arm.
“Yes. Her death will help everyone.”
“Will it really?” Subterra looked over at a centipede scurrying through the cave. “Everything in this world is failing. It’ll only be a matter of time before everything on this planet dies. Perhaps… there are ways to help it that don’t involve killing everyone.”
“I won’t count on it. We should just eliminate her.” Crafteon spun in the air, then splashed through the ground and disappeared.
“Who’re you talking to, Subterra?” Leilani came over with two bottles of water. “Are you praying? Sorry if I’m interrupting if you were indeed doing so.”
“No, not praying…” Subterra sighed. “Leilani… does your Stand ever, you know, talk to you?”
She shook her head. “Jellyfish is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s power within me. I thought that was the case for all of us. Perhaps… Perhaps God speaks to you.”
Shiho screamed from outside. All their heads turned in her direction and the three women dropped everything they were holding and rushed out.
Shiho lay at the bottom of a grassy slope, blood pooling around her from a gash in her shoulder. She was breathing hard and her eyes were screwed shut.
“What was that? We’re under attack again?” Ocellus smashed a palm to her forehead. “Do these followers never cease?”
“Where are they?” Leilani placed a hand on the ground. “Jellyfish!”
Her Stand appeared in front of her and reached its tentacles out, sending them underground in a web formation around them.
“Nothing. Nothing is within thirty meters of us.” The dark skinned woman shook her head. “That’s a cut on Shiho’s shoulder. It most likely came from a knife. There’s no way anyone could’ve gotten past thirty meters that quickly.”
“I’ll find them. Forest Rangers!” Ocellus leapt out of the cave’s maw as her Stand scattered from her body, spreading out to the surroundings. She ran for Shiho’s side as her Stand spread out to search for the perpetrator, but to no avail. There was not a human or Stand in sight.
“Shiho, what did this? Who did this to you?” Ocellus placed a hand on her back, trying to stop the wound’s bleeding.
“From… nowhere…” Shiho groaned, still lying on the ground. “Didn’t see it coming…”
Ocellus looked around wildly. “Curtain Call has excellent eyesight and quick hands. There’s no way anyone would’ve been able to surprise it and Shiho like this. Not unless they were really small or… invisible.”
She turned, catching sight of something glinting in the light below her body. It was a puddle of water, leftover from the storm the previous day. In it was a shape, shimmering in the air beside her. It looked humanoid, dressed in what looked like a red cloak. It had purple armor and hair and it brandished a spike in its right hand, holding it above Ocellus’ head.
The woman turned quickly to her side, calling out some of Forest Rangers as she transformed them into a larger arm, swiping it across the space where the figure was, but when her arm passed by, there was no one there.
“W-What?” She looked back down at the puddle, but to her astonishment, the figure was still there, holding its knife high. “How is it-”
Before she could even move, the figure plunged its knife into her left shoulder. Even though she could see nothing there, a hole opened across her shoulder and blood sprayed out as she was sent to the ground from the impact. Ocellus grabbed her wound, wincing as pain surged down through her body from her shoulder.
“W-Water, it’s in the water!” Ocellus cried out to Leilani and Subterra as they exited the cave. “Stay away from it!”
Subterra stopped in her tracks, watching the puddle beside Shiho and Ocellus. “Could she mean that they were attacked from that little puddle there? I didn’t see anything.”
“Neither did I or Jellyfish,” Leilani said. “There is some foul power at work here. May the Lord see us through this battle.”
“This is the work of an enemy Stand,” Subterra deduced. She quickly summoned Crafteon and had it sweep its tail through the earth, spraying the puddle with dirt and sand. The sediment absorbed the water, leaving only a damp patch. “There. No more puddle.”
“It can’t be that simple…” Leilani said slowly. She approached the damp spot with Jellyfish at her side, ready to lash out should an enemy Stand present itself. When nothing did, she picked up a nearby stick and poked the spot a few times. “Could it?”
“Maybe TWI’s running out of Stand users to throw at us,” Subterra suggested.
“Maybe…” Leilani sounded less convinced. “Or perhaps there is more going on here than we think.”
“It has to be a Stand. But they’re out of Jellyfish’s range?” Subterra mused, taking in the facts. “But where could they be hiding?”
The two of them looked around. There was something they were missing, something that could be the difference between life or death here. The puddle had been covered, but Subterra couldn’t shake the feeling that it would be over just like this. Of all the Stand users she knew TWI to have, she didn’t know anyone that had powers like this. It seemed TWI had more secret Stand users up her sleeve than she first thought.
“Be careful, Subterra.” Leilani took a step forward. “Whoever this is, they’re outside thirty meters. They could attack from far away.”
“The ocean. That’s the next nearest source of water.” Subterra pointed ahead. “We shouldn’t set foot there.”
“But we have to help Ocellus and Shiho.” Leilani folded her arms. “Jellyfish still senses nothing. Go. I can watch for him.”
Subterra nodded and called out Crafteon. Her Stand spun in the air, then sent out two tendrils of shadows from its arms, each one wrapping around one of Shiho’s and Ocellus’ legs.
“Quickly, get them over here.” Subterra prodded her Stand.
“There’s more to this, Subterra. You must look harder. Sometimes the enemy is right there, even if they are not in front of you,” Crafteon said.
As their bodies dragged across the soft ground, soil was parted, revealing deeper reserves of water from the storm. Almost immediately, a cut formed across Shiho’s leg and severed the shadowy tendril pulling her in. Blood sprayed across the rocks as Crafteon immediately released its darkness around Shiho and Ocellus, hoping to catch the enemy.
Subterra felt nothing from anyone else within, except for Shiho and Ocellus shivering from the fear Crafteon’s darkness brought. Whatever this enemy Stand was, it wasn’t being affected with her Stand ability. Instead, she had Crafteon release its darkness and continue dragging her friends to safety.
And that’s when she saw it. Within the blood that had spilled from Shiho’s leg, she spotted a figure with what looked like hair or a hood covering its head. The lower half of its head was covered by a tattered scarf that hung down its right arm and in its hand was a large knife that looked like a spike. It stalked closer towards Shiho, but Subterra had Crafteon pull harder as it slashed its knife. Nothing happened outside the pool of blood, but when the Stand’s blade crossed Shiho’s leg within the pool, a cut formed across Shiho’s ankle, spraying more blood into the air as she got closer towards Subterra.
“Subterra, you’re giving her more room to reach you…!” Ocellus said as she tried to push herself up. “All you’re doing is extend the blood trail. Don’t worry about us. Stop the enemy first!”
Subterra stopped. She knew the enemy would continue to attack her downed friends, but if she helped them, all she was doing was bringing the enemy to them. There had to be something else she could do.
Suddenly, there was a buzz. Something was vibrating from the cave, from their pile of belongings.
“I’ll go see what that is.” Leilani was quick to move. In no time, she found it was Shiho’s lightphone, vibrating from a call from an unknown number. Leilani accepted the call and held the device up. “Maybe we can get some help. Hello?”
“None of you are leaving alive.” There was no face on the screen. Instead, there was only static. “I’ll get you for what you did to my brother. Even Subterra Shiver. TWI wants you back alive, but I don’t care about what she wants. You took my brother from me and for that, you’ll pay with your life!”
“Subterra, who is this?” Leilani turned to Subterra.
Subterra recognized something in his accent. It was one she heard a lot of whenever TWI made her train. He had the same accent as Sejnnd’s.
“Sejnnd’s brother,” Subterra said. “I’ve seen him before, standing on the side, but I’ve never faced him in battle.”
“I hear Subterra over there.” The voice chuckled. “Yes, you’ve never had the pleasure, but today, it will be your first and last time against me, Djirt E. Beaches and my powerful Stand, Madman Across the Water.”
Leilani nodded, not wanting to say anything else for the moment. She understood revenge; it was only human nature to want it, even though her own faith was based on forgiveness. But it seemed that in order to proceed on their quest to stop TWI, they would have to face this new challenger and his mysterious Stand as well. Just another Stand user on their way to saving their world.
“You’ll never win. We’ll stop you. And we’ll stop TWI and anyone else who wishes ill of this world,” Leilani said to the phone. “God is with us. You can do nothing against his will.”
“Ah, a woman of faith. We shall see how long that lasts when my Stand is cutting you into pieces. Will you still hang on to your God then? Hee hee, I’m eager to see.”
“You underestimate my will in God.” Leilani frowned at the screen. She didn’t even know if he could see her.
“And you underestimate my Stand. Madman Across the Water is going to destroy you.”
The lightphone’s screen disappeared as Djirt ended the call. Both Subterra and Leilani shared a look before red slashed across Leilani’s arm, making her drop the phone. It was then that both Subterra and Leilani understood something about the Stand they were facing. They caught the faintest glimpse of the cloaked figure and its blade, standing against the phone’s screen before darting away.
“It’s not just the water…” Leilani breathed. “It’s using reflective surfaces.”
- To be Continued...-