Care Root's Bizarre Adventure

by Ditherer the Fussbudget

Have You Seen Me Lately?

Cloudchaser

The building’s dark and choking, empty and purposeless, and your ears are ringing. You don’t even know what it’s supposed to be for, only the address. Goddamned Freshmen.

Right now you’re stuck in the background, the guts of it, and running too fast to make that out. Is your sister okay? It’ll work out, if she's okay. She wasn’t the one with the fragment, the fragment from the pile from the stage. Flitter’s the one who got you both into this mess, when she quietly swiped that and had it appraised. When she tried cozying up to the popular girls to find out where gem #3 was.

When she got those three little fucks instead, who gave her this building number.

She’s going to make it out just fine, you know it. She’s the smart one, the one with the backup plans and the safe-zone plotted out. But where did she say it was?

The ringing in your ears changes, smooths out. It’s singing, wordless humming thundering singing from all around you. You feel your face vibrate, and pick up speed. A half-dozen doors pass by before their nameplates can introduce them, and you face forward, ignoring them.

One of them’s standing at the end of the hallway!

Her eyes glow red and ravenous against her blue skin, and her voice is high-pitched, enjoying herself. ”The next thing you’ll say is ‘｢Year Without Rain｣!’.”

Wh-what? What the hell does that mean? You realize she’s closer than before, why is she closer now?!

Oh! You haven’t stopped running towards her!

You don’t have time to ponder anything right now, you have to take down at least one of them! “｢Year Without Rain｣!” Then you rush past her, your Stand flying beside you.

It's hard to make out your own words against the singing, even though you heard her fine, but you can see your own ability pop up in the air no problem. It’s a thin thing, a little smaller than you, and it kicks out one of its needly legs. But it doesn’t connect.

You risk a look back as you keep running. She’s holding the leg with one hand, still looking into your soul. You smirk; as long as it touched her, its effect has been activated! Now the further you get away from her, the worse her environment will be. If you can make it out of here and onto a bus or taxi, she’ll be finished!

You recall it and keep running. But there’s a tugging against your mind, and it... No, it stays out. You see over your shoulder, and notice its leg stays out, still in that grip. She twists, and one of your own gives out under you.

Flitter used to trip you, and you’ve learned how to deal with it. You scramble before you’ve even finished falling. The Dazzling twists the leg further, and something cracks; pain surges up your own, and the urge to limp presents itself. Finally, she lets go, but the damage is already done.

If you can just make it back down and outside, or to a fire exit, or, or... She’s walking up behind you. You look for options and find only doors, taking them just as quickly. The first try’s locked, and so’s the next one. Why hasn’t she caught up to you yet? No, on second thought don’t ask that and don’t turn around either.

One says “MAINTENANCE”, and the handle works and you take it. There’s nothing but darkness inside, and you step inside. Through the doorway, you slam it behind you. There’s machinery in here, maybe boilers, you don’t know that sort of thing. The singing’s muted for a moment, and you scan for other exits.

This is a much bigger room than you were expecting. The other end’s so far away you can’t make it out, or is that just the darkness? You feel the handle on the door turning behind you, and you bolt into the dark. There aren’t any good hiding places, so you plaster yourself against the first wall you brush.

The door opens a crack, offering almost no light, no perspective, except that the singing gets louder again. It seems to rattle and resonate from the room around you, somehow. Then there is a little light around you, but not from the door, something red and coming from below you.

Your pocket! The gem is hot and bright there, like a baby star. You shove a hand inside and clench it in your fist to kill the light.

”Too late for that.” This voice is deeper than the last one, unexpectedly conversational. Someone in the room with you, maybe someone right in front of your face!

You yelp, turn to shield yourself with one shoulder, and start running again. Only, you can’t. Your feet are stuck to the ground.

You look with panickedly-adjusting eyes, and see two black clamps over your shoes. There are no more words, only a throaty woman’s chuckle in your ear.

“｢Year Without Rain｣!” Your Stand appears and pummels at the restraints with its good limbs. They hold, and it sets in after your rash action that you just gave up the effect on the blue one for that. There’s been no attack yet, and you don’t wait for one.

Fuck shoes!

You push against the wall and lift out of them, socks and all. Then you bolt away from the voice, away from the door. You’re quieter without them, at least! Dimly, you hope that you don’t step on something and get tetanus.

But there’s something in the distance after all, a corner! Past it, defining it, a light. Light, and a hope of escape! You hear the laughter again, hardly laughter at all, more primitive. The music swells around you, and you push through it.

You turn the corner at a stumbling run, and see the source. A light, hanging in the air like a will-’o-wisp, between yellow-orange hands. A long, catlike smirk, underlit by your own hope. Long hair casting shadows that could eat the world.

And the singing, that omnipresent omnificent omnivorous voice you can still feel when the palms close and the light goes out and oh, oh Flitter, why didn’t you warn me about this?

Care

Here you are, standing in front of the popular girls. At some point you would’ve shrunk away from this, even though you didn’t care about them; drawing attention to yourself would’ve been a bad thing, to avoid at all costs. Standing here, you can still feel some echoes of how that might’ve affected you - a slight shiver.

Their eyes are already flitting to you, so you squash it. It doesn’t help that Trixie’s all but hiding behind you. There’s no point talking to the Rainbooms all at once, you just need answers, so you make eye contact with Twilight Sparkle, and say her name.

“Princess Twilight,” you start, and she looks more nervous when you call her that, but you've started so you go on, “Could we talk for a moment? I need to find some answers about what’s going on.”

”What’s that supposed to mean?” Rainbow says, from your periphery. You don’t react.

”I don’t think Twilight needs to go anywhere she doesn’t feel comfortable going.” Sunset says that, taking a seat next to her shifty friend. The rest are silent, looking either at you or the purple girl.

She shakes her head, like she’s just collected her thoughts. ”No, girls, it’s fine. I’ve been waiting to talk to Care. We’ll probably need his help soon.” That shuts them up, and you too. Even Trixie stiffens behind you.

”If you want to talk one-on-one, why don’t we go over there?” She points to an unoccupied flagpole planted on one end of the sidewalk.

You nod, but an answer comes over your shoulder before you can talk. ”That will be acceptable. But Trixie will be a part of the discussion, too.”

Twilight’s mouth purses. ”I wouldn’t mind talking to you either, Trixie. But if you’re going to join in, I think Sunset should come too. That way it’ll be even.”

You look to Trixie, only to find her looking at you, and you answer. “That sounds fine.”

So agreed, the four of you move over.

Twilight starts. ”Before anything else, I want to clear a couple of things up. First, I don’t have a Stand, so if you use yours to do anything you’ll probably have to tell me. And second, I’m not Princess Twilight.”

...She waits for some response. You look to Trixie, who’s come out beside you. She looks back at you again, hesitant.

Fine, you'll bite. “Uh… Who are you, then?”

”I’m Twilight Sparkle. But I’m not the same Twilight Sparkle as Princess Twilight. She comes from another universe that runs on Equestrian magic. I’ve never met her, but people have been telling me we look the same since everything that happened at the Friendship Games.”

Okay, that’s a lot to parse. You leave your thoughts on magic and other universes to one side for a moment.

“What happened at the Friendship Games?” You weren’t there, or you don’t think you were. Were they a mandatory event, or just something a lot of clubs did? Most school spirit things pass you by without so much as a whisper.

Sunset takes over, touching Twilight’s shoulder. ”Twilight was a Crystal Prep student, and she invented something to detect and absorb the magic that my friends and I use. When she did, it worked a little too well, and the whole thing turned into chaos.”

Trixie pipes up. ”Trixie remembers that.”

You turn to her, and she looks at you like you’re accusing her of something.

“She didn’t realize that there may have been two Twilights. Eheh,” she says nervously.

You turn from your ally to the other end of the proverbial table, and you ask the first thing that comes to mind. “Is that where Stands come from?”

Twilight bites her lip, and Sunset answers again. ”We don’t know. Magic’s… well, magic. I knew a lot about it when I lived in Equestria, but-”

“You’re from the same place?” You cut her off.

Sunset sighs.

And so you get a brief primer in what Equestria is, and how it’s cut off from your world in another stretch of the cosmos far away, and how magic can be done there, and how portals can be opened to it if someone has enough magical power. Trixie nods her head at some of it; Princess Twilight’s alleged earlier visits fit in with her versions of events. The parts about Sunset taking over the school ring true to you, even though she never really bothered with bullying you...

”...and Equestria’s where the Dazzlings come from, too. If they stole back all three gems from us, there’s enough Equestrian magic around that they could conquer the world, or just open a portal back to Equestria and try to take it over again.”

”Which is why we need your help! You can help us get the final gem back from their leader, Adagio, and stop them once and for all!” Twilight looks at you earnestly, and then shifts her glasses a little.

Well, this is… bizarre. “Why didn’t you ask me for help sooner, instead of having your friends spy on me?”

Her face falls. ”That’s, uh… We were worried you might have been under their spell. You don’t seem like you have a lot of… uh, p-people to turn to when things get rough. We thought we’d have to fight you.”

Well, that’s not going to happen. In fact, you feel kind of relieved at how well this is all turning out. You almost thought you’d be having some kind of secret duel right now.

“So everything that’s been happening to my friends has been the Dazzlings’ fault?”

Sunset crosses her arms and nods the affirmative. ”Pretty much. But if we can stop them from getting all of their power together, they shouldn’t be much more of a problem.”

The thought of not worrying about using your power constantly is so good you don’t believe it.

“What do you need me to do, then?” You ask.

Twilight pulls out a buzzing item from her pocket. It’s not a phone - circular, locketlike, and parts of it glowing a faint LED orange. She turns it over in her hands, and talks.

”This is the kind of news I was waiting for. One’s been assembled. If Adagio did it, we’ll let you know where to meet us to help get it back. If not, maybe this will all be over a lot sooner.”

If only. If only, if only.

The first buzzer-bell of the day rings, and you all head inside.

Derpy

it's later, after-school later. You’ve just gotten home when your phone rings, and you answer it while you sort out your things.

”Hello?”

”Derpy?” Care.

You nod, even though he can’t see it. ‘That’s right.“

“Hey.” He doesn’t sound very good.

”Something wrong?”

”No, I don’t think so. I just… want to talk with you.”

“Okay,” you feel your face blush a little, and turn to listening.

Silence reigns for a few seconds while you carry your books to your bedroom. He really doesn’t sound like himself. When you ate lunch with him and Trixie, he seemed a lot happier than usual. Did something happen between lunch and the final bell?

”It’s just, all of this stuff with the Dazzlings and the Shadowbolts and Trixie is all so overwhelming. I don’t know how to hold all of it in my head at once, or think of how to stop it. Everything’s just… so complicated.”

You try to think of something to say. “We’ll think of a way through it.”

”...Yeah.” Silence. ”Can I see you tonight?”

See you?

“Well, I don’t think my parents will mind that much. Where do you want to go?”

”I don’t know yet, I just… I just want to spend some time with you while I have the chance.”

You smile, weakly. “You can spend as much time with me as you like, honey.”

”Alright. Why don’t I come over in an hour and we’ll just... go out on a drive, or something?” He doesn’t sound completely there, and he doesn't react to the pet name. Is he just nervous about something?

“I think I can work that out with Silver and my parents," you say, hesitantly, wondering if he's waiting for some heavier probe into his problems.

”Alright. I’ll see you then.” He sounds a lot more confident all of a sudden. You smile to yourself; was he really still wondering whether he could ask you on a date?

Then, some noise on the other end of the line. A door opening?

”Uh, see you, bye!” He hangs up.

Care

You're on the road and nearing your house, and Trixie’s riding shotgun. She’s still in danger, at least for a little while longer, so you’re letting her crash with you.

She didn’t talk much today, not even when introduced to Diamond Tiara. You’d have thought they’d hit it off immediately, but mostly she kept to herself.

The moment you get off of the grounds of CHS, she speaks. ”Care?”

“Yeah?”

”What happened to your parents?” the words come hesitantly. Oh, that. It’s been a while since anyone asked you, but then again, you don’t know many people.

“They’re Raëlians.” Before she can ask, you preempt her. “It’s a religion. Nothing bad, but they didn’t want to stay in Canterlot forever when there were big convents on the other side of the world. Since then they send money, but they’re too busy trying to make clones of themselves and praying to aliens to really talk to me.” Now you think of it, with all of the nonsense you heard this morning, Raël doesn’t sound so far-fetched after all.

”Mine left me on the side of the road, one day,” Trixie says, after a pause.

Uh. Fuck. What do you say to that?

“Ouch.”

”I don’t know why they did it. They were always happy, or they acted like they were. But by the time I found a way back home, a day and a night later, they were gone. I started to think, and ask myself whether they’d ever been happy. Or if I’d been. Since then, I’ve wondered if it was the Mafia, or the circus, or aliens or something, but I don’t know.” She sighs.

The road rolls underneath you.

”The same day I collected all the loose money I could find and got on a bus headed west, I vowed that Trixie Lulamoon would always display herself to the world as she truly was. And that she would seek to learn all of the devices of trickery and deceit that a person could use to conceal their intentions in this world.” She takes a deep breath while your turn-signal clicks back into place.

The sidewalk ends for a block, and starts up again.

Finally she says it. ”They were lying, today. Not about everything. But Trixie could see that they were hiding something."

Your hands grip the wheel tighter, and your chest sinks. “Do you have any idea what they were lying about?”

She shakes her head in the corner of your eye and looks almost ashamed.

You give her what feels like a smile. “Well, maybe they’re just not as sure as they seemed that this’ll all be over in a couple nights.”

She shakes her head again, now gazing through the windshield. ”No.”

You try to ignore the deepening feeling of dread in your stomach. Trixie was already wrong about one thing, wasn’t she?

“You think they were lying about more than that?” you ask.

”No. Out of everything they said, I know that they were being honest about that. In fact, I’d say they’re one hundred per-cent sure of it.”

Both of you spend the rest of the ride dwelling. Of course, they could have been lying about magic and Equestria… But then again, why would they? They didn’t even use it to explain how you had Stands.

You ponder your conversation, as best you can remember it, until you pull into the driveway. And almost immediately you see your doormat’s upturned and out of order, with the key underneath missing.

You rush to the door. It’s locked, and you jam the key in. As soon as it turns, you throw it open, keys still dangling from the knob. The lights are off, but the afternoon light's enough to make everything out. There's an intruder, standing next to the ancient wall-phone in your kitchen - he sees you immediately, and you get an eyeful of him yourself.

Cream skin, tacky haircut, white dress shirt, pocket protector and bowtie. A pin with your symbol on it. An intent look in his brown eyes. A full copy of you, a clone, a doppelganger.

”Uh... See you. Bye!” He slams the phone onto the receiver, and no sooner has he done that than he faces you and shouts. ”｢Counting Crows｣!”

A pair of black birds appear on his shoulders, and the rush of confused adrenaline you've been feeling abruptly cuts off. In fact, you start to feel woozy, drunken. You wonder dimly if you're in shock as you stagger backwards from your own image. No, it must be them, a Stand, something.

One of the birds alights and swoops toward you, and thankfully ｢Timbuk Three｣ appears between it and you. As it points a finger, the bird curves its path and passes in a circle around it.

You suddenly feel physically weak. Same rules as Snips and Snails, don't give them time to work with. You fire a laser straight at him, and the bird doesn't do anything to stop you. It impacts, in fact, directly into his chest, and you see it disappear and feel the energy being spent.

But he’s not even singed. In fact, you feel worse - your mind clouds with this sudden vibrating energy, skull pounding! It's like you've stumbled into the final act of a horror movie without any of the prologue, this kind of event shouldn't be possible when you're just stepping into your door after a day at your school!

Your image treads up to you, hand outstretched, and you’re entranced by some animal certainty. It’s you, you know it’s you, it’s definitely you, and if it touches you then both of you will fall apart. You’ll equal out, stabilize, combine to zero!

With animal fear, you jump away from him and into a wall. Your Stand fires a volley of lasers, which all hit him cleanly but do no damage at all.

He finally speaks, and it's like hearing your voice on a recording. ”You can’t kill yourself, Care. You could if I was just here on my own. In fact, we’d both be dead right now. But ｢BBD｣’s suppressing that until I finish my mission. No hard feelings.”

He holds his arm closer to you, and you put a screen of hard light between it and your face. The bird still perched on his shoulder alights and swoops through it.

A feeling of supreme wrongness seizes up and down your body as it does, and the light breaks. His fingers, your fingers, come closer.

Then, suddenly, they’re on the other side of the room. Trixie steps in between you and your other self, arms spread like she’s taking a blast for you. Her Stand hangs over her, a curtain of glittering blue star-smoke.

”Stay away from Care Root, you dastardly duplicate! Trixie demands an explanation!”

He scowls, and one of birds comes out of your periphery, glancing against your forehead. The feeling becomes overpowering, and you pass out.

Trixie

The birds swoop away, deeper into the house. Care’s impostor is standing on the other side of the room. Even his stance seems familiar, although his Stand's clearly different: you can sense that this man is either the highest caliber of actor, or -somehow - really Care Root.

Because you don’t open the conversation, he does. ”Hey, Trixie. It’s nice to meet you again.”

You scoff. “The Great and Powerful Trixie has never met a crook like yourself before!” The absurdity of the statement deflects off of your anger.

”Well, not here you haven’t. I worked for you in my universe. You offered me a position fighting the Rainbooms, and my ｢Counting Crows｣ helped you out of a few bad situations.”

“Is this what you think passes for a stalling tactic?” you ask, running through the information. Was he in league with the Rainbooms? It didn't make sense to be told about other universes twice in one day unless they were related, whether it was a con or not...

”No. I’m just telling you that I like you. Not many people ever reached out to me. I don’t want to hurt you, and they’re not making me.” There’s no violence in his face or his movements.

Could it really be, another universe? You decide to test the perimeters of whatever gambit's going on here.

“You’re from Equestria?”

He snorts. ”I’m from here. Just a different here, another CHS. It’s not going to be much different by the time I’m done, but you’ll be fine in the end this time. You’re a scrapper, Trixie. I’ve always liked that about you.” He starts walking for the door.

You shake Care by his shoulders, but there's no flicker of consciousness. For a moment you have to check his pulse, and the voice of his copy comes from near the door.

”He’ll only be out for a few hours, until ｢Boulevard of Broken Dreams｣ wears off and I get to go back home. That’ll happen sooner if you don’t make me fight you.”

You aren’t going to let this happen! You turn to him, standing up straight, and before he can make it halfway your Stand sets him back to the far wall. He looks at you, his eyes spontaneously tired, like dropping an act. One of the birds careens out of the rest of the house, heading for you. It’s holding something, a can of air freshener.

You create more space between it and yourself, and duck, but it flies over your head anyway, heading for the kitchen. The other bird’s already there, clawing at the dial for one of the stovetop burners.

”｢Abracadabra｣’s a powerful ability, but you can only use it to do so much at one time,” he says.

The can hits the flame, teeters, and stops stably above it. The birds fly back towards you, and then he starts to walk toward the door again. You don’t understand what he’s trying to do, which part of his actions is vital, but you won’t let him leave. You reset him back to the other side of the room as the birds fly past you.

Again, they don’t harm you. It looks like they were a bluff after all! You’re ready to demand another explanation when the air freshener explodes, and a burst of noxious heat smashes into you as churning black smoke envelopes half of the kitchen.

You stumble and have to look; it’s lit through with threads of campfire orange, and you realize you need to get to a-

A-

...

He points to the fire extinguisher hooked onto the wall next to the refrigerator, too helpful but you don't have time to judge his long-term motives - he's probably just diverting you so he can leave. You judge the distance. It’s too near to the fire to grab safely, close to being enveloped already.

”I guess I have a different Stand in this universe, so you wouldn’t already know how ｢Counting Crows｣ works.” The birds settle on his shoulders again, not that you’re really watching.

“｢Abracadabra｣!” You create space between the extinguisher and the fire, and rush over to unhook it. It takes a long, frustrated tug to rip it away, and then-- then…

You could swear on anything you knew how to use this before. Your hands clutch it as you stare, like you're hoping it’ll give you some clue.

”I wonder why I’d have a different Stand here. Especially such a complicated, powerful one. I guess I never really thought I could take center stage like that. You won’t figure out how to use that, by the way. Or the sink.”

That’s right, you don’t know how the sink works either, and you know you knew that! So this is his Stand attack! You cut your losses, discard the extinguisher and move to hit him again, but he’s at the door, already ripping the keys out of the lock!

One of the birds takes off as you summon up ｢Abracadabra｣ again. You flinch as it passes through the cloud of your Stand, and… suddenly, you can’t think of how you were going to defeat him. It makes a circle around your head as you try, uselessly, to snatch it from the air. Then it passes away from you, and lands on his shoulder again.

He makes no attempt to hurt Care on his way out. ”Making enough space to push me into the fire would’ve been a good idea. Unfortunately, it’s over for you now. Better find a way outside.” As the fire rages at your back, he shuts the door behind him.

You can see through the blind-windows at the side of the door that he’s heading for Care’s car. Incensed, you head after him. Except you can’t open the door. The doorknob... you don’t know how to use it!

You pull it towards yourself, fruitlessly. You punch it, you turn the lock, nothing works! His Stand has somehow stopped you from knowing these things!

There’s still a fire behind you, roaring into the rest of the kitchen like a living thing. None of the fire alarms are going off. He must have disabled them already, and there's no time for wondering how early in the moment. What do you still know?

You need water, lots of water! That or foam, anything liquid and dampening. But the extinguisher and the sink are useless in your state. You grip your head with your hands as you hear the car start outside, and dread fills your spirit as your roads begin to close. Below you, Care still hasn’t stirred.

He could die here. He could die as easily as if you hadn’t been around at all!

No! That will not be something people say of you! Wherever she goes, for better or worse, the Great and Powerful Trixie makes a difference! So that one day, her adoring public will shower her with-

That’s it!

You don’t make any move to shift Care from his slumped position. Instead you run deeper into the house, around a corner, straight for the bathroom. Once you’re in, you completely disregard the sink, trying to adjust to your ignorance. You pull the shower curtain away, checking that the door’s still open. To your relief, you realize you know how to use it, still.

Fingers questing and gripping desperately, you rip the showerhead off, tossing it metallically against the bumpy porcelain. Then you turn the cold water on, half expecting that he'd have cut that too, and sighing in full-body relief as it pumps out in a powerful cold froth. Everything's in position, and now the only impossible thing is the movement.

You take a deep, theatrical breath, and flex your spiritual muscles. “｢ABRACADABRA｣!” Then with your whole upper body, you wrench the nozzle towards you. Not one drop touches you.

You make space between the stream and the ground, and the walls, and its ordinary trajectory. Concentrating only on forcing it together, like herding cats, you force it down the hallway and around the corner. Then no more curving, just straight, in a mighty splash, into the newborn fire.

You hold it without looking for a moment, but finally step out of the way as the water starts to make a mess all over the floor. Knowing that you're too drained to try this again, you pass your reflection in the mirror and lean outside to see which fate lurks outside the door.

The kitchen’s a wreck. Everything gleaming and sopping, or black and sooty, strong-smelling and sure to rot. But yes, it's not hiding in any corner, the fire’s gone. With a note of satisfaction, you sink to the ground and withdraw your Stand. After a moment consoling your oncoming headache, you start breathing again.

Care.

You know he’s gone by now, no point being dramatic. Where, though? You count down from ten, and get up just after one. Then you step, a little too slowly, for the only clue he'd left behind him.

You almost dread the thought that he’s made it impossible for you to use home phones, too, but you can navigate it as well as any other. And thankfully it’s one of the later models, with call history built in!

With a few impatient beeps, you pull it up. The receiver clicks to itself for a moment, heating up like an old computer, and then it spits out a screenful of random symbols. Junk data. In the smoke and aftermath, you sink with the phone in hand to the ground, processing.

The smoke’s starting to get to you, so you get up and stagger to a window. Your fingers still work those properly, and the air invites the smoke outside in lazy clouds. Something as precise as moving the water wasn’t usually in your repertoire.

You remember that the shower’s still running, and head to turn it off. In fact, you’re getting your feet back under your control, chastising your wobble, when you hear a soft knock on the door. You can almost convince yourself that you didn’t hear it, but you're too aware right now.

Is he coming back? No, if he were then why wouldn’t he just open it up again?

You step over Care to the window beside the door, make eye contact, and immediately dive out of the way. It’s the girl who grabbed your hand and fucked up your leg. Indigo. And another one next to her, blue-skinned with blue-violet hair, one of the motorcyclists. Both of them are wearing oxygen masks, and something gold and glittering sits in one of their hands.

You dart away, but it’s too late for them not to notice you. They start to pull at the handle, and you feel a sudden relief as you stand back that you managed to accidentally lock it earlier. But they’re not going to give up that easily; with a burst of ｢Abracadabra｣, you shunt them away from the porch.

The effort hurts, but you know you’ll have to use your Stand a few more times. As they collect themselves, you kneel down and try to lift Care. Your body’s not tired really, it only feels exhausted, but the best you can manage is to drag him. And, unfortunately, it doesn’t wake him up. With him to protect, your options are to run away or hide, and the area around here doesn’t have enough cover.

If you broke a window, they could catch up with you at a brisk jog in half a minute. And you don’t want to know what they’ll do to you this time. So, that’s that. You have to conceal yourself.

You search around the kitchen as a muffled pair of syllables comes from behind the door. ｢Abracadabra｣ throws more smoke in front of the door, and then you prepare yourself. Concentrating so hard is painful, but it’s easier than it was before, and it has the extra, easy power of a final effort. This, right now, is the last trick you pull off tonight.

Behind you, the door shimmers, and suddenly there’s a second, matching handle on the right side. Indigo throws herself in a bodyslam against the door, and it topples like the tree that birthed it. As soon as she fans away all of the smoke, she looks around intently for you.

But she doesn’t find you. In fact, as far as she can tell, you’ve vanished completely.

Derpy

The car bumps along the road, and Care’s been silent since he said a passing hello to your sisters. He doesn’t make a lot of eye contact with you, and his shoulders are hunched. You're left with a puzzle. How can you figure out what’s on his mind?

Was it because someone came into his house? You don’t want to think that Trixie might be threatening him, somehow. No, there’s no way someone could threaten him... you’re not sure where you’re going, but it’s not in the direction of the restaurant district.

No, you’re heading through a bunch of nothing. The silence feels way too awkward, like there’s a third person in the car with you, and maybe that's why you feel like he must be in some kind of trouble. Maybe you're just jumpy.

”Are we going outside Canterlot?”

He grunts. ”Yeah. It’ll only be a few more minutes.”

You try to think of what's a few minutes outside of Canterlot.

Nothing, as it turns out. Just orchard country, various used-up acres of farmland. It’s like a buffer between the city and its various mountain ridges. He drives on for a little while, and finally stops by the time you see a couple of dirt roads.

He just pulls over onto the shoulder of the flat dusky road, next to a field. Then, he gets out, and heads for it without opening your door for you. Maybe he just forgot. He really does have a lot on his mind right now, you’re sure, and after all, he’s trying to be romantic. You’re being awfully silly about this, aren’t you?

You shake your doubts away and climb out yourself, looking around at the farmland. It’s cold enough outside that harvest time’s come and gone. All that’s around are a straggling uncut stalks, tall grass and distant fences. It could be pretty romantic, you suppose. You bundle yourself up a little tighter in your trenchcoat, though.

He’s stopped down below, and you catch up to him quickly. He’s not wearing anything warm at all, just the regular uniform he always sticks to, without the one jacket he seems to have set out for boring days. He never seems to mind the weather.

When he doesn't do anything, you decide to make the approach. ”What’s eating you?” The only answer you get is a sigh, still not facing you. You reach an arm around his back and rub his upper arms through his sleeves.

He twitches like you spooked him, and then relaxes just as quickly. ”Derpy… We need to talk.”

“What about?”

Then he steps to the side and turns to you. His eye contact is shaky, not like normal, switching eyes.

”Us," he says, with a special gravity.

You blink. “Okay. What about us?”

”Just. Where we’re going. What I’m doing here, after all of this. I’ve… lost a lot of our future already.”

You relax a little. Neither of you are very vocal about that, but maybe you should be. “It’s okay. You’ve given up so much for me and my family, and I’m going to pay it all with you. That’s… only right.” Your voice drops off when you see him shake his head.

”No, I shouldn’t even say ‘our future’. It’s my future. And I’ve burned it up, for... what?” He spreads his hands. He’s acting so strangely it doesn’t even look like real pain on his face.

Your heart squirms, and you rush forward.

Trixie

You can hear them searching the house. If you listen well, you can hear them talking; apparently they forwent the masks. ...Were they planning on coming inside after the smoke had filled the house?

”No broken windows, no back door. She’s in here somewhere.”

”Well, who’s to say she didn’t just phase through a wall, or something?”

”No. Trixie’s good at getting one over on people, trust me. Her and this guy’s other buddies are the ones who roughed up Sugar, Lemon and Sour.”

”He has a name, you know.”

”Not ‘til I’ve sized him up, he doesn’t.”

They start rifling through other rooms, looking around. Then they move to cabinets, above the sink, below the drawers, and they don’t find you. Care’s still out, and you don’t know if getting him awake is a good idea in your situation; if you can hear them, they can hear you.

”What if she really did get away, hmm? We have to be nearby to use the arrow!” This voice’s unfamiliar, lilting and pacing and a little shaky. ”We should just activate it. It’ll help us locate him.”

Indigo hisses back at her: ”No way, Sun! If we use it before she’s out of the picture, he’ll set his lasers to ‘kill’ automatically.”

”What, like things will work out that smoothly? How do we know he’s even in here?”

”He’ll be in here. She can’t have moved him too far away.”

You pray silently for them to leave. It’s taking the last of your current stamina to maintain the space around you right now. It’s like a phone battery, draining at random intervals, lingering dramatically on the crumbs. They begin to shuffle through the house again.

If you could just make a break outside, then... well, you don’t know. Especially not if you still have to worry about Care, and if his car’s not out there. Uncertainty grips you, and you hunker down. You have to wait for some signal, some opportunity, or for them to finally turn paranoid enough to leave.

Derpy

The hug is hard enough that he stiffens, but you don’t break it. Wind blows gently behind you, sending loose strands of hair to stick to his buttons.

Your voice is quiet, simple, and honest. “You did the right things.”

His hands find your shoulders and press into them. When you don’t move, he presses harder, and you give by necessity.

”No.” He pushes you off of him, and you have to take a step back to not fall over. ”No, I didn’t. I’ve done it all for nothing.”

“Wh-what do you mean?” Did you do something wrong?

”I mean I’ve burned up my own reasons to live getting into battles and trouble and pulling myself into some giant battle over things I shouldn’t even be fucking worried about, and it’s all for, for…” He gets more agitated as he goes on, voice getting louder. ”Two brats, a girl who’s too loud in her English classes, and a, some, some wannabe vigilante with wall eyes who thinks she knows what’s best for everyone! I thought I could do it, I could try, but I can’t live that way!”

...Wall eyes? The second time you saw him outside of school, ever, he said, you thought it was... He said they were beautiful.

You come closer so he’ll look into them again, at least just one. “I-is this a S-Stand attack, Care? Did something af-f-ect you?” The Dazzlings? Yes, he must have brought you out here because he’s trying to escape their range. A-any second he’s going to whisper something that makes all of this-

He turns to you, now plainly annoyed. ”No. I’m not crazy, or under attack, or anything else. I’ve just realized that some things aren’t worth fighting for.”

Something cold stabs into your heart, and claws at your shoulder. ”Pl-please.” It’s your voice, but it feels like someone else is speaking through it. ”Please, Care, don’t do this. I-I’ll, I c-can-” You feel your eyes tearing up.

If there’s something wrong, you can make things different. You can do something, maybe make Silver and Golden be nicer to him. It’s the meaning of the lemon tree, running away together into your own future! Who else would, would do everything he’d done for you?

His voice slices into your building reverie. ”It’s over, Derpy. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life barely living because some lonely bargain-bin high schooler didn’t know when enough was enough.”

You don’t want to break down in front of him. ”B-, but, you said we had a future t-together, both of us, p-please! I…” You can’t keep a whine out of your words. “I don’t know what I did wrong...” The words dwindle, the last syllable becoming wet and pathetic.

No, take control, steady. Something’s wrong, and you can make it right. Just, just, believe. Believe. You draw closer to him, trembling despite yourself. He’s looking out on he horizon, angry.

”Pl... please, honey, just, please look at me.”

He wheels on you, voice raised. ”Haven't I done enough for you?!”

His hands shove you away from him and you fall backwards, onto the dead grass, staring up at him. His voice echoes overhead, across the barren field, and flies away into the evening sky.

The first drop marks its ugly snail-path down your cheek and onto your neck. Like rain on a bus window… Standing in a vacuum of silence, your heart falls in on itself.

Your body takes a deep, gasping breath, and breaks down completely.

Care

Something in the universe just gave out.

Your eyes shoot open; you’re somewhere dark and wood-smelling, but it doesn’t matter. On a level you’re used to, you can see your lights, and you can tell without any questions that they’ve reverted.

That is, they’re the same as they were before you met Derpy.

You cry out under the half-dozen lights. There’s rustling and movement outside, outside of whatever this is. You don’t care. Something’s happened to your girlfriend.

You remember in flashes what happened just before you were knocked out. The dots connect in your mind automatically:
him. Your blood boils, and you realize that someone’s with you.

The whispering finally penetrates into your head. ”-can’t stop them if they find out where we are, so if you have any big ideas-” Trixie. Alright, not a threat. This whole area’s cramped, now that you’re noticing things.

You don’t have time to suss all of this out. Derpy’s… She’s in trouble, she must be in trouble, she fucking has to be. It’s his Stand interfering with her or something, you don’t have time for this. You reach out and push at one wall. Trixie sees what you’re doing and tenses, but doesn’t stop you.

It takes a shove, but you force it open. The light shines in as you kick your container free, and Trixie’s Stand snaps.

You’re both jettisoned out from the sudden non-space, crashing onto your kitchen floor. Behind you, the empty drawer falls out, thunking dully.

Your kitchen’s black and dusty and bad-smelling, and there are people down the hall. Your front door’s not even on the hinges. You expect Trixie to be getting up by now, but when you glance back to her you can see she’s unconscious.

So this is how everything collapses in on itself.

The two girls come rushing up, one of them’s holding a golden arrow. She points it at you, and suddenly it rips into you with incredible force. Like it’s piercing your skin, without coming within ten feet. You feel it rip into ｢Timbuk Three｣, and one of the points of light vanishes completely - your acceptance into Everton.

Another goes out just after it, your graduation. The power comes surging out of you uncontrollably, without your say. It runs out of your arms and explodes into complicated icosahedrons and detailed holograms. All just light, raw useless light, forcing the girls to cover their eyes but doing them no harm. Somehow, with that arrow, they’re burning away your power.

The blue-haired one rushes you while you’re processing that, hand outstretched. ”｢Nails for Breakfast｣!”

No. You burn up another light, not paying attention to what it represents, if you fail here it doesn’t matter anyway. And, with straining control that rips your voice from your throat in a yell, ｢Timbuk Three｣ envelopes her hand in blue light.

The wound’s cauterized before she can scream, and she stumbles past you. Something about that makes you lurch internally, but you ignore it. The arrow.

You focus again as the room fills up with pointless designs and wastes of your ability. She’s stunned at what you just did to her friend, and then realizes that there’s more where that came from!

She backs up when the light appears on her arm, stumbling and trying to keep the arrow steady. You fire a laser through her calf, and she topples. Then you wrench the arrow from her with a globe of light, holding it away from you. It’s golden, deeply engraved with designs like little starbursts, but no real symbols.

It thrums with energy, a cousin to the bird that interfered with your Stand. This, though, this is empowering. You feel like you could just reel it in and this, all of this horrible mess, would be over…

Derpy.

You let go of it, and no sooner have you done that than it disintegrates into the air. It’s a blip on your current map of reality; you’ve got… three of these lights left.

The blue-haired girl jumps at you, hand outstretched. You turn and grab her by the collar in mid-lunge, pulling her face up to yours. The ferocious face she’d been making freezes, and becomes a mask of fear.

“Where is she?” you shout into her face.

She just stares at you. This is a waste of time, seconds could be critical here, it could already be too- No. You let go of her and pull out your cell phone.

Your thumb’s too slow, but you manage to call her after eight grueling seconds. The number rings, while your two attackers try to recover themselves.

And keeps ringing...

Derpy

Your phone rings, and you’re in no state to answer it. But you realize after a moment that it might be Golden checking in, or your dad, and you don’t want them calling the police. It could even be someone in trouble. You could still help, even without-

You’ve got to. You’ve got to answer the call.

Care hasn’t said anything. You don’t look up at him, just fish for it. ｢Spinal Tap｣ appears in a clump of grass, clutching a small uninflated balloon. You don’t waste time looking at it, and it deposits it nicely on the ground. After a moment, a crow swoops down and carries it away, and you feel like that moment sums up this day for you.

The phone’s still ringing. You pull it out, and another crow flies past you. The pain on your shoulder goes away as you shoo it, halfheartedly.

He could be walking away now, for all you know. He’ll at least drive you back, right? Or should you call your sister? You don’t know what you’re supposed to do.

And there’s no caller ID for this number. In fact, it’s just displaying gibberish. Maybe a telemarketer. You stare at it until it stops ringing, going apprehensively silent again.

Pointless. You lower it from your eyes, and it falls from your hand into the soil.

Footsteps. Care comes closer. Is he going to take you home?

”Well, I’m glad that’s done.” He sounds completely at ease, now. Did losing you unburden him that much?

It’s getting harder to ask questions right now, it’s all become so overwhelming. You feel like you’re about to cave in.

”｢Counting Crows｣,” he says, and a crow lands on one of your shoulders. When you feel it, in the brief play-shock your body puts you through, you notice the other. It’s already on your other shoulder.

He continues. ”The last time I did this, you were with the Rainbooms. I removed your power to navigate, and then Snails finished you off when you ran right into him. But he’s not here now, so I’m going to take something simpler from you.”

You look up at him. This isn’t right, it doesn’t make sense and it’s not how he talks. You realize the crows don’t make an awful lot of sense either.

”I’m just going to make you forget how to breathe. That’s as painless as I can make it.” He looks down at you in somber earnest. You try to stand up, and can’t.

Before you can panic, your phone shakes on the ground. A burst of radiant blue light engulfs it, and then, it dims. All that remains as it trails off is a spider-thread of light protruding from the back.

Wh-what’s…?

Care

The phone in your hand didn’t get a response. You were worried about that, but it still rang, and that’s all you need. You give up a lot of your third-to-last light doing it, but it works: you put the phone signal on the visible spectrum. Where it finally lands, in Derpy’s phone, you concentrate your energy.

Time to get a look...

｢Timbuk Three｣ dutifully notes all of the light within thirty feet of the phone. Around you, it moves and bounces the photons to match. A perfect real-time hologram extends into your house, and through it.

Derpy’s looking down at her phone, surprised. You want to break through the light and appear down there, but you can see the birds on her shoulders. And the lack of identifying landmarks; you'd half-feared that she'd be in an alleyway somewhere, or the trunk of a car, or the phone would be separated from her.

The other you is standing over her, and the birds being affected by your Stand gets to you. The light’s going out in your mind, but you hang on. He’s talking to her, but you can’t read lips. She isn’t looking at her phone any longer, just looking at him, and you realize that this isn’t enough. You have to get a message to her!

”｢Royals｣!” One of the girls comes at you with a knife, lunging through the light-scenery. You throw up two spheres of light in front of her eyes, and she stumbles. Then you materialize little hard-light cuffs on both of their ankles, and you fling them with extreme prejudice back out of your front door.

They go flying, and suddenly they’re not your problem, but the light goes out completely. With it, your hologram glitches, tears, and starts to fade.

Two left.

You grit your teeth and break out another one, holding it steady.

Derpy

You feel dizzy, and your mouth’s dry.

Your head’s spinning as your phone continues steadily pulsing with light, but it doesn’t do anything else. Are you just seeing this? Is it simply that dark outside?

”I wonder what could’ve happened in this reality to put me and you together.”

As he speaks, you only barely pick up on his words, like fragments of dreams. Even the light begins to fade away at the edges of your awareness. You can feel yourself becoming hollow.

”Trixie taught me a little acting, you know. After she did all of the other training. She insisted it was going to help me out in battle, and I didn’t believe her,” he laughs softly, and sighs. ”Your side won, of course. I only made it out alive because I picked my battles. ‘Victorious warriors win first and then go to war’. ...Not like that helped us.”

You aren’t looking at him any longer. You feel faint, close to falling over.

”It’s nice to tell someone this stuff. I don’t think you’re really listening, but I wanted a chance to talk to you about what I did. It gives me a little, I don’t know, closure. Thank you.”

You’re floating. Your lungs start to tighten, and your eyes flutter. The pain of the claws digging into your shoulders mingles and mixes with your own body.

You let go and fall back onto the ground, and see something in the sky that shouldn’t be there. Words, laid across the evening. Large and glowing, right overhead, like the stars themselves rearranged to give you some final farewell.

DERPY HE ISN’T ME
I CAN’T FIND YOU
USE SPINAL TAP
TAKE MY PHONE

And to the side like a footnote, a heart in a mathematical radical.

It's like smelling salts. You come to your senses, enough to realize you’re under attack. Of course it was a Stand! With a thought, you send ｢Spinal Tap｣ to grab Care’s phone. You almost smile, until you realize that it won’t help; it can go find him immediately, but it won’t be able to bring it to you until sunrise.

｢Spinal Tap｣’s gift for tonight already came, and got taken away by… one of these crows.

With distant anger, you shoo them off of you and sit up a little. You need to fish in your pockets. Care - no, Not Care, looks down at you with wide eyes. You weren't supposed to get up, and you figure out too late that there was cover you could've milked.

Then he looks up, studying the words, and blanches. Yes, he was telling you about all of this, wasn’t he? You don’t know if he’s a clone, or a disguise, or something completely different, but he tried to tear up your heart. You pull out a trusty old popsicle stick.

And then, you--

You...

You don’t remember how to activate your Stand.

Well, at least get up and away from him! You try, and your legs wobble and give out from under you.

”So that’s it.” Not Care picks up your phone. One of the crows lands on it, and the lights spasm and blink out. ”I was prepared for that, too. So long as he didn’t know exactly where we were, it wouldn’t matter if he used up his powers or not, so long as he only has the handful he started out with. He has to be close to you to set his destiny in stone again.”

How could someone know that? Even you didn’t know that! Maybe he’s just faking you out.

His Stand begins to circle around you again. ”But that’s no reason to be overconfident. You can’t stand up, break things to summon your Stand, walk or read now, but maybe there’s some hidden ability you learned, or a secret weapon...” He gets a look of cruel enjoyment you could’ve lived your whole life without seeing on that face. ”I could wait for you to forget how to breathe, but I do have a car. I’ll end this before anything tricky can happen, just to be safe. Blame him if it hurts.”

As he walks back up the slope, you try to bat away the birds, but your arms stop responding correctly. They just circle closer, taking things from you, things you notice now that he's spoken. You fall back down again, looking up at the wordless sky as he climbs in.

It revs to life, and he gradually thumps it down the way you both came. Your fingers brush over one of the gifts as tears come to your eyes.

This is the end, staring up at a big, pinkish sky.

I-I’m sorry, Care. I love you.

Wait. Wait.

...Pink?

Yes, pink and turning orange very quickly, and it’s not just your imagination. Something bright is coming up over the Canterlot horizon. Out of that sheet of sudden flashing, glinting light, there comes a shooting star. No, it's more than that, you can feel it tied into you.

It curves furiously towards the earth, and hope explodes in you. ｢Spinal Tap｣ is flying for you, holding the phone. And attached to it, a prismatic coffin of pure light, Care himself.

You can see as the giant light behind them rises that it’s not the right size. And you realize.

It’s completely crazy, a holograph or something with the same effects. He couldn’t have known it would work, but it did. He used his power to create a…

A sunrise!

And as he rockets for you, you really do start crying. The light fades into night, and the protective barrier around him shreds itself. He holds onto the phone with one hand, wind-buffeted for the final drop. When ｢Spinal Tap｣ stops, he rolls and comes up dusty and breathing heavily.

You’re so choked up you laugh like he's just done a trick for you, and he rushes over to you. Once he's closer you try to sit up, pressing against the earth uselessly.

“C-Care, Care, I thought for sure--”

He holds you by the shoulders, pulling you up the rest of the way, and kisses you. You don't have time to close your eyes, and behind him you see ｢Timbuk Three｣ materialize, for an instant glowing white-hot.

He pulls away and looks into your eyes for a moment. ”I’m here. We’re here, now.”

That’s all he has time to say, before the car revs up.

Care

You spin around, and yes, it turns out he did take your car. Your double sits behind the wheel, more tenacious than scared. It’s big, but not meant for offroading, so you're not sure how likely a threat it is.

The birds are on you immediately, latching onto both shoulders. They make your head swim, but you make no attempt to remove them. No more wasting time.

You take a half-step closer to him, just to bridge the distance and make sure your aim's perfect. Then you point a finger at him, and fire a laser through the windshield. It’s intense enough to smash the glass, and hits his forehead.

He shows no sign of damage, and instead the swimming feeling intensifies. You have to take a knee between the car and Derpy. Beside you, ｢Timbuk Three｣’s new energy flickers.

He backs up and prepares to run you down, and you ignore the noise, turning to Derpy and putting your hand on hers. “Grh. He may have some tricky powers, but nothing can stop the bond we built up together. The things we’ve done for each other, and given. Now...”

She smiles up at you, past the birds and the noise and the exhaustion.

You focus on that smile, and squeeze. “Use them.”

She stares at you for a moment. And then comprehension dawns on her face all at once.

Your doppelganger slams on the gas, only to be slammed himself through the door-window. The car wrenches and stops, violently.

As the other you rolls, he finally gets a look at the full form of ｢Spinal Tap｣. It comes sliding out of the car, the car she brought to CHS for you. The gift you didn’t even consider possible, after that crash. You’ll burn that up for her! To make your future a reality, torch it until there's nothing left!

It bears down on him, and the birds leave you to swoop over Derpy, but it’s too late. ｢Spinal Tap｣ is already on him. Its first punch leads into five more, each taking out a chunk of him - inside, there’s just vector patterns and glittering light.

You overcome your own morbid curiosity and look away. Derpy doesn’t do the sound effect, sadly, but your head begins to clear in the silence. She manages to sit up as he gets pummeled down, falling apart. The birds twirl dizzily, and one explodes into dust and feathers as it falls from the air.

Then she stands, and you stand with her. Both of you lean on each other until you’re almost dancing, and when the other bird goes you feel so much more solid.

Then, just like that, ｢Spinal Tap｣ disappears. You walk over to where he landed. Apart from the disturbed dirt under the night sky, all that’s left is your button. Or, his. Even that glitters and fades after a moment, leaving only the wind.

You exhale.

It’s a little nippy out, now that your blood’s stopped boiling. You're back in a state of mind to notice temperature, to feel the air on your skin, to use half of your senses. ...You've made it. On the last dregs of your final lights, risking a future of half-living for a chance at happiness. And it might not pay off in the end, nothing could be said for certain, but-

Derpy tackles you to the dirt from behind and hugs you. You roll over, destroying whatever was salvageable about your shirt. And you look up into those beautiful eyes of hers, crowned with wild hair and stars.

You’re tired, but you try to match the size of her grin. For one cavernous moment, you simply stare into each other.

And then, of course, the phone rings.

Yours, over in the dirt where you stopped thinking about it. While you internally debate whether to take the trouble to answer it, so does hers. She looks at it, and back at you, and both of you laugh.

When you get to them, you’re surprised to find that both are from the same number.

The first six words out of her mouth hold your attention.

Twilight

When both of them answer, you speak into the phone. ”The Dazzlings have made their move.”

In front of you is Cloudchaser: stock-still, dead-eyed, unresponsive, although she would probably act in self-defense. Is that Adagio’s game…?

She came and gave you the message, and you give it to them in turn. Place, time. They don’t have much to say, and they can’t exactly thank you. Especially not Care.

If there’s any hope or justice in this world, this is the endgame. If not… you put off thinking about it.

Indigo Zap

It's hard to be stuck in a dead tree, but you manage.

Sunny’s next to you, and she’s going to need some help climbing down. Probably never tackled an oak in her life. It takes a minute of her touching you to put your missing hand back, and the burning only dies down a little when she does.

You’re really not looking forward to telling Flash about this.

“Hey, at least now I know that the whole phantom limb thing’s real.” Heh.

Sun’s not having it. Whatever. ｢Royals｣ is more powerful than the rest of the ‘Bolts give it credit for, but it can’t affect the user.

So you save her the trouble. ”｢Nails For Breakfast｣.” You swap hands with her and lay them on down. The feeling of another Stand through your fingertips crackles like static electricity.

After another minute, she’s healed up. And, knock on wood, the city hasn’t burned down. You might just be able to call this one a success, even if it went totally to shit!

Suddenly, your phone rings, and you nearly fall to the ground and break something new trying to answer it.

“Y’ello?” you say, then after a minute, “Okaaay... Yeah, sounds great.” Then you hang up and shift more on the branch, nearly snapping it.

Sun holds it, and you hold on as it droops. Okay, the last thing you need after that call is two broken legs. Any damage you take should wait for tomorrow!

Suddenly the branch gets longer, still drooping. On the other end, a whole other tree appears, at an angle. Thanks, Sun.

You could absolutely monkey-bar this shit, but you don’t. You’re extra careful, and you wait around for her to prim-prissily remove herself, and then you wait even more for Lemon Zest to get you without doing anything even kinda exciting. Your bike’s still in his driveway, but you can’t risk heading back for it on such low intel.

Damn, does it hurt to even think something like that.

You take a deep breath. Tomorrow.

Tomorrow, it’ll all be decided.

｢To Be Continued｣

Stand: ｢Year Without Rain｣
User: Cloudchaser
Ability: When a target is touched by the user, the environment becomes more and more inhospitable to the target the further the two are from each other. Puddles become bottomless sinkholes, earthquakes strike single city blocks, strange forests get in the way of the rest of civilization, and at a certain distance the environment becomes completely unsurvivable.

Stand: ｢Counting Crows｣
User: Care Root
Ability: Takes the form of two moderately-sized black birds, usually perched on the user's shoulders. Both can move independently of the user at any range, and steal information from the things they pass, which they transfer to the user by touch.

Stand: ｢Boulevard of Broken Dreams｣
User: ???
Ability: ???

Stand: ｢Royals｣
User: Sunny Flare
Ability: Makes anything the user touches symmetrical along one axis of their choosing. Anything the user touches for more than one minute remains symmetrical unless the user consciously dismisses the effect, or can be made symmetrical only in part.