Celli and Lulu’s Strange Situation: The Siren's Call

by ArcticAce01

Episode 3: The Midnight Runners

As wind whistled through trees under the moon’s light and snow fell slowly towards the ground, a lone wolf howled, lifting itself high before scurrying off from the sound of rustling bushes behind it. Emerging from them was none other than Sonata Dusk, covered in snow, mud and dirt. Part of her skirt and a portion of her sleeve had torn off, left behind on some forgotten bush and a fairly large stick stuck out of her ponytail; a snail slowly made its way from the tip towards her head. Sonata was panting a bit heavily, not sure how much longer her body could carry her. She had lost track of how long she'd been running now, but she told herself the edge of the forest would soon appear before her eyes. Each breath threw cold air down her throat, making it harder and harder to breathe, but she knew she had to keep herself going or she would just die out here in the wilderness.

“Please let me be nearly there…” the young siren said as she pushed on. She had run through a forest in hopes to lose her sisters, just in case they chased her down. If anything, it would be some time before they catch wind of where she was. Sonata kept herself going, resolving to find her way out soon. She could eventually hear sounds up ahead of herself, and as she got closer, she saw a small light and took a peek through a bush, moving a tree branch out of the way. What she saw put a small smile on her face. She saw a sidewalk and a few cars driving along a road.

“I finally made it out!” she said as she took a step out from nature’s edge and took some time to catch her breath. Joy filled her heart as she stood looking back at the forest, but she couldn’t help but feel sad recalling what happened with her sisters.

“I’m sorry Dagi and Ari, but I have to do this,” she said. A happy couple walked by her, arm in arm, and she spotted a family having dinner together outside a restaurant, bickering over who had the bigger filet before bursting out in laughter. “All these humans, they’re happy and enjoying their lives together. It shouldn’t be taken away. No matter what, I’ll stop you both… somehow.”

The youngest siren wanted to stop her sisters, but she couldn’t even begin to know what to do. Right now, she was all alone. She had no resources, no place to stay, no food to eat. If they found her now, she would surely be on the losing end.

“What am I gonna do?” she asked herself. “I can’t beat them two against one, not unless I’m clever. And honestly, I’m not as clever as they are. And I still need to rest up after the whole day. I need somewhere to go.”

She pondered what she would do next, however, she wasn’t looking where she was going and accidentally bumped into someone on the sidewalk, causing her to tumble back onto the ground. She rubbed the back of her head as she got up, bruised from the impact.

“O-Oh my gosh! Are you ok? I’m sorry, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was walking.” Sonata said, worried that she might’ve hurt them. She didn’t want to get into more trouble than she already had.

“Hey, no worries. I should be the one asking if you’re ok,” a male voice said as a hand was offered to Sonata. “Here, let me help you up.”

Sonata allowed herself a small smile. It seems this person was rather polite. ”Thank you,” she told him, accepting his hand before she finally let her eyes move up to examine who this passerby was.

The boy in front of her had white skin and a head of purple hair styled kind of like a pinecone. He wore a pale blue puffy sweater, a purple shirt marked with a snowflake and various diamond-like patterns around the edges of his sleeves, and he had on gray jeans and blue sneakers. He looked back at her with bright teal eyes, giving her a sensation she hadn’t known in a long time.

“You’re welcome,” he said with a smile, which faded once he saw the state Sonata was in. “Hey, what happened to you?”

“It’s a long story.” Sonata dusted her legs. “I better be off now.”

“Don’t mind me asking, but you seem to be in some sort of trouble,” the boy turned his head as she walked past him. “Is something the matter?”

Sonata then stopped in her tracks and thought for a moment on what to say. “It’s fine, really,” she said. She didn’t want to get someone innocent involved with her situation.

“Are you sure?” The boy asked as he noticed that parts of her clothes were a little torn and that her body was covered in mud and dirt. “By the looks of it, I’d say you’ve been running from someone. Or something. Is it vampires? I’ve never seen one, but I’ll bet all my spare change that they exist.”

“I told you, it’s a long story, but I can’t stay here. You’ll be in danger.” Sonata tried to leave, but the boy held on tight. “Did you hear me? You’ll be in danger.”

He shook his head. “I can’t just leave an innocent girl like you to fend for herself. Tell me how I can help.”

“You can’t help. You can’t possibly help. I have to go. I need to find someplace warm.”

The bushes where Sonata had come from shook and dropped leaves and snow everywhere, turning their attention to it, but nothing else happened after that.

Sonata was about to ignore it and get away from this overly-friendly boy when something skipped on the sidewalk beside them before leaving her field of vision almost instantly.

“Was that… was that a rock?”

“What rock?” The boy looked around, scratching his head.

“I… I think I better go.” Sonata straightened her coat and took one step forward before something else skipped off the concrete floor.

It sounded almost like the patter of a shoe, but a lot softer and with a lot less surface area.

“No, they couldn’t possibly have found me already…” Sonata’s eyes darted around, alert. With only a few streetlamps dotting the area, it was hard to see whatever was moving around them. “I ran through the forest. I might not have erased my tracks through the snow, but they couldn’t have possibly caught up to me already.”

“Who? Who’s after you? You aren't giving me a lot to go on here.” The boy reached out a hand toward Sonata who was still looking around in a panic.

Sonata had no time to think of some excuse, so she just quickly blurted it out. “My sisters. They’re after me. They want to enslave the world.”

There was another faint patter of footsteps. This time, Sonata noticed tiny little imprints in the snow around them. They were almost as tiny as pin pricks, but heavier. Then there was a spray of red across the white snow. The sudden splash of color caught Sonata’s attention and she followed the trail back to her leg. Blood was now dripping down her leg from a thin and long cut, too clean to be anything accidental.

The young siren then winces a bit in pain from this and puts one hand over the cut. “T-This had to be a stand. But it’s not Dagi’s or Aria’s.” She mentioned her thoughts and started to panic a bit. “This isn’t good,” she said, continuing speaking in her thoughts “I told this boy already what my sisters are planning in a panic. And, if they sent someone after me, he could be in more danger now.”

“There’s an enemy Stand around.” The boy pushed Sonata behind his back as he lowered his stance, keeping low, arms wide. “No time to explain.”

Sonata blinked. “W-What? You know what Stands are?”

The boy looked back at her. “You know about Stands? I thought I was the only one!”

Sonata could name a few, but this one was a mystery to her. “Just… who are you?”

The boy smiled and pointed a finger at his face, placing his other hand on his opposite shoulder. “Arctic Ace at your service. I’ve dealt with a Stand user or two abusing their powers, so I have some experience.”

“Experience will get you nowhere here, boy,” a feminine voice came from the dark of the night. Sonata couldn’t pinpoint where it had come from, but she could hear more tiny footsteps approaching them from all around. Whatever Stand this was, there was more than one of them. “You protect what you do not know. Give the girl to me and you will live.”

Arctic Ace didn’t even hesitate once. “What has she done for you to be after her? I’m quite a good judge of character. So far she seems nice and kind. You on the other hand, missus hiding-in-the-shadows-woman, I’m not getting good vibes from you.”

There was a brief pause, then a bark of laughter erupted from the dark. “Brave of you, boy. Then you will die. The Midnight Runners will take care of you,” the feminine voice spoke out in a tone filled with wicked glee.

Ace however seemed mostly unphased by this. “Then what are you waiting for? Are you gonna come at me or keep hiding like a coward?”

“You mistaken me for waiting. I haven’t been waiting.” He could almost picture the smile on the woman’s face.

There was a shrill squeak, like the laughter of a mouse if a mouse could laugh, and then something jumped past his left leg, slicing across it before disappearing back into the darkness of the street. Ace’s blood sprayed against the snowy ground, but instead of yelling in pain, he backed up and swirled both arms over his head, leaving them in the air as he began glowing light blue.

Sonata kept her eyes on the darkness, trying to spot their tiny assailants, but they were too fast and small to track, especially since they were moving away from the light source above their heads.

She sensed something moving along her left, behind the bushes she had come out from, but before she could turn, a strange blue colored ninja stepped past her, its eyes glowing the same blue as the aura around Ace. It was decked out in a sleek black and blue outfit, complete with gauntlets and shoulderplates of pure ice. It created a circular piece of ice like a shield, pushing it forward as it collided with the speeding enemy Stand. The shield shattered and something shrieked before darting back off into the bushes.

“That’s right. Just try and stand up to my Cold as Ice!” Ace slid a foot forward, then brandished both fists close to his face. “You’ll find it hard to rival its speed and precision!”

“You dare to challenge the speed and precision of my Midnight Runners?” There was a scoff from somewhere in the dark. “I am Dextra Sprint, but everybody calls me Dexy. And I accept your challenge! Go, Midnight Runners!”

There was more scuffling from the shadows around them and Sonata found herself taking a step back towards the lamppost, but Ace half-turned his head and gave her a confident nod. Whoever this boy was, he surely knew what he was doing.

A small shape darted out from his left, but Cold as Ice had already moved, grabbing it with both hands as it tried to attack him. Now that Cold as Ice was holding it still, they could see just what they were up against. It was a small humanoid figure, no bigger than four inches. It was decked out in what looked like a tracksuit and it had an orange visor in place of eyes. It brought its fingers together and slashed around the air, trying to attack Cold as Ice, but it could not reach it.

“Mine! Mine! You’re all mine! You will die!” The little Stand continued to struggle.

“Is this the best you got?” Ace tried to peer out of the darkness around them, but he still couldn’t see its master.

“You underestimate me.”

From the shadows, another two figures flung themselves at Cold as Ice. One cut it across the wrist, making it drop the Stand it was holding, while another attacked its face, just barely missing its cheek. As it passed, Ace caught sight of it. It closely resembled the orange one his Stand held earlier, but this one had a green visor and a similarly green stripe going down its tracksuit.

Blood sprayed from his own wrist, reflecting the damage on his Stand, but he made no sound. Clasping his arm, he slid one foot back, then had his Stand put its hands together as an icicle formed above its fingertips, resembling a dagger.

“Midnight Runners, together!” the woman shrieked.

Cold as Ice spun the dagger to one hand, holding it in reverse grip as more of the enemy’s Stands attacked it. They hopped around outside the light before flinging themselves at it one at a time. Ace’s Stand deflected each advance with its ice dagger, managing to scrape one of the Midnight Runners across the chest before it screeched and disappeared from the light.

The enemy Stands were all coded in a different color. Ace had seen a red one, a blue one, a yellow one, purple, pink, grey, and a gold one, apart from the orange and green ones he had seen earlier. They moved fast, but unfortunately for them, his Stand’s eyes were able to keep up with them just fine.

The gray one returned, slashing up with its sharp fingertips, but Cold as Ice blocked its attack with its dagger, but instead of launching it away, this time it extended its weapon up and forward, creating an ice pick out of it. The Midnight Runner bumped into the top of it and before it could recover, Cold as Ice slashed down twice, cutting both of its shoulders deep enough to nearly sever both arms. Blood sprayed from its wounds as it dropped to the snowy ground.

“Mine arms! Mine arms!” the Stand cried out. “He hath damaged me severely!”

Dexy screamed from the dark, then growled, “You’ll pay for that! You think you’re all that?”

“No, but I think I’m pretty darn close,” Arctic Ace said before his Stand crouched down and touched the ground with its hands causing the floor beneath the enemy to rapidly freeze over, causing the nearly armless stand to begin to lose its balance. A bit before the stand could slip, Cold As Ice took this chance to take a swing and clocked the enemy in the jaw hard with its fist, causing the stand to flip down and smash its head against the ice covered pavement.

“Ohhh, I am fortune’s fool…” the gray Midnight Runner mumbled as the green and red ones appeared and dragged it away before Cold as Ice could stomp on it.

The pink and purple ones ran around Cold as Ice and Arctic Ace, moving in occasionally to attack, only for Cold as Ice to see them coming and fend off their sharp fingers.

“I’m sorry we have to do this, but you’re in the way,” the purple one said as it spun around Cold as Ice’s icicle dagger. It thrust both arms forward, aiming for its eyes, but Cold as Ice sidestepped it before grabbing its tiny foot between two fingers.

With a blast of cold air, ice began to creep up the Midnight Runner’s foot, spreading up all the way to its waist.

Before Cold as Ice could deliver the finishing blow to the tiny Stand, the streetlamp above them suddenly burst into bits, raining glass down around Ace and Sonata.

In that brief envelopment of complete darkness, the purple Midnight Runner escaped Cold as Ice’s grasp. Whether it was with help or on its own, Ace did not know.

Dexy’s laughter returned from the dark. “Fools. What are you going to do now? Sure, you had the advantage earlier when you could see, but what happens if you can’t?”

Ace and Sonata kept their eyes and ears out, listening as Midnight Runners’ tiny footsteps could be heard on the soft snow around them, running in circles, waiting for the perfect moment to attack. It was already hard to keep track of them earlier, but now in the dark themselves, it was almost impossible to see them when they were on the move.

Sonata tapped the side of her head. “Uh oh.”