JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: House of Cards

All Quiet

Max's head bobbed up and down, in and out. He was drowning. He was drowning in muddy, filth water. He wouldn't die like this, he refused to. He reached his arms and used his waning strength to place his hands on the man. He pushed, pulled, shoved, and shaked. Nothing was working. He dropped his hands and held his breath. The man let go. It had worked. Max sprung up and grasped the man's neck. The positions were swapped. The man was the one under the mud. He was the one dying. Max was winning until the glint of metal caught Max's eye. In one fell swoop, Max was back to where he started.

The knife was still in the man's hand, but it hand just left Max's gut. Mud and water sloshed around between the two as they wrestled. No man was winning, no man was losing. It was just as much a fight for the knife as it was for their lives.

Jony was growing ever close to the top of the curve. He had seen the struggle below and knew time was not exactly on his side. He dashed, sprinted, ran, and chased until he spotted what he was after. Two trees, grown into the side of Dead Man's Curve. Tangled amongst them was a paratrooper. He was long dead and reeked, but it managed to mutter a phrase. "Drop... Into the... Icy blast...". Jony knew what he had to do, but struggled to at first. "Maybe it'll break my fall. It is a parachute after all." He tried to reason and debate for a brief moment before hearing the cries down below. He uttered curses and jumped down into the crevice.

Jony took the paratrooper with him, and instantly noticed the greenery returning below. His slow decent was capped off by the sights below him. Sensing the deactivation of his stand, the man faltered in his pushing of the knife towards Max's neck. This moment cost him all. Max shoved the man to the side and scurried backward out of the mudhole. The man lunged back after Max, but it was too late. Three shots rung out into the wilds as the barrel of Max's 38. smoked. The man dropped face first into the mud, spitting out the occasional gurgle as the plants returned to their natural state.

As for Jony, his ride to the ground began to disappear. He panicked, knowing there was no way for him to live a fall from that height. As his situation began to look more and more grim, a saving grace shot from his shoulders. The Monkees climbed around his shoulders and into his hands as he begun another slow descent. They had been building a parachute. It's as if they knew the paratrooper would fade away.

Hours passed. Jony and Max had returned, Juno found more info on Chief Jay, and Leonard cleaned up the shop. They all settled into their respective sleeping arrangements. Hours into the night, a muffled click sounded out. "Yeah that 1911 you gave me backfired, but my 38 was still good." Max tried to explain before Juno silenced him. "I hear something." She whispered as she creeped out of their bed and stepped down the hall. With Straight to Hell right behind her, she crept into the kitchen, and grabbed a figure by the neck.

Max flicked the lights on to reveal a sharply dressed man, wearing Khaki's and a sweater, with a neat side part to his brown hair. "Mr. Shays?" Juno asked in confusion. It was the old mayor of Violet. "I hear you're a group of stand users taking down some sort of secret conspiracy group." Martin states.

A few minutes later, everyone was up in the main room talking to Ex-Mayor Martin Shays. "so you're a stand user?" Jony asks. "You see, A few years ago, I was mayor, as you would all recall. And things were fine, but that fat puppet walked in and the election was rigged. I've knew ever since he won that he was just some phony for someone else to control. And I kinda spiraled. Not long after my lowest, this guy showed up." Martin explained as a marionette dropped from the ceiling. A jester draped in red, blue and purple. Its face stretched into a grin, with its limbs propped up by strings. "This is Viva La Vida, and I have been trying to uncover more evidence of the current incumbent being a fraud. I hadn't been getting anywhere recently, until I heard about you few." Martin explained.

"So you're in on it now, huh?" Jony asks. "Well you oughta know that we gotta go kill the police chief. Weston Jay is a member of The Suits. There were five of them, and they all had codenames. The Jack was Allister Wickley, The Ace was some guy named Paul Ryan, and The Club is Weston Jay. We don't know who The King or The Joker are, but we figure The King is the mayor." Jony explains as he gets out of his chair. "Well since you're all caught up, come see us tomorrow. I'm tired and going back to bed." Jony states as he shuffles back to his room. The others follow suit as they make their greetings to Martin, who left shortly after.

All is quiet in Jony's shop. A new ally gained, an old foe slain. Fate moves on and things begin o slowly look up for Jony and Co.