There had never been anything like it it before, and there probably would never be anything like it again. In the space of just half an hour, Central Park was swarming with SPW chinooks, airlifting people out of the city in groups of 55 at a time. The harbour had a continuous line of ferries collecting up civilians, as smaller water taxis and air ambulances evacuated injured people out of the city's many hospitals. Kids were loaded onto school buses and shipped out, whilst the only vehicles travelling into the city were SPW trucks and tanks, loaded with troops. Each of these soldiers carried portable UV nightsuns- the huge searchlights usually tethered to search and rescue helicopters- as the skies around Manhattan swarmed with drones, armed with more UV lights and facial recognition tech. Boeings took off from the airports, each seat filled with humans, as the billboards in Times Square displayed warning signs.
VAMPIRA ULTIMA APPROACHING. ALL CIVILIANS MUST IMMEDIATELY EVACUATE. Read the signs, as all across the country alarm bells were sounding. As the 9 million souls who called the city home left the urban jungle, the SPW shut down the bridges with barricades. Only the Brooklyn bridge was left open, creating a chokepoint. Amongst the gigantic crowds, Lizzie, Valerie and Dana were there, getting onto a Chinook to be flown away to safety.
"Where's Kylie and Roberta?!" Lizzie cried, just as Kylie's familiar pink convertible zoomed past the park, on the way to the Brooklyn bridge.
"Don't worry about us, just get out of here!" Whamerta yelled to them as the car rounded a corner with Kakyoin's hybrid in tow. The 7 stand users were heading towards the bridge, as the SPW had requested that any active stand users should be present and ready for a fight. As New York turned quiet, the city that never sleeps nodding off towards an eerie silence, all was still on the bridge.
"Whamerta, you're a conglomerate of one of the remaining pillar men and a stand user. You need to be up there for negotiation, as you're prettymuch our best hope at bargaining our way out of this one. If we kill the pillar men, we don't know how Wamuu will react to this, so we've been told to act with caution and to only fight in defence. Do you understand?" Jotaro asked.
"I do." Whamerta replied. Their group weren't the only ones at the bridge- the woman from the High Priestess boutique was there, as was (shockingly) Roberta's roller derby referee and his younger brother. They both seemed to recognise Jotaro, and stepped back.
"Do you know them?" Kylie asked.
"I'd rather not say." He replied. The boutique owner glared at him, her false teeth flashing, before moving back into the crowd of SPW soldiers.
"How will we know when they're here?" One agent whispered to another. Suddenly, there was a great crunching noise from the other end of the bridge, the part that wasn't in Manhattan. The agents dropped to defensive stances and readied their weapons. A manhole cover burst from the ground, and three thin, emancipated vampires crawled out.
"Open fire!" An agent screamed. Several thousand watts of UV light blazed, and the vampires shrieked as they were solidified into stone. Two agents drove up in a jeep, parking it over the now-uncovered manhole, and loaded the statues onto the back of the jeep.
"Dead as door nails." One laughed, feeling the jeep jerk as he dropped the huge statues on. They drove back over the bridge, past the Manhattan-end barricade, both with huge smiles on their faces.
"We got 'em!" One cheered. "Get the big one and the old man over here to take a look."
Whamerta and Joseph approached, and Joseph looked confused at what was before him.
"I don't remember them being so skinny..." he said, before gasping. The statues shrivelled, losing their signature stone hair, and turning back into three ordinary zombies.
"We've been tricked! They did this with mama all these years ago..." Joseph saw the agents clustering around the jeep, and let out a scream.
"GET AWAY FROM THERE!" He yelled, but it was too late. The jeep rattled, and burst apart as the three pillar men untangled themselves from the chassis, where they had stowed away once the Jeep parked over their hiding place. Kars unfurled himself from his cramped position, rising to his full 7ft height, purple locks bristling in the breeze.
"Ah, humanity... Thousands of years, and you're still scared little apes who wave their big bright things at the scary creatures who come out at night." He drawled with a psychotic grin.
"What are you waiting for! Fire!" Jotaro shouted. Santana jerked a hand, and flesh leeches burst from his fingers. They wriggled into the UV lights, destroying thousands of dollars of equipment in seconds.
"Shit, get reinforcements!" The commander yelled as Esidisi extended his boiling veins and sprayed a cloud of steaming hot blood into the air, the sheer temperature melting the barricades to mush.
"Bring us Wamuu." Kars sneered. "Santana tells us that he's been seduced by some filthy human, and I want my servant back from your disgusting, primitive creatures. Whilst you're at it, hand over the Red Stone."
Whamerta crouched behind a bin as the three pillar men approached Joseph.
"Where's the stone, Joseph? Or should I suck out your lungs like I did with all those soldiers all those years ago?" Esidisi asked, a sick grin on his face. Jotaro turned to the woman with the false teeth- Midler, that was her name- and Whamerta, with a pleading look in his eyes.
"You can't let them kill Jiji, he's one of the last haon masters we've got left! Midler, please... I know I knocked out your teeth, but I need you to d me a favour."
"What's in it for me?" She snapped, with a slight lisp because of her false teeth.
"You don't get eaten by zombies. And I'll get you a diamond or something."
"Mmm... Deal. What do you need me to do?"
Jotaro pulled up a image on his phone and showed her, before looking at Whamerta.
"Midler, I need you to use your mineral manipulation to make a copy of this. And Whamerta- get your blonde friend to start her car. This is a gamble, but it's the best idea that I've got..."
"I said, where is the stone, old man?" Kars demanded.
"Tinned spam? I ate that a lot in the way. Saaay, I also dressed as a hot dame!" Joseph said, deliberately mishearing the ancient vampire. Kars groaned, only to hear footsteps from behind him.
"Who's there?!" He snapped, to see... Wamuu? The person looked like Wamuu, only with pink-ish hair and a few more piercings in their face.
"Masters, it's me, Wamuu. I just..." Whamerta began, only to be cut off by a happy squeal.
"Wamuu?" Esidisi asked. "Son, you're back! I missed you!"
"And you're nothing but a disappointment!" Kars snapped. "Falling in love with a human? Pathetic!"
Although it hurt to see them berating his brother so, Santana couldn't help but smirk at the fact that he was now the favourite. But it hurt, how it hurt- he thought that having his brother knocked down a peg would elevate him, but it just felt bad to feel like his brother's mistreatment was all his fault. Was this how Wamuu felt? Was this why he tried to reconnect- because he blamed himself for their master's actions?
"You're almost as much as a failure as Santana!" Kars screamed, and the illusion of favouritism was shattered, like a crystal goblet against a stone floor.
Awakening them hadn't gained him their favour. It only meant that Kars now had another chew toy.
"Baby, please, that's way too harsh..." Esidisi began, only to be cut off by his spouse.
"They're our servants, not our sons! Stop being so sentimental, you overemotional wretch! Don't you want perfection?"
Kars was fuming, his eyes glowing red.
"Humans tried to hunt me down as a baby. Even my own people wouldn't treat me with respect because I was never the... The daughter my mother wanted. This is my chance to reach perfection and affection, Esidisi, and I don't care how many people have to suffer for this! Why, let them all suffer just like I've suffered!" He screamed. Santana winced, his red eyes downcast. He knew that Master Kars had been mistreated in the past, but it still hurt to be treated like trash beneath him. Why was he allowed to mistreat others, just because he'd been mistreated?
"Useless as you may be, at least you awakened me and told me where Wamuu was hiding." Kars sniffed to Santana. "Now get over here and kill him."
"No."
The word seemed to send shockwaves through the crowd. Kars reeled, Esidisi gasped, and even Jotaro looked shocked.
"What did you say?!" Kars snapped.
"No. I'm not doing what you say anymore. Not after you hurt my brother."
Santana walked away from Kars, and towards Whamerta.
"I don't know what you are. But you look like my brother, and that human he knew, so I'll stay with you."
"But why? They always favoured Wamuu over you." Whamerta said.
"Because I know what it's like to be hated." Santana growled. "It doesn't mean that I'm your friend, brother."
Kars cackled at this, to Esidisi's displeasure.
"Kars, they're our sons! We've hurt them, I don't think that we've been doing the honourable thing. Remember the good old days, when we were gonna conquer the world as a family? You've changed- let's go back to then." He said, trying to negotiate the megalomaniac that his husband had become.
"Sons? They're our servants! Enough starry-eyed dreaming, Esidisi, and snap into the real world! These two failures of boys have nothing to offer us!"
It was on this note tha Whamerta pulled out the fake Red Stone of Aja that Midler had made with her powers.
"Not even this?"
Kars gasped, a mad grin crossing his face.
"The stone! Oh, Wamuu, good boy! Now bring it to me, and..."
"If you want it so badly, you can come and take it. You're not my master, and you've rejected me as your son- so I owe you nothing. Esidisi, you can do better!" Whamerta sighed. "And I'm not even Wamuu. I'm Whamerta."
"Give me the rock, you little shit! Obey me!" Kars screamed. Whamerta grabbed Joseph by the arm, pulled him into the shotgun seat of Kylie's convertible, and clambered into the backseat. As the engine started, Santana quickly looked back at his adoptive father- eyes full of rage and hate- and jumped in alongside Whamerta.
"You want the fucking stone? Come and take it from me!"
It was on that note that the car sped off, deep into the empty city.
"Esidisi, go get me the stone!" Kars yelled. The fire giant rolled his eyes, and sat his enormous frame down on a bench.
"Esidisi, do this. Esidisi, do that. No, Esidisi, you oaf! You're always nagging me. Go do your own dirty work, Kars!"
The purple haired vampire hissed at this, and charged after the speeding car as Esidisi yelled "I want a divorce!" After him.