Chapter Text
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March 2005
It’s been years since the turn of the century, and the world has known unexpected peace for years. It is also the year the Nintendo DS will release in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, the UK, India, Hong Kong, and China. Everybody is ready for the springtime, as Winter ends and a new school year begins.
My name is (you don’t need to remember) Ace Winters, age 15. The past month to me has been nothing but graduation tests, as I prepare to start as a freshman at Caesar-cho High School. To be honest, the entrance to high school has brought both excitement and worry to my days, to the point that I’ve been doing nothing but thinking about it.
Until I met these 2 very special guys…
?????: sup man
ACE: G-Gah!
So lost in my thoughts, I hadn’t even realized I wasn’t looking where I was going—at first, I thought I had bumped into a lamppost or something, the way it seemed to not move at all when my body collided with it, but as I rubbed my head and looked upward…
?????: hey man
POWER: name’s power
POWER: they call me that cuz im powerful
Before me stood a hulking, powerful woman. Easily standing at over 170 cm, she radiated a positively devilish, demonic aura. I forgot to mention that I’m also a demon but like this isn’t a demonic town like this isn’t a rule of the setting I just so happen to be a demon and she happens to also probably be something like that
ACE: Uh… H-Hi???
I took Power’s hand as she helped me to my feet. I looked up at her.
POWER: i’m looking for someone. big brickly. do you know him
ACE: Big… Brickly?
That name also radiated strength. Even saying it sent shivers down my spine, like my very DNA screamed that he was not to be trifled with.
ACE: Sorry, uh… Caesar-cho has a pretty big population, you know? I-I don’t know everyone here.
POWER: FUCK!
I shrunk back in fear as Power started violently beating a trash can to death with a hammer. Where’s Deuce when you need them…
POWER: GOD DAMN IT
POWER: FUCK!!!!! FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
POWER: oh well i guess i’ll keep looking-
????????: HAHAHA WHATCHA DOING LOSER
We heard an indignant, nerdy voice yelling. Power and I both turned to see a man with glasses chuckling down at a large man with an incredible mustache, who was sitting down by the local fountain. A turtle sat beside him, looking all turtley.
??? ???????: hey im just looking at turtles 😀
??? ???????: i’m a lil scared of them as a matter of fact but im actually multiversal+ with mastery over every power system in this universe so im not THAT afraid yknow hehe 😎
POWER: that guy seems badass
She’s right.
????????: MORE LIKE MULTIVERSAL SHIT. TURTLES SUCK ASS
We could only watch in horror as the wretched, pathetic man with glasses picked up the turtle and THREW it, causing it to land on its shell with a crack.
ACE: N-No!!
POWER: fuck… is there really nothing we can do…?
??? ???????: …no bruh…
??? ???????: i am… i’m getting ANGRY 😡
My eyes widened as the mustached man stood up—he was big, taller than anyone I had ever met, the space between his shoulders wider than my sister Naomi is tall. His face was also unique, completely angular, like a brick, with the entirety of his suit-wearing body being similar. But above all else… what I noticed first and foremost…
…was the sheer POWER radiating off him.
????????: WHATCHA GONNA DO ABOUT IT SHITHEAD
??? ???????: i’ll… i’ll chase u to the ends of the earth…
??? ???????: for my name is…
BIG BRICKLY: BIG BRICKLY 👿
I watched in astonishment as “Big Brickly” unleashed a punch against the stupid dumb looking guy, the entire world shaking as it connected, as if the universe itself had begun to crumble. They all always crumble.
I wheeled away from my latest failure—what was supposed to be a power-type brickmonculi with a shovel for a head, who I was going to call The Shovel, is now just chunks of broken, crumbled brick and dust.
I thought it was a fun concept. Seems fate had different plans. Chalk that up as failure number… #583, was it?
Sure, Joshua’s disappearance benefited me in the “no witnesses I don’t go to jail” kind of way, but I needed time to study what I did right , damn it. Every single time I’ve tried to recreate that damn experiment, it’s either ended in immediate failure, or slightly immediate failure.
I sometimes ask myself… What if Da Vinci’s first painting was the Mona Lisa, and everything afterwards was a fluke? Would he feel the same as I do now?
I had written the Great American novel. Composed the symphony of the century. A MAN made of BRICKS as my first attempt, and everything afterwards being nothing but trash.
How cruel fate is, for my first, sloppy, unplanned test to work out so perfectly, and for the things I actually tried on to fail.
Ah well, back to the drawing board. I opened my diary. Greg was showing us a… diary, with a red color. Her hands ever so slightly trembled, as she avoided eye contact with us. I looked up to Big Brickly, who was twirling his mustache in thought.
BIG BRICKLY: so this is your STAND… ZA BOOK 😨
GREG: Uh… Yeah. I guess? Anyone I draw in it gets trapped inside, I mostly use it to erase stuff that’s in the way, or…
ACE: Man what the fuck why does my stand suck this is so bullshit
I looked down at the glowing white egg that was my “stand”. Greg’s brother shot me with that “arrow”... and instead of having Greg’s ZA BOOK, Power’s BLOOD PLATINUM, or Big Brickly’s GONE ANGELS, I just have this useless egg that does nothing. I’m naming it “Tex” because it sounds like VEX because this VEXES ME
POWER: yare yare. calm down ace.
BIG BRICKLY: yeah man take it easy 😰
GREG: You really should calm down, yeah.
ACE: S-S-S-Sorry everyone… I just feel so useless… How am I supposed to help catch this SERIAL KILLER on the loose if I can’t match your guys’ STAND POWER? I’m so weak…
POWER: dude you’re a fucking demon
ACE: Oh right
I had forgotten.
BIG BRICKLY: haha silly ace 😄
BIG BRICKLY: sorry about rodrick getting taken by the evil red hot chili iono btw greg now lets go get BRICKLY PIZZA cuz we’re all friends 🙂
GREG: Just when I thought I hit rock bottom, I learned that things could get even worse.
What a comical ally we have gained today.
I watched as Big Brickly summoned his GONE ANGELS, a stand with black and white angel wings and a hidden face and two guns and laser cannons and swords for hands and feet and a cough, cough. I struggle to the counter as I feel weakness take over my body. I had forgotten to take my medication for the day. I stumbled away from my latest work-in-progress: a support-type brickmonculi with some rather fashionable pants I designed, yet I get the feeling he won’t ever walk in them. I’d work on a name for my inert friend, but I have more pressing matters, such as the pain.
The pain that radiates inside my lungs. I feel I should be specific. Breathing in so much brick particulate for all these years will do that to you.
I grip onto the counter tightly, finally arriving after what felt like centuries of pain, as I open my pill organizer. Is it a Wednesday? Thursday? I look to my calendar: October 21st, 1993. Thursday. Right, it’s Thursday. I swallow the pills and feel my symptoms alleviate, as I slowly stand once more, feet creaking on the old floorboards of my lair.
I didn’t expect this body of mine to give out so quickly. I’m not that old… but manual labor by day and mad science by night will do that to you, I suppose. Ah well, no pain, no gain. Just keep pushing through. What was the saying? You have to “suffer for your art”-
I saw it move.
Why did it move! We need to move!!
The Stand was chasing us… it had called itself “Sheer Mate Attack”, and it was like a tiny tank on wheels, bringing ruin to anything it touched! It even killed Nico! I have no idea whose stand this could be
POWER: kuso. this guy is tough.
POWER: let me try beating the shit out of it
@power_from_chainsaw_man
🎲 KILL THIS ARROGANT MOTHERFUCKER : 1d20 ( 1)
Total: 1
POWER: fuck
I watched as Power completely whiffed a swing with her HAMMER, as Sheer Mate Attack sped forward and hit her right in the chest, unleashing a blast of RUINATION.
POWER: kono powa!
POWER: waaaaait im power-
BOOM
A massive explosion rang out, with Power at the center of it.
…
I coughed, in serious pain as the dust around me billowed, obscuring my vision as my ears rang. Power… Big Brickly… Greg… Deuce… Goku… Ben… Six Of Nine… Springtrap… Naomi… Maxie… Anthony… The Assistant… Gaster… All of these people who were in our current party… Where are you…
????????: HAHAHAHA A LITTLE HURT ARE YA BUDDY
ACE: W-Who goes there…?
I was afraid at first, but then I realized that this guy’s voice sounded stupid. He’s probably stupid. I’d never fear the power of or respect somebody with such a silly voice.
????????: ME? HEH. I’M…
I watched as the dust cleared, as a man in glasses stood above me, in a suit. Sheer Mate Attack rolled up onto his shoulder as he gave an annoying smile.
ROOMMATE YOSHIKAGE: MY NAME IS ROOMMATE, AND I’ve stopped taking my medicine.
The pain only gets worse. In the night, coughs plague my rest and stop me from sleeping. Even walking is an ordeal.
But it’s worth it. One finally moved. And I don’t know why.
My second creation to live, The Pants, has been assisting me with the production of his brothers. He’s more loyal than Joshua was, and of comparable intelligence, too. But he, too, is flawed. I still have yet to surpass that very first experiment.
Is my pain causing my creation to finally be animate? Why? It’s unlikely this is some latent mutant ability, or that all this time working with bricks caused my DNA to mutate… I’m still 100% human. So why?
…
Joshua always led such a troubled existence. Rotten luck, it was always a part of that boy’s life.
That pain, that suffering that was only exacerbated when he became the first of many…
Perhaps suffering builds character after all.
I am surrounded by bricks. I pick one up. I raise it in one hand, looking to the other.
Perhaps I have not suffered enough. I have to NOT LET HIM PUSH THAT SWITCH!!
Roommate stood before all of us, bloodied, preparing to activate his stand, KILLER ROOMMATE. He had gained some new ability, one that allowed him to travel back in time to ruin EVERYONE!
ROOMMATE: yeah yeah FUCK YOU GUYS IM GOING BACK IN TIME
BIG BRICKLY: no… NO!!!
Big Brickly coughed on the ground, blood on his mustache, unable to move. He had spent the last 47 minutes beating Roommate up with zero difficulty, but that SNAKE pulled a TRICK to injure him… And with Greg’s ZA BOOK on the ground behind him, our only hope was to run up and stop him directly…!
POWER: guys i'm almost there!!!
Power was, like, briskly jogging
DEUCE: im also here
ROOMMATE: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA- AUGH
His final, triumphant laugh was interrupted… by my TEX ACT III pulling out a gun and shooting him in the hand!
TEX ACT III: I could always do this.
I had forgotten.
ROOMMATE: YOU PIECES OF SHIIIIT
It only bought a second… but a second was all we needed for her to get in range.
POWER: blood platinum the world
And time froze.
POWER: ace… you really are a reliable guy…
Power took out her hammer, the only sounds filling the world being her own footsteps, as she walked toward Roommate.
POWER: i made it in time. heh. power
Faster than an instant, she unleashes a devastating barrage of hits toward Roommate with her hammer.
POWER: time has begun to move again.
I watched as Roommate was suddenly blown away, as if he had been hit dozens upon dozens of times before I had a chance to blink!
ROOMMATE: AUUUUUUUUUUGH
BIG BRICKLY: she… SHE DID IT 😀
I looked to GREG, who was picking up her ZA BOOK. I can’t believe she was still alive after Roommate’s RUINATION BEAM hit her and nearly killed me. And yet… it didn’t.
To the outside observer, I am a clean picture of health. I even look like how I did in my youth.
A handful of brickmonculi under my employ. An entire brick building under my control. My schematics and math finally working, as if there hadn’t been decades of abject failure.
But the man they all see is just a puppet. Nobody notices how rough its skin is, how it doesn’t blink, how its voice doesn’t come out of its mouth.
And all it took was for my body to become something more. To follow Joshua’s example, and steep myself in the suffering.
They don’t know what’s left of it is in the basement, puppeting it all. Wires and IVs keep it alive, in an eternal state of pain.
You have to suffer for your art, after all.
…But it’s not enough.
…
I was approached by a man the other day. A man who knew I didn’t blink. A man who wasn’t impressed by my creations. A man who knew what was in the basement.
He offered me an opportunity. I’d have more resources for my experiments, and I only had to assist him in a little revenge against a… mutual colleague.
How could I say no?
…
If I could say something embarrassing, real quick.
I was asked why my brickmonculi have such distinct, odd personalities. Mindless drones would be better suited for my goals, right?
They would, but…
I’ve always wanted to be a writer, I suppose. I like making silly character concepts, and I suppose I’ve been taking the opportunity to… use some of them in my work.
And I’ve had this one idea in my head for a while now. A character I made in my childhood.
I think that I finally have the means to bring him to life, to make my true magnum opus. One to surpass my wretched employee in every way.
I think I’ll call him…
ACE : Big Brickly?
I looked to my friend, as he squinted at the mirror, combing his perfect hair. He had healed up pretty well from the fight, due to his “healing factor brah 😈”.
BIG BRICKLY: yeah brah
ACE: I… Thanks for the assist back there.
ACE: You’re… a lot cooler than that Josh guy.
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As a Means to an end.
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