In this episode, we'll focus on enemy stand user duos in JJBA series. As said in the series, stand users have the tendency to work alone. However, there're a few stand users that formed partnership with each other and established stand duos that corporate pretty well. When these duos come down to a death match, which of them will come on top and claim victory ?
J.Geil & Hol Horse[]
| “ | You really did waste your youth trying to hunt me down... but it looks like you won't succeed! What a pathetic life you've lived!
— J.Geil to Polnareff
|
” |
| “ | Better to be No.2 than No.1 .
— Hol Horse's life motto
|
” |
- Hanged Man is J. Geil's Stand which resides within reflective surfaces. Rather than attacking a person directly, Hanged Man appears in reflective surfaces such as mirrors, windows, puddles of water and even the pupils of someone's eye. It then attacks it's victims reflections through the use of two wrist blades which are sharp enough to cut through flesh with ease and they will bear the wounds of this attack. Hanged Man can travel between reflective surfaces at the speed of light which makes it incredibly hard to actually damage. However it can only move between reflective objects in a linear faction and has to move it's location if it's current surface is covered or destroyed meaning it can be forced into following a particular path.
- Emperor is Hol Horse's stand which takes on the form of a revolver. Emperor fires bullets like a normal gun but Hol Horse is able to freely control the trajectory of his bullets. This enables him to bend his bullets around corners, do a U turn if he misses his target, navigate them through a metal pipe without being able to physically see them and all with enough precision to avoid even incredibly fast stands such as Silver Chariot with no lag time. Hol Horse summons Emperor directly into his hands which makes it perfect for a quick or stealthy attack and he has an infinite number bullets. Emperor works in conjunction with Hanged Man by shattering windows or mirrors in order to give it more angles to attack from.
Squalo and Tiziano[]
| “ | I won't leave even a scrap of him behind, and I'll kill every last member of his team... I'll rip them to pieces and make them pay for what they've done!
— Squalo on the Giorno's group
|
” |
- Clash is Squalo's stand.It takes the form of a shark.It is a long-distance Stand that can be precisely manipulated by Squalo from afar.It can instantly teleport into any body of liquid of a minimal size near the one it is occupying at the moment. Liquids it has occupied include hot soup, wine, fresh or sea water, and even someone's tears. Clash can also sink inside and emerge out bodies of liquid as if they have depth despite being extremely shallow, as well as take anything or anyone along with it when transferring between liquids. Thus it could drag Giorno away through a puddle of water from a leaking pipe.However it cannot teleport into sealed bodies of liquid or teleport more than 2 or 3 meters away from its current position according to Narancia. Moreover the warping process can become slower if Clash is hurt.It also takes a practical size depending on the liquid that it occupies: when in a wine glass, it is about the size of a small fish, but appears to be larger than a canoe when swimming in one of Venice's canals[4]. It seems to be dependant on how much surface the water is covering, as Clash can appear as big as cat when inside a shallow puddle.Although fragile, Clash has the ability to appear inside any mass of liquid and rip off body parts of its target, making it a Stand appropriate for deadly ambushes.
- Talking Head is Tiziano's long-range stand. It is a non-lethal stand that takes the form of a small human face with tentacles attached around it. When activated, this stand will automatically teleport into a human target's mouth and stayed on his/her tongue.After this, whether the victim speaks, writes, or gesticulates, they will always express something false. If Tiziano desires, Talking Head can force a victim to speak up and tell lies or remain silent, depending on the victim's resilience.While partially controlled by Talking Head, the victims are fully aware that they are forced into lying. A savvy interlocutor may understand that something is wrong by watching the clearly distressed victim.When looking into the victim's mouth, it's also not very hard for the interlocutor to spot the Talking Head. There are 3 ways to deactivate this stand : Killing Tiziano, tricking Tiziano into deactivating it, or attacking the victim's tongue with violent force (eg: Stab it, chop it off, etc, Narancia used the third method to cope with it).
Cioccolata and Secco[]
| “ | Battery, Secco ! Don't forget the battery ! I want to film the expression of agony and desperation on their corroding faces from every angle possible.
— Cioccolata
|
” |
Cioccolata and Secco are a pair of Stand users hired by Diavolo to kill off Giorno's group. They're secret members of Diavolo's guard squad whose identities are only known to Diavolo. Cioccolata is a sadistic ex-surgeon who took pleasure in torturing his patients and watching them die in extreme pain.When he was a surgeon, he always tortured and murdered his patients to feed his morbid desire for blood. After murdering his patients, he would always cover the stuff up by claiming them as accidents. Secco was one of his ex-patient who shared the same interest in torture and murder as Cioccolata. In this way, Cioccolata decided not to murder Secco and took him as his human pet.Both of them drew the attention of Diavolo, who took them into his organization and entitled them stand power.
During their story arc, they went on rampage in Rome, killing hundreds of innocent civilians and nearly massacred Giorno's entire group before getting defeated by Giorno.
- Green Dayis Cioccolata's human shape stand that stands beside Cioccolata and allows him to manipulate germs and moles that can rot and destroy the flesh of every form of living things it encountered (people, plants, animals and even stands), killing targets in minutes. It is a wide range stand that can affect a vast city block or a harbor, but it can only attack targets that are present in areas with low altitude. Thus, climbing a little bit higher, staying on the second floor or staying out of the infected region will dodge the attack. Cioccolata also uses the germs to block the blood from leaking out of his body when hurt, allowing him to fight even when his body gets dismembered. However this protection is very limited and can be pierced with brute force.
- Oasis is Secco's stand which covered his skin like clothes. It enhances his physicality, agility and speed, provides limited protection to his body, as well as allowing him to travel through ground and soften the groud, making things around him sink into it and get infected with Cioccolata's germs. However things will stop sinking when Secco leaves the area. Secco can also suck in mud and spit it out as bullets with the help of his stand.
X-factors: H&G-S&T-C&S[]
- Loyalty:70-90-80.Group 2 stand users share a deep bond with each other, with both of them willing to sacrifice their lives to save the other one (Tiziano actually did this,while Squalo went furious and tried his best to to avenge him).Cioccolata and Secco seemingly established a master-and-pet relationship. Secco completely obeys Cioccolata's orders when he's alive, while absolutely willing to flee after Cioccolata's death. Hol Horse is a very unreliable partner, willing to betray or escape when things don't go as planned.
- Experience:85-85-75. The first two groups acquired their stands at an relatively early age and have worked as mercenaries and assassins for a long time. The third group acquired their stands after their early crimes, and didn't get enough chances to use their stands because Diavolo limited their activities due to concerns that their stands were too dangerous and would make too much of a mess.
- Brutality:100-95-100. All of them are ruthless murderers, but Squalo and Tiziano only kill to accomplish tasks, while the rest two groups contain certain people that kill for joy.
- Teamwork:87-90-90. All three groups work together pretty well. All of them pay extra attention to each other's stands and try to make the environment more suitable for each other's stands to function. Examples being Tiziano using his stand to force Narancia to say things that lured the rest of their targets to nearby river ,Cioccolata telling Secco the location of their targets via mobile phone, letting Secco appoarch them and make them sink down and Hol Horse breaking largte windows and glass bottles into scattered pieces with his Emperor, creating more portal for the Hanged Man. The reason why Group 1 is slightly lower than the rest is that Group 2 and Group 3 were formed at the very begining of their stand user careers, while G1 was a temporary group that formed in India and got broken up by Joestar Group a few days later.
- Intelligence: 80-80-85. None of the users here is stupid. However, Cioccolata's medical knowle dge allows him to use the molds to treat his own injuries and strike his opponents at their most fragile parts.
- Calmness:J.Geil and Tiziano are calm individuals who observe their opponents before taking actions. Hol Horse is a bit of a coward and easy to panic when things don't go right. Squalo is a hot-headed individual, but Tiziano can hamper his temper most of the times and prevent him from making reckless decisions. Cioccolata and Secco are all sociopaths, making them extremely unpredictable. Although they are calm most of the times, their psychotic behaviors sometimes burst out and temporarily ruin their calmness. Example being Cioccolata suddenly phoning Secco who had been fighting the heroes and reminding him not to forget filming the painful on their victim's faces, upseting Secco for a while.
Settings[]
Prelude
The afternoon of this Neopolitan town was peculiarly quiet. Echoing around the empty streets were only the noise made by birds that flattered around the silent blocks, exploring the ares that usually greeted them with annoying traffic horns and car smog. However, their joyful exploration came to a quaint end the moment one of them landed on the ground.
The exact second the poor creature made contact with the concrete pavement, what seemed to be tiny colony of mosses immediately emerged from its body, creating a few green dots. The dots multiplied in seconds, covering large portion of its wing in green. Terrified, the creature attempted to hop up,only to collapse on the ground, finding its legs already been consumed. In sheer seconds the bird's entire body was torn apart, with its skin and flesh being devoured by the mosses inch by inch. After a short while, what left on the ground was nothing but a few broken bones. Almost instantly, the other birds fled the hellish scene. Down below them, cars were revealed to be parked randomly in the center of roads, with the already corroded grotesque bodies of drivers and pedestrians displayed around, all of them lay in dead silence , with expression of genuine fear left on the remnants of their faces.
Minutes later, the tranquility was broken when two people appeared on the road, one of them dressed in what seemed to be a weird mutation of a doctor's outfit, with the upper part of the white coat remained usual, but the lower part of it missing, revealing his belly. The other one, however, had his entire body covered with brown armor, only exposing his eyes and teeth.
"Secco, make sure you capture the face of everyone of them," Said the the doctor, pointing towards the corpses,"I'd like to have a better look at my beautiful work of art from every angle."
The other man grunted in submission, and continued on filming.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the town, almost the exact moment Cioccolata called back his stand and began filming, a jeep pulled over at an abandoned warehouse. Hol Horse jumped out of the car, Emperor in hand, and kicked the door open. The twisted dead bodies of the people inside instantly gave him a stun, causing him to drop his cigar. "What...What's the hell ?" Shouted Hol Horse, as J. Geil calmly got off the car and followed him into the house. Witnessing the corpse as well, the serial murderer laughed in a morbid fashion.
"Look like some one had come before us," Smirked the man with two right hands," From now on,I'll settle down here and you'll go into the town to find those Passione hitmen. My stand will assist you as usual."
With that being said, the figure of a mummy sword man appeared in the mirror hung on the wall.
"Hah." Said Hol Horse, now regaining his wits, "With the your powerful stand and my Emperor, I'm sure nobody will be able to stand in our ways."
Walking out of the house, Hol Horse lit up another cigar and jumped to the driver seat. As he drove past the avenue, more bodies showed up. In order to sustain his precious calmness, the pony fixed his eyes tight to the front, ignoring the rotted flesh piling up on both sides. This simple action banned him from taking notice of a black fin popping up from the canal beside as the jeep crossed the bridge.
"Follow that jeep, the man inside must be one of those agents sent here to retrieve the arrow hidden inside that sculpture. But according to boss's source, two agents has been sent here for this mission. So we won't make any moves before the second one shows up." Said Tiziano, who watched the jeep disappear behind buildings in the town center through a telescope. "We might need to get closer. He's getting out of the range of your stand."
Squalo nodded in agreement, as he started the engine of their car, readying to track down their targets and accomplish Diavolo's sinister task.
The match
Arriving at the gate of the museum which supposed to be hiding one of Passione’s secret magical tool inside, Hol Horse got out of the car and entered it, carefully avoiding to step on the rotten bodies of museum’s security guard.
Edging himself into the first exhibition room, an arrow displayed in the big showcase set in the center of the room instantly caught the pony’s attention. “Wow, I didn’t expect it to be this easy.” Said Hol Horse, as he broadened his eyes and strode towards the showcase. A few minutes behind him, a fish-shaped object began to form inside a bottle of coke beside the dead body of its previous owner who met his doom in a painful way during his visit to this museum filled with not-so-ordinary ancient heritage.
Suqalo and Tiziano had followed the man with an invisible semi-automatic pistol here, observing him from the window while still wondering the possible whereabouts of the second agent. "Two tasks merging into one," Said Squalo, as he pointed to the bodies on the street, " After putting an end to this clown, we still have two escaped human scum to deal with. Look like the boss's source is wrong, I haven't caught any sights of other stand users in this town except those two sickos." Tiziano nodded in agreement as they followed Hol Horse into the museum.
Back in the room, Hol Horse had reached the platform on which the stood the showcase, forming the Emperor in his hand and aiming it at its glass cover, reading to blow it open. However, the moment he was about to take action, a dark mist formed inside the showcase, slowly clustering into the shape of the upper body of a mummified sword man, wielding its sword rapidly as if trying to signal him something. Recognizing his partner, Hol Horse paused in puzzle. Almost in seconds he sensed the weirdness of this seemingly harmless showcase as the reflection of his bewildered face displayed beside the Hanged Man, with slight dose of fluctuation....It dawned on him that the showcase had all the way been a water tank.
“Why would they fill it with water ?” Hardly had Hol Horse began seeking for a proper answer to this bizarre scene when the mist of Hanged man dissipated in the tank and a huge entity appeared inside the tank, tearing apart the glass shield in sheer seconds, going straight for the petrified Hol Horse frozen aside with his mouth wide open and eyes filled with genuine shock, seemingly had forgotten the fact that he still had a pistol in hand.The creature turned its body around as the water welled out of the huge tank, smashing Hol Horse with its tail, knocking him off the platform where the showcase had been placed. With the liquid sprayed over the entire equine, the creature made its way across the wet platform, knocking other showcases aside with its tail, preparing to thrust itself into the cowboy’s body.
All in a sudden, a painful roar emerged from the window as a bloody hole appeared on Squalo’s shoulder, forcing the hot-headed assassin to call back his stand. Once again confused, Hol Horse looked at the spot where the mechanized shark had been twirling seconds ago, noticing the Hanged Man waving its sword in the mirror shaped by the water splashed around the marble floor. “Thanks, Lord J.Geil. “ Said Hol Horse in relief as he regained his cool and turned to the direction where the roar came from, capturing Squalo and Tiziano running away from the window. “ Who the hell are you people ?!” Hol Horse immediately stood up and hopped out of the window, opening fire at his attackers while giving chase, with the hanged man by his side, flashing from one window to another.
As the two duos of stand users engaged in a game of chasing, slowly leading them to the river area, the noise made by their screams and yelling caught the attention of the doc and the patient."Hmm, interesting, someone else has entered this game. Those two familiar faces must be after us. As for that gunslinger running behind them, he doesn't seem to be that much of a threat judging from the way he's handling that pistol--he's not even taking proper aim. Track them down Secco, and make sure you tear everyone of them apart." Ordered the doctor, as he took out a piece of candy from his pocket and fed it to Secco. Swallowing the candy, Secco snarled in sheer excitement as he jumped up and dived into the road beneath. The man in the Oasis dug through the ground with ease, creating a notable line as he darted towards the river bank, sinking the vehicles around his swimming route.
Back to the river bank,where the battle had reached a new climax of ferocity as Hol Horse rapidly fired at the Passione duo. Squalo and Tiziano didn't take time fighting back, as they slowly lured Hol Horse into Slash's home field. One bullet narrowly missed Tiziano, tearing into the ferry window behind. However, to his shock, the bullet stopped in the air and turned back, firing into his left shoulder. "How did--?" He groaned in pain as he sheltered himself behind a pole. Light of anger gleamed within the eyes of Squalo as he tightened his fists and calling out his stand.
Hol Horse was only a few feet away from the pole behind which Tiziano was helplessly wiping the blood on his shoulder when Slash tore the wooden dock path apart and jumped out of the river .Barely had Hol Horse realized what was happening before the giant shark swung him into the water.Drowning, the cowboy desperately attempted to defend himself with his pistol, only to find it hard taking aim as the water obscured his sight.
The last thing the user of the Emperor saw was the horrifying shadow of Slash, swimming towards him with its mouth wide open, revealing razor-sharp teeth. Seconds later a red mist started to scatter around the dock as a blood stained cowboy hat rose to its surface, with some body parts floating nearby.
With the problem seemingly settled and no sight of hanged man, Squalo helped his injured friend retreat back onto the road, unaware of the hanged man watching them from the shattered window behind.
"That moron...." Thought the disappointed J.Geil, as he took a glance at the mess displayed in the river, not even showing the slightest indication of sympathy.
The killer was about to go on eliminating the Passione duo when something out of ordinary caught his attention. One of the road lamp stationed on the east side of the street suddenly leaned down in a shaky fashion. The advertisement board and poles next to the lamp soon followed and crumbled down in similar ways.
"Something else is coming...."
Back on the road, Squalo and his partner were once again sent into running, only this time they weren't luring someone, but literally getting chased by a murder machine. From the way the solid road over there seemingly transformed into marshy whirlpools, sinking the features placed around, it was not hard for them to tell the arrival of their original target, one of the two human garbage, Secco the sociopath.
"Cioccolata must be around here as well." Thought Tiziano, as they burst into a cafe, where bottles filled with coffee and other beverages could be found on the counter. Squalo was still busy breaking glasses and pouring water on the floor to create a potential pond when Secco popped out of the ground outside, with soil hardening into iron bullet inside his mouth and a video cam in hand.
As Secco causually stepped into the cafe, the phone inside his armor suddenly rang. Burying all of his confusion, annoyance and embrassment deep, deep into the bottom of his heart, Secco picked it up and answered it with his routined grunt of submission. "Secco, good boy ! Don't forget to do the video....That's your second most important task, with killing them as the first priority of course...If you manage to record the entire procedure of their death, from the first drop of blood to the rattles, more candy'll be added to your possession."
Taking this as an opportunity, Tiziano immediately installed the Talking head onto Secco's tongue. "I've already killed him and finished the videos master. No problem." Under the spell of Tiziano's stand, Secco spitted out a line of deception."Good ! Then come back and we shall leave this town." Said the rejoiced doctor on the other side of the mobile. "EEhh...but...." Puzzled, Secco attempted to reverse the false report, only to find his tongue out of his control. Almost instantly he realized that he had been possessed by the lying stand that was rumored to be used by one of their pursuers.
"Come back. We must leave this town before more of them arrive." Said Cioccolata in a commanding tune.
Secco was to churn out another grunt to signal his master the truth when Squalo on the other side of the room suddenly groaned in miserable pain. Both Secco and Tiziano turned to Diavolo's most loyal guard,who had blood gushing out of his slit-open throat, with the hanged man waving its sword in a triumphant defiance next to Squalo's reflection on the water-covered marble beneath.With all of his surplus energy gone, Suqalo collapsed down and crashed on the ground. After a brief dose of trembling, he froze into eternal silence.
After pulling down Squalo, the hanged man spared no hesitation flashing to the mirror placed in the corner and proceeded to give the stoned Tiziano a stab on the leg, which literally added insult to injury. Tiziano managed to dodge another stab as he edged his reflection out of the mirror in a trice. However, his luck didn't continue when another piece of hardened soil from Secco's mouth pierced into his temple,instantly delivering him to hell. He didn't even have a proper chance to use his ill-designed stand. With the primary target exterminated, Secco turned to the Hanged Man.
Now identifying the hanged man as another threat, Secco spitted out the clay bullet inside his mouth and aimed at the mirror. The bullet clattered the mirror into pieces.In complete contrast to Secco's expectation, the hanged man didn't break into pieces, but shrank into one of the segments on the ground.
"Ku ku ku ku ku ku ku....." Smirked J. Geil back into the garage, " You really did wasted those bullets trying to tear me apart. There's no single way can you defeat my stand."
Frustrated by the effect, Secco smashed a beer bottle at the broken glass, only to find the Hanged man vanished inside and reappeared in another piece of glass nearby. The figure made a gesture to stab Secco's reflection on the hand, the same wound emerged on the Secco outside the mirror instantly.
"What.....? What....? " Secco roared out the rest of his bullets, launching them towards the broken glass, while smashing other segments with his hands and feet, only to create more portals for the hanged man, allowing the mummy figure to teleport from one shard to another at a high rate, stabbing into Secco's body from various angle. The bloody holes on Secco's body soon accumulated into large scars and wounds. The desperate Secco had no choice but to leave the glass alone. However,what Secco's devolved set of brain didn't visualize was the fact that he had exposed himself to a larger mirror as his entire body got reflected in the glass door. With the large screen provided by the undamaged door, the hanged man made a final violent stab as the sword pierced the crack on Secco's helmet, puncturing his left eye and digging deep into his brain, messing up his already messed-up mind. Cioccolata's pet managed to left a final snarl of anger and shock before the the armor on his body vanished along his life. The remnants of Secco slammed on the ground of the cafe, perfectly fitting with the catastrophic town scene created by his master, who had been listening to all the noise and screams from the phone throughout the entire confrontation......
Back in the garage, J.Geil was drunk in the rejoicing feeling of success.All two Passione guards had been exterminated, and another hostile stand user was added to the death roll as a bonus.
"And here comes a question...Where did that stand user come from ?" As he pondered over this odd question, a few green dots emerged from his arm. The dots soon multiplied and spread to other parts of his lower body, followed by excruciating pain."The f**k are these.....!" J.Geil, now with half of his body paralyzed,slowly being devoured by the demonic colonies of molds, was forced to kneel down on the ground,completely exposing his body to the effective area of Green Day.
"Noooooooooo! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" J.Geil roared in agony as the green germs slowly climbed up to his shoulder and landing on his twisted face. A mix of sweat, blood and tear flowed down from his face as the flesh-consuming tiny creatures gorged over his cheeks, curving into his flash and literally skinning him alive. Although one of his eyes had been devoured, J.Geil was still conscious. What he saw before his second eye got torn apart was nightmarish scenes even for a brute like him : Hundreds and thousands of hands tore open the ground below him and grabbed him by his legs and arms. Followed by the hands were the indignant faces of the innocent souls murdered by him throughout the decades, each of them staring at him fiercely, with anger and hatred filled inside their eyes. Among them was the sister of the Silver Chariot, who pressed at his forehead and sank her fingers into his brain, dragging out his soul and pulling it into the ground, sending it into an endless term of punishment in the place known as hell.
"Arhhhhhhhhhhhhh !" The remnant of J.Geil's flesh let out a hauling string of scream. Seconds later the screams disappeared and what left on the ground was only a set of cracked bones and corroded flesh.
A few minutes later, the town went back into silence, with another victim claimed by Green Day. They say within a duel between broke souls, only the most twisted one shall prevail. Leaving up to this saying, the doctor drove away after inspecting the bodies of his pet and Tiziano. As for the unknown killer that tore apart his beloved pet's skull, he was certain that the killer had been turned into a corpse somewhere in this town, because no forms of life in this town could escape from Green Day once activated , not even a tiny bird.....
Expert's opinion
- 3rd : Squalo and Tiziano: Stands too situational, not suitable for this simulation.
- 2nd: J.Geil and Hol Horse: The hanged man being an inscrutable, fast and efficient killing tool, but it can only focus on one prey at a time and it is paired with a total clown that can do nothing.
- 1st: Cioccolata and Secco. Best pairs of stands that work perfectly together, a city range killing weapon plus a environment manipulator that turns the terrain into targets of the weapon of mass destruction, busting the two other groups with ease.