Queen-A Steel Ball Run Story

Hot Pants

"Gyro, if you're that hungry, I have some food we could eat." Nat complained, watching her companion as he cut a piece of meat from a cow hanging from a tree. Normally, Nat would be all for taking food, but the brand on the side of the cow with the letters 'HP' made the animal look less appetizing.

"I'm just taking a small piece. Coyotes have already gotten to this thing anyway." Gyro replied, cutting away at the cow. "See? Barely 600 grams."

"But look at that brand! There's clearly an owner." Johnny agreed with Nat, and Gyro rolled his eyes.

"You two are overreacting. They won't be able to tell."

He was wrong. In the distance, another racer appeared. Nat snapped to get Gyro and Johnny's attention, already figuring that the racer had to be Hot Pants. That 'HP' on the cow...the animal must have been his.

"Gyro, Johnny, he's approaching us." Nat muttered, watching as Hot Pants came over to them.

"What do we do? Talk to him?" Gyro asked.

"No. Just ignore him." Johnny replied, and Hot Pants stopped before them. There were a few tense moments as they all stared at each other, but the moment was broken when Hot Pants threw three ropes over a branch.

There were nooses at the end of each rope.

"Good day to you three. Let's skip the small talk and get straight to the point. I will be hanging you three from this tree." He explained, and Nat's eyes widened slightly as Johnny and Gyro narrowed their eyes at him.

"You ate my cow, didn't you? I had paid for this cow to be grazing in this field in advance. The penalty for cow theft is to be hanged." Hot Pants finished. "Now, put these ropes around your necks-"

"Excuse me, but...what? Gyro's not American. He doesn't know the laws of this country too well-" Nat started to say, when Hot Pants suddenly leaped up towards Gyro, taking out a small spray and spraying it at the man before he could grab and throw his steel ball.

Some flesh-like substance was all over Gyro's right hand, trapping the ball in his palm.

"He's a Stand user!" Gyro shouted when Nat and Johnny prepared to attack, Nat with her gun and Johnny with his nail bullets.

Before either of them could shoot, though, Hot Pants sprayed them with his weapon, hitting both of them in the face, Johnny's eyes getting blocked as Nat's mouth and nose were forced shut. She couldn't breathe, and her gun was now stuck to her hand in an angle that made it impossible to shoot.

"My..my left arm! It's shrinking! He's taking the flesh from my left arm!" Gyro shouted. He tried pushing Hot Pants off of him, but the man sprayed him in the face, covering his eyes and mouth. The last thing he saw was Nat getting up and clawing at her mouth. The next thing he felt was the weight of Hot Pants suddenly off of him, and the sounds of fighting.

Had Nat tackled him away from Gyro?

Not letting the opportunity to retaliate go to waste, Gyro used his steel ball corpse eye to find Hot Pant's spine, then threw the ball at him. The moment it connected, Hot Pants yelled out and dropped his spray, his arms locked in place from how the ball was thrown. Nat crawled away from the enemy and back towards where she was sure Gyro and Johnny were. Her eyes were now covered, too.

"Johnny, shoot him! His arms are locked! Nat can't breathe, shoot him!" Gyro reached out for the woman and was able to grab her as she still uselessly clawed at her mouth. The flesh that was sprayed on there wouldn't budge.

"Listen! There was a bullet wound in the cow! It was already dead!" Johnny shouted. "The wound was from a large caliber! It doesn't match Nat's gun, nor my bullets! You can check!"