Good Times Must Come to an End(1)

– CI prison base , Location: Unknown: 8:00 PM –

Colonel Tartarus along with his Stand "The Perfect World" were walking down a hallway within one of the many giant facilities of the Chaos Insurgency. As he was moving along, he halted his advance the moment he stepped in front of a door, which he opened to let himself in through the entrance that led to a cell.

A cell, belonging none other than Joseph Joestar.

Along with one of the the Perfect World's cube that was attached to his neck keeping Joseph's Stand Hermit Purple disabled, he appeared to be very battered.

"Even after my men tried forcing you to talk over the days I've had you under custody and my presence in this prison base, you still resist talking?"

Joseph merely scoffed, "What is there for me to talk about?" he said with a sneer.

"Don't play dumb, I checked deeper into your records more thoroughly, and you had ties with Serpent Hand agents in the past during your... days here."

"So... you want to know the "why" behind it?"

"Indeed. Give me the answer to the "whys" and perhaps I might be more kind to you."

"How about... no!"

Tartarus sighed in disappointment, "You're more stubborn than I thought. Very well. Don't say it, but you will remain in this prison base until I see fit to use you again. Also I might have found a long-term solution to maintain Stand powers disabled."

Joseph appeared to be intrigued by his words, "Hm?"

Inserting his hand under his coat, Tartarus retrieves a metal cuff adorned with strange red runic symbols on them. With a simple mental command of his Stand, the Perfect World immediately pinned Joseph to a wall, allowing Tartarus to place the cuffs on his wrists and the Perfect World removed the cube from his neck before stepping back.

Upon feeling the cube was removed from him, Joseph felt his power returning and a sense of freedom lifted him as he grinned, "Big mistake removing that cube! Hermit Purple!"

Raising his hand up, Joseph let out a roar, attempting to call forth his Stand, which... never came.

"What?!" Joseph exclaimed, confused and was immediately kicked to the floor by Tartarus, "GAH!"

"Oh Joseph, those anomalous symbols on your cuffs are designed to prevent your soul from using any given ability that uses any spiritual power to activate. It required some research but it seems to be working. Now I don't have to waste my Stand ability on you. Goodbye for now, Mr. Joestar."

With an evil laugh, Tartarus retreats from the cell and the door closes shut tight behind him.

"Son of a bitch!" Joseph flew into a roar as he struck his fist on a nearby wall. Moments later, he drops down to the floor and sighs, "Using hamon without my Stand to escape will be trickier, but even if it worked, how would I get out?" he pondered, "I was brought here blindfolded so I have zero clue regarding this place's layout and I'm just one man. For now I can just wait for an opportunity to come to me I guess."

——————————————————————

– In a hallway, Site-17, America - 10:00 PM –

Currently, Rodeo was resting alone in his team's room after he was trying to look for his team and hadn't seen them or the rest since this morning. Since that time, he has made an effort to clear his mind about some things that he had been told about but still his team has not shown up to the room. Sure the site-17 staff were still roaming around the facility but he just couldn't find them anywhere, so he found it a bit odd why he couldn't find them and that they were not at any particular location within the facility.

"Where could they have gone? I couldn't find them since... 10:40 AM? Yeah, 10:40 AM. If they went on a mission without me... No. No. They would notify me beforehand. Site transfer? That's definitely not the case either," Rodeo sighed, "Unless they're playing a joke with me, this could turn out badly."

Rodeo was lost in contemplation when, at that moment, he saw Karl hurrying into his room and halting just in front of him.

"Karl! Finally! Where are the others? I haven't seen them since this morning!"

"They are among us!" Karl shouted, sounding a bit panicked.

"What?"

"No time to explain! This is serious stuff! Come with me!"

Trusting Karl's words, Rodeo followed him to wherever he was going.

——————————————————————

A little while later, Karl and Rodeo were now standing outside the entrance of the cafeteria, both readied themselves on what dangers lied there.

"This is it kid! The danger is there!" Karl said as he brought out his hammer.

Rodeo, meanwhile, drew out Casull and Jackal, "Could it be an Scp that had breached containment? An enemy Stand, or worse?" he pondered. And as he opened the door, the first thing he met was darkness as the cafeteria lights were gone out.

"Hmmm…"

Cautiously, Rodeo and Karl both made their way into the cafeteria and walked through the darkness. Just as they were a couple of steps forward, the door behind them suddenly closed.

"...Biscuits."

At that moment, the lights in the cafeteria came on and what he was met... was a party confetti blasting on his face from Karl.

"Ha!"

"...What?"

"SURPRISE!"

Spinning around, Rodeo found Michelle and the others standing in the middle of the room with a table that had cake, snacks, drinks, and filled with other things that you would see at a party. The cafeteria also had party decorations placed on the walls with one of them saying "Welcome back, Rodeo."

It was at this moment that Rodeo fully realized what the occasion was for.

"A welcome back party... for me," Rodeo asked, feeling surprised by this.

Karl pats his back and said, "Yup, and your friend Michelle thought it all out for you."

Rodeo gazed back at Michelle, "Really?"

Michelle winked her eyes at him, "Yup, and the rest helped... except for Rip and Zorin."

"I... don't know what to say."

"What's there to say? We made this occasion for you being back from two universes, man," Evan steps in as he brings out a knife, "Now slice the damn cake."

Grabbing the knife from Evan, Rodeo looks at the cake (which is totally not an SCP) and proceeds to cut it with a knife and to the cheers of his teammates. Amelia assisted in giving the slices of cake to each person in the room except for Queen's Requiem since they were Human Stand so they couldn't eat but everyone else could. Rodeo, as he was watching his friends enjoying the party and having food and beverages he noticed Rip, who was holding Zorin's head in her arms, was sitting on a chair in the corner and just watching them.

"Don't want to join the party?"

"No." The two refused.

"...As you wish."

Deciding to ignore them, Rodeo focused on the others, and soon noticed Evan approached the Dimitrescu daughters from a distance.

"This might not end well."

"How's it going? Names Evan. Strong, intelligent, attractive, exquisitely proportioned, and above all, the master of time~" Evan stated, an attractive smile growing on his face. "So wanna to get to know each other better or should we go straight to a "four-way" right away~?"

"ಠ_ಠ"

"ಠ_ಠ"

"ಠ_ಠ"

Annoyed, the three sisters both kicked his leg.

"MY LEG!" Evan cried out and began to hop himself backwards, holding his leg until he bumped into someone, and that someone was Alcina, who was glaring at him menacingly.

"Ask my daughters again," Alcina growled, her sword-like claws protruding from her hands, "I'll cut your head off." she added.

"._. Yes ma'am."

Rodeo just laughed at the whole thing as he looked around and spotted Karl seated on a chair next to a table while holding a cold drink in his hand. At that moment, a hand emerged underneath the table and snatched his drink out of his hands.

"What the hell?" Karl exclaimed as he noticed his hands were empty and peered underneath the table to find the one who took it, only to find Dr. Bright clutching his lukewarm beverage.

"😐"

"ಠ_ಠ"

"...Forgive and forget, Magneto?" Bright chuckled uneasily.

"I'LL GOD DARN KILL YA!" Karl shouted as he started strangling him.

"UNCLE! UNCLE! UNCLE!"

"Bright you really need to stop getting in trouble." Iris watched the exchange between Karl and Bright and let out a sigh.

Rodeo chuckled at the moment. Other than the abnormal interactions, he could see the rest were just normally chatting with each other or enjoying the cake, snacks or drinks although Rip and Zorin, both who just watched them enjoying the party.

As Rodeo watched the entire thing from the sidelines, he noticed Michelle standing next to him.

"Hey."

"Hi. Like the party?"

"It's really great, Michelle. Seeing the others having a good time, smiling, conversing and enjoying themselves for once, it's wonderful, and makes me feel great. Thank you for this Michelle."

Michelle grinned, "No problem. Just helping... a friend out," she said, sounding a bit hurt from making that last part. "And in fact, the decorations on the walls were hand-made by Donna alone. She's really good at tailoring and very talented at that, she only needed the materials to make them."

"I see. She did a great job. Jones ain't joining us?" he asked.

"We tried to, but... he still needed to take care of some paperwork regarding our new members of our team who were the Resident Evil 8 characters and those two vampires, even though they are joining us for their own reasons."

"Don't worry, there are dozens of security personnel who are secretly observing them right now, and so long as we keep an eye on them. We should be good. For now let's just enjoy this."

"Yeah."

The two continued watching the party and seeing the others enjoying themselves. That is until two people, who we all know and hate a lot, show up at the cafeteria.

Dr. Numita and Dr. Logan.

"The hell is going on here?!"

Everybody paused what they were doing upon noticing the two doctors who appeared unhappy and afflicted.

"Dr. Logan?" Rodeo frowned, not long before noticing a new face that was Numita, "And you are?" he asked.

At that moment, Miguel emerged from Rodeo's shadow and immediately whispered to him who the other man with Dr. Logan was and learning the answer stunned Rodeo.

"Her dad came here after I left?" Rodeo whispered back.

"Yeah."

"Crap."

"I'm sorry, who are you two to simply barge in here without notice?" Alcina questioned the doctor, giving him a cold look as she took a sip of her wine.

"You don't have the right to speak and do whatever you want," Numita spat out at the towering woman, "Even with that beauty you're just another monster in this world of anomalies. Same goes to all of you here." he said, pointing to almost everyone else.

"Excuse me?" Alcina muttered, feeling insulted but managed to hold herself from ripping the doctor to pieces.

"You heard the man, freak." Dr. Logan steps in, "Throwing a party for that bomb cat who brings trouble wherever he breathes and walks without permission is not in SCP protocol. All SCPs should be in their cell during certain hours."

"We asked permission from Jones. He allowed it." Michelle stated.

"Then he is more of a buffoon for allowing you all to simply hold a celebration for…" Numita added, casting a cold glance at Rodeo, "This disaster bring anomaly."

"You don't know me, Dr. Numita."

"While that is almost completely true. However, I do from your records," Numita stated, turning to face Amelia with a more detached expression, "Unlike certain disappointments who think it's a great idea to treat an anomaly like a human when they are not."

Amelia could only stare at her father in complete anger.

Not looking at his disappointment of a daughter, Numita turned to face everyone, "I'll make one thing clear to all of you that, this is the SCP Foundation," he said, "We have a rule where we don't create attachments to anomalies and are meant to be contained so that this world stays breathing, no matter how nice or safe that Scp is, especially SCPs which you frequently visit on a daily basis, like 053 or 999 or... that fool Iris over there."

"Fuck you!" Iris shouted in anger, feeling highly insulted by his words.

"You say another word, we will rip your head off!" Michelle threatened.

"Go ahead. Do it then, or else you will just prove to us that you are truly monsters and risk losing your freedom that you already enjoy in an instant."

"I'm starting to already hate this guy." Zorin murmured, and Zorin couldn't help but agreed.

Evan managed to hear Zorin's words and whistled, "Woah, when a pair of Nazis hated the same person as you do, then there is something wrong about him."

"This party is over. Get back to your cells and the rest of you get back to work," Numita told everyone in an authoritative manner before glaring back at Rodeo, "And you, I've read the files on you and properly analyzed your missions and events you were involved in. And from my perspective, all of those events in one way seem to result in the deaths of many of our people, which only serves to highlight the fact that you are nothing more than a walking calamity magnet. I'll make one thing clear… know your place. You will follow what the foundation directs rather than acting on your own initiative. At the end of the day we are in charge of you, we own your team and their freedom of moving around in this site, you damn SCP."

Hearing his words, all Rodeo could do was glaring at Numita with shadows clouded over his eyes.

"Now all you leave this cafeteria immediately. The party is over or we will just force you out with a Mobile Task Force. Come on, Dr. Logan."

Numita and Logan were about to head out the door when Carlos, the parrot who had become the Stand Horus, stood in their path.

"What the? Out of our way, you damn bird!"

The Skeletal bird Stand simply shook his head, refusing his order.

"What do you mean no?!"

Carlos then pointed behind the two, and they turned around to see the Rodeo and everyone looking at him angrily.

"Tell your bird to let us pass."

"No, not until I say something to you."

"I'm not interested. Let us pass."

"No."

With a scowl, Numita stormed up to Rodeo and was about to teach him a lesson when Amelia stood in front of Rodeo with her Stand out to face her father.

"Out of the way, Amelia. I need to smack some sense into him."

"...Stay away from my son."

That statement caused Karl to spit his drink out.

"Adopted." Amelia added.

"Oh."

Numita was also taken back by his own daughter's words, "You would treat this entity as your adoptive son?! You've lost it!"

"No, she has not lost it," Rodeo retorted, positioning himself directly in front of Numita, "She has changed for the better. Not trapped in a heartless shell like you two have been. You two are just trying to establish your dominance over everyone and assert your correctness while refuting our positions. Let me tell you something, you are wrong. You need us Numita, because you can't fight because you are humans while we aren't and we can take the risks while you just sit at your desk and do paperwork. You have no idea the amount of people, especially anomalies like myself, take the risk and sacrifice for keeping this world from blowing up on our faces. Why? Because you don't give a damn about their sacrifice and effort. You just care for the results and knowledge gained from it for your own benefits."

This seems to infuriate Numita, "You-"

"No! You listen to me, gramps! We are needed here because we have the skills, the guts and the knowledge to handle situations that are beyond your capabilities so if you lock us out, you doom us all! I might bring disasters but I at least manage to put an end to them, and occasionally even learn from them so that I may improve and save more lives in the future. My team has shed blood, sweat and tears in these few months to prevent our enemies from destroying us right away. What did you two do? Nothing. You just bark. That's all you do. Bark but can't bite."

Noticing he didn't talk back, Rodeo continued, "So Dr. Numita, I want you to hear me well. You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us. I suggest you soften that callous heart of yours to an understanding one and perhaps make amends with Amelia here. If not, though, and continue to hurt hurt my team and friends, I ain't gonna save you when death walks on your doorstep or save you from... me."

"..."

Looking at Carlos, Rodeo gestured him to step aside from the door and the Bird Stand did so.

"You may leave now."

"And go fuck yourself!" Spy, Karl, Zorin, and Jacob all said to him.

Logan and Numita ended up striding out of the cafeteria furiously and left. Rodeo let out a sigh and rubbed his forehead in annoyance and frustration.

"Idiots killed the mood here," Karl remarked beside Rodeo as he looked at the group, "Guys, enjoy the party. The night is still long!" he said in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"I'm heading for the rooftop to get some fresh air, you guys party. I'll be back." Rodeo said to them in a low voice as he departed the cafeteria.

"I'll go check on him." Michelle said as she went after Rodeo.

"Damn the old man." Amelia sighed, feeling angry at her father's words, yet very satisfied when she and Rodeo talked back to him.

"Hey, that was brave of you to say." Green complimented.

"Yes, but our leader seemed down when the party we had with Michelle got ruined," Spy concluded, "So if anyone has a plan to bring back the positivity, by all means, make one, because his mental health needs to be good otherwise he will snap one day and we will all live to regret it."

"He's right, you know." Molly agreed.

"...I have a solution." Jeff said, an idea formed in his mind.

Everyone turned their attention to him.

"Sorry. Never caught your name. Who are you?" Karl asked.

"My name's Jeff." Jeff responded, evoking laughter from several individuals who are familiar with a certain meme.

"Give us a solution Jeff." Spy uttered.

Looking at Miguel, Jeff asked him, "How good exactly does your uncle train you with a guitar?"

In response to his question, Miguel brought out his guitar and said, "Very well mi amigo."