Chapter 3

It was the mother of all coincidences, get sent to a province you've never been to for no real reason and run into a man you'd love to have hot anal sex with. Gary and Matt were both quite stunned by the encounter.

"So, my good friend, what brings you to Langley?"

Gary shrugged, "I don't have a clue, Mattykins. Greg House shows up at my house one day bearing plane tickets for me and Dennis for a trip to Vancouver, then we ditched and came here for the fish and chips."

"Waitaminute, Dennis came with you?"

As soon as those words escaped his mouth, Dennis Everret Curry tackled him like a 300 pound linebacker.

"Soooooooooo, you're the infamous Matt Tosoff, eh?"

Gary was in no mood for a slap-fight/shouting contest to start, so he gave Dennis a nice open-palmed slap with the aid of his Stand.

Matt was caught off guard by this action, "SWEET COCK SANDWICH, WHAT THE HELL?!"

"Heh, about that...Y'see, it turns out I've gained a Stand somehow."

"What the fuck are you, a fucking Joestar or something? C'mon, you gotta say 'Yare yare daze' for me, please!"

"Hahahaha, fine", he said before striking a hipshot pose with his right index finger extended, "Yare yare daze..."

"Man, that's cool. So, what the fuck's your Stand called? What does it do?"

"I don't know, it said I have to name it."

"Christ, what are you waiting for? It needs some kind of pop music reference, or it's not up to Hirohiko's standards."

"Hmmm, lemme think....how about 'The Bends'?"

"Great Radiohead album, I say go with it. Plus it'd probably sound cool if you yelled it really loud."

"THE BENDS!"
With that shout, a ripple of negative space shot through the store. Everything but Gary was rendered immobile, the music and chatter stopped. Time had frozen.

"Congratulations", The Bends said, "You've discovered that your Stand power is time freeze."

"Like Dio Brando's 'Worldwide Reading', or is it weak like Jotaro Kujo's 'Stop World'?"

"Closer to 'Worldwide Reading', I'd say, since it lasts longer and is easier to activate. This power shall prove to be very valuable to you in any battles you end up in, but I must warn you, other Stand users will retain mobility in the frozen time for a second or two, and Stand users with similar powers can causes rifts in the frozen time and void its effects."

"Jeez, this is a bit much for me to take in one go. What do you mean in 'in any battles you end up in'? Does this mean I'll have other Stand users after me?"

"I'm not sure, the whole world seems to be thrown into chaos due to this deterioration in the line between reality and fiction, so it'd be a safe assumption that you will have rivals to dispatch along your travels."

"Shit, this is too fucking much like an anime...it's like I'm living a dream or something..."

The Bends smiled sweetly, and then nudged Gary, "Isn't there something you need to do?"

"Oh right, I was looking for a copy of The Great Annhilator..."

"Not that, this...", she gestured at the frozen patrons of the shop.

"Oh yeeeeeeeeeah," he did his best Dio Brando imitation, "let time flow."

The music shot back on, but the sudden re-commencement of the flow of time threw off any conversations previously in progress. Matt stood dumbfounded.

"Dude, what just happened?"

Gary started to laugh, "You'd never believe me if I told you, but I just stopped time."

Everyone in the store stopped what they were doing and stared at him as if he were insane. Matt retained his dumbfounded expression.

"No.....fucking....way..."

Gary was unsurprised by his response, "Yeah, I know it's a bit hard to believe, but trust me...I froze time."

"Man, this is just too fucking great. Gary, you are blessed with freakish powers beyond imagination. May you exploit them for your and my personal gain?"

"Pray tell why?"

"I need a few hundred bucks; I'm heading up to Manchester to meet Allan for an Angels of Light show, fucker's gone all the way from Glasgow just to see 'em. If you'd be as kind as to freeze time and rob the store and its patrons blind I'd gladly take you along."

Gary performed this task without a moment's hesitation. He loved England, Allan Murray and Michael Gira more than damn near anything in life. A minute or two and $9,800 later, Matt and Gary made their great escape to the nearest airport.

END