Welcome to my first project on this site: a rewrite of Stardust Crusaders in my image. I won't make this a particularly self-indulgent fic, and it may seem pretty much the same for this first chapter aside from a few little changes that hint at bigger ones later in the series. Enjoy!

CHAPTER 1: AWAKENING OF EVIL SPIRITS

The Canary Islands, 1983:

It's early evening on the high seas, between the Canary Islands and the edge of the Moroccan mainland. The crisp salt breeze and tropical warmth, combined with the sound of the sea rippling and the sight of the sky slowly lighting up as the sun begins to go down to the west, create a truly beautiful vision of a seaman's paradise.

In the midst of all this, a small treasure hunting boat is trawling the seabed for a century-old treasure. Thought to have been lost at sea after a steamboat accident almost a hundred years earlier in February of 1889, this box of treasure drifted along the ocean currents for decades, before coming to rest on the side of an underwater mountain near the African coast. It was discovered by a deep-sea expedition in the mid-1970s, but was forgotten about until three treasure hunters discovered the report of its' existence.

Now, the boat hoists the box out of the depths. It is over seven feet long, yet rather narrow, and encrusted in barnacles. The treasure hunters squabble over how much it will be worth, and what might be in it as they load it onto the boat. One of them remarks how odd it is that the box is locked from the inside, but the other two do not care. They notice a name, "DIO", carved into the lock, but once more no interest is shown in anything but the contents. A crowbar proves incapable of opening the box; so as the sun begins to set, an oxyacetylene torch is found to open the box.

A few days later, the ship was found drifting in Moroccan waters, in perfect working order, yet completely unmanned. The galley still had three half-consumed cups of coffee, and there was no sign of any struggle. All that remained was the opened metal box, which seemed to have resembled a coffin in many aspects, lying on the deck next to the oxyacetylene torch. Nobody knew what the box had actually contained; all that was known was that it existed. Many suspected treasure was contained inside, but none was found on the ship. And within a few months, all had been forgotten…

Tokyo, Japan, 1987:

We get a sweeping shot of the Tokyo skyline, before gradually cutting to a municipal jail, as a police report is read off "Jotaro Kujo. Occupation: High School student. Height: 195 centimeters; Weight: 82 kilograms. His father, Sadao Kujo, is a Japanese jazz musician known internationally, while his mother, Holly Joestar-Kujo, is an American homemaker of British descent.". Inside, a nervous middle-aged blonde-haired woman is conversing with two police officers, one of whom is reading the report.

"Yes, all this is true. Jotaro is my son." She chokes out, with a quiver in her voice. "It seems like his friends at school call him 'JoJo', taking the two syllables that his name begins and ends with. Kinda lame if you ask me" says the other officer. The poor woman looks like she is about to have a heart attack, as she asks even more nervously "I-I need to know…how many people did Jotaro kill? No, I'd rather not know after all!" as she nears the point of tears.

"Oh relax, nobody was killed" says the first officer "In fact, the thugs who attacked him were all armed to the teeth, and one was a former pro boxer. As a result, he broke fifteen bones between them, and destroyed their testicles while he was at it. All of them were hospitalized as a result.". The second officer tells the woman, introduced as Holly Joestar-Kujo, that she needs to make sure her son understands how badly things could have gone for him.

As they make their way into the bowels of the prison, the policemen comment on how full the prison has been recently, and how Jotaro is free to go. Holly catches sight of her son, and begins to run towards his cell. As she runs, she has flashbacks of him as he was growing up: playing ball with him as a kid, him winning at a track meet, him complimenting her cooking, and the whole time growing up into a fine young man.

"Jotaro…Jotaro…Jotaro…Jotaro…JOTARO!"

…

"SHUT UP, DAMMIT! STOP YELLING SO LOUD, OLD LADY!"

"Okay~!"

And thus we get our first glimpse of Jotaro Kujo, a tall, muscular delinquent sitting on a bed in his prison cell. He wears a long trenchcoat, a unique hat, and designer trousers. His eyes are a deep shade of turquoise. As he lies back down on his bed, one of the officers attempts to rouse him, only to be denied.

"You should go home. I'll be staying in here for a while. After all, I seem to have been possessed by an evil spirit. I have no idea what it will make me do next, so it's best if I stay in here. I could barely stop it during that fight, so for everyone's sake, I need to stay in here." He says. Before the officers or Holly can respond, all three of Jotaro's cellmates rush the cell door. "PLEASE LET US OUT! HE'S NOT KIDDING ABOUT THE EVIL SPIRIT!". As one of the officers gets the prisoners back into line, Jotaro produces a beer practically out of thin air, and begins drinking it in front of the dumbfounded group.

"HOW'D YOU GET A BEER IN JAIL?!" Asks one of the policemen. "I told you, it's that evil spirit. For some reason, it keeps bringing me things" responds Jotaro, as a copy of Shonen Jump floats into his hands and a nearby radio spontaneously turns on. As the policemen commentate on the absurdity of the whole chain of events, Jotaro rises to his feet. "If that's not enough to get you to understand why I need to be kept here…then I'll just have to show you better proof."

With that, he stretches out his hand, and a ghostly purple arm extends out past his hand, reaching out of the cell and stealing a holstered gun, before dragging it back into Jotaro's hands. "Well? Did you see my evil spirit?!" he asks "If not…watch this." He holds the gun up to his head and pulls back the hammer. The other inmates cower in the corner, while the policemen panic and Holly screams at her son not to pull the trigger.

BANG!

Everyone reflexively looks away, but when they look back, instead of a dying juvenile delinquent on the floor, they see a slightly shakes young man with a bullet suspended in midair, inches from his skull. Behind him, the same ghostly purple arm from earlier is holding the bullet between thumb and forefinger.

"Now do you see what I'm talking about? It's almost like there's someone behind me, who decided to bond to me and never go away" says Jotaro, as he returns the officer's gun to him, while the bullet harmlessly falls to the ground. "His grandpa Joseph has strange abilities too" thinks Holly "But what's happened to my son all of a sudden?".

Tokyo International Airport:

"Papa! Papa! Over here!"

"Holly!"

In this bustling airport, we see a father-daughter reunion 20 years in the making. Holly Joestar-Kujo rushes into the embrace of her aged father Joseph Joestar, still a muscular giant of a man even at almost 70 years of age. His hair has gone grey with the decades, and he has grown a beard, but he is still very much the same man who fought and defeated the Pillar Men almost 50 years earlier.

After a few moments of light-hearted catching up, including Holly tickling her father mercilessly, Joseph decides that it's time to bring up the big question. "How's Jotaro?" After a few moments, Holly breaks down crying, clearly worried about why a ghostly arm that only she could see sprouted from her son's back to steal a gun and then subsequently catch a bullet.

This piques Joseph's interest, particularly the part where only Holly could see the arm. As he reassures Holly that everything will be okay, he snaps his fingers, and a figure in red Middle Eastern garb rises from a nearby seat…

Tokyo Municipal Prison:

Meanwhile, Jotaro is now playing with a radio-controlled race car that his 'evil spirit' has acquired for him. In fact, the spirit has been quite busy; the cell is now furnished less like a prison cell and more like a modest apartment, with chairs, electronics, exercise equipment, and even a thermos of coffee. One of the nearby policemen silently panics inside his head. "Shit, he keeps getting more stuff in his cell! And whatever is possessing him, it's clearly violent. If word of this gets to the higher-ups, I'll be fired in a heartbeat!"

"He's no longer your problem" comes a voice from behind the policeman, as Joseph Joestar steps into view "I'll be taking my grandson home now." "Your grandson?" remarks Jotaro. "Please stay back! He's too dangerous to go near!" exclaims the officer. "I'll take my chances. Now move!" responds Joseph, before picking up both officers by their shirt collars and throwing them off to the side.

As Holly pleads with Jotaro to come out of his cell, the two JoJos have an intense staredown. "Come out. It's time to go home." says Joseph. "Get lost, old man. I didn't ask you to waste your time flying from New York to come here. You can't do anything to help me…nobody can, Gramps." Responds Jotaro, before holding up a small metal object. Joseph's (understandable) reaction is one of shock. "Huh?! That's the pinky from my artificial left hand! How'd he take it without me noticing?"

"So…did you see or feel it, eh, old man?" asks Jotaro, turning away "Didn't think so. Now, stay away…before you lose more than just your hand." he says, tossing the finger back to Joseph, before stalking back into the cell. "Incredible…he managed to deceive me right off the bat. I'm afraid I know exactly what Jotaro's so-called 'evil spirit' is…but how would I explain it? It seems like, to understand what's going on, he'll have to see – no, feel it himself" thinks the elderly Joestar, before snapping his fingers.

"Avdol…it's your turn" he says, as a tall African gentleman in red Arabic garb steps out of the shadows, arms crossed over his chest. "I want you to meet an acquaintance of mine from Egypt. This is Muhammad Avdol" explains Joseph, before turning to the man in question "Do whatever you need to do; just get my grandson to leave that cell." He says, before turning away.

"Hold on, he looks strong enough…but do you really think I'd leave this cell just because you got some guard dog of yours to try to get me to leave?" responds Jotaro "Now you're just pissing me off. In fact…I think I'll stay in here even more happily now." "Mister Joestar…this could get a little bit rough, but I can assure you that in just a few minutes, he'll be in such pain that he'll be begging to leave this cell" claims the Egyptian. "Yeah, yeah, just do what you need to do" Joseph says.

"Papa! You can't be serious!" cries Holly. "Yeah, whatever he's about to do, we can't just let y-" says one of the policemen, before Joseph cuts him off with a simple "ZIP IT!", after which the policemen both wisely remain silent. Meanwhile, Avdol stands in front of the cell door, and as he moves his hands around in a circular pattern, before placing them in front of him, a firey aura forms around him. Then, he suddenly opens his eyes, and a red, birdlike humanoid shoots out in front of him, much to the surprise of both Jotaro and Holly. "Wha-?" asks the teenager.

"That's right, Avdol also has a so-called 'evil spirit'…one under his complete control that follows his will and fighting spirit. And he calls it…" says Joseph, before Avdol finishes the sentence by shouting "THE PHOENIX!", while the being in question generates several ropes of fire that quickly pin Jotaro to the cell's wall. "It's…so..hot. Feels…like..on…fire. Can't…think…straight." thinks Jotaro. The policemen are utterly baffled as to what's going on, but notice that the temperature in the room has increased to almost 50 degrees centigrade.

As The Phoenix drags Jotaro forward through the air, his instincts kick in, and a large purple humanoid, around two meters tall and resembling an Aztec warrior, manifests in front of Jotaro and pushes The Phoenix off of him. "YES! It's finally shown itself!" exclaims Joseph "And the fact that it's so clearly visible is a show of just how strong it is!" The purple warrior then phases through the bars and grabs The Phoenix around the throat effortlessly, causing Avdol to begin to asphyxiate similarly, and leading him to compliment Jotaro on its' strength.

"Your evil spirit is impressive too. Now, tell me Gramps..you also know about these evil spirits?" asks Jotaro. "Hmph. Of course I do." responds Joseph. "Mister Joestar…I had originally planned on going easy on the boy. However, considering his tremendous strength, I am reconsidering this. Let me know if I should stop; otherwise I will use a show of force that risks landing your grandson in the hospital" says Avdol. "I already told you…do whatever you must" says Joseph, before the Egyptian uses this as his cue. "RED BIND!" shouts Avdol, as the red bird-man shoots a rope of fire that quickly wraps around Jotaro and pulls him into the air and against the bars of the cell. "Can't…breathe…" thinks Jotaro, as the purple warrior begins to withdraw.

"Papa! Stop this!" pleads Holly. "Now, now, be a good girl, and let Papa finish what he started" says Joseph, patting his daughter on the head reassuringly, before turning back around to address his grandson. "You see, Jotaro, what you think is an evil spirit possessing your body is actually almost the complete opposite. The truth is, this projection is a physical manifestation of your life energy, controlled by your fighting spirit. It always stands by your side…which is why we call these visions 'Stands'!"

"Stands?" asks Jotaro. "Remember Aesop's classic fable: 'although the cold wind made the traveler pull his coat tighter against himself, the sun made him admit defeat'! Are you ready to leave yet…JoJo?" exclaims Avdol. "I've said it before, and I'll say it again…I'm staying! All I do is hurt other people without even realizing it, so I'm staying in this cage! Now put me down…or you might die" responds Jotaro |menacingly|.

With that, the purple humanoid kicks the side table back into the toilet, breaking the porcelain appliance and showering water everywhere, which puts out the fires. "Don't say I didn't warn you" say Jotaro, before his Stand lets out a mighty yell of "ORA!", and bends the cell bars apart, before breaking one of them into two weapons that could be considered the mother of all prison shanks. As the Stand raises the two weapons, Avdol calls his Stand back suddenly, before turning his back on an irritated Jotaro and sitting down against a nearby wall. "Mister Joestar…the boy has left the cell. I have no reason to fight any more."

Jotaro finishes exiting the cell, his Stand slowly fading away as he walks. "So now what? You won, eh?" asks the teen. "Not exactly. When I attacked you, it was with every intention of hospitalizing you. However, you proved far stronger than I'd anticipated" responds the fortune teller. "So…if I had kept going with this steel rod, what would you have done?" "Do not underestimate the power of my Stand, The Phoenix" retorts Avdol "Its' fires are more than hot enough to have melted that rod into a worthless puddle of slag while you swung at me."

Joseph stepped in at this point. "As you can see, Avdol's powers are just like yours. But, if you want to know more about these abilities, you'll have to leave this jail cell." Jotaro threw the steel rod aside, watching as it skittered down the hallway. "Yare yare daze…fine, let's go."

STAND NAME: THE PHOENIX (Song by Labelle)

STAND MASTER: MUHAMMAD AVDOL

STATS:

Destructive Power: B
Speed: B
Range: C
Durability: B
Precision: C
Development Potential: D

BOR Coffee and Wine, Tokyo:

"Oh, thank you Jotaro, for finally leaving that terrible jail cell!" said Holly, hugging her son tightly. "Why must you be such an annoying bitch?" responded Jotaro. "HEY!" exclaimed Joseph, as he went on a short rant "How dare you address your own mother that way? What's up with that language anyway? And for the love of god, Holly, stop smiling, you're just encouraging his bad behavior!" "Okay~!" responded the woman in question.

"Alright Gramps, I have one question. You seem to know a lot about these Stands...but how do you know so much?" asked Jotaro. "Well, I suppose I DID come all the way from New York to explain this anyway. How do I know, eh? But in order to explain it properly, I will have to start from the beginning. This is part of the Joestar family's long legacy!" responded Joseph, dropping several photos depicting the abandoned treasure ship and the empty box from several years prior.

"This coffin was found aboard that abandoned boat off the African coast back in 1983. It's almost a hundred years old now" said Joseph, as Holly and Jotaro looked at the photos. "And…?" asked Jotaro impatiently in response. "I did some research after learning of this. That coffin was on board the same ship that was destroyed in the accident at sea that killed my grandfather – your great-great-grandfather, Jonathan Joestar, in 1889" explained Joseph. Noting the shock on Jotaro and Holly's faces, he continued "The coffin may have been empty, but I know exactly what was in it. Avdol and I have been hunting him for the past several years."

"Hold on…him?" asked Jotaro "Are you trying to tell me that there was someone inside that coffin, at the bottom of the ocean for nearly a century? Come on." "Yes, I am..because that man is evil incarnate! His name is DIO, and now that he has been awakened after a hundred years have passed, it is the destiny of our bloodline to finally destroy him for good!" At this, Jotaro gave a somewhat exasperated expression, then turned away.

"Huh? What's that face supposed to mean?! And don't you turn your back on me, young man!" bellowed Joseph, startling some of the other patrons of the coffee shop. "Look, Gramps…this face should be telling you that your story is such bullshit that I'm not even sure how to react" responded Jotaro. "HUH?!" responded Joseph, while Jotaro turned to Avdol. "And Avdol, was it? Man, you sure are one arrogant bastard aren't you?" he stated, before turning to look at a still-fuming Joseph. "Really, Gramps, did you seriously think I'd believe an outlandish story like that? Who do you take me for?"

Avdol chuckled, not offended by Jotaro's impolite statements "I know you say that story is far-fetched…but wouldn't you say these 'evil spirits' we possess are also truly unbelievable?" he asked, noting Jotaro's slight expression of surprise. Joseph snickered, before motioning to Avdol, who extracted a camera from his tunic. "Dismiss it as much as you like, but soon the truth will be staring you right in the face. As for how I know of DIO's existence…" stated the elder Joestar, as he took the Polaroid from Avdol.

"You see, it was about a year ago when I had a rather startling revelation of my own. At that time…I acquired a Stand of my own!" explained Joseph with a smug grin, while Jotaro and Holly reacted in shock. He then stood up to his full height of 195 centimeters, before raising his hand over his head dramatically. "Let me introduce to you…MY STAND!" he shouted, ghostly purple thorns sprouting from his hand before he brought it down on the camera, breaking it immediately. The camera, with its' dying breath, printed one final image before breaking completely.

"Well? Did you see those thorns?" asked Joseph, holding the photo in front of him. "That was my Stand. It allows me to see faraway visions and reveal them to our eyes. The one downside is that I have to break a 30,000 yen camera every time I use it for that purpose" he explained, while Avdol shooed away a concerned waiter. "In a few moments, this Polaroid will show a vision of your destiny, Jotaro!" exclaimed Joseph. "My destiny?!" came the response from the teenager.

Joseph then posed an unusual question "Jotaro…Holly…have either of you ever bothered to look carefully on the back of your necks, just above your left shoulder?" "Huh?" "You both will have it, but you've probably never though too much of it…a star-shaped birthmark – and we all have it" explained the elder Joestar, before revealing his birthmark. The other two showed off their own birthmarks. "And what does this have to do with anything anyway?!" asked Jotaro, who was now becoming somewhat irritated.

"My father died when I was little…but when I asked my mother, she said he also had one. In fact, every descendant of the Joestar bloodline has one" stated Joseph. "AND?!" asked a now impatient and irritated Jotaro. "This photo will reveal our destiny, which until now was unknown!" replied Joseph. "THEN SHOW ME THE DAMN THING ALREADY!" demanded Jotaro, who had completely lost all patience for his grandfather.

As Jotaro brought the photo to eye level, an image began to materialize on the film…of a blonde man with a star-shaped birthmark. "THAT is DIO! He has shown up in every one of my spirit photographs…and he has that exact birthmark! Which mean that from the neck down, this bastard is using the body of Jonathan Joestar! The son of a bitch stole my grandpa's body!" exclaimed Joseph in a rage, while Holly and Jotaro both reacted in shock.

"All I know is that there was an incident on a ship in the Atlantic almost a hundred years ago, when my grandfather died. The only information I have is from my grandmother, Erina Joestar, but DIO must have stolen my grandfather's body and used it to survive! And now he's out there, plotting something somewhere on the face of this earth" explained Joseph. "It's been four years since that bastard re-awakened, and the reason for you and I both manifesting Stands…must be connected to DIO!"

"In this society we live in, our powers are considered to be a sort of psychic blessing" said Avdol. "But while I've had my powers since the day I was born, all of your powers seem to be linked to DIO…no, Jonathan Joestar, by some link, some red thread of fate. His revival has awakened your sleeping powers" explained the Egyptian. "Avdol! Does this photograph give you any indication whatsoever as to where DIO is hiding?" asked Joseph.

The fortune teller looked at the photo. "No…there's nothing of any discernable detail in this photograph" he replied. "I see…" said Joseph in disappointment, before turning to his daughter. "Well then, Holly…let's head home. I might be here for a while; do you mind if I stay at your place?" "No, no, not at all Papa!" responded the blonde "Let's go, Jotaro."

As the group walks away, we get a glimpse of Jotaro's birthmark…which then fades into a shot of the one on the body DIO has taken over, as the vampiric bastard himself arises from his slumber for the night. "Well, well, well…it seems as though I'm being watched. It must be a signal of sorts that this body is sending to Jonathan's descendants…" the master of evil theorized, looking down the stairs of his chambers towards a pile of dead prostitutes. "It seems this must be fate…but I intend to avert fate."

TO BE CONTINUED…

Notes: This IS my first writing project, so please be patient...and let me know what I could fix; my writing style is still really clunky.

- As you probably figured out, the Stands are all getting their names changed...and if you can think of a better pre-1989 song for each Stand than I did, let me know!

- Right now, the biggest deviation is in Stand names, but you'll see a pretty damn big and pivotal one next chapter, probably within the first few paragraphs.

See you next time in Chapter 2: The Lady in Green!

Thanks for reading!