Prologue

January 18, 2000, Washington D.C.

Dr. Warburton walked down the fluorescent hallway, careful to ensure that he didn't slip on the newly mopped linoleum flooring. The tackle-box like container in his arms was actually a box within a box and had four locks on it, but he didn't feel like testing its security himself, the contents weren't anything to sneeze at. Inside was a virus known to WHO as SC-1988, it had been recovered from the site of a meteorite crash and had been distributed to various bacterial specialists throughout the world for study. Due to its highly dangerous nature, the WHO wanted a vaccine developed in case of an unexpected outbreak. Dr. Warburton, along with a few other biologists and chemists, were working on developing one from a weakened strain of the virus, termed SC-1989 they had managed to obtain from laboratory experiments.

Unfortunately, while this weakened form was less likely to be deadly, it was still very dangerous to anyone without above average constitution. There were a few notable exceptions from their work. A few brave volunteers had each been exposed to SC-1989. Most became very ill and a few died, but there were four exceptions. Three were found to be in very good physical health, but the third, a young school teacher who had had medical complications as a child, suffered no ill effects whatsoever. These four were asked to return for further study in two months time, to see if there were any delayed symptoms. Since a USDA research facility in West Virginia had asked for a sample of the virus to study its effects on plant growth, Dr. Warburton had asked the four subjects to meet him in Harper's Ferry, where he had arranged for them to stay at a local bed and breakfast.

As he exited the double doors at the end of the hall and got into the van waiting to take him and the sample to its new destination, Dr. Warburton thought about whether he should have requested more security for the trip. The most recent research on the nature of the virus was still undisclosed to the public, and there were several groups who were upset about the clandestine nature of their work.

"I'm worrying needlessly," he finally said to himself. "They may not like what I do, but why on earth would anyone want to steal something so dangerous?"

January 20, 2000

Urgent Notice to White House

Container for SC-1989 has been stolen. Perpetrator believed to be subject SC-1989-3. Perpetrator entered Dr. Warburton's room at hotel, along with three others. Perpetrator immediately moved to obtain SC-1989's container. Dr. Warburton attempted to intervene, but was intercepted by the three other assailants. Perpetrator grabbed box and immediately left. Assailants continued to hold down Dr. Warburton for approximately 20 seconds before all three fell temporarily unconscious. When they awakened, all three assailants claimed no memory of the past two hours. The location of both SC-1989 and perpetrator are unknown.

February 23, 2000, Tri-State Area and Washington D.C.

News Report

The unexplained outbreak of a virus now known to be SC-1989 has, according to authorities, been contained. Death toll estimates are between 20-50. While no vaccine has been developed yet, health experts are assuring the public that there is no chance of recontamination for those who have already been exposed to it. Experts estimate that, if current containment procedures are followed, the disease will no longer be a threat within a week.

Chapter 1

March 11, 2000, Harper's Ferry, West Virginia

"And they say that on the night of a full moon, like tonight, you can sometimes see her wandering the alley. Now as we move down the street here, you can see..." The ghost-tour guide moved past Janos and Kane down the street, the tourist crowd moving along with him to hear the rest of the presentation. Kane looked after them, looking for any signs of unnatural movement in the crowd, but nothing appeared to be out of place.

"I think I might be the only one around here with one of these things. No one else even seems to be able to see them. Except you." Kane turned back to his older brother with a short huff. "At any rate, I didn't see that any of them has a spirit partner. You?"

"Nothing," replied Janos. "I thought I saw something moving behind the tour guide when he was talking, but then I realized it was the reflection of a squirrel in a window. The light isn't great for this either, these street lights aren't the greatest." The two of them looked around the area at the spring tourists walking to various small museum buildings or shops. "I'm starting to think we aren't going to find anyone else with a spirit. Short of just having it follow us everywhere and seeing if anyone reacts. But that might not be a good idea, given how big he is."

Kane exhaled and looked up and down the street again. "Yeah, you're right. Let's give it a few more minutes though, maybe we'll get lucky. After all, we don't come out this way that often, and this is a tourist area, so there should be a better chance of finding someone here with one." He looked down the street and saw an older American man walking slowly across the street, absentmindedly looking at the windows of the historic buildings. Walking just behind him were three young Japanese men, two of them looked to be high school age like Kane, the third was older and much taller than the others, Kane guessed him to be a few years older than Janos. As he watched, the squirrel Janos had noticed ran across the road and in front a car that was driving far too fast for the thin road. With a screech, the car swerved to avoid it and headed straight for the American man. What happened next was too fast for Kane to totally catch, but it looked to him that the tall man shouted something, and then suddenly he and the American man were a few feet forward and the car just missed them.

Everyone on the street turned to look, but when it was apparent that no one was injured, the bystanders immediately lost interest. Everyone except Kane and Janos. They watched the group cross the road and begin up a set of stone steps leading to a historic church at the top of the hill. Janos and Kane looked at each other for a brief moment, then immediately took off after them, following the bizarre group up to the church. As they stepped onto the stone slab piazza in front of the church, the brothers finally spoke up, since there was no one around.

"Excuse me," Kane began, talking to the American, "excuse me, but are you all right? I saw that car nearly hit you."

The old man turned around and gave a small smile. "Yes, young man, I'm just fine. Thank you for asking."

Kane extended his right hand, "My name is Kane, pleased to meet you."

The man shook his hand warmly, if a little weakly. "A pleasure to meet you Kane, my name is Joseph."

"Do you come to Harper's Ferry often Mr. Joseph?"

"No, I'm actually in the area on business, but thought I would bring along these young lads. This," he indicated the tall man in a long white coat, "is my grandson, Jotaro, but I call him Jojo for short. That," he pointed to a young man with a pompadour haircut by the piazza railing, looking out over the town and river below, "is my son Josuke, and the short boy next to him is a classmate of his, Koichi. If you'll excuse me," he said, turning to a stone bench at the side of the piazza, "I need to sit down and rest, that was some hill we climbed." As, Joseph walked over to the bench to sit down, Jotaro gave a short nod and said, with a slight Japanese accent, "Good afternoon, it's a pleasure to meet you. As the old man said, my name is Jotaro. My last name is Kujo."

Kane hesitated for a moment, then decided to ask. "Mr. Kujo, this might be a strange question, but, do you ever see ghosts or spirits?"

Jotaro gave a start and looked at Kane hard. "What do you mean by ghost?"

Kane was about to try and describe it when Janos interrupted, "Maybe it would be easier for you to show him."

Kane nodded and summoned his spirit, a faint green aura surrounded him and a humanoid creature made of rugged stones appeared behind him. It stood taller than Jotaro at an impressive seven feet, and had a slow bulky build. "This," Kane explained, is my spirit, if you can see him. I call him Fortress Around My Heart.

Jotaro had a look of surprise for a moment, then he quickly turned to the other boys and shouted in Japanese. "Josuke! Koichi! We were right, this guy has a stand!"

"Wait, you mean this spirit is called a stand?" Janos asked in Japanese. Jotaro looked at him in surprise. "Sorry," continued Janos, "I should introduce myself. An honor to meet you Kujo-sensei, my name is Janos. I'm familiar both with your language and a paper you wrote not too long ago. My teacher had my biology class read it for a lab project."

"I see," was all that Jotaro responded. Not that he had time to say more anyway, as Janos turned to explain what he had been saying to Jotaro, Josuke and Koichi arrived, both of them had manifested their respective stands in case things came to blows. Joseph came up slowly and looked at Kane's stand. There was silence for a moment.

"So, if you have a stand Kane, how about you Janos? What's your stand?" Jotaro looked at Janos, speaking English this time.

"Me? I don't have one, but I can see it." He paused for a moment. "Do people who can see them normally have one?"

Koichi spoke up, "Yes, only people with stands can see them. Have you even tried to manifest your stand?"

"No, I always assumed that they show up automatically if you have one. That's how Kane's was, it showed up one day, not long after he recovered from that virus that was going around," Jotaro and Koichi gave each other a knowing look. "His showed up when he was trying to hold up a section of ceiling tile in a building we were helping to renovate. Suddenly, this thing showed up next to him and it was holding the ceiling up. Then it did this," Janos indicated to Kane that he should demonstrate.

Kane gave a small grin, "Your name is Josuke right? Is that your stand?"

"Yes, Crazy Diamond."

"All right then, have Crazy Diamond attack me."

"What?!"

"I'm serious, have him attack me, it won't work."

"All right then. Here we go!"

Crazy Diamond gave a shout of "Dorararara!" as it launched into a flurry of punches. As it attacked, Fortress waved its hands like a mime pretending to touch a wall, and the air just in front of Kane became slightly blurry. Suddenly, Crazy Diamond's punches landed, but they were landing on an invisible wall between Josuke and Kane. Kane grunted in surprise, "You're pretty strong there. But what do you think of my power?"

Crazy Diamond moved back to Josuke and faded away, "That's some power right there."

"Anyway," continued Janos, "I never had one just show up, so I thought that it meant I didn't have one."

Koichi opened his mouth to respond but there was a sudden shout, "OH MY GOD! Jojo, look down there!" Joseph was pointing down into the town below, There was a great commotion; a mother was running around trying to get away from what looked to be human skeletons pursuing her. One of the skeletons had grabbed a young boy that looked to be her son, and was dragging him towards the river, albeit slowly as the boy struggled against the bony grip.

Jotaro took off back towards the staircase, "An enemy stand! We have to move!"

Kane ran to the rail intead, "I'll make a ramp down to the ground, it's faster!" Fortress waved its hands and the air blurred in front of him again, faintly showing the shape of a ramp going up and over the rail, then down to a house's outdoor stair 30 feet below.

"I'll just take the stairs and meet up with you," Joseph turned and walked toward the stone steps as the rest ran down the ramp.

By the time they got to the bottom, things had gotten worse, and it looked that there were about 20 skeletons menacing the town. As everyone spread out to help put down the strange menace, Koichi paused and turned to Janos. "Now would be a really good time to try to bring out your stand."