JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Holy Diver
John Joestar? Part Three
"How dense are you? Is protecting your money really worth you life?! You're not hard by saying that 'I'll just punch you', you're going to die, coyote food," Joplin mocked looking to the bleeding Joestar with sick glee.
His perverse glee was apparent along his face. His filed teeth were clenched together like a crocodile's smile unnaturally playing across his features. His sweaty, seedy cheeks were rippling with a red blush that came from the pleasure of domineering over the young Stand user. Joplin had won his foe was delirious and merely putting up an act.
"The name's John Joestar, don't forget it!" JoJo corrected with a grunt, his right hand reaching out in a clawing gesture.
Cry Tough approached woozily following the motions of its wielder perfectly.
"John Joestar? Haha, what does that make you, JoJo?" Joplin asked ignoring the drunken Stand and focusing solely on its user.
"Sure does. And that means that you're next line is going to be 'what did you do?'" John answered pulling his hand back, Cry Tough's right index finger and thumb plucking one of the strings back in the process.
"Gah!" Joplin's left index finger twisted awkwardly with the motion and his entire arm torqued from the force more importantly the band of spikes around Joplin's chin falling freely." What did you do?!" he roared angrily trying to pull his arm back to find it impossible.
"Gwah! You bastard!" Joplin shouted feeling his left arm torque further.
"I grabbed your Stand by the defenseless strings. No Stand is unbeatable," John grinned straightening from his hunched over position. Sweat rolled down his face falling to the asphalt below. His blurry blue eyes locked onto the opposition holding onto the fighting spirit it took to stand.
"And as you know, what happens to a Stand happens to its user," John pointed to Joplin.
Cry Tough's right hand tightened around all of the cords it could grab. The red strings wound around its fist with the motion tightening the bands that were wrapping around Joplin's body. The Stand user quaked in pain with wide eyes, streams of sweat flowing from his rotund cheeks to the ground in the confusion of what was happening in front of him.
"You bastard! I still can poke you full of holes!" Joplin hinted coldly trying to keep composure despite the pain in his arm.
"You really thought I would just hold those strings around my fist?" John grinned confidently as the man looked down.
"Uh? You're pulling them from body!" Joplin shouted rustling trapped.
His eyes looked up at the pink-purple Stand while a gulp froze deep in his throat." I sure am!" John shouted in reply.
Cry Tough's flexing muscles pulled back with brute force. Joplin's muscles were torqued gnarling each limb at a different angle while the Stand pulled. Joplin's crys of pain continued while his eyes shuttered. The tight wires clenched to the bands snapped one by one, blood starting to spread from the tensed skin surrounding the man's body.
"Agh!" Joplin shouted shaking in pain. The blood that ran from his mouth fell to the asphalt while the Stand continued to yank the tethers to remove the coiled bands of spikes from around the man's body.
"How are you doing this? Why are you not just falling over?!" the highwayman shouted in shock looking at the Stand. The agony afflicting him was growing with the second as the individual strands were splitting and fraying.
"Now Cry Tough!" JoJo shouted as his Stand yanked the string down.
Joplin was pulled forth and the Stand's right hand came soaring up." DORARA!" it shouted driving the golden accented knuckles on its hand into Joplin's chin.
"With that out of the way...you're finished," John gestured by pointing his right hand down.
Cry Tough plucked the thin strings again, yanking Joplin back.
"Wait, stop it!" Joplin pleaded with large bullets of sweat rolling down his seedy face.
JoJo's eyes looked ahead coldly amid the glow of his Stand's aura.
"I'll stop, when you're unconscious! Cry Tough!" John stumbled drunkenly, his Stand showing the effects.
"DORARARARARARA!" a flurry of blows smashed into the thief's seedy features. His stomach rippled at the impact of the first blow sending loose streaks of sweat throwing to the wayside. The next part of the flurry caught his right cheek, breaking a fanged tooth from that side. Another crushed into the left side of his face. Blood sprayed from his mouth after three blows, the rest were merely icing on the cake.
The rotund man's body was hammered across the street where he wrapped around the opposite side's light post. The bulb buzzed and broke into dozens of shards that fell to the road side.
Joplin's bent body slammed face first against the sand. This blizzard of strikes proving enough to nullify the effects of Miracle Out of Nowhere.
"Heheh, huh, that's more than enough for you. I'm moving on now a beaten up man on the side of the road should get some sympathy," John smiled balling his fists a few times and flexing his arms.
Cry Tough disappeared in this motion knowing its job had been completed.
John walked off the road and slid down the embankment toward his truck.' Huh? Man, those two tires are stripped beyond belief. I'm glad that I have those spare tires now,' John placed his right and left hands against his hips and continued to approach the vehicle with a sigh.
'Looking at this thing though it's gonna take a good twenty minutes to change the tires. And then, I'll need to turn the truck around, it's seven hours to Dallas still, ugh,' the young Joestar huffed walking along the vehicle for any signs of damage, luckily the tires seemed to be the only noticeable damage.
'Rrring! Rrring!' as he opened the door to the truck his phone rang loudly in his pockets.
His black hair draped back and he turned his attention to the night sky, furrowing his brow." Good grief, this is going to be an earful," John huffed aloud while grabbing his cellphone from his pocket.
'JoJo, where are you now? It's been hours since you left that gas station, I at least hope you made it into Texas,' the upset voice of Doctor Samantha Hendrix came through his phone.
"Doc, about that, I'll be heading there as soon as I fix a couple of flat tires. I was in a car accident just off Route 60, I'm about seven hours out-" JoJo found himself cut off, the woman's voice escaping into his ear with a sigh.
'What happened? Are you okay? You better make it here in one piece,' the doctor chided from the other side of the phone line. Her words carried genuine concern, along with a frustration toward John.
"There was a Stand fight with some highway man that must have been tailing me since Arizona. It's not big deal, he just ran me off the road's all," John shrugged pulling the tire jack from his truck and squatting to the ground.
'A Stand user? Now, I need to know are you okay?' her concern grew, as did the sound of her footsteps across the tiles floors of the room she was in.
"It was no problem, the biggest inconvenience was my truck. I'll be there once I get my truck back on the road," he set the jack under the chassis of his beat-up truck beginning to spin it to raise. He paused to keep speaking." Tell, dad that I'm sorry for keeping him another day. I'll be there in the morning around four thirty if I can floor it with no stopping," he continued getting the truck off the ground.
'All right, fine, I'm sure he'll understand. You better be here like you said.'
"Don't worry, nothing else could go wrong," John replied hanging up taking a wrench to the lug nuts on his busted driver's side tire.
"Ugh, those are the words of someone that know something could go wrong," Doctor Hendrix sighed resting her hands on her hips.
Short I know, but my week has been pretty hectic and it's the Fourth of July. I do hope that you have enjoyed this chapter and will continue to do so now that the prelude/prologue for our protagonist is over we can get into the meat of the story.
Thanks for reading,
~Herodan