-Walks Like a Lady-

"You are a vampire."

"Ja, Herr Joestar. And if you take another step, I will gut the fraulein where she stands." His threat included a knife being pressed against her side, cutting a hole into her clothing. She let out a muffled shout, the creature's dark-gloved hand was covering her lips, but even then, she didn't seem to be struggling too much.

For a moment Joseph thought about pulling the same trick he had with Straizo, but he felt like it was more inappropriate considering he did know Sharena, at least more than the reporter woman. "You alright, Sherrie?" he asked. The aforementioned just rolled her eyes and grunted. "Do you want me to save you?" This time she just shrugged. Was that supposed to mean yes or no? He really couldn't tell and he would prefer not to be nagged again if he made the wrong decision, "Is that a yes or-?" she simply shrugged again. All he could think was how women were so confusing.

Sharena on the other hand was rather calm and collected. Despite not having appreciated being somewhat stabbed and having her brand new clothes ripped, not that they were in good condition anyways, she was holding it together well. Why? Well, she supposed it was because she had dealt with a vampire before, and this particular one gave off the feeling that he knew nothing of what his lack of humanity gifted him. This along with the fact that Joseph was there to back her up, kind of dulled the excitement that could have come with a first encounter with the supernatural.

"Here maybe if you hear her helpless cries you will take this a bit more seriously, Herr Joestar." the Nazi spat, clearly annoyed with the leisurely way the brunette was reacting to, or rather blatantly ignoring, his threats. To his surprise, when he moved his hand away, his captive didn't scream or even speak, she just took in an almost obnoxiously large breathe in. "What are you doing?" he inquired, scarlet eyes narrowing.

"For once, I'll let my fists do the talking," Sharena grinned. If it wasn't for the vampire's inhuman reaction time, he would not have seen her movements. Luckily because she had to escape his grasp first he was able to slightly dodge, but the jab of her fist still caught the side of his face. The blonde jumped back, now free of her restraints. She put her hands up in a defensive position, the limbs glowing with a yellowish green aura that lit up the night.

The Nazi stumbled back, a hand coming up to his cheek, "You pack quite the punch fraulein, but this won't even bruise." he chuckled, eyes wild.

"Huh, I am definitely out of practice." she muttered, observing her still glowing fists. Her eyes moved back up to her opponent and the grin returned to her face at the sight, "Nevermind, just a delay I guess."

"Delay-?" the vampire's look of confusion morphed into one of agony as his cheek began to burn. "What-" a scream ripped through his throat as his face began to crumble away, "What have you done you schlampe!"

Despite not being quite sure of what the word meant, she had a feeling it was meant as an insult. Deciding that he wasn't deteriorating quick enough for her liking, she stepped forward to the now kneeling supernatural and punched him directly in the gut. He screeched out another string of German curses as he was sent back several feet, the light-filled power consuming nearly seventy-five percent of his body.

Joseph just stood there dumbstruck. He had put two and two together and assumed she knew how to use hamon, but had never expected her to be able to handle it well enough to fight, even if it really was just a couple hits with it. There was still so much about her he knew nothing about, and while most would probably be suspicious of where she had really come from and whether she was a threat, he could only find his curiosity about her multiply by a dozen.

His eyes flicked back over to the vampire and more importantly towards Sharena, who was still in a boxer's stance. The vampire got up on what was left of his legs, he must have been malnourished because his healing was nowhere near that of Straizo's, this man was bursting at the seams. Hamon was still attacking his body, the life-giving energy performing a deadly dance against the supernatural's healing ability. Sharena stood at the ready, preparing to attack again if the Nazi came too close. Her expression steeled, she seemed a completely different person compared to the quivering leaf she had been during his original face off with Straizo. Now she looked almost… cool. As if she could even be a main character who kept their ability hidden and now revealed their untapped potential, but wait, wasn't he supposed to be the main character?

"Wait a second, you're stealing my thunder!" he accused, a finger pointing right at Sharena.

"Huh?" she turned to look at him quizzically, "Did you say something?"

"Shouldn't I be beating up the villains?"

"Well, yes, but see I was kind of in a bind and then he insulted me so-"

"So?"

"That's it, if you want to finish him off you can be my guest, however make it quick before my hamon completely destroys him." They both turned around to see that the vampire had become nothing more than a pile of ash while they spoke. Sharena's eyes went wide in surprise, she hadn't really wanted to destroy him completely, she had genuinely hoped that Joseph would be the one to deal the finishing blow. She had never actually ended the life, or rather unlife, of a creature. Though she had to admit she felt rather numb about the entire predicament, which made her feel even worse about doing it.

Her brain had little time to consider it any longer as she collapsed to her hands and knees, a series of coughs racking through her body. Her hands shot up her her throat, the sudden sensation of being choked replacing the coughing. Lungs burning and vision blurred by unshed tears. It seemed that it was extremely taxing on her lungs and throat to use hamon breathing after so long, because she couldn't recall this ever happening before.

Joseph dashed toward her, placing both of his hands on her shoulders, "Hey what is going on, are you alright?" he half-shouted, half-asked. If she had been able, she'd have shushed him for being so loud and possibly attracting more enemies, instead rolled over onto her side and entered a recovery position. The elephant sitting on her chest seemed to lift slightly.

"Don't worry-" she had to pause and try to take a deeper breath, "'bout me, go take care of the other-," another struggled breath, "Nazis."

Joseph, despite being out of her range of vision, nodded in affirmation, his questions could wait. "Don't pass out before I get back," he grumbled, somewhat frustrated that she wasn't taking this seriously. As he turned back towards the soldier's camp he frowned. They had moved from their place and were now approaching him with guns drawn, they probably heard the scuffle. "Yes, just show off and leave me to deal with the hard stuff," He sent a sarcastic glare back towards the collapsed Sharena, but his expression softened, she looked just as brokenly pitiful as she had in the days before.

A bullet whizzed past him head, bringing his attention back to the task at hand…

As Joseph ran off Sharena leaned back against the wall, her breathing now in order. Out of curiosity she raised her hand up to her face to examine it. Eyebrows furrowing at the sight, it wasn't the bruised knuckles that she had a problem with, it was the scarab ring she still wore on her finger. The ring seemed to glow, in fact now that the adrenaline was flushed from her system and her breathing had calmed, she felt an uncomfortable heat seeping from the piece.

It was the first time it had even crossed her mind to remove the ring. And despite it possibly being responsible for her being transported here in the first place, she had really forgotten it was there at all. As if the weight jewelry normally had, especially on a ring that looked so bulky, was non existent. Which led her to the real question, why had the ring reacted in such a way now?

She fiddled around with it, observing how easily it moved around even though it had yet to fall off naturally. Sharena held up her hand towards the sky, watching the way the gem inlay sparkled under the moonlight, they exuded a much deeper color and fire now compared to the bright sun of the day. It was a fairly rare trait to have, part of her wondered if they were moonstones, not that any of that mattered.

The ring, the vampires, this time period, the Joestar family, it was all a mystery that rather than trying to unravel, she had chosen to take in stride, though if she scratched under the surface of such reasoning, she would find she was ignoring her problems so as not to deal with them, it was easier this way.

She let out a hiss as the ring's heat grew quickly in intensity before dying off completely. What was causing the damned thing to react now of all times, what was causing this stinging sensation?

"...your Hamon."

Sharena jolted at the intrusion to her thought process, eyes immediately moving towards the voice's owner, "Joseph," she addressed.

"Yes, that is my name. Were you listening to me?"

"Ah, no, sorry. What was that?"

"I was retelling my victory over that group, they may not have been vampires, but they did have guns. I'd say it was pretty valiant of me." he leaned down close to her face, a finger pointing towards his cheek, "Are you impressed? How about a kiss?"

"No, no. You said something about hamon." Joseph nearly fell over at her blatant disregard for his teasing, before his look of disbelief became serious.

"You're right, now I won't pester too much into your past or ask for any type of reasoning behind actions you have taken so far, but tell me," his body straightened up, darkened eyes never moving from hers, "Where did you learn to use your hamon."

Sherrie sighed somewhat in relief at his lack of prodding, and somewhat to slow down her brain that was now going a hundred miles an hour. "Hamon, huh? There is a long version and a short version."

Joseph tapped his chin in thought, "Give me the brief version, I can get the long version when all of this is over."

The blonde nodded in affirmation, racking her brain for a moment to put together a coherent thought that didn't end in her revealing everything and ending up under more suspicion then she probably already was. "Well, my paternal grandfather ran a shop," she paused for a second, wondering whether speaking about it in past tense despite currently existing in the time her grandfather would have been still operating the shop with his own grandfather. She mentally shrugged, after all pausing like this was probably rather odd, "that used hamon healing,"

"Healing?"

"Yes, a large portion of hamon users develop their hamon to serve others, I believe Straizo may previously have been one of the Tibetan monk hamon users, it can speed up the bodies naturally healing and can also fix broken bones, torn muscles, etc."

"You sent the reporter to your grandfather to fix her tooth."

"Yes, he taught me to use medicinal hamon. The aggressive uses however-" she paused in thought before continuing with furrowed brows, immediately letting the brunette know whatever came next was not the complete truth, "I learned on my own."

There was a flashing golden sign above her head that read 'bullshit' in thick black letters.

Joseph stared at her for a moment, he threw an "alright then," over his shoulder and made his way back towards where the Nazis had been camped.

Sharena scrambled to her feet, jogging to follow after Joseph, "T-that's it? No questions? No expression of doubts or anything?" she sputtered.

"You'd tell me if there was something crucial to the plot right?"

"What?"

"Something important. You would let me know, yeah?"

"Of course, if I knew it mattered I would tell you."

"Well then I can wait to hear the full story until another time."

The pair approached where they would be sleeping that night. Luckily for them the previous inhabitants had already set up cots for the night and had rations sitting about for the taking. There was no need for words as the two immediately got to stuffing their faces, the rations were mostly just dried meat and canned vegetables that would have been better if cooked properly, but they were too tired for such niceties.

Soon after they each took a military-grade cot and a rigid blanket that made them both miss the comforts of Erina's posh suite in New York. Sharena was going to comment on that fact as she lay down, but before she could get a syllable out Joseph spoke first:

"This will all be worth it after Speedwagon is properly avenged and honored," Sharena turned over to look at the bulky Joestar, who was partially falling off of the cot, and simply watched the seriousness on his face. She knew well enough to assume he held on to even the slightest hope that Mister Speedwagon was still among the living. Though Sharena had to guess that if his organization still existed in her own time, he must have had a bigger impact than what was accomplished by the late 1930s, but just in case she would keep quiet.

Silence overtook them once more, they simply lay there, staring up at the darkened sky. Sharena couldn't help but smile at the sight, eyes wide with wonder at the beauty above her. She had never spent time outside of urban areas, so seeing the majesty of deep space without the impediment of light pollution was incredible. She wanted nothing more than to stay there and look up at the sprinkled spheres of gas and fire. The only that could make it better would be-

Her eyes slid over to look at Joseph, who was in a similar position to herself. His thick arms were folded behind his head, and his calves, despite how enormous his legs were, had been crossed over each other. He was laying down in such a delicate manner, she expected him to just sprawl about, but she had forgotten who he was raised by, there is no way Erina would raise him to be so-

A deep and incredibly loud snore interrupted her thoughts. She looked over at the perpetrator, the brunette responsible just lay there on his back, mouth wide open as the horrid snoring continued. In a split second he had gone from being so nicely laying there to losing all dignity and Sharena realized she had probably spoken much too soon. With a sigh she rolled her body around to face away from him and sighed, falling asleep would be an even greater task than it would have been out in the middle of nowhere. She missed New York…

She saw nothing. Felt Nothing. Was Nothing.

Had she ever really existed in the first place? Did asking that question automatically assure her existence?

Her consciousness was simply suspended in nothingness, with no cares or worries, she wish to stay here forever, outside of time and space.

"We can't stay here forever," a thick accented voice spoke. It felt like honey coating her consciousness, but that didn't determine whether she was meant to respond or not, and what she was to respond with. The voice beat her to the punch, "I know, it is so much easier to drift into this nothingness, but I've dwelled here for too long, we have much to do, then we can drift here forever if you like."

How was she meant to respond? Who was this person and what did she need to do? She couldn't even remember who she was, much less who someone else was or some great task laid out for her.

"Ah, you won't be able to speak here, this place is outside of space time, you are only human so I don't expect you to be able to respond to me." the voice sounded amused.

She wondered what that made him if he looked down upon her humanity. He just let out a sound of disapproval in response to her mental query. Suddenly, she could register an eerie golden glow coming near to her. It took a moment for her mind to identify them as a pair of smoldering irises. They were radiant, almost hypnotizing to look at, and for that very reason she tried instead to focus on the void that surrounded them. Their movement stopped fairly close to where her consciousness dwelled, the distortion of his next words could nearly be felt, "It is time to awaken, little human, be wary of my brethren and refrain from removing my ring unless I command you to do so, after all it is all we have left."

She wished she could demand an actual explanation for a single thing she had just experienced, or at least glare, but before she could, her consciousness was sent hurling back through the void…

Joseph and Sharena both woke up with little incident, that is if one considers waking up to half a town of people staring at you as something insignificant. As it turned out the little girl and her mother Joseph had previously witnessed were not the only people in this town. And the entirety of its population seemed ecstatic that the occupation of their town had been dealt with by the pair. At least that was the conclusion they had come to, since neither of them spoke Spanish, much less the dialect of the nearby villages. Luckily, Joseph communicated with them well enough to show them where he had left out the knocked out and tied up soldiers so they could dispose of them however they deemed fit.

What was really surprising however, was that the duo was showered with an almost unbearable amount of gifts upon their departure: bread, fruits, vegetables, clothing, and even alcohol. A teenage boy who knew just enough English to tell them the gist of what was going on admitted to them that the soldiers were supposed to take about two times what they were giving them back to a Nazi base somewhere farther into the desert. The lieutenant of vampiric persuasion had made sure they could do nothing in retaliation to the occupation, going as far as kidnapping several women and children, as well as openly killing several others. It was safe to say Sharena felt a little better about ceasing his supernatural existence. The youth also requested in broken English that they go and save the kidnapped townspeople and the villagers would forever be in their debt.

Sharena was more than shocked when Joseph flat out told them no. She really should have expected this from him by now, there was little doubt he had a backwards way of making this work out. He wanted to help them out as soon as possible, he had a good heart beating in that big ole chest of his, but he also had a drive to make sure his family was taken care of first. No matter his intentions, the villagers no doubt misunderstood him, because they still wished them off with smiles and cheers.

Which all lead to where they were now, both riding a motorcycle through the desert because getting the car would have taken 'too much time,' in Joseph's opinion. Which probably meant he thought the motorcycle looked cooler, which for him it did, but for Sharena, who was stuffed into a small sidecar along with their loot, she felt and probably looked like an idiot.

"Why couldn't we just have taken the truck, or the car, or even just two motorcycles, I know how to ride one you know," she shouted over the engine's purr. She didn't get a reply, only having the chance to see a grin on Joseph's face as he sped up, aiming to jump the vehicle between the dunes. Sharena held on for dear life.

A good hour later Joseph began to slow the vehicle down, he was growing sick and tired of the feeling of being watched. He was sure it wasn't Sharena, she was too busy being overdramatic about her current position and ignoring him for that. It was only as they rolled to a stop that she gave him a curious look.

"I've felt eyes on us since we left the village this morning." he admitted, eyes shifting around beneath his goggles. A tan cloth blew through the wind and fluttered to the ground, Joseph removed his goggles and propped up him bangs with them. "There is no way anyone would be this far out in the desert," he contemplated more to himself.

"You seem really anxious, are you alright?" Sharena asked, doing the same with a pair of goggles she had acquired from the German's camp.

"Who could be following us unseen?" Joseph continued. He stood up and leaned down to grab the cloak, throwing it behind him absentmindedly, "There is just no way."

"If anyone was trailing us wouldn't it be obvious? To keep up with the motorcycle they would also need a loud motorized vehicle."

"You're right, It has to be my imagination."

Unbeknownst to them, an arm reached out from under the still floating cloak and aimed to stab Joseph. Sharena noticed, eyes going wide as she attempted to wiggle herself out of the cramped sidecar. The mystery assassin made his move, slicing Joseph's glove and part of his arm open in a split second, before jumping back out of range. The man balanced on a cactus in a crouch a couple meters away from his victim.

"You're a sharp one." the assassin rasped, his voice perfectly matching his goblinesque features. "You sensed my presence, a feat not even wild bats could accomplish."

"Who the hell are you and why are you tailing me?" Joseph demanded, his irritation clear.

"I'm here too." Sharena reminded, still making a fool of herself trying to get out of her self-induced prison.

"I'm not tailing you, I'm capturing you so our army can ask about Straizo, Joseph Joestar" he announced.

"S-Straizo," Joseph and Sharena spoke in unison, alarms going off in their heads.

"Our army?" Joseph continued alone, his eyebrows furrowed in thought as he slid into a defensive stance, "By your face and accent, I'd say you're German. What do you all have to do with Straizo and Speedwagon?" he grabbed his leather hat in his fist, tossing it away in frustration, "Come on, I'll beat the answers out of you," his voice rose with his anger. Sharena struggled more as she realized this was definitely going to get messy.

"You face the SS commando knife of I, Donobang, with your bare hands?" the assassin questioned, racking his tongue over his gloved hand, "I feel insulted." He drew his knife, slashing it around in a showy manner before pouncing forward with a war cry of: "Come then, stripling,"

Joseph took it in stride, a snide remark already bubbling up from his throat, "Here, have your flea-ridden magic carpet back." before tossing the cloak into the air and sending a hamon-strengthened fist into the bundle. His cockiness immediately became a screech of pain, scaring Sharena out of her inattentive stupor. She jumped up with little issue this time, alarmed at her companion yelping. As she drew closer to him she saw the cacti needles sticking out from his fist and cringed away.

While the pair was focused on Joseph's pincushion of a hand, Donobang made his move. He twisted through the air and slammed his foot into the brunette's face, effectively knocking him over. Sharena just sat there and stared, wide eyed. Before her reflexes could jump into action she received a foot to the stomach, sending her flying back several meters away. It was a miracle she didn't collide with a cactus, but her abdomen was still in pain, and her bare skin scraped against the rough sand. She rolled onto her back with a groan, surprised by the sheer force of the attack.

On the other end, Joseph was having his face shoved halfway into the ground, the assassin's boot keeping him their rather uncomfortably. "Victory!" he cried out with a laugh, "You'll need to do better than that to challenge me. Now repeat after me and maybe I'll at least spare the fraulein more than the necessary amount of pain when we get back to base, "I completely agree, Herr Donobang."

"I-I completely agree, Herr Donobang," Joseph struggled to say.

"What was that?" he mocked, a hand cupped around his ear, "I can't seem to hear you."

"You're a very nimble fellow, Herr Donobang. I wanted to save myself some trouble so I'm lying down her for my safety." He replied back, making sure the assassin was more focused on his blabbering mouth, rather than his finger tips that were radiating hamon into the ground below him.

"What, you think you are safe down there?" he questioned, his eyes moving up from his captive to the tall cactus in front of him. "Wh- What's with this cactus?" His eyes went wide at the sight, part of the cactus was bulging out in a knot.

"Take a real close look."

Donobang took the suggestion and leaned in closer, oblivious to his captive's escape from beneath his boot. The Cactus suddenly burst open, the water within having been stirred up by Joseph's hamon, and the needles, along with a few chunks of the plant's flesh, imbedded themselves within the assassin's body. A high-pitched screech filled the air, but became a dull groan as Joseph kicked him to the ground. The roles were reversed as the brunette's heel dug into Donobang's cheek.

"The cactus was my goal all along," he revealed grinning, "Cacti are made up of 95% water and conduct hamon fabulously." he smashed the assassin's face down harder, leaning down so that he could hear every word. "Now it's time to talk, Donobang. Tell me everything you know."

The interrogation was quick, and while extra injury to Donobang's person was unnecessary, Joseph wanted to make sure he wouldn't become a problem in the future. It was safe to say that tying him to a cactus upside down would properly incapacitate him for the time being. Now he could properly relish in Donobang's revelation to him.

Never had his heart felt so full, nor had such relief and happiness filled his body. He leaned up against his motorcycle fiddling with his goggles, unable to hide the grin on his face as he thought about how things could go back to the way they were. Speedwagon, Granny, and him, if anything these endeavors would add Smokey and Sharena to their little family as well. Everything was going to turn out just fine from now on-.

"Thanks for coming to make sure I was okay, I really appreciate it, Jojo." Sharena abruptly jeered, dusting herself off as she stumbled towards Joseph. She blatantly ignored Donobang's current position, served him right for causing such trouble and using her as a threat, as if she'd let him get a second punch in, much less drag her back to some Nazi hangout.

She rubbed her eyes for a moment as she stared at the Joestar, realizing he wasn't going to respond to her ridicule. Her gaze then promptly zeroed in on the steady stream of tears spilling from the brunette's eyes. "J-Joseph are you alright?" she wondered, reaching her hand out with the intention of comforting him. Instead he looked up at her, green eyes glistening in the sunlight. There was the brightest of smiles on his lips.

"He's okay." he spoke, his voice soft and calm, "Speedwagon is alive, Sherrie. I'll admit I was hopeful when they couldn't find a body, but now-" he reached a bulky hand up to wipe his tears away before looking her straight in the eyes and embracing her, clearly overcome by his emotions. "What a fine piece of news this is, Granny will be pleased to hear about this." he continued.

The physical contact made Sharena flinch in surprise, but she quickly relaxed, placing one of arms around his back. Her hand gripping lightly on the back of his shirt, despite how sweaty it was from the recent action. Inevitably his happiness and warm physical attention made her feel a secondhand cheerfulness, making her ignore anything she'd normally have been bothered by.

"That is absolutely wonderful, Joseph," she replied, genuinely happy for him. He released her, stepping back and taking a deep breathe. Their gazes met for a moment and Sharena's mouth went dry at the look on his face. The joy on his face may not have been caused by her, but it nearly made her heart burst. She wanted nothing more than to stay there and stay within Joseph's cheery presence, where everything was okay and she could just stare into his lovely emerald eyes-

"Oh and Sherrie?" his words shifted her from her thoughts, teal irises focusing on him.

"Yeah?" she replied, expecting some important declaration or admission.

"If you constantly nag and complain no man is going to want to marry you."

She changed her mind, she didn't want to be around him anymore.

The trip to locate the German hacienda base actually went by rather quickly as there were no more interruptions. The pair decided to lay low and plan out their excursion from a cliff overlooking a large Mexican castle.

"My cactus pal, Donobang, said this is where the secret underground facility is, Speedwagon has to be in there."

"So we just need a way inside right? Hand me your binoculars for a sec." Sharena asked, hand outstretched to receive them. Joseph shrugged and gave them to her.

"See any secret entrances?"

"How would I be able to see something like that through a regular pair of binoculars?" she glanced at Joseph, eyebrows furrowed.

"I don't know. Can you use hamon to increase your eyesight or something?"

"No!" she shouted, quickly covered her mouth. She hadn't thought about the possibility she might give away their position until it was too late. "Anyways, I see a group of women approaching the hacienda with various goods to deliver. I can probably sneak in along with them, or distract them long enough for you to get in unnoticed. If we go in guns blazing it could put the entire facility of high alert." she reasoned, handing the binoculars back to Joseph, he nodded in agreement. She grabbed a basket of various breads and a traditional dress they had received earlier in the morning. "I will take this and one of the garments they gave us as a disguise. Make an attempt to be inconspicuous as you approach the base's entrance."

Sharena left Joseph alone to change behind the corner. She returned to him clad in a rather colorfully embroidered, off the shoulder dress. Something about the delicate look to it and the lovely designs made her self-confidence increase exponentially which was good considering she needed to be just confident enough to pull this off. She raked a hand through her hair, suddenly realizing short blond hair would do nothing but hinder her. A similarly decorated hooded poncho was shoved into her face before she could even begin to think of a solution. Her eyes stared for a moment at Joseph's large hand grasped around the cloth before she grabbed it from him, a quizzical look passing his way.

"Acting all high and mighty with your plans when you haven't even covered up your light hair," he scolded. Sharena easily slipped it over her, pulling the hood up to cover her fair hair, luckily her skin had a healthy tanness to it, so she could just barely pass as the paler cousin of the Mexican women she would be following.

"Well, I'm off, see ya soon, Jojo." she expressed, waving a hand over her head in a brief farewell.

Joseph watched her leave, a knot in his stomach telling him he shouldn't have just let her go off on her own. He sighed and scratched the back of his head, a grimace forming on his face. He really didn't want to have to come jumping in if something happened to her, much less try and focus on sneaking in when she was probably in danger. What would he even do? He put to fingers to his forehead for a moment, trying to focus his thoughts. He looked around for a moment, looking for something around that he could adlib a plan from. There was always the possibility of driving the motorcycle right through the front entrance, but she had been right saying it would do no good causing a ruckus. His gaze settle on the canvas bag she had grabbed her disguise from. Just then it came to him, his lips upturned as a plan B churned its way through his brain…

"Vegetables, canned goods, meat, ham, eggs. That's a basket of food." one of the trolls guarding the hacienda barked, a leer on his face. Sharena stood at the end of the line of females all bringing goods into the base walls, hood pulled down to hide her hair and eyes, the latter of which were anxiously shifting about. These two soldiers were giving her a rather creepy vibe. Her hunch was proved correct as the very ogre who had checked the first females basket turned towards the group and announced that they would now be performing a frisk search. She stiffened as her brain fully comprehended what was going on here, and the fact that if she was going to help out the Joestars and retrieve Mister Speedwagon, she would have to go through the same.

The first female stepped up, the one guards placing his hands all over her. Sharena cringed, her moral detector going off. "Don't make that face. Smile when I frisk you!" he shouted at the woman he was touching so inappropriately.

"The rest of you, lift up your shirts and give us big smiles." the other guard commanded, ogling each and every female down the line, including Sharena. The other women immediately obeyed, hoping to just get it over with. The soldiers took their time staring and sniggering at each woman's expense before waving them on. Their eyes landed on the only one who hadn't done as she was asked.

"Hey, didn't you hear us, woman? Show us what's under your dress, and move that hood away too," the shorter guard growled out. Sharena just stood there, frozen and unable to respond even if she wanted to, she was just so shocked at the behavior going on, and the fact that she was expected to just do the same. The man's grin quickly became a grimace as he approached her and grabbed her skirt, ready to tear it up himself. "I said to lift it up, bitch!"

Sharena shrieked at the sudden invasion of her personal space and hopped back. Her basket had been flung in some direction and her hood flew back, revealing her light blond hair and teal eyes. Rather than finding her appearance suspicious in anyway the guards eyes seemed to gain a new gleam to them.

"To think they had such a hot thing amongst them, huh? Blondes must be pretty rare, I think I'll take my time with this one, Shultz."

Sharena stumbled back, her backside falling in the sand. Her breathing became erratic, her heroic actions from the night before meant nothing now when she was formally demoted back to a damsel in distress without someone to back her up and give her the confidence she so desperately needed. Had her brain not be a crumpled mess at the possibility of being assaulted she would have wondered wear her fiery attitude from before had gone, or rather where it always seemed to go. The men both came closer, but stopped in their tracks as a tall shadow fell over them.

"I've brought you some tequila, is that alright to bring through?" a forcefully high-pitched, but definitely masculine voice interrupted their movements. Both the guards and their possible victim both turned their necks to stare at the newcomer. A man over six feet tall stood there in a dress clearly too small for him. His chest area was padded to simulate rather voluptuous breasts and his face was covered in bright makeup. Brown hair was pinned back with fancy golden clips and various types of matching jewelry adorned his neck, ears, and wrists. The man's painted lips had the coyest of smiles as he batted his lengthy lashes and Sharena was easily knocked from her frightened stupor by the absolute buffoonery she was beholding, it was this moment where she realized Joseph Joestar was the best thing that ever happened to her. She couldn't help the smile that came to her face.

The guards on the other hand were less than amused at Joseph's performance and backed away, guns raised. "Put your hands up, You twitch and we shoot!" they both cried out, clearly disturbed.

Joseph stared at them, looking rather insulted at their reaction as he reached in his basket and pulled out two bottles of tequila. "Why? Why are you panicking?" he questioned, genuinely confused.

"That is a furtive moment!" they shouted, cocking their weapons in response to his approach. "Fire!"

Joseph raised his hands in a show of surrender, "Just hold on, I understand, I won't move!" he shouted back in alarm. He turned his head and clicked his teeth, "Damn, Y-you Germans are too smart. To think you'd see right through my disguise."

"You're nuts, of course we did, you creep!" one yelled.

"No girl in the world like an ox, you ox!" the other laughed, "Look at yourself with clearer eyes, moron!"

"What was that!?" Joseph's eyes lit up in fury at their words. He took a deep breath and aimed the bottles cork towards the guards. The bottles began to vibrate violently, a yellow aura surrounding the glass. With a yell of 'hamon!', the corks shot upward and hit a tree above the guards. The reaction inevitably caused two large fruits to fall from the tree, hitting the guards square in the head. This giving Joseph an opening to brutally swing his leg into both their faces. Blood spurted from the impact, knocking out several teeth and knocking the guards out. Sharena stood up on shaky legs and approached the scene of the incident, her eyes changing focus between the incapacitated Nazis and the beautiful Joseph Joestar.

Without a word Joseph grabbed hold of one of the guards legs and began to drag him, stopping only to tell Sharena to grab the other and follow his lead. She gratefully did as she was told, even though it took her a bit longer to get him out and around the corner to where her partner had placed his own man. She slumped against the wall and breathed heavy as Joseph crouched near the guard she had dragged.

"Shoot that was so depressing, my self confidence took a pretty bad hit there." he mumbled to himself, wrenching the clothes off the knocked out soldier.

"Are you seriously worried about how you looked beating up those guys?" Sharena giggled, amazed that he was focused on something so ridiculous. "You really helped me out there Joseph, and I appreciate it greatly." she spoke seriously, leaning forward to put her hand on his shoulder. He looked at her out of the corner of his eyes and gave her a cheesy grin.

"I had a feeling you would mess up some how, so I made sure to come up with a plan B." he admitted. Sharena couldn't even be angry at him, because either way he had looked out for her and that's what matter. She didn't need to know the truth of what happened after he came up with the plan, of how he worried about her and became filled with anger when he realized they planned to molest her, or how he barely contained himself enough to even get the costume on when he decided to step in.

"Yeah, I seem to have performance issues when it really matters, I apologize for that." she admitted, her face turning red in realization at how pitiful she must seem to him. She expected another rash comment, but instead he seemed focused on putting on his next brilliant disguise, a German uniform. She let out a deep breath and let her small smile remain as she just watched him button up his shirt. Her eyes followed his fingers that expertly handled each button on his shirt, ending up on his rigid collar bones, and his thick neck, and his makeup caked face. She stopped her thoughts and snorted in surprise. "Joseph."

"Hm?" he looked back at her for a moment in curiosity.

"You still have that makeup on your face." she giggled. He groaned putting a hand to his cheek, he had completely forgotten about the rest of his disguise. She grabbed what was left of his own dress and tore a chunk off, scooting her way around to face Joseph. "Come here I'll clean it off for you."

"Thanks, Sherrie."

"No problem, Jojo."

I apologize for the lateness of this update, I intended to have it finished last Thursday, the 24th, for Joseph's (and Bruno's) birthday, but things became a bit hectic, plus the length of the chapter means it took longer to write and edit. Either way, I appreciate your understanding in this matter. Also, a big thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, followed, and even those of you who just read up to this point, I cannot stress enough how important it is to me that you have chosen to spend time reading this story. As always, if you have comments, concerns, critiques, or even suggestions for the story, please reach out, if not to the review/comment section, then to my private message inbox, I will take any ideas you have into consideration!

Thanks again for being here, hasta luego.

(P.S. Some people have requested longer chapters, which is kind of why this is 7k words rather than 2k-5k, so I would like to know what people prefer lengthwise (even if you don't mind me just writing it chapter by chapter with no real pre-determined length). Take into account that chapters will never be under 2k words nor will it be more than 8k. Thanks again.