Disclaimer: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and all equally bizarre concepts and characters belong to Hirohiko Araki. Original characters and other concepts (as noted) are copyright of me.
With the threat of a possible attack by MUSE on Jojo's own campus, Jojo and Speedwagon raced across the grounds, ignoring the warnings to stay indoors and obey the campus police force's instructions.
"So" Jojo began, "you think it might be MUSE?"
"Not her" REO said. "Stand users can somewhat sense other Stand users. If she's as strong as Dio say she is I'd have more than a mild headache right now."
"How long have you had your Stand, Speedwagon?" Jojo asked.
"Only a little while" Speedwagon said. "It developed around the same time as Dio's actually. Only his is...much stronger than mine. Hold on!" Suddenly, they stopped in the middle of the darkened grounds. The sky was already pitch black from the evening clouds that rolled in. Speedwagon looked around to find a building that would best be suited to supply the power but everything looked far to archaic and old to him. "I've got an idea. Stand back, I'm going to use Trapt!"
"Right" Jojo said, stepping back. Now, let me see this Ghost Ripple in action. Speedwagon, show me what your Stand can do! Speedwagon summoned his Stand into his hands as a chain that Jojo could just barely see. Then he took it in both hands and started quickly spinning it out of one hand and keeping it steady in the other. He looked around, this time for something taller, and finally found a target.
"There it is!" Speedwagon announced. He spun the chain overhead, the invisible clinking heard all around, and tossed it like a lasso at a telephone pole. Jojo could see the blurred air moving where the chain seemed to be, and also saw that the blur stopped at a transformer on top of the pole. "My Stand, Trapt, is a psychic chain! I can use it as a normal, invisible steel chain in combat, but out of combat it has astounding properties! I can channel the knowledge from anything I set the chain into, living or not, and observe from those objects like psychic cameras!"
"That's amazing" Jojo awed. "But, I don't seem to follow why you're reading a transformer's mind." Speedwagon hung his head and sighed, aware that his explanation may have been a little over the Stand-less Jojo.
"I'm trying to figure out" Speedwagon explained "where the electricity came from when it was turned off."
"Ah!" Jojo exclaimed. "These Ghost Ripples...these Stands are unbelievable! What else can that chain do?"
"I can read peoples minds" Speedwagon said "if I hook it into people's heads and I can paralyze people temporarily if I stick them in the back."
"But it still has to act like a normal chain" Jojo explained to himself. "Wow. And I'll have one of these too? What will it be?"
"Who knows?" Speedwagon said. He retrieved his chain with a hard yank and deactivated it once it was all in his hands. "I know where to go now."
"Lead the way then" Jojo said. He followed quickly behind his friend through the green court of the unlit campus towards the nearby off-site maintenance building.
"I am done" said a mysterious voice in the darkness. A random maintenance man was huddled fearfully in the corner with his mop tightly in hand. He was planning with lips tightly clutched, to rush this particular individual who had rendered the campus pitch black and then worked mysteriously and suspiciously on the computer console in the main electronic control room. "I am now proceeding to leave" he said again. The maintenance man peeked just barely around the corner and saw him begin outside. He was wearing a trench coat with gold-colored hemming and some odd pants that were covered by a myriad of belts at the waist. He wore no shirt, and many welts from what looked like whips were visible all over his torso.
That's it the maintenance man told himself. Screw just sitting here! I'm going for it! "RAAAAAHHH!!!" The man ran at the saboteur full force with the mop held overhead. "Get out of here!" The stranger raised up his hand and made a 'stop' motion. Suddenly, the attacking electrician found himself stopped and bounding backwards. He also found that his eyes were extremely dry and he couldn't keep them open without feeling pain.
"You're my first confirmed kill of the day" the stranger said, looming menacingly over the downed man. He stomped hard on the back of his neck and pushed hard. "How lucky for me...a nobody killing another nobody. I guess our brood just isn't meant to exist, right?" Suddenly, the door to the room flew open, and a blond man with a bowler hat came charging in with finger hotly pointing down the accused man.
"You there!" Speedwagon shouted with the hulking Jojo observing intently behind him. "Identify yourself!"
"Who are you guys!?" the stranger demanded.
"We're campus police!" Jojo said, Speedwagon following along with a nod. "Are you the one who shut off the power!?"
"Yes, I am" the stranger admitted. "I can tell that you, sir, are a Stand user" he said, pointing to Speedwagon. "I can also tell that you, the other man, have a Stand trying desperately to get out. No matter. You're both nobodies just like me...and this poor sap." He pointed down at the body of a man. As he removed his foot and tapped at the body, it rolled over and revealed the cracking husk of what used to be a human face. Jojo and Speedwagon shared a gasp and glared in shock at the obviously dead body.
"You killed that man...?" Jojo said. He quickly became infuriated and righteously disgusted with this strange murderer. He gritted his teeth and started shaking, tensing his muscles, growling. Before he could let out a vindictive scream, however, he sighed and started to breathe with the power of the Ripple. "You are a Stand user."
"That I am" the stranger said in a sad way. "Then again, I'm also a fairly useless guy. I'm just another boy to them, a boy named Sue. I'm charmed, although I can tell you're disgusted by me..."
"Huh?" Speedwagon grunted.
"He was just a useless trash" Sue continued, still standing in pitch darkness aside from the light at his back from the computer console he had finished with earlier, "that wanted to get in their way. I stopped him to teach him a lesson."
"Who is they?" Jojo asked.
"They don't need anymore trouble" Sue answered. "Now, you two guys, I have to stop you too. Meet my Stand. I call him Cash." Jojo saw something strange and huge start to slip out from behind Sue but couldn't make it out. He did notice, however, that Speedwagon looked particularly frightened. He could see the Stand's true form. He straightened up, however, and summoned his own into his hands. "That's your Stand?" Sue asked. "Where's the rest of it?"
"You wanna find out?" Speedwagon taunted. Suddenly, Jojo saw a sort of colorless lightning streak rip through the air and smash Sue in the face. He spun around backwards and regained his footing, stepping on and then through the dried husk that used to be a man.
"Do you see?" Sue said, motioning to the corpse. "Cash works fast. He can take the moisture from anything he touches and transfer it into me. I'll never run out of water as long as Cash remains active, and I can siphon the water from a normal person's body within less than a minute. A Stand user like you, however, may take slightly longer."
What ridiculous power! Jojo noted. I can't just stand here and admire all this, though. Speedwagon needs assistance! "Speedwagon, tell me where to go!" Jojo demanded.
"Use the Ripple!" Speedwagon said, spinning his chain for another hit. He threw it again, but Sue brought his Stand out in front and the chain bounced right off.
"Cash is a sponge Stand" Sue said. "As such, the more water he absorbs the more sponge-like consistency he gets. At this point he can deflect most blows without losing much water at all, and I don't feel a thing!"
"That's right!" Speedwagon suddenly realized. The Ghost Ripple and Sun Ripple that Jojo has work on the same level, but they're different frequencies! He can interact with the Stand if he uses the Ripple! Jojo had already theorized this and had his fist wound and charged up to punch. He took a large step forward, was suddenly noticed by the effeminately-faced Sue, and a large blur shot out before him.
"ORA!" Jojo bellowed. With his arm crackling with the energy of the sun, he punched Cash in what seemed like the face. It worked, but only partially. A light imprint from Jojo's punch appeared on Sue's neck and he stepped back. The damage from the Stand that carried over was enough to blow through the spongy properties and force Sue backwards. At that time, Speedwagon hooked Sue's head with his chain and started reading his mind. Once he was done collecting information, which took him only a few moments, he jerked the chain down and forced Sue's head to the solid concrete floor. I can tell it's there Jojo told himself. Then, the blur disappeared and reappeared around Sue.
"Oh shit!" Speedwagon cursed. "Jojo, move out of the way!" Jojo made a desperate roll away, but felt something trying to drag him away. Cash had reformed around Sue, from what Jojo could vaguely ascertain, and was grabbing his leg with one of its otherworldly new tentacles.
"You're both just as useless as me" Sue said. "No, maybe even more so. Neither of you can even hurt me properly, but I can kill you easily." Jojo suddenly had to scream in pain, as he felt the moisture draining from his leg where Cash gripped him. He tried to crawl away, but instead was getting pulled in. "I call this the Desert Curtain" Sue said. "Once you enter the space within a meter radius of me, you're body will be drained of all water and moisture within only a few seconds."
"Hang on, Jojo!" Speedwagon shouted. He hooked his chain around Jojo's arm, which he felt as a cool, steady chain, and started pulling. Jojo grabbed the chain where he could and wrapped it around his fist for a proper grip. Still, despite their combined efforts of pull and tug, Jojo was still getting quickly absorbed into Cash.
"Say goodbye to life, trash" Sue said. Jojo groaned angrily, then snapped. He stopped pulling, yanked the chain away from Speedwagon, and let himself get pulled off his back and to his feet. Then, he took in a powerful breath and let he Ripple cascade through his whole body. The spongy Stand gave way to Jojo's stronger Ripple energy as a counter-Stand energy and let Jojo get close to Sue with his chain-wrapped hand drawn far back.
"Say goodbye to your teeth, murderer" Jojo said with a smile. Then, taking a hopping step past Sue he threw his body forward and caught Sue's face wit his metal-wrapped fist. With a strong and resonant "ORA!" he threw Sue against a wall and let the blood splatter around. Some got on his face, but he ignored it. His leg, as a result from the initial grab, was not dry to a critical point but the skin was very brittle and cuts were appearing just from him standing over Sue with an overpowering aura of victory.
"Way to go, Jojo!" Speedwagon cheered.
"We aren't done, are we?" Jojo asked.
"Stands are still Ripples" Speedwagon said. "If you can't breath you can't use them. Judging by the way his nose is impacted into his skull and the amount of blood he's losing from his mouth, I'd say he won't be using his Stand for a while."
"Good" Jojo said. "Let's get him to the authorities."
"We can't" Speedwagon said. "Once he gets his breath back he'll just sue his Stand and kill more people for whatever reason. Anyway, bringing him in wouldn't do us any good, anyway. He came here under the assumption that it would be his last mission for them."
"That's right" Jojo said, "you read his mind, didn't you?"
"Only a few important details" Speedwagon said. "He works for a gang in the nearest city and he was sent here to deliver a warning to a rival gang nearby. If we turn the power back on, you'll see what I mean..."
"Why?" Jojo asked. Speedwagon motioned to the console and started typing on it, undoing the codes Sue typed in before from his memories. Jojo stood behind him, still reeling with grief over the life that had to be lost. He looked at the broken, dusty husk that used to be a man and sighed solemnly. Then he brought his hands together and prayed.
"Got it" Speedwagon said. Jojo looked up from his prayer and was sent immediately into shock. "I should have told you when I could, but we were interrupted. He came here with me a while ago as part of a deal. I'm surprised you haven't seen him."
"I'm even more surprised" Jojo said. On the monitor, the one screen where every camera feed could be individually monitored, a preset number of screens all showed the same message spelled out in the lights around campus. The streetlights and building lights that cast bright streams of light into the campus court added the dramatic shadows and lighting necessary to spell out, in lights,
'Dio Must Die'
Jojo was forced to shift emotions once more, this time from solemn and resentful to enraged and righteous. His eternal rival was in his city, a flood of nefarious people were coming in from all sides, and his Stand had not even developed yet. How would he stave off all the evil around him and make the world around him good and righteous for the people? Where would he find this power. He looked down into his hand for the answer, and saw the dark afterimage of his mysterious new budding power echoing his tightly0clutched, shaking fist.
I will do it Jojo told himself. Whatever comes at me, I will take this power and hold it high with honor, righteousness and dignity! I will defend my world from all evil and darkness, no matter what! And so, justice filling his mind, he raised his fist up above his head and leaned back to look at the heavens in his mind that symbolized the advent of his power!