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.
The stand-off of Dio and Jojo has reached an unexpected climax. Jojo's Stand The World has made itself known at last, flexing its powerful arms by its sides. Dio and his Stand, the villainous System of a Down, stood squared against Jojo in the trees of the park they were fighting in.
Jojo made the first move. Out of his blind, justice-driven fury he started running forward. The World echoed his movement fluidly. Dio started cautiously moving away, much slower than Jojo's running, and kept his Stand ready. Jojo wound up his arm tight to his side and prepared what looked like an uppercut. Dio clasped his hands together to catch it and stopped moving. The World started floating ahead of Jojo with its arm wound just as tight and prepared to make a powerful punch to Dio's gut.
"SoaD!" Dio summoned. His Stand came up in front of him with its clawed fingers together, ready to catch The World's fist. Jojo attacked, sending The World's strong arm at Dio's gut. SoaD blocked. The force of the impact threw Dio and his Stand up through the leaves of a tree and over two more before he regained himself and expanded his wings before crashing to the ground. Dio got up, dizzied by the blow, and saw Jojo slowly pacing forward with The World beside him.
Incredible! Dio thought. So much power in only one punch! It's more powerful that even my Stand! Not to mention the speed of the punch and its movements. They were so precise and controlled. Jojo's Stand has some amazing potential power behind it. Dio got up and stood lurching forward with his arms near the ground. His Stand hovered behind him menacingly with its fingers spread apart and its horrific maw gaping slightly. The World and Jojo were undaunted and kept walking ahead.
"You have short range" Dio noted. "Just like mine, your Stand is a 'Power' Stand. It has tremendous power but it can't travel far from you. I wonder though, Jojo, can your Stand attack at a range like mine can? Or can it only fight as close as you can?"
Jojo started to answer Dio's question. He stood between two trees and moved The World to one. The World gripped the tree with its huge arms, grabbing its wrists on the other side, the started pulling upwards. Jojo just stood like a statue, glaring through the shadow over his eyes at his nemesis.
"I don't believe you, Jojo" Dio stated bluntly. "You don't know the first thing about proper Stand fighting!" Dio summoned up his Stand to extend its nasty claws and had it rush in for an attack. Just as he did a loud, crashing creaking started blaring from The World. The Stand was pulling the tree from out of the ground, as Jojo intended it to do, and started leaning it towards Dio. He was shaken for a moment, but with his own Stand already out he knew the entire act would be useless. He brought SoaD back to him quickly and prepared its claws to rip the tree apart as it fell.
"ORA!" Jojo shouted. He rushed in while SoaD was occupied, eying the falling tree in front of it, and began throwing his fists at Dio. The World had disappeared already.
"Useless, Jojo!" Dio shouted as he blocked. Jojo's fists started multiplying as he swung. His arms went faster and faster, his strength reverberated through his waist and his shoulders and his back and all of that energy transferred into his mighty fists. Dio felt the power behind each blow and had to shove most of them away for fear of breaking his hands blocking the steely punches.
"Dammit" Dio cursed. Dio mentally commanded SoaD to slice the tree in half so he wouldn't be hit. The Stand came in closer to its user and moved its bladed arms as quickly as it could, shredding the bark and wood of the tree apart around Dio. Jojo was still in the line of falling tree, but in his righteous rage he didn't notice until the tree was nearly hitting him.
"WRAAAAAAIIII!!!" SoaD roared. The tree was hitting Jojo already, pushing him down slowly. Dio stepped back with a smile on his face and waited. Just as he would have predicted, The World brought its ghostly hand up through Jojo's head and punched the tree away. With every manic fist it delivered, it echoed in Jojo's synonymous battle cry, leading to its own hollow-voiced string of powerful shouts.
"ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA!!!!"
The tree flew through the air and landed on its other side, crashing a few other trees as it did. As the thin forest toppled under the might of the Joestar power, Dio started to become hopeful. He looked over at Jojo, who was no ready to punch again with The World right behind him. Four arms to hit with were much more powerful than only two. Dio realized it just in time, as he brought SoaD back to help him the instant Jojo started his barrage of punches with The World.
Fist met fist at light-speed! The two young men were matched hit for hit, punching knuckles and meeting each balled hand flat on to block. Their Stands were fighting at the same pace, floating above them. The World's off-white fists met SoaD's total black claws and deflected the punches that came at an even pace.
"And to think I was impressed at first" Dio said. "Your Stand isn't even that fast! Jojo, are you trying to threaten me with something so weak You should know better. I'm Di-"
"ORA!" The World shouted. Suddenly SoaD started slowing down. The World's punches were breaking through SoaD's defense, and Dio suffered the pain of the strong blows to his chest and his shoulders.
What now? Dio growled internally. I'm not tired or injured at all. Why would my Stand, a direct reflection of my own might and spirit, slow down!? The truth was that Dio hadn't slowed, but The World was simply too fast for him.
Soon every punch slipped past SoaD and Dio was sent flying away after a few seconds of being punched by four horrendously powerful fists.
One the dust settled and the light started to fade, Dio picked himself up from the ground. He had been punched so viciously, so strongly that he had flown clear into the side of a building and passed out for a moment. He started coughing as he stirred and found, in the motion of his breathing chest, that he had suffered some breakage in his bones.
"Damn that man" Dio said. "Ah..." His painful moans and the destructive crash earlier had alerted several young students to check on him.
"Oh my god!" a girl shouted. "Sir, are you hurt? What happened?"
If you can't tell that I'm hurt by looking Dio thought then please do the world a favor and kill yourself, idiot...
"I am fine" Dio said harshly. He struggled to stand up, finding it hard to stay rigid in the air with so much pain and rupturing in his body. He summoned his Stand, which was cracked and damaged all over, to help support him by latching itself inside his legs and gripping the walls with its arms. Dio let out a deep sigh, and along with it a slight drool of deep red.
"You need a hospital" another student called, this one a young man. "Please, sit back down and stay calm!"
Vermin Dio internally growled. He continued walking forward, eager to find Jojo once more and deliver his own breed of justice to the justly mad young man. Ever since my Stand powers developed I have gained amazing healing powers, as well as heightened senses and physical strength. I have recovered form a broken hand and a stab wound in only a week. These bones will set themselves and heal in no time, but until then I can only fight to run, not win. Jojo has the advantage here. He has won for now.
"DIO!!!" Jojo blared. All the students turned toward the park trees, seeing a distant figure sprinting through them. His eyes flashed white through the shadows, fixed solely on the injured young man with flowing golden hair.
"Shit" Dio cursed. He felt a wetness swelling in his throat and suddenly coughed a lump of thick blood. "Fuck..." he weakly added. "I...can't..."
"Isn't that Johnathan Joestar?" one student pointed out. "What's he doing?"
"Did he do this?" the girl asked.
"Of course not" a boy noted. "He must have fallen from somewhere...or, got hit by...something...How did this happen?"
"Jojo..." Dio muttered. "You've gone mad..." Jojo broke through the tree line into the light with his Stand hovering mightily above him. He wound up to make another massive punch to Dio's head, but the outstretched hand of peace stopped him. Dio held his hand up to catch the incoming fist, but he missed and now didn't withdraw it.
"Stop...Jojo" Dio ordered weakly. Even in this state, with death a mere arm away, he would not reduce himself to pleading. "You have gone mad with power...you can't control it yet. Cease fighting me. Jojo...you must redirect this hatred and rage away from me and at our true enemy: MUSE! Try, Jojo!" Dio stopped to breath and look up to see if he was making any sort of effect. The World was still active but Jojo's fist had retraced and uncurled to his side once more. The madness was wearing off now, and with it went the tangibility of The World. "You're stronger...than this..." Dio passed out once more, this time going down for the rest of the count.
Jojo fell to his knees and nearly sank all the way to his hands if he hadn't balanced his torso out to stay erect. He stared vacantly for a moment, having almost no real recollection of the battle, and then came under the painful realization of Dio's terrible pain. He started to shiver with the immense discomfort of the terrible truth that welled up within him.
"What have I done" Jojo asked. He looked at his hands, seeing through the darkness as the ghostly arms of The World followed him. Just seeing those powerful arms sent a shiver of rebellious anger and berserk force through his entire body, so he pulled them back immediately. "H-How could I do this? I thought I was above being manipulated by the power, but I...God, no! I've become a monster already!"
"Mr. Joestar!" one of the students gasped. "You really did this?"
"How?" a young man asked with deep confusion. "Did you hit him with a car...an invisible car?"
"Get away from me!" Jojo ordered in panic. "I...I can't stay out here! I'm too strong!" Jojo ran away in a rush. He left Dio in the care of the cool night air and the confused young students that stayed gathered around him. Dio's breathing trailed off into a deep, painful sleep, and the students continued to stand around hoping something good would happen for the strange and mysterious young man.
The next day was a dismal one. An overcast sky shining ominous dim light through the city. REO stood waiting at the arch, like he promised, but Jojo was nowhere to be found. He inquired many times to all the students that he could find, but at length no one could answer him straighly about Jojo's whereabouts.
Then Erina came along.
"Robert?" Erina asked. REO turned and saw the beautiful girl in her frilled, stylish dress coming his way. He immediately turned away form her to straighten himself out and make himself presentable in Jojo's absence, hoping the cute girl would notice. "Hi. Are you waiting for-"
"Yeah" REO answered prematurely. "That guy, he's never been late before. I'm starting to wonder if he's already gotten a girlfriend behind my back."
"Jojo isn't dating" Erina said sadly. "He...he's locked himself in his room since yesterday. No one can figure out why. And this morning, some man in weird clothes came by and demanded to be shown to his room. Now he's locked in there with him."
"Man in strange clothes?" REO repeated. "Like, how strange? Checkerboards and weird floral drug-trip patterns everywhere?"
"Yes" Erina plainly answered.
"That's Zeppeli" REO said in surprise. "What's he doing here? Unless...this means Jojo's..." His Stand!
"Robert?" Erina asked. "What's going on? What happened to Jojo, and who is Zeppeli?"
"His legal guardian for the last, like, ten years" REO answered as if everything was fine. "There must have been some family emergency. I should go see him. I'm like his brother after all."
"Robert!" Erina shouted demandingly. "It's common knowledge what happened to Johnathan Joestar's family, namely that he's the last of it. Why don't you stop the lying and tell me what's really going on!?" REO froze with his back to her. He glared ahead through the shade of his bowler derby hat and sighed deeply.
"I'm sorry Erina" REO apologized. "It's...something private. If you ask Jojo you'll just get a lie too, so don't try, for your sake." Erina was at a loss for words. She didn't understand a secret so amazing that it couldn't even be explained in simple terms for her sake. "Again, sorry!" REO said finally. He ran off for the dorms in the vain hopes of comforting his friend in a dire time of need.