It was always an interesting sight, watching the ocean as it shrank down through the windows of any plane, since it really did look like something out of one of those model railroads he'd seen around some of Aunty Alice's holdings when she'd invite him over for one reason or another. Settling further into his seat as they all crossed through whatever time zone they were currently flying through, Joseph chuckled to himself. His sweet little Holly might have married that deadbeat Kujo, but that was no reason for him to go and lose contact with his grandson.
When the four of them all made it to the private hangar that Aunty Alice had established for herself in Japan, the sound of someone else's footsteps drew his attention.
"Kosaku, good to see you again," Aunty Alice said, that same, calm tone to her voice that he'd heard so many times when she spoke to people she knew.
"Oi, Kawajiri!" he called, waving to the little porter who started taking out the little bits of luggage that he and Suzy had brought to Japan with them.
"Joestar-san," he said, nodding to him as the four of them made their way out of the plane and continued on to the car that Straizo climbed into first, since he'd probably been the one to drive the thing here in the first place.
The rest of them had soon made their own way into the car – not really a limo, but fancy enough to seem like one – and Joseph settled down, grinning as he thought about the kind of elaborate party that he and Uncle Dio were going to throw for Jotaro. Sure, his grandson wasn't the type to enjoy something like that – not with the kind of I'm-too-cool-for-this attitude that the brat had been developing during the course of his stay in Japan – but he and Uncle Dio would at least be able to have their fun springing the party on him.
The ride over to the mansion that he'd helped Holly to buy when she had married that deadbeat bastard Kujo was about as short and simple as he could've asked for, and the four of them had soon arrived.
=SC=
The mingled sounds of Joseph, Suzy, and Holly as the three of them all said their hellos for the first time drew her attention for a moment, before Jotaro's familiar form emerged from one of the other rooms.
"Hey," Jotaro said, after casting an unimpressed look over at the trio who were reacquainting themselves after their separation.
"Good to see you again, Jotaro," she said, smirking in amusement as Jotaro rolled his eyes in the general direction of his family members as the three of them started making their way into the house so that they could get settled.
"You mind?" Jotaro asked, flicking his gaze in the direction of Joseph and the others, his usual economy of words coming to the fore again.
"You want me to run interference for you again?" she asked, raising an eyebrow even as she smirked ever so slightly wider.
She and Jotaro had seemed to connect fairly well, both of them being fairly low-key kind of people, surrounded by big, bombastic personalities.
Jotaro nodded, humming slightly in thought as he began making his way back into the mansion once again.
=SC=
When she'd been able to beg some time off from Lord Dio, to make her way into the city of Cairo; she'd hated lying to her Lord, but such a thing had clearly been necessary, considering how enamored he was of that hateful woman who, while she had left on some kind of errand or other, was clearly going to return if Enya herself didn't do something to prevent that. And so, she'd taken to making inquiries, seeking out those who would be willing to hear her out. Those who would be willing to dispose of that horrible, hateful woman.
Those who would be able to help her avenge her poor son.
It was only a small group that had actually agreed to meet with her, at least for the moment, and as she made her way into the small, darkened café that she had told them all to meet her inside, Enya gathered herself for what she was going to need to do next.
=SC=
Looking around at all of the people who'd come when that weird old broad had called them up for this little meeting of theirs, Hol Horse looked around at the small gathering he'd just become a part of.
"So, where's this weird old broad we're s'posed ta meet?" he asked, after a long moment spent studying the milling crowds in the café; no one seemed to quite fit the voice and mannerisms of the old broad who's voice he'd made a point to memorize as well as he'd been trained to do.
"I'm here," said that same voice that he'd heard over the phone when this whole thing had been set up, and Hol turned to look over at her.
She was even older and more decrepit-looking than he'd been expecting when he'd first heard her voice; looked like things were a bit more involved than he'd been given to expect. When she glanced down at the gun that he had in his holster – the Emperor – Hol made a note of the fact that he was dealing with another Stand user. That might complicate things, he mused, as the old broad made her way over to their table.
"I've gathered you all here because I need you all to help me dispose of someone," the old broad – the Stand user that he'd been steadily composing a report about as he observed her – said, glaring at him in particular.
Looked like there was something else he'd need to take note of in his report.
"Who did you call us here to kill?" one of the other men – Dan Steele, maybe? He couldn't really remember – asked, folding his arms across his chest and glaring out at everyone in the café, before returning his attention to their group where they were seated.
"Her," the old broad said, slapping a photograph down on the table that the eight of them had all gathered together.
Pressing the tip of his tongue against his top row of teeth, Hol Horse stared down at the photo of the Boss Lady that had just been placed down on the table; it looked like he was going to have something interesting to report when he reported in.
"Are you insane?!" Dan – the only one of the man's names he could actually remember, at least enough to put in his report – demanded, looking like it was only the presence of everyone else in the café that kept him from leaping out of his seat to yell down at the old broad. "Do you even know what you're asking?!"
"What? Are you afraid of her?" the old broad sneered; Hol Horse forced himself to swallow a laugh.
"I happen to enjoy living," Dan snarled, shuddering badly enough that Hol could see it as clearly as the Commander – or TIM, but he'd never actually met the man behind the moniker – could have when she was the one overseeing her troops.
That was, if she herself had ever been able to meet up with any of them in the first place; like the Boss Lady herself said, image was very important to someone like her.
"What do you mean?" the old broad demanded, clearly trying to growl, even with most of her teeth missing.
"You mean you don't know?" Dan demanded, eyes darting around the room as he leaned in closer, ironically making it all the more obvious that he was trying to keep something secret. "Alice Brando's got access to more than just her Treadstone agents; and I'm not just talking about Blackwater," Dan's eyes darted around the darkened room again, and Hol Horse firmly bit back a grin. "There's always been rumors that she has a third level of training; beyond even the Blackwater agents, that do things that even Blackwater wouldn't be capable of, since they're still connected to her," Dan shuddered. "People also say that she has those agents recruited from military prisons; I've heard of Fort Leavenworth and places like that mentioned as where she looks for them. They handle things that none of her other agents could be seen doing."
"What are you talking about?" one of the women at the table asked, looking like she didn't know quite what to believe.
"There's a story going around, that there was some group of corrupt cops somewhere or other," Dan said, looking around at all of the other people gathered at the table with them. "Alice found out about it, of course, and sent some of those secret agents of hers out," Dan said, looking at the woman – Mariah, Hol recalled – who'd spoken up just a bit ago. "And then, well…" Dan breathed deeply, shuddering. "The only part of the lead cop anyone found was his skin, hung in a tree near his house."
"What?!" the other blond who'd been seated at the table with them – Tennille, Hol recalled, though he had the feeling that that name might have been an alias – demanded, sitting up straight in his seat where he'd previously been slouching easily while he'd seemed to be taking in the other people at the table.
Not many of theirs actually knew each other when they didn't need to work together on a mission or in teams on an operation, but Hol made a mental note to catch up with the man; at least after he'd made his report, of course.
=SC=
When he'd finally been able to extricate himself from the crazy old woman who had brought up the insane idea of challenging Alice Brando and the power that she held in the world that they all lived in, Steely Dan panted as he hurried back to the hotel room that he'd been staying in when he'd come to Cairo after being called up. Shuddering as he stepped back through the doors of the hotel, Steely Dan kept a careful lookout as he continued on his way back up to his room.
There was no telling if he was being stalked by one or more of Alice Brando's secret agents.
When he finally made it back to his room, Dan froze as he saw the mess of shattered glass spread across the floor, seemingly leading to the head of his bed, and the crossbow bolt that had been buried in the wall there. Shuddering as he made his way over to yank out the bolt, he also noticed that there seemed to be a message tied to the shaft of the bolt. Untying the message, he found that it only contained a single line: You have chosen wisely.
It had clearly been printed off a computer, or Xeroxed, so he couldn't tell anything from looking at the style of the writing; anything like who might have written something like that.
=SC=
"Holly! My little baby Holly!" he, Dio, laughed as he spun his adorable great grand-niece around, as she giggled and squealed.
"Uncle Dio, I'm not a baby!" she laughed, as he set her gently down on the floor and the pair of them embraced heartily.
"Compared to me you certainly are, baby Holly," he, Dio, said with a grin; out of the corner of his eye he, Dio, caught sight of his sweet sister and N'Doul with their heads leaned together, seemingly discussing some matter or other.
He wondered for a moment about such a thing, but then dismissed it from his mind; there were a great many things that his dear Alice needed to do, considering the fact that she held the highest position possible in the international company that she herself had established and continued to build up to this very day. It was likely simply more corporate matters that he, Dio, had been uninterested in since the first time that his sweet sister had endeavored to explain such things to him.
"Uncle Dio, you haven't forgotten about me, have you?" his Little Jojo wheedled, grabbing him from behind.
"Certainly not, my Little Jojo," he, Dio, laughed as he turned around to firmly embrace his adorable nephew in turn.
Narrowing his eyes in amusement as he, Dio, saw their adorable Jotaro attempting to edge his way past them and into the house where he was all-too likely to sequester himself in the room that had been prepared for him when he, Dio, had had the place built in the first place, he turned to confront the youngest member of their happy little family.
"Jotaro, wherever are you planning to go?" he, Dio, asked, making his way over to pick up his adorably dour little Jotaro. "And without even giving your dear old Uncle a hug? You naughty boy."
"Fuck off, Uncle Dio," Jotaro grumbled, seeming to be almost physically restraining himself from squirming in the way that he'd always done before when he, Dio, had done such a thing.
"You rude little brat," he, Dio, laughed as he tugged the brim of Jotaro's ratty old cap down over his eyes.
=SC=
When he'd finally managed to get away from Uncle Dio, Gramps, Granny, Mom and all of their collective weirdness, Jotaro settled down in his room. At least it was quieter than anywhere else in the house; and yeah, he knew that he was going to have to deal with those annoying old guys and their equally annoying ideas for celebrating his birthday, but at least he'd have his aunt to keep the old guys from getting too annoying with all their crap. The two of them had seemed to understand each other without words nearly since the day they'd met; something he'd come to appreciate more and more as he found himself dealing with all the weirdness that the Old Man and Uncle Dio brought up with their antics.
Even Mom didn't really seem to understand him the way that Aunt Alice did, even without words.
A soft grumble from his stomach prompted Jotaro to sit up, but when he looked over at his nightstand he saw that there was a bag of potato chips and a can of orange soda set neatly down by the table lamp.
"What the hell?" he muttered, making his way over to the nightstand and looking around.
Sure, he knew that Uncle Dio had a bunch of servants and retainers and crap, but he didn't think that any of them could have been that quiet. Looking around the room, even as he picked up the chips and soda, Jotaro frowned as he made his way over to the big, squashy chair that had been set in the room, beside an actual table rather than the nightstand that he'd first found the food set out on top of.
It was weird as fuck, but he couldn't see any indications that anyone else had been in the room with him.
=SC=
Narrowing her eyes as she caught sight of that hateful woman making her way into the house where Lord Dio lived with all of his subjects and retainers, Enya growled under her breath. The sheer cowardice that Steely Dan had displayed when he'd heard who it was that she had gathered them in that café to tell them about – the hateful woman who she wanted dead more than anything – infuriated her more than anything else that she'd experienced since she'd felt the echoes of her poor son's pain after he'd suffered so much abuse at the hands of that horrible woman. It had to be nonsense, anyway.
The fact that that hateful woman hadn't had the nerve to kill her poor son made believing such wild stories like the ones that coward Dan had been mewling about all but impossible, and convincing the braver members of the mercenary group that she had gathered to her in the café where the eight of them had gathered had become all the more simple when she had reminded them of such a fact.
And so, returning to Lord Dio's mansion had been all the more simple, armed with the knowledge that she had new weapons and allies that that horrible woman would not have a chance against. Even being forced to watch that hateful woman's interactions with Lord Dio were made more simple when she reflected back upon the meeting that she had arranged, and all of the mercenaries who would soon come down upon her like the iron fist of justice. Even my own Justice will do the same!
Narrowing her eyes all the farther as she watched that hateful woman moving through Lord Dio's holdings as though she owned them, Enya swallowed yet another snarl; she knew that Lord Dio had greater, more powerful senses than any mere human could have been said to possess, and the simple fact was that that hateful woman seemed to possess the same caliber of senses. Enya knew that she would have to act far more carefully, given that the horrible woman seemed to be settling in to stay for some time. And yes, while it would make dealing with her a great deal more simple, Enya hated seeing the horrible woman in such a sacred place.
It wasn't suited to her at all.
=SC=
"How did you manage to find any of this out, sister dear?" he, Dio, asked as his sweet Alice detailed what she and N'Doul had actually been talking about when the pair of them had met up with each other in the shadow of their little family gathering.
"You are aware that I have access to a great deal of resources, yes?" his sweet sister asked, raising an eyebrow as she faced him down over the expanse of the small table the three of them had settled around.
"Well, yes, but I'd hardly been expecting you to have spies in the area," he, Dio, chuckled as the pair of them continued their discussion.
"Yes, apparently Enya made that same assumption," his sweet sister said, a rather amused smile appearing on her face as their conversation continued.
"Yes, Enya," he, Dio, said, narrowing his eyes as he recalled the true reason for his and Alice's meeting. "Dear little Enya," he hissed. "I'd thought that there was something odd about the way she'd been looking at you. I shall have to find a way to punish her for such a transgression."
"Not necessarily," his dear Alice said, folding her arms in a contemplative sort of way. "My agents would be more than able to handle this kind of situation."
"No, there has to be consequences for this," he, Dio, said, even though he was perfectly aware that his sweet sister and her forces would have been perfectly capable of dealing with any number of troublesome people that that miserable, faithless traitor Enya had gathered to her with her efforts. "Little Enya has to know the true price of betrayal."
"Well, if you're certain," his sweet sister said, though it was clear from her demeanor that she didn't fully approve of the course of action he, Dio, was planning.
Still, the only way that a young fool such as Enya would learn her proper lesson was if he and his were there to confront her about her transgressions; it was a lesson that he'd no intention of allowing her to survive.
=SC=
When he'd actually made his way down to the kitchen, wanting something more than just a bag of potato chips and an orange soda – though hell if he knew where it'd come from in the first place – Jotaro made sure that none of the more annoying members of his family were going to be around, since he wasn't really in the mood to deal with any of them when there was something so strange going on with him. He might go and talk to Aunt Alice about things, if the weirdness didn't stop on its own or something, but for the moment he was content to forget about that kind of thing while he went to get his lunch ready.
Looking around the empty expanse of the kitchen, Jotaro sighed in relief, even as me made his way over to the large fridges at the far end of the room. Pulling open the doors of the left-side fridge, Jotaro looked into it and tried to decide just what it was that he wanted to have. The sound of clattering dishes drew his attention, and Jotaro looked over at the plate that had just been set out on a nearby countertop. What the hell is going on?
The sound of the fridge door that he'd let slip closed being yanked open again caused him to snap his gaze in that direction, just in time to see some packets of food and condiments being set out around the plate that'd just been dumped on the counter a few seconds earlier. Backing up almost against the fridge itself as some kind of invisible thing began shuffling the packets of food through the air even as he watched. Shuddering as he jumped out of the way as that same something pulled the fridge door open, slamming it shut again in just a second. Panting as he made his way over to the plate on the counter, Jotaro narrowed his eyes as he studied the… whatever it was that had been set on the plate.
It looked like a normal club sandwich, hell it even smelled like one, and the root beer that had been set down beside the plate looked just the same, but Jotaro still found himself unsettled as he looked down at the sandwich that had been set out in front of him; he'd really have to talk to Aunt Alice about this weird shit that seemed to be happening around him lately. Before things started getting out of hand.
=SC=
Given everything that had happened with regards to Enya – in particular the mercenaries that the old woman had gathered up in what was to prove a futile effort to kill her for some reason or other – she and Dio had stepped up their respective efforts to gain a working understanding of Stardust, The World, and The Duke. The shapeshifting abilities of her secondary Stand seemed as though they would be one of the most potent assets the pair of them were going to have, at least aside from the time-stopping power of Dio's own Stand.
"Well, it seems as though this is the limit of what our Stands are capable of at present, sister dear," Dio said, looking at their three Stands as they stood together, The World wrapping its arms almost possessively around Stardust's shoulders.
"Yes," she said, nodding. "We should make contact with N'Doul."
Dio chuckled. "I still can't believe that he was one of your agents, as well."
"I have a lot of agents you don't know about, brother mine," she said, smirking right back.
Her brother chuckled again, as the pair of them paused a moment to allow their Stands to catch up with them and vanish once more, and they made their way deeper into the mansion so that they could meet up with N'Doul again. The three of them had soon joined up again, and then made their way out of the mansion in order to find a battleground that wouldn't be too badly affected by the destructive abilities of their respective Stands, and whatever the abilities of the mercenary group that Enya had recruited possessed, as well.
Narrowing her eyes as her tremor-senses began to pick up the approach of another, distinctly familiar tread, Alice chuckled coldly.
"It seems we're about to have company," she said, fanning out her hair to get a better picture of just where it was that Enya was currently approaching them from.
"Yes," Dio said, a cold smirk curling his own lips as the pair of them continued on their way forward.