Johana jumps back, narrowly avoiding an axe swing from Stefani. Stefani spins in a circle, almost carving of Johana's head. Johana dodges by ducking and unleashes a flurry of blows on the air, creating a cyclone that pushes Stefani back.
Johana grits her teeth as the damage from the cyclone is reflected backwards. Stefani charges again and Johana leaps over her using her Stand. Johana sprints up the staircase, trying to put some distance between herself and Stefani. "If I can't beat you, no sense in staying here and getting the shit beat out of me," she says.
Stefani raises her arm and her armor like Stand, the Stand she has christened Iron Maiden, stretches out, snaking up the staircase and grabbing Johana, dragging her down the stairs.
Twisted Sister appears, grabs Johana, and slams its fists into the staircase, stopping Johana from being dragged down. Johana kicks Stefani's hand with her free arm; the stretched hand retains is grip and a bruise appears on Johana's wrist. Johana winces, looks down at her opponent, and comes up with a plan.
With Twisted Sister's superior strength, Johana begins to climb back up the stairs, fighting back against Stefani's pull. Stefani drags her ankles in, but Johana's strength is too great. Stefani slips and is pulled up the stairs as her Stand's arm springs back to its normal length.
As Stefani flies up the staircase, Johana twists to her back and unleashes a cyclone. The cyclone slams into Stefani and sends her crashing down the stairs, bumping on every step. Johana sighs in relief as Stefani lands at the base of the stairs. None of the damage from the tumble down the steps was reflected onto Johana.
"I figured out your weakness," Johana says. "Your Stand reflects damage onto the attacker, but what does it do when there isn't an attacker? What does it do when you slip and hurt yourself? It can't send the damage anywhere else, so you must be the one to bear the damage."
Stefani crawls to her feet and laughs. "A worthy assessment, but one that is ultimately false," she says. "Look at the steps I just tumbled down."
Johana looks at the staircase. The stone stairs are covered in cracks, far more than one would expect from Stefani's tumble. "My Iron Maiden reflected the damage onto the steps, keeping me perfectly fine," Stefani says.
Johana sprints away from Stefani.
Julius and Nero follow the trail of blood to the fourth floor of the museum, where a large domed room sits. A nearby sign proclaims it as the Planetarium. "The trail ends here, Mathers must be on the other side of this door," Nero says.
"That's good," Julius says. He slumps against a wall and catches his breath.
"Are you alright, uncle?" Nero asks.
"I'm fine," Julius says.
"Remind me, where did you say you were shot?"
"I told you, once in my stomach and once in my leg."
Nero frowns. "Uncle, I know that is a lie," he says. "There is a bloodstain growing on your stomach."
"Imagine that."
"Uncle Julius, we need to get you to a hospital."
"No, we need to take out Mathers. He's injured, if we let him get away now he'll have time to heal and set up another death trap."
Julius kicks open the door of the planetarium. The circular room is dark and filled with black felt chairs. The dome is covered by white stars.
Seventeen portraits of Stan Mathers are spread across the room's walls. "It seems that he has already set up his next trap," Nero says.
Stefani uses her Stand's stretchy arms to pull herself the top of the stairs. She looks around. "Where have you run to?" she says.
Then she notices a black hat sitting on the floor at the entrance of one of the exhibits. She bends down, picks it up, and places it atop her crown.
She follows the hat into a room with blue walls and a large wooden ship against the wall. According to a nearby sign, it's an exhibit on the history of piracy. Tables covered in various historical artifacts and corresponding signs dot the large room.
Stefani stretches out her arms and pulls herself onto the large pirate ship. She looks around the ship and surveys the room, finding no sign of Johana.
Stefani jumps down. "Did you leave your hat at the entrance of this room to mislead me?" she asks.
"Not quite!" Johana shouts as she bursts through the hull of the pirate ship. Twisted Sister flies forward and punches the battleaxe, knocking it out of Stefani's hands.
Stefani is ready for Johana to punch her, injuring herself in the process. What she isn't ready for is Johana's Stand picking up a bundle of rope, flooding it with rotational energy, and throwing it at her. The rope twists around Stefani as it collides with her, tying her up.
Stefani struggles against the rope, trying to free herself. "These ropes were used to anchor ships, they won't break that easily," Johana says.
Stefani sighs and the helmet of her armor disappears.
"Now then, who are you?" Johana asks
"I told you, I am Stan's shield!" Stefani shouts.
"Okay, that's nice, but I was really asking for a name."
Stefani grits her teeth. "My friends call me Stefani," she says.
"Okay, Stefani-"
"You may call me Lady Georgina."
Johana rolls her eyes. "Georgina, you said earlier that you wouldn't let anyone stand in the way of Stan's revenge," she says. "Why does he want revenge on Julius Zeppeli?"
"That bastard Zeppeli, he murdered Stan's younger brother. My Stan has been completely despondent ever since. I fear that, if he doesn't slay Zeppeli, he will never be at peace."
"This is the first I'm hearing of this," Johana says. "You'd think Julius would've mentioned that he killed the brother of one of Woodstock's Stand Users. When was this?"
"Thursday."
"Things have been a bit hectic lately, what day is it?"
"Sunday."
Johana does a little mental math in her head. "Where did Stan's brother die?" she asks.
"Here, in London."
Johana shakes her head."No, that can't be right," she says. "Julius was in France on Thursday."
"Lies! Woodstock, the great man who gave me my Iron Maiden and led me to Stan, said that Zeppeli killed James!"
Before Johana can realize the significance of this statement, Stefani surprises her. Unbeknownst to Johana, Stefani had stretched her arms out while tied up, slowly moving her hand to the battleaxe. Stefani pushes against her bindings. The force they exert to lock her in is reflected back, and the ropes break apart. Stefani bursts to her feet, ripping the axe back in the process, and swings at Johana's neck.
The axe goes through Johana's neck. Or, more precisely, through the flaming hole on Johana's neck created by Kan Nijimura. Johana leaps over Stefani's head and runs to Kan.
The two stand shoulder to shoulder, arms raised in a boxing pose. "How'd the fight with Sting go?" Johana asks
"Pretty good, I dropped him in a sewer," Kan answers. "Who's this lady?"
"She called herself Stefani. Wait, no, Georgina."
"Lady Georgina!" Stefani shouts.
"Whatever."
Kan looks at Lady Georgina/Stefani's unmasked face and takes a deep gasp. "Wait, I know who you are!" she says. "You're like, really famous!"
"Yes, I am aware of my own fame," Stefani says.
"I'm not aware of it, who is she?" Johana interjects.
"Come on Johana, you've heard of Lady Georgina, haven't you? Duchess Georgina Stefani Germanotta? The famous Lady Gaga? Grand niece of the Queen? Twenty-seventh in line for the throne?"
"I moved to England for college, why would I know this?" Johana says. "Why do you know this?"
"I read trashy tabloids," Kan replies. "Don't judge me, they're the only newspapers that interview the ghosts of dead rock stars."
"Enough chatter," Lady Gaga/Stefani says. "We are here to fight, not to idly chit chat about my closeness to the throne."
"I mean, closeness is a bit of an exaggeration," Johana says. "You're twenty-eighth in line-"
"Twenty-seventh! That is my proximity to the throne. If you are to insult me, at least get it right."
"It's one position, I don't see why it's such a big deal," Johana says.
Lady Gaga scoffs. "Of course you don't, it's not like you can imagine the immense suffering my royal status has brought me," she says.
"Okay, first off, you don't know me," Johana says. "Secondly, what suffering could you possibly experience, you're a goddamn princess."
"I am not a princess, I am a duchess. The word princess implies that I might someday ascend the throne, something I will never do," Lady Gaga says. "Thus is the irony of my life. Even though I shall never experience the glory my family name bestows, I still have to deal with all of the problems. Trashy tabloids following my every move, imbeciles like your friend gawking at me like a God, people downplaying my problems. No one, in my entire life, has ever treated me like the ordinary person I am. No one, except my dear Stan."
"When Woodstock gave me my Stand and sent me to kill Stan, I found myself unable to harm him," Lady Gaga says. "The passion is his art, the apathy towards the opinions of others, the life he carved out not by his birth but by his talent, Stan was greater than any man I had ever met. I fell in love with him immediately. And now, I will act as his shield, and protect him from the two of you as he avenges his brother."
Johana sighs. "Look, I don't have any personal beef with you," she says. "But I'm not going to let Mathers kill Julius. If that means we must fight, so be it."
The horned helmet or Iron Maiden reappears on Lady Gaga's head as she charges for Johana and Kan, battleaxe in hand. She swings at Johana's head. Johana ducks to dodge it and rises into an uppercut. Right before Twisted Sister's fist connects with Gaga's helmet, The Doors places a hole on the chin of the helmet.
Twisted Sister's fist slams into Lady Gaga's exposed face, knock out a smattering of teeth and knocking her off her rhythm. Johana seizes this moment; Kan places a hole on the stomach Gaga's armor and Twisted Sister punches her with all its might.
Lady Gaga crashes to the ground in front of the boat. "Your Stand, it can counter mine," she says.
Her arms stretch out and pull her onto the pirate ship. She rips a cannon from the ship, holds it above her head, and throws it at Johana. Twisted Sister flies forward and punches the cannon to the ground.
As it strikes shatters on the ground, the cannon goes off, firing a cannonball at Twisted Sister's chest. The Stand places its hands out to catch it. The force of the cannonball sends Johana sliding back. She manages to keep standing, if only barely.
"Keeping a loaded cannon in a museum, whose bright idea was that?" Johana mutters.
The cannonball begins spinning in Twisted Sister's hands. The Stand roars as it throws the cannonball in the air. It punches the cannonball as it falls back down, rocketing it at Lady Gaga.
The Doors flies in front of Gaga, creating a large hole in the front of her armor. Lady Gaga plucks the small bird out of the air, holding it down so it can't throw any more keys, and turns around. She intends to force the cannonball to collide with her back, reflecting its deadly damage to Johana.
Before the cannonball can strike Gaga, it twists in the air, arcing around and smashing into her exposed chest. Gaga releases The Doors from her fingers and falls backwards off the boat. Her armor disappears when she hits the ground.
Johana takes a deep breath. "Thank you, I couldn't have done it without you," she says, looking at Kan.
Kan smiles. "So, we just beat up a member of the British Royal Family," she says. "Do you know what that means?"
"When Sting gets out of the sewer he'll be even more dedicated to sending us to prison," Johana replies.
"I was going to say that her family of powerful royal Stand Users would hunt us one by one, which would be cool, but yours sounds more realistic."
Julius slams the door shut. "There are more than a dozen paintings of Stan Mathers in that room," he says. "One of them is the real one, but the others are self portraits he created as distractions. Presumably, there are traps set up to kill us if we try to destroy the fakes."
"So we must find the real Stan Mathers," Nero mumbles. "If he created these paintings in a few minutes, they must be of much lower quality than the ones his Stand creates."
"Don't be so sure. I once met a mangaka who was talented enough to create entire monthly chapters in four days. From the brief glance I got a moment ago, it appeared that all of the paintings in the planetarium were of similar quality."
"Well, we cannot just stand out here talking about the dire straits we are in," Nero says. "We must enter and hope for the best."
A few moments later, Julius opens the door and throws one of his Beatles inside. The grey sphere rolls in front of one of the portraits on the wall. Nero bursts out and strikes it with Viva La Vida.
The paint on the wall dries up and flakes off the wall. Nero quickly moves to the next portrait and strikes it to the same result. As Nero destroys a third painting, a bolt of electricity shoots out of the planetarium wall and strikes him in the chest. Nero clutches his heart and falls to his knees.
"Nero!" Julius shouts.
"I am fine," Nero grunts. "I found Mathers's trap. It seems he turned a large amount of electricity into a painting and covered it with the fake painting of himself."
"Where did he get lightning?"
"Not lightning, electricity" Nero says as he crawls to his feet. "This planetarium uses an immense amount of electricity to power the projectors, he must have siphoned it off after we burned through his weapon reserves in the hall."
Nero strikes another painting and is shocked again. "Four down," he says.
As he approaches the next portrait, a bolt of electricity jolts him from the wall behind him. Then another bolt hits him, this one coming from the ceiling. Then another, from the wall right in front of him. Nero struggles to stay upright. "Fall back Nero, you're injured," Julius says.
"He can release his paintings at any time, but I haven't seen any paintings of lightning," Nero says. "The first few bolts were hidden by the portraits, but these ones are just coming from the walls."
Nero looks around the domed room. There's nothing in it but him, the paintings, the black chairs, a deactivated projector in the center of the room, and walls covered it painted stars.
"Oh no," Nero says.
"What?"
"The stars in a planetarium are projected onto the walls, but the projector is off," Nero says. "They aren't stars."
As he says this, all hell breaks loose. Stan releases his hold on dozens of bolts of electricity, stored as white dots on the walls. Nero jumps to the ground, but is still struck by multiple arcing bolts.
Julius runs into the room to save Nero, getting struck several times himself in the process. He pulls a Beatle from his holster and throws it at one of the walls. As it flies through the air, the Beatle releases the captured airplane, which slams into the wall and destroys half of the paintings.
"We don't have time to guess, we need to figure out which one is real now!" Julius shouts.
Nero scans the room. All of the remaining paintings show the same thing, a thin man, with a knife tattooed on his arm, wearing a grey beaning and white tank top. All except one. One shows the same man, but wearing a black raincoat on top of his regular attire.
Nero rushes up to the wall, enduring a dozen strikes of electricity, and strikes it with Viva La Vida. The black raincoat pops out of the wall. The painted man on top of the coat crumbles into dried out chips of paint.
Slim Shady bursts from behind the painting and stabs Nero in the stomach. The Stand pulls Nero back, dragging him into the wall.
"You put your real coat on a painting as a ruse to hide your true position and allow your Stand to strike me," Nero says. "That would have been a good plan, if not for one small factor. I have a Stand of my own!
Viva La Vida appears behind Nero and smashes Slim Shady's head against the wall. Nero's Stand grabs him and rips him out of the wall. "Julius, look for blood!" Nero shouts. "The damage of that punch was enough to make Mathers bleed, look for the painting that has a red stain on it!"
Julius scans the room and notices a single painting with a red mark on its forehead. As electrical bolt after electrical bolt strikes him, Julius uses one of his Beatles to move Nero to the painting with the red mark. Nero smashes into it with Viva La Vida.
The painting crumbles. Another bolt of electricity strikes Nero. "We are missing something!" he shouts.
"He isn't in here," Julius says as his heart drops. "He lured us here to distract us with the paintings while he fried us with electricity."
"Then how did a drop of blood drip onto the painting?" Nero asks.
Julius around the room and notices that part of one of the black chairs has been torn off. He looks up at the ceiling. "It fell," he says.
Nero looks and smiles. He jumps using his Stand and smashes into the ceiling. Stan Mathers, who covered himself in the black seat covering of a chair and hid himself on the ceiling, pops out. Viva La Vida piledrives him back to the ground.
STAND STATS
Name: Iron Maiden
Dub Name: Steel Maiden
User: Lady Gaga
Namesake: "Iron Maiden" (British Metal Band)
Appearance: Iron Maiden is a Clothing Stand resembling a bulky suit of armor. Red spikes jut out of the top of its skull, resembling a crown. Iron Maiden completely surrounds Lady Gaga, leaving no points of weakness. Although Iron Maiden's helmet does not have eyeholes, the inside of its helmet is semi-translucent. Iron Maiden looks to be made out of metal, but upon closer inspection is actually made of meaty muscular tissue.
Abilities: Iron Maiden returns any damage it receives to its attacker. For example, if someone were to stab Iron Maiden's right arm, Iron Maiden would be unharmed and a stab wound would appear on the attacker's right arm. In addition, Iron Maiden is able to stretch its arms over long distances, allowing it to ensare targets and prevent them from escaping.
Stats:Power-B, Speed-E, Range: D, Durability-A, Precision-E, Potential-E