Sunday afternoon, Jefferson lands at the London Zoo, the last location on his list. He walks around the various pens, looking out for anyone in danger. He hears a scream and runs towards it. Then, from another part of the zoo, he hears the sound of explosions. Great, echoing booms.
He stops dead in his tracks. He looks in the direction of the booms. He turns back in the direction of the screams. He sighs and makes a decision.
With his Stand's speed, he reaches the source of the screams in mere moments. People are crowded around the Lion pit, clamoring to get close to the edge to get a better look. A legion of security guards holds them back. "All right, everybody stay back," one of the guards says.
"My baby! Please, you have to help my baby!" a woman shouts.
"We're working on it, we just need everyone to stay-"
"What the hell was that!" another guard shouts as Jefferson leaps over then.
Jefferson gets a good look at what's going on as he flies into the pit. A young boy, three years old, is lying near the wall, clutching his knee. A lion slowly approaches the boy, stomach growling. The boy starts to crawl away and the Lion pounces.
Jefferson crashes down in front of the boy. The Lion lands on him, pinning him against the wall. The savannah beast slams its jaw down on Jefferson's arm.
The Lion whimpers as its teeth crack against Jefferson's invincible arm. "You okay?" Jefferson says, glancing at the child. He nods and Jefferson smiles.
Jefferson shoves the Lion, trying to free his arm. The lion doesn't budge. "Let go!" Jefferson says. The Lion growls.
Jefferson sighs. "This is great. Just great. I can't let go of invincibility without losing my arm, so I can't get rid of it with my strength or flee with my speed or fight."
He baps the Lion on the nose. "Bad kitty!" he shouts. The Lion growls again. It swipes at his side with its claws, tearing a hole in the side of his overalls but doing no real damage to Jefferson. Jefferson tugs on the large cat's mane and it yelps, letting go of his arm.
Jefferson immediately switches to strength mode and lifts the lion over his head. He throws it halfway across the pit and grabs the child. Switching to flight mode, he hovers out of the pit and hands the young boy back to his mother.
"Oh my god, I don't even know how to say how thankful I am," the mother says. "They were going to feed the lions, and he wanted to get a better look, and-"
Jefferson flies away before she can finish thanking him. It takes him a few minutes to find where the explosions came from. He lands in front of the zoo auditorium, where one guard is struggling to explain what happened to the other guards.
"The monkey made things explode because it heard loud noises," one guard says.
"Right," another guard says, poorly faking belief.
"I'm not crazy! Ask the guy in the leather jacket and the little girl, they fixed everything!"
"And where are they now?"
"I don't know, they said something about going to get ice cream."
Jefferson lets out a sigh of relief as he walks away. Someone else fixed everything. He isn't sure who, but it doesn't really matter who. All that matters is that nobody is in danger.
He sits down on a bench to catch his breath. As soon as he sits down, forty-eight hours worth of exhaustion hits him all at once. He hasn't rested since he got his Stand. He feels more tired than he's ever felt before. But, at the same time, he feels more pride than he has felt in years.
His hand brushes against his leg. He jumps to his feet, panicked. His pocket is gone, torn out by the lion. And the arrow, which he had been keeping in his pocket, is gone. "Shit," he says. "Shit shit shit shit shit."
"Quite the foul tongue," a woman says. "Really undercuts the whole superhero aesthetic."
She sits on the bench next to him, legs crossed. She wears a black catsuit and a silver belt showing an eye within a triangle. She has curly blonde hair and wears red lipstick.
A shiver runs down Jefferson's spine as he sees the woman. She wouldn't normally intimidate him, but something about her feels wrong. She radiates an aura of menace in the same way that a lone blinking streetlight does. "I believe you were looking for this?" she says, holding up the arrow.
"Who are you?" Jefferson asks.
"I suppose my voice does sound different without the filter."
"You're the one whose been leading me around?"
"Yes. I am Woodstock, weaver of fate, creator of many Stand Users, leaver of strange voice recordings and cryptic messages," she says. "You've done quite well in the past few days. Saved many, many lives. And, more importantly, quickly became one of the most dangerous men in the city."
"You guided me to people in need of help."
"That is correct."
"How? I want to say thank you, for helping me be a better hero, but I'm not a fool. How do I know you haven't been causing these disasters? How is it possible for you to know of coming crises, other than by causing them."
"Oh, Jefferson. You've read your fair share of comics, you know the answer to that question."
"You have powers, like me. Yours let you see the future."
"Among other things, yes. I have the ability to see the future," Woodstock says. "Would you like a demonstration?"
Jefferson nods. Woodstock stands up and stretches her arms like a swimmer. A sphere of gold and ivory appears above her head. The arrow levitates out from her hands and pierces the white and gold sphere. The sphere spins and glows, faster than an airplane turbine and brighter than the sun. Woodstock looks up at it and the glowing sphere crashes down, entering her forehead.
Woodstock's head snaps forward. Now, a glowing third eye sits on her forehead. "Do you see that ice cream cart?" she asks.
Jefferson looks around. His eyes land on an old man selling ice cream from a small cart by the penguin pen. "I see him."
"In ten seconds, he will throw away all of his mint chocolate chip ice cream."
Jefferson watches as a young boy goes over to the ice cream stand and pays for a cone, ten scoops high with ice cream. He watches as, ten meters away, a pigeon lands on a trash can and grabs a discarded burger with its beak. He watches as a security guard kicks the trashcan, spooking the bird. He watches as the bird flies over the child and accidentally drops the burger on the child's face. He watches as the child stumbles back, accidentally dropping the top scoop from his cone. Jefferson watches as a businessman walks past the child, talking on the phone. He watches as the businessman slips on the dropped ice cream, loses his grip on his phone, and flings it directly into the ice cream cart's tub of mint chocolate chip ice cream.
The old man fishes the phone out and sets it on his cart to dry. "Waste of good ice cream," he says as he pours the now tainted ice cream into a nearby trash can.
Jefferson stares at Woodstock. "That's incredible," he says.
"Oh please, it's not that impressive of an ability, especially when compared to that of your Stand," Woodstock says. She places her hand on the forehead and the arrow slides out. The glowing eye disappears. "More importantly, my abilities are nothing when compared to the abilities of the strongest Stand Users. I have met men who can freeze time, men who can rewrite minds, and men who can raise the dead."
"Sure, but seeing the future's still a great ability."
"But not great enough, not for the things I desire."
"And what do you desire?"
"Through my future sight, I have seen a perfect world. A world ruled by a single righteous Stand User, immortal and undefeatable. I wish to make this vision a reality. To accomplish this goal, I have assembled an army of Stand Users and put them through trials to strengthen them."
"Like my list?"
"Similar in function, although your list was a bit of an oddity among the other trials."
"Did I pass?"
"Your testing isn't over yet."
"Well, what's next?"
"There are two more Stand Users, I would like to recruit before the day is done. Would you care to come along?"
As the duo walks through the zoo parking lot, Woodstock stops in front of an old ambulance. "Drive us to the Tote museum," Woodstock says as she opens the back doors of the ambulance.
"Is this an ambulance?"
"An astute observation," Woodstock says as she sits down in the back.
"Why are we taking an ambulance?"
"Going forward, we will do many things that you do not understand. All you need to know is that this ambulance will help our plans. Now drive."
Jefferson drives to the museum and drags an injured policeman out of the burning building. The policeman, Inspector Sting, agrees to join Woodstock, following a promise of fulfilled revenge.
"So, where to now?" Sting asks as the ambulance speeds away.
"There is one more man we need, one in a most unpleasant position," Woodstock says. "His name is Maxwell Silver, and he is currently locked up in a maximum-security prison."
