"That bastard!" Woodstock shouts. She's sitting on her knees in the center of the highway. She rips two fistfuls of hair out.

"You seem to be handling things well," Sting says.

"Go after him and get me that arrow!"

"I could do that. Definitely. Or, I could just let him get away."

Woodstock stares daggers at Sting. "Right now, you can't see the future, which means you're useless to me," Sting says. "Besides, you've already told me how to grow stronger and how to find Joestar. I don't need you anymore."

"If you walk away from me, I guarantee you will die."

"You know, that'd carry a lot more weight if you could still see the future."

A car slams on its brakes right before crashing into the chaos in the center of the road. Maxwell walks over to the car, rips its door open, and tosses the driver out. Sting joins him in the passenger seat. The car drives away, leaving Woodstock behind.

Woodstock pulls her phone out of her pocket and quickly dials a number. Already, she can feel her mind splitting and fracturing as the arrow travels further and further away. The person on the other line picks up.

"About time you called me. You gave me this Stand two weeks ago and I haven't run into any other Stand Users yet. You promised me fights," the woman on the other line says.

"Shut up and listen. I don't have long. You're going to find a man dressed like a superhero flying over London. I need you to kill him and bring me the arrow he's carrying," Woodstock says.

"Where do I need to bring this arrow?"

Woodstock doesn't respond. She's passed out in the middle of the road, face flat on the asphalt.

Julius Zeppeli's phone rings, but he doesn't pick it up. "Julius's phone, Johana speaking," Johana says.

"Johana?" the voice on the phone says.

"Aunt Holly. It's been a long time. What do you want?"

"I wanted to talk to Julius, hence the phone call to Julius."

"He's indisposed at the moment," Johana says. In reality, Julius is passed out upstairs, recovering from his fight against Nico.

"In that case, could I talk to my son?"

"Also indisposed. What do you want?"

Holly sighs. "Okay, let's talk. I'm calling to give your group a warning. Two hours ago, a powerful Stand User by the name of Maxwell Silver was broken out of prison. He's in the area and may be coming for you."

"Neat."

"Julius fought him in the past and will have more information on how to defeat him. If he's still indisposed, try reaching out to Sandra Dee; she also has information on Silver."

"Cool," Johana says. She hangs up on the phone.

"You really need to work out your family issues," Kan says. She opens a cabinet and pulls out an MRE to eat for dinner.

"I don't recall asking for your opinion," Johana says. She sighs. "Look, I'll mend bridges after all this stuff with Kaiser and Woodstock is over. Right now, I don't need the stress."

"Fair enough."

Inspired by her conversation with Holly, Johana pulls out the inkblot tests Nero brought to London and lays them out on the kitchen table. "What are those?" Kan asks.

"Pictures Nero's mom created using her Stand. They show people and places that are destined for destruction."

"They're really blurry."

"Which makes them a terrible tool for actually divining the future," Johana says. "Nero brought nine images with him. Hopefully, we'll be able to find some more meaning in these."

"That one looks like you."

"A fact that makes me incredibly optimistic about my future," Johana says dryly. "This skull cocoon thing represented Rabbit Jimmy, who's already dead. The map of the London underground could mean the city in general, or imply that we'll fight someone in the subway."

"What's this one?" Kan asks, pointing to a blurry image. "Is that one an elephant? Or maybe a snowflake?"

"It's probably meant to be Mylo's Stand," Johana says. She holds up an inkblot showing a bird being struck by lightning. "This one represents Young and our fight at the airport."

"A lot of these are things we've already dealt with."

Johana nods. "There are four images left that we haven't deciphered yet," she says. She holds up an inkblot resembling an eye. "This one is too simple to glean any information from."

"Hold on, what's that smudged bit in the middle?"

"It's an inkblot, it's all smudged bits."

"The pupil isn't a circle. It kinda looks like a triangle, or an arrow, or something like that."

"I think you're just imagining things."

Johana moves to the next inkblot. It shows a tall, thin rectangle. Inside the top of the rectangle is a circle of negative space. "That one kinda looks like a clocktower," Kan says.

"If it's a clocktower, why aren't there hands inside the circle?"

"Maybe they got ripped off?"

"Maybe. So we're going to fight someone at a clocktower."

"Cool! I've always wanted to visit Big Ben."

"Doesn't Big Ben have a pointy thing on top? With a bunch of crosses? That part isn't in the image, so I don't think it's Big Ben."

"Shame."

Johana picks up an inkblot showing two silhouetted figures. One of the figures is holding a sword, which has been stabbed into the other figure's chest. "Do you have any experience with sword-fighting?" Johana asks.

"Aside from pretending a flyswatter was a katana when I was eight, no."

"Well, I think one of us needs to learn, because someone's getting stabbed through the heart in the next few days and I don't want it to be a member of our team."

Johana picks up the final inkblot. It shows a large circle intersected by a triangle. The sides of the inkblot show smudges that resemble clouds. "I have no clue what this one is supposed to be. Some kind of compass?" Johana says.

"That's the London Eye. You know, that big Ferris wheel down by the Thames?"

Johana facepalms. "Can't believe it took me so long to figure that one out."

"The really weird thing is all the clouds. The London Eye is tall, but it's not tall enough to reach the clouds."

"These drawings aren't supposed to be literal," Johana says.

Kelly pokes his head into the kitchen. "Hey, guys? I think there's something you should see outside," he says.

Jefferson sprints through the streets of London. He isn't moving towards any specific destination, just moving for the sake of movement. He knows that Woodstock's agents are hunting him, searching for the arrow. He stashed the arrow an hour ago, but they don't know that. As he runs, he racks his brain and tries to come up with a plan.

Joestar. That was the name of the woman Sting wanted revenge on. The one so strong he needed Woodstock and Maxwell Silver's help to defeat. And, if an evil bastard like Sting hates Joestar so much, Joestar is probably a fairly decent human being. Jefferson realizes that there is a powerful, moral Stand User in London with shared enemies. He immediately starts thinking up team names.

He knows nothing about Joestar but their name, but that should be enough to contact them. Jefferson quickly comes up with a scheme to get Joestar's attention and puts it into action. First, he goes to a grocery store and buys flour. Not a small amount of flour, mind you. Jefferson buys more than a hundred kilos of flour.

The teenage clerk gawks at him as he places his purchase in front of the register. "I'm baking cookies for my grandmother," Jefferson says nervously.

"Those'll be some shitty cookies, if all you use is flour and water."

"I don't really love my grandmother that much."

As the cashier is ringing up Jefferson's flour, he realizes that he forgot something and runs to the hardware aisle. He grabs a roll of duct tape and places it by the flour. "Grandma's favorite ingredient," he says with a nervous laugh.

"Forgetting anything else?"

Jefferson grabs a small lighter from the stand next to the register and carefully places it next to the duct tape. The hair on the back of his neck stands up as touches the lighter, but he forces himself to ignore it. "That's everything," he says.

In front of the store, Jefferson suits up. He tapes the flour to his back and limbs, making a heavy suit of powdered grain. Once his suit is assembled, he activates his Stand and lifts off the ground. Once he's high above London, he rips open a bag of flour and clicks the lighter.

The flour ignites, leaving a burning trail in the sky behind Jefferson as he flies. It burns away before reaching the ground. Jefferson zips through the air, skywriting with burning bags of flour. He knows that this will catch the attention of anyone hunting him, but he's prepared for that. As long as Joestar gets his message, he'll be fine.

"Huh," Johana says, staring up at the sky.

"Huh? That's your reaction? Huh?" Kelly says.

"I mean, it's a flaming star in the sky. What do you want me to say? We see cooler things on daily basis."

As Johana says, Jefferson's flaming skywriting takes the form of a large star in the sky above the river. Just as quickly as it appeared, the fire burns out and the star disappears.

"This has got to be a Stand User, right?" Kelly says.

"Perhaps."

"It's a message," Kan says. "A message for us."

"What do you mean?"

"Star. Joestar. Someone's trying to contact you."

Johana sighs. "Great, our enemies have resorted to skywriting. What's next, a Stand User with the deadly ability that is ownership of a fax machine?"

"I don't know if it's an enemy trying to contact us. Maybe it's a friend. Or, like, a future friend that we haven't met yet," Kan says.

"Fine, we can go check it out," Johana says.

"Oh, good, going to the big scary sky omen. What could possibly go wrong?" Kelly whines.

"You can stay here and watch Camellia, if you want. Kan, let's see if your new Stand can get us all the way to the center of that star."

Jefferson, hovering above London, attempts to wipe the excess flour off his clothes. Attempts being the operative word; his overalls are still caked in flour after a vigorous shake.

"You missed a spot," a voice says.

"You know, it's flour. It's a pain in the butt to get off clothing," Jefferson says.

Realization creaks its way into his mind and Jefferson freezes in place. Slowly, he turns towards the source of the voice. He looks up, at the woman floating in the air five meters above him.

She wears a black jumpsuit with an oversized green coat that flutters in the wind behind her. Her white hair has been curled into a pair of horns that make her resemble a demon. A wide smile covers a face with a broken nose and skin like leather.

Jefferson backs up a few meters and points at the woman. "Who are you?" he shouts.

Quickly, so quick Jefferson can barely track it with his eyes, the woman in the green coat flies close to him. "I'm gravity," she says.

Her Stand appears behind her and slams its fists down on Jefferson. The blow doesn't hurt much, but it spikes Jefferson downward like a volleyball. He plummets towards the ground like a meteor, unable to fly fast enough to stop falling.

He leaves a crater when he crashes into the street. Bystanders scream and run as he crawls out of the crater. Jefferson is fine, thanks to a quick switch to invincibility mode right before impact.

Nevertheless, Jefferson struggles to move after the crash. He feels like he's moving underwater, with chains around his legs dragging him further into the depths. He switches to strength mode and finally manages to stand up.

He's standing on a road lined with trees, leading towards a massive Ferris Wheel. The woman with the devil hair floats down, landing between him and the Ferris Wheel. "I mean, I'm not actually named gravity. But, it seemed like an intimidating line," she says. "Since you, despite my expectations, managed to survive that fall, I'll tell you my real name. It's Eleanor."

"What did you do to me? Everything feels so heavy."

"Wow, you aren't the sharpest knife in the crayon jar, are you?"

"You increased the force of gravity."

Eleanor nods. "My Stand allows me to alter the flow of gravity on things it strikes. Currently, you're experiencing five times normal Earth gravity. That's enough to crush most men."

Jefferson raises his hands in a boxing pose. "I'm not most men," he says.

"Oh, good, get out the quips before you die."

To be continued in

Chapter 51: Defying Gravity, Part 2