JoJo's Bizarre Adventure – Wayward Son
Chapter 3: Tusk Part 1
(Evernight Castle)
Cinder Fall was not one to feel fear for much of anything. The prospect of burning down the world excited her. She would set entire cities on fire with a grin on her face, a dream she would make real in the coming months. Hell, most Grimm feared her because of her power and position in the hierarchy.
But her position was second to the true leader of the cabal that plotted to remake the world.
The very same leader she and her two allies were going to meet after they returned to their stolen Bullhead to arrive at the Land of Darkness. The long halls of the castle's only source of light were from the windows that showed the hellscape outside.
Cinder and her allies set out to steal the power of the fall maiden for her to use in order to strengthen the cabal.
The three returned with the job half-successful. Or in other words, an unacceptable failure.
Mercury Black limped beside her left. The entire trip back gave him no chance to repair his right prosthetic leg, which got sliced off at the shin. He had to make the entire trip back with the two parts reattached with an impromptu welding job from Cinder. He was seething as he tried to remember what happened in the failed ambush. All he could remember was failing to knock the fall maiden down with a spinning kick and that his leg was sliced off. A nasty bump to the head made everything else a blur.
He was the son of one of Remnant's most dangerous assassins, Marcus Black, raised to carry on his work. But Mercury only had one kill under his belt, his own father out of self-defense. This was his chance to truly become an assassin and he blew it.
On Cinder's right was a downtrodden Emerald Sustrai. The thief-turned-anarchist blamed herself for their failure. She failed to trick the fall maiden with her stand, giving away their chance to successfully ambush the young woman. Their plan should've worked, but the bump to her head took away her memory as to how they exactly screwed-up. She was the only stand-user in the group, being born with one long before she was found in the streets, supposedly putting her on the same level as the stand-less Cinder.
While Cinder knew of stands, the idea was still a foreign concept to her.
Cinder herself was the only one who came out of the ambush with anything good as she could feel half of the fall maiden's aura flowing through her, giving Cinder an intoxicating rush when she called upon said power. The idea that this was just half of what was destined for her simply amazed her. But like the others, a bump to the head was what she found in place of the event's memories.
The three still failed to completely drain the fall maiden. Now, they had to defend themselves and answer for their failure.
"W-Will she kill us?" Emerald asked the one person she respected.
"No. She doesn't have that many allies and she can still get some use out of us." Mercury said.
Emerald glared. "I wasn't taking to you, Stumpy."
Mercury gritted his teeth. "The fuck you call me? You're the one who fucked all of this up for us!"
"That's why you were there, to back me up!" Emerald argued.
"Yeah, because you can barely pull your own fucking weight." Mercury taunted.
Emerald reached for her gun as Mercury clenched his fists, but Cinder decided now was the time to intervene. "Both of you stand down."
The two immediately snapped to attention to the woman with golden eyes. "It could've been worse, it should've been better. We'll have our chance to make up for it, I'm sure of it."
The group came upon a large set of doors, a silence falling upon them as anything could happen once they stepped through.
Cinder opened the door to the meeting room, where a long table with six seats claimed the middle of the room and a throne made of dark crystals sat beyond the table.
Three of the seats were filled with men Cinder despised on one half of the table.
Tyrian Callows, an insane scorpion Faunus sat with his legs pulled in the seat near the throne. His eyes and laughter both made Cinder uncomfortable and ready to slice the man's throat at the drop of a hat. Especially when he starts giggling like a mental patient, like at the current moment as he grinned at Cinder.
Hazel Rainart sat in the middle, his eyes closed and arms crossed. He was a patient man, but Cinder couldn't trust him. His anger would get the better of him, turning him into a wild animal if even a certain name that is rhymes with Kingpin was casually mentioned.
Arthur Watts sat furthest from the throne with a smug look on his face that Cinder wanted to melt from his skull. The man was a genius, but he was also a schemer. Deep down, Cinder had a feeling that Watts would murder her if given a good chance. Especially if he could claim it was an "accident". Not even their leader truly trusted him.
Cinder, Mercury and Emerald said nothing as they approached their seats; with Cinder close to the throne, Emerald beside her and Mercury on the far end.
"That won't be necessary." A voice said from behind the throne.
As if she popped out of nowhere like a demon, the leader of this group strolled out from behind the throne and took a seat on it. Her ghostly white skin, black and red eyes and visible black veins made what would be a beautiful woman look more like a monster.
Salem, queen of the Grimm, had a look of disappointment on her face. A look Cinder never wanted to be the recipient of.
The three approached the throne and kneeled in respect to the woman.
"You've failed, haven't you?" Salem said, even though she knew the answer by the looks on their faces.
Cinder let out the breath she didn't realize she was holding. "Yes."
Tyrian began laughing like he just heard a funny joke. "What a shocker."
Salem shot a glare at Tyrian, who along with the other two men, figured she would not want their input on the matter.
"We did ambush the fall maiden," Cinder said, "but she managed to defend herself. Though, I was able to drain her of half her aura with the glove you gave me."
Salem growled. "Pray tell me how three trained individuals couldn't handle one lone woman?"
"She was stronger than we realized! She took us all down with blows to the head that took away our memories of the fight!" Cinder said without thinking. She cursed herself out internally.
"Is that an excuse or a fact?" Salem said, with a tone that promised pain.
"… I think she was a stand user." Cinder revealed.
Emerald jumped into the conversation. "She somehow figured out the effect of my [Paper Moon King] and took me down before we could even attack her."
Salem sat quietly for a moment, the room growing deathly quiet. Not even Tyrian made a sound as the queen deliberated.
She then sighed. "… Of course she'd be a stand user. I should've known better than to send you three. Even with Emerald's stand, you weren't prepared to fight a stand user."
Salem stood up. "I believe I have just the thing to fix that. And it'll also be a test for you, Cinder. It'll prove if you have the strong-will needed for our goals to succeed. But first, give Emerald the glove I gave you." Cinder immediately complied and Emerald slid it onto her hand.
The three men immediately knew what Salem intended, and all watched in anticipation.
Salem reached into her long flowing sleeve and pulled out an ornate arrow.
Cinder immediately knew what it was and felt her heart drop. The stand arrow terrified her when Salem showed it to her long ago. An item that would either make her stronger or kill her on the spot. Salem offered it to Cinder previously, but the fear of dying was enough to make Cinder decline.
She immediately realized Salem's test: prove she was worthy of the arrow's gift of power. If she died in the process, the power of the fall maiden could possibly be transferred to Emerald via the glove.
"This arrow will redeem you, my dear Cinder… if you are the kind of warrior I need you to be." Salem said as she gave it Cinder.
Salem could've stabbed Cinder with it and it'd still activate, but Salem wanted Cinder to do it herself. This was her only chance left.
Cinder stared at the arrow with a tight grip. She took a deep breath. "Anything for you, my queen. My life is yours."
Cinder didn't hesitate to stab herself with the stand arrow, right through her own heart.
Mercury looked away and Emerald gasped at the sudden action.
Tyrian had a grin that threatened to split his face in face, Watts found the pain Cinder was in to be amusing while Hazel found the act disgusting.
Salem watched with subtle anticipation as Cinder fell to her knees.
Cinder could feel her own life slipping away from her as her vision began to darken and her head lowered. The only sound she could make were from gasps which progressively got quieter.
"Drain her." Salem commanded Emerald, having no faith Cinder would survive.
Emerald buried her emotions of despair for Cinder and held out the gloved hand to Cinder, just like Cinder did to the fall maiden.
Before Emerald activated the glove, Cinder's hand grabbed the extended arm. Her head snapped up with a pained look on her face.
Using Emerald as a support, Cinder shakily stood up and ripped the arrow out of her own chest. A purple aura then exploded out of her as Cinder felt a new rush of power. It was just as intoxicating as the fall maiden's aura, in Cinder's opinion. The pain passed and Cinder felt like she was fully rested and energized.
Salem smiled with pride. "You've passed and have become stronger for it, Cinder. Use this new power and this new chance at life to prove that you are worthy of being my right hand."
Cinder nodded. "Yes, ma'am."
"Tyrian," Salem said. The man responded with an expectant yes. "Take Cinder down to the training room. I want her to discover her stand as soon as possible, she'll need to figure out its strengths and weaknesses before we send her out again." Tyrian nodded like a hyperactive dog.
She then looked to Watts. "Arthur, in light of recent events, I'd like for you to test the hypothesis you made of your own stand on Mercury here after you repair his leg in your lab." Watts smiled like a mad scientist and thanked his queen.
"Hazel, you're in charge of Emerald's training. We don't want her to be ill-prepared again when faced with battle. I'd like for you to get started immediately." Hazel nodded without a word.
Salem looked at Cinder's group. "When you three are ready, I want you three to go to Vale and set up a base there and connect with Roman Torchwick. He is already gathering dust and other resources for us to get ready to assault the city and Beacon."
Cinder and Emerald nodded.
Mercury stood up. "This was fun and all," he said sarcastically as he was not excited for being Watt's guinea pig, "But what about the fall maiden?"
Salem waved his concerns away. "I already alerted many of our field teams in the field to be on the lookout for her. She's weakened already and is on her way to Vale. When she dies, her aura will rejoin with Cinder instead of trying to find a new host. Once that happens, Beacon is as good as rubble."
"What if they fail?" Emerald asked.
"Then you three will have to face her again. Failure will be unacceptable. Cinder must become the fall maiden." Salem stated.
The three accepted what she said.
Salem smiled. "Good. You all have your assignments; you are all dismissed."
As the groups separated to head to their assignments, Cinder smiled like a maniac as she called upon her new stand and saw a gloved hand appear beside her own.
(The road to Vale)
It's been a few days since Jaune and Amber solidified their bond and the two were back on the road, with Vale and Beacon as their goal.
It was early in the afternoon, so Jaune and Amber decided to give Valkyrie some reprieve by having her trot along, with Jaune walking beside the horse to not weigh her down.
Jaune was Spinning one of Amber's steel balls in his left hand as they walked down the dirt road, flanked by forest.
"Why am I doing this again?" Jaune asked.
"You gotta master the basics of the Spin before you can learn anything else," Amber replied, "Just so happens that the basics is just Spinning it while doing other things. The Spin relies on focus, you have to be able to focus on whatever you need to while having some focus on the Spin. Otherwise it'd be useless in a fight."
Jaune nodded, it did make sense to him. The continuous Spinning of the steel ball indicated that he was doing a good job so far on splitting his focus. Sure it was just keeping up with a slow horse, but he's gotta take it slow.
"Will the next lesson be about throwing it like you do?" Jaune asked.
"The next lesson will come soon… I just gotta think it up." Amber admitted a little bashfully. After all, she doesn't have any experience teaching.
Jaune shrugged. But he had a free hand he activated his stand. His fingernails immediately began to Spin.
Amber raised an eyebrow, "Trying to figure out what your stand does?"
"Yeah. I don't know how to explain it, but I have this gut feeling that my nails don't just Spin on my fingers. Is that weird?" Jaune asked.
"Stands in general are very weird. But for a stand user it's not a weird feeling. I felt something similar when the eyeball of [Scan] appeared in my steel ball. Took me a bit to realize that I had to consciously visualize through it in order to actually use it. Then took some more time to figure out the x-ray vision and even longer to realize that it could stay in place in the air when I throw it." Amber summarized.
Jaune looked at his Spinning nails. 'How the hell could these things be useful?' He thought. 'They do look kinda sharp.'
He chopped through the air like his arm was a sword, the buzzing of his nails flittered through the air.
Jaune got an idea. "Hold on a sec." He told Amber after he gave her steel ball back.
Amber stopped Valkyrie and looked as Jaune walked over to a tall tree, his nails still Spinning. He sliced at the tree with his nails, thinking it'd leave a light gash in the bark.
Imagine Jaune's surprise when his hand cleaved through the whole tree with a tearing sound as it fell away from the road.
"HOLY SHIT!" The two humans yelled.
Jaune looked at his Spinning nails before disengaging his stand.
"Dude, your stand's like a chainsaw!" Amber exclaimed.
Jaune grinned, but it was immediately dashed when he heard someone yell "HELP!"
The boy ran into the woods and saw a young man under the collapsed tree. His face was thuggish with dark eyes, shaved brown hair and tanned skin on his hands and head as he wore a grey jumpsuit that had the sleeves rolled up.
"Get this fucking tree off me!" The young man screamed.
"I got you." Jaune said as he got next to him and started to lift the tree off the young man, who slipped out from underneath.
"Thanks," The young man said as he picked himself up. "Did you knock down the tree?"
"Yeah, sorry about that." Jaune apologized.
The young man shook his head, "Least you had the decency to help me out. Name's Pewter." He held out his hand for Jaune to shake, but Jaune got an odd feeling. He ignored it and shook his hand and turned back to the road.
"Nice to meet you." Jaune said curtly as he walked back towards Amber.
Jaune looked to see Amber was sizing up Pewter with a sharp look in her eyes.
"Long way from home, aren't you? Not much on this road for miles." Amber said as Jaune got to her side.
Pewter smiled and took some steps towards the two. "I like long walks in the woods."
Jaune immediately understood what the feeling was from earlier, it was that eerie feeling people get when something's not right. He also picked up on Amber's subtext: this random guy shouldn't be out this far in the middle of the woods or even close enough get hit by the one tree Jaune cut down.
Jaune jumped onto the saddle and wrapped his arms around Amber. "We should go." He whispered.
The Spin master agreed. She looked to Pewter, "Sorry buddy, but we gotta get going."
"Mind if I come with? I got my horse nearby. How about we head to my family's camp. You helped me out, the least we could do is make you something to eat." Pewter pushed as he was about thirty feet from the horse.
The thought that there were more people in the woods sent a chill down Jaune and Amber's spines. "Hold on tight." She whispered to Jaune before she whipped the reins and Valkyrie shot off before Pewter could get closer.
The young man glared from a distance. "Y'all won't be able to run for long…"
As the two got a good amount of distance from the stranger on the road, they sighed. "That could've gone bad." Amber said.
Jaune nodded. "Just gotta keep an eye out." He said as he wiped the sweat from his brow. But he noticed something weird on his hand as he did so.
"Is that blood?" Jaune said as he looked at his hand.
Amber grabbed his hand and examined it. "No cuts. Must've been the other guy's."
She provided a handkerchief from her pocket and wiped it away. But then Amber looked at her elbow. "Gross! You got some on me!" She then vigorously scrubbed her elbow with the same handkerchief.
When she felt good about the cleanup, she tossed it into one of her saddlebags.
Jaune thought about it before saying "He wasn't bleeding, even after the tree fell on him. And he'd be bleeding from his torso if anything. He didn't touch anything… he just wanted to shake my hand."
Amber's eyes widened as she made Valkyrie slow down and stop. "We fell for it."
"Fell for what?" Jaune asked.
"Their trap." Amber realized.
"A trap? How?! We're far away from the guy!" Jaune exclaimed.
"Get off my horse, Jauney. We need to look you over for any damage or darts or anything!" Amber said with a hint of panic.
Jaune did as she asked but felt something bonk his head as he touched the ground. "Ow!"
Amber and Jaune's eyes widened as her steel ball, still in the holster hanging by her waist, was attached to Jaune's head like a magnet.
Jaune grabbed the ball and tried to pull it from his head, but all he managed to do was get his hand under it as he pulled it a few inches from his head before the magnetic force increased. Now Jaune's hand was trapped between his forehead and the steel ball. And he could feel the pressure begin to increase.
"Amber, the hell is going on?" Jaune asked.
Amber then grabbed her steel ball and began to pull on it, but the magnetic force made it feel like she was trying to rip a door off its hinges.
Jaune then tried to pull away to help Amber, but all that did was shake her while she was still seated on Valkyrie's saddle.
"Jauney, I'm gonna fall if you keep that up." She warned.
The panic in Jaune's hand made him ignore it as he felt the felt the steel ball burrowing into it more and more as time progressed.
"Jaune! Cut it ou-" Amber fell off her horse and onto Jaune, her hand still clasped around the steel ball.
"Ouch! Son of a bitch" Amber exclaimed. She tried to pull her hand off the steel ball, but found it stuck to the steel ball.
She then felt a sharp pain in her side and her waist. She was shocked to see her other steel ball and her belt buckle was being attracted to her body, like it was trying to burrow inside of her.
Jaune yelled in pain as she saw his new metal armor tightening around his chest. His sheathed sword was being attracted into his leg too, thankfully the blade wasn't out, otherwise the boy might be missing a limb.
"We're like magnets!" Amber figured out.
"That guy's blood must've done this to us." Jaune realized.
"It really was a trap!" Amber tried to stand up, but then she saw her legs and Jaune's were attracted to each other. She felt the force of the pull as she felt her whole body was being pulled to Jaune's and vice versa.
The two then couldn't resist the magnetic force anymore, their bodies colliding and they crumpled together.
Jaune struggled to pull away from Amber, but the lady knew it was useless.
The thundering of hooves alerted the two. Amber turned to Valkyrie and said, "Get out of here girl!"
The horse hesitated for a second, then ran off for safety.
Three horses galloped towards the pair, stopping about twenty feet from them.
Amber and Jaune saw three people sitting upon the horses, recognizing one of them as Pewter on the left and rationalizing that the other two were the family he mentioned from earlier. Pewter now had a one-handed axe hanging by his waist. The handle was metal, but the blade was a dark stone.
On the right was a young woman, probably Pewter's sister. She had long and wild brown hair and the same dark eyes as Pewter as she was clad in an unzipped light green jumpsuit with a white tank top underneath. She had holsters for a knife around each of her ankles. Like her brother, her weapons had stone blades and metal handles.
In the middle was a middle-aged man with neatly combed salt and pepper hair and dark eyes like the other two, he was probably their father. We was clad in a black jumpsuit, zipped up with the sleeves ripped off. He had a large Warhammer strapped to his back, but this one was entirely made of the dark stone seen in the other's weapons.
"Seems like you two really fell for my boy's stupid trap." The man said with a hearty laugh.
The young woman humored him, "Hell yeah, daddy. What now?"
"How about we introduce ourselves to the fall maiden first." He replied, but the fact he knew who Amber was informed the two protagonists that they were here to kill her.
"Y'all met my son Pewter." The man gestured to him, who waved with a grin, "This peach here is my daughter, Lime." The girl licked her lips at the pair, much like a hungry predator when it catches it prey, "My name is Graphite, Graphite Boom. And you just fell into the [Tomb of the Boom]."
Jaune and Amber said nothing as they tried to think of anything to get themselves out of this horrible situation.
But their chances didn't look good in the slightest.
To be continued.
AN: Stand battle time! I originally wanted the whole thing to be one chapter, but it's been forever since I updated it. Next chapter will the whole battle.
As a heads up, I will not be making original stands as I'm nowhere near as creative as Araki. That man scares me with how many characters and stands he's made, all being so unique and cool-looking. Especially with Jojolion, there's absolutely no reason that part 8 should be as insane and original coming out of a 30 year-old series.
I'd also like to address a review about Jaune and Amber getting their stands not working for their specific stands like in the manga. I'm pulling whatever tricks I can to make it work in my head. There is no holy corpse, as it's only in the SBR universe, but the idea of the Devil's Palm works for me because even in the manga you just had to survive it and alternate world Johnny's had Tusk, so he probably survived whatever that in it and came out with Tusk, Holy Corpse not needed. I will admit that I really downplayed it, but I wanted Jaune to get his stand pretty fast. As for Amber, [Scan] being a holy corpse stand had the same issue, but I felt it'd be kinda funny for my interpretation of Amber to be flippant with certain details of her life, with her downplaying how the situation went like it was nothing she wasn't used to.
I should've put this in chapter one, but here's my main warning going forward: I'll break and change some stand rules as needed to make them work for my story. I won't rewrite stands, but I'll mold them to be better fits for the characters I have chosen.
Until next time, don't be afraid to give me suggestions or ideas for future chapters. While I do have a good portion of everything figured out, I want this to be a long story that'll follow events through vol. 7 or 8 before I get to the final arcs.