Speedwagon Foundation Dig Site, 40 Days Remaining
Shit. I knew that old bastard was trouble. Why did Joseph…
Jotaro throws the camera back onto the table he had picked it up from. With a flick of his trenchcoat behind him, he takes off into a sprint out of the tent. The camera image display behind him flickers between two photos as the controls are mashed by the table it lies on. The first image shows a scientist holding up a stone core sample, the second shows a wrinkled hand coming into frame and the scientist from before vanished into a flash of turquoise light. Outside of the tent, Jotaro scans the mountainside and the temple a ways ahead.
He's definitely in the big temple. Good grief.
Time passes…
"Oi, Jiji!" Jotaro shouts as he gets closer to the stone building in front of him. Making sure to check all the large survey equipment and smaller tents for either Joseph or the old mountain guide, he eventually traverses the icy footpath to the metal stairs leading down to the temple. He takes a moment to stare down the stairway, listening intently to the sounds within. He descends, careful as he can, Star Platinum floating behind his shoulders to keep watch on the tunneled out path in front of him.
After a minute of cautious walking, Jotaro spies a set of massive stone doors, pried open just enough for a single person to squeeze through. He peeks his head into the crack in the door, only seeing the edge of a massive hole in the center of the temple's main chamber. With a shimmering thrust, Star Platinum grips onto the door with two hands and pulls, shifting the ice and sediment above as the door wrenches itself free. After making the entrance a bit more comfortable to walk through, Jotaro shivers as he tucks his hands in his pockets. His boots echo as he walks into the chamber, noticing the toppled worklights and broken glass on the edge of the massive pit in the center of the room.
Damn, it's still cold as hell in here. Just breathe…
With the cold air cutting his nostrils as he inhales, Jotaro takes a deep breath, trying to mimic what Joseph had done countless times on their ascent. He could feel a little bit of heat rush to his capillaries, but he doesn't quite feel anything close to the space heater in the tent.
"Jojo!" Standing at the edge of the pit, Jotaro barks out for Joseph once more. "Jojo!" Only silence greets his ears. He tries to look down, but the pit seems to descend for at least 100 feet. A small speck of light is at the bottom, the destination below clearly filled with some sort of lighting. Jotaro goes to shout one more time, but notices the light below flicker for a few moments. Going silent himself, he focuses his hearing to the hole before him.
Sounds like…someone's climbing up. No, like a small bird climbing up, the impacts are so light. I know who this is.
Stepping back, Jotaro holds his breath, trying to be as silent as possible. He closes his eyes, focusing on the tiny sound of nimble feet kicking off of stone. After a few seconds, his eyes burst open just as a silhouette of a cloaked old man rises out of the pit, a mysterious Stand shadowing behind him. Jotaro, with no hesitation, bellows out.
"ORA!" Star Platinum shouts in unison and catches the old man unawares with its right fist, the impact sending the man back and into the rear temple wall. A noticeable crunch is heard as the impact collides with the man's shoulder, and Jotaro takes the offensive again by leaping over the pit to engage the man.
"You school-age brat!"
"What did you do to Joseph, you decrepit geezer?"
"I sent him away again, and hopefully for good this time." The man, obvious to Jotaro now as Miller, pries himself off the floor and coughs up a bit of blood as he rises to his knees.
"Your Time Slip doesn't seem very reliable." Jotaro's heart nearly skips a beat. He knows that even with the intel Joseph provided, he doesn't know the extent of this Stand's ability. And time seems like a risky thing to test out.
"What can I say, that Joestar is full of surprises." Miller pulls himself to his feet, with Jotaro taking note of the battered man's torso. "But I have to say-"
Looks like Joseph got a few hits in at least…
"He's done the most damage to me for a non-Stand user." Miller begins to chuckle, but stops as he has to spit out a bit more blood. "That bastard will be out of my hair for a long while. Now to send you for a temporary vacation." He stands and straightens up with more poise than an old man his age should have, even despite his injuries.
Miller's Stand rises from his shoulders, and with the sound of tearing fabric, its hawk-headed arms plunge through dusty air straight at Jotaro's chest. Jotaro doesn't even flinch, just grips the brim of his hat with one hand and points right at Miller.
"Star Platinum!"
"ORA!" Star Platinum grabs the enemy Stand's incoming right arm, and wrenches it to the left. A crunch is heard as both the Stand's and Miller's arm crumple a bit, and Miller shouts in pain. Following up with an uppercut straight in the old man's midsection, Star Platinum flows into a barrage of punches.
"ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!" In the flash of a second, the old man and his Stand are launched into the already damaged temple wall, and through it. The impact seems to dislodge a plug of frozen dirt outside the temple wall which falls in on the fresh hole, and Jotaro can feel the building tremble around him.
Better go make sure he stays down…Jojo better have found a way out of this mess…
Underneath Tibet's Temple, 1988
A rumble shakes through the temple above. Joseph cocks his head up to look, trying to picture the layout of the temple complex. He lets go of the statue, and starts to head back through the lens room. The faint voice still lingers in his head, just a bit out of reach.
That must be Jotaro. I don't think Miller had a very clean escape. Serves that bastard right.
As he's running, Joseph remembers that he's still holding the Stone Mask. He takes a deep breath and gives it a displeased scowl, before throwing a couple of yard in front of him. It clatters to the ground face-up and, as Joseph approaches the spot where it landed, he makes a large leap into the air and readies his heels to land straight on it.
"This is what I think of your dumb-ass vampire plan, you codger! OVERDRIVE!" A crackle of electricity, then the sound of stone splinters peppering the large glass lenses all through the hall. In the moment he channels his Hamon, he once again hears a whisper in the back of his mind. Joseph takes a moment to try and pick out any words, but to no avail. He shrugs it off, and resumes his chase of Miller.
After a minute or so of sprinting and weaving through the angled lenses, Joseph finds himself back at the stone lift that brought him down here in the first place. He lets the air flow into his lungs, then slams the indent in the center once more, activating the ancient device with his Hamon. That same voice echoes once more in his head.
Goddammit, you mystical voice. If you're trying to tell me something, you could speak a hell of a lot louder!
The platform begins to rise and twist its way slowly up the pit, and Joseph hears footsteps at the top of the temple, sounding like they're sprinting out of it. He tries to peer up at the dim room above him, but he's still too far down.
"Move faster, you shitty elevator!" He stomps his foot angrily down on the platform, which Joseph swears to slow down a bit as he does so. "At this rate, I'll be as old as Miller is." He clenches his fist in frustration, but as he rises he notices a few pitted indentations in the wall. Ones that were not there on the way down.
So that's how the old man got up there so quick. I think I can do it better, though.
Joseph smirks to himself, then jumps ahead of the rising stone platform and lands his foot in one of the holes in the side of the stone pit. He breathes Hamon through his legs and kicks off, soaring up and to the other side. His foot catches another hole, and he launches himself again. He cocks his head up as he jumps, and he can vaguely see the rim of the pit in the temple chamber. The blood pounding in his ears is all he can hear.
I'd say about twenty or thirty feet, let's speed this up even more!
On the next leap up, he extends his arm up and throws out his Stand. The purple vine cracks as it whips its way the ledge, and grips onto the stone carvings on the floor of the chamber. Joseph snaps his fingers and smirks in triumph, just as he plows into the side of the pit's walls. He bounces off the wall a bit from the impact, causing him to shake his head to regain his senses. He uses his other hand to rub his face and nose, before finally gripping the vine with both hands and hoisting himself up.
do you even know its name, child
As he pulls himself up, the echo of the voice from before grows louder. It was a voice of serenity, one of antiquity.
"What the hell are you talking about, you old ass ghost?"
your inner self. what is its name, young Joestar.
"Stop asking me riddles when I'm climbing! I'm very busy chasing down some old man who read too much Dracula."
the answers will come with time. just know this, young Joseph.
you have a Trickster's spirit.
"Enlightening. You have any ancient Hamon secrets you wanna share instead? Some mystic power that can beat Stands?" The voice grows faint as Joseph reaches the top of the temple. He can barely hear it as he clambers of the edge of the pit and onto the temple floor.
you are talented, Joestar. but you are still a student.
what I can impart on you is the technique of the teacher.
Hamon is about flow, and those without a natural flow
simply need a push to let the energies rush like water.
"What the hell does that mean?" Joseph sits a bit to catch his breath, and then stands to examine the massive hole in the temple wall.
ponder this lesson, and you will know.
"I think I get why Lisa Lisa was such a pain in the ass to learn from…" Joseph grumbles as he scratches his chin, peering even closer at the hole in the wall.
Definitely a Star Platinum hole. That weird corpse with the bird hands couldn't do this. I suppose Jotaro is still chasing him down, I hope he's affected by that Time Slip technique like I am…
Joseph interlaces his fingers and stretches his arms out in front of him.
Would make this a hell of a lot less of a chore.
Speedwagon Foundation Dig Site, 40 Days Remaining
The icy snow crunches and crackles as Jotaro stomps his way through the back of the temple digsite. The noon sun, despite the intensity, lands on his skin ice cold. The wind is still, and the sky is gorgeously clear. The almost perfect patina of white snow on the mountainside is littered with bits of stone and debris, and Jotaro squints to see an old man crawling away to the cliffside overlooking a mountain path. His eyes trace the faint line of blood from the debris to the old man, and he trudges forward to pursue him.
This old bastard is tough. I better not underestimate him. If he's had his Stand for at least fifty years, he's probably got more than one all-or-nothing attack.
In no time, Jotaro catches up to the crawling old man, now only about ten feet away. He spits into the snow, doing his best to not give away his freezing and shivering arms.
"Oi, old man. Give it up."
"You…you really think…" Miller coughs up a bit more blood as he rises from his knees to his feet once more, all the while clutching his right arm. "You really think you can stop me from getting away?"
"I think you qualify as roadkill right now." At that, Miller laughs loudly, and his Stand once again forms behind him. Jotaro glares at the apparently senile Stand user, but for some reason the man's figure seems to blur like a heat mirage. Star Platinum appears, and tries to focus as well.
He's not moving, or rapidly vibrating. He's just…blurring?
"Take this!" Miller once again lunges with his Stand, but Jotaro dashes backwards to avoid the blow this time. Even the Stand's arms blurred as they moved, Jotaro unsure of their exact trajectory. Even as he dodges, the bird headed arm seems to cut further than the blurry silhouette would suggest. Jotaro feels a warm pain on his chest, and he looks down to see a small diagonal gash from the Stand's attack.
"ORA!" With a sonic boom of air, Star Platinum's fist launches out to overhand smash the Stand's extended arm, but just as contact is about to made the Stand's arm seems to snap over a few inches to the right. Instead of a hit, the blow smashes into the snow, knocking a spray of ice onto both of the Stand users.
Damn. That should've been a direct hit.
"I think I've figured you out, you sniveling kid." Jotaro can practically hear the smugness through his voice, the icy mist of Star Platinum's blow still obscuring both of them. "Your Star Platinum is very precise. Very exact in its power. That's going to be your downfall."
Tch, Joseph better be on his way. Last thing we need is for this bastard to turn tail and run after I pound his skull in a little bit, or die trying.
END of CHAPTER 13