Jinnah International Airport, 1988
This is bad… I can't see a damn thing in this fog!
The road is barely visible in front of Joseph's car, the headlights nearly blinding him as it reflects off of the cool fog. Normally, an international airport like this would still be alive this late, crewmembers and travelers swarming the roads and sidewalks. But only a cool chill and the sound of the engine in front of them fills the air.
"Jojo…I think this might be…" Anne speaks slowly, fear tinging her voice.
"A trap." Jotaro speaks up in response, having woken up silently as they approached their destination.
"Hm." Joseph pushes on through the fog, approaching the terminal as the fog grows denser.
He said a private flight…even if they were in a small propeller plane, we should be able to see their lights as they land…but with the fog…
As they draw closer, Joseph sees a lit sign above the road. A flashing arrow points down to the lane he's in, while a red 'X' is above the other lane. Something is on the sign but, with Joseph only barely knowing English, he has no chance of reading the sign.
"Can anyone read that?" Joseph speaks with levity, trying to break the tension.
"You probably can, when you're older." Jotaro mumbles to himself, also not knowing what language the sign is in.
"I can't, but I've been to enough airports to guess that's either the drop off or valet parking." From the backseat, Anne leans forward between the two. With her right hand, she points to the sidewalk as it comes into view. "Look, Joseph! A person!"
Sure enough, a man is standing by what appears to be a valet stand. He's wearing a silver and black shirt, unbuttoned almost to his midriff, with the collar flared out. His black hair goes to his shoulders, which he twirls with his fingers in boredom.
Even fifty years later, they hire the delinquents for the easy jobs…
Joseph pulls up to the stand, waving past Jotaro to the apparent valet. The man looks Joseph straight in the eye, then holds his hand out expectantly. Before the valet speaks, though, Joseph hears something buzzing around his ear. He swats at it, causing the valet to hurriedly speak up.
"Keys please. And please don't throw them, I can't see a damn thing in this fog." The valet speaks with both disinterest and disgust. Joseph, however, is pleased.
Thank god, English!
"Of course, my good man!"
Joseph hops out of the car with a smile, content with this development and that the buzzing in his ear stopped. He walks right up to the man and right before he drops the keys into the valet's hand, Jotaro turns slightly from his seat.
"Star Platinum!"
Bursting from Jotaro, Star Platinum lunges out and strikes the valet straight in the gut, sending him flying backwards and leaving him sprawled on the concrete. Confused, Joseph shouts to the car.
"Hey, what the hell, Jotaro? I know he was unprofessional but-"
"Jojo." Jotaro looks Joseph dead in the eye. "He started off in English."
"Yeah, so?" Joseph is still confused, looking at the twitching man on the floor.
"What he's trying to say, Jojo…" Anne hops out of the car, switchblade out. "Is that Jotaro and I don't look like we speak a lot of English, and we were closer to him."
"Whoa, hey, English is a pretty common guess, right?" Joseph steps in front of Anne, but Jotaro hops out of the car as well.
"Joseph. Our plates, the vehicle…They're both Chinese. So we could cross the border with little issue." Jotaro points at the visible characters on the side of the vehicle, as well as the plates. "Pakistan has great relations with China, and both Anne and I-"
"Okay, I get it, he's a Stand user…" Joseph cuts Jotaro off, hoping he doesn't touch on the fact that Joseph couldn't discern Chinese from whatever language Pakistani speak.
"You're too clever for your own good, Jotaro…" The valet stands, clutching his right side ribs. "But you should've killed me with that one. Because it's too late now." He starts to laugh, but his face contorts in pain as he does. For some reason, Joseph's ribs also begin to ache…
Jinnah International Airport, 36 Days Remaining
Too late? Where's his Stand..
Jotaro steps forward, Star Platinum at the ready. Anne steps beside him, Hamon crackling off of her switchblade. Turning his head, Jotaro glances at Joseph, only to see his young grandfather lost in thought.
"Jojo, snap out of it!"
"Ah, Jotaro. It seems Joseph here is a half step ahead of you. And here I thought you might have figured it out already…" The man steps confidently forward, Jotaro and Anne tensing as he approaches. "Oh, I wouldn't attack me if I were you."
"And why's that?" Anne barks at him, breathing in deep after she speaks.
"Why the rush? Let me introduce myself. My name is Steely Dan, and my Stand suggests The Lov-"
"Star Platinum!" Another blow crashes into Steely Dan's midsection, this time an uppercut straight into his solar plexus. Steely Dan pops up in the air a bit from the force of the blow, blood bursting out of his mouth. Before he can follow up, Jotaro hears another noise, coming from where Joseph was standing.
"Jo…ta…ro…" Looking over, he sees that Joseph just landed onto the concrete, clutching his solar plexus. As if he sustained the same blow as well.
"Ha…" Steely Dan spits out some more blood, before rising into a kneeling position. "I was just about to explain, but I guess you get to see it firsthand now. My Stand, The Lovers, has already linked with Joseph here. Any damage you do to me will be reflected onto him."
"How…the hell…do you punch so hard…Jotaro…" Joseph, out of breath, slowly rises to his feet, blood running from his lips.
"Tch!" Jotaro withdraws a bit, leaving Anne to turn back and look at him confused.
"Jotaro…"
"You. What do you want?"
"Oh, I'm here to kill all of you. Well, you and Joseph. The girl is probably just collateral." Steely Dan just shrugs the thought away. "You see, I'm here to make life harder for all of you for what's to come."
"Uh, Jotaro…" Anne tugs at Jotaro's sleeve, then points to the fog surrounding them. The sound of footsteps and shuffling seem to encircle them, shrouded by the mist around them. Star Platinum appears and focuses its eyes, doing its best to peer into the fog.
Suddenly, a bright light appears in the sky, vague through the veil around them but still plainly visible.
That must be the others…
"Ah, Jotaro. Seems like everyone's here. Let's start the fun, shall we?" The false valet, still clutching his midsection with one arm, raises his other arm as if to signal something.
"We're surrounded, Jotaro!" Anne readies herself, and Jotaro looks around without moving. Over thirty shambling figures emerge from the fog, fully encircling them. With Star Platinum, Jotaro takes note of the multiple, perfectly circular wounds in each of the figures. He clenches his teeth, reading himself for the battle ahead. But, just as he's about to approach the nearest figure-
"Zoom Punch!" Joseph's arm whips out, impossibly longer than before, and flies past Jotaro's face, hitting a figure on the other side. The crackle of Hamon makes contact, lighting up a bit as it strikes. Jotaro gets a good look at the figure, seeing it fully as what appears to be a traveler in full business attire. The light from their eyes was completely gone, and little strands of fog seem to wind in and out of the multitude of circular wounds.
"That's Zoom Punch? That's awesome!" Anne jumps a bit in excitement, but Joseph responds with a far less cheerful tone.
"Bad news." Joseph coughs a bit of blood as his arm returns to normal. "They're not zombies."
"He's right, Anne." A bit of rage flares up inside Jotaro's chest. "They're corpses."
"Hey, well, it means we can't feel about it!" Anne squares up, ready to fight the encircling horde of corpses, but Jotaro still stands, silent.
This isn't good. I know what he's trying to pull.
"Anne. Be careful."
"What do you mean, they're just slow moving bodies! And I can see them, too! I can help!"
"Look closely. We're missing someone."
Jotaro points at where Steely Dan was, now filled by nothing. Anne scans the area, before also seeing what Jotaro sees.
"Oh, Jotaro. Those eyes of yours ruined the surprise." Steely Dan speaks up as he leans on the shambling figure beside him.
"He's trying to weave in and out of the group. Hoping we'll hit him by accident and kill Joseph. Or at least put the doubt in our minds that we will, throwing off our focus." The group of bodies draws closer, Steely Dan dipping and weaving between them as the circle tightens.
"Well then." Joseph shouts, still standing in the same position he was in before. "Looks like I'll have to take matters into my own hands…" He squares up into a fighting stance, and Anne gives him a thumbs up.
"Y'know, Joseph, if you hit me, you'll still get hit back." Steely Dan speaks up, rather nonchalantly.
"I see." Joseph stands up perfectly straight, turns to face away from the group of shuffling corpses, then busts into a full sprint. "Okay, you two, have fun!"
Anne's jaw nearly drops.
Jotaro, however, gives an amused hum.
"I wouldn't be so excited, Jotaro." Steely Dan stops and looks him in the eye. "My Stand has a range nearly immeasurable. He can't run from it."
Jotaro's heart almost drops as well. He had the same idea as Joseph, but it looks like the options were dwindling…
"Hey, Jotaro." Anne speaks up.
"Yeah?"
"Joseph can take a beating, right?"
"Yeah."
"Cool." Anne brandishes her blade, completely unfazed now. "Then we can get him some stitches after this. As payback for running away." She snickers and points her blade directly at Steely Dan. "Besides, I owe him a few beatings after he made fun of me for so long."
Hm. As long as we can break from these zombie corpses and find the user with the fog, we can regroup and figure out what to do about this guy.
"Oi, oi, little lady." Steely Dan puts his hands up, a worried expression coloring his face. "You could kill him if you attack me. And if you take too long, he'll just die from the brain damage I'm giving him right now! You should just give up, no need for hostilities." Yet, even as he speaks, the corpses have started to swing wildly at both Jotaro and Anne.
"Not a chance! Besides, he doesn't have that much of a brain to damage! Come here!" Anne leaps up onto a corpse's shoulder while dodging a swipe, and kicks off of it to lunge at Steely Dan.
I can't tell if you're actually going to kill him, but keep distracting him Anne. I need to catch up with the others.
"ORA! ORAORAORAORA!" Star Platinum crunches one corpse in half with a blow, before pushing back the rest with a flurry of punches. At the rim of the fog, Jotaro sees Anne chasing Steely Dan away, their voices fading into the distance.
"What the hell, are you crazy?"
"Call me crazy, see what happens!"
Another flurry busts a hole in the encircling bodies, which Jotaro jumps and rolls through to escape being surrounded. Looking behind him, he notices that the corpse he punched in half was still moving, albeit only from the parts with the circular wounds.
The Stand. It's the fog. We need either Joseph's Stand to track down the user in all this…My actual grandfather is probably our best bet.
Jotaro looks in the direction of the light from earlier, but a screeching noise fills his ears. He takes off running, unsure of which direction Joseph ran, but deciding his course anyway.
Leave it to him to crash another plane…hopefully they'll be alright. I'm coming, old man.
END of CHAPTER 22