Being possessed by some goddamn fog, in a goddamn airport
Goddamnit. This is how I die, huh? Either gonna eat a million green rocks or get stabbed by Polnareff.
Hol Horse sniffles a bit at his fate.
Polnareff, of all people! He would be the easiest one! But hell if I'm going to do that hag's dirty work after what she did ta me. If they don't end me or cut Emperor from me, I'll just shoot my own damn wrist off…
"What the hell, Kakyoin? I had him!" Polnareff brushes himself off as Kakyoin climbs up and lands beside him. "Damn those emeralds, how did Jotaro take a full blast of those…"
"He told you?" Kakyoin says with a tinge of embarrassment.
"Yeah, he mentioned a bit of when both of us were possessed." Polnareff also looks away a bit in shame.
"If you two boyfriends would like to hurry this up, I've got an appointment with either death or dismemberment I'd rather not miss." Hol Horse glumly says as his trigger finger twitches. Another bullet fires from Emperor, aimed vaguely at Kakyoin.
"Kakyoin, watch ou-"
"Emerald Splash!" Another burst of emeralds fires from Hierophant Green, who was hovering two feet behind Kakyoin. The emeralds are in a tight spread this time, completely knocking the bullet off course.
"You're pretty slick, you know that?" Hol Horse spits as his torso hangs limply in the air.
"And you're holding back." Kakyoin crosses his arms and puts a hand under his chin. "Your gun fires slower bullets. I assume you can normally do something with them, and your Stand is more than likely that futuristic looking pistol."
"Tch." The dashing blond cowboy grits his teeth.
Damn kid's got brains. He figured out the speed of my bullet and timed his shot to intercept my bullet's trajectory. Ain't gonna help, though.
"Let's just cut him down, Kakyoin, we have to find Jotaro."
"One second, Polnareff." Kakyoin points right at Hol Horse. "We need to figure out who this guy is, first. If he were just another minion of DIO, he would've been aiming to kill us those last few shots."
Oh god, stop talkin' so damn loud, kid! If that hag hears I've been goin' easy on them, she'll just have me make some more holes in me…
"What do you mean, Kakyoin? You know something about this guy?"
"Polnareff, do you remember what Joestar-san said in hotel before our flight?"
"No…"
"Hm. Well, don't worry about it too much. I can handle this cowboy either way. Go find Jotaro. I doubt this guy will stop you."
"Hey, stop chattin' about me like I ain't here!" Despite Hol Horse's protest, Polnareff leaps over the railing and sprints away into the fog with no interference.
Hey, uh. Finger? Nothin's stoppin' you from firin'…
Looking down at his trigger finger, he sees a small green thread pulling it back from Emperor. Following the thread, he sees it spindle off and away until it terminates back into Hierophant Green.
"I've disabled your ability to kill me. I suggest if you have any tricks to kill me, utilize them before I ask you a few questions."
"Just kill me, I'm already bein' held hostage. I'm not gonna live down being double hostaged."
"So," Kakyoin leans against the railing and squints at Hol Horse. "You are being affected by that hag's fog Stand, with the intent of turning you against us. Which suggests you would be reticent to attack us in the first place."
"Uh huh…"
Where the hell is he goin' with this?
"Now, what does the name Joseph Joestar mean to you?"
"Well, the guy offered me a job. After I tried to kill him."
"Ah." The red haired, green clad teen chuckles a bit. "Sounds typical for that family. No doubt, you're the unreliable friend that Joestar-san mentioned."
They already rendezvoused with the younger Joseph? Huh, guess Enya ain't good at her job, either.
"What the hell does that matter? I'm as good as dead as soon as she figures out that I'm useless."
"Summon your Stand in your other hand, Mister…"
"Hol Horse, thank you kindly." Hol Horse does in fact summon Emperor in his non-dominant left hand. "But you do realize the trigger is designed to be a right handed one, right?"
"If it helps keep up the image of you being held hostage, it'll buy a few seconds. Fire."
"Okay then-" Before Hol Horse can finish, his finger slams down on the trigger, as well as his left arm jerking upward. "What the hell?"
Okay, that won't the fog pulling on me.
"You haven't noticed? I'm doing you a favor, Mr. Horse." Kakyoin pushes off the railing and confidently saunters up to Hol Horse. "You aren't in that hag's grasp anymore. You've fallen into my web."
Oh god, what the hell is this feeling in my mouth…
Looking down, his eyes finally find Kakyoin's Stand…entering his mouth like a bundle of snakes slithering into his person. Rather than the feeling of the fog guiding him like a marionette, he felt fully like a puppet.
"Don't bother talking, Mr. Horse." Kakyoin plays with his earring as he looks to Hol Horse's right, gazing deep into the fog from over the railing. "I've fully possessed your body with my Stand. No amount of guiding wounds will prevent my control. I feel I have her Stand figured out, but until we reconvene with the others, we have to play it safe."
"Ghaghh." Hol Horse tries to speak, but the words come out choked as more of Hierophant Green slides into him. It feels as if the Stand's head is poking its head out of his throat.
"I take it you're as talkative as Joestar-san, so I'll enjoy the silence on our trip back. No doubt Polnareff can take care of himself, but…" Kakyoin starts to walk to the set of escalators to descend, Hol Horse shambling behind him beyond the cowboy's own control. "I won't be able to use Hierophant to defend us. So you better use whatever trick your Stand's hiding to defend us. Or we're both dead."
This kid…how the hell did Jotaro beat this guy?
"Don't worry, Mr. Horse. I'm sure Joseph Joestar will be delighted to see you."
He didn't mention the kid…please don't let that stabby child be there. I think Joseph would probably help me lie, and Jotaro could be reasoned with. Say that maybe the flesh bud got taken out. But that kid…she's just gonna stab me.
Their mismatched footsteps echo eerily through the near deserted airport. The fog grows heavier…
Jinnah International Airport, 1988
"AAAAAAAGHAAAAAAAGH!"
"Stop screaming, you imbecile!" The older Joseph bonks the younger Joseph on the head with his prosthetic, but the man continues to scream while in the fetal position.
"THEY CUT OFF MY DAMN HAND! LIKE WITH A DAMN MEAT CLEAVER!" The younger Joseph clutches his prosthetic hand and continues to scream.
"You already lost that damn hand to a Pillar Man, you absolut-" Before his actual grandfather can finish, Jotaro interrupts.
"It's the enemy Stand, Jiji. It's reflecting damage done to its user to Jojo." Jotaro reaches down and lifts the younger Joseph by the collar of his Hawaiian shirt, now dirty with tarmac asphalt. He looks him intently in the eye, with Star Platinum hovering behind him.
"Hm, so presumably the Stand is small enough to climb into his ear canals. Are thinking about retrieving it with Star Platinum's precision?" The older Joseph muses while poking at the screaming man's ear. The younger Joseph simply continues to scream and clutch his prosthetic hand.
"I'm not sure. For all we know, if we try to rip it out by force, it'll kill him."
"I see…" Both Jotaro and the older Joseph stand in relative silence, the younger Joseph still screaming while being suspended by Jotaro's grip. However, the younger Joseph manages to squeeze in a word or two between pain induced screams.
"AGHHHAGGHHH, SUZI, AAGGHHH, Q! AGGHAHHH!" The younger Joseph writhes some more as the older one immediately smacks him in the back of the head.
"Leave my wife out of this!"
"Also his. He had just gotten married."
"Tch." The look in the older Joseph's eyes teetered the edge between embarrassment and pity.
Jotaro sets the screaming man down before turning to his grandfather, "Why would he bring that up? Dying wishes?"
"No…" The older Joseph gives a keen look of both understanding and sorrow to the man now laying on the tarmac, screaming and rolling around. "He's probably trying to suggest a technique that may help save him." He puts a hand up to cover an eye with his palm, a sense of hopelessness in his tone. "But that requires two capable Hamon users, and he doesn't count for the sake of this."
Suddenly, the tarmac is mostly silent. With a solid breath, the younger Joseph breathes deeply, letting the Hamon numb his pain a bit. He sits up, eyes still reeling from the prior pain, and looks directly at the older version of himself.
"I taught him Hamon already, you failure of a grandfather." This comment is met with two kicks to his chest from two different people.
"Is that true, Jotaro?" The older Joseph says, reeling in a second kick.
"Yes. Though only the basics." He puts a hand on his grandfather to keep him from kicking the poor idiot on the tarmac. "Yare yare daze…you always sounded so proud of yourself in your stories, Jiji."
"Yeah, well, I never thought you'd meet that idiot!" The older Joseph huffs, before a serious tone overtakes his voice. "Listen to me close, Jotaro. If we mess this up, either his head will explode or his brain will get minced by the pressure."
"Please don't kill me." The younger Joseph says to Jotaro, still flat on the asphalt.
"If you die, I'm blaming both of you." Jotaro says pointedly.
"This technique is called +/-. It uses both polarities of Hamon to target a harmful element mixed within a greater body and extract it, all without damaging or tampering with the greater body itself. I had used it on your grandmother to save her from a Pillar Man that had entangled his veins with her spinal column." Jotaro watches his grandfather as he paces around the prostrate man, looking him over.
"Seems simple."
"Hm, though if a Stand is causing this, we would probably have to channel our Hamon through our Stands…do you have experience using Hamon with Star Platinum?"
"…" Jotaro looks away in silence. The older Joseph grits his teeth.
"I see… and if you only know the basics, you may not know which polarity of Hamon you've been using…"
"…" Jotaro is still silent, though a small dimple on his cheek hints that he's biting it.
"Hm…" The older Joseph puzzles more as he grabs his chin with his pointer and thumb.
"So, uh, if you kill me with this, is it considered suicide?" The younger Joseph pipes up cheerfully. He once again is kicked by two different people, one on each side of his ribs.
END of CONVERGENCE 3