Looking down the hallway as he heard footsteps and the sound of a very familiar pair of people talking, Joseph smiled as he turned to Uncle Dio.
"Well, sounds like they're right on time," he said, grinning at the vampire as the pair of them settled down at the dinning table.
Uncle Dio laughed, not altogether softly. "Well, there are a great many things one can say about Jojo, but for all that, he does always strive to be punctual."
Smiling as the six of them all sat down together at the table for dinner, Joseph took a wonder just how in the world Caesar was doing. The pair of them had met when Mum – who'd just returned from her last training-trip to Tibet with Gramps a year prior – had invited him to Air Supplena Island, to meet the student she'd taken on for herself. The two of them had gotten on well enough at first, what with Mum being his coach and all, but Caesar himself… Well, there was no getting around the fact that Caesar Zeppeli was a workaholic, a stick-in-the-mud, and just an all-around fuddy duddy.
And now we're going to go to Italy to ask for his help, Joseph sighed, glad that they'd all finished their respective meals so that Gramps wouldn't have even more of a reason than usual to get on him. Shaking his head as he went to go gather up his travel-pack of comics for the trip ahead – everything else they would need being either stored at Aunty Alice and Uncle Dio's Italian estate, or was something they could purchase once they were in the country itself – Joseph allowed himself another sigh as he finished. It wasn't enough that Gramps is going to be all over me for not keeping up with my Hamon training. No, now I'm going to be getting it from Caesar, too.
Once he'd finished grousing, packing up almost as an afterthought, Joseph made his way down from his room to join up with the rest of his family. He could hear the end of Aunty Alice's conversation, and then the soft click of the telephone as she placed the receiver gently back on its cradle.
"Is everything set up now?" Gramps asked, his usual serious expression firmly settled on his face; Joseph firmly resisted the urge to roll his eyes, since Gramps wouldn't be happy with him if he saw something like that.
"Yes," Aunty Alice said, with a look of satisfaction about her. "I've arranged our transport to Italy, and Elizabeth and Caesar know to look out for us when we arrive."
"That's good to hear," Gramps said, smiling a bit sadly as the six of them all gathered together and began heading back down to the ground-floor of their estate, to make their way from there to the minibus that would take them to Aunty Alice's personal hangar.
And, from there, all of them would board her private plane and head off to Italy.
=BT=
Once the six of them had made themselves comfortable inside Alice's private plane, Jonathan attempted to make himself relax. Still, the threat of the three remaining Pillar Men – to say nothing of the final prophecy that Master Tonpetty had made before passing on – weighed heavily on his mind. Alice, naturally, had been able to tell from a simple look at him just how it was that he was feeling, her talent at reading subtle nuances of mood from even the smallest shift in a person's stance and body-language coming to the fore again. He'd asked that she not share her observations with Joseph, Dio, or Erina – not wishing to worry them overmuch with matters they would not, ultimately, be able to change – and his and Dio's sister had kindly acquiesced after he'd explained his reasoning to her.
It was, truly, the only way to ensure Alice's cooperation: explaining your reasoning to her, and then allow her to speak upon whatever matter had been brought up for consideration. There had even been times when speaking to his and Dio's sister had aided him in coming to a workable conclusion to some of the more vexing problems that he had been faced with. There were even times, though few enough of them, when he almost wished to tell Alice about Master Tonpetty's final prophecy.
Still, it was a simple fact that, while his and Dio's sister was determined to bend fate itself to her will, some things could not be avoided; and he'd no desire to trouble even a mind so agile as Alice's with such bleak thoughts.
When they all arrived in Rome at last, the journey by plane being as smooth and calming to the nerves as Jonathan could have asked for, Jonathan smiled as he saw Elizabeth and Caesar making their way into the building that housed one of Alice's many hangars.
"It's so good to see you again, Elizabeth," he said, smiling widely as his daughter-in-law rejoined the circle of their family for the first time in ten, long years.
"Mum!" Joseph's voice was the next to break the comparative silence of Alice's private hangar, and – as per usual for his boisterous grandson – all the more exuberant than Jonathan's had ever truly been; as well, Joseph's loud kiss to Elizabeth's right cheek held all the affection that his grandson had for every member of their bizarre family.
As he watched the five of them all coming together once more, Jonathan spared a thought for both Erina and Speedwagon. He and Erina had mutually agreed that it would be far more preferable if she were to stay back in the Joestars' New York estate, to say nothing of the effect that her presence – enchanting as he still found her, half a century into their marriage – would have upon his peace of mind, and hence his ability to fight. Yes, it was a fact that he fought all the harder with the love of those he cared for to bolster his resolve, but he could just as easily do such without bringing the members of his family into danger they were wholly unprepared for.
Dio, Alice, Joseph, Elizabeth, and Caesar were a far different matter; truly, there were times it seemed that there was nothing they could not handle, when they worked together.
=BT=
Sighing as he tried in vain to dredge up some enthusiasm for Caesar's lecture, Joseph found his mind naturally wandering to just what it was that he planned to eat when they all made their way to the restaurant where they'd planned to discus their next course of action; those three other Pillar Men weren't going to go and kill themselves.
"Jojo, are you even listening?" Caesar demanded, and Joseph winced as he felt the Italian punch him firmly in the left shoulder.
"Ow," he groused, rubbing his shoulder.
"That's your problem, Jojo," Caesar said, frowning at him in that disapproving way he'd become so familiar with during ten of the fifteen years they'd been studying together; of course, as long as Caesar kept being so adorably fussy when he tried to "instill the proper work ethic" in him, Joseph was going to keep going on as he had. "You never pay attention to anything you should."
"What?" he asked, holding his right hand to his ear, biting back a grin. "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention."
Caesar punched him in the right shoulder for that.
When they all made it to the restaurant at last, Joseph quickly took up the spot between Gramps and Aunty Alice; he'd have tried to snag the seat between Aunty Alice and Uncle Dio, but being thrown out of his chair once was more than enough for Joseph's taste. After they'd all finished their respective meals – Joseph thought fondly of his Hamon-filled exploding lima beans, and the look on Caesar's face when they detonated in it – Gramps was, naturally, the first to speak.
"Elizabeth, you've been here the longest, what do you know about the three other Pillar Men that Stroheim spoke of?"
"The Nazis took possession of them nearly as soon as Alice found them – clearly, they'd known about the creatures for some time – but she insisted upon sending some of her own people alongside them," Elizabeth said, smiling slightly. "So, we've been kept reasonably aware of the goings on with regards to those Pillar Men."
"They've also been asking us about our Hamon," Caesar interjected, shooting him a snooty look over the expanse of the table; Joseph poked the tip of his tongue out at his fellow student.
"They also tried to tried to interview me about what I was capable of, as a vampire," Aunty Alice said, a slight smirk on her face.
"What did you tell them?" he asked, knowing that, whatever it was, it was bound to be amusing.
"I told them to go talk to Dio," she said, her amused smirk widening, even if only slightly. "He's the one who enjoys showing off."
Laughing along with the other members of his family, Joseph saw a pair of people – both about as different as could be: one of them in the harsh, crude uniform of a German soldier, and the other in the smooth, neatly-cut uniform of Brando Field Security, with the elegant, bulletproof great-coat that all of them wore – making their way into the restaurant with them. Turning to watch as the two of them made their way over to the table, Joseph grinned softly.
"Frau Brando! We've just finished making preparations for your visit!" the German soldier said, sounding particularly excited, though he looked rather young, so Joseph supposed it fit.
"If you and yours are ready, we can leave right away, ma'am."
"Thank you, Simon," Aunty Alice said, rising from her place at the table along with the rest of them.
Joseph found himself particularly eager to see what all the fuss was about.
"So, your name is Simon, is it?" he asked, smiling slyly.
"I've heard all about the owls, sir," the man said, the expression on his face becoming one of tolerant amusement.
Chuckling as their group began to move down to the car, Joseph wondered for a moment just what all of them were going to see when they got there.
=BT=
When he'd first seen the huge form of the middle Pillar Man bursting free from the wall where the three of them had been imprisoned for… however long those creatures had been, Garfunkel melted back into the shadows to observe. If he was really facing something dangerous, Miss Alice was going to want as much information as he could carry back to her; true, if these Pillar Men did have the same refined senses as vampires then just standing in the shadows wasn't going to do him much good. Still, he was one of Miss Alice's eyes on the ground, and if that meant he was going to have to spend his life to warn the rest of her people about what was going on in this place, then that was what he was going to have to do.
It was just as she'd said to all of them when they volunteered to serve in her security forces in the first place: Miss Alice would spend their lives ruthlessly if the situation called for her to do so, but she would never waste them.
Holding himself steady, even as he watched the Nazi soldiers that he'd been stationed alongside be devoured alive by that Pillar Man, Garfunkel melted farther back into the darkness of the cavern, then turned and ran for the stairs. He knew that there wasn't much chance of him being able to make contact with anyone in the city, considering where he was and what was likely to be chasing him, he would at least be able to get the word out to those who would be coming after him. His brother in particular wouldn't be happy to know what had happened to him, but he'd understand.
Everyone who worked for Miss Alice understood, in the end.
Hearing the heavy footfalls of the Pillar Man closing in behind him, Garfunkel smiled grimly. The Pillar Man behind him, judging by the fact that he was allowing Garfunkel himself to set the pace of their run, was either trying to scare him, or else was the kind to think that every meal required a bit of sport. In either case, he wasn't about to stop and try to think about just what his enemy may or may not have been thinking. Before everything else, he still had a message to deliver.
Reaching the top of the stairs, Garfunkel swung the hinged door out of his way and looked out into the darkened city before him. Spotting a streetlight close enough for his current purposes, Garfunkel prepped his electro-flare gun and fired smoothly into it. The hiss of escaping propellant, designed to be almost invisible to the naked eye, let him know that he'd managed; it almost felt like he was back on the range, having just finished training with the devices that every member of Brando Field Security carried at their sides when they were deployed in dangerous locations.
Eyes narrowed as he watched his chosen streetlight for any signs that he'd managed to hit his target, Garfunkel heard the heavy footfalls of his pursuer as they climbed up the stairs behind him.
"You've come to the end, human."
When the streetlight flickered off, Garfunkel sighed in relief, even as he felt iron-strong fingers closing out his life…
=BT=
The ride would have been annoying enough, what with being crammed into a small space with Caesar of all people, but with the man's friend Mark along it was even more interminable, especially since the pair of them were gabbing determinedly about Mark's fiancée, and Caesar was also taking the opportunity to annoy him about the fact that he didn't have a girlfriend waiting for him. He was just about to give a particularly crushing retort to that irritating Casanova, when the car they were all riding in lurched to an all-too-sudden halt.
"What's the idea? Are we there yet?"
"We're here, but take a look at this," Gramps said, his serious tone cutting straight through any remaining levity.
Looking up the length of the streetlamp that Gramps had taken such an interest in, Joseph heard Caesar coming up behind him, but the sight of a streetlamp flashing the distinct code of three short pulses, three long, and three more short before pausing for a long moment… He knew what it meant; hell, nearly everyone present had been instructed by Aunty Alice about just what seeing this kind of thing meant.
"A lightning bug," Caesar muttered, his expression slowly twisting into one of tempered fury as he stared up the length of the steadily pulsing streetlamp.
"Whatever's down there… Well, at least we won't be going in blind," Aunty Alice muttered, carefully removing the signal beacon from the streetlamp, twisting it gently so that the clamps would disengage without tearing the delicate wiring within the body of the lamp.
Watching as all of their group each prepared themselves in their own ways to face whatever danger awaited them down in the depths of that cavern that the Germans had been working out of, Joseph began gathering Hamon along with Caesar. Whatever was down there, whatever had driven Simon's brother to use the signal beacon that every field member of Brando Field Security had been equipped with for when they were forced to face dire situations, Joseph was going to make certain that Garfunkel – if he hadn't run into anything too dangerous to survive – made it back safely.
When they came to the entrance of the cavern where the Germans had been working, Joseph found that the cover-plate had been slid back into place. He also saw that the cover-plate was apparently the Mouth of Truth, but he didn't pay much more attention to it than to notice the thing. All of them had far more important things on their minds.
"Merda," Caesar hissed, leaning down to grab something from the ground, before even Gramps could take a step into the darkened tunnel gaping in front of them.
Before any of them could ask just what it was that had drawn Caesar's attention, the blond stood back up. He was holding the gunmetal-gray uniform jacket of Brando Industries' Field Security Forces; it was heavy enough to show evidence of the titanium-wire mesh layered within the inner-lining of the coat, and it lay piled atop the padded, impact-diffusing undershirt that served as further protection in the event that a member of the Security Force was confronted with an armed opponent. The entire uniform had, in fact, been lying haphazardly on the stone floor, at the top of what Joseph could now see was a long flight of stone stairs.
"Keep on your guard," Aunty Alice said, her voice tight with controlled fury. "We may not know precisely what we're facing, but it's obviously dangerous."
"I'll bet you it's those damned Pillar Men," Caesar snarled, furiously gathering up the empty Field Security Forces uniform with short, sharp motions. "Mark, go back to the car and wait. This is no place for you."
"I'll take him," Simon said, stepping forward so that he could put a hand on Mark's right shoulder. "Boss? Whoever did this? Go get them."
"We will," Joseph promised, even as Aunty Alice gave a sharp nod and the rest of their group all began making their way down into the darkened cavern.
=BT=
Breathing deeply to keep his Hamon flowing, Jonathan made his way down into the darkened cavern at the head of the small group of warriors that were the only true hope that the human race – or Earth as a whole, he mused, reflecting upon the three vampires who had become, if not close kin, then at least friends – had against the Pillar Men. The cavern itself was dark enough that Jonathan suspected that something had gone truly wrong. That, combined with Garfunkel's last message, and the obvious evidence of the man's death that they had found at the top of the flight of stairs they were currently making their way down, made the fact all the more inescapable.
And so, as he and the members of his family – both extended and immediate – all made their way down into the depths of the cave where the three remaining Pillar Men had been discovered, Jonathan steeled himself for whatever it was that they would be forced to confront when they all arrived within the cavern.
"Wait," Alice said, holding up a hand to halt them in their tracks.
"What is it?" he asked, just before any of the others could have spoken; he was certain they would have asked the same thing, however.
"All three of them are awake," she said, his and Dio's sister's folded arms and narrowed eyes clear in every line of her posture, though the low light prevented him from seeing anything but the latter. "They're talking about something."
"Talking?" Caesar echoed, speaking for the lot of them even as Jonathan himself looked off into the distance.
Indeed, there did seem to be three distinct shapes, moving within the darkness.
"What are they saying?" he asked, narrowing his eyes as he heard Alice humming in thought.
=BT=
"It appears to be night outside, Wham," he said, smelling the all-too-familiar scent of chilled air, outside the cavern where the three of them had awakened after so long; he'd often wondered what the air of daytime smelled like, but such was only one of many reasons that he had designed the Mask.
Once they managed to obtain the Super Aja they sought, the three of them – the last of their race; the only ones who had not foolishly shackled themselves to tradition and convention – would stand under the light of the sun without fear.
"That is correct, Lord Kars. And, what shall be your bidding?"
"Easy," ACDC said, the grin on his old friend's face stretching all the wider, for how close all of them had come to their goal; particularly with the destruction of the Hamon tribe. "We will be searching for the whereabouts of the Red Stone of Aja. The Stone is the last piece we need, in order to complete the Mask. Then, we will unleash its power!"
Kars could almost taste it, that day when he and the rest of his kind would be able to drink in the sunlight, rather than cowering in fear of it.
"Of course, Master ACDC," Wham said, still kneeling at their feet like a proper servant. "However, the human world has changed much over the years that we slumbered. Long ago, it was the Emperor of Rome whom possessed the Stone. Unfortunately, I am certain that age has ended."
"Well then, we simply need to find where it is that the Stone currently calls home," he said; the echoes of his own words, spoken in a voice that was only passingly familiar to him, made themselves known in Kars' ears at that moment. "Do you hear something?"
ACDC harrumphed in amusement, still grinning. "Don't they know how rude it is to come into someone's home without announcing themselves? And then to go eavesdropping on us? How terribly gauche."
Turning to fully face the group of humans, and the very familiar vampire who had clearly led them to this place, Kars found himself at least mildly surprised to see that there was another vampire – clearly a close relation, if their almost identical appearances were any indication – standing close to the head of the group. He could tell the vampires from their pitiful human brethren simply by the way their eyes were oriented: the weak eyes of the humans could not pierce even the feeble darkness that he and his own stood within.
However, the twin vampires who stood so brazenly before them, their gazes were locked upon Kars and his fellows; calculating, assessing… it was fascinating to watch.
"So, you were the ones who killed Simon's brother!" one of the humans, originally standing near the back of the group as a subordinate, but then brazenly forcing himself to the forefront – the elder who had been standing there, searching in vain for their forms with his feeble senses, stepping aside with an inscrutable expression on his face – snarled. "You bastards, I'll kill you!"
Laughing alongside the rest of his brethren, laughing at the foolish human and all of his kind who had said such words to them over the long centuries of their existence, Kars watched as the pair of humans – one light-haired and one dark – reached to some kind of containers attached to their waists. When they drew their hands back up, Kars found that – in spite of their strange forms – the function of the containers was at least familiar to him. He'd only a moment to wonder why even a human would have been so foolish as to bring a water-skin to what was inevitably to become a battleground, before the very water itself seemed to leap out of the skins, wrapping around the hands of the younger Hamon-users who were attempting to set themselves against Kars and his fellows.
He could see the Hamon energies that flowed through the very water itself, turning something that was either a harmless annoyance or a pleasant diversion into a weapon nearly as harmful as the Hamon that he could see crackling over the skin and around the fists of the elder Hamon user standing at the forefront of their little group; he wondered, for a long moment, just how a pair of vampires had found themselves entangled with the Hamon tribe. And, moreover, how it was that they had not been destroyed for the mere attempt.