As Mean Smile continues to roam the Painforest, his path is cut off by Calf-Callus Conroy, who immediately brings out his Stand, Tomfoolery, to cause some trouble for this bad, bad man. Mean Smile readies the Multima Cutter, but as he moves to swing it, he trips on his own two feet, for reasons he does not understand. Mean Smile tries to get up, but the ground is very moist and holds a tight grip on him. Mean Smile tries to use the Multima Cutter from the ground to slice at Conroy, but when the blade gets close to Conroy, it bends away from him on contact, as though made of harmless rubber.
"Hey, lay off, bud. I don't know who you're working for, but I'm on a mission here." Mean Smile growls.
"Heh, heh, heh." Conroy says. Though Conroy is employed by Shamazon and works to guard the Painforest, in all reality, he has only his own interests in mind, and right now those interests are just making mischief and being a dick. Mean Smile uses the rubberized Multima Cutter like a spatula to pry himself away from the sticky ground, and then shoves Conroy to the ground. However, when Conroy collides with the ground, he seems to sink into it like it's a mud puddle, despite it looking no different from the ground around him. Mean Smile finds the ground under his feet taking on a similar property, and before he can get away, Conroy's hand shoots up from underneath him, grabbing his left foot and pulling him halfway underground, before jumping out of the puddle before the ground resolidifies. These oddities were the result of Benny Hills arriving to the scene and using his own Stand, Tame Impala, to set down invisible water tiles on the ground where Conroy and Mean Smile were fighting. With Mean Smile now immobilized partway underground, Conroy pulls out a comically large feather and wiggles it in front of Mean Smile's nose, triggering Mean Smile's bird allergy and causing him to sneeze loudly.
"Aaaa…CHOO!" sneezes Mean Smile, causing the trees of the jungle to shake, and alerting every creature and non-creature in the Painforest. This of course includes Crongul Beast and his pack of crongul beasts, who burst through the trees, tearing towards the source of the noise. Benny places invisible teleport tiles to try and send the crongul beasts out of the Painforest to another teleport tile he set up near the entrance, but the beasts are smarter than they seem, and the moment they teleport out, they teleport right back in, since the teleporters aren't one way. Seeing the flaw in his plans, Benny instead uses the far more reliable water tile trick, which causes the crongul beasts to sink into the ground and become immobilized much like Mean Smile. Crongul Beast himself is furious at this, but without his beasts, he alone has no fighting power whatsoever, so as a last ditch effort, he takes out a remote with a large red "DETONATE" button on it, and presses it, causing the crongul beasts to self-destruct in a massive explosion, knocking out Benny Hills and completely destroying the section of the jungle where Conroy and Mean Smile are. Mean Smile is badly injured, but also dislodged from the ground, freeing him. Conroy's burnt helmet falls from the sky a few seconds later, indicating that all of Mean Smile's immediate assailants have been dealt with.
Meanwhile, at the blacker market, Shamazon walks up to Shades Shadester's shady booth. Shades has set up a much more secure booth ever since the incident with Cyberspace Warrior stealing crack from him, so when Shamazon approaches, all he is greeted by is a small slot sliding open, through which Shades's shades can be seen.
"What're you here for?" Shades asks, a hint of suspicion in his tone due to Shamazon's stereotypical "heroic" attire.
"I need some strength enhancing substances or something, like, really powerful steroids that will make me and/or my Stand exponentially stronger."
"Hm. I might have just the thing, but you'll have to pay me before I even show you. I ain't risking another theft."
"How much are we talking?"
"How does the entire capacity of your wallet sound?"
"It sounds like a poor business model, because I could easily underpay you and you wouldn't even know any better. Give me an actual number."
"Six thousand monetary units."
"You drive a hard bargain, but fine." Shamazon slaps the money down on the counter, and another slot opens up, through which Shades retrieves it. After a few seconds of Shades counting out the money to verify the amount, the slot opens back up, and through it, Shades slides an entire sheet of highly illegal Power Patches, which are like stickers that are attached directly to the skin to greatly enhance strength, both physically and mentally, and even a bit spiritually.
"Perfect." Shamazon smiles, taking the sticker sheet and walking all the way back to the Painforest. By the time he's returned, of course, it seems that the crongul beasts have already been dealt with, but Crongul Beast himself is still at large, as well as Mean Smile. Shamazon doesn't really see either of these people around, but he's not quite willing to trust that his guards successfully dealt with them, given their recent track records. Before Shamazon can begin his search, though, his Stand comes out again, now blaring with the "cave intruder" alarm. Shamazon gasps, and immediately rushes towards the cave, as his Stand alarms always take the highest priority of anything. On the way, Shamazon sees yet another intruder in the form of Ignis, who seems to be in the process of setting up a large bonfire pit in the middle of the jungle. Shamazon gives Ignis a death glare, but knows that the cave intruder is a far more immediate concern, so he runs along his way. Ignis just shrugs off Shamazon and continues setting up dry wood and leaves with the intention of starting a really big fire. He's not even really doing this for the Order, he's just trying to sate his pyromania.
As Shamazon continues running, Man Forrest finally returns to his side, just barely managing to match his speed.
"Hey, I heard the cave intruder alarm going off. You never explained to me why that one is such a big deal. Aren't there other intruders in the Painforest right now?"
"Stay out of this one, kid. I don't need your help, you'll only slow me down."
"Didn't you tell me that my Stand will only reach its full potential if I'm pushed to the brink and in desperate need? How am I ever supposed to achieve that if you keep trying to hold me back?"
"I did tell you that, but you also tend to chicken out of every single even slightly dangerous situation you end up in, and leave it for me or the guards or whoever else is around to deal with instead. That's why your fighting spirit is so weak."
Man Forrest frowns. Shamazon is right. Forrest has been a Stand user for quite some time now, but throughout his entire apprenticeship with Shamazon, his Stand has still only taken the form of a small, useless seed. Shamazon has told Forrest again and again that his Stand shows potential to evolve into something great under the right conditions, but how is Man Forrest ever supposed to achieve that if he himself is a weakling and his Stand in its current state is utterly useless? It just doesn't seem fair to him, but Shamazon has a completely valid point. Man Forrest slows down, letting Shamazon run ahead as he stays back, fists clenched at his sides.
Shamazon travels through another few sectors of the Painforest until he arrives at the entrance of the cave, and he immediately dives inside, doing a tactical roll to assess the situation while entering the area. The inside of the cave is vast and spacious, though a large portion is taken up by the massive dragon Malagca which resides here, a dragon that Shamazon knows is just as important to the Painforest as he himself. However, there is not one, but two intrusive entities that Shamazon knows for sure do not belong here. One of them is Mean Smile, who seems to plan to use the Multima Cutter to slay Malagca for loot, while the other is Bella, who seems to be holding the attention of the dragon for some reason, which Shamazon suspects is to keep it distracted so Mean Smile can kill it. Flurrie is also present, sort of, through use of her Stand, Moonsetter, which allows her to project a sort of ghost of herself out while she's asleep, which is fully ethereal and can only even be seen by Stand users. Flurrie is not a concern to Shamazon, though, since she is merely observing the dragon, which is part of her job, as one of the fauna researchers. Shamazon rips off his sleeves and starts slapping all the Power Patches onto his arms, causing immense amounts of power to course through him and his Stand. D pulses with energy, its normally spindly limbs becoming thick and muscular, as it temporarily obtains an empowered state, complete with a much larger pencil. D², as Shamazon calls it, immediately uses its pencil to send a massive eraser swipe through the air, mimicking the way Mean Smile used the Multima Cutter against Shamazon. Mean Smile hears the very loud and grating sound of the eraser cutting through air, and turns around just in time to see the eraser wave coming at him, but not fast enough to get out of the way. Mean Smile is swiftly erased, the Multima Cutter clattering to the floor next to where he once stood. Bella sees this, and her eyes widen, as she dives down from above to try and grab the Multima Cutter. Shamazon of course only considers this as being done with the intention of using the weapon against either him or Malagca, so D² once again swings an eraser swipe through the air, which misses Bella due to her being a swiftly moving target at the moment, though Bella does seem to be highly put off by the awful noise of the erasure. As Bella starts to put her hands on the Multima Cutter, though, the entire cave begins to flood with bright blue light, fractures seeming to appear in thin air.