Chapter 3: Echoes of a Distant Time

(AKA: Emporio has seen everything)

About two hours after they had left Port St. Lucie, Cujoh-Anasui's party of five had arrived at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Complex. For the next four hours, they would go on all sorts of tours and visit all sorts of attractions and what-not.

During that time, unbeknownst to any of them, Emporio was having violent flashbacks to gravity changing, people being turned inside out, Pucci achieving heaven, and finally, all his friends dying at the cruel hand of a cruel man. On the bright side, they were the ones that were with him even as he was having these flashbacks. And even though they may have all lost their memories, they were making new ones, right then and there, and from what he could tell, they were even getting the old ones back.

Before too long, Jolyne noticed the strange correlation between Emporio calming down and the end of the rainstorm. In cases like this, she went by a rule of thumb passed down from her father: if something is strange, it is probably the work of a Stand user. She already knew for sure that Emporio was a Stand user, but she wanted to wait to pop the question because for all she knew, he didn't know anything about what a Stand was.

That evening, they left the visitors complex so that they could rest for the night, as understandably, everyone was exhausted, as anyone would be from spending almost the entire day at an amusement park in Central Florida. As such, Jolyne thought it logical for them to spend the night at a hotel. The only question now was, where?

Obviously one on the way to the Kujo Mansion would suit them best. She also wanted one that was not that low quality (i.e. not a Motel). Understandably, she and Anasui wanted a room to themselves. This meant, obviously, that Domenico and Hermes would be looking after a visibly shaken Emporio. For a split second, she considered a suite, but there were two points against that idea: one, they were expensive, and two, everyone could simply have separate, yet adjacent rooms. She checked the hotels in the area using her new state-of-the-art iPhone 4.

In that area, she found a Fairfield Inn and Suites which had pretty good reviews and looked pretty good for her specifications. Despite being one of the two in charge, she did not want to play the role of dictator, so she decided to ask Anasui for approval.

"Hey, Annie," she asked affectionately, "I was thinking of staying at a hotel in Titusville for the night. How does the 'Fairfield Inn and Suites' sound?"

Anasui thought for a moment, and then responded, "Anywhere we can have a room to ourselves sounds good to me."

Obviously, Narciso Anasui was obsessed with his girlfriend. The two had known each other since junior year in high school, when they had strange flashbacks of things that never happened while walking in the hallway. They noticed that they had the same memories of each other, at the same time and same place. They knew that, for some strange reason, they knew each other without even meeting once prior. And since then, they were deeply in love with one another. Only Emporio knew of the chemistry that they had before, not to imply that they barely had any after Pucci was undone. If anything, they had more, having been together for longer.

"Well, here we are," said Anasui, relieved at such a long day of driving finally being over.

"And just in time for a good dinner." Domenico intervened. "I've been starving ever since we were at Cape Canaveral. As for the rain that I was in when you picked me up, I could have dealt with that myself. I was planning on hitching a ride anyways. I just didn't care that much at that point. More on that 'dealt with that myself' part later." This was a signal to Emporio that one of them had kept their stand, even when the universe rewound.

"Okay," said Jolyne, taking charge. "I think I already know who is going to be in what room. First, and foremost, Anasui and I will be in the same room, but that should have been obvious. Domenico, Hermes, and Emporio, you are in the same room. Two things: one, Domenico and Hermes, don't get any funny ideas with each other just because you are in the same room. Two, it seems as if Emporio has been through a lot lately, so try to be easy on him."

"I have two things of my own," proclaimed Domenico. "One, we won't get any ideas with each other, as we barely know each other, and she seems pretty rough. Second, I would kind of like it if you called me Weather. It feels like a pretty good nickname to me from people who I know kind of well. I know that we literally just met, but then again, those bizarre memories of everyone keep coming back to me, and I think that we may be even closer than anything any of us would have anticipated."

Jolyne was only semi-confused by Weather's statements, so all she said was "Okay, Weather. Just come with us then, and we'll check in. This place seems pretty nice, so we shouldn't have too much trouble sleeping."

As for Emporio, he felt very happy that his friends were alive again, and not only that, but without the painful lives that they once had. The one downside was already going away. He was already feeling cooler after the warm Floridian night had subsided on him as he had entered the air-conditioned lobby of the hotel.

"Good evening and welcome to the Fairfield Inn and Suites, how may I help you tonight?" said the receptionist as Jolyne and co. walked towards the counter.

Jolyne was not too sure how it would go, since they literally just booked the room, and they might not be too recognizable. "Yes, I'm booked here for the one night, under…" after this point, she began to whisper, as her father, Jotaro, was relatively famous in the world of marine biology. "I'm booked under Cujoh. It could be under C or K. You will know it when you see it."

"Cujoh, party of 5, two rooms, one king, one double queen with pull-out couch?" asked the receptionist.

"Umm…yeah." answered Jolyne, knowing how ridiculous her request was, as she slapped down her card onto the counter. After that, everyone went up to their rooms on the second floor, using the elevator while exchanging glances at each other.

"So, I think we should get pizza from somewhere nearby." said Hermes, knowingly wanting to show off a trick that she could do since childhood.

Anasui was a little disappointed that he was being asked to drive again. "Ok, but we're getting takeout and I am not driving." he said.

"I'll get it. I have a special method of getting places fast." said Weather. "It involves something that you may or may not know about."

"Well, you seem like you know a lot about this weird stuff, so you go right ahead." said Jolyne, with a bit of snark.

When they got to their rooms, they were greeted with a pleasant nostalgia, the likes of which they couldn't really comprehend. Jolyne went ahead and asked Weather, Hermes, and Emporio what they wanted on the pizza. They all said that they wanted plain, although Emporio said that he wanted chocolate milk with the order. After ordering, Jolyne said that the pizza would take 10 minutes.

About seven minutes after that, Weather said that he was going to get the pizza.

"I am going to be using a rather bizarre method of transport to go pick it up," he said. "It shouldn't be too noticeable, since people are used to weird shit happening in Florida. Anyway, I'll see you in about four minutes."

He then proceeded to head out the door and run downstairs, knowing that the elevator was too slow for his liking.

After Weather was out the door, he proceeded to create a heavy wind around himself that propelled him out of the parking lot as if he were flying. Unbeknownst to him, Emporio was looking out the window, and gaining his assurance that at least one of his friends had kept their Stand, as he saw the Weather Report Stand beside him.

Four minutes later, Weather came back with the pizza, still as warm as it was when it came out of the oven. Jolyne and Anasui decided to go to everyone else's room for dinner.

"Well, there are eight slices and five of us," said Hermes. "no need to fret, for I have a solution."

Hermes took only one slice of pizza from the box but declared that she would have two. She then proceeded to slap a sticker that came out of her hand onto the bottom of the slice. After that, an identical copy of that slice was created. She then did the same with the copy before giving the original to Emporio.

After this, Emporio was very sure that just about everyone had kept their Stands. If Hermes still had KISS, which she awakened in the prison before Pucci was erased, he was sure that Anasui still had Diver Down and Jolyne still had Stone Free.

Four out of the five people in that room already knew what a Stand was and how one worked. Weather had his brother tell him about them, Jolyne had her father tell her about Stands and even trained her to use Stone Free. Jolyne then met Anasui and told him about Stands, at which point Anasui decided to name his stand Diver Down. And obviously, we have Emporio, who now has two stands (Burning Down the House and Weather Report) because of Whitesnake's ability.

Hermes, however, grew up in the slums with her sister, Gloria, who ran a restaurant there. She was the closest any of them were to a normal person, as she had no idea what a Stand was. However, she did have KISS ever since she was born, and she had even evolved it throughout her life. Originally, when one of KISS's stickers were destroyed, the objects would always re-fuse with each other, causing damage. Now, Hermes had evolved her stand so that she could choose how the stickers worked. She could make a permanent sticker, or one that causes no damage when the two objects come back together. She called this new evolution "KISS Act 2".

It was now inevitable that one of them would pop a certain question. And that person was Emporio.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, which I know I am not, but that is your Stand ability."

Everyone except Hermes was shocked. Jolyne thought that she was going to bring up the fact that probably everyone had Stands first. Anasui knew about Stands from Jolyne, and Weather was educated thoroughly on Stands, and even got training for using his Stand, from his brother. They had simply assumed that Emporio knew nothing about Stands, just that he had a strange ability that allowed him to control the weather.

Hermes was more confused than shocked.

"What's all the fuss about?" she asked, not knowing what they meant by "Stand".

After a split second of Jolyne and Anasui whispering to each-other, which to Weather sounded like they were discussing whether they should get it on that night or not, Jolyne decided to explain to Hermes what a stand was.

"Okay, Hermes, your ability is what is known as a Stand. It is the physical manifestation of your fighting spirit and it has a specific special ability and/or skillset, in your case, placing stickers on objects to duplicate them. Only Stand users can see other stands (except for when they don't), only Stands can hurt other Stands (except for when they don't), and any damage that the Stand takes is reflected onto the user (except for when they don't)."

Hermes, despite gaining a little bit of knowledge on this subject, took it with a "okay", as she had the ability her entire life. Although now, she did have questions.

"I assume that all of you have these 'Stands' as well? What can they do?"

Weather responded to the question by first smiling, as he was ready to open himself to more people.

"My Stand's name is Weather Report. Its ability is to control the weather. That is the secret to how I got to the Pizzeria so fast. I manipulated the winds around me to help myself fly about a half-mile east of here and back. To keep the pizza warm, I manipulated the gas concentration inside the box to an optimal level." Weather felt so happy to be among Stand users other than his brother. To clarify, he never hated his brother. His brother was just the only Stand user that he had known all his life.

"That could be very powerful," said Anasui. "Now, to demonstrate the abilities of our Stands, I want someone to try to punch my Jolyne and see what happens."

Hermes was not one to back down, as she said, "Okay, that should give me a chance to further demonstrate the powers of KISS Act 2!"

"Act 2?", Emporio thought to himself, knowing nothing of Stand evolution other than what Pucci had done before the universe was overwritten, erasing him from existence.

Either way, Hermes put stickers on each of her shoulders, causing each of her arms to duplicate. Holding back, she threw a quick punch at Jolyne, only for Anasui to take the brunt of the blow. Beyond that, before she knew it, her entire hand was wrapped in string that was made from Jolyne's hand.

"Obviously," said Anasui, "We're all holding back, because we have no reason to fight at all other than to demonstrate our abilities. But if we had reasons to want each other dead, I would have used my stand, Diver Down, to phase inside of you (it sounds dirty, I know) and reassemble your anatomy, or, in a defensive sense, absorb damage in the form of kinetic energy to be rereleased later. In this instance, I sent Diver Down into Jolyne so that any damage that she sustained would be transferred back to me."

As Anasui was explaining his Stand's abilities, Weather was taking notes as if he wished to give them to his brother for examination.

"As for my lovely girlfriend/fiancée's ability," Anasui continued, to which Jolyne smiled. "She will tell you about it herself."

Summoning her stand, Jolyne elaborated on her Stand's ability: "This is my Stand, Stone Free. Its ability is that it can allow me to unravel my entire body into string. I can use this to wrap myself around things, swing from objects like Spider-Man, etc. It is a very multi-purpose Stand. It can also pummel you, as can just about every humanoid Stand. Obviously, none of us will be doing that here."

"Well," said Weather. "That pretty much shows that around eighty percent of us are not…normal. I wonder if the kid can even see this."

Jolyne, who was very clear in her mind that Emporio had a Stand as well, answered Weather's question with "I'm pretty sure that he can. It seems as if when he started crying, it started to rain. Emporio, what is your Stand, and how does it work?"

Emporio knew that everything he said would surpass even their wildest imaginations, so he decided to break it to them gradually. "Okay," he said, with a nervous tone in his voice. "The truth is that I have two stands, at the moment that is." As he said this, he began to tear up. "My first Stand," he sobbed, "is called Burning Down the House, and it's ability is to interact with g-ghost objects, that is, an object which has been previously destroyed. How it works is a little complicated, but it involves rifts and stuff."

If one were standing outside the hotel at this moment, one could feel a light drizzle. Emporio noticed this, and he calmed down, stopping the drizzle before revealing his "other" Stand.

"Also, my second Stand, for the moment, at least, is just the same as Weather.", he said while wiping his tears from his face. "As my second Stand, I wield Weather Report as well."

Much to Weather's confusion, Emporio summoned Weather Report, who stood beside him. "I have the same Stand as you because I put a version of it from a different timeline inside my head in the form of a disc which was created by a Stand known as Whitesnake, and that Stand's ability is to-"

"Wait!", exclaimed Weather, sharply, but not loudly. "My brother has a Stand named Whitesnake, and its ability is to…oh my god. Either you somehow have a third Stand which allows you to copy other stands, or…You have come from an alternate universe!"

Jolyne then brought up a point: "If it was an alternate universe entirely, then why are we getting these flashbacks to things that never happened occasionally? He must be from an alternate timeline, not an alternate universe. There is a distinct difference between the two. Each universe has different souls, and you cannot travel between universes unless you have a very specific type of Stand. Theoretically, there are only two in any given timeline that can do such a thing. Timelines, on the other hand, have the same souls, but different events."

Emporio's matured, yet still very juvenile mind could not handle all of this, and eventually, his eyes crossed, and he gave up on trying to understand any of this for the night. He figured that he could just have his chocolate milk and go to sleep.

"Weather," he asked, "could you get me my milk?"

"Sure thing." Said Weather. "By the way, how long have you been craving chocolatized dairy products?"

"Since just before I met you guys." Said Emporio, as the line of inquiry continued.

"Have you been having headaches, dizziness, loss of balance?" asked Weather.

"Sure?", Emporio replied, feeling like Weather was building up to something.

Weather then continued with "Agitation, Depression?"

"Definitely", replied Emporio, feeling more confident in his answer this time.

"It's this universe, previous timeline." Weather deduced, clearly being one of the wiser people in the first room of a two-room suite. "These are all side-effects of a temporal fracture, probably because someone was erased from existence. Whoever they were, they had to have a large-scale impact on our lives."

"They did," said Emporio. "And not in a good way. I know exactly who it is, but I think we should talk about that over breakfast tomorrow. I am aching for some rest right now. It has literally been years since I got actual sleep."

"Ok then, if that's so, we're going to head back to our room, which is just on the other side of this door.", said Anasui. "Anasui and I have been discussing it, and we think it's best if we, you know, had a good old night of intimacy, so, as the old saying goes, if our room is rocking, don't come knocking." added Jolyne, desperate to get it on.

"I knew it," thought Weather, before he said a simple "Goodnight, then."

If you haven't noticed already, Domenico Pucci loves thinking about other people having sex. This was a coping mechanism for when he almost engaged in coitus with his own sister, Pearla. Because the first time he even tried having sex was almost always associated with incest from there on afterwards, he felt like he needed to imagine everyone that looked attractive and even liked each other in the slightest engaging in intercourse, and afterwards, it became a bit of a habit for him to just think about the whole experience. The only reason that his brother didn't take out Weather's memory disc, edit out the memory of him almost banging his sister, and put it back in (which Dr. Pucci evolved Whitesnake to be able to do) is because Weather simply didn't tell him yet. Why not? Because the thought simply never occurred to him.

As Emporio and Hermes started getting ready to settle in for the night, Weather started listening in on the other side of the wall.

As he was listening, he said to himself, "Dirty talk begins in 3, 2, 1…"

Meanwhile, on the other side of the wall, the dirty talk began.

Jolyne started with "Hey, Annie, if I were a gardener, you would be my hoe." As she said this, she was wearing butterfly laden lingerie. She liked butterflies, as most stereotypical "sweethearts" do.

Anasui, understanding precisely how to reply, said "Oh, and what am I going to till? You?"

"Precisely", answered Jolyne. And then, they started Frenching, intensely.

By the time that Hermes had turned off her lights in the other room, Emporio, who was sleeping on the pull-out couch, could hear intense moaning on the other side of the wall. He could only assume what was going on, but he just went with it. And to think, for all this time, he had gotten himself used to sleeping inside of a piano. This was the best sleep he'd had in years, and he could rest assured that Jolyne, Hermes, Anasui, and Weather could sleep easy. He just wasn't too sure about F.F., but at least most of them were here, and that was good enough for him.