-

"Is anyone else here getting nervous?" Polnareff secured the oxygen tank to his back.

"No," you jest, helping Mr. Joestar with his tank.

You had already secured yours, tightening the straps around your shoulders. A pair of goggles hung loosely from your neck.

"Just try to stay calm," Mr. Joestar adjusts his goggles. "Times like these require us to keep our heads on straight."

"Yeah," you agree. "Try not to breathe too much though, we have a limited oxygen supply."

"Okay, before we leave," Mr. Joestar calls for attention. "Has anyone else here ever scuba dived before?"

You looked around.

Everyone shook their head or gave an answer along the lines of "no", "I haven't", and your favorite; "why would I?"

"You need to teach us immediately," Avdol stands by the door. "The High Priestess will break out at any moment."

"If she already hasn't," you suggest.

"Try not to panic," Mr. Joestar instructs. "You must never panic, no matter what. That's the most important rule when scuba diving. As Akira mentioned earlier, for every ten meters you dive deeper into the water, the corresponding pressure increases with you. The surface pressure starts with one atmosphere. Since we're forty meters beneath sea level right now, we'll endure five atmospheres of pressure. If we surface too quickly, the pressure can cause our bones to break and our blood vessels to burst. We have to rise slowly so our bodies can adjust. Since we're nearing the coast, it'll be best to travel along the sea floor."

He walks towards a wheel and begins to turn it.

"This is letting the water in, so when we open the door we aren't attacked by rushing water."

"Mr. Joestar," you say. "Does traveling along the sea floor mean going through the tunnel?"

"It might, why?"

"I don't think that's the best idea. We're dealing with a stand that controls minerals, and we're entering a tunnel made of minerals. Does that not sound dangerous to anyone else?"

"Well, what choice do we have?"

"Float slowly to the surface and make our way to shore from there."

"You can't swim."

"I can't swim through the tunnel either."

He grunts. He begins to explain the breathing devices to you all.

The water keeps pouring in, reaching about knee level.

"You can only breathe in air from the tank," Mr. Joestar explains. "Carbon dioxide exits here."

"Wait a minute," Polnareff holds his respirator in the air. "What happens if I need to spit, or I start drooling or something?"

You sigh, resting your head in your hand.

You were too tired to speak.

Mr. Joestar doesn't respond to his question.

"This should go without saying, but we can't talk underwater. Instead we'll use hand signals. Let's keep it simple and use two. When things are going smoothly," he makes an 'ok' symbol, "we'll use this one. When they aren't, use this;" he makes a downturned motion with his hand.

"Can't we just use our stands to communicate?" You and Avdol ask at the same time.

"Freaky," Polnareff comments.

"Yeah, I didn't think about that," Mr. Joestar chuckles sheepishly.

"I was just about to say that I know a really good hand signal," Polnareff sighs.

Polnareff shows several hand signs, none of which you understand.

Kakyoin watches, then translates, "He says: 'your underwear is showing.'"

"Yeah!" Polnareff whoops, facing Kakyoin and completing a handshake with him.

"We could be attacked and killed at any moment!" Mr. Joestar snaps them out of it, "stop fooling around and let's go!"

The water was beginning to gather near your collar bones, no doubt you were going to be one of the first people going under.

"This room is almost filled," Mr. Joestar announces. "Put on your masks and regulators while there's still time."

By the time everyone did, you were underwater, and so was Noriaki.

Avdol and Polnareff followed suit, with Mr. Joestar and Jotaro going last.

Mr. Joestar opened the hatch out into the sea.

He poked his head out, and looked around, not seeing anything. He turned back and gave the "ok" signal.

You all began to exit before you heard muffled screams.

The Universe summoned at your command.

Polnareff was being attacked by the High Priestess. She had taken the form of his respirator.

She was tugging on his lip, biting it, and attempting to tear it from his face.

You knew there was something off about the respirators.

She must've moved them when everyone was searching to figure out a way to disguise herself as one.

It began drawing blood, she clawed the goggles from his face.

She began entering Polnareff's face as your stand grabbed your arm.

A rod of blood shot out of your open wounds, impaling the High Priestess directly and allowing Polnareff the chance to escape.

But as you hit it, it transformed into something else. A spear gun.

The rod from your arm disappeared.

You took a deep breath before handing your respirator to Polnareff, practically shoving it in his face.

The gun fired, Polnareff quickly called out silver chariot.

Silver Chariot was able to knock away the spear, which then was reeled back into the gun.

"She's reloading," Kakyoin observed.

"She doesn't quit," Avdol scoffed.

"Hurry!" Polnareff commanded, everyone dashing for the exit.

Jotaro exited first, Polnareff second and subsequently you third. Jotaro grabbed your arm and pulled you out.

"Will you be alright without a respirator?" He asked.

You nodded, "I have about two more minutes."

You could only hold your breath for just over two minutes, so Polnareff would have to cough it up in a moment.

As for now, you were basically leashed to one another, you carrying the tank and he having the respirator.

You floated, not surfacing but not moving either.

You observed everyone swimming around you, and watched what they did.

You began to mimic their movements, picking up on how to swim.

You were no Olympic star, but you could move your arms in a way that propelled you forward, and that was good enough for now.

You heard for the most part nothing, except for the shutting of the door.

You looked up above you and all you could see was blue.

Mr. Joestar swum over to you, hooking a spare respirator up to your tank.

You put it in your mouth.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Kakyoin looks at the reef beneath you, sighing, "that was too close."

"There's no time to rest now, we have to move," Mr. Joestar swims to the front of the group.

Polnareff turns to you, "merci beaucoup, you saved me back there. If that thing did any damage to my face, my life was over! I really owe you one."

("Thank you very much,")

"You weren't worried about what could have happened if that thing entered your throat?"

He shakes his head.

"You're welcome,"

The reef was fascinating. There were fish you'd never seen before.

Polnareff grabs onto your shoulder, and you grab onto his.

You decide to let him do most the work swimming. He did owe you one. If you were counting, it would have been several at this point.

"Wow," Polnareff gasps. "Look at how beautiful it is down here," he points at a school of fish, "this would have made a hell of a vacation."

Right as you were about to agree, Mr. Joestar turns around.

"This isn't time to plan your next vacation! We have to surface before we run out of oxygen, you two especially."

He was right. You were barely breathing, but you could tell Polnareff was breathing somewhat heavily, most likely just from the anxiety of almost having your face torn off.

After a few more minutes of swimming in silence, Kakyoin asks, "Do you think we're safe?"

You and Avdol both nod.

"The High Priestess can only transform into minerals," he says. "Not fish and bubbles."

"We're safe in the open ocean," you agree. "But we have to be careful when touching rocks and stone. She could be anywhere, and we aren't truly safe until she's beaten to a pulp on the shore."

"We're seven meters from the shore!" Mr. Joestar shows you all some type of navigation device.

"Great!" Avdol smiles. "We can swim along these rocks to surface."

"Isn't that a sea tunnel right there?" Kakyoin asks.

You turn your attention forward, spotting the tunnels he was talking about.

They didn't look exactly like tunnels, rather more like nostrils.

You looked up, and spotted what looked to be eyes.

"Those aren't tunnels," you say. "It's the High Priestess!"

Before anyone could react, she opened her eyes and mouth.

She laughed as she created a water vacuum, attempting to suck you all in.

"She merged with the sea floor!" Avdol yells out.

"She's more powerful than we all thought!"

You all get sucked in, swirling around in a whirlpool as she shuts her mouth. You were stuck inside.

"This is impossible!" Kakyoin yells.

All you could hear was everyone's screams.

You and Polnareff were still together, but you couldn't see anyone else.

"I don't get how it was so small earlier," Polnareff yelled. "She's colossal!"

"Women don't like that, Polnareff!" You yelled at him.

"I'm so confused!" He cries.

"You fools are so slow on the uptake!" The High Priestess finally speaks. "Didn't it cross your minds that if the rocks are mineral, it would mean the sea floor is mineral too?"

"Yeah, no shit lady," you yelled back.

"That's it!" You hear Kakyoin yell, "the stand is so powerful because we're close to the user!"

"I'd bet she's closer than we all think," you comment in return.

"You've guessed right," Rose confesses. "To be precise, I'm seven meters above you on the shore. Since you're about to be ground to bits by my High Priestess, you'll never have the privilege to see my face. Bye-bye!"

You catch on immediately to her sense of vanity.

Maybe you could use that?

Flirting with someone at a time like this?

Just as you begin to speak, the High Priestess ejects the water out of her mouth, sending you all falling towards the rock below.

You landed crouched on your feet, and would have been fine if not for Polnareff falling directly on top of you.

Damn these oxygen tanks.

He gets up and sees you underneath him, to which he immediately apologizes and walks away.

You look around.

"It's so dark in here," Kakyoin comments. "I can hardly tell which part of the stand we're in."

You towards your right and see what looks to be teeth. Looking to your left, you see a uvula.

"We're in her mouth," you point to the teeth. "She's got teeth, could use a cleaning though."

"Let's just be lucky we weren't sucked down it's gullet."

You nod, taking off the respirator and mask.

"Yoo-hoo! Jotaro!" You hear the High Priestess calls. "It's a shame, you're just my type. This is going to be as painful for me as it is you. Despite my feelings, the High Priestess is going to digest you."

You walk towards the set of teeth at the front of her mouth.

"And you know, if maybe that misfit friend of yours hadn't stabbed me, I'd like them too. Your nerd friend with the pink hair, Kakyoin? I'd settle for him."

"If only things were different," Rose sighs, finishing her sickening lament.

That's when it clicks, maybe flirting would work.

You tap Jotaro on the shoulder, instructing him to flirt with Rose.

"She's head over heels," you encourage him. "Flirt with her enough and you can provide a distraction, or use that brain of yours and maybe you can get us something better."

He sighs, "Good grief. Do I have to?"

You nod. "Unless you have a better plan that you're hiding from me?"

He shakes his head and looks away.

"Yare yare daze," you say. "Say something."

"Say something?" Avdol asks.

"You'll see,"

Kakyoin already seems to catch on.

Jotaro closes his eyes.

"You owe me," he says, sighing once more before looking back at you.

You were waiting, watching him expectantly.

"Rose," he calls out. "It really is a shame. I wish I could've seen your face, even just once. You may have been my type too, and if you were, I might have just fallen for you."

You hear Rose gasp.

"Oh hey," Polnareff starts up. "You know what guys, I bet she's a beauty. I can tell from that gorgeous voice of hers."

"Yes," Avdol agrees. "She comes across as an elegant woman. My fortune tellers instinct senses it."

"If you ask me," Noriaki joins the conversation, "she sounds just like Audrey Hepburn."

"More like Madonna," you jokingly correct. "And I bet she's got a body like her, too."

"Man," Mr. Joestar sighs. "If I were only thirty years younger."

Rose sighs, before snapping out of her state of bliss. She becomes angry.

"You bastards!" She yells, "you didn't mean a single word of that! I'm gonna make you pay!"

The ground below you shakes before sending you flying upwards.

A pink mass, or maybe rather a tongue came flying for you all.

"What is that?!" Mr. Joestar yells.

"If she has teeth and tonsils, then why wouldn't she have a tongue?!" You rhetorically ask.

"Here it comes!" Kakyoin warns.

The tongue doesn't hit you, or anyone else you can see, until you don't see Jotaro.

"Jotaro!" Rose coos at him.

He gets hit hard in the back by the tongue, you catch blood spilling from his mouth.

It sends him flying forward. The High Priestess opens her mouth.

"Jotaro's going to land in..." Avdol watches in horror.

He lands in between the stand's teeth. She begins to close her mouth.

You summon The Universe, rushing over to get him.

You're able to reach him in time. Your stand throws him inside the mouth while you get stuck on the outside.

The teeth close not any more than a moment later.

He was safe.

You were more glad than ever, until you realized the situation it put you in.

You were stuck outside in the open ocean, barely able to swim, and without an oxygen tank.

You felt the presence of several familiar stands summon nearby.

You had no idea what they were planning, and you almost didn't want to know.

You were beginning to run out of time, you had barely a minute left before you would need oxygen. So you summoned The Universe.

You and Jotaro broke every single tooth inside of the stand's mouth.

They all flew out and revealed a smug looking Jotaro and Akira awaiting on the other side, along with a happy looking group of inmates.

The teeth flew past you and landed on the sea floor.

Everyone else swam out of the mouth, surfacing and reaching about where you are before you joined them in their journey to the surface.

You couldn't lie any longer, your arm was in serious pain. As expected, you had three pretty serious sized chunks of flesh and muscle missing. It was slowly healing.

The Speedwagon Foundation staff sent by Rosas should be there by now, if not in any second.

You all surfaced on a beach that you would have found beautiful if not for the circumstances. You collapsed on the sand, breathing heavily.

"You couldn't pay me to do that again," Mr. Joestar sighed, shrugging his gear off.

"You could pay me to do anything at this point," you stared into the sky. The sun was rising over the ocean.

"Hey!" Mr. Joestar points in the distance. "There's a woman passed out over there!"

"It's most definitely the High Priestess," Avdol says.

"Should we leave her here?" Kakyoin asks, "she looks harmless."

He was too kind.

You got up, struggling to stand. You looked around for the SWF staff before walking to Rose.

"I'll join Akira," Polnareff walks with you. "See if she's hot or not. By the looks of it, Akira was right about her having a hot body."

You sigh.

"Yare yare daze, I was guessing, keep it in your pants, Polnareff."

The two of you reach her. You wince as Polnareff stumbles backwards.

"Nothing to see here, folks!" He covers his mouth.

"I decline to comment," you turn away.

She was missing all her teeth, and her face looked roughed up as well. Polnareff continued stammering, warning everyone to stay back.

You looked over and saw the Speedwagon Foundation making their way down the beach in a truck.

You were glad they'd finally made it.

Your arm had yet to stop bleeding, the flesh was slowly regenerating.

Jotaro had walked to your side, no doubt trying to sneak a look at your arm. You lifted it up for him to see.

"Gnarly, right?" You attempt to joke as a way to reassure him.

"Come on," he says. He walks you over to the truck.

You left a trail of blood in your wake, dripping onto the sand as you walked across the beach.

-

You didn't know what to expect, but emergency surgery in the back of a truck wasn't exactly it.

Especially not emergency surgery without any sort of anesthetic or pain medication.

They fixed your bones and other shit.

The pain was unbearable.

The doctors gave you no other instructions to follow, no rest time necessary. They encouraged movement, to which you eagerly obliged.

You don't remember much in the in between, but you stumbled out of the truck about an hour after you went in.

The rest of the group was waiting closer to the water, standing and watching the sunrise.

They must not have heard you coming, and you really didn't want them to hear either.

They looked like they were enjoying the peace, and you didn't want to disrupt that.

You had enough of watching the group of men in front of you from behind. You walked up and stood next to Kakyoin.

They didn't say anything, maybe because the moment was too peaceful or maybe because you looked too tired to speak.

"It hasn't been easy," Muhammad speaks up first. "But we finally made it to Egypt."

"Indeed," Mr. Joestar looks proud. "A trip that would've taken no more than twenty hours by plane has taken us about a month."

"It's been quite the adventure," Kakyoin says. "We've gone inside a brain and even entered our dreams."

"Dreams?" Jotaro questions. "What do you mean dreams?"

"They don't remember,"

"Why are we talking about dreams?" Polnareff asks. "It's morning! Wake up already!"

You smile and Kakyoin laughs

"Whatever," Jotaro smiles. "Let's go."

You all follow.

-

The Speedwagon Foundation takes you and drops you off at the Marsa Alam. It was a beautiful beach town about two kilometers south of where you washed up. You had heard of it being a popular vacation spot for Egyptians thousands of times, you'd even been invited to go before, but unfortunately your job allows for barely any downtime in between assignments. That's why you make the most of each one, meeting and partying with whoever you can.

Polnareff and you once more had begged Mr. Joestar to let you stay the day and night there.

Polnareff had promised that you'd fight extra hard in any battles that we have along the way, to which you matted some of his hair down.

However, he didn't budge. He was determined to make it to the next location come nightfall. You had plans to stay the night there, and travel again the next day.

Mr. Joestar and Jotaro walked to find a payphone.

The rest of you were tasked with the special mission of going to find a car.

Some type of specific off-roader Mr. Joestar gave Avdol the papers for. They were common, you'd seen them before.

Getting one would be a breeze.

You were too tired to hold steady conversation with him, but Muhammad was asking you about your injury. You gave him simple responses.

Noriaki walked forward to join the two of you, informing Muhammad about your lack of sleep.

This was something he would usually scold you for, but fortunately he instead understood.

"My absence surely didn't make things easy for them," he sighs. "As soon as we get the car you can sleep to your hearts content."

"Until we get attacked again, I need to learn to choose my battles. I'm too used to fighting alone."

Polnareff laughs, "I think we've fought well together, Ebony Devil didn't stand a chance against us."

"Neither did those new pants you'd gotten," Polnareff laughed

"He's right," Kakyoin smiles. "The dream thing, you know? I couldn't have done that without you."

"Now you're just flattering me," you smile a little, he laughs.

You reach the car dealership and sit outside with Polnareff while Avdol and Kakyoin go inside.

You grab your cigarettes from your coat, only to find them soggy and ruined.

"More of Mr. Joestar's money wasted," you sigh. He pulls out a metal cigarette holder.

"You fancy bastard," you say as he hands you one. You pull out a lighter from your boots and light both cigarettes.

You enjoy the moment of silence, a very rare moment especially for and between the two of you.

Right as you prepare to say something sentimental, Polnareff sees an attractive woman across the street and begins to ogle.

You didn't stop him, not now.

"Everyone in Egypt rivals the rest of the world when it comes to beauty," you say. "You'll be surprised I'm sure."

He nods, "that'll make the danger worth it, when we can drink and party after."

"You've got the right idea, I've already got a nice lounge in mind for us to go to when we celebrate our victory."

About ten minutes of small conversations later, Kakyoin and Avdol emerge with the keys to a car. A car that Polnareff once again has to drive.

-

You hop in the back seat with Noriaki. Avdol sits in the front seat, giving Polnareff the directions to where Jotaro and Mr. Joestar had been left.

You arrive not long after, they seem to be talking by the phone, not to anyone over the receiver but to each other.

Polnareff and Kakyoin move them along by shouting empty threats and funny jokes at them.

Kakyoin stands along bars framing the body of the car, you join him.

"If you take any longer," he yells, "we'll leave without you!"

"If you don't hurry up," Polnareff joins in, "I'm going to make Akira drive!"

They all laugh.

"You better hurry up, 'cause I don't have my license!"

They all keep laughing.

You don't taunt them any further, instead you just look at them.

For the first time ever, you see Jotaro genuinely smile at his grandfather.

-
To be continued...>