Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Shadowed Suspicion Chapter 19

[madimpossibledreamer]

Note: I'm not depressed about this chapter.  This chapter was a lot of fun to write.  I just tend to get insecure if I've sent something to someone and they say absolutely nothing about it.  Did they get it?  Did they read it?  Did I do such a bland job that they literally have nothing to say about it, or a bad job that, out of politeness, they'd rather say nothing rather than be honest and give me feedback?
I'll get over it.  /sigh  Well, at least the Stand in this chapter is somewhat controversial, so it'll draw some sort of review out of the woodwork.  Probably.
Fitz will be explaining the Stands in-story soon.  Feel free to ask questions, though I can't promise I can answer everything.  Capacities of Stands will be revealed soon, probably when we've learned a little more about each individual one.  Pictures will also be coming soon, though I might be a little stumped as to how in the world I'm going to draw Lotus Juice.

Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: Xander finds his power to fight, and the battle begins in earnest.
Word Count: 1081
Rating: K
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS.  READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

 

            Fitz is staring at him in astonishment.  "How did you...?"

            He couldn't see it before, but he can see it now—there's the weird shape from earlier behind his kidnapper.  He still can't make it out completely clearly, but it's no longer shadowy.  Whatever hiding it's doing, it's its own doing.

            It's floating in midair, and he can see water-like ripples, even though there's no actual water there.  And as if he was viewing water from a distance, he can't actually see what was underneath, just a glimpse of something greenish poking out, and a really pearlescent tip of something else that...well, Xander assumed to be a shell.  It's what it looked like anyway, but judging by the way it keeps moving and the weird water-like air appearance keeps moving, maybe that isn't what it is at all.  It's really hard to tell.

            He can't worry about that too much.  He has to fight back while he can.  The name comes to him easily.  "Pretender!" he yells, a strange accent to his voice that he can't remember having ever used before, and then he's not alone.  He can feel a presence behind him, a familiar presence that's been watching out for him for a little while now.  He's not entirely certain what he's supposed to do next, but...

            Believe.  Yeah, consciously he's terrified and he's got no idea what he's doing, but underneath, where it's instinct and action and not conscious thought, he's been doing this in his dreams.  Except he doesn't want to kill the guy, who as far as he can tell isn't a vampire.

            "Even if you didn't kill them, you hurt my friends, and that's not really a good idea.  Ever."  His voice is trembling, but there's steel in his eyes.  This is one fight he's not going to back down from.

            "I don't want to hurt you, Mr. Joestar."  Neither of them really want to fight, exactly.  And no, neither of them want to hurt the other, despite the fire in Xander's heart.  But neither can he just walk away from this.  He can apologize later, after he's won but not killed the other guy.

            Something long and dripping with non-existent water flies out of the water at him.  Xander stumbles back, suddenly remembering that oh, yeah, there's a bed behind him, and suddenly the weird thing that was associated with him was in front of him.  The Pretender, didn't he call him?

            It's humanoid, unlike whatever Fitz summoned.  As far as Xander can tell, that is.  The Pretender is...something even one of the Scoobies has never seen the like of before.  That's armor, probably, judging by the exact shininess of it, and those are weird metallic wrap boots, and there's a lot of spiky armor parts, but that's definitely not a helm or whatever else goes with armor.

            The greenish thing wraps around Pretender's arms, which he's crossed in front of the both of them to protect them.  It scrabbles a little, trying to get through the armor, and when that doesn't work pulls upwards and stabs a little at the hands.  For whatever reason, Pretender doesn't happen to be wearing actual gauntlets, either.  They're more...metallic wraps.  The tendril or tentacle or whatever it is happens to be sharp, and while it can't get through plate armor or whatever the equivalent of that is in weird spirit-person terms is, it can get through the metallic wraps.  He hears a grunt.

            Then his own hands begin to bleed, and Xander grits his teeth.  It hurts, but he's definitely had worse, so he's not complaining or waving a little white napkin on a pencil just yet.  "So, if you hurt that guy, it hurts me too.  Good to know, thanks for that tip."

            With a roar, Pretender pulls at the tentacle.  It's cutting slightly further into the hands, but it also pulls the thing that's hiding out of its water environment.  "I'll bet you don't particularly like being landed, do you, little fella?"  The little squeal assures him that this is probably the case.

            He closes his eye, reaches back to another dream...

            he points at a guy with pink hair and moves his hat from one side to the other, he means business

            this stuff isn't really relevant, skip it

            there we go, blocking the other's attacks and

            flurry of blows

            "Torararararara!"  He's got no clue what it means.  He's not even sure how he's doing it, but suddenly Pretender's copying the same flurry of blows, and he can't see past the red fists flying.

            "Well, it's good that you at least have some idea of how to use your Stand, Mr. Joestar.  But you've messed up."  It's probably not a good thing that Fitz sounds smug, now.

            Finally he can see, and he understands exactly why.  This definitely didn't do the same damage as in the dream.  One long, plant-like tendril is oozing mucous and hanging limply, and the one that was around Pretender's wrists was completely broken by the blows, but the rest of the creature withdrew into the shell.  It looks a bit like a snail's shell, aside from the seaside shininess.  "It's true that Lotus Juice is more vulnerable when fully visible, but that's exactly why he has the shell.  And your Stand doesn't appear to be the strongest."

            The voice isn't coming from...Fitz has moved.  Xander resists the urge to wildly glance around; he knows he doesn't have that much time....

            Come on, Pretender, you've got a big bag of tricks.  Show me what you've got, he thinks desperately.

            Back to fighting Shredder Head Man.  No, not him, actually.  The ugly undead guy in the tunnel.  And there's water, or at least water-like stuff here, and whatever I...no, the other guy...was using was pretty effective in the water...

            He breathes in deeply, focusing an absurd amount of energy on something that if it didn't work was probably going to lose him the fight.  His fist suddenly moves, catching a hand coming at him.  Fitz was coming at him from his bad side, and somehow he realized he was there.

            He feels a moment of triumph before he realizes that his hand is still slippery from the blood, and so he can't keep ahold of it for long.  Lotus Juice, meanwhile, with a happy chirrup falls back into its pool of 'water'.  It moves with it, okay...and I have the feeling he's planning a counterattack now.

            What have I gotten myself into?