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madimpossibledreamerMain Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: Johan, Fitz, and Darling continue their investigation into the death of Darling's parents...
Word Count: 1203
Rating: Teen
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS.
“He’s a professor that does research in the local aquarium-slash-zoo,” Fitz explains as they walk, and a broad grin breaks out on Johan’s face.
“Ooo, does he work with sharks?”
The blond blinks, obviously confused as to the source of the enthusiasm. Then again, Xander’s had a long-standing tradition of confusing Brits with enthusiasm, so this is no different.
“Shark week is a mandatory holiday,” he elaborates, and Fitz continues to stare before, in the end, giving up.
“Americans are strange.”
Behind him, Darling is nodding fervently, which just gives Jojo a bigger grin. Confusion and misdirection is fun.
When they get there, Fitz has some trouble getting in contact with his contact, but then, it’s crowded, and the man prefers to work in the thinned crowds of the late afternoon. Johan badgers the blond into buying him food and gives an innocent smile at the annoyed glare. “If you’d thought to kidnap me with my wallet on me, I wouldn’t have to keep bugging you for money.”
The green eyes roll skyward, but he still senses a little relief that Jojo has an appetite again.
It’s not exactly as easy as it looks, but he’s had practice with compartmentalization and dealing with the grief when they’re not likely to be attacked anytime soon.
They wander around for a bit, Darling exclaiming at all the animals, seeming years younger. It’s heartwarming to see her lose her pinched, scared look. Xander stays far away from the hyenas and doesn’t plan to explain his behavior to the others.
“You were wanting to speak to Dr. Ackerman?” A voice interrupts them. A man in a lab coat. “I work with him in the aquarium. I can show you where we work if you’d like to wait there.”
“Do you work with Carcharodon carcharias?” The words roll off his tongue, and he doesn’t even realize that that might be a little strange.
“Yes. Fascinating creatures, aren’t they? We’re currently working on intelligence and schooling instincts.” The man talks, and he purposefully needles the man about the (highly inaccurate) films he’s seen. Fitz is torn between being amused and rolling his eyes, and the thief girl isn’t bothering to try to hide the giggles.
He gasps at the deep tanks they have—they’re not large, length or width wise, but they might actually be accurate in other aspects of simulating the ocean. This place must have money, especially as they aren’t being displayed, back here in the employees-only section.
“He called me shortly before I heard you were looking for him. Apparently the traffic is ghastly.” There’s a smile. A smile like a shark. Typical arrogance of an academic, Johan thinks with the slightest of irritation. “I have to retrieve my wetsuit, but if you like, you could see me at work, before you talk to the professor.”
He heads toward where Jojo assumes the employees’ personal lockers are, leaving the room, and he turns to the others. “Come on, lighten up. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity—”
Something sharp and heavy slams into Xander’s shoulder, and his breath leaves his body in one big gust. His legs stop working, and he stumbles backward a little.
He has time to see Fitz’s and Darling’s shocked and worried faces as he falls, think ‘I really need to stop getting attacked in zoos’, and hit the water. Or rather, the water hits him. It’s as if it’s a giant fist at his back, after all, and he’s pretty sure he did no damage to the water in general. Disturbed it a little, maybe, but then it’d just go back to its usual placid nature like nothing had happened.
It’s freezing. It’s probably not as cold as it feels, because they’d just been hanging out in the hot and humid tropical area. And the burgundy substance leaking out, spreading like he’d dropped a few drops of food coloring in a glass of water, gives a clue to what happened.
He’s not sure how long it takes to sink, but it certainly feels like he’s falling faster than just through the air, which isn’t possible. Then again, he’s a little confused, disoriented. Time isn’t working right.
When he finally slows down, he realizes something’s wrong. The light’s coming from every direction. Where did he come from? Where’s up? He tries to swim around, re-orient himself, but the pull at his shoulder hurts with every jostle, and he has to grit his teeth harder. The light’s being obscured by the red.
He’s moving slower than he should be. It takes a little while for his body to obey what he tells it to do. Which is why it takes him a few seconds to process the sudden jolt of danger that thrills through him.
He’s in danger, yeah. He needs air, desperately, but…
These are the research shark tanks.
He turns just in time to catch a shoulder full of razor teeth. The uninjured shoulder. Well, the previously uninjured shoulder. He’s pretty sure it was aiming at his head, but he doesn’t have time to be grateful as the pain rips through him, leading the last of his breath that he was saving to burst from him.
It makes no sound, if you scream underwater. No one can hear you scream.
You have to save yourself.
He’s getting lightheaded, but oddly that makes it easier for him to call Pretender. The jolt as his Stand punches the shark makes him jerk in pain. He fights the urge to breathe in.
A shape looms nearby. Probably another one. He can’t tell what direction it’s coming from, exactly where it’s blocking the light, but there’s a shadow from somewhere and he needs to move. React.
He grits his teeth and jerks out the thing from his shoulder. The agony electrifies every nerve, and he really is going to pass out soon. But he can’t do it just yet.
Okay, so allowing more blood to get into the water, starting a frenzy, possibly not the best option. But it’s the only plan he’s got. If he keeps bleeding with it in, it’s an inevitability anyway.
He has to make a better target.
It’s a harpoon. He’s not sure exactly how it got here, but he’s pretty sure who was responsible. That researcher. He’d seemed shady, but they didn’t exactly have a lot of options, and Fitz’s contact would be here soon. Right?
That’d probably been a lie. But he’d seemed harmless enough.
He waits until the shark is close, then spears it with the last of his strength. The movement is an anguish he doesn’t really care to repeat, so he uses Pretender to jerk the harpoon back and forth, cut up the shark more, spread around the blood, make the wound bigger.
And then he starts swimming in the opposite direction. He doesn’t know whether it’s up, but away from the feeding frenzy that’s about to begin is a good place to be.
Eventually, the pain starts fading, the light dimming.
Jotaro would be…
It’s too much effort to try to catch the end of the sentence. He lets it drift into the water, lost. He doesn’t notice when he loses consciousness.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: Johan, Fitz, and Darling continue their investigation into the death of Darling's parents...
Word Count: 1203
Rating: Teen
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS.
“He’s a professor that does research in the local aquarium-slash-zoo,” Fitz explains as they walk, and a broad grin breaks out on Johan’s face.
“Ooo, does he work with sharks?”
The blond blinks, obviously confused as to the source of the enthusiasm. Then again, Xander’s had a long-standing tradition of confusing Brits with enthusiasm, so this is no different.
“Shark week is a mandatory holiday,” he elaborates, and Fitz continues to stare before, in the end, giving up.
“Americans are strange.”
Behind him, Darling is nodding fervently, which just gives Jojo a bigger grin. Confusion and misdirection is fun.
When they get there, Fitz has some trouble getting in contact with his contact, but then, it’s crowded, and the man prefers to work in the thinned crowds of the late afternoon. Johan badgers the blond into buying him food and gives an innocent smile at the annoyed glare. “If you’d thought to kidnap me with my wallet on me, I wouldn’t have to keep bugging you for money.”
The green eyes roll skyward, but he still senses a little relief that Jojo has an appetite again.
It’s not exactly as easy as it looks, but he’s had practice with compartmentalization and dealing with the grief when they’re not likely to be attacked anytime soon.
They wander around for a bit, Darling exclaiming at all the animals, seeming years younger. It’s heartwarming to see her lose her pinched, scared look. Xander stays far away from the hyenas and doesn’t plan to explain his behavior to the others.
“You were wanting to speak to Dr. Ackerman?” A voice interrupts them. A man in a lab coat. “I work with him in the aquarium. I can show you where we work if you’d like to wait there.”
“Do you work with Carcharodon carcharias?” The words roll off his tongue, and he doesn’t even realize that that might be a little strange.
“Yes. Fascinating creatures, aren’t they? We’re currently working on intelligence and schooling instincts.” The man talks, and he purposefully needles the man about the (highly inaccurate) films he’s seen. Fitz is torn between being amused and rolling his eyes, and the thief girl isn’t bothering to try to hide the giggles.
He gasps at the deep tanks they have—they’re not large, length or width wise, but they might actually be accurate in other aspects of simulating the ocean. This place must have money, especially as they aren’t being displayed, back here in the employees-only section.
“He called me shortly before I heard you were looking for him. Apparently the traffic is ghastly.” There’s a smile. A smile like a shark. Typical arrogance of an academic, Johan thinks with the slightest of irritation. “I have to retrieve my wetsuit, but if you like, you could see me at work, before you talk to the professor.”
He heads toward where Jojo assumes the employees’ personal lockers are, leaving the room, and he turns to the others. “Come on, lighten up. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity—”
Something sharp and heavy slams into Xander’s shoulder, and his breath leaves his body in one big gust. His legs stop working, and he stumbles backward a little.
He has time to see Fitz’s and Darling’s shocked and worried faces as he falls, think ‘I really need to stop getting attacked in zoos’, and hit the water. Or rather, the water hits him. It’s as if it’s a giant fist at his back, after all, and he’s pretty sure he did no damage to the water in general. Disturbed it a little, maybe, but then it’d just go back to its usual placid nature like nothing had happened.
It’s freezing. It’s probably not as cold as it feels, because they’d just been hanging out in the hot and humid tropical area. And the burgundy substance leaking out, spreading like he’d dropped a few drops of food coloring in a glass of water, gives a clue to what happened.
He’s not sure how long it takes to sink, but it certainly feels like he’s falling faster than just through the air, which isn’t possible. Then again, he’s a little confused, disoriented. Time isn’t working right.
When he finally slows down, he realizes something’s wrong. The light’s coming from every direction. Where did he come from? Where’s up? He tries to swim around, re-orient himself, but the pull at his shoulder hurts with every jostle, and he has to grit his teeth harder. The light’s being obscured by the red.
He’s moving slower than he should be. It takes a little while for his body to obey what he tells it to do. Which is why it takes him a few seconds to process the sudden jolt of danger that thrills through him.
He’s in danger, yeah. He needs air, desperately, but…
These are the research shark tanks.
He turns just in time to catch a shoulder full of razor teeth. The uninjured shoulder. Well, the previously uninjured shoulder. He’s pretty sure it was aiming at his head, but he doesn’t have time to be grateful as the pain rips through him, leading the last of his breath that he was saving to burst from him.
It makes no sound, if you scream underwater. No one can hear you scream.
You have to save yourself.
He’s getting lightheaded, but oddly that makes it easier for him to call Pretender. The jolt as his Stand punches the shark makes him jerk in pain. He fights the urge to breathe in.
A shape looms nearby. Probably another one. He can’t tell what direction it’s coming from, exactly where it’s blocking the light, but there’s a shadow from somewhere and he needs to move. React.
He grits his teeth and jerks out the thing from his shoulder. The agony electrifies every nerve, and he really is going to pass out soon. But he can’t do it just yet.
Okay, so allowing more blood to get into the water, starting a frenzy, possibly not the best option. But it’s the only plan he’s got. If he keeps bleeding with it in, it’s an inevitability anyway.
He has to make a better target.
It’s a harpoon. He’s not sure exactly how it got here, but he’s pretty sure who was responsible. That researcher. He’d seemed shady, but they didn’t exactly have a lot of options, and Fitz’s contact would be here soon. Right?
That’d probably been a lie. But he’d seemed harmless enough.
He waits until the shark is close, then spears it with the last of his strength. The movement is an anguish he doesn’t really care to repeat, so he uses Pretender to jerk the harpoon back and forth, cut up the shark more, spread around the blood, make the wound bigger.
And then he starts swimming in the opposite direction. He doesn’t know whether it’s up, but away from the feeding frenzy that’s about to begin is a good place to be.
Eventually, the pain starts fading, the light dimming.
Jotaro would be…
It’s too much effort to try to catch the end of the sentence. He lets it drift into the water, lost. He doesn’t notice when he loses consciousness.
