JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 9: Silver Soul

Rebel Yell Part 2

This guy looked tired, Thoko thought, and he had been for a while. He talked like Jolene was his biggest concern, but Thoko knew that wasn't the biggest of his troubles. There was definitely more to this guy than Thoko even knew to ask, but for some reason, he trusted him to do the right thing.

Thoko closed his game. Maybe he just trusted Jolene's judgement. She was smart enough to pick something like that up. At least, he hoped she did.

"Jolene said something about being right back, so I'll give her a call," Thoko said, pulling out his phone.

Josuke nodded.

Thoko searched Jolene in his contacts, scrolling quickly through the few numbers he had saved. There it is, he thought. J☆ for Joestar.

He dialed, and he could hear the line on the other end ringing. He smiled awkwardly at Josuke, whose sunglasses now obscured his line of sight.

"Do you want it to be on speaker phone?" Thoko asked.

Josuke shook his head and sat down, resting his head in his hands.

The phone kept ringing until it went to the default voice message. Thoko pouted a bit, but pressed redial.

"Does she even have her phone?" Josuke asked.

"No one picks up on the first ring, don't worry," Thoko replied.

No one calls anyone unless it's an emergency, Thoko thought, so pick up now please!

"That's not- there are other things to worry about," Josuke responded, noting a waiter with a full tray walk past.

Thoko nodded. Those things. The things other people aren't able to see.

The phone rang until it hit voice message again. Thoko felt the frustration building up, letting it out in a small fake laugh.

He called once more, and after a minute, this time someone picked up!

It was the wrong number.

"Oh yeah!" Thoko said, slapping his forehead. "This is her old number. I guess that's on me. We don't even text anymore. We were chatting over forums last time we talked."

"So?" Josuke asked, gesturing vaguely.

"So what?"

"Are you going to be able to call her?"

"I can try to remember it. I know she told me once. It's in here," Thoko said, pointing to his brain.

Josuke stood up. "Call her on the way, we're going to go look for her."

"That-" Thoko said, "That sounds like a better idea."

Thoko took one last slurp from the coconut, then left a 20 dollar tip in change.

He followed Josuke out, hoping to recall Jojo's number, and really hoping that she didn't get into trouble.

~~~

A car honked at Jolene, startling her, but she kept running.

Just a few more blocks to the beach, and then... something good would happen, she hoped. Jibby was up to something.

She turned the corner and saw the boardwalk, crowded as ever. She sighed in relief and slumped on the building behind her. Though time was of the essence, Jolene let herself catch her breath.

She was exhausted. Jolene never was the sort to exercise if she didn't have to, but her heart was going a mile a minute, and the pain in her muscles was something else.

I must have atrophied in prison, she thought, stretching her legs out. This did little to lessen the pain, which did little to calm her heart rate, so she took big, slow breaths. Her throat was raw, feeling like it was on fire, but oxygen felt good in her lungs.

A family of beachgoers walked past, the youngest child staring at Jolene in that oblivious way only children can. Jolene pulled down her hat and tried to make her disheveled appearance less obvious.

Jolene wiped her nose. She knew she was out of shape, but she didn't really run for that long, did she?

She let her hand drop to her leg, hoping it would massage the cramping, but this made the pain worse. She let out a small cry and looked at her leg. To her shock, on her dress was a fresh splotch of slime.

Jolene looked at her hand, then felt sick. A taste had begun rapidly rising from the back of her throat, and she spat on the ground.

It was what she feared. The stand she was running from had got her. The stand her cousin Jibby was trying to defeat, the stand that brought the sounds you made into the physical world, the stand that made a man choke on his own words in front of her. That stand put a target on her back and was going to hunt her down, and she couldn't even scream about it.

Jolene could hear her heart rate rising and felt something growing in her veins with every beat. This is why she was in so much pain, she figured. Her muscles weren't filled with lactic acid, they were clogging up and starving her body of blood. If it kept going long enough, a clot in her legs could give her a stroke, killing her instantly in the best scenario. In the worst, she would lose the ability to move but still feel everything, waiting for the stand to come and finish her off.

Jolene clenched her fist. It wouldn't end like this.

She had done it before, reflexively, where she let something phase through her body without losing control. As much as it would help liquidate into a bucket-full of shiny metal, she was in a crowded area where people could see her. Where her unknown enemy could see her. Until the dog-stand was nose to nose with her, the element of surprise was the one advantage Jolene had.

Center, out, like a raindrop in a pond.

Jolene took a breath. From her bones to her skin, Silver Lining sent a cool ripple through her body. For one fraction of a second, she shimmered iridescently, each layer of skin turning to metal then normal, one after the other. The slime was pushed out of her body, dripping in clumps off her body, but no one around could see them. The pain was gone.

After a few moments, Jolene wiggled each of her fingers. No residual brain damage, so that was good. She almost sighed with relief but stopped herself. Just because she stopped the stand's ability from killing her now doesn't mean she freed herself of it.

She slapped the side of the building. More goo appeared from where the sound came from, which was the outside of her hand. The loud slap didn't make as much goo as the mild sound of a footstep in the alley. There was something that made it different, but Jolene had wasted enough time. Be quiet and think on the way.

Jolene headed to the boardwalk. She joined a group of people waiting for the light to change, trying to blend into the crowd. If someone was chasing her, this was the safest place to be. They wouldn't make that big of a scene, right?

A flock of seagulls pecking at the crumbs in the middle of the walkway scattered as the crowd walked through them. Jolene scanned the area for any sign that her cousin may have left her, or any hint of the enemy, but all she saw were people having a fun time and places tinged with nostalgia. She couldn't help but to stare off into the beach below, feelings flooding her otherwise focused mind.

She sighed, then remembered the seriousness of her situation.

There was one thing that stood out in this scene. A figure dressed in black stood out from the crowd, appearing to be alone. As Jolene wondered what to make of it, he turned, and they locked eyes. He stared at her curiously, then started to walk forward.

A chill ran through Jolene. If this was the user of that horrible stand, he wouldn't hesitate to kill her. Now that he knew exactly where she was, he would call in his stand and attack her again, and she had a feeling he wouldn't let her escape twice.

But this is where Jibby has sent her. This is what he wanted her to do, so Jolene was going to do it. She called out the hands of Silver Lining, letting this man know that she wasn't going down without a fight.