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Jonathan Joestar     LAST TIME:

With the playgirl-thief given her just desserts and the rest of the goons making their escape, the group pauses for some much needed time to recover. Mariska's Shocking Blue had the ability to manipulate fluid and its temperature, and had nearly killed Jonathan instantly utilizing it. The saving grace, he came to the conclusion once things had settled down, is that it had appeared to be an Autonomous Type Stand.

In other words, once active, Mariska had very little control over what actions the Stand took.

        NOW:

Jonathan breathes out, having utilized his Hamon to treat everyone's wounds who had needed it. Upon realizing that one of their number had been missing, they split up once again to scour for Hibiki and get her back on her feet. "That had been a close one ... but, it seems as though we were too late to begin with."

The englishman frowns, according to what Zero had briefly went over with them before, he had been able to read one of the Assassin's mind, and ascertained that there had been another group the arrow had been passed to. Most likely because DIO had assumed they would catch up to the thieving pair before they could utilize Inkpot again.

"Was there anything else that stood out in what you saw, Kiryu?" he inquires, "Some indication to where they might have been going?"
Zero Kiryu Folding his arms over his chest, Zero Kiryu reviews the memory. It hadn't been detailed in many respects, for the simple reason that the man had been gloating at the end of a fight. Even so, something does stand out to him. A phantom of a destination, a whiff of something very old. Or, to sum things up, a very familiar end destination for this crew.

"A ruin. It doesn't look like a city, so I would imagine that it is some sort of ceremonial or religious site. I do not recognize the architecture; it must be considerably pre-fall."

He projects an image of the impressions towards Jonathan, who might be able to ascertain more details than he can.
Ben d'Tarkanan      Jonathan wasn't the only one to have been grievously wounded by that autonomous Stand. "My thanks for the assist, old chap," says Ben. Decidedly an English saying, but his accent is kind of like the dead American version of received pronunciation, tinged with something Eastern European. Now able to stand without it being extremely ill-advised, he wipes the sweat from his brow.

     "The, ah... 'servitors of the gods,' I should mention," says the necromancer in a hushed tone, once Jonathan has had time to mull over Zero's projection. While it's likely most people in this part of town are inside with their lights on, fearful of the 'wrath' of the gods, it never hurts to be cautious.

     "They weren't precisely my doing. Someone had already raised them, you see, and I merely commandeered them--impressive, no?" A rakish smile despite his fatigue. "I happened upon them waiting beneath a bridge leading to the residential parts of this charming port burg."
Tina Natsumi After the last fight, Tina's not looking quite as chipper as she was at the start of this whole thing. She's still reeling after (indirectly) killing that one person, and she's been fairly quiet since save for the occasional grunt of acknowledgment and thanking Jonathan for the strange method healing she can't quite comprehend yet.

With the arrow's location uncertain once again beyond knowing thai t's an old place with potential religious significance, Tina crosses her arms as she closes her eyes and tilts her head back with a light groan. "Probably somewhere quieter, then. You figure if he wants us to lose track of it, he wouldn't risk sending it somewhere there's a lot of people that might be able to point us towards it."

Zero mentions that it might be 'pre-fall', and she starts trying to put together some context clues in her head. "So you're  /really/ old, right? I m just throwing it out there, but we might be looking at something way before modern anything. But how far are we talking here? Stonehenge-old?" A beat, and then she shakes her head. "Nah, too far away from here. And it's probably not one of the touristy pyramids or temples everyone knows about..."

Tina lets out a frustrated grunt, then settles down into a squat while propping her head up on her hands. "Maybe... I dunno. Aliens? If it's not something recognizable to people, it can't be pyramids or anything more mainstream like that." Just in case, she starts looking up the local news on her phone for recent UFO sightings in the area. She's not expecting much, though.
Hibiki Tachibana     Fortunately, Hibiki's shrapnel and explosion wounds weren't anything that a little bit of good old Hamon couldn't fix up. She was back on her feet herself by the time the others had gone looking for her, meeting back up with them halfway and exchanging all of the relevant information during the recovery period - needless to say, Hibiki was not very enthused that the assassin trio that got the drop on her went on to meet up with the others and make an escape. It doesn't take mind reading to tell that she feels responsible for that much and also not being there for the final confrontation, with a fairly dour expression on her face.

    Things could've ended up far worse, and it's good that they didn't. Still, she can't let something like that happen again...and she has to get those guys back. Those codgers caught her off-guard, that's all.

    Her angst aside, Hibiki is attentive towards the news of their next goal, listening to the exchange between Jonathan and Zero with a hand propped on her hip. "An old ruin? What's their plan for going there? Some kinda hideout nobody would stumble on, or...? I mean, we're already dealing with some mystical stuff. If they're going to some site from ancient Egypt, it's anyone's guess what they're really up to."
Crys Gattz Crys had signed on to see this to the end and was thankful to Jonathan for patching her up. She took a look at the Englishman for a moment.

"It seems things are just heating up more and more with this. Given what Zero discovered she was doing a fair bit of thinking. "There's also the matters of that trio we ran into as well and I owe you one as well."

She looks to Ben for a moment.

"Being able to snatch undead who are hostile and not have to worry about them? That is impressive."
Yuuki Kuran PREVIOUSLY ON JOJO:

"Hibiki! Oh no!" Yuuki frets, as the extremely exploded Hibiki is revealed from getting owned by RNG. Thankfully, the wowowow power of HAMON de-corncobbed poor Tachibana, and got them back on their feet. Wow! Is there anything Hamon can't do?

NOW:

"Nice! So it's...!" Yuuki's expression falls. Dejected.

"Oh. It's another ruin, with more traps and puzzles. Jonathan, I liked the real archaeology a little better, digging and exploring is pretty fun compared to having my friends get exploded."
Jonathan Joestar     "Oh ...?"

Jonathan frowns in thought -- did this mean that DIO had gained more vampiric allies, or had he turned them himself? It was hard to say. But if Benjamin could wrest control of the undead away from their master, it was a good thing. "Most impressive, my friend."

That he does not comment on the discrepencies of his dialect is a courtesy, after all, why fight over it? They were still comrades in this boat.

Zero provides an image of where they were supposed to be heading as Jonathan nods, touching his chin in thoughts. The others provide their own ponderings on the subject ranging anywhere from stonehenge to aliens. "It could be any number of places in Egypt. Although..something about is very striking..."

    "Such a bright hue ... ah! That's it!"

Speedwagon, who would not know a ruin from a mud-hut, cocks his head. "Oh?! Mr. Joestar!"

"That bright coloring on the clay .. almost causing it to gleam gold in the sunlight! There is one ruin famous for such a quality ... the Temple of Kom Ombo!"

Jonathan continues, "It is thought to have been constructed sometime near the beginning of recorded history .."

"The Temple has been grievously damaged over time, though there have been talks of a certain nobleman of clearing away the damage, as of late. I cannot immediately fathom why it is they'd go there, but I have no doubt that it is indeed, their destination. If we can make it to Edfu, we have a straight shot to Kom Ombo!"

Speedwagon nods enthusiastically, "Wonderful! But to get there post-haste, we'll need some sort of vehicle! Or camels! Something to get us to Edfu ... "

He deflates slightly in thought, "And then some kind of boat to go down that river ... "

Jonathan rubs the back of his neck as he looks apologetically to Yuuki, "For what it's worth, so did I. This whole event has turned into a right mess .. "
Hibiki Tachibana     "Getting exploded kind of sucked," Hibiki agrees with Yuuki with a firm nod. Getting pincushioned by shrapnel brings back some reasonably unpleasant memories for her in particular. Come to think of it, exploring an old pyramid or something would be pretty fun sometime...well, more fun than getting grenades lobbed at you. "I'll make sure it won't happen again. Don't worry." She gives a totally serious waist-height thumbs up with her free hand to both her and Jonathan.

    She's also suitably impressed that Jonathan knows that totally offhand, when it's a place he's never been before. He truly is the definition of a learned Englishman. "...Even older than I imagined. Convenient time for it to have started being cleared out." Hibiki closes her eyes for a second, but quickly figures out that mulling over that isn't going to go anywhere. They have a much more pressing concern, as Speedwagon brings up.

    "I don't suppose it'd be as easy as just taking another boat straight down the Nile the whole way or something, huh? That'd be really convenient." Alas, geography is rarely so simple. The girl turns off to look in the general direction of the horizon past Luxor's city limits.

    After a moment, she adopts the Tina Natsumi School of Phone Usage for herself to quickly glance over the distance between Luxor and Edfu. "...And it's pretty far. We're gonna be traveling in the night if we leave right now, too. But if we want to catch up, the less time we give them to themselves the better."
Ben d'Tarkanan      Ben gives a little half-bow to Crys and Jonathan, hand over heart, pleased to have his talents praised in such a way.

     When he rises, he's already got a solution in mind to the issue of travel. "I'd be glad to handle the matter of transportation, Goodman Speedwagon," says the necromancer with a smile.

     "Though most of my time in the Last War was spent in colder climes, I do have some experience with camels. They're quite social creatures, agreeable in most regards, and easy to ride even for the inexperienced."

     Ben procures an ornate, intricately made timepiece of some sort, with non-Earth numerals marked along its face, its elaborate machinery bedecked with images of dragons in flight. "Indeed," he says with a nod towards Hibiki, when she brings up concerns about time. "I shall be back shortly, then!" The timepiece is clasped shut.

     The first part of his plan involves finding and hiring a guide, then a stable. To do that, he searches in the parts of town where such things might reasonably be expected--near the roads in and out. His form of currency is stamped metal--coppers, silvers, golds, and platinums, each denoting increasingly more valuable. Owing to the late hour and the urgency of their need, he's willing to drop more money on this than the guides or stablemasters may have seen in years, if ever.
Tina Natsumi Tina had a feeling it was't aliens. Snickering lightly, she gets back up as Speedwagon identifies the location, and she punches in the name on her phone. "Kom Ombo... Huh. That's gonna be a hell of a hike from here. Even with a car, we'd be on the road for a couple of hours. Hitting the river might be faster, yeah..."

Stroking her chin again, she slips the phone back into her pocket before looking towards Yuuki and Zero. "I don't suppose either of you have a boat or train in your pockets, do you? If not, then..." She sighs dramatically, nodding in agreement with Hibiki when she mentions the night. "Yeah, walking'll take us there eventually. Just hope that whoever's bringing it there is walking, too."

She doesn't sound particularly hopeful at that, but the talk of riding camels does have her looking around, especially when Ben mentions the power of MONEY. "Can't say I've ever ridden one of those before, but... First time for everything! Remind me to pay ya back for my share once we get back home. If I knew we'd be spending this much chasing this guy, I'd have hit up a bank sooner." She actually seems to cheer up a bit at that, although not quite enough to turn the stream back on with her phone.

Maybe later.

With the plan decided, she assists in the search for guides, largely by scoping out the area and directing the group's attention towards anyone that even remotely looks like they're looking for customers. It's not a subtle approach by any means, but they're on a time crunch here!
Yuuki Kuran Yuuki, flashing her best 'I'm sorry you got corncobbed, kouhai' smile to Hibiki, nods to the thumbs-up assurance that Henceforth, Never Will She Be Owned. "Good luck!" Yuuki offers a thumbs up back.

Yuuki has dropped that particular Promise before, when she still corralled high school girls professionally.

It turns out: The Promise is a prelude to being owned.

"It's alright, Jonathan. There's so much to rediscover, because history keeps being made. We'll never run out of cool things to explore. Eventually, though, I hope to run out of this..." Her expression sours darkly. "DIO character interfering every step of the way and hurting our friends."

"Ben! You're amazing! Please do!" She calls, waving as the noble rides off to return with... C A M E L.

Tina's question gets a full-out laugh from Yuuki, stifling her dumb grin with a hand. "Not in my pocket, no. Though, I do like the train, wouldn't that be under-ground? I haven't seen a station."

She elbows Zero. "He could be a train, if he wanted, but it'd be a slow train."
Crys Gattz "I like real archaeology too bette rthasn seeing my comrades get exploded." A ruin run could still be a good time. Well she's trying to keep ehr spirits up at the very least.= She seme down with the plan from the looks of it and she looks ofver to Tina for a moment and grins at her.

"Well this should be another fine trip and I haver never riden one of these things either Tina."
Zero Kiryu "Not slow, but not fast either," Zero answers Yuuki. "Probably faster than camels, but it would be..."

He twists a hand through the air. A construct like an enormous wolf appears to his right, wholly the size of any building they've encountered, and determinedly sticking out like a sore thumb. Immediately afterwards he causes it to wither and vanish.

"An obvious target." He finishes the thought.
Jonathan Joestar Speedwagon pumps his fist as Jonathan nods with crossed arms. "Excellent! I am in your debt. The funds I brought along for this expedition, unfortunately, were lost when my steamliner sunk ... "

        Unfortunate, indeed.

With the kind of money that Ben was offering, it was not difficult to find a guide at all, a man wrapped with sandy garments so thoroughly that even his face was obscured makes a muffled cry of joy and leading him to the stables. There he is able to purchase all the camels the man has .. although, he doesn't actually have enough for the entire group. That meant that several people would have to share, so arrangements would need to be settled upon when he returned.

Jonathan, in the meantime, considers their situation. "The Temple of Kom Ombo ... could it be where DIO is hiding? Or is there some significance to bringing the arrows to that location?"

Hibiki was correct in that it certainly seemed to be a strange coincidence that it was looking to get cleaned up now, of all times.
Tina Natsumi "Underground, above ground, either's fine. I even saw both types in that trip I took to Am-uuuhhhanhattan a while back." Tina swerves a bit as she replies to Yuuki, smirking at the grin and eyeing Zero when he's mentioned as being a train. "Any train's better than nothin', although I have a feeling we'll be cameling it up. Although... Uh."

That's a giant wolf right there. She doesn't respond right away, instead adjusting her hat to keep some of the sun out of her eyes and to keep herself busy for just a moment. "That's... Definitely worth keeping in mind for later, though. In case we gotta make a big show or something once we find this DIO guy. Maybe flush him out of his hole if we can fit that big boy and Uncle Sam in there."

The discussion of CAMEL has the faux-Texan  while answering Crys. "It'll be a first for most of us, I bet. Are we supposed to sit on or around the humps...?" She actually sounds a bit worried about that.

"This temple's significance, though... You think these arrows might've come from there? It'd be pretty convenient, although bringing an artifact back to where it came from is... That can't be a good sign. Might be a place of power to make it even better at..." She pauses. "... What do these arrows do, anyway? Because if it's something dangerous gettin stronger, then we definitely need to get there without the detours."

The arrival of CAMEL has her beaming as she looks over the animals curiously, although the concern remains when it becomes clearer that some people will need to share a ride.

"I'm pretty light, I think, so I can ride with someone. Johnny'll probably need one for himself because of... I mean, come on." She gestures at Jonathan's beefy manimal arms. "Stallion could probably eat us with a side of chips and still be hungry." She laughs, then starts trying to figure out how to actually get on a camel without injuring it inadvertently.

She also offers it a leftover kebab. It's a little napkiny.
Yuuki Kuran Yuuki nods firmly. "Well, if you've been to Amun-Han-Hattan, I'll trust your skills with overland travel."

She believes Tina Natsumi is some sort of cowgirl Indiana Jones.

"Yes. No giant wolf. I'll ride with Zero!"

Of course she's riding with Zero. She trusts his ability to handle rowdy animals.
Crys Gattz Crys Gattz is pretty happy to see Ben was able to find them their rides. Sure there are not enough for everyone but he got them a lift so darn fast. They should be able to keep good time due to that anmd that has her eager she'll look ofer ot Tina.

"It does sound like we'll find out one way or another. If you don't object Tina I'd like to ride with you."
Ben d'Tarkanan      Ben returns with a guide and several camels--but not enough for everyone to have their own. This is fine, because one camel can indeed seat two. He arrives without much fanfare, other than the guttural, vibrato MRRRNGH which is quite different from the whinny of a horse. "The latter would be my guess," says Ben after one of the camels spits. He pets it with his right hand, wearing an adoring smile. "This caper of his... I'd wager that the arrows are part of some ritual, or that Dio intends to make them part of it." Why does he think that? Why, because it's so very apropos of temples and artifacts, isn't it?

     He chuckles, rubbing his chin after petting the camel. "If not a ritual, then perhaps it's a key to some as-yet undiscovered chamber. In any case, here are the camels, as you may have noticed, chums!" They're easy to mount, because they're trained to kneel for riders. "Some of us shall have to double up--each can seat two, and I don't mind bearing a second on mine."

     He demonstrates the proper way to mount them. "The angle shall be different than what you're used to, if you're accustomed to horses or Motor Cycles," explains the necromancer. "But though you might think otherwise, as long as you keep a grip here and remain calm, you'll not slide off. Indeed, you may even find the ride smoother than most, owing to the creature's gait--different from a horse's."

     Once everyone's seated, he'll instruct the guide to get them to Kom Ombo the quickest way he knows how. But not before... taking a page out of Dio's book.

     "One last thing, old chap... for the wages I've paid you, do see that your loyalty is to us and us alone until we have left your fair country."
Hibiki Tachibana     One day soon, Hibiki will learn the curse of making such a vow. Until then, ignorance is bliss.

    The idea of camel travel she can certainly support, if only because it's fitting. She's never seen one in person her entire life, much less ridden one, but if they really are faster than one would guess, then they'll probably still make good enough time. If the expert thinks so, she has no reason to disagree! When in Egypt slash Rome and all. Because she's no good at haggling, she'll leave that to the experts to give them their digs.

    Staying behind means she gets to see Zero's building-sized canine appear, which she regards with an upwards tilt of her head and a look of surprise, along with a low whistle. Though honestly, it should be less surprising than hearing he can turn into a train. "...And they're definitely going to be expecting us now," she adds on to his mention of making them a big fat target. "If how things've gone for you guys in the past is anything to go by, they'll probably mess with us on the way if they get a chance."

    And with their humpbacked steeds being procured, Hibiki joins in on approaching them with a mixture of curiosity and slight apprehension, though the latter doesn't last too long once she actually approaches one and runs a hand down its side a few times. "Hm..."

    That's the pleased kind of 'hm', along with a slight smile on her face. "I don't mind riding together...though I think that only leaves one of us," she continues with a glance towards Ben. She's entirely unsure how to handle camels, but she puts in an earnest effort anyway when the man himself offers up a demonstration. Fortunately, her lack of prior experience riding anything means she doesn't have any preconceptions when it comes to how to handle herself, and manages well enough.

    Staying on will be another thing to learn, but she'll figure it out while answering back to Jonathan as well. "If we had the chance, I'd say to ask that nobleman you mentioned - but since we're tight on time, we'll just have to see when we get there. If this DIO guy /is/ waiting there...we'll just kill two birds with one stone."
Zero Kiryu "It could just be a trap," Zero speculates towards Ben, straightforwardly. He wouldn't be surprised if someone had sussed out that one of the pursuers can read minds-- though he can't recall if any had witnessed that directly who was able to survive and report back.

He seems to have a passing knowledge of how to handle camels; though where he got it is a mystery. It's no more than would be expected of a studied amateur, but Yuuki was apparently relatively correct to elect to ride with him.

But he does go out of his way to feed the camel he's riding an odd-looking fruit that very definitely made it immortal and subjected it to his control. Things really haven't gone well on these trips, and he's certain somebody with some nonsense like a boomerang the size of a horse is going to try to just cleave through the camel, him, and Yuuki in one go.

Considering it, he adds, "I suppose I could've burrowed, too... but in this sort of environment, it's not the best idea."
Jonathan Joestar Jonathan very visibly side-eyes Tina with a narrowed gaze, as if to say 'oh really' at her field trip. But, he doesn't make a huge fuss out of it.

    "No, rather, we excavated a temple out in the Fertile Crescent and found the Bow and Arrows there. They were stolen from us at that time."

Reaching into his pack, one of the few things he'd been able to rescue from the downed steamboat, is an ornate wooden bow with a bright golden inlay at the grip and tips.

"As well, for your own sake, I'd ask you not to underestimate DIO. He is far, /far/ more dangerous than anything any of us have faced on this journey to date."

Although unlike most here, Tina hadn't been present for most of the antics to give that warning such dire context.

And then, the camels arrive. Jonathan nods, "Unlike a horse, a camel will move with its front and matching back leg in the same motion, and so it will sway from side to side when it walks."

As far as Ben can tell, his 'persuasion' works as the guide does indeed begin leading them as best he knows how. Jonathan and Speedwagon take up one camel, leaving the rest to be paired up as necessary.

And with that, the group is off.

    TIME PASSES ...

In the middle of night, some odd eight hours later, the group can see Kom Ombo in sight through the use of a miraculous shortcut. The city is only a few hours off, a blip on the horizon, shimmering in the bright starlight under a crescent moon.

The guide points and, in rough english, "See? There! Kom Ombo. No guide but me could bring all here, with such speed."

He seems proud as he points his thumb at himself. Jonathan, who had been awake for most of the trip as the rider, chuckles appreciatively. "Indeed. It seems that Benjamin picked out a fine guide."

The otherwise peaceful camels seemed to stir, agitated -- or perhaps, frightened by something. "Hm...?"

Something tickles at the edge of Zero Kiryu's perception. Something is moving, something that had been here for some time. It was not a case of a creature which was intercepting them, but some sort of trap!

    "Ah..?! AUUUUUUUUGH!!"

The guide hardly has a chance to scream as a massive set of red, scaled jaws shoot forth from the sand and snap shut, bisecting both man and camel as a creature of some sort rises up right in front of the group.

It has muscles far larger than even Jonathan and a mildly bulbous gut covered in shining red scales. A large snout and razor sharp teeth, with a man's eyes, a single monocular gracing one of them, particles of sand running off of it like water.

Two bat-like wings fold upon its back and two fish-like fins flap on each jowel.

The only thing that could describe the thing is 'abomination', plain and clear. "It's ... it's a monster of some kind! Just like the ones that accompanied Straizo when he attacked us!" Speedwagon exclaims, partially for the benefit of those who hadn't been present for that event, but mostly because it was in his nature to state the obvious.

"And .. like the beasts DIO made at Windknight's Lot! It's a Chimera!" Jonathan finishes.

With a low rumble and a smirk, the monster hackles, "Perhaps. Understand this! Your life ended the moment you were confronted by me, Accept!"

The newly dubbed Accept swipes at Jonathan's camel, the englishman leaping off of it as the poor creature's head is obliterated, sending its body flying with a wet flap, along with Speedwagon, who sadly gets caught under it.

In the meantime, the rest of the group finds themselves immediately under assault by a swarm of ginormous bugs and strange, flaming skulls. The skulls attempt to slam into them and explode either in a fiery burst, or a freezing mist. The insectoids use their massive, sword-like stingers to attempt and hack them apart, instead.
Ben d'Tarkanan      "Ah," Ben admits, to Zero, as his camel rises, "Yes, I suppose you're right, old chap." It could very well be a trap, but Ben is rather blase about it. Either he's had it happen before, or he's just trying to impress Zero with an unflappable air. Both are also distinctly possible, with Ben.

     Jonathan's statement isn't disbelieved. There must be an answer, however. His need to impress others won't be satisfied, otherwise. He is, however, unable to come up with anything until hours later, having uncomfortably mulled over that impending threat for the entire ride.

     It's ultimately someone's praise that takes his mind off of it. He laughs, rubbing his left hand over the back of his neck, briefly revealing, just below his hair, some scar-like markings which form an image like rising smoke.

     "'Twas nothing at all, Lord Joestar," he says. "Really, if anything, I should offer an apology for my demeanor thus far. I shall henceforth keep my chin up, even if we should run afoul of this Dio within. If we allow good spirits to falter, even in the face of a terrible adversary, the day is as good as lost." There is a calculated smile and a 'mindful' forward sway of an index finger.

     It does nothing to calm the camels, and their agitation rather dampens his efforts. He whirls around, from the first moment he hears that confused noise from the guide. It's just in time to see the violent attack. Ben seems to stare *through* it, a thousand yards into the distance, his face a stony mask despite that talk about keeping his chin up.

     He nevertheless tries--but spirited though his voice is, his face is still... distant. His life was over from this moment... if Accept has that kind of strength, perhaps it's correct. But, remember what you promised, Ben. He makes a chuckle that'd be convincing but for his stony thousand yard stare. "My, how little you know of life, chum. Allow me to show you."

     If spirits will be kept up... an impressive start is needed. Speedwagon doesn't have to suffer beneath that headless camel for long. In a disgusting display, the creature's skeleton, still headless, bursts from its carcass, and goes galloping towards Ben. Ben, meanwhile, attempts to force his way towards his new mount with a nimble long leap. He makes it about halfway before he's caught by a barrage of insect blades, sporting several cuts along both arms when he lands on his steed.

     Keeping perfect balance on the skeletal camel's spine, Ben flings his sword, left, right, left. Curving through the air come lashing, whiplike projectiles of acid and cold, headed for Accept. They linger upon what surfaces they strike. which linger upon what surfaces they strike.
Zero Kiryu Odd as it may seem, Zero Kiryu seems to anticipate what's coming about a moment before it does. A psychic communication from him towards Yuuki indicates that he's about to move to counterattack something, and-- he does. He bursts into a series of vines that disperse away from the camel they're sharing and re-coalesces amidst the oncoming swarm. Whether the intent is simply to keep the animal out of it -- he definitely feels validated for making his camel immortal now -- or to not get Yuuki caught up in the same attack that he is, is unclear.

He comes back into being surrounded by hornets, who grinds against his skin with shrieks as if they've raking against solid stone. They scratch, and scuff, but they do not draw blood.

Before he's even seen the chimaera, before the particulars of what's attacking have even fully registered, his entire body exudes a dreadful torrent of vines that zigzag through the area, forming surfaces of their own to grow upon and lance out from. They're not aiming at anything in particular, just grasping at "all enemy presences".

This is because Zero felt all of this more than he saw it.
Tina Natsumi Yuuki doesn't suspect a thing! Probably. Good save by Tina, and just in time to learn how to ride a camel! She doesn't seem to mind Crys riding along with her, focused as she is on trying not to fall off the thing or offend it in some way while following Ben's instructions. "Definitely a different way of sitting on these compared to horses... I don't suppose you know any ways of making them go faster, too, would you?  Although if the trip's as long as it sounds, we'll need to pace ourselves and these..."

She peers over the side of the camel.. She can't see beneath it, so she just leaves that sentence hanging forever.

LATER

Tina's taken to taking pictures of things as they pass by. At some point, she's even done a short stream to show the viewers back home what camel-riding is like, but they certainly aren't anywhere near the length of her usual marathon sessions. By the time they catch sight of Kom Ombo, she's...

Actually still looking as fresh as she did when they started. "That you did, pal! That you did. Hey, turn this way for a sec. Gotta get a pic-"

And then things start to stir from below. Flipping the phone to hold it vertically, she grimaces as the guide and his camel are eaten in one giant bite by the bat-fish chimera thing. "Son of a...! What hell is with this DIO guy?! Being able to make stuff like this... What kind of messed up brain does he got in there?"

Speedwagon's and Jonathan's exposition are welcomed, at least, considering that Tina really hasn't been exposed to much of DIO's creatures or his underlings before. She's already drawing her revolver as Accept announces his presence officially, but turns to fire off some quick shots at the oncoming bugs and skulls as she snaps a picture of herself on the phone. "Persona!"

The air shimmers around Tina and the camel she's riding as a bipedal robot decked out in red, white, and blue coloration bursts into existence, landing in a three-point pose dramatically for just long enough to make for a cool establishing shot. Less than a second later, it rises to a absolutely, unquestionably massive height of a little over eight feet as a pair of submachine guns slide out of its wrists.

As befitting an America-themed robot, it starts blasting. It spins as it shoots at the skulls in a wide arc, aiming to both hose down as many of those incoming exploding heads while the ice frosts over its surface and leaves Tina feeling a fair bit chillier than before, but not nearly enough to stop her in her tracks as she aims to protect both herself and that camel companion.
Crys Gattz Things are going well for the moment Crys will work out with Tina on her camel. She will heed the warning grom Jojo about Dio, whoever this Dio is ht's proven to be dangerous in just what he can throw against them. Who knows what they could do in person too. She will however not dwell on this too much as she goes on a camel ride with Tina! She will chat with Tina on the way, but as time passes and they finally hours later spot the roins Crys' one good eye will size the place up.

"I see it!"

She is glad they were able to get thee with no mishaps, then the guide gets killed along with his camel. She gets a horrified look on her face she'll move to hop off the beat and will summon her Nei claws the twin photon claws snap hissed to life but it's not enough she will end up caught in the swarm of bugs. She tries to fend them off but she has some issues and she ends up getting more than a little messed up from them.

She will owe Speedwagon and Jojo one for the information, she has some idea what they are dealing with. She also has a history of hunting things like this too. With that, she tears across the sands leaping at the beast trying to land on its back and drive those energy claws into it, before she'll attempt to leap away.
Hibiki Tachibana     The trip across the quiet desert sands seems mostly uneventful. Unexpectedly so, really. It's a long trip as Hibiki expected, and she does her best to remain on guard the entire time--but the late hour and the peacefulness wins out enough for her to actually nod off a couple hours of the journey. She's a quiet sleeper, and strangely good at doing it while sitting up.

    The sound of the guide's declaration - and also the camel beneath her bumping her around - get her to blink herself back to alertness, rubbing at her eyes and breathing in the cool nighttime Egyptian air. "...Are we there y...?"

    Chomp.

    Hibiki is also very good at waking up quickly. The immediate danger settles in fast, causing her to sit up right away. The more she picks out the features of the monstrosity that's shorn apart their guide and his animal, the less she wants to keep looking at it. And yet still, her shocked expression twists into a glare as she props her hands on her camel's back and springs up to stand neatly atop it, working to keep her balance as it rocks to and fro.

    "It took you long enough to show up!" In response to the assault of various nasty things, an echoing and brief chant escapes Hibiki's lips and washes over the battlefield a moment before a golden sphere of light overtakes her and her frightened steed. Like a solid shield, it deflects the skulls and disperses the fiery explosions that ensue, leaving both camel and Symphogear-clad magical girl mostly unharmed by the time it fades away. "And you won't get away with /that/ either!"

    She likes these guys. And she won't let any more of them be harmed. Hibiki conducts mounted combat by backhanding and kicking hornets and boneheads alike aside with acrobatic shifts and leaps that end up with her returning back to it, only leaping off once the coast around it is relatively clear--to grab a variant of each skull clean out of the air, ignoring the flames coating them in favor of spinning herself around to chuck the both of them at Accept like makeshift projectiles. Exploding makeshift projectiles thrown with a frankly ridiculous amount of strength behind them.
Yuuki Kuran The novelty of a fun camel ride for two, and the swaying lope of a camel across the desert makes Yuuki sleepy in the gentle, rocking air of a cradle. That it was also a mostly-empty desert with nothing to see but the backs of shirts she'd seen many nights before, and also smell camels?

Maybe just a bit of a nap could be in order, across the day--

Chimeric jaws and stinging hornets are presaged by Zero's mind-voice in Yuuki's head, though the surprise of their camel and the stinging attack sends her sprawling into the sand anyway, the suddenness and ferocity outmatching her sleepy defense.

Cast into a sand-dune face-down, Yuuki's feet are pulled out by an exasperated SECOND YUUKI, who disappears into a cloud of bats immediately after First Yuuki is cleared of the sand.

"Really? Here too?"

Yuuki grabs a handful of sand and petulantly throws it at the Chimera, though the grains accellerate into a smearing of glass daggers that scream through the air towards him AND his stupid Hornet Croc garbage clouds, should they still be present.

"Go away! We're not even there yet! At least wait until we're inside! We've already had three desert fight!"
Jonathan Joestar Gunshots ring out and strike several of the hornets, but ... they seem to shrug it off rather easily! As for the spectral skulls, if Tina were not using a Persona to attack them, they would most likely simply be able to pass through the assault. As is, the ones being 'hosed down' vanish from view, like a shadow shined on with a bright light.

She finds herself immediately assailed by a barrage of thrusting green hornets, attempting to skewer her with their sword-like stingers.

Hibiki, in the meantime, reaches for several of the apparitions utilizing the armored fists of her Symphogear. Upon being grabbed, they detonate in her hands -- covering them with flame and ice cold mist, a substance similar to liquid nitrogen. But her powered hands are sturdy enough to withstand it easily, protecting her from an otherwise gruesome mistake. Noticing her proximity, Accept narrows his eyes.

    "Is that so ..? Big talk, coming from pond scum. You're worth less than a turd in the sand! Now die!"

His massive wings flap, the gust forcing Crys away the moment her armaments begin to so much as scrape at his dorsal fins.

The massive creature shoots forward with impressive forward acceleration, his powerful legs propelling him into a swipe with his claws aimed to rend Hibiki to bits. The sheer force of the attack, considering what happened to the camel earlier, couldn't be underestimated.

This does, however, leave him open to acid splashing onto his ultra tough scales. "Hngh?! ... my scales! That sludge is eating right through them .... hunnnnnuuuuughuuuuuah....!!!!"

"You bastard, I'll shave off your chest and eat it like a pot roast, just for that!"

His eyes buldge out of his head as he turns towards Ben, intent on taking out his rage on him. His mouth opens wide, and he seems to gag briefly before a stream of some kind of putrid liquid shoots forth from his gullet in a high pressure burst, like a kind of water cutter!

Zero's greenery manages to snare the monster and hold it briefly in place, along with some of the hornets, too, who quickly begin to focus on..attacking the plant life? Until there's none left.

Almost as if they weren't following orders of any kind at all.

Speedwagon, who can now thankfully get to his feet, rasps, "Are they another form of Autonomous Type Stand? Or ... no, that doesn't make sense, either .."

Flexing his powerful body, Accept tears through the greenery just in time to smash his tail into Jonathan, who had been intending to come in for a direct attack from the flank. "I won't let you!" he snarls, diving down for a follow-up hit that the downed englishman rolls away from, a plume of sand exploding from the blow that strikes the ground next to him. "Hn..!"

The glass daggers hurled his way stop him from further pursuit, sinking into his soft and weakened scales. "Grrrr .... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

His soft growl turned into an utterly inhuman sound of rage, mixing with the roars of multiple animals emenating from his throat as he aims to charge at Yuuki like a wild animal, ready to maul her alive.
Yuuki Kuran Kuran Yuuki has a small problem. Dismounted and vulnerable on the ground, she rises only with the help of a second self. Still, she shouts downrange at the latest servant of DIO.

"Just because Stand Power comes from this world, doesn't mean every strange creature is a Stand User!" Yuuki shouts into the sandy melee towards Speedwagon. The roar of pain heralds a red streak towards her.

One mighty claw comes up and swipes down with a bestial ferocity. The space between Yuuki and the claw contracts and tightens, as she brings up forearm and elbow to strike the attack aside -- and the mights lock there for a moment. The sand beneath her feet shifts, and Yuuki - unstabilized - is knocked into a sand-skidding slide as the force pushes through her kinetic guard and sends her away.

Once more just a pair of legs outside a dune and muffled shouts of annoyance, SECOND YUUKI drops from a cloud of suddenly-coalescing bats into the space over Accept's head, her heel already thrust out.

Second Yuuki seems deeply unhappy. "Stop throwing me into DUNES!" She shouts, the force of her drop-to-max kick crackling with a keening bat-screech and surging tails of dark smoke that spread into wings.
Tina Natsumi "Looks like those hornets are made of some weirdly strong stuff... Looks like we'll just need to try something besides beating 'em down!" Tina annoucnes even as she's harassed by a wave of hornets, calling Uncle Sam back to her position as it starts swinging its giant metallic arms around to act as a buffer between the Persona-user and the murder bees.

Just as well, since she needs to make sure their camel's intact for the ride later.

Hearing Accept shrieking again, however, she takes note of his distaste for the acid as well as the hornets going after Zero's greenery. "Take a look at that... Are these hornets or locusts? But maybe we can use that..."

Speedwagon's observation has Tina's brain kicking into overdrive as she reaches into Uncle Sam's back, pulling out what looks like a projector. Bracing it in both hands not unlike a cannon, she takes aim at Accept directly while the Persona levels its guns at the chimera this time.

"If those things don't like plants on their boss, then let's see what happens if it's everywhere it shouldn't be!" With that, she starts firing off... Images? A rather bright image, at that, as the 'projector' cannon makes it look like there's even more of that greenery sprouting up all over the place, but far brighter and flatter than any plant should look. It's also rather searing as she focuses those images on Accept directly, even aiming for that single eye when she gets a chance.

Uncle Sam, meanwhile, has not stopped shooting to even reload. Those with more specific gun knowledge may notice that the Persona's been firing for way longer than a Thompson should be able to fire for.
Zero Kiryu The hornets dedicate themselves to attacking Zero's plant life, which endures the experience almost as well as the man himself does. It isn't like raking against fiber and wood; it is like taking axes and stingers to columns of stone. Gouges and cracks, but very little of Zero's overall mass is depleted.

It's odd, though, that they would do that. Ordinarily enemies seem to recognize that the source is 'Zero'. He tilts his head slightly, but elects not to do any mentally invasive nonsense in the heat of the fight. It can wait until there's a few more moments calm.

There is a moment's perturbance in which, observing that Accept is headed straight for Yuuki, he weighs his options seriously. But the truth is that 'Bodyguard' as a title is mostly for show. It's more accurate to say that he's a do-all assistant, and if somebody happens to need a beating he's there for that.

So he doesn't move to defend her.

He rushes in a moment later, approaching Accept's flank. At approximately the same time, Yuuki maintains a defensive hold--

At this time, Zero swings a fist at Accept's flank.
Hibiki Tachibana     The skulls EXPLODE. Hibiki's hands are lit on fire, and the opposite of fire. It's extremely good that she has adequate protection, or else she might have just lost her hands. But thankfully she /does/, so there's a moment of surprise more than anything else as she looks down at them both briefly and then back up--

    To the terrible Chimera throwing himself at her full speed.

    She braces a leg into the dune below, turning to face Accept side-on while she raises a forearm against the strike. Claws dig into her gauntlet's armor, and more than that, the sheer force behind the swing transmits through and sends her flying back! Sand doesn't make for a steady surface at all, and a lot of it is kicked up as she's sent spiraling backwards. "Ngh--! An ugly bump in the road like you shouldn't be talking about the worth of other people!"

    The girl kicks herself into a scarf-wooshing spin that has her landing neatly, breathing out through her teeth while she uses the moment Accept is occupied with the others to get her bearings back and feel the sting of a sore arm. She can't find a single redeeming quality in this murderous bastard whatsoever. DIO really knows how to pick them. "These things are trouble..." She momentarily takes her eyes off the main opponent to look between the massive insects.

    Then, the pistons within her Symphogear's gauntlets pull themselves back, and she rears back one fist. It's thrown forward in a pinpoint straight jab, the same moment it slams back in, releasing a shockwave of raw, visible force outwards--that blends with the residue still covering her hand and carries it forward! A miniature, horizontal cyclone of fire erupts out from it, aimed at one group of hornets to fry them on the spot. She repeats the process with the opposite hand, with the difference being a rush of freezing wind to turn them into ice statues on the spot.

    Should that even /work/ like that!? All things considered, probably not. But it does anyway, ending with Hibiki lunging back forward into the fray to drive both of her hands into Accept from the opposite angle as Zero, getting rid of the rest of the stuff by trying to pound it into his scaled frame!
Ben d'Tarkanan      The skeletal camel's legs carry its rider swiftly, but Accept's threat is something that could likely be acted upon, and Ben knows it. The rider and the camel both disappear--but Accel can easily track the movement of the beast by the imprints of bony legs in the sand. The pressure cutter strikes the camel. Ben is thrown from it--but there's no sign of where he landed.

     The impact is hard enough to knock the wind from him, but even his pained groan doesn't cause a sound to anyone but himself. No sand is disturbed by his fall or his presence, even as the skeletal camel's invisibility fades, and it begins to aimlessly wander with three legs.

     Such is the power of his Dragonmark, that unsettling marking on the back of his neck. Most such marks are benevolent, but not his--his comes with a cost.

A scratching, at the back of his mind. The sensation of eyes upon him. A whisper. Playing brave for your little friends again? They saw right through you, earlier. You're pathetic. I wish you could see your face right now, Benifas--little scared farm boy in a man's body.

    That name sets his body ablaze with veins of anger that quake all the way down to his fists. Before he can utilize his tactical advantage for anything substantial, he charges in and attacks, just to force the influence of his Dragonmark away. He lifts his sword, footsteps appearing in the sand between Accept and Tina, following the latter's hologram plant plan. He's sporting a painful looking cut on his cheek, with heavy bruising all around and sand on his face and clothes--the camel must have hit him after he was knocked clear by that pressure cutter, to say nothing of the spot on his thigh where it appears to have struck directly.

     His left hand sweeps up, festering invisibly with disease to be delivered via point-blank sucker punch, aimed right at Accept's jaw. The disease begins with blindness caused by calcified growths over the eyes, and rapidly progresses to painful bone spurs which flare up with every movement.

     A followup strike, his bastard sword held in both hands, as the blade drips in caustic acid. Leaping overhead, he attempts to make a slash down the chimera's back with a frontflip, clearing the way for Hibiki and landing beside Zero. He wheels around, quickly as he's able, sword raised defensively in that same two-handed grip. But is it fast enough for an opponent like Accept?
Crys Gattz Well, things could be going better they could be going worse Crys has managed to get a light hit in but it managed to get clear before she could dig into it.

"You should focus on fighting and not talking."

Crys notes to the thing. The claws still hiss and sizzle as soon as she suffers from the wing beats. Thankfully it's not too bad as her photon barrier is able to bunt the worst of it and it gives her a moment to go after it. With the creature focused more on her comrades it gives her a bit of a set up a small hovering mechanical-like thing. It hovers up at her shoulder for the moment while she readies the claws.

"All right my little friend shall we?"

Without warning the mag unleashes its power as Crys strange an off pose while channelling photons. The photon burst comes to a shat that looks almost like a deer made out of strange white energy appears. It raises its forelegs then drops them, with bolts of energy bolts raining down on the horror.
Jonathan Joestar Accept and Yuuki are locked momentarily, before she is forced to losing her footing on unstable ground and finds herself displaced. In this instant, Zero Kiryu comes in for the save and belts the creature with a direct hit. Its scales, even the pristine ones, don't have the texture you'd expect, feeling more like a flexible, fibrous chitin. Accept snarls, and swipes savagely at the man in an attempt to snatch him up with one hand and squeeze with incredible force, intending to squeeze him until his insides turn into paste.

Yuuki comes in for an incredible, bat-flavored kick that Accept intends to stop cold in its tracks with his other had. But contrary to his expectations, thrusting his meaty palm out into the oncoming foot of one angry vampire actually results in that hand having a hole blown into it, the kick nearly destroying it before being stopped by his arm. "Grrrrrrrrrah!!"

Spinning his whole body around, he sends his tail up to smash against her like a battering ram and knock her out of the proverbial park.

Yuuki seems to find purchased favor in dispatching some of the distracted hornets, frying a group and freezing another. Although .. they disappear, fading away like phantoms, in a similar manner as the skulls from earlier. Although Yuuki had said that not all abilities they were being confronted with were Stand users, and certainly this was true, it was also possible that it was the case in this instance.

But surely Accept couldn't be the Stand user if that /were/ the case, so what was the deal?

"Annoying .. all of you are driving me mad! Why is it all of you heroic types can never shut the hell up about all that drivel you go on and on about, waffling as if there were any point to it!"

Discarding Zero with a rough motion, hurling him into the ground like an angry toddler might abuse a toy, he wrathfully steps forward and uses his arm's length to stop Hibiki by her head, preventing her elemental hands from ever reaching him. "We'll see what those ideals of yours do for you when you're turning to slop in my gut! Hruooooh!"

His maw opens and if Hibiki doesn't do something soon, she's going to find herself being chewed on, armor and all.

Unfortunately for Tina, while her plan is rather clever in concept, the remaining hornets don't seem to respond at all. Whatever reason they were attacking the plantlife for seemed to be completely and wholly unrelated to anything visual.
Jonathan Joestar Energy attacks rain on his tough body from the efforts of some kind of solidlight deer, which Accept points his injured hand at. It seems to quiver, before the same fluid he'd fired from his mouth, exits his tensing wound, blasting through the construct and at Crys herself. The pelting he took had blown several holes in his body that, rightfully, should have killed him.

The disease that Ben inflicts on him should be the finisher, clocking him upside his startled jaw.

Yet, the best laid plans often come to waste.

The creature doesn't even seem to realize he's sick, and there's outwardly no sign that he is, though Ben can tell at the very least that his attempt at spreading that disease was successful. Jonathan squares up, his hat having fallen off his head. "That creature is a Chimera .. it has properties wholly unique to itself. It can't even truly be classified by Undead, even if it should be weak to my Hamon!"

Spitting Hibiki out, should she have been caught inside his maw, the monster roars loudly and flexes as its body seems to swell and tear, viscuous liquid pouring out, before it explodes...

And reveals a slimy, identical version of itself beneath. Reaching down and carefully pinching its monocle between two fresh claws, it replaces it over one eye. "You forced me to shed most of my body just now. Do you have any idea how much I'll have to eat to make up for that? Even if I chow down on you maggots, it still won't be enough."

"I will never forgive you for this indignity."

Bending down to all fours, another inhuman scream is released as he dashes at everyone at high speed, fully intent on snapping them in half with his jaw.
Ben d'Tarkanan      As it turns out, Ben's average speed is not nearly enough. He'd thought to make some sort of cool defense with Zero, but he can barely get his sword up in time before Accept's transformative explosion startles him backwards. He's unprepared, then, for when that claw strikes. The force of blocking the blow, even with his incredible strength, lifts him off of his feet. He's thrown clear of the vampire pretty quickly.

     It's only because of a hurried summoning spell that he isn't split in two the moment Accept catches up with him for another such swipe.

     Even with a small horde of skeletons--human ones--rising from the sand to intercede on his behalf with rusted and pitted weapons, Ben's right arm is painfully crushed by the edge of the claw, the necromancer flung violently to the ground as Accept turns to make another such attack against one of his allies.

     He needs to say something. Anything. "And *I* shall never Accept defeat!" That should be suitably pithy, no? And just corny enough to maybe, possibly distract from his disturbing thousand yard stare. With one arm cut open, his ability to use the two handed grip is compromised at present.

     But he's still a very accomplished wizard. As he rises back to his feet, Ben begins hurling a litany of foul spells Accept's way with a very mismatched hero-adventurer's 'ha-ha!' Jonathan had mentioned that Accept was a creature unique to himself, with properties all his own--so he endeavors to find those properties through brutal magical onslaughts.

     A momentary patch of complete blackness, timed at the most irritating possible moment while he tries to defend from the others, vanishing just as a gout of grease splatters on the sand just before his feet. A supernaturally sticky spiderweb, hurled towards his deadly pincers.

     More, still. A hailstorm. A cloud of thick, acrid green smoke. Incredibly acidic rain. Razor-sharp javelins of ice. All of these, concentrated into narrow cones aimed straight for Accept.
Yuuki Kuran "Oh! I'm sorry if I've given you that impression!" Second Yuuki (short hair) calls, sweeping a hand through the fading attack hornets. First Yuuki (long hair), in the near distance, pulls her head from the sand and fast forwards through a brush-and-fluff routine with her hair to knock most of the sand out of it. Disappointedly, First Yuuki sighs into the depression in the sand she had pulled herself out of. "I wish the short-haired me had fallen into the sand. Then I wouldn't be so itchy..."

First Yuuki rises and poufs into bats herself, the sound of a showerhead being turned already as her body fades into a fluttering cloud of wing-shapes.

"I'm not a hero. I don't really want to be. I'm going to build a kingdom for all my friends and family, and live in it -- and DIO has made my life difficult and hurt those friends and family members. So, I'm going to make sure that Jonathan defeats DIO, utterly."

Second Yuuki makes her declaration matter-of-fact, as Accept sheds his outer skin and replaces his monocle.

"Don't speak about indignity when you haven't been boiled, name that will be forgotten by history. I love Jonathan more than you think DIO loves you."

The tail swings in and Yuuki makes no effort to dodge, instead latching both hands onto his tail and swinging down. Following her swing with her foot, to step between the reptile-man's eyes, she pivots on her stable leg and heaves Accept back into Ben's Dick Wizard Ground Template Fiesta Save-Or-Die Wild Ride.
Zero Kiryu Zero is grabbed and squeezed-- but not for long. The effort of squeezing him at all is consideralbe; gauging from the punch he just made, it's probably reasonable to say that their sheer strength is in the same league. It isn't the hardened exterior or deliberate effort that stops him from being crushed the way that Accept intends, however. It is the fact that he simply vanishes.

He reappears atop a nearby mound of plant matter, rubbing sorely along his shoulders where most of the compression was able to happen.

"Hero... is that what I am?" Zero asks. He's been silent through most of the fight itself, having offered no input even to his allies. His vines expand outwards to either side, rising up and cascading down in curtains that darken the surroundings visibly. "I don't remember claiming any such thing. It's been a long time since I thought anything like that about myself. But if those are the things you're thinking in these moments, what does that say about what you think of yourself?"

Twisting his hand in the air, he brings his vine fortress about to encircle Accept fully. The curtains close, thin sheets of ivy rustling gently from the thicker trunk that solidifies in the air. Paradoxically support 'columns' follow after, snaking to the ground and establishing a reasonable physical capacity to maintain what's above.

"Then, let me be clear:"

"I am not hero. Perhaps I am, at times, a villain. What the Multiverse taught me is that... such thinking leads to monolithic fascist regimes with no reason to be together save for vague ideology that they don't even truly agree on. Inevitably it is power for power's sake, held together by addiction to control."

Clenching his fist, Zero causes another surge of rapid growth. Vines come down from all directions, scaling upwards, chasing after Accept. They behave like wolves, scaling to reach just-a-bit-too-uncomfortably-large-for-him to be confident to wrestle with them if he were a human facing a similar sized animal, nipping and striking from numerous angles-- no one attack is enormous or decisive, or even itself necessarily intended to harm. Harass, nick, cut, distract.

The Forest simply aggressively treats Accept as prey, and carries on for some while in that way.

"I'm not a hero," Zero says, his eyes shining bloody red. "I'm just a reflection of your boss, who made a family out of the mighty instead of cowing a bunch of obsequious worms."
Crys Gattz The entire party is still up but this thing is hammering them hard, very hard, Crys has done some serious damage adding to the staggering amount her allies have done but the Chimera is not dead yet, it's not staying up. Jojo has an idea to use Hamon. Maybe that will end up working it can't hurt to try and thankfully? Crys does not have to try to carve the thing open to get Hibiki out of the monster. As it talks about eating people Crys' one eye narrows.

"Better have tried."

With that she is already charing at the thing she's able to get clear of being snapped in half, but she's still nipped and it hurts. he is able to get back on her feet then she'll leap at it launching into a wordless frenzy with her claws just trying to rip and tear the creature apart with her claws.
Tina Natsumi "So it's not a sight-based thing... Hm. Guess those bugs aren't so easy to fool!" Tina doesn't even seem bothered as the projection fails to draw away the hornets, her theory cast aside in favor of going right back to what she knows how to do well: Stupid things that end up being not quite so stupid in practice.

In this case, her next plan comes to the forefront as Jonathan identifies Accept as being something with unique properties. "Something unique to a croc, a bat, a fish, and a... Dude?" She racks her brain trying to come up with something, shoving that projector back into Uncle Sam's back as she watches its reactions to her allies' attacks against it.

Strange magic still works. Energy seems to work. He's tougher than he looks on the outside, almost as if his outside is far stronger than whatever's inside. Explosive blunt force trauma works. "Maybe... Maybe it's not just being tough. He's coming out of himself like... Like it's all extra layers of a shell!" She exclaims as Accept bursts out of itself in that weirdly slimy form, jumping off the camel finally to stand atop her Persona's shoulders.

"Or an exoskeleton or something...?" Getting on one knee to brace herself as Accept starts charging around at the group, she takes the submachine guns from her Persona as it keeps its hands free.  As Accept draws closer, the reason why becomes clear. The Persona lunges forward suddenly, giant metallic hands thrusting outwards to catch that bite before it can turn the Persona and its user into something matching the camel and the guide.

"You might be tough on the outside, but let's see how tough you are when you're not scampering around!" Tina thrusts those guns forward as she starts unloading them on Accept. Instead of just spraying them all over, however, she's aiming it for his open maw, his eyes, even his monocle to take advantage of that potential opening. "And just so you know... I'm a streamer, not a hero! There's a difference!

Uncle Sam, meanwhile, starts trying to push each side of that giant mouth further apart with its... Okay, so it doesn't really have extreme strength or anything like that, but that's not going to stop Tina from trying to force an opening for her allies' attacks. "I'm a showoff first and a hero third! Maybe fourth!"
Hibiki Tachibana     Hibiki's height (that being short Japanese schoolgirl height) works against her when her fists are unable to reach their mark. No amount of effort will make up for arms not being long enough! Of which she has plenty of ways around, but she won't have the chance to put them to use before Accept actually does try to bite her head off. Her head and a lot of other things.

    She's too close and still caught, making it really hard to avoid, so she does the next best thing. Her palms brace up against the top of the Chimera's maw, while her heavy boots brace against the lower--and as he clamp down, she exerts as much strength as she can manage on such short notice against it. "Rrgh--! Damnit...! This is bad...!" The sound of strained grunts and creaking metal gets louder by the moment, with her knees steadily buckling more and more from the literal jaws of death inching closer into shutting and making a meal out of her.

    "And your breath...is /awful!/" Hibiki growls out through clenched teeth, wincing as the pressure on her limbs reaches a tipping point and flecks of her Gungnir begin flaking off. All the rocking from outside attacks striking home doesn't help matters. But she holds on, and holds on...

    Until she's spit out at last, gasping for clean air as she rolls across the sand and ends up on her hands. Just in time to force herself up to a knee and raise one to shield herself against any disgusting residue from the behemoth blowing his outer shell up. "Ugh...it'll take more than a piece of crap like you...to do anything about my ideals," she says lowly while getting back to a proper stand. "You do a lot of waffling yourself, and you're a hypocrite on top of that, talking about indignity..."

    She doesn't back down when the smaller and more amorphous Accept attempts to make mincemeat of them all, grabbing onto the half-cylinder of her gauntlet and manually forcing it back past the usual limit with a loud shift of steel. She stands, and waits for him to turn his attention back to her.

    And that's when Hibiki slams her fist forward straight into his open jaw without a moment of hesitation, to attempt to slam into the back of his throat with a tightly clenched fist. "I'll make sure you never get to chow down on anyone ever again, monster!" And /then/ the piston slams in, to pound the absurd amount of force behind it directly into the foul Chimera's innards. Enough to punch a hole clear through and send him ragdolling away after the fact, if not worse. "And I'm not any kind of hero, either!"
Jonathan Joestar Tussling with Yuuki, the slippery monster manages to avoid the magical barrage with much of what did hit him seeming to have little to no effect. It was clear that it could do its work on him, however, given he purged his body beforehand to cure himself of whatever malady Ben had inflicted him with. More than the others, however ..

Tina Natsumi seemed to begin understanding his true nature.

Jonathan's eyes widen slightly as he turns his gaze back to the creature, careful and clever, plotting something ...

    Or perhaps considering.

"Shut UP! I'M SICK OF HEARING YOU TRASH PRATTLE ON!" Accept roars, his eyes buldging out of his skull. The slime was starting to dry and flake off his body, which seemed much brighter in color than his previous ones. The vicious, predatorial greenery is met with feral fury as the chimera fought back with absolutely none of the intellect of a sapient creature, merely throwing his weight around. And that weight was so heady that it seemed to be working, even as he was delivered a thousand cuts at the hands of The Forest.

Such was the enduring nature of his kind of creature, even if he were to be torn apart right now, it would not stop him.

But it did leave him open in his maddened frenzy attacking everything in sight, including Yuuki Kuran, to give her the opening she needed to weave through his next attack working alongside her doppleganger, and use her monumental strength to displace him into a veritable whirlwind of magical spells. Acid deteriorated his skin, razor sharp icicles perforated the weakened defense, aggravating maladies plagued him, flames broiled him and, in his animalsitic furor, he fails in his attempt to chow Tina into mush in his mouth, and finds his jaw stretched wide open --

    "GRUOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!"

His body buldges and explodes once again, blowing back the vines, the magical might, and anyone unfortunate enough to be standing next to him. Even several hornets are destroyed by the force of it. His third body seems considerably ... frailer. Skinnier. Weaker.

The creature pants before gagging, and harshly throws up an organ. It looks unidentifiable. "Guh ... I've used up all my excess biomass ... "

    "I can't Recombine anymore...!"

It was clear just how much weaker this form was as he weaved and bobbed to dodge around Crys' assault where as before, he most likely would have powered through it to attack her like a savage. Now, the way he skittered about almost had a measure of thought put into it, as he delivers a meaty swipe to discombobulate her.

It had nowhere near the punch his previous blows did.

"I was created personally by DIO! I'm ... a perfect being! Unlike the rest of you I was made with a purpose, by something greater than life! Love? Who gives a shit about that?! DIO gave me something far better than something as pathetic as love...!"

"He gave me strength! He gave me ambition! And the ability to survive anything!"

His eyes are bloodshot now, "I was /reborn/ all thanks to him. The weakling that came before me ... was forced to Accept that his humanity was worth nothing."

"'Love' .. pathetic! It's so pathetic I could cry!"

Hibiki's final attack, despite his jaw no longer being held open for her, is more than strong enough to bust through his weak hide. "Uooooh! You think that's...enough...to kill me...you bitch?!"

Blood and gore dribbles as he staggers and, ultimately, falls. This body did not possess the ability to withstand that kind of force.

Speedwagon breathes out, uneasily. "That creature ... DIO creates Chimera by combining living people with other things ... there were some animals that could be recognized here, but it seems as though he was combined with something from another world, too .."

"Whoever he was before, was becoming like this the only way he could cope with himself? ... It doesn't matter. He wasn't human anymore. Whoever it was, they can rest easy now that they've been avenged!"
Yuuki Kuran The short-haired Yuuki that remained stares into the sands that Accept had been pulverized into by Hibiki. Glass and acid and shards of this and that -- an entire Save-Or-Magical-Realm scattered about.

A brutal and sudden end, shouting to the end against the merit of love.

"No. It's still sad." She decides, to Speedwagon. "It just means that someone was so hurt that they'd willingly throw away their own life to matter to someone. Killing them isn't vengeance - it's just ending a tragedy that's run its course."
Hibiki Tachibana     With Accept finally collapsing under the combined assaults after a long and tense moment, Hibiki lets her arm fall away to her side right as her overstressed gauntlet lets out a hissing burst of steam from several ports. Her fierce expression gives way to a somewhat different one as she looks down at the Chimera's motionless and smaller body.

    It's because of pity more than anything else. "...Strength and ambition without anything else to live for...not knowing any kind of love..." She closes her eyes and shakes her head. "That's not a life at all."

    It was much too late to do anything but what they did. Still, she holds the same look on her face for a few moments after her transformation is disengaged in a similar burst of golden light, and she's back in her out-of-era casual clothes shoving her hands in her pockets. Yuuki's words on the situation seem to hit some kind of chord with her. "Yeah...if only things could've played out differently for him. But I guess not everyone gets that chance."

    Hibiki inhales sharply, partly to steady herself back again, then turns a bit to look back towards the starlit Kom Ombo in the distance, past the dunes. "...This DIO guy...he won't get off easy, doing this to people. Taking advantage of them. Whatever he's planning for those arrows, he won't get away with it. We still have some ways to go."
Zero Kiryu /And the ability to survive anything!/

"Is that so." Zero Kiryu says.

The plant life compresses inwards and produces a staircase for him. He descends it steadily, focusing his mind in on the almost-certainly-dying Accept, searching to see what it is that is in his mind as he screams towards... is this death for him? That's part of what Zero is trying to find out. Even if it's not though, the body in front of him still appears to be Accept, or at least an extension of Accept's ability to act.

He seizes the body (?) by the head, one-handed, and compresses it rapidly. A line of light runs from Zero's left hand down into the body, a stylized rose emblem flashing into being for a moment. Rather than bursting into more gore, the corpse would turn crystalline and begin to crack apart.

If it was "Accept", and if "Accept" was truly under the condition of 'being dead or in the realm of being coup-de-graced', the act would prevent later restoration categorically.

The vines that still stand disperse, become cacti, and cease to present as special aberrations save for unusual blossoms.

Sighing, Zero moves back to join Yuuki and Speedwagon. He leans against Yuuki, eyes dimming back to his usual lavender.

"Even if it is merely as grotesque as humanity is capable of, still it is quite grotesque." Zero finishes a thought from much, much earlier. Then he asks, What is our destination like, again?"

To Hibiki, he remarks, "Judging by the situations we've been finding ourselves in, I would hazard to guess that he already is and has been for some time."
Tina Natsumi Accept goes even more berserk than before, and Tina can't help but feel a little sorry for the creature. Only a little, though, considering the circumstances of him killing that guide and several camels already. It's not enough to stop her/Uncle Sam from holding it in place as long as she can for her allies' attacks before getting knocked aside and scrambling to take a more defensive position again.

Soon, however, the combined attacks prove to be too much for Accept's form, and he goes down for the count. Tina keeps her guns trained on the pile of parts even then, approaching the body cautiously and glancing towards Zero.

"You said an ordinary mind could make this. That's... Man. Maybe 'ordinary' is just more screwed up than I thought." She actually manages a chuckle, but it's a distinctly pained one as she stares at what remains of Accept.

"If this is tame, I'd hate to see what kind of stuff DIO can come with that isn't tame by his usual standards." She shakes her head, then takes a deep breath before backing away to let Zero crystalize the body, sliding her guns back into Uncle Sam's arms as it dissipates back into the ether.

"If people can get this screwed up over not having anyone in their corner, though.... No wonder this DIO guy's got so much traction. Maybe..." Tina trails off, going quiet again as she takes off her hat and flaps it at her face, giving herself a bit more air and trying to organize her thoughts again as she returns to the camel.
Ben d'Tarkanan     Backblast from the sheer force of Accept's defiance ends up forcing Ben to one knee. There's not much more left in the tank for this onslaught--so it's extremely fortuitous that Yuuki forces the formidable creature back into the hazard zone Ben created.

    The third form comes, and the embattled necromancer nearly succumbs to despair... but for his earlier words. He can't make a liar of that voice and give in to fear. It'll have to be one or the other. Ben is frowning. It's not because of his wounds, considerable as they are.

    It's because something was said, several somethings, in fact, which he can't make sense of. He glances from Hibiki, to Tina, to Zero, to Yuuki, lost in thought at a critical moment, as Accept's third form continues his rampage. Those four... do they really not think of themselves in that way? Shouldn't they want that? The more he turns it over, the less sense it makes. I want that...

    Hibiki's attack proves enough to quell the beast, and with it, the vitriol, literal and figurative. The grinning, multi-eyed fanged monster on the pommel of Ben's sword gleams in the moonlight as the weapon is wiped clean and sheathed. There's a glance towards Speedwagon as Ben gets to his feet, brushing the sand from his clothes and wincing as his fingers bump clumsily into the wound on his hip. "Cope with himself...?"

    Ben looks down at his left arm, longer and paler than the other, mismatched even down to the subtle structures of the hand. A memory of crawling through the catacombs in the darkness below the Atur Academy is pushed away as he strides confidently over to Speedwagon with a weakly plastered-on smile.

    "The temple is in the distance, there, yes," says Ben, nodding along with Hibiki. "Though, we did travel for some time, and the camels shall need rest as well. That notwithstanding, DIO shall likely require our full strength, as sorely as Accept tested us. I shall be glad to take first watch, if we can spare the time. Otherwise..." He nods towards the skeletal, headless three legged camel wandering aimlessly around. The implication is that he could create more.
Jonathan Joestar Speedwagon tugs on the brim of his bowler hat, looking down, "That's..."

She was right, of course, but than where did that leave them? Yet another bittersweet victory?

Hibiki's transformation ends with a burst of golden motes. She notices fairly quickly that the giant hornets had all vanished, and so had the spectral skulls. Not a trace remained.

Zero begins the process of disposing of the body, crystallizing it -- and as a result, especially with Hibiki vulnerable, there is a grossly wet slopping sound as some sort of mucus ejects itself between the cracks. It was smaller, with childlike proportions, but had no defining features. No face, no nose, no mouth. Its body was weak and gelatinous, like some sort of supermembrane.

    "OVERDRIVE!"

Jonathan delivers a Hamon-infused karate chop to strike straight through it, the ripple surging into its bulbous body turning it a bright golden-orange hue, glowing like the sun. "GuuuoooAAAAH?! How d..id....y o u ... KNOWWWwwwwWW?!"

The creature evaporates into dust. Jonathan, who had been waiting and watching carefully, finally releases a breath. The sun begins to rise over the horizon.

"Mister Joestar...!" Speedwagon himself had been so shocked that he'd been practically frozen in place. Jonathan looks down at the ash littering the ground, "What Miss Natsumi mentioned earlier caught my attention ... that his body was like a 'shell'. Accept mentioned that what he was doing was 'recombining' as well ... which hinted that his body was composed of more than one lifeform. That slimy thing just now, that pitiful creature was Accept's true form ... "

"The sunlight should take care of the rest of his remains." he finalizes, clenching his fist, before looking towards the distant Kom Ombo. "It'll take a while longer to get to Kom Ombo on foot .. once we're there, we can rest up. After that, there will be no turning back."

"I can feel it throughout my whole body ... the blood in my veins, and the birthmark on my neck. This will be the last leg of our journey, I know it to be so."

The sun rises up over the horizon, and Kom Ombo begins to truly shine so brightly, it was as if a sea of molten gold had taken the shape of buildings.
Crys Gattz Crys Gattz still has fight in her but she's nearing the end of her tank and she knows it. The question is will she has enough to get it done. She's putting a lot into it but she's not been able to connect she does force him to dodge rather than take it. Worse for her though is she does get tagged again and is a bit ditzy she staggers about.

"...My species were made to be ... weapons. It was the compassion of the very lab coats who made us, who freed us and here I am."

she makes ready for another attack, but it's not going to be needed as the Chimera is cut down.

"Biomonster horrors, what else will this Dio have to throw at us..."

She looks at Jojo as he has indeed help bring an end to things before the creature's true self gets away. It's over at least for now, she also let down her guard when she thought it was dead. That could have been a fatal mistake...