Chapter Text
Without being seen, Amelia scurried across the ship's floor, quickly ducking into the large crate she had eyed upon entry. Sweating bullets, she took a deep sigh of relief. She had successfully stowed away on the ship; now all she had to worry about was how to sneak off when it docked who-knows-where. She knew it was irresponsible to hide away on a boat with no clue where it's going, hell, she knew it was dangerous to sneak onto boats in general, but she had no choice.
It was a strange few days for Amelia. Last Tuesday started normal enough: she woke up nice and early so she could open up the corner store. She spent the morning selling cheap coffee, egg sandwiches, and the occasional Slurpee or two- nothing out of the ordinary. That's when she got the tingles again. God, how she hated the tingles. Sometimes her stand would flare up and give her chills, giving her a strange rush of adrenaline and tons of goosebumps. At first she thought of it as sort of a Spidey-Sense, a weird feeling she'd get when danger lurked nearby, but when nothing happened after the feeling passed, the novelty quickly faded. She pressed down the raised hairs on her neck as two boys entered the shop. They seemed to be brothers: one of them was a tall, stocky teenager, and the other was a big-eyed little boy. As Amelia plastered on her customer-service smile, she noticed the younger of the two boys clinging onto a book, while the elder eyed her down before perusing the shelves.
"Hey, whatcha reading?" Amelia asked the little boy, "Is that a comic book? I used to love reading Spider-Man and Batman when I was your age!"
She was just trying to be nice, hoping her boss sitting in the back room would overhear her. She didn't expect the little boy to clutch the book with more fervor than before, giving her a menacing glare before whispering something to his brother. She brushed it off, kids are strange sometimes. Maybe he's just shy!
However, she was disturbed by their sudden exit. They had been in the store for no more than a minute, and left as abruptly as they came. She felt bad for a moment- she may have scared off the kid and made him want to leave. The feeling quickly subsided as another tingle ran up her spine, making her momentarily forget about the strange visitors.
Usually getting the tingle every few days, getting two in such quick succession really put her on edge. It got even more disruptive as they kept happening throughout the day: once at the grocery store, a few while going out to get lunch, and another while doing laundry. As she tucked into bed that night, it was a struggle to fall asleep, the dreadful sensation looming over her. When her tiredness got the better of her, she got a strange feeling that she was being watched as she shut her eyes. This persisted for the next two days, her stand's tingles causing her a sudden anxiety every time it went off. She started keeping a backpack on her at all times, with a few weapons and essentials just in case she needed them. Feeling irrational, she cursed to herself as she zipped up the bag on Friday morning. She thought her fear was completely unfounded, and felt like a scaredy-cat for letting the feeling overtake her.
As she went to open the corner store, she was surprised to notice the door already unlocked.
"Hello?" She called into the humble little shop, "Ya come in early, boss?"
"Yeah, I did," a familiar voice responded from the back room, causing Amelia to let out a small sigh. She was still on edge, but she felt a little safer entering the shop, turning on the neon 'We're Open' as she did so. She made quick work of restocking the shelves, the previous day’s business lacking.
As she began to fiddle with the cash register, she got an overwhelming tingle; she had never felt one as dizzying and leg-wimbling before. She caught herself on the register, almost gasping for air as her vision went spotty for a moment.
“You okay over there?” her boss shouted from the back room, little concern in his voice. Amelia nodded to herself, yelling back, “Yeah, just peachy.”
While she wanted to brush aside the tingle, it’s power truly overwhelmed her. Hitting her like a tsunami, she felt a desire- no, a need- to fight. She didn’t know why, but the tingle desperately compelled her to throw a punch, somewhere, anywhere!
Whipping her head around and summoning her stand, Amelia threw the most powerful punch she could muster in her weakened state- much to her surprise, it hit her boss dead on.
“Holy Shit,” she whispered to herself under her breath, a wave of relief washing over her. As her boss hit the concessions shelf with a ‘blam’, his face got distorted, contorting and shifting into an unfamiliar visage, full of shock and surprise. He cursed as he slid to the floor, the jumpiness fading from his expression and being replaced with pain.
“He didn’t tell me you were a stand user,” he winced, as Amelia reached for the Hello Kitty baseball bat inside her bag, “It can really throw a punch.”
“Where’s my boss?” she interrogated, pointing the bat in front of her defensively. For once, she was thankful for tingling, but now she was scared out of her mind. While she had a stand, she had never meant another person with one, let alone a boy who was triple her size and could easily take her down. Why was he masquerading as her boss? Was that all he could do? Why was he doing all of this, and who is the ‘he’ he was referring to? All of these questions danced in her head as she broke out in a cold sweat.
As the young man began to rise, she studied his face in a bit more detail. That’s when she recognized him- one of the weird brothers from a few days ago. Her tingle was warning her about this weirdo for so long! How could she be so stupid!
“Don’t worry, he’s safe at home with his wife somewhere. He never comes in early, I’m surprised you didn’t notice earlier,” he replied, standing up fully and smirking to himself, “I’m not gonna hurt you, so just come easily.”
“Come where?” she shakily asked, little tears welling up in her eyes. She had never been so petrified in her entire life, raising the bat even higher in a feeble attempt to look intimidating. Hey chucked a little before lunging toward her to attack.
“C’mon, make this easy, I was told not to hurt you-”
“Brother!” a younger voice projected from behind a distant shelf, causing both Amelia and the attacker to turn their heads toward the noise, “She’s going to get away! Lookout!”
While her adversary was distracted, Amelia summoned all the courage she had, raised her bat, and swung it at his head. Much to her displeasure, his brother's warning made him alert, and he narrowly dodged the blow. Without thinking, she summoned her stand, calling out “Page of Wands!” as it jumped out from behind her, delivering a piercing blow to her attackers stomach. He hurled over in pain, falling to the floor. She was shocked, but she barely had time to think about what she just did as her legs mindlessly began running.
She dashed out of the store fervently, not looking back for a second. The city’s streets were empty in the early hours of the morning, so she was able to freely run without all of the normal people-traffic she was used to. She didn’t notice, since all she could think of was getting away from those two creeps, trying to figure out why someone would ever want her kidnapped. She wasn’t rich, and she certainly didn’t matter to anyone with money, so it certainly couldn’t be ransom. Maybe her boss got tangled up with some of the local gangs? There had been a few turf wars in nearby areas- that must be it. But why would he need her unharmed? Wouldn’t they wanna maim her to send a message?
And how, in the whole wide world of sense, could he change his face?
These thoughts abruptly left her head as she nearly ran into a gate. She had been running for so long, she hadn’t realized she made it all the way to the marina down by the beach. Usually, she’d come here to relax on one of her few days off, or to haggle some L.A. tourists into buying some cheesy souvenirs for the store, but now she was hopping the gate into the restricted area where only cargo ships and their sailors were allowed. It was strange to see a new area of the pier that she had grown so accustomed to, but she had little time to think that over as she scoured for a place to hide.
That’s when she saw the ship, the few people guarding its entrance walking away to go eat breakfast. She hesitated a moment; she had never left the city in her whole life, and now she was gonna sneak off and run away from everything she ever knew?
These thoughts were interrupted by a distant set of familiar voices coming from the pier, her assailant from earlier calling to, who she assumed was, the younger boy from earlier.
“She’s got to be around her somewhere! DIO is going to freak out on us if we don’t bring her to him!”
“Give it a rest, my manga say’s she’ll get away regardless! We need to go back home!”
This was all the motivation she needed to take the plunge, and dart onto the ship. Adrenaline clouding her brain, she tossed aside all fears of leaving home, scanning the lower deck for a place to hide. After finding her crate, she cozied herself for a moment, knowing this might be her home for quite awhile. Her mind began to calm down, but it still swirled with answerless questions preventing her from relaxing.
She spent what felt like hours in that box trying to organize her mind and sus out all of her questions. After taking a few deep breaths, she figured out that the two boys probably had powers similar to her own. She had never met another person with such abilities- a stand, is what she thinks he called it- and didn’t know they had such drastically different abilities. She also pieced together that this probably has more to do with her than her boss, because why would they chase her down if they just wanted to send a message? Why would ordinary gangsters send stand users to come collect her?
Plaguing her mind, there was one question that left her more uneasy than the rest.
Who was that DIO guy he was talking about?
While the name sounded familiar, she had never met a person named Dio in her life. Maybe she heard his name in passing, like “DIO” was the name of some singer she hasn’t listened to. The curiosity mostly came from why he wanted her: was he the gang’s leader? Did he know her? Did he want her for her stand power?
She was pulled out of her dizzying thoughts by a sudden jolt, bonking her head on the top of the crate. She could tell by the increased shake of the waves and the sounds of sailors busying themselves, the ship she’d stowed away on had just taken sail. With a heavy sigh, Amelia opened her backpack.
At least she brought snacks.
~
DIO’s eyes pierced down into the glass ball, methodically planning his next move. While the Joestars were on their way to try to defeat him- if they are not stopped by his army of stand users, of course- he has another package waiting to be delivered.
Enya stood next to him, eyeing the image the ball produced, of a girl she had found out about not long before. While she proudly considered herself one of DIO’s confidantes, she could never tell what he was truly thinking, especially when studying this puny American girl. She had told him of her existence not too long ago, seeing premonitions of a natural-born stand user from the states, in the very same crystal ball she gazed into now. While the young girl’s stand could certainly be powerful, she could tell the teen was inexperienced, and only old DIO of her existence in passing.
DIO, curiously, asked to see Enya’s vision, but when his gaze fell onto the girl, his eyes filled with immediate shock and overwhelming emotion. Enya was surprised as DIO’s eyes got a little watery, full of regret and sadness, and reached out to offer some sort of comfort. To this, DIO turned away, shaking off his momentary show of weakness as if it never happened. He left the room, immediately ordering the two young stand users, Oingo and Boingo, to deliver her unharmed to him.
It was a weird experience, and DIO had been acting quite off since the incident occurred. Before, he never truly lost his temper, but as of late, missteps from his lackeys were being dealt with harsher persecution.
“Lord DIO,” Enya began, her mind coming back to the present, “I would never intrude on you, but why is this girl so important?”
DIO let out a small laugh at this, his gaze never wavering a moment from the glass.
“It’s quite the long story. To put it simply, I could never achieve Heaven without her.”
“But, My Lord, the stand users you sent lost her. Tennille is set to invade the ship she’s on, but if she was able to get away once-”
DIO turned to face the hag, his powerful countenance signaling her to stop talking. After a moment of pause, he gave her a mischievous, yet confident smile.
“No, Enya. I won’t let something like this slip by me twice.”