Lyra looked up at DIO and Jotaro, who were standing ready to fight. Figuring she'd be on equal ground, she summoned her stand and changed her appearance to that of a human. Her attire was very peculiar, something akin to what DIO would wear. At this point, DIO felt in the back of his mind that she was just copying him.
"Good grief," Jotaro muttered, "are we going to have a fashion show or are we going to fight?"
Lyra smiled, lunging forward in an instant and driving a barrage of punches towards Jotaro. Fortunately, Star Platinum was able to capture the assault of Forthcoming, but it wasn't fast enough to counter four fists at once. Before Jotaro could be overpowered however, the familiar golden shine of The World entered his vision, holding off the punches as well. DIO looked at Jotaro, who glanced back as they both nodded.
Both slipped a single hand of their stand, catching Forthcoming off-guard on both sides before launching the other fist directly into it's face, knocking Lyra back several feet. DIO chuckled a bit, looking over to Jotaro.
"It seems you learned a few things from me," DIO said.
"Know your enemy," Jotaro snapped back with a smirk, before they turned their attention towards Lyra, who wasn't there.
Both of them frantically looked around for her, before noticing a shadow on the ground. Before they could move out of the way, Lyra's Forthcoming plummeted into the ground, sending a shockwave powerful enough to blast both the vampire and Jotaro back. They were separated, but with still one enemy it would have been an advantage for them, or so they thought.
They both got up, looking directly at Lyra from opposite sides. DIO began to laugh.
"You've only set yourself up to be attacked from two sides," he said, "have you trained with your stand at all?"
"Oh, I have," Lyra retorted, "Maybe you should know your enemy a bit better."
DIO frowned as Lyra's stand duplicated itself into two. Both Jotaro and DIO assumed it's power was halved between the two copies, and lunged forward towards their respective ones. Quickly, however, as The World and Star Platinum threw their fists, both copies of Forthcoming negated it with one punch that shattered the punching fists of both stands.
"How the hell does she do that?" Jotaro shouted, clenching his now bleeding fist in pain. DIO thought back to when Lyra first used her powers, how much she was able to use before running away. She had well exceeded that, except there was only one difference.
"Jojo!" DIO shouted. Jotaro looked towards him. DIO lifted up, taking flight with The World. Jotaro quickly followed with his Star Platinum.
Lyra simply looked up at the sky.
"You want an aerial battle?" Lyra said with a maniacal chuckle, "Interesting."
She jumped upwards, hovering in the sky covered by the aura of her stand, the duplicated Forthcoming still guarding her on two sides. DIO and Jotaro simultaneously flew in, being more careful with their punches but still using as much force as they could. Lyra held them off easily, occasionally getting the better of them with a punch to the gut or face.
Jotaro looked at DIO, suddenly catching onto what DIO was implying.
"DIO!" he shouted. DIO looked up, trying to focus on not getting the shit beat out of him while still being attentive to Jotaro. "She hasn't stopped time!"
DIO nodded, looking at his former rival and smiling as he swung his arms out.
"Star Platinum," Jotaro shouted, before making eye contact with DIO and simultaneously finishing the sentence.
"ZA WARUDO!"
BWOWOWOWOWTiktiktiktik...tik.
Time was frozen, and just enough worry surfaced on Lyra's face to be noticeable. Jotaro grunted in response, grabbing his hat and lowering his head.
"Good grief," he said, "You thought fighting two time-stopping stands was a good idea when you were trying to avoid it?"
Lyra suddenly began to laugh, a concern grew over both the vampire and the Joestar as Lyra no longer seemed worried.
"Oh no," she corrected, "I was only avoiding it because I wanted to save it for the grand finale, but seeing as you've ruined my show, I'll just have to ruin yours!"
Both copies of Forthcoming launched towards their respective oppressors, almost faster than they could interpret, leaving their stands to automatically take self-preservative action. While both fighters were consciously focusing on their stands, doing their best to counter the overwhelming power of Forthcoming, Lyra was instead laughing to herself, seeming to pay no attention to the battle. It seemed her stand was purely working of its own will, as if Lyra wasn't controlling it at all, just leaving them be. Both Jotaro and DIO made this connection and decided to fly upwards.
However, Jotaro had run out of his two seconds of stopped time, and could only look on in a moment of fear as Forthcoming merged into a single stand again and lunged toward him. DIO looked down, seeing that Jotaro was in danger and reached into the sides of his belt. When Jotaro saw the shine of several kitchen knives, he almost cracked a smile in frozen time. DIO and The World launched dozens of knives toward Forthcoming, with that all-familiar cry.
"MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA! TOKI WO UGOKIDOS!"
As suspected, the stand being operated on such a level wasn't prepared to dodge the knives; as it was thrown off by the sheer force of the objects, Lyra sustained multiple stab wounds around her body. Letting out an agonizing cry that quickly turned to anger, she withdrew her stand towards her and lunged at DIO, realizing that they had figured her out. Before she could reach DIO however, she felt a bulky hand grab her angle, before it threw her down into a ground with a thundering ORA!
The ground shook as she left a crater in the sand, covered in bruises and gashes, but still able to move. However, when she stood up, she noticed both DIO and Jotaro standing in front of her.
"RRAAAHHH!!!" she let out a scream of frustration, launching her stand towards the two of them. They only looked at each other with a smile and a nod, before simultaneously shouting their stand cries, for the first time, being on the same side.
ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA!
MUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDA!
The wall of fists was too much for Forthcoming to handle, as Lyra was blasted back into the ground, seemingly motionless.
DIO looked at Jotaro, who kept focused on Lyra.
"Not bad, Joestar," DIO said, nudging Jotaro.
"Hmph," Jotaro huffed in response, "I suppose the same type of stand makes a good team."
"Still working on forgiveness aren't you?" DIO said. Jotaro grunted. The two turned to see Kira barely holding up against Josuke before a final blow was delivered, knocking the killer on his back. This time, Kira was down for the count.
Josuke, DIO, and Jotaro all rushed back to the Mane six. Twilight still made no response. It seemed like all hope was lost for her.
"I've already healed her. . ." Josuke said, "I'm sorry, there's not much else I can do."
In the moment of sorrow, DIO felt something he hadn't yet felt, at least not to this extent. He felt sadness, but it didn't last long as he noticed that time had stopped once more. Before he could look behind him, he felt a kind of power he'd never felt before.
But unfortunately, one he recognized.