[BLOOD] 079 - Infinity, Part 1
Kars was completely forgotten about after the conflict with the Collector.
This was very good for Kars. He left the Collection the moment he could, returning to Earth Stand in the same place he’d been picked up. Had he been the same as when he left, he would have succumbed to the vacuum of space, hardening to a stone and falling forever.
But he had learned many new tricks during his time in the Collection. The most potent of which was magic. He created a barrier around himself and returned to the planet below, a psychotic grin on his face. He knew Earth Stand was part of Merodi Universalis, so it was dangerous for him to be there, but he only had one goal in mind.
He needed to find Joseph Joestar. After that, he would disappear and do whatever he wanted.
The fact that he had no idea where Joseph was didn’t matter – he had gained enough of an understanding of technology while in the Collection to get by. He landed in Venice, not surprised in the least to find it had changed phenomenally in all the decades Kars had been floating in space.
He found a public library with Internet connectivity easily enough. Nobody really paid him much attention – Kars was not that well-known of a figure, and even then he didn’t look unusual enough to warrant a multiversal society’s attention.
Kars froze when he found Joseph’s obituary. Killed in the Bloodbath that created Merodi Universalis. A tragic end.
This meant Kars had nobody to take revenge on.
…Except the rest of the Joestar bloodline. He searched. Joseph and his wife had both passed, but their daughter Holy was still living, as was Joseph’s bastard child Josuke and adopted daughter Shizuka…
Kars began to smile as he scrolled down the family tree. Jotaro… his kids, Jolyne, Jordan, and Joanne… And would you look at that, Jolyne had a very young son, Job.
He came to a man named ‘Johnny Joestar’ in his searches, but Kars didn’t care about him. Alternate universe bloodlines were not the one he sought to destroy. Since Joseph could not suffer what he needed anymore, it would be taken out on his family.
Kars understood he would not be able to just attack them directly – they all lived in different locations and would band together to face him, probably with some Merodi doomsday device. Even with his mastery over all new kinds of biology, he could not be certain that he would survive bombardment with such a superweapon.
So he needed a plan…
A glorious, dastardly plan began to form in his head.
It was just so easy. The fact that they were a family was their biggest weakness.
But before he could get to that, he would need to create an army of vampires. It wouldn’t quite work without minions to carry out his every whim. He would have to prepare for maybe a week. After that… the Joestars would fall. He left the library laughing.
The Twilight Sparkle running the library rolled her eyes – you got a nutjob every day in this town…
~~~
Earth MC was so named because Corona thought ‘let’s just mash Marvel and DC together and see what happens, because that’s basically what this universe is’. The name stuck, and that’s what they’d been calling the strange mixture superhero world ever since.
After letting the events from the Collector Incident sink in a little, Corona had thought to ask Captain America if they had encountered anybody named Thanos in their universe yet. They had not – so Corona told them all about Thanos.
And immediately the whole Avengers set out to find the Infinity Stones as a pre-emptive measure against Thanos, since it turned out the mad titan did exist in Earth MC, and was already looking for his stones.
He only got one.
Corona’s knowledge wasn’t perfect – this was a DC/Marvel mixup after all, there was no way to just say ‘this continuity matches, so the Infinity Stones must be here’. However, they still got the other five Stones easily. They had been in places related to the heroes of Earth MC, obtainable with only minimal difficulty.
And then they’d decided to do something truly stupid with them.
“This is the worst idea I’ve ever gone along with,” Iron Man told Corona.
Corona glanced at the five glowing Infinity Stones sitting on a table in the Avengers’ lounge. “Come on, it’s the perfect bait! He won’t be able to resist!”
“That’s obvious,” Batman said. “The question is if we’ll be able to stop him from getting them or not?”
Corona’s mount – Lady Rarity – looked up at Batman. “We have the room surrounded with twenty superheroes. Even if he completed it I doubt he’d have time to actually use the thing.”
Corona expected for a moment that Olivia would make some snide remark – but then she remembered Olivia wasn’t here. She’d gone to work for Giorno in a more wide-range hacking capacity. It was just Corona and Lady Rarity now... Already the two of them were being called the Guardians. It was pretty clear at this point they didn’t work for Toph, they just lived on her planet.
“Things change…” Corona said to herself, shaking her head with a sad smile. Once again she was struck by Lieshy’s face, confusing her emotional state even further.
“Look alive people!” the Flash called. “Incoming!”
Thanos crashed through the roof wearing the incomplete Infinity Gauntlet. With his free hand he reached for an Infinity stone.
He managed to close his fingers around the yellow one before he got the living daylights beaten out of him.
The invisibility cloak that had been around all the heroes dropped and they rushed forward. The Flash and Superman made it first, followed by quite literally everyone else. Fists, magic, fire, ice, and claws hit him from every side. He used his power to push them back, but more than a few were able to just keep punching him anyway.
He called for support from his fleets in space, but then the Merodi fleet jumped in from a neighboring dimension and made quick work of them.
Superman tore off Thanos’ hand, tossing the Infinity Gauntlet into the air. Corona grabbed it with her telekinesis and put it on her own, much smaller hand. It somehow fit anyway. “Sweet,” she said, smirking.
Thanos roared, going to punch her – but Lady Rarity’s hammer hit him in the face. Doctor Strange tied him up with magic and Batman added psychic-resistant netting to the mix.
He was well and truly defeated.
“I have to say, I like it when we can completely trounce the villains,” Flash said. “Hooray for foreknowledge!”
Corona blushed slightly. “Hey, I told you at just the right time. Sorry I didn’t think about it until now.”
“Half of the universe still lives,” Superman said, turning to Corona. “We are in your debt.”
“He may not have succeeded in this universe anyway,” Corona said, shrugging. She began picking up the Infinity Stones and placing them in the Gauntlet.
Doctor Strange stared at her. “…What are you doing?”
“Completing the Infinity Gauntlet, duh,” Corona said. She put a hand on her hip as she inserted the fourth stone. “You really think I’m going to turn all evil on you right here?”
“It’s an exceptionally powerful artifact, too dangerous in the wrong hands.”
“And it’ll be taken to a universe where it’s completely useless,” Corona said. “Along with all the stones. Nobody will have to worry about them again.”
“But you do want to do something with it,” Flash said. “I can see it in your eyes.”
Corona smirked. “Doctor Strange, you said the Abstracts exist in this universe?”
Doctor Strange nodded. “Yes. The manifestations of universal concepts do exist. I’ve met with Eternity myself.”
“Well, here’s the thing. The ‘Abstracts’ are the name of one of the Class 1 civilizations. We didn’t know much about them, but apparently the universe the Collection’s Thanos is from was technically in ‘Abstract’ space. I want to talk with them.”
“…Why?” Superman asked.
“You know how we’ve been talking about incorporating you into Merodi Universalis? I’m pretty sure I need to ask their permission. Last time we didn’t, the Class 1 Society in question used it as an excuse to throw us into a death match that scarred us all emotionally.”
“Oh,” Doctor Strange said, relaxing. “…I suppose that’s fine.”
Corona held up the Infinity Gauntlet, popping the sixth Infinity Stone in. “You know, I wonder if the Elements of Harmony could be used like this… Ah, something to think about later. So… I’m just going to think ‘I want to talk to some Abstracts’ and then I snap my finger-”
She was suddenly standing in a great white expanse, alone.
“…Hello!?” she called. “Any Abstracts here? Infinity? Eternity? …Does the Mysterious Stranger exist?”
“He does not at the moment. But I do.”
Corona turned around to see a mountain-sized humanoid sitting on a throne. He was golden in color and had a bright, circular plate in his chest, so intense it was hard to look at. His head had three faces, each with piercing glowing eyes. There was no neck affixing the head to the body.
“H-hey! R-right to the Living Tribunal!” Corona chuckled nervously. “W-wasn’t exactly expecting to get up to the top yet! …Or almost the top.”
“I specifically intercepted your request directly to me. Ask your questions, Corona Shimmer.”
~~~
Holy Kujo was an aging woman, but she didn’t mind. She currently lived in a small house on the outskirts of Morioh so she could be close to her extended family – but never within the Joestar Central. She didn’t have the strength in her to be around that level of insanity all the time. Even though she was the head of the family right now, she had opted not to be burdened with the oversight of all Joestars. That task had eventually fallen to a young man named Koichi, seeing as Jotaro also refused the call by Joseph’s request.
Even though almost her entire family was always caught up in adventures, Holy got to live a quiet, happy life where the explosions of adventure always happened several blocks over.
There was a reason she lived on Morioh’s outskirts after all.
Her son and grandkids would visit regularly, as would her half brother Josuke and adoptive sister Shizuka. It was, needless to say, an interesting family she had.
But when people weren’t visiting, she was alone in the house. She was retired so she didn’t really have any obligations. She spent this time sewing, reading, and occasionally writing little articles about her thoughts on life. This lifestyle would drive many people insane, but she was okay with it. She didn’t feel neglected, and was only lonely occasionally. And whenever that hit she would just call up her son – or her grandkids – and have a nice chat.
That said, she was still a Joestar. And she had an innate sense for danger despite virtually never having any adventures.
She knew something was wrong by the way the air shifted around her.
She reached for her phone – realizing it was on the dining room table across the house. She could have made a run for it, but something told her this was a bad idea. Instead, she reached into the pantry and pulled out a frying pan. Then she began to walk to the dining room.
The kitchen window exploded as an Arcei leaped at her, arcs glowing. The blue mare had her teeth bared – revealing them to be fangs.
Holy let out a gasp of surprise, but swung the frying pan anyway, hitting the vampire-Arcei across the jaw. This did little to the vampiric creature besides annoy it.
“Guns ‘n Roses,” Holy said, softly, summoning her Stand. The green vines rippling with flowers came from her back and wrapped around the vampiric mare. Thorns extended dfrom the vines, doing no damage to the pony’s skin. She passed out anyway – forced into a coma by Guns ‘n Roses.
Holy was once again thankful Jotaro had insisted she learn to activate her Stand after they had researched the Stand pill to completion. It had saved her numerous times now – a good return on investment for that one time it sent her into a coma back when Dio was their primary concern.
She ran for the dining room table, reaching out for the phone.
Another Arcei-vampire crashed through the dining room window, smashing the table and the phone with his foot. He decided to use his arcs on her, the Runes glowing a sickening orange. She felt heavy pressure on her chest. She screamed out, summoning Guns ‘n Roses, forcing the Arcei into a coma.
Guns ‘n Roses was a one-target-at-a-time Stand. She couldn’t do anything about the third vampiric pony until it had already bitten her at the base of the neck. She wrapped her Stand’s vines around the third attacker, but a fourth was already on her before the third had passed out. A fifth came, and then a sixth.
She fell to the ground, her Stand dissipating as they made quick work of her.
Her last thoughts were of worry for her son.
~~~
Josuke and Rohan passed each other in the streets of Morioh.
Normal people would have either ignored each other or waved and continued on their way.
Not Josuke and Rohan.
They fixed each other with steely glares and stopped whatever errands they had to run for a confrontation. They squared off, wordlessly, crossing their arms and striking unbalanced poses that somehow accentuated each other. Josuke’s companion - a human version of Starlight Glimmer known as Beam - put a hand to the bridge of her nose and sighed. Here they go again...
“Rohan…” Josuke said.
“Josuke…” Rohan replied.
Josuke pointed a finger at Rohan. “You’re going down tomorrow night!”
“Please, I never lose,” Rohan said with a dismissive wave.
“You only think you’re the best. Jotaro’s agreed to show you how a real man plays.”
Rohan smirked. “A poker face only goes so far when you aren’t playing poker.”
Josuke sneered. “That’s only what you think!”
Rohan turned to walk away. “Dice will roll, Josuke, dice will roll.”
“That’s not even clever!” Josuke shouted after him, shaking his fist. Rohan wasn’t listening. “…I really hate that guy,” Josuke muttered.
“I - and everyone else - know that very well,” Beam observed, raising an eyebrow. She cleaned a lens on one of her cybernetic implants.
Josuke sighed walking in a random direction, the reason he was out long forgotten.
“I’ll just see you back at the house then?” Beam asked, not exactly expecting a response. She knew he needed some time to brood alone.
Josuke marched along, hands in his pockets, wondering if Jotaro really could beat Rohan. The big guy wasn’t the sort to cheat unless the stakes were absurdly high.
He noticed that he had walked into an alley. Memories hit him of another Morioh alley where a ghost had lived… Back when he had first met Rohan. What a crazy moment in his life that was.
His nostalgic thought process was interrupted by an attacking vampire pony. Crazy Diamond was summoned out of reflex, punching the poor undead’s face in.
“For the love of… can’t a guy have a nostalgic walk through an alley without being ambushed!?”
The undead pony tried to get up, but a another quick punch from Crazy Diamond ensured he wouldn’t be getting up anytime soon.
“Wonder what that was all about,” Josuke muttered, turning to leave the alleyway. Another one flung herself at him, only to meet Crazy Diamond’s fist again. “And let me guess, behind door number three…” Crazy Diamond performed a spin-kick through Josuke’s body, knocking a third vampiric being to the ground. He punched upward without even looking, cracking a fourth’s skull before it could even get to him.
“Vampire… Arcei…” Josuke put a hand to his forehead. “This is gonna be a political mess, I can just tell.” He grabbed the fifth one and plowed through a wall into what appeared to be an abandoned kitchen. Crazy Diamond’s ability repaired the wall behind them, sealing the interior off from the alley. “Now to make my daring escape!”
With a cheeky grin he ran through the abandoned kitchen, knocking more than a few old pots and pans onto the ground. Crazy Diamond punched through another wall, reassembling it as always. Josuke didn’t even look at the room he was moving through – he punched to the next one. And the next. Until he came out the other side of the building in another alley.
He didn’t see any vampire ponies. What he did see was a street with people to his left. If he could get there they wouldn’t dare attack. …He wondered if they even could, since it was sunny and bright over there. Did the arcs protect them from the sunlight…?
His time spent pondering this was not spent running to the street. Three Arcei appeared to his right, snarling and baring their teeth.
It was time to use the legendary Joestar Secret Technique.
Josuke turned tail and ran as fast as he could for the sunlight. Unfortunately, one of the vampires was a pegasus-Arcei, and flying through the air was definitely faster than the Joestar Secret Technique. He tackled Josuke to the ground, forcing him into a tumble.
Crazy Diamond manifested under Josuke, springing him out of the vampire’s grip. He flew through the air, landing painfully on his rear in the public street.
The people walking on the sidewalks turned to stare at Josuke.
“Beware! Vampires!” Josuke blurted, pointing at the alley. “We’ve got t-”
The alley was empty.
“…Of course,” Josuke muttered. “Never mind folks! Everything’s fine!”
Everyone looked at him like he was an asylum escapee.
Josuke sighed. He had some calls to make.
~~~
Shizuka was Jolyne’s great aunt. Their relationship was more akin to sisters than anything else.
They were currently in one of Equis Vitis’ many specialty stores. The moment spatial distortion technology had been perfected, there had been an explosion of stores that looked really small on the outside, but were almost endless on the inside.
They were in one of those stores. Specifically, they were in Pinkie, Pinkie, and Rarity’s Endless Clothing Racks. They were walking down one of the ‘deep’ sections of the store where things were sorted by race and color. Human and purple was the current theme, and they thought that maybe they could see the red section in the far distance.
Jolyne held her hand to her eyes. “Zuka, how long have we been in here?”
“I have absolutely no idea,” Shizuka responded.
“Which way is the entrance?”
“Same response.”
Jolyne put her hands on her hips. “We’re going to spend our entire day in a clothing store. That’s dumb.”
Shizuka shrugged. “It’s not like we have anything to do today.”
“Eat lunch?”
“We can skip lunch.”
“You’re just trying to get out of me bugging you for getting us lost in sea of purple clothes.”
Shizuka smiled awkwardly. “Maaaybe?”
Jolyne facepalmed. “Shizuka, we can just use our dimensional devices to get out. So long as we don’t have any merchandise they can’t flag us.”
“…But then we wouldn’t get the enjoyment of trying to find the way out on our own!”
“This is a shitty adventure, Shizuka.”
“Ugh, fine, I know, I just wanted to get some clothes and then we found this place and then…” She stamped her foot on the ground. “I don’t even know anymore. Some get-together this has been, huh?”
“Eh, not as bad as some I’ve had. Did I ever tell you about the time Anasui took me out to Earth Ottoman?”
“I don’t think so?”
“It was the worst idea ever. He thought ‘let’s just go dressed like we usually are’ and completely forgot that Earth Stand’s fashion is rarely standard and that Earth Ottoman is very stuck up about that sort of thing. So, get this, h-”
A vampire pony dropped from on the top of a shelf and bit down on Shizuka’s neck, forcing a copious amount of blood to go flying. “ACHTUNG!” Shizuka shouted – forcing herself invisible. She tore the Arcei off her, tossing the quadruped into range of Stone Free.
“ORA ORA ORA ORA!” Jolyne shouted, pummeling the vampire into submission.
“Shit…” Shizuka said, still invisible. “He got me. You need to tie me up before I go all cannibal on you.”
“You’re invisible,” Jolyne observed, punching another one into submission.
“Then just get me to a hospital.”
“Dial the device while I pull off the distraction!” Jolyne said with a smirk. She folded Stone Free’s arms out, latching her string onto a shelf covered in clothing. She pulled it down, dumping large quantities of purple fabric on top of the attackers – and knocking the few that were hiding in the shelf out.
Shizuka grabbed Jolyne. “This way!”
“But I-”
“It’s invisible.” Shizuka said, throwing Jolyne through the portal. Jolyne didn’t see it when she passed through it and she didn’t see it after she landed in an empty field of grass. The only indication that there was even a portal at all came in the form of a torrent of purple clothes.
“Shizuka! Now they’re going to flag us!”
Shizuka closed the portal and let herself become visible again. “Life or death situation. You can always call your dad to take care of it.”
“Yare yare dawa…”
“Now, seriously, tie me up before I start eating you. …Or burning up in this sun. …Exactly how long does it take for vampirism to set in?”
“Dunno,” Jolyne said, wrapping Stone Free’s string around her until she was just a cocoon. “But we’re not going to find out.” She pulled out her own dimensional device. She took a few steps, opening a portal to Equis Vitis – appearing outside the clothing store.
Then she called 911. “Hey, possible case of vampirism. Also Arcei-vampires. …Yes, I am from Earth Stand. Is that a question you ask people to see if their bizarre 911 calls are real or not? …Yes it’s real, this is Jolyne Kujo, you can hang it on my father’s word. Yes, an armored ambulance would be appreciated.” She put the phone in her pocket. “They see so much shit at that emergency center.”
Shizuka mumbled something from within Stone Free’s string.
“What was that?”
Shizuka let out a loud sigh.
~~~
“Corona Shimmer, questions? I may be a cosmic entity, but I don’t have as much time as you might think.” The Living Tribunal leaned closer to her.
“Sorry, just processing all thi- hey wait, aren’t you supposed to talk with three different voices? …Though that’s only in some continuities…”
“I choose to talk as one unified thought because it saves times in conversations such as these. If the decision requires enough deliberation, the three-way course of thought will be made known. It is not necessary for a simple conversation.”
“Right. Then… Why did you want to talk to me?”
“It was better that you spoke to a multiversal Abstract rather than one existing within only a single plane of existence.”
“Oh, so you really do operate like that. Every world has its own Abstracts – Eternity, Infinity, Chaos – and they combine together at the highest level to form the Multiversal concept of that Abstract. …With the exception of you.”
“That is correct.”
“Here’s a question, why don’t all – or at least most - universes have Abstracts if that’s the case?”
“The simplest reason is because the One Above All has not approved that sort of expansion. The more complex reason would involve explaining the inner machinations of how every universe I invite into my folds will create Abstracts from substance of the universe itself, and those Abstracts will add their lesser nature to the multiversal True Abstracts. It is also unlikely the other Class 1 Societies would approve of the sudden existence of higher deities over their universes.”
“…So, the One Above All actually exists then, huh?”
“He is not available for questioning by your scientific mind, nor will He ever subject Himself to such practices. You talk to me, a limited being, for a reason, Corona.”
“Gotcha. There are some other people who might want some words with him though.”
“They can get in line.”
“Figures. …What about the higher DC beings? The Presence? They another society?”
“The machinations of the Dark Tower have sought to place them within our number as part of the Abstracts. Some break the standard conventions, others do not. All that exist within Abstract space are subject to me and my judgments.”
“Gotcha. So, here’s a good question – why are you telling me all this? You Class 1s never want to sit down and talk, and even then you’re never forthcoming with information. Why would what I do, an insignificant Class 3 guardian, mean anything to you?”
“Your actions involving the Collection have brought much attention. I noticed when Them started moving in accordance with Valentine’s wish, as did the other five. We were all watching closely as your strength in ka fought against that which ought to have never been. The results were inconclusive, but it revealed your strength. You have revealed yourselves to have the power to change things on a large enough scale that we should take notice.”
“…We just took care of one overpowered jerk with Flower and TSAB help. That doesn’t seem like it’d mean anything to you.”
“The multiverse, for all its size, is only home to a few dozen Class 2 powers. The Collector was one of them. He may have kept himself hidden from the societies of equal power – but we at the top knew he was there. We noticed when he vanished.”
“So… What you’re saying is we should feel pretty proud of ourselves?”
“Being noticed is not a good thing, Corona. For instance, the question you are really here to ask will not go the way you wish.”
Corona’s smile fell. “…You’re not going to let us work with Earth MC?”
“No. Had you asked prior to the events with the Collection, we would not have minded. Many of our universes are part of Class 3 societies. There are entire Councils of similar individuals under my purview who only acknowledge my position above them in passing. There would have been no issue.”
“But?”
“But my role in this Class 1 power is to ensure there is balance between the universes. If any one universe or sections of universes gain too much power, or lose too much, it upsets the balance of the cosmos. The True Abstracts can cease to become the average of their aspects and instead take one particular aspect of themselves too far. It can – and does – spread like an infection to other universes. As you are now, there is no way you could trigger more than the death of a single lower Abstract. But it is clear that you are likely to have much, much more power in the future – and a connection to that kind of power would certainly upset the balance.”
“So, basically, you’re kicking us out because you’ve seen the potential for us become something bigger than we are?”
“That is exactly it.”
“Seems a little paranoid.”
“We are Abstracts. Those who are not myself are dependant on concepts. The interruption of those concepts on a larger scale can be disastrous. You have the future potential to do that. Unlike Them, I actually care about my worlds and will not just hand them over because it’s convenient. You are not to add ‘Earth MC’ to Merodi Universalis.”
Corona sighed. “All right, you’re the Living Tribunal. I am trespassing. Can we at least keep visiting? Borrow people from time to time?”
“I do not wish to step between any beings and their connections with others. But to allow that, there is a condition.”
“…What’s that?”
“You must leave the Infinity Gauntlet in Earth MC. Removing it upsets the balance of that universe. It is not impossible to deal with, but it is problematic. Considering I had to adjust a universe that lost an Infinity Gauntlet less than a week ago, that particular aspect is already strained.”
“No offense Tribunal, but these things are dangerous. Frankly none of them should be allowed to exist. It’s too much power in the hands of one individual who doesn’t understand it. I don’t even really understand what I’m doing, and I’ve been around the multiverse a bit!”
“The Infinity Stones are tied to the universes that created them. The same trait that makes them useless outside their home universe also makes the universe shudder when they are removed.”
“So what, just give it to Superman and trust him not to go all evil one day?”
“There is a reason the Stones are usually spread out across their universe.”
“You and I both know ka won’t let them stay apart. Ever.”
“It lets them be used in tandem less often than if they were always in the gauntlet.”
“If I remember anything about my comics, that kind of thinking has blown up in your entire multiversal society’s face more than once.”
“A fair criticism. It is the unfortunate truth that, since Abstracts are defined by the universes they manifest from, we become limited in how we can interfere in our own worlds. Tipping the balance one way or another when it does not need to be corrected changes Abstracts on a personal level. This is a glaring weakness, but it can only be exploited from within. Outside our space, when we choose to travel there, our power is almost unequalled.”
“But those rules don’t exactly apply to you. Or the One Above All.”
“But if I wish to care for the Abstracts under me, I have to take their nature into account.”
“Right… Well, I guess that’s that, then.” Corona stretched her arms. “Thanks for actually talking to me. Even if you were here to say no, it at least tells me I don’t have to feel utterly disgusted with every being up at the top. You’re all right, Tribunal.”
The Living Tribunal nodded. “Is there anything else before I send you to Earth MC?”
“Have any advice for an up-and-coming multiversal society? Things to avoid?”
“There will come a point where your power is so far above those below you that you will crush them without trying. Your efforts to preserve culture now are admirable, but the day will come when you are just too far above to compensate. They will be ants to you.” He leaned in. “Do not become conquerors by friendship. Let those below you remain their own entities.”
“How will we know when we’ve gone that far?”
“…It is never something you know for certain. Nor what the current boundary is.”
And then Corona was back in Avengers headquarters.
She blinked. “Good news and bad news.”
Superman raised an eyebrow.
“Bad news. No, we can’t take you guys with us. The Infinity Gauntlet also has to stay in this universe.” She took it off and tossed it on a table.
“The good news?”
“The Living Tribunal’s actually a pretty decent guy.”
“Who?”
“I’ll explain in a minute. Right now we need to find a place to seal this thing. Or multiple places to hide the stones. Actually, why don’t we just call a meeting and I explain both parts at once.”
~~~
“Yare yare daze…” Jotaro said, gripping the reins of a horse with Star Platinum. “I just don’t see how you can fight effectively on top of one of these animals.”
Johnny pulled the reins on his horse and dashed around Jotaro, using Tusk as an extension of himself to push Jotaro off his horse. Star Platinum hefted its user back on the horse, but the motion spooked the animal considerably.
“It just takes some skill, though I do prefer the intelligent ponies. They’re able to think independently,” Johnny said, smirking.
Jotaro shook his head, jumping off his horse. “I’m going to find Valentine and tell him I’m very sure the treaty doesn’t hang on my ability to appreciate horses.”
Johnny chuckled. “You’re a serious one, aint’cha? Can’t believe an alternate version of me ended up producing you.”
“A four generation difference will do that.”
Johnny shrugged, rearing up on his horse. “Heh. Regardless, yeah, I asked Valentine to get you here because I was curious. Can’t meet myself, so I figured ‘he’s probably close enough’. Guess not.”
“If you’re wondering about your place as a Joestar, you don’t need to worry,” Jotaro said. “It is clear you are one of us, even if not by direct relation.”
“…Wasn’t where I was going with that, but I’ll take it. Does this mean I get keys to Joestar Central?”
“No.”
Johnny rolled his eyes. “Figures.”
Jotaro’s phone rang. He placed it to his ear. “Jotaro.”
“Hey, something weird just happened,” Josuke told him. “Got attacked by a group of vampire arcei. You sure you got the last of them?”
“No stone masks remain, all the vampires Dio created were destroyed, and the pillar men are defe-” Jotaro’s eyes widened. “Kars.”
“Kars?” Josuke said. “…Oh, right, the old man’s ‘Kars accident’ joke. Man, what does it say about me when that’s the first thing that name brings to mind?”
“He was the one who took us to the Collection. By the time we were facing the Collector, I had forgotten about him… He could be making vampires and sending them into Morioh. As the center of the Joestar family…”
“I’ve already told Koichi, he’s on lookout. We haven’t been able to find any yet, but it’s only been a few minutes. Even the ones I knocked out are gone.”
“Call me if anything comes up. I’ll be there as soon as I wrap up here with Johnny.” He hung up. “Possible vampire crisis in Morioh.”
“I actually live in Morioh. This world’s version.”
“I would say parallels are strange but Jonathan never left England.”
Johnny shrugged. “I’ll let Valentine know there was an emergency. I know how you are about family.”
Jotaro nodded, preparing to leave – but then his phone rang again. He pulled it back to his ear, more than a little annoyed at it. “Jotaro.”
“…Jotaro.” It was a voice Jotaro hadn’t heard in years.
It was the voice of his father.
“What are you calling for?”
The old voice on the other side of the line croaked. “Y-your mother. S-she…”
Jotaro’s grip on the phone strengthened. “…What happened to her?”
“She’s gone Jotaro… Blood everywhere… She…”
“Dad, listen, this is important,” Jotaro said. “Are there bite marks on her with two holes larger than all the others?”
“Y… yes. Oh God…”
“Dad, call Joestar Central. Tell them everything you see.”
“O… Okay.”
“I need to check on Jolyne. Someone’s hunting Joestars.”
The old man was silent. Jotaro hung up. He moved to dial Jolyne’s number, but he paused for a moment.
Star Platinum lashed out and punched the horse Jotaro had been riding clear over a nearby fence.
“What’s going on?” Johnny asked. “Who did Kars get?”
“My mother,” Jotaro spat through his teeth. He focused his attention back on his phone and called Jolyne.
“Sup, Dad?”
“The Joestars are being hunted, Jolyne. I need you t-”
“Oh, I already took care of mine. Tossed the vampire ponies under a bunch of purple clothes. They injured Shizuka, but she’s in one of Ponyville’s industrial overboard hospitals. Everything's good.”
“Josuke and your grandmother have been attacked. She didn’t make it.”
“...N-nani…?”
“You’re staying with Mom at the moment, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Go home, protect her, your siblings, and your son. They may be in danger.”
“Got it.”
“I’m coming home. Be there as soon as I can.” He shoved the phone into his coat pocket.
“I’m coming with you,” Johnny said.
Jotaro didn’t object. He pulled out his dimensional device, ready to dial it – when his phone rung again. He was ready to break the offending piece of technology.
But something else did it for him. In his rage, he hadn’t been able to see what it was – but something carved out a circular hole through the middle of his phone.
“Call that target practice.”
Johnny and Jotaro turned to see not a vampire Arcei, but Kars himself standing there in all his glory. The pillar man threw his hands wide and grinned. “I saved the best for myself, after all.”
~~~
Jolyne ran across Morioh.
Even for someone as in shape as she was, that was exceptionally exhausting.
But she eventually made it home. She kicked the door down, with her own leg, not bothering with the knob or Stone Free. “Mom! Anasui! Job! Look alive!”
“In here,” she heard her husband call, though his voice was weak. She ran into the living room to find the pink-haired Anasui laying on a couch with Giorno Giovanna standing over him, presumably having just healed the weakened man.
“…Nani? Why are you here?” She asked, cautious. Her eyes darted to Anasui to make sure he was okay.
“I heard word of Joestars being attacked,” Giorno said, taking a step back from Anasui. “I reasoned this was the place with people least likely to be able to protect themselves. When I got here, Anasui was mortally wounded and all the others were gone.”
“Gone? Y-you don’t mea-”
“There’s no blood aside from Anasui’s,” Giorno pointed out. “They were kidnapped, likely to exert leverage on the rest of us.” He pulled a note out of his pocket. “They even left a note to save me the trouble of tracking them.”
Jolyne took the note. It had a set of dimensional coordinates on it. Below that, a message.
Only Joestars get to come. If anyone else appears, they all die.
-Kars
Jolyne crumpled the piece of paper up in her hands. “Bastard…”
“I believe that’s you, Jotaro, and Josuke,” Giorno said. “The rest of the Joestars have either been taken or are out of the picture for some other reason. We might be able to count myself as well.” He tapped at the spot on his body where the Joestar birthmark was – the star-shaped impression on the base of his neck.
Jolyne put her hand on her own birthmark for a moment before shaking her head. “I’m calling Dad, he needs to get here faster.” She put the phone to her ear. “…He’ll know what to do.”
Giorno nodded. “He does have a plan most of the time.”
“He’ll trap you…” Anasui said, holding out a hand to Jolyne.
“Don’t have much of a choice,” Jolyne said. “Is an ambulance coming for him?”
“I have made arrangements already,” Giorno promised her.
“Good. …Gah, he’s not picking up.” She scrolled through her phone until she found Josuke. “Come on, pick up…”
~~~
“BASTARD!” Jotaro shouted, summoning Star Platinum – but Kars could somehow see the Stand, jumping over it at just the right moment to avoid all damage. He landed in front of Johnny.
Johnny pointed his nails at Kars and summoned Tusk – the pink behemoth of a Stand easily dwarfing the pillar man.
“Johnny Joestar… I have no quarrel with you. Your bloodline is separate.” Kars narrowed his eyes. “You can turn around now and I will not hunt you down. But engage me in combat and you will die with the rest of the Joestars.”
Johnny fired off five of his fingernails – and Jotaro stopped time in the middle of it. He used Star Platinum to re-arrange the nails of Infinite Spin to come at Kars from different directions, making it impossible to dodge. He punched Kars in the face for good measure.
Time resumed. The nails embedded themselves in Kars’ body, rotating his flesh at impossible speeds that would never cease. In under a minute, the Spin would spread to the rest of his body and he would be torn apart, never able to reform because of the centrifugal force.
Kars, however, had a way around this. He physically tore out the parts of his body that were spinning, throwing the bloody chunks to the ground. He allowed them to disintegrate with the Spin. “A great power indeed,” Kars admitted as his flesh began to regenerate itself. “But it is nothing compared to the ultimate lifeform.” He created a horn in his forehead, pushing Jotaro and Johnny back with magic. “I can do anything by any biology I wish! Now that I’ve seen the multiverse, even feats of magic and science are no longer beyond me!”
Jotaro grimaced. His Stand, powerful as it was, could do two things: punch really fast and stop time. The former could be adapted to all sorts of complicated moves based on finesse, and the latter was broken in most matchups, but no combination of the two could do anything to Kars. Not even dumping the ultimate lifeform in a volcano would work.
Was there anything they could do with Johnny’s Ultimate Spin? It had done something when it hit, but Kars simply removed it. If they could keep him from removing it they could eke out a win.
“I hear you’re an excellent tactician, Jotaro,” Kars said, beginning his monologue. “Trying to think of a way to defeat me? Looking at the scenery? Wondering how adaptable Johnny’s ability is? Thinking of how to keep me from moving?” He laughed, forcing a finger to fall off without moving any part of his body. It grew back in seconds. “There’s nothing you two can do. You are going to die.”
“We’ll just have to punch you hard enough to get you to space!” Josuke shouted, having just arrived on the scene. He gave an uppercut to Kars from behind with Crazy Diamond. “DORAAAAA!”
“Works for me!” Johnny said. “ORA!!!”
“ORA!!!” Jotaro added, throwing Star Platinum into the triplicate fury of fists.
Kars sure went flying – but it wasn’t anywhere near enough to get him to space. “You fools! Do you not see that I can use magic now? Even the vastness of space is under my rule!” He teleported back to the ground, roundhouse kicking them all. All but Johnny fell back, managing to keep a hold on his horse.
“Johnny, go for the head!” Jotaro shouted.
Johnny fired a single nail bullet into Kars’s head.
“What, do you think my head is a weak point?” Kars shouted, tearing it off and tossing it to the ground.
“CRAZY DIAMOND!” Josuke shouted, touching Kars’ Spin-infused head with the Stand. Crazy Diamond’s ability forced the head back onto Kars’ body. “You won’t be taking that off! Ever!”
Kars face soon became unrecognizable due to the rapid spinning it was undergoing – twisting into a black hole of flesh. He could no longer speak.
He cast a dimensional spell, jumping through a portal. Josuke chased after him. “You’re not getting away that easi-”
Jotaro stopped him with Star Platinum. “No. It’s a trap.”
“A… Trap!?”
“He didn’t need to make a portal that could stay open this long,” Jotaro observed. As he said this, the portal vanished. “He was trying to take us somewhere…”
“Bastard!” Josuke shouted.
“What do we do then?” Johnny asked.
“Regroup. Get allies. Then hunt him down and kill him,” Jotaro said.
It was then that Josuke’s phone rang.
“Man, what’s with all the calls today?” Johnny asked.
Josuke answered the phone. “Hello? …Ah, Jolyne, wha- …Oh. Oh. Right away.” He hung up and pulled out his dimensional device. “We need to get to Morioh now. Marina and the kids have been kidnapped.”
Jotaro clenched his fists. “Kars…”
~~~
Jotaro, Josuke, and Johnny appeared in Morioh outside the house. Jolyne and Giorno were already waiting for them.
“You sure he can come along?” Jolyne asked, pointing at Johnny.
“Kars already added me to his list personally,” Johnny said. “I’d be more worried about the horse I’m riding.”
“…Fine.” She pulled out her dimensional device and plugged in the coordinates they were given. “This is so a trap, but unless anyone’s got a plan, we’re just going in guns blazing.”
Jotaro grabbed his hat. “Yare yare daze… We have to do what he says. If we fail, we want to ensure he doesn’t get away. We need to leave a message.”
“Already done,” Giorno assured them.
“You’re good at doing things before people ask for them,” Jolyne observed.
Giorno simply nodded.
Josuke looked at his phone in fear. “...Beam’s not answering.”
“If he has her, we’ll save her,” Jotaro said. Unless he just killed her directly...
Jolyne held out the dimensional device, ready to dial – but faltered. “Uh… These are Lai’s coordinates.”
“Makes sense. The vampires were Arcei,” Johnny pointed out.
Jolyne opened the portal, flying in with Stone Free ready, the rest of the Joestars filing out behind her. They appeared on Lai, the blue sun beating down on their backs. A fair distance to their left was an entrance to a large cave.
Somewhat obviously, a stone mask was carved into the top arch.
“Definitely it,” Jotaro said. “He thinks he has us where he wants us.”
“He does,” Josuke said.
“But we’re going to show him that the Joestars don’t like being pushed into boxes.”
“I’m going to punch him so hard he ends up on Mars…” Jolyne muttered.
“Does Lai even have a Mars?” Johnny asked.
“Don’t care. He’ll end up on it even if it doesn’t exist.”
All five of them summoned their Stands. Jotaro took point, marching into the cavern. Johnny rode while all the others walked. They soon came to a grand interior space with a small Rune in the center, having the simple effect of bathing the cavern in white light.
Sitting on a ledge far above them was Kars.
“Ah! Jojo, Jojo, Jojo, Jojo, and… Giogio.” His eyes narrowed. “…I’ll allow you on a technicality.” Kars gestured to his left at a cage embedded in the wall – it contained Marina, her twins Jordan and Joanne, Jolyne’s child Job, and Beam. All of them were alive and well. “Just so you understand the stakes, Jojos. If you fall here, they die. If you leave here, they die. The only win condition is to take me out.” Kars grinned. “I see no reason to kill them before you. They’re all so weak as to be no contest. And I am well aware a sudden burst of rage in you may well work against me here.”
Steam was coming out of Beam’s ears. “LET ME OUT OF HERE! I will disassemble you molecule by molecule until there’s not a single bond left in your body! HEY! KARS! I’M TALKING TO YOU!”
Kars ignored her completely.
“Kars… You’ve made the biggest mistake of your life,” Jotaro said.
“Hm?”
“You pissed me off,” Jotaro finished. “STAR PLATINUM: THE WORLD!”
Time froze. Gold Experience Requiem came out of Giorno’s frozen form, punching alongside Star Platinum within frozen time. “ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!”
Time resumed. Kars was embedded two meters into the wall. “…That was impressive.”
“You will never reach reality!” Giorno declared.
Kars tried to pull himself out of the hole he was in – but found that he couldn’t. “Nani!?”
“CRAZY DIAMOND!” Josuke repaired the wall, trapping Kars deep within the earth.
Johnny aimed two fingers at the stone wall. The first bored a hole of Spin through the rock, the second transferred the Infinite Spin to where he was sure Kars was.
A stone ball shot out of the wall, creating a hole next to Johnny’s. The ball plowed right through Jolyne’s stomach, not even slowing as it bore a circular hole through her.
She used Stone Free to turn the middle of her body into a bunch of string, keeping her from bleeding out. “What the hell was that!?”
“An enemy Stand!” Jotaro shouted, getting a closer look at the ball. It was spherical, but it held the designs of a stone mask – a hole in the forehead, fangs on the mouth, and empty eyes.
“My Stand!” Kars shouted form his rocky prison.
“You don’t have a stand!” Josuke shouted. “You’re just Kars!”
“Ahahahah – do you really think I’d spend a week preparing and not get myself a Stand? Behold – Can’t Stop The Rock! Its ability is simple. If it’s moving, only I may stop it! There is no force in existence that can even slow its movement!”
Josuke used Crazy Diamond to heal Jolyne’s wound – and then he had to rush over to Johnny’s horse to heal the wound the Rock had given it. “Jotaro!”
Jotaro positioned Star Platinum behind the Rock and punched it as hard and as fast as he could manage – but not even Star Platinum could dent the Rock. It charged through Star Platinum’s fists, tearing Jotaro’s own hand up.
“Josuke!”
“Your resident white mage can’t heal four people at once!” Josuke blurted, scrambling awkwardly to Jotaro. “Gah!”
The Rock flew toward Giorno next.
“GOLD EXPERIENCE REQUIEM! You will never reach reality!” Giorno’s Stand punched out, planning to lock the Rock in its ability.
Giorno had forgotten one small detail, though.
You Can’t Stop The Rock.
It plowed right through Gold Experience Requiem’s arm, translating the damage directly to Giorno’s arm. “NANI!?”
“It even trumps your power!” Kars laughed. “And I believe I’ve finally figured out how to escape this lock you’ve placed on me… I will create biological fluids that are easily combustible and...” Kars skin exploded, decimating the wall he was trapped in. He fell a few feet to the new ground he had created. “You can’t keep me in a wall that doesn’t exist.”
Kars leaped to the ground, laughing while Josuke fixed Giorno’s hand.
“ALL AT ONCE!” Jotaro shouted, fists flying. “ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!”
“DORA DORA DORA DORA DORA DORA!”
“MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA!”
“ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!”
“ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!”
“You all sure love shouting,” Kars muttered. He summoned Can’t Stop The Rock to himself, rotating it around him at high speed. All five of their limbs recieved holes, forcing the onslaught of fists to stop.
Kars’ body regenerated from all the damage. “Useless!” He laughed. “Useless!”
“Useless indeed!” Giorno shouted, grabbing Kars’ shoulder with the arm of Gold Experience Requiem that still worked. “You. Will. Never. Reach. Reality.”
“I already figured out how to work around this, Gior-”
Johnny shot Kars with an Infinite Spin nail bullet. Kars tried to shift his body to make a hole for it to pass through – but he couldn’t. He couldn’t tear the Spin-infused flesh off his body either. He couldn’t reach the reality he wanted to…
But he could reach a different one.
He lashed out with his arms, creating a crocodile with his left one. He aimed for Giorno’s head – but Stone Free’s string wrapped around the gator-arm, tying it to Kars’ main body, locking his other arm in as well. Kars forced an arm out of his back, but Crazy Diamond ‘repaired’ that arm back into Kars’ body.
“Looks like that counts as fixing!” Josuke laughed.
Kars growled as he felt the Infinite Spin moving through his body – spreading to his organs. He could make redundancies, but once it was in his entire body… He was done for. There would be nothing he could do.
Which meant it was time to go with the backup plan. He had hoped for the catharsis of beating the Joestar lineage into a bloody pulp by his own strength, but he hadn’t gotten as far as he did in life without being willing to sacrifice his desires for practicality from time to time.
“Congratulations, Jojos, you have beaten me. I cannot win as I am now. However, as Joseph would have loved to tell you, I’m not one for playing fa-”
“ORA!” Jotaro punched him in the face. “You’re next line is going to be ‘you interrupted me’.”
“You interrupted me. …GAH!”
“That was for Joseph,” Jotaro said.
Kars summoned his horn. “Then I’ll cut to the chase.” He cast a quick pre-prepared spell…
~~~
Corona, Lady Rarity, and the Avengers sat around a large table, looking at the complete Infinity Gauntlet.
“Way too dangerous to use,” Superman agreed. “I am flattered that you think I am worthy of this artifact, but I know my limits.”
“You basically have none,” Corona observed.
“This is not a physical limit I am referring to.”
Captain America put a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, we get it. It’s too much weight even for you.”
“So we lock it away then?” Flash asked. “Where?”
Doctor Strange furrowed his brow. “I may have a few spells that might keep it away from all possible attackers…”
Batman nodded. “I know of a few locations hidden from the eyes of even powerful psychic deities. A combination?”
“Or we could split up the gems again, like the Living Tribunal seemed to suggest,” Corona offered. “The best way to keep it away from the hands of evildoers. …Most of the time.”
“But there may come a time when we need to defend the universe,” Iron Man pointed out. “This would allow us to do it. If, say, a Celestialsapien or something of similar power wandered into our world, the Infinity Gauntlet would be our only defense.”
“The Abstracts might help you with that one. Exterior threats probably upset their balance a lot.”
“It does,” Doctor Strange said. “But they won’t always be able to help.”
Flash rolled his eyes. “Please, what’s out there that they couldn’t beat?”
“There was a war with a race called the Beyonders they almost lost.”
“There’s another thing to keep me up at night,” Lady Rarity muttered. “A Class 1 war. Can’t imagine that’s good for the multiverse.”
“I wouldn’t know,” Doctor Strange admitted. “I tap into magic and tend to come across bits and pieces of information. The full story eludes me.”
Superman furrowed his brow. “I say we put it to a vote. Seal it up where we can reach it with difficulty, or split up the Infinity Stones once again?”
The vote was cancelled by a flash of blood red. Kars and the five Jojos appeared above the table, crashing onto the Infinity Gauntlet. Kars morphed his hand to be just the right shape to fit into the Gantlet while his body was plastered sideways into the tabletop. He snapped his fingers…
And the Infinite Spin was gone from his body.
“Nobody move or I turn this planet to dust,” he said.
Slowly, all five Jojos got off of him and backed away, taking nervous stances alongside the superheroes.
“Who are you?” Superman demanded.
“Kars. The ultimate lifeform.” He held the Infinity Gauntlet in the air. “Now with the ultimate power. In this universe, anyway.”
“You know not what forces you are dealing with.”
“No, but I don’t particularly care. I just needed a backup plan to kill these five. Now I have it.” Kars grinned.
“How did you even pull this off!?” Josuke blurted, clutching his wounded arm.
“I had a week to prepare. I heard about Corona’s little mission to fix the Infinity Gauntlet. So I created a vampire among the heroes and had him feed me information.” He reached into his ear and pulled out an earpiece.
Everyone turned to look at Batman.
“Why is everyone looking at me? I’m not the vampire!”
“But… bat,” Flash said.
“It’s me,” Aquaman said, baring his teeth. “And you are all going to bow to Kars!”
“That sounds so wrong coming out of your mouth.”
Kars laughed. “He is my servant. Most of you will be as well, soon enough. But first…” He pointed the Infinity Gauntlet at Jotaro. “Jotaro Kujo… You’ve made a mistake.”
“Yare yare daze…”
Kars smirked. “You pissed me off.” He readied his fingers for a snap. “Die.”
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Take your own advice, asshat.
My word. They've applied Ikea store geometry to their entire commercial sector.
Seems like a reasonable policy to me.
Hmm. Only seven Class 1s in all the multiverse.
"May you come to the attention of those in authority" is a curse for a reason, Corona.
One could argue they already came close with the Binaries.
Welp. Time to see how many versions of other powerful people happen to also be Joestars.
Heck of a cliffhanger. I can practically hear Roundabout. And let this be a lesson to you, Corona: Take out the batteries when you're not using the doomsday device.
I think that the Living Tribunal is going to interfere, because why else would it be so prevalent in this chapter...
Jotaro could stop time and steal the gauntlet, but Kars might be immune to that due to the time stone.
The ultimate flaw when it comes to time .... the winner effects the outcome .... the winner probably allready set a trap for kars ... probably a fake gauntlet that when worn acts like the gauntlet but seals his powers when commanded the gauntlet could make one ... the winner can make it and pull off a switch by rewinding then freezing time just after sunset puts it on the table ...bet doctor strange pulls the real one out of his cloak and erases kars.
As much as Thanos want the Infinity Stones. I would think Darksied would want the them more in the MC universe.
9417086
As a multiversal entity, Darkseid falls within the domain of the Abstracts themselves. Generally a problem for more than one universe.
-GM, master of stones.
9417163
GM, what you said there doesn't bold well for are team of universe travelers does it.
9417163
Especially considering that Dorkseid is, at the moment, the abstract for "E-Bill"
Thank you, thank you, thank you. This is my favorite part of the chapter... (Almost called it an episode, whoops.) I remember that there was an episode (of Justice League Infinite, I think) where Batman is a vampire. It was fun, even some minor characters got screen time, like Booster Gold!
So that’s four of the seven Class 1s in only a bit more than one arc. That’s... concerning. Good to know that two of them appear to have good intentions.
I don’t really get what the Living Tribunal is, though. The explanation of how interuniversal Abstracts work didn’t fully present itself to me clearly either.
10226846
Blame Marvel.
Abstracts are wack, yo.
-GM, master of marvelous.
It's still not a whole lot but it feels like Class 1s seem to be crawling out of the woodwork now. Wow.
So, current threat is one of the crazies freed from the Collection. Based off Living Tribunal's words I figured there'd be a higher intervention as soon as Kars nabbed the gauntlet but there must be something else at play.
Hah.
And of course it was Aquaman. Nobody suspects Aquaman.
Thanos getting royally whooped with no issue was also amusing.
RIP horsie
Ah yes, this issue arises again. A good reminder for Corona and MU though, especially coming from a Class 1 being. Sadly, the true solution remains unclear.