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Jonathan Joestar After ensuring that the zombified corpses from the previous altercation were turned to dust in the morning light, along with some much needed rest, the group scours their steamboat for any unwelcome surprises while the workers that had been left behind made their way back the long way. By the time they had met back up with the Elites, the ship was ready to be manned and sent on its way.

There'd been good news, even. A survivor who had hid on the ship introduced herself to them; her name was Turner, and she was a zoologist who was studying rather special gorilla, who himself was now situated in the cargo hold, contained within a large cage.

With plans for her to depart once they reached the next port, all the workers man their station, and the steamboat sets sail for the horizon.

"If all goes well, we'll reach Luxor by the evening ... since the only way for the thief to have gone was deeper into Egypt, by sailing around it, we should intersect with their path." Jonathan says to Speedwagon, the two conversing out on the foredeck. "Right! Whoever it was may've gotten the better of me before, but I'll be ready for them this time. ... And, I think that taking to the boat was a good idea for other reasons ... everyone seems to be unwinding enough to be rested for what's coming. Not to mention ... even if we had some ghouls slinking around the ship, there's nowhere for them to go. The sunlight reflecting off of the ocean water acts as a screen that'll prevent them from sneaking onboard, or escaping."

Jonathan nods, that having been one reason he'd been all too eager to use the boat as their base of operations, for now. But ... he couldn't shake the uneasy feeling of being watched. Like something terrible would happen at any moment.
Arcadia With all the rude surprises they've already had over the course of this quest Arcadia was not taking any chances. The sphinx was going to remain vigilant and maybe for once they won't get caught with their pants down. Not that she wears pants.

Fearing she wouldn't be able to fly -slow- enough to stay with the steamboat, she has instead perched on whatever high point she could find, her visor active and scanning ahead. For all it goes with the weird shit this world keeps throwing at them. But the effort is being made, and that is what's important.
Hesinca There's a new arrival. She just joined the Concord a while ago, actually.

She stands out above the rest - literally, at ten feet tall, and an extra two feet in the back, so to speak. She's also covered in armor and exoskeleton, and there's a hint of something glowing through her veins beneath it when she breathes.

Whatever ships' chores get given to her - either assigned or asked - get delegated to a small army of penguin things that seem to just appear out of nowhere.

The penguin things are not very good at the chores. Someone else might want to take over. The demonic centaur in charge of them does not seem to care much.

"The ocean! Yeah!"

She takes four lungfulls of the sea air, happily, as she looks out over the railing on the deck. "And it's not boiling or made of blood or anything! It's great!"
Haguro Riding a boat as a personified boat is an odd enough experience on its own, but trying to actually sleep in one somehow wasn't as difficult as Haguro expected. Her sleep came in fits and starts, but she's looking fired up by the time she rejoins Jonathan and Speedwagon on the deck.

"It's still strange to think about taking a ship in Egypt of all places. I had figured we'd be riding camels or something more..." She starts with a chuckle, then pauses for a moment before stroking her chin, deep in thought. "... Hm. I actually don't know much about Egypt, I'm afraid. B-but if we ever need to flush them out of cover once we're on land, I'm already prepared."

The ship spirit flexes an arm, although the real focus is on her turrets. "Let's hope we don't run into any local police, though. It may be time-consuming to explain why we're rushing through with such..." Haguro's gaze shifts to Arcadia and Hesinca briefly, then back to Jonathan and Speedwagon. "... An interesting group."
Hesinca "I mean, if we run into any, all we need to do is bribe them or beat them up, right?" asks Hesinca. "Doesn't seem like a problem."
Rean Schwarzer Rean's on the boat, stretching his shoulders as he waits for the ship to embark. His senses are open, and he's mentally on guard just in case _something_ happens on their way across. Because at this point something /always/ happens. Speaking of, the newcomer had a point. "Well, the latter's been happening a lot..."
Jonathan Joestar The penguins are odd, but their company is welcome. Frankly, it wasn't really the weirdest thing that the crew had put up with the past week or so they'd been working for Jonathan Joestar; and at least this kind of weird was harmless. Ultimately their help is unwanted, and they're just used to help moving around heavy objects and to hold important tools while the actual workers hands are busy.

Even then, there's a few flub ups. But, that's just how the Prinny life is, huh, dood?

Jonathan chuckles, giving Haguro a closed-eye grin. "Yes, it'd be difficult ... after all, my world has fairly kept to its own devices. I doubt it'd go over well."

Speedwagon has a laugh himself at Hesinca's suggestion. "Maybe .. but, that isn't really Mr. Joestar's style."

The coastline of the Fishing Village has disappeared now. Everyone remains vigilant for the next hour or two .. and before they know it, high noon hits. The sunlight shining off of the surface of the water is dazzling. One of the workers is speaking with Jonathan concerning the situation regarding their rations and clean water ... but there's something off.

The man looks like any other of the normal people who'd gone to the dig with them, barring his ascot. He had plain features, a pencil thin moustache and dark hair.

Rean is put on edge, as the man provokes an intense feeling of 'wrongness' ... in a way, it's like finding Waldo in those picture puzzles.

Arcadia, having kept a look out, hasn't found anything headed their way. Nothing but blue waters.
Damocles During the trip, Damocles decided to occupy himself  by performing a bizarre occult ritual on the deck of the ship.   It involved using his staff to scorch symbols into the floor, and occasionally cutting his palm with a small knife to add his blood to the mix.

If asked what he's doing, he would respond 'bookmarking'.

The ritual didn't take very long, all things considered, and once done, Damocles didn't do very much more.  He tried to lead the crew in some sea shanties, but nobody seemed to know the words to any of them.  He also occasionally stopped by to make 'I'm watching you' motions at the gorilla.

The only survivor they found in the town happened to be a woman with her pet 800 pound gorilla?  And now they want to hide out on this boat?  Damocles doesn't believe that at all, but he's found that it's easier just to let these things happen.
Hesinca "I'm helping, dood," says one prinny who has somehow found themselves stapled to the deck.

"More of a 'stick to the shadows and commit crimes out of public view' type? I can dig it," says Hesinca.

She wanders over and looks over Damocles shoulder as he works, but doesn't comment.
Rean Schwarzer The man with the thin mustache catches Rean's attention, and he furrows his brow. Was this like what happened with Mariner, that he wasn't showing up at all when he should have been, or was he just 'weird?' Either way, Rean goes up to Jonathan, and lightly taps his shoulder.

"Hey, was that guy here before?" He asks, pointing at Mr. Mustache over there.
Haguro "Well... Maybe we can just say they're from another country further out." Haguro jokes with an air of uncertainty, both in how well that would work and in her own delivery.

The clever one, she is not. At least she's good for checking up on everyone and making sure nobody's dying of thirst or hunger! Although she notices that suspicious gut feeling from one of the helpers, she doesn't speak up so much as she just does her rounds and keeps an eye on him.
Arcadia "Hmph. The things we've come up against is weirder than us, if you ask me," Arcadia retorts from her perch.

"Neither of us have pinapple hair, for one."

She still finds something like that stranger than the ten foot tall demonic centaur. That hairstyle was -that- rediculous.

"Or purposely reset every trap in the tomb to make the search take longer." That was annoying, too. As much as she loves puzzles, it was frustrating in the end that it was all part of a big sham to delay them.

She would of joined in the sea shanty singing, but didn't want to distract herself from her overwatch.
Jonathan Joestar The gorilla, Damocles finds, has many ... odd habits. It's not unusual in his passes through the cargo bay to see the creature smoking out of a large pipe, or looking at lascivious magazines. The normal workers find it disturbing, really.

"...Now that you mention it...." Jonathan murmurs to himself, scrutinizing the man who was now crouching down by a Prinny and shaking its flipper. He seemed to have a soft spot for aquatic animals of all kinds.

Unlike Mariner, who was so utterly dead inside that his own prescence became a dead zone, this man was more like a puffer-fish, or maybe a venus fly trap. Something that on first glance might appear harmless ... no, the longer Rean observed him, the clearer it became.

The distortion he was detecting was well hidden animosity. JoJo approaches him with a furrowed brow, but is stopped as the man stands up to his full height. "Oh ... that's not a good look in your eyes, Mr. Joestar ... just what have I done to deserve such a harsh glance?"

"Now that I think of it," JoJo repeats, " ... I do recognize your face. How could I forget the first one of my workers killed during this expedition?"

Rean or Haguro might remember now, as well. The man was a spitting image of one of the first of Blackmore's victims. " ... heh."

"Well, you're certainly more perceptive than I'd thought. But it's useless now, you're inside my range!"The man rears his arm back, a ghostly outline of a blue arm overlapping with his own as he throws a powerful, lightning fast jab at Jonathan's face!

Only, he finds his stand-powered attack stopped by JoJo himself, grasping onto his wrist just before the blow could land. "He caught it!" Speedwagon exclaims, before Jonathan retaliates with his own attack, firing a straight kick to his gut and releasing his grip, sending the enemy stand user flying into the guard rail. "Guh .... heh heh heh ... "

    "You shouldn't have done that."
Hesinca "I think he should have!"

Hesinca is very direct. She charges at the supposedly dead man, trying to simply grab onto him and throw him overboard. "And if he shouldn't have, I'll do it harder, anyway!"

"Didn't he just say that he has a fixed range, dood?" asks one Prinny.

"Yeah, Mistress Hesinca probably should have attacked from range. Is that misstep the work of an enemy stand, dood?" asks another.

"No, that's just how Mistress Hesinca is. You get used to it, dood."
Arcadia Arcadia glances down from her perch as the man slams into the railing, one brow raising a bit behind her visor. "Stars above, now what?"

The sphinx stands up from her perch, orbs of arcane energy forming in her palms as she does. "Okay, that's one. Where's the other?" These fiends keep showing up in pairs or more, and Hesinca is already aiming to deal with the not-so-dead man so she's looking for who else is going to turn out to be an enemy. "It's not the gorilla, is it? I'd hate to have to murder a potentially endangered species."
Damocles MEANWHILE: Damocles has no idea what's going on up top, because he's still investigating the gorilla.  At first he suspected the primate was a plant, but now it seems he has more refined tastes than expected, and the Chaos sorcerer is intrigued.  

So, instead of watching the monkey from afar, Damocles decides to approach.  "Ah, you seem a gentleman of taste.  Perhaps I misjudged you. Might I have your name, sir?"

While Damocles does speak out loud, that isn't the 'true' method of communication he uses.  As he talks, subtle magic is woven into the words.  If the gorilla is smart enough to understand language, then he will understand them regardless of what languages he speaks, and likewise Damocles will understand any response he gives, regardless of how it's spoken.
Haguro Upon noticing the man who should be dead being very much not dead, Haguro loads her wrist turret as she takes aim at that man after Jonathan knocks him into the guard rail. "A fixed range...?"

It's a good thing Haguro didn't charge him. Hesinca does, however, and the ship girl loads her turret again as she launches a chain knife towards the pair. Instead of launching it into the potential threat, though, she fires it besides him and Hesinca.

"Throw him off and get back!" Haguro's maneuver becomes more obvious as she flicks her wrist sideways to try wrapping the chain knife itself around Hesinca's arm. It's not until after Hesinca throws that the shipgirl pulls back firmly, trying to pull Hesinca towards herself and, ideally, outside the range of whatever it is their foe means to do!
Rean Schwarzer Well, the festering resentment didn't feel good at all. Apparently that guy was the guy that died early on too!

It's a bad idea to get in close to him, and Hesinca is already charging the guy, so Rean opts for something else.

"ARCUS, activate." Rean says, as the device's loading ring appears and disappears.

A burst of heat surrounds Hesinca as she rushes forward, boosting her strength.
Jonathan Joestar Jonathan feels mildly unsettled at his foe's dour chuckle. "W-wait, don't attack him!" ... but it's too late. Thankfully, Haguro is able to stop Hesinca from following the man into what should be a watery grave below...

In the cargo hold, the gorilla chortles to itself before puffing some smoke out the side of its mouth. No, rather, his mouth. It had reached for an English dictionary, but paused, seeming to intuit what Damocles had done.

        Forever.

That was his name. Reaching for a stack of surprisingly clean hay, he procured the key to his cage and let himself out so that he could 'talk' face to face. It was 'time' after all.

"H..hey...what's up with that thing, why does it have the key to its own ca -- "
A wet sound precursors a small spout of blood spatter. The sailor grasps at his neck before falling over, Turner standing beside him with a sharpened butter knife in hand. " ... so annoying. But if we kill you quick, it won't matter."

In the meantime, Forever slides on a white coat and a Captain's hat. "Fu fu fu ..."

Back on deck, Jonathan struggles to keep himself standing upright. "W..what? ... my leg! It's been covered in barnacles!?"

And it's not just him. They're showing up on Hesinca's body as well, wherever she had contact with the man they threw over board. And, it isn't long before they're finding themselves unwillingly dragged into the water themselves!

Their foe waits under the waves, a smirk plastered on his face. Psychically, he projected his voice to them. "You're done for. My Stand is an aquatic type, and you fools fell right into my trap! So long as you're under its power, you won't be able to leave the water ... I wonder, just how long can you hold your breath? I'd guess two minutes or so. Maybe five..I can hold mine for fifteen minutes without needing to go up for air, as I've trained my lungs to the limit."

"Lies! Betrayal! Fear of the unknown, and trouble at sea! This is what I represent .. DARK BLUE MOON!"

A merman with pitch blue scales and a white, flat face glares at them with beady read eyes, leaning perpendicular with its arms crossed as it leered at them.

The guard railings begin to transform on the ship, twisting into whirling blades. If anyone intended to follow JoJo and Hesinca into the water, now was the last chance .. otherwise, they'd need to confront the source of whatever was possessing the ship.
Damocles Damocles sighs theatrically as his glowing eyes roll upwards.  "You see now?  This is what I get.  I could have stayed paranoid and suspicious, but noOoo.  I tried to be optimistic.  I tried to be diplomatic.  I tried to be *good*.  And /this/ is what happens."

He motions widely with his staff towards the dead body. 

Then, suddenly, he snaps his staff around through the air with such a speed that it creates a crack of wind as his staff spins and then slams down in front of him.  As he slams his staff into the ground, he creates a massive shockwave, powerful but short-ranged, that extends out about 10 yards or so in all directions from himself with enough force to send even Forever flying like a ragdoll.

"Alright Turner and Hooch," Damocles intones deeply, his voice echoing dangerously throughout the room.  "You have the honor of facing Damocles, disciple of Tzeentch, master of the Warp.  Show me what you've got."
Hesinca "Dood, dood! This is seriously not cool!" says a prinny, before getting caught in the deadly whirling blades and torn to shreds.

Meanwhile, Hesinca manages to come up and get lungfuls of air. "Hah! You say I've fallen into your trap... Well, taste the fury of the living earthquake!"

The centaur makes a stomping motion. Indeed, there is an earthquake... on the ocean floor, miles below the surface, where it doesn't really affect anything.

She gets pulled under. <Oh,> she thinks. <Right. Ocean. Okay then...>

<RELEASE ME!>

The thought comes with the full strength of an ORDER, with an expectation that it'll be OBEYED.

... Assuming that this person can read thoughts as well as project them, anyway. Otherwise Hesinca is going to feel a bit silly again.
Arcadia Hiding right under their noses. Again. What is with these people doing that.

As the railings twist into deadly spinning impliments she launches off her perch, twisting to hover above the ship. Paws clench around the orbs into fists, the arcane energy glowing between digits. "I have had it up to -here- with this bullshit... and I can go pretty damn high."

Then glances off to the side. "Hey Haguro, you might have to do your own ship thing if we end up blowing this tub up to stop it."

She can fly but she can't swim, so that's out of the question. Guess it's save/destroy the boat time. The sphinx half-folds her wings and swoops down to head into the lower decks. Damocles didn't come running topside at the ruckus so she's assuming he's found the other half of the potential assailants.
Rean Schwarzer "Haguro, I'm assuming you can handle being underwater pretty well. Can you go get those two?" Rean says. He swiftly drsws his sword, sending a shockwave at the floating merman. He's no gunner, and half his magic loadout was fire, so he's not quite as useful as he could be.
Haguro "An aquatic type, you say... Heh." As Haguro reels Hesinca back as best she can, she starts laughing. Giggling, even, as she releases that chain knife as she moves towards the edge of the ship while her turrets point into the water towards the merman. "Yes, Mister Schwarzer. Please, take care of whoever's on deck. I have a plan B in mind if fighting them on the boat proves to be too much of an issue."

She's not going to elaborate on that plan just yet, of course. There's some telltale clicking noises as the ammunition in both her shoulder and wrist turrets change, and that soft-hearted smile turns rather quickly into an annoyed grimace.

"Guns and torpedoes loaded. This should be enough." She waves her arm forwards as a volley of multiple torpedoes launch out of her turrets, a total of six dropping into the water below. "Oh. You may want to take cover, Mister Joestar. Miss Hesinca." She warns, although she doesn't sound too worried about the potential friendly fire incident as the torpedoes speed up rapidly, all careening in towards the aquatic Stand user from multiple angles!
Jonathan Joestar It was a clever idea, but, Dark Blue Moon's voice was not born from any inherent telepathy, but rather, it was just an advantage of having a 'humanoid' Stand. As the Stand did not need to breathe under the water, it was more than capable of running its mouth and directing its user's dialogue to the others.

Jonathan grimaces. Having not been able to prepare himself for it when he was dragged in, he estimated that he could hold his breath for only a couple of minutes; moreover, as he could not respirate, he could not produce Hamon energy within his body. And since he hadn't done so beforehand, that meant he was virtually powerless unless he could get above the water.

"Torpedoes, huh ... what do you take yourself for, a submarine?! Buzz off!"

It was /fast/. It moved in an instant, rapidly spinning its arms to create two swirling jet-streams that suck the torpedoes in and destroy them. Jonathan is blown back by the conflict and finds himself even deeper in than before, where he makes a shocking discovery...

Shaken up by the earthquake Hesinca had made earlier, it was the carcass of a steamboat that looked identical to the one they were on before. It looked like it'd only been sunk a few days ago.

A cut from Rean's sword technique appears on the merman's shoulder, causing a small spurt of blood to begin leaking from its user, as well. "Hn!"

"The whole lot of you, this'll be your grave! I won't let you leave!"

Flapping its arms just as viciously as before, it creates a current that makes the surface of the ocean churn. "My Dark Blue Moon's scales can be fired like bullets .. and running through the currents of water, you'll be torn to pieces trying to get through it!"

Of course, while the ones under the water -- Hesinca and Jonathan -- were limited in their ability to do so, Haguro, who was still on the ship, had more options available to her to get into the deep blue herself and tangle with their foe.

Meanwhile, Arcadia and Rean find themselves accosted by all manner of anomalies, from spiked floors, ceilings, and walls, to erupting pipes trying to sear their skin off and various ship appliances being formed into amalgamate golems attempting to take their lives.

Forever is sent skidding backwards, but, oddly enough, Turner stands her ground. But surely, such a petit woman couldn't be heavier than an eight hundred pound animal..?

"Damocles, disciple of Tzeentch and master of the Warp .. soon enough, you'll just be Damocles, the cocksure trash who died pitifully!"

Pulling her arm off at the fore, the flesh tears with a rubbery noise, revealing eight glowing barrels. Seamlessly creeping up from the floor, wires wrap around Damocles' staff wielding arm like vines and despite having the appearance of simple wiring, they had a much greater durability. As if to answer the question before it can be asked, Forever holds up his dictionary, sneering.

        STRENGTH
The tarot card which represents challenges, willpower, and hidden potential.
Hesinca Options, options...

... It'd really help, Hesinca thinks, if she could just get some air.

Or failing that, put the water someplace else.

...
Oh. Yeah, she can do those things.

Hesinca twists her upper body around, grabbing at something hidden in her armor, and pulls it out. It looks like a glowing floor tile. She brings it up to her face, sticks her head through it briefly to get a fresh breath of air (it seems to be some sort of portal) and then throws it downwards, shouting some command...

... and the glowing floor tile opens up into someplace else.

Large bubbles of air start emerging, flowing up from the floor tile towards the surface, enough for both Hesinca and Jonathan to grab breaths as needed!
Damocles "I understand now," Damocles says almost idly as his arm is wrapped up in wires.  He doesn't even attempt to break free at first, his eyes considering the woman in front of him.  "You're like Axl and Civil War.  Another one of those 'Stand' wielders that have been so persistent.  Forever there is your 'Stand', empowering you with attacks based on those cards he draws."

A second later, and Damocles's entire body is wreathed in violet flame, and vanishes.  Why bother wrestling to escape when you can teleport?  As for where he goes, a second later, Damocles reappears in a different part of the room.

One that has a clear line of sight to Forever, at whom Damcoles levels his staff.

"And, since you're hanging back, I'm guessing you don't want to be the focus of attacks."

Damocles's eyes glow a touch brighter, and his staff begins to arc with visible gathering energy.
Arcadia The inside of the ship is being distorted into a gauntlet of deathtraps and enemies.

Which is exactly what Arcadia expected after seeing the rail blenders. So this wasn't a deterrant, it was a challenge. One she would embrace for the strange yet familiar situation that it was. Even if she couldn't employ her full velocity in an hazardous interior it did little to hinder her exceptional agility and dexterity.

The sphinx maneuvered around the spikes erupting from surfaces and used her air magic to push back the clouds of scorching vapors as she sped through, not allowing exposure to last longer than some painful singes to her more organic-like regions.

The first appliance golem to get in her way is met with her unleashing one of her charging magitek attacks "TESLA SCALAR!" and bombarding it with a powerful electromagnetic beam that, as the name of the weapon suggests, is inspired by the famous mad genius's theoretic death ray.
Haguro "A submar...? How would I look like in one of those, anyway?" Haguro mulls over that confusingly-worded sentence that undoubtedly means something to her, then shakes her head quickly to bring her mind back to the present.

Back to fighting! With her torpedoes dispatched as easily as they are, she has to come up with some other method of attack. Direct shelling? No, that'd be even less effective and likely easier to turn on Jonathan and Hesinca. Diving into the water herself? No, she'd just sink and be out of ocmmission for way too long to help in this situation. Use that chain knife again?

More chain knife. She's seen what Jonathan could do with the power of Hamon, but it's a huge risk. She's never gotten anywhere without taking huge risks, though, and she'll just have to hope that Dark Blue Moon takes the bait.

As Haguro hangs off the side of the ship with one hand precariously holding onto the guard rail, she fires off a knife attached to her chain into the water towards the aquatic Stand user.

As expected of a knife, it flows through the water relatively quickly, but an anchor it is not, and it soon starts losing speed on the way to the merman. She fires off a few more torpedoes towards him for good measure, but the chain knife just floats down slowly while it's still attached to the ship spirit!
Rean Schwarzer Rean nods as Haguro goes off to execute her plan. One less thing to worry about, probably. The ship's floor continues to distort, becoming deadlier and deadlier. Spikes shoot up from the floor, threatening to pierce the student from below. Rean weaves around, putting his focus on his foot work so that he doesn't get skewered.

The second he gets a moment of reprieve, though, Rean shouts, "ARCUS, acivate! Demonic Scythe!"

The spell loads, and a shadowy scythe appears above the Merman stand, whirling around him multiple times, hopefully cutting into him each time it passes.
Jonathan Joestar Forever cackles after Damocles finishes speaking. The gorilla affixes his cap onto his head more securely, his pipe almost falling out of his mouth from his blubbering amusement. For her part, Turner looked absolutely offended. "You think ... that creep is my Stand? That he's a reflection of someone as beautiful as I am?!"

"...well...I am trying to kill you. Even so, that really irritates me..!"

Like a turret locked on target, she spins her upper body back at an impossible angle and fires the eight-barreled plasma caster at Damocles in an attempt to kill him before he can get off his spell.

The parts of the golems themselves seem supernaturally tough, but their composition is not. While the parts to make them remain, Arcadia blasts through one with ease, leaving it in pieces on the ground.

Jonathan's eyes widen as Hesinca essentially creates a refillable supply of oxygen for the both of them. The enemy stand user looks panicked rather suddenly, but before he can send his Dark Blue Moon out to attack Jonathan directly, Haguro attacks him with more torpedoes. "Uoooh...damnit!"

Rather than destroying them all with a whirlpool, it launches its fist out in a jab that propels a series of scales out like bullets, destroying one of the torpedoes and giving the Stand a way to escape the formation, its user wrapping his arm around its neck as it blasts off at high speed.

In this haste, Haguro's chain-knife gets caught on his sack, the thick leather being hooked into easily by the blade. The Dark Blue Moon is deterred by Rean's Demonic Scythe attack, having to bat them out of the way and protect its users vitals, leading to a number of deep magically induced cuts appearing along it and its users limbs, slowing them both down.

The ship spirit herself finds her situation becoming untenable as the railings continue converting into spinning buzzsaws, trying to slice her hand off.

"I won't let you do it .. Jonathan Joestar! I know that your Hamon works best under the water ... that's why I won't let you take even a single breath!"

Jonathan glared fiercely, his whole body shining with a rippling outline. It was too late, he'd already caught one of the breath bubbles and used it to breath, creating Hamon energy within his body.

            "Gh...!"

Clenching his fist, Jonathan makes a spinning motion that whirls his body like a corkscrew, the Hamon energy transmitting into the water and travelling through it like a ray of light. In that light's trail, the energized liquid transformed into a 'fourth state of matter' ... a substance that was similar to the same plasma found in stars and lightning strikes. It was a stream being propelled forward at the speed of light!

    <TURQUOISE BLUE OVERDRIVE!>

...But despite this, Dark Blue Moon showed off its incredible speed, only having its upper body scalded by being grazed in the process. The damage is reflected onto its user, who has clamp his hand over his mouth to avoid drowning as he writhes in pain.
Damocles Damocles doesn't even attempt to avoid the plasma blasts, and they strike him without trouble.  In fact, even striking him doesn't slow them down, as his body explodes into mist when struck, popping like a bubble that offers no resistance at all to the attack.

At the same moment, Damocles...The REAL Damocles, not the illusion one he conquered after teleporting, steps into view from the entryway into the room.  When Damocles teleported away, it was into the hallway leading into this room, and the Damocles that appeared in this room was just an illusory one.

"That was the /point/." Damocles stays coolly as he levels his staff at Turner, and instantly fires a powerful blast of lightning at her.
Hesinca "Hey, what's going- DOOD!"

A prinny, sticking its head out of the glowing base panel, gets caught in a rising bubble.

"What happened, where'd you- DOOD!"

Its friend, wondering what was going on, also gets bubbled.

"Hey, where'd you two - OH NO DOOD!"

"Why do you keep disappearing through the - DOOD!"

"Hey, you cool doods, is there a party in - DOOD!"

This sequence of prinnies trying to figure out what happened to the other prinnies and getting caught in air bubbles will continue on for as long as you let it.

The pertinent part is that in addition to normal air bubbles, some of them now contain living impact grenades that Dark Blue Moon will need to maneuver around! You're welcome.
Haguro It's quite what Haguro was aiming for, but it'll have to do. With the chain knife in Dark Blue Moon, she can move on to step 2 of her plan! As the chain starts to retract to try reeling Dark Blue Moon closer, the ship spirit is about to relay her plan to her allies when she feels a wet sensation on her wrist.

On closer inspection, it's the railings turning into buzzsaws! <<"Ggh... Jonathan, the chain...!">> It's all she can relay over the radio in enduring the buzzsaws before releasing the deadly railings, plummeting into the water below with a heavy impact.

There's not much time left, so she's going to have to put her faith in Jonathan and Hesinca below and Rean above while she finds herself descending into the murky depths. Already, it looks like Haguro is starting to freak out at being underwater, her reeling movements stopped as she just thrashes around with the chain still attached to her and connecting her to Dark Blue Moon.

Her shoulder turret, meanwhile clicks once before a second chain knife is launched downw near Jonathan. It looks like she might have just launched that in her panicking state, but is that a truly panic?

Of course not. Mostly. It's still rather terrifying for someone like her to be in the water, but she's still keeping it together just enough to execute that step of her plan and hope for the best!
Arcadia Can the golems pull themselves back together? Arcadia doesn't waste the time to stop and find out. Whatever tries to come after her, she'll just blast it again.

Meanwhile her mind is churning. She hasn't reached the cargo hold or anything else besides passages for that matter, so whatever has taken control of the ship is warping the interior along with it's death traps. Not all that unexpected. Just how far can this controlling force spread itself though, or does it have to focus on trying to pin her down?

Let's find out.

Arcadia purposely slows down, just enough for it to be all the more flaunting the way she uses her stunt acrobatic skills to weaving around the spikes and pipes trying to put an end to her acrobatics. "Come on, is that the best you can do?!" she taunts whatever unseen controller is out there. "I could get through this with my eyes closed!"

Her visor would still see for her, but that's besides the point.

She snaps back her wings to dive under an obstruction, skids on the floor a bit, but is back into the air faster that spikes can burst from the deck to try and skewer her. "Still too slow! Com'n, try to catch me if you can!" Pay attention to her, and not the other people fighting various fights.
Jonathan Joestar "Tch..!" The cyborg clicks her tongue. Evidently, while she had incredible reflexes, she didn't have something to track where the real 'him' was .. not immediately, anyway. Just as it seemed she'd pay for her Hubris, the floor peeled up quickly to form a crude shield that blocks Damocles' lightning strike. Forever cackles again, crossing his arms as he leans back. "I didn't need your help, you stupid ape!"

Forever makes a pinching motion while leering at her. Rather than humor his behavior, she slips her arm back over the plasma caster to let it cool down, before sprinting forward into Forever's 'shield' at full speed, the construct parting to let her through as she makes a dash for Damocles, her other hand forming a small hole in the palm as she attempts to grab ahold of his head, a spear made of light pushing out of the hole in an attempt to skewer him through the eye.

Jonathan grimaces. Just like Bruford, it seemed that Dark Blue Moon was too fast underwater to be caught by his attack, not when it was somewhat expected.

Arcadia eventually comes to the stairway that leads down into the lower levels, including the cargo bay. There are a multitude of buzzsaws, vapor traps, and electrified wirings flinging out of the walls like whips to try and deter her. But if she could figure out a way through, it was a straight shot down.

"Guh .. that was too close. If I'd even been a little bit slower, I'd have been vaporized. You piece of trash, how dare you ... !"

But the aquatic Stand didn't have free reign over the waters anymore, as the 'depth mines' of sorts that Hesinca prepared meant he'd have to carefully plan out his movements. < .. ?>

Jonathan pauses. Worry clouds his expression as he can see Haguro falling, being buffeted momentarily by the scale-littered jetstreams running through the water. The gleaming of metal catches his eye, however. "Don't take your eyes off of me, Jonathan Joestar!"

Dark Blue Moon throws both arms forward, firing a scale barrage at him before zipping through the water, bending and dodging around the bubble bombs as it attempted to come right up on Hesinca. Jonathan had begun to realize it almost immediately after firing off his Overdrive, but the barnacles which had multiplied to cover her upper body wasn't just dragging her down. They were actively sapping her strength..and judging by how the Stand was picking up pace again despite its injuries .. it was possible that the strength it sapped from the barnacles was being added to its own.

The merman launches a volley of fast, powerful punches that blur into afterimages in an attempt to pummel her as soon as it was within range.
Damocles When the cyborg assassin bursts through the wall, it catches Damocles a little by surprise.  He raises his staff and charges a barrier to meet the charge, the rampaging assassin smashing into the magical barrier and creating a slight shockwave as the two meet.  Damocles puts his weight behind the staff, pouring energy into reinforcing the barrier that holds her back, the spear punching though the barrier just next to his staff as the two strain against one another.

Of course, being outnumbered, Damocles knows he can't hold this long, so after a moment he steps back, spins on a heel and dodges to the side as the barrier shatters. 

From there, he goes on the defensive, using his staff and agility to leap back and defend, again and again as he dashes around the room.

He works backwards, closer and closer to Forever, until he gets the right position, and smiles a little. 

"You know, you seem a little on edge. Is something bothering you, dear?"

As he talks, Turner would hear his voice, but another one as well.  A soft whisper, just below her actual hearing.  It does not whisper actual words, but instead, pure emotion:  Rage. Every whisper filled with seething hatred and rage, not at anything in particular, but the pure, distilled essence of rage, dripped directly into her brain.
Arcadia Arcadia grins. It is not a pleasant sight. It was the slightly unhinged smile of the thrillseeker that's about to have one hell of a ride for their rush. But surely not even she could dodge everything down that stairway hell?

Or maybe she had something else in mind.

"It's about time!" the sphinx cackles. As she does so she deploys the trick she's been keeping to herself, letting loose several of her magitek funnelbits into formation around herself. "FARADAY CAGE!" Current crackles between the bits to interlock, turning the trap into a protective barrier around herself instead. If there was one thing she has learned through all this, it was not to put all your cards on the table at once, and get a little creative.

Sometimes the best place to be with a cage was the one inside it.

Arcadia dived into the stairway with morbid glee. Sparks flew as the elctrofied wires lashed out, but the polarity of her own electrical shield repelled them before they could grab onto anything.

Buzzsaws screamed through the air, filling the air with arcid smoke as sparks shot off the shield. One of the bits was sawed through and knocked out of formation, it's smoldering wreck tumbling lost down the passage. The remaining funnelbits just shifted to fill the gap with their currents as much as possible while the sphinx focused on her descent, taking a few of the smaller hits to avoid the big deadly ones.

By the time she reachs the bottom she's going to be short multiple bits, and not entirely unscathed, but she's functional and still fully capable of fighting. That's what's important right now.
Haguro That glimpse is enough for Haguro. Although she doest' personally have the means to capitalize on the chain knives, she's seen Jonathan in action before, and that's what she'll have to bank on as she gambles her consciousness in this fight.

Step 1: Fire more chain knives at/around the merman. Only one set of shoulder guns is actually aimed anywhere near him with the wrist-chain still attached, so she only manages to fire two more chain knives in the merman's direction. With any luck, Hesinca's Prinny mines might actually let her get another knife in Dark Blue Moon, but she's content even if they simply float near him while she puts the next step of her plan into motion.

turning herself over, Haguro kicks off the bottom of the ship to guide her steadily sinking body towards Jonathan. The chain knife continues dangling near him as well.

<<"Conduct...">> That's the last step, it seems!
Rean Schwarzer Well, there goes Haguro. And now everyone else is underwater. The railings-turned-death trap prevent him from getting into the water himself. Not that'd be all that helpful. It's hard to tell what's even going on down there in the churning water.

"..."

Rean charges up another spell, this time, it's the heat spell from the last few days. There's a /slight/ chance he might catch someone that's NOT DBM and his user, in the radius. but he just had to hope this blind shot wasn't  terrible!
Jonathan Joestar Forever frowns as Turner's expression turns into an ugly, ugly scowl. "Shut the hell uuuuup!!"

The effect hadn't been instantaneous, but it had been rather sudden. The intelligent gorilla knew her well enough to know that while she had a shitty, nasty personality, it wasn't normal for her to lose her cool at a few poking words.

Raising her leg, the limb split in half to reveal the barrel of a grenade launcher as she made the motion to kick, firing an acid bomb at Damocles.

...Just in time for Arcadia to arrive, having executed a risky and daring maneuver to make it to the cargo hold unscathed. Forever leans back into the wall and sinks into it entirely, as if it were made of quicksand. He reappears moments later, his upper body lowering from the ceiling so that he could grab ahold of her head and try and twist in an attempt to snap it with the monstrous strength his species was known for.

Jonathan, in the meantime, blocks the hail of scale bullets with his arms, hissing bubbles through his nose as they shoot straight through his muscular limbs to embed themselves into his chest. It was an ugly looking wound that left him grimacing, even as he reached for another bubble of air.

Able to take in another breath, he grabs at the knife floating in the water, having gotten a fair idea of what Haguro's plan was. He had no idea what it might do to her, but -- he had to have faith that she had more durability than the Stand's user did.

Speaking of whom, after unleashing a volley of punches against Hesinca, Dark Blue Moon is forced to retreat once the roiling heat boils the water around him, destroying some of his scale barrier in the process. And due to his retreat into Haguro's range ...

The man gasps with one of the knives managing to spear into his leg. "Gh...!"

Naturally, this left him with no air in his lungs, but with all the bubbles of air floating up, it was easy enough for him to save himself. "You cheeky little ... hmph. The moment that bomb bubble floats to the side, I'll tear you apart with ... my .... scales .... oh no!"

        <SENDO HAMON OVERDRIVE!>

The surging waves of ripple travel down the chain and through Haguro, before heading straight for the stand user. The feeling is warm, and soothing at first, but quickly turns painful. It was somewhere between being burned alive and electrocuted at the same time, yet, thankfully for the both of them, the ship spirit was made of far sterner stuff than their foe who suffered a heart attack from it all. Dark Blue Moon disappears and with it, the currents that had threatened them. Jonathan quickly swims over to Haguro to try and begin pulling her up, a difficult task given her weight.
Rean Schwarzer The water stops churning, and the layer of scales on the surface vanishes. ...Did they do it?

Rean lets out a sigh. One down. But they still had more work to do. He goes to find a rope, or a life preserver or something to help get the others back onto the boat.
Haguro The plan goes without a hitch! Mostly. Haguro's mentally prepared to take whatever effects that Hamon is going to have going through her, but physically? She's sinking, she's about to pass out, and she can barely see Jonathan even as he grabs onto one of the knives. She does indeed prove to be as durable as a warship, though, as she endures the entire process without dying in the process, and the feeling of burning internally and getting eletrocuted wakes her right up!

She's also screaming internally at that and also being fully awake while sinking, but still. Luckily, Jonathan's there to push her towards the surface, and she raises one hand in a thumbs up towards Rean by the time they reach the surface!

She's just going to need some help getting onto a life preserver. And on board. And she's probably going to be laying down for a while, shivering violently and on the verge of crying over another water-proximal near-death experience within the span of a few days.
Damocles When Turner's leg splits, Damocles recognizes the grenade launcher for what it is immediately, but that causes a big problem for him.  They're currently in the cargo hold.  If she blows this thing up, she could end up sinking the boat, which is bad for them.

Unfortunately, how do you stop that from happening?  He's only got time for one idea, and it's a bad one. 

He was in close quarters with Turner when she decided to kick a grenade at him, and he wants to keep it from exploding against the boat.  So when she kicks the grenade launcher at him, he charges forward, and using his superhuman agility, tries, to, literally, stick his finger in the barrel of the grenade launcher.

Bugs Bunny will always be the truest incarnation of Tzeentch.
Arcadia Well, that explains what was going on with the ship. "Hey Damocles! Hope you don't mind if I BARGE in." It's a steamboat, wrong kind of watercraft, but she doesn't have much in the way of material to work with on a whim.

Or time for that matter as the gorilla pulls a Mangle emerging from the ceiling to grab onto the sphinx. He twists! ... And Arcadia twists her entire body with the motion, following the movement to dampen the effect. That and being a bit sturdier than one might expect thanks to her technorganic nature, there's no snapping necks. Just a sphinx being swung around like a ragdoll, which in itself isn't exactly pleasant when it's a 800lbs simian doing the swinging. "Oof! It wasn't that bad of a joke!"

Arcadia reachs up to grab Forever's hands with her own and dig nasty little cat claws in. "But if you want to get a head..."

Then flexes her entire body with the swinging around, and snaps up her tail like a whip to try and get it around Forever's neck and squeeze.
Damocles Damocles yells back, "Maybe it wasn't, but I don't know if this is the right place for one liners!"
Jonathan Joestar Damocles' plan is insane -- suicidal, nearly. But it works. Having acted impulsively and exposed herself, the pressure-propelled grenade's cap strikes the obstruction in the barrel and detonates, causing Turner to scream as she falls back. Her leg would have been busted up, ordinarily .. but it was an acid bomb. And that unfortunately meant that she was left with a sizzling, disolving limb.

Damocles didn't have it as bad, all things considered, but his hand is in a similar shape. But he did manage to avoid any unfortunate repercussions of her outburst of fury.

Forever chokes. He can't pull /her/ into the ship with him, which meant he had nowhere to run. Fine, then, if that's how the kitten wanted to play...

The gorilla drops fully from the ceiling with the intent on pinning her down and wrapping her up in electrical wriing from the floor before raising both meaty fists to begin pummling her head with the plan being to bust it open like a melon.
Damocles Damocles had been unaware the grenade would be acid.  Which is good and bad, since the acid would have been even worse, eating through the ground.  However it also means that his hand is hit by the blast of the grenade being contained and then exploding, and then covered in acid.  The concussive blast knocks the barrier magic apart and the acid hits his armored gauntlet.  However a gauntlet needs a lot of joints. 

That's a lot of space for acid to work through. 

Normally he would just rip the glove off, except that this isn't normal armor, it's *powered* armor.  Removing the gauntlet is not a quick or easy process. 

"Ow ow ow OW ow!" He yells out and holds his hand up to inspect the damage.  Okay, how do we handle this?  This is an acid.  If he can find something with a high alkali rating he could possibly neutralize the acid.  What chemical can he--Ow! 

A slight bit of chemical burn hits him in a painful way, and he loses his patience.  "Okay fuck it."  He takes his staff, and powers up the energy field around it.  From there, he runs his wrist against it, intentionally slicing though the seals until it's unlocked enough that he can rip the gauntlet off.

That doesn't get rid of all the acid, but it at least minimizes the damage his hand will take.  The rest he'll have to heal up later.
Arcadia Arcadia drops to the deck, and Forever slams down on top of her. She spreads her wings but the wires start coming out of the deck to grab onto her before she can jet out from under the gorilla.

If that had been her intention.

Just as the gorilla is rearing back to start pounding on her the magitec turbines in the apex of her wings roar to life, unleasing two streams of air directly at the simian over her. Two vortices of wind power is enough to push 800 lbs of monkey off of her. But that's what it is, lift. Not trying to fling him around or slam him into anything. Just push him into the air.

If she slammed him into another surface he'd just disappear through it again, now wouldn't he? Instead she's trying to hold him midair, where he can't grab a surface and can't direct his strength so accurately without a solid surface to push off of.

Now they find out how much direct contact he needs with the steamboat to warp it the way he was.
Jonathan Joestar Turner writhes on the ground, hissing, as Damocles manages to get away with only mild chemical burns for his troubles. Pushing both arms out, she launches them at him like rockets, intent on knocking his lights out in the process of revealing the plasma caster she'd shown off before, and the laser-pile-bunker built into the other that she'd tried to plow into his head earlier.

Raising the plasma caster, its eight spigoted barrels begin glowing as she charges it. "Just die already!"

Forever, in the meantime, is pushed off of her with raw windforce. He growls lowly, as the walls to either of Arcadia's sides begin morphing to reveal pipes on the inside that burst, trying to douse her in the steam hot enough to kill. Evidently, while he couldn't mold himself into the surface without touching it, he had free range control of it otherwise ... the reason being illuminated moments later by Jonathan via the radio.
Arcadia He can't mold into it but he can still control it. The radio comment just clarifies more of the possible why. We'll worry about the ramifications later.

Still, keeping him where she can see him still accomplishes something. The sphinx was working, utilizing her knack for reconizing tactics and attack patterns.

Forever starts warping pipes out like before, bursting them to release the scalding hot steam.

And the sphinx smiles sinisterly. "Gotcha."

She amps up the wind power, using the cyclonic force to suck up the deadly shearing steam and blast it up at Forever himself instead.

"I appreciate the challenge you've given me... But that doesn't change that you're a threat to my allies and mission. So I understand if you're a little... steamed."
Damocles Focused as he is on his own injures, Damocles misses the attacks aimed at his face.  Honestly, he had expected the blast took her out, so is surprised she's still going.  Not as surprised as he is by the pair of punches that smash, literally like rockets, into his head.  Fortunately, he's still got magical barriers and the superhuman genetics of an Astartes, but the blows do stagger him back, one smashing his cheek with a 'crack' that doesn't sound very good, and the other hitting him just below the eye, cracking his glasses.

She broke his glasses.  She BROKE his GLASSES.

The glowing eyes under the hood of the Chaos Sorcerer narrow dangerously.  He has had enough of this fight.  Plus, she's charging a plasma weapon.  He doesn't know how they work where she's from, but he knows how they work back home.

He swings a hand out, and begins channeling his own energy; Raw power of the Warp, funneled directly into the plasma cells of her cannon.  It's a risky gambit, and if it doesn't work she'll just have more energy to blast him with.  However, if her plasma weapons are like the Imperium's, then rapidly overcharging them tends to end very explosively, and not at all well for the person holding them.
Jonathan Joestar     "GUWOOOOOOH!"

The gorilla roars in pain and rage as she turns his own panicked attack against him. Compared to the immensely talented and dignified Downer, this one was .... well, truthfully, his taste in reading materials said everything one needed to know about the difference between the two. Forever was scum, and wasn't all that bright.

But he was powerful, of that there was no doubt. The fact his Stand could be large and clear enough to carry him across the ocean itself without even winding him made it obvious that the name of his Stand meant more than the tarot's definition.

It was a representation of Forever's Strength.

Within minutes the sounds died off, and the disgusting smell of steam-poached gorilla fills the cargo hold. The dead simian's skeleton is visible from the sagging, jerky-like flesh hanging off of it.

Turner grins viciously with smeared lipstick as he begins channeling his energy. She's positive that she'll fire first and kill him.

And in a sense, she's correct. She does fire first. But when she does, it's her that gives up the ghost, as the overcharged cells explode, obliterating her upper body and leaving her only as a single leg and a waistline.

Of course, with Forever's death, as well, the boat itself gave way. The power of the Stand disappeared, reverting the focus of Strength to its true form ...

A single, dinky paddle boat with space for one, maybe two people. It looked like it could sink any second.
Arcadia *splash*

Since she was laying on the deck and focused on her technique to steam blast Forever, Arcadia can't do anything to prevent from plopping in the water.

But she comes back to the surface a moment later, while the remains of the gorilla are left to sink to the depths below. Being mostly cat its no surprise she doesn't want to stay in the water for very long and gets into a hover above the surface. Shakes her head to dislodge water from her mane of hair. "Sorry! But he was going to just keep using it as a weapon against us!"
Damocles The blast, of course, doesn't just hit Turner, but blasts Damocles, who happened to be fairly close to her.  He takes the blast full on, blowing away his barrier and sending him flying backwards.  He expects to hit the floor of the ship, but instead he hits water, slashing with enough force against the surface that it feels about as hard as having hit a concrete floor anyway.

Except that after that, he sinks. 

He doesn't even attempt to swim.  He's over 10 feet of muscle and armor.  He's not going to be treading water here.  Instead, he just sinks resignedly.  Blub.
Haguro When it looks like the battle is finally over, Haguro feels her strength coming back to her! Figuratively, since she's still shaken after everything, but with their ride having long since sunk...

"Watch your heads, everyone. It's been a while since I've done this, so..." It takes her a moment to get her bearings straight, but Haguro is soon glowing an unearthly white as the air around her begins to shimmer. To her, it's ample enough warning to back off as a boat starts to just sort of... Appear out of nowhere.

Military afficionados may notice that it's a Japanese heavy cruiser. Haguro, to be precise! It's somewhat dinged up and scorched in some places thanks to that fight under the waves against Dark Blue Moon, but it's certainly large enough to carry everyone and then some!

It doesn't even need a crew to function. It's almost like getting onto a ghost ship, really.
Jonathan Joestar Once Damocles is fished out of the ocean, the Prinnies, surviving workers, and the haggard Elites are able to rest easy for the rest of their journey towards Luxor. It would only be a good five or six hours..but it was well deserved rest.

Jonathan remained uneasy, however. He knew for a fact that from here on out, things were only going to ramp up .. it felt almost like he was heading towards some kind of nebulous, foregone conclusion, the closer they got to confronting the arrow thief.

By the time the port enters the horizon, the sun is dipping low.

        To be continued . . .
Rean Schwarzer Rean helps the others onto the boat, and notices Haguro looks shaken. Did something happen down there, or...

Oh. OH. She died by /sinking./ Maybe suggesting she be the one to get everyone wasn't the best idea. He reaches out to give Haguro a reassuring pat on the shoulder....

...right as the steamboat vanishes and reverts to being a single rowboat. Obviously not anywhere near the correct size to carry 6+ people, Rean winds up in the water with a loud splash.

Luckily Haguro's got it, turning into her warship form. Rean lets out a few coughs as he gets the salt water out of his hair. "Thanks." Rean says.
Damocles It turns out, no fishing is required to get Damocles out.  Once he hits the bottom of the water, he looks around until he finds his severed gauntlet, and collects it.  He doesn't want to lose that.  Once he's gotten it secured, he vanishes in a flash of violet energy, appearing at the top of the deck of the new ship. 

Soaking wet, with his armor on one arm cut off, his hand covered in acid burns, his first concern is to take off his glasses.  One of the lenses is cracked, and he sighs.  Going to have to get those replaced now. 

Oh well. He sticks them into a pocket, and almost idly casts some magic on his injuries to start them healing.  

"Joestar?  No offense, but I do believe I am going to punch the *living fuck* out of your brother if I ever meet him."
Arcadia Once Haguro has manifested her warship form Arcadia sets down on the deck with everyone else. She's sore, singed, a bit bruised and now wet.. but too giddy to care thanks to the rush.

She was serious when she said she appreciated the challenge she went through. But that wasn't enough to stop her from disposing of the obstacle to their progress.

"I was hoping isolating him from a surface of the boat would be enough but he could still control it so I had to end his presence directly," she rattles off almost too fast to entirely understand. "Since he kept using the same attack methods with the wires and the steam so it was just a matter of getting him in the open and baiting him to where I could turn the attacks back against him." But there's your explaination for at least her part in the matter.