The Ludicrous Escapade Pt.3

Nefarious Newborn

The green baby crawled toward the bottle, watching it with interest.

"(Y/N)..." Anasui tugged on your arm, pulling you closer so he could whisper into your ear. "Do you really plan on keeping this child alive? Sure, it might help with retrieving the discs you're looking for, but I can only see it becoming our enemy. I only sense endless evil from this child's ability. It would be better to kill it while we can, no?"

"Well... I would also prefer it dead. Especially if it's some sort of reincarnation of Dio. But Jolyne really wants to keep it alive, just in case it is innocent. Especially when it's a child and all that." You shrugged. "I guess it's a valid reason. I'm just going along with it for now."

"Would it be okay if I 'accidentally' killed it?" He didn't mind disposing of the baby or taking the blame for its death.

"Why are the two of you just standing there chatting?!" Jolyne had backed up against the end of the bottle, staring at the enemy Stand in terror. "This bottle is made of solid glass and we're nowhere near the opening! How the hell are we supposed to get out?!"

You pointed to Anasui, "His Stand can go into things and rearrange them."

He nodded, confirming your words. "I've already phased Diver Down into the walls of the bottle and is sliding the bottle's neck around the surface and toward us. We're getting out!" The three of you funneled out of the glass bottle and onto the ground. "Diver Down, put the cap back on the bottle! Now we've caught the Stand and the user!"

You watched as the baby tried to wriggle around in its own invisible cage, appearing similar to a mime. "Well, it's a good thing it's Stand isn't able to phase through things."

The baby managed to scoot itself close enough to pick the bottle up. Anasui scoffed, "There's no way it can open bottles yet! And even if it did, it lacks the strength to uncap the bottle or even break it open. A baby doesn't have that kind of power." Now he just needed to think of a way to grow big enough and then destroy the bottle along with the Stand, killing the baby in the process.

"Maybe a normal baby, but that's a Stand wielding green baby that was created from a vampire's bone." You wouldn't be that surprised if it figured out how to open a bottle.

But the baby came up with its own solution. It tossed the bottle in your group's direction, and it started rolling on the ground.

"What the hell?!" Jolyne immediately started running, the rest of you not far behind. The bottle was quickly picking up speed.

"It's going to reposition itself along with the bottle!" Realized Anasui, "We can't go back toward the child. If that thing manages to get in front of us, it's all over!"

"Shit!" The bottle was getting too close for all of you to be able to avoid it, so you decided to try and shove the others ahead of you. You let out a pained scream as your legs were caught beneath the bottle and crushed like twigs.

"(Y/N)!" Anasui brought out Diver Down, trying to use its strength to push the bottle off of you. Now he really wanted to kill that baby. Although, a part of him was also glad that you seemed to care enough to try and push him out of harm's way.

The end of Jolyne's jacket got caught beneath as well, so she quickly shed the piece of clothing before she was dragged underneath: "Stone Free!" Its fists smashed against the glass, a few cracks forming.

"No, Jolyne! If you break the glass it'll release the Stand." And Anasui was sure that would only make the situation worse.

Yoshikage appeared at your side, joining in the attempt to push the bottle. His lavender suit was getting a bit scuffed in the process. "You should just give me permission to blow up this bottle along with the Stand inside. I think it would be better to stop this whole charade before it has a chance to grow."

"No! We're not gonna kill the baby yet, but I'm also not going to let (Y/N) get crushed!" So Jolyne kept punching.

You were about to tell that them that you would be fine if you were crushed and that they should just run away, but then part of the bottle was shattered by Stone Free's fists. Jolyne also received a tap to the head by a green finger, and then suddenly everyone returned to their normal size.

"(Y-Y/N)! This...!" Jolyne tried not to move a centimeter as the baby scaled her torso. She feared that any wrong move could set the baby off to do something drastic. It latched onto her shoulder, looking at her matching birthmark. "What the hell is going on?! Are we back to normal?!"

"Are you all right?" Asked Kira as he pulled you back up to your feet. You had already taken a moment to let your legs mend.

"Yeah..." So you made your way to the Cujoh. "But the baby seems to like you, Jolyne. Or, at least, it's curious about your birthmark." You crouched down next to her, getting a closer look at it and its pointy ears. "Is it like a little goblin? Or a green elf?" Anasui watched with bated breath as you poked the thing's forehead. "Are you in there, Dio?"

It latched onto your finger with its grubby, little baby hands. Then it held both its arms out to you, as if asking for you to pick himself up.

"Go ahead and take it." Jolyne was fine with handing off the child.

"Should you even really be touching that?" Anasui asked as if the baby could have some sort of contagious disease.

"It'll be fine. Probably." You picked up the baby from under its armpits and then held it against your chest. Its hand touched the front of your neck before moving to grasp at your left ear.

"Huh." Yoshikage watched the gremlin warily. "It acts almost like it knows you."

"In any case," Anasui rose his voice, making sure you were all listening. "We have to get away from the guard dogs." He was sure they couldn't be that far away.

"Is it..." You held a hand out, a few droplets hitting your skin. "It's starting to rain. The skies were clear just moments earlier. Is Weather Report around?"

"Well, whatever the reason, it's sure convenient for us." Anasui stared off into the distance. "It's starting to get foggier around the punishment ward."

With the brief moment of peace, Jolyne decided to express her gratitude. "You know, I felt a bit iffy about you at first, Anasui, but in the end you actually protected us and helped out. So I'd like to thank you from the bottom of my heart. What I really want to know, though, is why you're doing all of this? Finding Whitesnake and retrieving the discs we want isn't any of your concern."

Anasui scoffed. "I'm not doing this for you, Jolyne." He proceeded to drape an arm around your waist. "But (Y/N)..." He tilted your chin up to face him, "you give me hope. When I look at you, I see a chance for a better future." He pulled you into an embrace while Jolyne watched, uncomfortable. "And now, to know that you return the love that I feel..." He let out a content sigh. "I can't wait until we're married."

He was also hopeful that there wouldn't be a repeat of what happened the last time he thought he was in love. To think that woman had been cheating on him with someone else, it was only fair that he had torn them and their lover apart in the way that he did. So on the off chance that you did start seeing someone else, it would only be natural for him to tear them apart, too.

"Hey! What the hell?!" Anasui was pulled out of his thoughts when the baby happily began gnawing down on his pink hair. "What is this thing?!

"A green baby?" What else did he want you to say? It wasn't like you knew much more than he did.

"Yeah, I know that! But why is it eating my hair?!" Anasui desperately tried to get it to unlatch it's teeth.

"Baby's like to chew on things, don't they? Maybe it's teething?" The Cujoh decided to toss out some ideas. "It is kind of funny though. Maybe it doesn't like you being close to (Y/N). If it really is Dio in some form, wouldn't it have picked up some of his behavior?"

"You stupid baby." Anasui practically threw it at the ground, losing a chunk of hair in the process. "Why the hell would (Y/N) ever pick you over me?"

But the child wasn't listening and instead happily crunched up some dirt. Shoving fistfuls of it into its mouth at a time.

"Wait a second." Yoshikage held a hand, signaling for the rest of you to be quite. You had basically put him on watch duty. "Do you see that?" He did his best to peer into the fog, making out only shadowy silhouettes. He encouraged all of you to hide amidst the grass for now. "There are two of them. They're almost here."