Sorry it's been so long, but the story's continuing where it left off with the second part of how the Jonathan wound up in the alter verse.

Continuing the story from the past, it was the night after Jonathan and Speedwagon were given the circus tickets. They along with Twilight and Erina were heading for the large tent. "Reminds me of PT Barnum's show," Twilight noted. Jonathan stopped just outside the ticket booth and chuckled. "Come to see the show, Master Zeppeli?" Sure enough, Zeppeli surprised the group by stepping out from the middle of the crowd. "My word Jojo, how on Earth could you tell it was me?"

"You might have been able to mask your presence," Jonathan explained, "But your Hamon signature is still strong enough for me to detect." Zeppeli chuckled. "Still keeping up with your practice I see." Jonathan shrugged. "Just because we defeated Dio doesn't mean other undead foes won't show themselves. We never did finish off all his followers." Zeppeli nodded. "Yes, tracking these zombies is what lead me here. I have reason to believe some undead are hiding among the circusfolk. With the natural oddities one finds among the circus's whimsy, it would be easy to blend in."

"We came here on request of Her Majesty," Speedwagon explained, "To track a mystery behind disappearing and reappearing children." Twilight looked at the tent. "A house divided perhaps. We spoke with the children involved. None of them were undead, and had no memory of their time while missing. The last thing they remember is being invited by colorful circus performers to a sort of wonderland before waking up in their parents' homes." Zeppeli stroked his mustache. "Most peculiar. Perhaps we'll get more answers within."

Inside the tent a young gentleman with bright red hair and bearing a skeleton-like prosthetic hand greeted them as ringmaster. "Welcome, ladies and gentlemen all," he said in a pronounced Irish accent, "I am Joker, your Master of Ceremonies for the evening." He continued to speak as he juggled. "It is our hope as the proprietors of the Noah's Ark Circus that you all leave here with smiles on your faces. Or else our jobs are for nothing." He took a quick bow as the balls he was juggling bounced comically off his head, getting some early laughs in already.

The performers that night included a tightrope walker named Doll, a young teenage girl dressed all in white, the animal tamer Beast, an older woman with black hair, the knife thrower Dagger, a blond-haired young man, the fire-breather Jumbo, a large tattooed man, and the twin trapeze artists Peter and Wendy, a boy and girl who seemed almost joined at the hip when not performing. After the show Joker surprised the Joestar group by approaching them. "I see you got our invites."

"I didn't know you were the one sending the tickets," Jonathan noted. Joker led them backstage. "Me and my friends have known about the kidnappings for some time now. In fact, we almost got roped into them." "How do you mean?," Erina asked. "We used to be a bunch of orphans," Joker explained, "Until our current patron, the Baron Kelvin, took us in. We worked for the sake of the orphanage we came from, him always dangling that fact over our heads."

He clenched his good hand. "But when he spoke of kidnapping kids for reasons unknown, I had to assure myself it was for a good cause. So I went back to remind myself what I was working for." His eyes misted over with tears. "Imagine my shock to learn the place had closed down, all our friends gone. I brought the others and they were just as horrified. We suspected Kelvin was behind it. He must have realized his hold over us was null, because he dropped our end of the bargain. He still let us work here and get our prosthetics maintained, he was decent enough for that."

"So then why have the kidnappings still happened?," Erina asked. "It's because Kelvin made a offer to the second-tier performers," Joker explained, "If they could bring him enough children, he would promote them to first-tier." He closed his eyes and sighed. "There wasn't anything we could do to stop it, but we could mitigate the damage." Twilight's eyes widened. "I knew your energy felt familiar. You're a Stand user, like me." "You have it too, then?," Joker replied, "All us first-tiers, plus the doctor taking care of us, have Stands."

"And this helps you release the children?," Zeppeli asked. "After a while," Joker said with a nod, "For starters there's my Stand, which I call Winkin Blinkin and Nod. It puts anyone I want into a dreamless sleep. While in that state, anyone who doesn't have my express permission can neither touch that person nor wake them up. And if they try, my Stand violently rejects them while protecting the subject. Kelvin and his cronies learned that the hard way. He's still sporting the injuries."

Joker led the group to the medical tent, where Beast was getting her left leg checked over by a doctor. Erina noticed that the leg was prosthetic. "Do all your friends have prosthetics?," she asked. Joker nodded. "Me, Beast, and Dagger lost limbs, Doll's missing her eye, Peter and Wendy had replacement ribs. It's all been taken care of by Doctor Frankenstein here." "Victor Frankenstein," the doctor said, "A pleasure to make your acquaintance. You'll have to excuse my rudeness, but I tend to get absorbed in my work."

Zeppeli noted the corpse parts. "Freshly dug from local graveyards," Frankenstein explained, "Kelvin wanted to use children's bones, but I told him that first, such an act is amoral even by the actions I've taken in the course of my research and second, the bones would be far too small for adults. I've found it better to go for quality over quantity, finding corpses that are roughly the same size as my patients. And if there are discrepancies, which are likely to occur, then I have my Stand to fall back on."

Twilight noticed a large, patchwork man standing behind Frankenstein. "You can see it, yes?," Frankenstein as he looked back at Twilight, "This is Doctor Feelgood, the perfect medical assistant. With him I can alter biological matter at the cellular level. It can work on plants, but I normally work with animals, humans in particular. It's especially useful for insuring the prosthetics fit perfectly and are not rejected." Erina walked over. "May I examine your work. I happen to work in nursing."

Beast nodded as Erina examined the prosthetic. "I see... It almost resembles the real thing, and it's smoother." "So Doctor," Jonathan said, "You said Kelvin originally wanted to use children for this?" "Yes, horrible as it is," Frankenstein explained, "People called me a maniac for trying to craft life through science. But Kelvin is a true monster far worse than any I could craft with my own two hands."

Back in the present, George was going over the story as his father told it. Jonathan had apparently written everything in his journal. "George," Gyro said, "We're getting ready to start." "So we're planning on taking out Eight Fingers before continuing to restore the Spirit Tracks," George noted. Gyro nodded. "We can't have those guys using the tracks for their own criminal schemes, after all. Especially since the Ancient One said the tracks are getting to point where the energy of people can continued to expand them." The two friends walked out to where the rest of the adventurers were waiting.