The city of Luxor, home of the Valley of Kings. It's here where many of the great pharaohs were buried in hopes of protecting their riches from grave robbers. Yet in spite of their efforts, only the tomb of Tutankhamen remained untouched until its discovery in the early 1920s. It was here that the group continued their trek to Cairo, drawing ever closer to DIO's hideout. "The people of the nearby village are descended from grave robbers," Avdol noted, "Even today they dig beneath their homes in search of treasure without the government's permission."

"Do you think there's the possibility of undiscovered tombs somewhere in the valley?," Polnareff asked. "It's possible," Avdol said, "Egypt is a civilization five-thousand years old. With that much history who knows how much of it is still buried in the sands." "I remember first setting foot in Tutankhamen's tomb back in 1922," Jonathan said, "Speedwagon was with me on that day. We were among the people backing Howard Carter's expedition." "I remember studying that," Fluttershy said, "The papers talked about a curse killing eight people who entered the tomb within a span of twelve years."

"I doubt there was any sort of curse on those who entered the tomb," Jonathan said, "Or else all fifty-eight of us who entered would have died in that same short timespan, but there were only eight deaths. Even among those of us who died of illness, it took six decades to finally hit Speedwagon who died of heart conditions." "Hey, where's Mister Joestar?," Hol Horse asked. "He went to the bathroom," Avdol said, "He took Iggy with him in case of trouble."

Polnareff grimaced. "The bathroom, huh?" "Did you need to go?," Jotaro asked. "Even if I did I think I'll wait until we get to the city proper," Polnareff said, "Even without my experience with bathrooms lately I can tell the ones out here aren't what I'm used to." "Probably wise," Avdol admitted, "The bathrooms out here can seem a little unusual, even to most Egyptians. Most foreigners wouldn't be used to them, especially since they're so rare."

"OH MY GOD!," Joseph called out. He was looking at a small ditch in the ground, where several droppings could be seen drying up and crumbling in the wind. "Well, that's an odd choice for a human's bathroom," Iggy noted, "What, do they expect people to squat like we dogs do?" "It's so arid out here the shit dries up and blows away like dust," Joseph noted, "And there's no toilet paper." He then saw a nearby bin filled with sand. "OH MY GOD! This is how you're supposed to wipe your ass!?"

"To be fair, desert sand is pretty sterile," Iggy pointed out, "It's no different than a cat's litter box." He and Joseph immediately left the shack where the bathroom was. "This is the sort of nonsense that's supposed to happen to Polnareff," Joseph complained, "I think I'll do what he normally does and wait until we get to the hotel. What's even the point of this shack? You might as well go behind a rock." "I do that all the time," Iggy said, "I mean, most humans get disgusted when a dog does their business right out in the open."

Joseph then spotted something odd, an electric outlet in the middle of a rock. He looked around the rock, but other than the outlet the rock looked completely normal. "What could this be for? There's no electricity out here." "Careful," Iggy said, "This can't be normal by any standard. Plus I'm smelling cigarette smoke nearby." "That's probably one of the others," Joseph said dismissively, "We do have several smokers in our group. You're not smelling anything else?" Iggy twitched his nose, but stuck his tongue out in disgust. "No, the smoke's too strong."

Joseph placed his hand on the outlet, and wound getting a massive electrical shock which threw him backward. "Okay, that was weird," he said, "I didn't even stick my fingers in the sockets, but I still got jolted." "Mister Joestar," Avdol said as he approached, "We should get going." "Yeah, sure," Joseph said, "But something's weird about this outlet." As he walked off, he didn't notice the young woman on the cliff overlooking the shack. Her name was Mariah, and the outlet was actually her Stand Bast.

"Boys are always so touchy-feely," she noted, "But it's a good thing I'm a chain smoker, or that dog would've made me. Then Joestar would never have touched my Stand." She snapped her fingers, causing the outlet to disappear. "Now all I have to do is maintain the proper distance, and from there it's a waiting game. Joseph Joestar is more durable than most of my targets, so it'll take quite some time. I'm only too happy to serve Lord DIO in this instance but... Why did I have to team up with that disgusting Alessi?"

Back in the village, Joseph worked the fingers on his prosthetic hand as the group sat down at an open-air cafe. "Blasted thing's been acting up a lot since I touched that odd outlet." "Well it does keep getting damaged," Fluttershy pointed out, "Maybe the Speedwagon Foundation should update the specs?" Nearby, the radio seemed to be going to static. "Hey, what's the deal there?," Polnareff asked. "No idea," the waiter said, "This was made in Japan and I just bought it."

Joseph then noticed his left hand had a bottle cap stuck to it. "At our current pace we'll reach Cairo in two days," Avdol said, "But must of us sustained injuries and all of us are a little exhausted. Perhaps we should spend the night here in Luxor." "That's not a bad idea," Polnareff said, "Most of the Stand users we've encountered since we came to Egypt are on a whole new level. DIO certainly knows how to pick his elite guard." "I think we could all use a good rest," Joseph admitted, "But don't let your guard down."

"Practice what you preach," Hol Horse said, "You've got several more bottle caps stuck to your backside." Joseph looked behind him to see he was right. "How the hell did those get there?" He got up and went to remove them, and Fluttershy grabbed a bottle opener that somehow made to follow him. "Something's odd here. Ever since Mister Joestar went to that bathroom." "Hey the radio started working again," the water said as Joseph walked away, "Did that man have a magnet on him?"

"Did he say magnet?," Joseph asked, still behind some of the rocks so he could try and remove the bottle caps, "I don't normally carry magnets." The group soon went looking for a hotel, passing a carpenter as they did. "What the...?," the man said as Joseph passed by him, "Why does my hammer feel so heavy?" Joseph whirled his head around and quickly backed away, letting the carpenter breathe a sigh of relief as his hammer seemed to return to its normal weight.

Joseph rubbed his chin. "This only seems to happen around metal objects, or anything else that can be affected by a magnet. And for some reason it all seems to be centered around me." That seemed to be the biggest problem as the group reached the hotel, due to Fluttershy using her Stand to cover Joseph in insulating wood. Mariah scoffed when she saw this. 'One of my Stands weaknesses. As far as its power goes, it acts like magnets would normally. Still, she can't keep that barrier up forever. I'll just have to come up with a plan to isolate Joestar from the rest of the group, or at least the girl.'

The next morning Joseph was woken up by Avdol as the rest of the group was down below wanting breakfast. "It's too bad there's no McDonald's in Luxor," Fluttershy lamented, "Then again, it's too early in the day for a Quarter Pounder." "Oh, you still call it that in Japan?," Polnareff asked, "Even though you use the metric system?" "Yeah," Fluttershy replied, "Why, what do you call it in France?" "A Royal Cheese," Polnareff said with a shrug.

Upstairs, Joseph managed to wake up and checked his watch. "That's strange. My watch stopped working. Whatever was affecting me yesterday hasn't stopped." "You seem to have picked up some more metal objects as well," Avdol noted. As Joseph got himself dressed, a nearby chair suddenly moved to attach to him. "And whatever it is seems to be getting stronger," Avdol remarked. Hol Horse and Jonathan were waiting just outside the room. "Has there been any change?," Jonathan asked.

"In all the worst ways," Joseph replied, "Rather than wearing off, this unusual magnetic force that seems to be surrounding me is getting stronger. I'm starting to think that outlet I touched was some sort of Stand. And if that's the case, the Stand user must be somewhere in the hotel." Carefully the group made their way to where Fluttershy was waiting, since she proved effective at blocking the magnetic force the previous day. However, trouble struck when they got to escalator.

Because it was made from steel, Joseph wound up getting stuck to it, and his prosthetic arm also stuck to the sides. "Mister Joestar!," Avdol called out. Just ahead of Joseph was a young woman, whose decorative chains also got attracted to Joseph's body, causing them to get caught around his neck and the crevices of the escalator. The woman turned her head and chuckled, and Joseph realized what was wrong. "So it's you! You're the Stand user!" "That's right," the woman, Mariah, said, "When you touched my Stand, Bast, that's when you sealed your fate. Have fun, Joseph Joestar."

Avdol quickly ran down the escalator as Mariah walked away into the crowd and hit the emergency stop on the side of the railing. Joseph got up, only to have an ashtray smack into the back of his head. "Now that's just insulting..." "Hey, I think I spotted that woman," Hol Horse said. As the two Joestars went after her, Avdol found himself having to stop a giant metal statue that nearly toppled onto Joseph. They two men chased Mariah, until they reached the ladies' room. "Damn it," Joseph said.

"She's not in there anymore anyway," Jonathan noted, "I can't feel her life energy." "How could you tell?," Joseph pointed out. "Unlike you I've kept up with my Hamon practice," Jonathan reminded him, "Experience has let me differentiate between individual life forces. And those of Stand users are particularly strong." Joseph nodded. "Then maybe she didn't enter here at all, but tried to make us think she did."

He then heard a gunshot from outside. "That must have been Hol Horse! Maybe they found her!" They hurried out to where Hol Horse and Avdol were waiting, and got a surprise when Avdol wound up flying at Joseph. "I may have forgotten to mention," Avdol said, "I accidentally touched that same outlet when I went for the emergency button." Joseph facepalmed. "We need to keep them separated," Jonathan said, "Hol Horse, grab Avdol. I'll charge Joseph with a magnetic Hamon charge."

"How do we know whether its a negative or positive charge?," Hol Horse asked. "We don't," Jonathan said, "But we only have two choices. If one doesn't work, simply try the other." A negative charge seemed enough to separate the two men. "So long as that charge is active you shouldn't stick together," Jonathan noted, "But both charges still attract metal. That Stand user can't be too far away from us, let's look for her."

They looked around, and spotted Mariah at the bottom of a nearby hill. "There she is!," Joseph called out. "Let me and Hol Horse get down there first," Jonathan said, "We're not yet magnetized, and there are metal train tracks at the bottom." "Just keep an eye out," Hol Horse said, "She'll likely set her Stand up somewhere nearby to trap us." "We both have long range attack Stands," Jonathan noted, "We can probably hit her from here. And if we can force her far enough away, it will cancel her Stands effect."

"Don't get too comfortable boys!," Mariah called out, "I can still attack from over here." She bent over as if to show off her breasts, which suddenly began to expand. "OH MY GOD!," Joseph called out, "Don't tell me she got something metal hidden in her bra!" "You're less dirty than I thought if that's the first thing you thought of!," Mariah admitted, as several metal nuts and bolts came bursting out of her brassiere.

Hol Horse aimed his gun, but Mariah laughed. "You think a metal gun can help you? Did you forget your friends are--" But she stopped laughing as the first bullet grazed her cheek. "Did you forget how your own power works?," Hol Horse said with a smirk, "My bullets are made from lead, a metal that can't be affected by magnets. Of course most lead bullets are strengthened by iron, but my bullets don't need that because they're strengthened by my very life energy."

Mariah suddenly grew very angry, which started making her hideous. "You dare put a scratch on my face! You bastard Hol Horse, I'll kill you for that!" "Good grief," Hol Horse said, "Most girls I've met get cuter when they're angry, but you're the first I've seen who stops being cute." Mariah scoffed, then started running. "She's getting away!," Avdol said. "She won't go far," Jonathan said, "If she gets too far away from us her powers will stop working. But now she knows she also needs to maintain cover to avoid our longer ranged Stands."

Joseph looked at the ground around them. "Plenty of sand to work with. Hermit Purple!" His Stand pierced the ground, kicking up sand and creating a map of the village, along with a small pebble moving along the roads, and an X drawn at their location. "The pebble indicates where the woman is," Joseph explained, "And it looks like she's up near a loop in the road. Perfect, we can catch her there. I know just how we're going to beat her."

As Mariah continued down the road, she saw only Avdol and Joseph running after her. 'They'll slow down as soon as too many objects hit them. The real question is, where are the other two? I wasn't able to tag them with my Stand.' Soon enough Avdol split off, and moments later Joseph was starting to get weighed down. Mariah smiled. "Looks like you can't run anymore." Joseph smirked. "It's not like I have to. Look behind you."

She turned and saw Avdol had suddenly gotten ahead of her. Despite this, she just laughed. "You actually thought you were hunting me? I led you right here. Look above you." She took out a knife and threw it at some power cables. But as the cables got severed, they were cut off on the other end by a speeding bullet and grabbed by beams of light. Mariah gasped as Hol Horse appeared, gun drawn. "Nice try little lady. But you forgot there were four of us. And me and the older Mister Joestar never touched your Stand."

Mariah frowned. "You were never that accurate before. How did you get so good?" Hol Horse shrugged. "Call it a boost in confidence. The Emperor tarot suggests taking control of your own life, but I had always lived life being the number two. Once I started thinking and acting for myself, my Stand got more accurate as a result. Guess I just needed to be true to the tarot card I represent. By the way, as you may have guessed, Jonathan's on the roof behind you."

Up above, Jonathan appeared. "You've got one chance. You may not realize it, but we're in a perfect position to finish you here and now. So remove your Stand, or this fight will end badly for you." Mariah and laughed again. "Like you even have a leg to stand on. That sort of bluff won't work on me." She smirked as a large car rammed into Avdol. "You see," she said, "There's no way you can win." Joseph smirked. "If that's the case, then there's no choice. You really should be more attentive. It's hard for me to believe you're supposed to be one of DIO's elite, if you can't even observe the battlefield."

He then opened his hand, revealing he had been holding onto a drainage ditch. Mariah gasped. 'How did I miss that they weren't getting drawn to each other?' "By now the Hamon charge I put on my grandson wore off," Jonathan noted, "You've been caught in an effective pincer attack." Before Mariah could react, Joseph and Avdol slammed into her, crushing her with the weight of all the metal objects they had collected. Before long she lost consciousness, causing her Stand to deactivate.

"Well, that takes care of that," Joseph said as he and Avdol removed themselves from the metal pile. "Look like she's still alive," Hol Horse noted, "But I'd wager the weight of all those metal items and the magnetic force itself crushed quite a number of her bones. She's in no condition to come after us again." "In that case let's go meet up with the others," Joseph said, "I'm starting to look forward to that breakfast." "After all the running around we did, I am feeling hungry," Avdol noted.

Back at the hotel, Polnareff, Jotaro, Fluttershy, and Iggy were still waiting for the others. "Good grief, it's taking them so long," Polnareff said. "It's only Nine AM," Fluttershy pointed out, "Still, they have taken longer than they should. You think maybe they found the one responsible for Mister Joestar's odd condition?" "If so we should go look for them," Jotaro said. As they walked off, they didn't see another man nearby. "Mariah is busy dealing with the other four," he said, "So it's up to me to deal with these three."

BUM BUM BUM! Dramatic reverb...