Author's Note: This is a shorter chapter meant to resolve the cliffhanger ending of Chapter 5. I promise the next chapter will be longer and more battle-focused than this one but I wanted a more talking-based chapter rather than a purely fighting one. Some of the pacings might be off but regardless I enjoyed writing it. If you have any pointers for how I can improve then send them my way! Hope you enjoy reading my work!


Vincent couldn't answer Samantha's question, Jody was his anchor and tears were pouring down his face. Before they started rooming together he couldn't bring up the nerve to talk to a teacher about a typo in a final, let alone be a functioning high school student. Now that Jody was lying unconscious behind Samantha. His lips shoved out an abrupt answer without his consent,

"Voncint Adums and um because we are the good guys and we wanna do the good things and stuff that's good I guess."

He stumbled over his words, his lip trembled like it was going out of fashion as he attempted to stare down Samantha. He couldn't make eye contact with her, it was as though he would be staring into the sun, blinding but still tempting. Vincent wouldn't let alone do any more talking. I'm the brains! Jody talks everyone down, Jody does this stuff! He looked back towards Jody, his wounds were healed but he was spasming at random intervals, similar to a fish flailing on land, but he was still seemingly unconscious. Vincent sighed, his mind began contemplating every possible option he could take. The human brain is the most complex machine on the planet, I need to be able to do this now, right now! He thought frantically. Multitasking was an option but would lead to bad results. Vincent was slipping, struggling to stand on the frozen lake that was his own mind. He added too much to one variable, took too little from another. Nothing was adding up the way he needed it to.

Your pathetic, Vincent you can do better, you need to do better you stupid geek!

Samantha was glaring at Vincent, nearly unfazed. Her poker face was nothing more than a mask, a charade she was playing. Samantha was also doubting her abilities. She had attacked Coach Tabitha so effortlessly in the moment. But as Jody had before her the adrenaline was leaving, ditching her until she truly needed it. Never the less Samantha raised her baseball bat, ready to strike Vincent down. He couldn't do anything, again. He was hopeless, only useful when he could help a heavy hitter. Samantha readied her first and possibly the last strike, she wouldn't be able to take it back if Vincent died, she had to be the judge, jury, and executioner. looking at things scientifically.

The mere moments leading up to the impact of Take me out to the ballgame and Vincent's rattled skull were stretching for what would feel like hours. It's for the better, thieves and stalkers, right? Then before Samantha killed Vincent she felt a tug at her ankle. It was so faint and weak that if she hadn't been thinking so hard she wouldn't have noticed it. Relief flushed over her like water in a toilet, she wouldn't have to end someone's life today. She looked down warily, hoping she wouldn't see what was down there. Her eyes came across Jody's hand gripping her ankle, tightening with every passing second, his hand's faint but secure.

"I will die before I hear some evil villain monologue against one of my boys. I don't know how, I don't know when, but you are going to redeem yourself or die trying. Before that, you're going to get your butt kicked."

He sputtered his words and coughed up spit and mucus. In all accounts, Samantha should have thought he was pathetic, a disheveled and disgraced fallen angel. But she just stood shocked, her mask displayed disappointment and pity, something she was longing to feel herself. She shook her leg out of Jody's hand, then she crouched to look down on him even more. Samantha grabbed his hair and held his head up to look her in the eyes.

Samantha spoke at Jody, not caring for the fact that he wasn't paying attention, looking around the bleachers. Though this wasn't like her, Samantha was quiet and reserved, only showing her enjoyment for something through baseball. Analogies were her bread and butter, school was her black licorice. It existed and some people enjoyed it, but not her. Why was she being so cruel and relentless towards this kid that she barely knew anything about? The word's kept flowing like water out of a beautiful and pristine fountain, even though she tried to close her mouth she couldn't, the power she held felt too great. It was all-consuming and glorious.

Before she could continue belittling him Jody winked. The single-action disrupted Samantha's train of thought, a boulder on the tracks. His neck shifted and slowly he took a big gulp of air. He clearly had a plan, something she didn't. Then the thousand-piece puzzle clicked. Before her mind could even send the stimulus through her nervous system Jody spewed his stand from his mouth. It was a constant eruption, but one Samantha couldn't dodge. She recoiled and swung her stand at him wildly. Before he would be in even more pain Samantha felt a sharp sting in her shoulder. Did Vincent stab me with something while I was focusing on Jody? Her stand disappeared and she grabbed at her shoulder.

Samantha shrieked in absolute and utter pain. She knew nothing was there, no attack could possibly have landed. Before she could collapse to the ground Jody helped her to it. Her shoulder pain receded then came back as blinding flashes of light in her vision, paired with high-pitched screams going off like sirens in Samantha's ears. Her eyes were filling with tears and her ears dripped a slow, but constant trickle of blood. Sweet Dreams could not impart any physical damage onto its targets except for measly bug bites, but its mental capacity was more than infinite, allowing the target to believe they were taking damage. She collapsed. Samantha hadn't realized that some of what Coach Tabitha had said about Jody was true, if he was allowed to unleash the full power of his mental mind games and illusions, it would be complete and utter hell for the person on the other end of his fury. Samantha clasped her hands over her ears and closed her eyelids tight, though the illusions were still visible to her as if they were being broadcast directly into her head. Then, it stopped. The silence was glorious until it continued. The euphoria of peace faded and she was alone.

Everything had stopped. Samantha opened her eyes and saw nothing, her hands moved off of her ears and she heard nothing, she also felt absolutely nothing. She couldn't taste the sand in her mouth or smell the blood on her hands. It was absolute zero, a purgatory of infinite vastness. Jody only allowed her to feel a singular entity, the rest of his stand entering her person and engineering a prison for her within her head. She screamed in retribution, curses, and demonic words, but nothing could break the emptiness. After her peril stopped, she assumed because her voice had given out she excepted her new reality. Samantha would regret everything.

What were mere minutes in this abyss was all Samantha needed to think about everything. At first, she was mad at Jody for imprisoning her, then she felt happy, but before long she felt longing. The last thing she saw was his rough sneakers against the coarse and grainy dirt. They were burned into her mind, they told a story. One not unlike her own, but with more hardships and bumps. There was no sports expertise to carry him, nor a teacher, no matter how evil, supporting him through his time at school. The sneakers which she knew were the quietest in the whole school, expressed an autobiography much more interesting than any in English.


Jody had never truly tortured someone, though he never had the urge to either. Inflicting pain onto others was never what he wanted to do, to strive for. He would much prefer to dive into the psychology and the human psyche. Besides making a teacher in his Geography class see a fly that wasn't in the room or making a kid in the cafeteria slip trying to maneuver their way around a floor full of fake bananas he hadn't tried to let loose. The first time he was even able to truly hurt someone with his stand was the day he met Shizuka and saved her against Hailey, promptly getting his butt handed to him afterward. But this was different. Who did this Samantha A-Baby think she was, belittling him and separating him from him in the battle, she would have to pay then he would make her help them against the other stand user's in the school if her mental breakdown wasn't too severe. He would make her help his cause as a gift, a cruel way of being within the moral high ground, the Everest to social justice warriors everywhere.


Samantha had nearly stopped thinking, unknown to her she was flailing about in the real world trying to feel something. All of her attempts to move were unsuccessful. Consuming wouldn't have been the right word to describe the void, though synonyms of it probably would. Please anything, anything would be amazing a sign that none of this . . . was even real, to begin with! None of what Jody was showing her was real, no matter how strong his illusions were her willpower was stronger. I may not be the brightest bulb, but I can do anything once I've locked onto it! The darkness wavered and Jody peered woefully at Samantha with open and curious eyes. Samantha continued to believe that none of Jody's items were truly real, no matter how strong or insufferable they were. Samantha slowly stopped flailing and the illusion shattered. Crystalline black shards of void spilled across the sand in front of her then vanished. She strongly breathed out of her nose, Jody's pink smoke being ejected from her mind. Samantha looked down at Jody, who looked back at her with equal rage.

"Nobody has ever done that before," Jody said still on the ground, "That's actually pretty cool, how did you do that? Is your willpower that strong? Are you a Green Lantern or something?"

Samantha smirked at Jody's playfulness, somewhat curious about his persistence and she approached him. Vincent chuckled, he had been frozen throughout the entire interaction. He scanned Jody with Digital Witness and found him perfectly fine. When Samantha made her way to Jody she stated,

"You're pathetic and disgusting. That thing you just did was terrifying and you shouldn't do it to anyone ever again, but what I did wasn't much better. Coach Tabitha told me that I was special just because Take me out to the Ballgame, she made me her personal mercenary. I'm sorry, anger issues are my specialty. Still on the fence about helping you, specifically on the side of the fence that doesn't do that. Now, If you'll excuse me I have a baseball game to attend if you wouldn't mind."

Jody nodded, "Wait though. I want to ask you something, you know change your mind."

Samantha stopped and backtracked over to him, "What?" She didn't want to listen to him, but she stuck her soul's hand out. Grasping for a reason to like this disgraced sack of organs and neurons.

"When did you gain your stand?"

The question was so simple in its delivery that Samantha reflexively scoffed. She was about to deliver her answer when she hesitated. It was about 5 and a half weeks before I learned about the baseball team. Something wasn't right, I didn't learn about it, I was told about it, by Coach Tabitha. For the second time in the few minutes, their battle had made Samantha think again, then answered Jody's question.

"I gained my stand when I had an interest in the baseball team, right after I got sick. A bad case of the flu, some old weird strain. Figured it was a gift from God to help me succeed, a blessing that wasn't very well hidden. Turns out I got lucky, no divine intervention to save my sorry butt."

Jody scoffed at the mention of God, "Did anything happen before you got sick, someone I know has a theory?"

"Oh, you mean that girl Shizuka? I heard that you too were getting all lovey-dovey in the bathrooms. Saw some graffiti in the stalls about it also."

Jody's cheeks turned bright red, "No, psssh! No chance in hell I'd make out with her. Nah, no way. I'd touch a piece of dog poop before I would even think about that, Nah. Changing the subject now, did anything happen before you got sick?"

"Yeah scratched my arm on something outside the school, stung like hell too."

"Ok, that will be noted, got that Vincent?" Jody tilted his head over towards Vincent who shook his wearily, "but what exactly did Coach Tabitha tell you about us?"

Samantha was tired of the questioning, Jody had threatened her with empty nothingness, why was she answering his questions? It's because I have too much put into this little debacle. "That you will destroy anyone in your way, which I see as that darkness stunt you pulled. Vincent is a pervert who uses drones and security cameras to look into the girl bathrooms, he'll watch girls and study them, seems like a realistic fetish to me." She looked directly towards Jody, "You lie with every breath and are a wuss who manipulates others. Good enough?"

Both Jody and Vincent's mouths were open, jaws stretched so far they touched the ground. Vincent had been a bystander to the entire comeback Jody had pulled, he was too shocked to talk during the interaction. But this was outrageous. Before he could state his rebuttal Jody stepped up.

"Balderdash! I swear I'm going to murder whoever is doing this! First off I mess with people who actively try and harm me, I don't go up to random strangers and give them a mental breakdown. If we're being frank you made me the pulp in an orange juice can! Vincent wouldn't dare do any perverted stuff, studying girls is something that a social outcast with snot constantly streaming down his nose and braces that cover their entire face would do! Third when your entire stand is illusions you'd think it would reflect how you present yourself. When I can lie my way out of a corner that someone else put me in that is a pretty good skill, is it not?"

Though Jody was furious, each of his statements was calculated and correct.

"So Coach Tabitha lied", Samantha muttered, "makes sense. But why, wouldn't she have a good reason to hurt you?" Samantha gripped her stand, some indecisiveness disguised as courage. Her fuse was shorter than a bomb about to explode.

"Because she's evil. Obviously, some ulterior motive is probably in play, though I'd guess money. She is being employed by the school right? Doesn't that mean the school is evil? Probably would guess that she's not the only staff member to be under this influence.

Samantha was shocked, Jody either had a resolve that was thicker than the toughest metals or was too stupid to see the blatant threat to his well-being. Does he not view me as a threat? Am I that weak compared to him? "You're wasting my time", Samantha spoke attempting to hide her distress, "Don't mess with me again."

Jody seemed amused, "Oh I never stopped messing with you." He closed his right fist and held it up to his mouth, he proceeds to blow on it. His breath seemingly materialized a piece of paper, words written on one end. "Let's see, I can't really hear your thoughts, there more of a buzz in the back of my mind, since your ears aren't really picking up the sound, but I'll try."

Jody cleared his voice, "Doesn't he see me as a bet? Oh, threat! Am I that bleak, weak, compared to thin? Oh him! Wasn't that what you were thinking?"

Samantha was shocked, her pupils shrinking and shaking violently. If they weren't attached to her eyeballs they would have been launched off. How did he know? How could he have possibly known?! Does he have a secondary stand ability, I think I've heard of those before? How, why?

"I'll answer that, or those, questions for you, right after my TED Talk." Jody started pacing, "My stand takes what your sensory organs sense and allow me to filter it. I can pick and choose what you see, hear, feel, taste and smell. Also adding my own input to it. You see, when you think you hear your own voice in your head, right? So I pick up on that and read your thoughts, OooOooO. How am I hearing your thoughts? Because when you snorted out my stand you left just enough of it in your cerebrum for me to pick up on your signals. Figured might as well mess with you while I was at it."

Samantha felt something forcibly coming out of her pores. It wasn't sweat but felt just as sticky. She couldn't see it by she knew it was Jody's stand exiting her head. "You should join us because this entire fight, even preceding it I've messed with you. Never with any intention to kill you, or heck even harm you until meteors came rocketing towards my head. Regardless of other contradictory information, I don't like using my stand. It makes me feel dirty knowing that my only defying feature is my mouth. I need a powerhouse, someone who can stabilize me, but more importantly, I need someone who I can rely on physically. Vincent's my brains, got enough of those."

Jody wanted to use Samantha the same way Coach Tabitha had, but he was a tad bit more sincere. She wasn't a tool, she was an ally, one whose specialties were appreciated and not abused. That got to her. If I'm going to help these people, Jody and Vincent, I need to make sure I'm wanted as a person not just too hit things. "I'm going to help you, but purely out of a common enemy. I do not want to associate with you or Vincent over there."

Jody grimaced, then smiled a wide smile. "Glad to know you are on our side. I know you know where my dorm is. Meet me there after you win your baseball game. Cheerio!" He pivoted 180 degrees and walked away from the baseball stadium."

Vincent shot upwards and jogged over to Jody. "Where are you going?"

"I'm gonna go watch Netflix, I'm tired of fashion disasters attacking me." As Jody walked all of the bugs he manifested curled up like Beyblades and shot towards him, each disappearing once they collided with his leg.

"Um, bye Samantha." Vincent sputtered, ashamed once the words left his lips.

Samantha didn't respond because she was shaken, Jody had so effortlessly changed the situation into one that purely benefited himself, turning the tides of the metaphorical battle. I'm like a baseball caught that was supposed to be a home run, he has changed the very flow of the situation. She like her adversary turned accomplice pivoted at her heels and walked away from the stadium. Each step felt like a mile she stretched, walking away from responsibility felt lifting but also heavy. She was almost liberated.

"I don't really want to play baseball after this, I need to stop thinking for the rest of the weekend, my head hurts from all this debate."

Jody had just made another ally in this bizarre adventure he was taking part in.


Stand Stat's Time Baby!

Stand Name: Take me out to the Ballgame Stand User: Samantha Abebe

Destructive Power: A Speed: D Range: A Durability: C Precision: E Potential: C

*Range refers to the range of the balls struck not the baseball bat itself, that would be an E

The stand manifests as a baseball bat covered in colorful patches. When the bat strikes a projectile that will be launched it will impart the properties of each patch onto the projectile. The two shown patches are fire and healing. When the stand heals it must make physical contact with the person it's healing, it cannot bring back the dead or heal injuries that were obtained through natural causes (cancer, mental disorders, etc.)


Author's Note 2 Electric Boogaloo: Hope you guys liked this chapter, got farther into Jojolion and some Webtoons I've been reading, and definentily want to incorporate come mystery and more mindless fighting into my story. Hope I can get the next chapter squeezed out before mid-July, but no promises. Kinda hope I got across more of the characters in this chapter's personalities, seeing as we'll be seeing more of Samantha. Anyways hope you keep reading my stuff and stay tuned in till the next update! Now off I go to watch more anime!