1 High Hopes
"AHHH YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING ME?!!!" A man in a tattered hospital gound screamed on his knees.
This man was not handsome, actually, he was quite ugly. His hairstyle was a disproportioned and lopsided bowl cut. His face had more than 10 scars across it, making him look ferocious and terrifying. A small humanoid stand sat on the man's shoulder with its most prominent feature being its slender and long fingers. The fingers protruded more than 50% longer than normal and had jagged shapes and groves on the sides of them like one would see on a key. It had what looked like brass earphones covering its bald head and 4 symmetrically placed holes in the center of its chest.
This man's name was Jordan Jorlando. He was a regular everyday citizen who had ended up in this world of JoJo after a friend of his made a joke about him being the next 'JoJo' in the series since that was his own nickname. One minute he was reading the text from his friend in bed and the next he was in this patient's body with a stand arrow coming right at him.
At first, he didn't register the events as real, considering that he had easily dreamt of weird things before, but that changed after he felt the near-death experience of the Stand arrow. He quickly realized that this wasn't a dream and his approaching death caused him to fight with all his will to survive. He was overcome with fear, confusion, despair, and then anger. And strangely it was this anger that kept himself from breaking apart completely. With pure anger in his mind, he refused to accept his fate of waking up here and dying to an arrow out of nowhere.
Eventually, he felt the stand arrow effects coming to an end and he knew he had survived it. There was a new connection to his stand in his mind and he reached out to summon it instinctively while reviewing its abilities and information.
{
Name: High Hopes
[Power] - E
[Speed] - A
[Range] - E
[Durability] - D
[Precision] - E
[Potential] - C
======
[Ability]: Absolute Access
}
After seeing the poor stats on his stand, Jordan felt a bitter taste fill his mouth. He had endured death, only to get a stand with 3 E ratings?
'It can't be that bad, right?' He encouraged himself mentally.
He decided to see how low those E stats actually were. He commanded High Hopes to move as far as he could from him to test his range. High Hopes zipped across the area like lightning until it stopped only 7 meters away from him. Seeing this, the hope in Jordan's heart collapsed again.
"High Hopes, come back. " Jordan commanded.
High Hopes came back and merged into Jordan's body seamlessly.
He felt the cold wind blow underneath his hospital gown and shivered. It was time for him to find some better clothing.
He hurriedly stripped off his medical gown and replaced it with a hoodie and shorts from the clothing left on the shelves of a broken-down GAP clothing store.
The sun was beginning to set by the time he left the building and he could vaguely hear some moaning and shuffling sounds in the streets outside. He poked his head out from the broken display case at the front of the store. He could vaguely see a large crowd of humanoids moving in his direction.
It looked like a horde of zombies, by the way they lumbered in the streets.
"Zombies? " Jordan said, confused.
His guess was soon proven mostly correct as the zombified humans began to sprint towards him at high speeds. The image of the zombies was much clearer now that they were within 20 meters. They didn't look dilapidated or rotting, instead, they had strange stalks coming out of their heads with what looked like a flower on top. Their skin and bodies looked incredibly healthy. A bit too healthy.
Each zombie was built like a bodybuilder and had muscles rippling with vitality. Jordan even swore he saw an infant among them, who had a 6 pack.
And yet, despite the bodies of these people, their eyes had no light in them. Perhaps they were only able to perform basic actions.
"High Hopes, protect me," Jordan commanded.
High Hopes appeared from out of Jordan's right shoulder and put his hands up in a claw-like posture, with his long fingers posed to strike.
Jordan continued to watch closely as the first few zombie bodybuilders entered his 7-meter range.
*ROAR*
The flowers on the top of their heads split and opened up. It distorted into horrifying rows of razor-sharp teeth. The zombies below them leaned their heads down slightly as if bowing, to let the plants on their heads devour him.
*ZIP ZIP ZIP ZIP ZIP*
Bolts of blue lightning flashed as High Hopes thrust out his fingers extremely quickly. Five bullet-like holes appeared in the heads of the zombies.
*ROAR*
But this only seemed to make them angrier. The zombies kept moving towards Jordan.
"High Hopes, target the flowers on their heads," Jordan commanded calmly.
*ZIP ZIP ZIP ZIP ZIP*
Five new bullet holes appeared on each of the flowers within the 7-meter range.
*ROA-wheez*
The zombies attempted to roar again but failed as they started to dry up and wither like a raisin.
'It seems even at E power and E precision, High Hopes is still enough to handle normal people.' Jordan analyzed.
"Hmph," Jordan snorted as he gained confidence.
His stand wasn't bad at all. Its greatest advantage is its speed and it could fully make use of its long fingers to deal with anything within its limited range.
He glanced at the rest of the zombies running towards him.
"High Hopes, finish them!" Jordan commanded while walking into them arrogantly.
*ZIP ZIP ZIP ZIP ZIP ZIP ZIP ZIP ZIP ZIP ZIP ZIP ZIP ZIP ZIP ZIP ZIP ZIP ZIP*
*ZAAAAAAP*
The zombies all withered and collapsed, leaving Jordan alone again with only the early moonlight to light up the street.
The wind blew coldly and the distant roars of plant zombies echoed in the distance.
