Session 41 (Season 1)

This is the forty-first episode of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Binding of Chains.

## I Win...

Jeremy, John, Melissa, and Zach noticed Nelson patching himself following the fight and the needle in his hand. The Foundation agent explained that it was his Stand, allowing him to act as a healer at the cost of him rapidly aging temporarily, as demonstrated on Zach. Jeremy explained the situation at hand, what with the Apex Cult being responsible for Italy’s destruction, and one of their current member’s plans with Manhattan. Coincidently, Nelson received a distress signal in Manhattan from some operatives already there, giving them a reason and place to go to. The group learned that currently they were in Washington D.C., but a helicopter ride awaited them just a walk down the hall with Nelson in the lead.

The group curiously investigated some secured and contained objects such as: a strange two person stone statue that may have moved on it’s own, a pizza box, and a cannabis plant in the center of a jungle like room. They soon arrived in the hanger, which only had a single helicopter available for the group alone. With the other copters destroyed, they made do and climbed aboard. On the ride, they explained their individual involvement with the cult, such as Jeremy’s and later Zach’s forced trip into the turtle world, and John and Melissa’s encounter in the Orme tournament. All of which left Nelson a little dumbfounded, but what was even more bizarre was on Zach’s phone.

Being the only person with an electronic device at the moment, Zach’s phone received some private photos of the group. A photo of Jeremy, resting in a bed in the night of Orme, along with a sleeping Melissa and John, and finally a selfie of the blonde girl Oliva and an unconscious Jeremy with the caption: “Sleep well Jeremy.” Another series of texts were delivered to Zach’s phone: “You're all in last place right now.” and  “You won't be able to make it in time for something special…” Lastly another text: “ You should say hi to Ben-chan and Lamb-kun :) ,” as a photo of both Benjamin and Lambrusco sleeping in a train car, albeit in separate beds, was sent. The duo that nearly killed Jeremy and his companions were on their way to Manhattan as far as they could tell, but this time around trying to help Jeremy.

As they neared their destination, and Jeremy reminisced on their adventures, the helicopter began to rapidly lose altitude. Preparing for the upcoming crash, Melissa grabbed Jeremy and leaped out whilst Zach parachuted down to safety with the remaining two. Their destination was right ahead, a church with a broken down door all the way inside. Melissa had a special plan in mind, feeling in on the life energies in the church to determine they were not alone. They ventured down the church, going down a stairwell to find a vault door locked behind a keypad. After putting in “1985,” it opened with the text “Interesting date Jeremy-kun.” As the door slowly opened, the group saw Jeremy’s ex-enemies Benjamin and Lambrusco, along with the Speedwagon Foundation member Ellis, and...Oliva with a cross of pink hair and her classic blonde hair.

## 俺の勝ちだ...

Benjamin, Lambrusco, and Ellis continued their fight against the Stand, Vaporwave. All of this while Ellis’ Speedwagon Foundation allies and Singola were unconscious on the ground. After kicking it, it then was blown back with one of Lambrusco’s signature Divine Sandstorms. It retrieved it’s shotgun and snatched both the Speedwagon workers and Singola, and hurried to the church. When Lambrusco charged through the air to tackle the Stand, it’s ability activated. Slowing Lambrusco to a halt as he got closer, freezing him mid-air. The effects of the Stand were connected to a short range, as once it got 5 meters away Lambrusco returned to normal. Leaving charging it as an option, Ellis used Retribution to injure the Stand from afar to cause it to drop it’s victims, but was forced to pick between the Speedwagon members and Singola.

Singola was dropped when Ellis injured one of the Stand’s arms, but was determined to immediately follow the Speedwagon men being taken into the church. Picking up Singola, Ben followed Ellis and Lambrusco who went along as well. They trailed it all the way to a  recently shut wooden door, smashing it down as they pursued the Stand down a tight, stone stairwell. Finding a vault door blocking their path, Ben and Ellis worked together to quickly break it down, and triggered an alarm. On the other side was something like a factory of robotic figures, about two dozen that blocked the way to a door at the end of this factory-esque area.

A speaker system activated, and a purely cold and robotic voice demanded they ceased their movement. The voice explained that for many weeks, him and his allies have been working on a plan to enter Rome with an army of cybernetic men, augmented with the technology to survive the toxic environment of the Italian city. Operation Stahl Blitz Laufen, as the plan was called, forcefully took civilians and converted them into cyborgs, whether willing or not. This infuriated Ellis as he would not tolerate Speedwagon men being used in such a way, and the others were also against this, preparing themselves for the upcoming fight. The voice then activated one of the many drones standing in front of them, leading to a battle. Lambrusco blasted down the door at the end of the factory, revealing the foundation members tied up in a series of wires. Ellis promptly went to save them while Lambrusco and Ben were behind to fight off the numerous robots.

Within this processing room, Ellis found his comrades and the person responsible for this. A metallic head and spine connected to the wires across the room, inspecting the men before their cyberization. The two clashed as the head launched wires at Ellis, and he promptly smashed into his metal skull, revealing the bits of organic tissue within. Meanwhile Lambrusco and Ben proceed to dismantle another robot just as Ellis smashed through the noticeably organic bits of the cyborg’s head. This caused the wire room to go haywire as the drones desperately attempted to block the room before Lambrusco fired a concentrated ball of wind at the head, and ripping it straight off of the wires. Ellis hurried over to pull down his fellow men, and the group prepared to leave. Just as they were exiting, the cyborg, named Lucius Stahl, announced one final message, that he had finally figured out where the single piece of technology they couldn’t take or destroy was; the AI born from the brainwaves of numerous adolescent test subjects from 80 years ago: Alexa.

## Love Circulation

Ellis, Lambrusco, and Benjamin prepared to exit the vault, only to discover that the door was back in place and repaired. It was then that Singola reawoke and announced the group didn’t have much time, and that she needed the bionic legs Ellis had been carrying ever since they left Kansas City. Elllis, although hesitant, agreed and handed the legs, which promptly dismantled themselves and absorbed into Singola’s own in a bright light. Singola dropped out of Ben’s grip, and looked back on the journey. From stealing the bionic parts of the traitors to the Apex Cult beginning at the hotel with the first man’s entire chest, to the dinosaur man’s arms, just as she began walking towards the metal head at the opposite end of the facility. Ellis immediately detected the malicious intent in her voice, but saw it wasn’t towards him and the other two. As she sprinted to the end of the room, dropping her TURBO goggles and helmet, the group saw that the top of her head was blonde while the sides were pink. Just as this happened, the vault door crept open behind the three.

Jeremy, with an “ohayo” to Singola, or Oliva, greeted the young girl as she was already far down the room. Nelson shouted Ellis’ name in the confusion that he seemed to be the apparent distress signal, but also asked about Singola running down the room. The two groups explained more or less their situations to each other, and importantly that Zach, Jeremy, Melissa, and John were here because of Oliva, aka Singola. This was especially because of Ben and Lambrusco’s encounter with the girl under a different name and appearance back in the Orme tournament: Alexa. Ellis hurried to stop what was going underway, and had Lambrusco punch Ellis towards Singola’s target of the metal skull, and imbued it with his karma.

At this time Jeremy announced the connection between Singol**a** and Aceto, remembering that Aceto’s father’s last name was Singol**o**, in addition to her pink hair, and determining that Oliva is Aceto’s daughter. This conflicted with what the train group knew, with Singola being a combination of multiple people, but at the same time not announcing who the man of her paternal side was. Either way Lambrusco was conflicted that Oliva would trick the three of them, but as Jeremy prepared to fire an arrow at Oliva/Singola, she held something.. Within her hand was the metal skull and spine, and she gave a malicious look as she announced: **“I win.”**

The room turned a blinding, white color, and the whole group could barely move. A woman’s voice asked them if they felt something, a lovely feeling circulating through the air. The woman announced her new Stand as:「Love Circulation」. The person moved closer from the horizon, creating water like ripples with their steps. A woman appeared before them, with brown eyes, and long pink hair with traces of blonde, along with a blue dress covered by a metal vest, metal boots, and metal gloves. A matured Oliva/Singola, who had grown physically and with her Stand, merging it with herself and the cybernetic parts she obtained. She pulled up and healed Ellis, Lambrusco, and Ben from their positions and told them their real worries were Jeremy, Melissa, John, and Zach. She also assured Ellis that his foundation allies were safely outside the church, but also requested that the three help her kill the four sitting in front of them.

Ben loved the idea of killing Jeremy, but wanted to forgive him for Lambrusco’s death at the castle. The reason Singola wanted to kill Jeremy was for killing her back in the turtle, but Lambrusco tried to reason against anyone dying. He tried to reason with Singola, but this confused and angered her as she went to Ben to assist her. Reasoning that Ben’s distaste for Jeremy would convince her, it was apparent that all Ben really felt was hate towards Jeremy and nothing more. As Lamb tried to reason once more, Singola sought out Ellis’ help, stating that logically speaking, Jeremy deserved to die. Ellis asked and received an explanation for the events that transpired in Orme, with Singola having been already defeated and weakened, and attempted to leave the island, only to be killed by Jeremy for trying to obtain the arrow for Apex. Throughout this Jeremy simply said he did what he thought had to be done, but didn’t want his allies to die with him. Lambrusco tried one more time to firmly reason with Singola, approaching her, talking to her about the path Apex had set her up on, as the others watched as things unfolded.

Singola kept moving away, yelling how she hated Jeremy, as Lambrusco hugged onto her as she began sliding backwards. A yellow mist covered the surrounding area, blocking everyone’s sights on Lambrusco and Singola who were being dragged across the room, with Lambrusco being kept along a rope tied onto him by Zach. This was when she prepared a massive beam of light across the mist, being shot slightly off course but reached Ellis, who instinctively deflected it, appearing to be non-threatening however. The cloud blocking Lamb and Singola settled, and everyone saw the two locked in a struggle. Zach prepared to pull Lamb back, but Lambrusco snapped the rope and remained where he was. Ben and Ellis immediately rushed to the two, as Zach panicked at the possible danger that awaited. Singola was confused by the three’s plan, just as Lamb went to hug Singola. Lamb prompted Ben to come over, and Ellis approached without caution and watched as Ben and Lamb embraced her. Initially panicked, she went quiet as she fell out of their grasp in a bright light, stating she had a bit of Niente-sensei’s power left and manifested a card in her hand. She announced she was grateful to have met Lamb-kun, Ben-chan, and Ellis-san and tossed the card to them as they fell through the floor. Ellis, Ben, and Lamb found themselves outside the church and trying to break back in, cracking the wall only to see Jeremy’s arrow nearly miss them. Picking up the card, the group saw an image of an upside mountain, and at the apex was a colosseum. Shattering the walls further, they kept making their way towards the battle, avoiding the hazards redirected from the battle and in their faces, including Melissa Steel herself.

Singola had one last thing to do, keeping to her words that she would kill Jeremy. As she moved closer, Jeremy’s arrow went through her body in a shimmer of light, but the others managed to destroy some of her equipment. As she went to kick Jeremy, Melissa ended up blocking it, prompting her to undo everyone’s actions like a video being rewound, ending back up to the beginning of the fight. Nearing closer again, with her equipment being destroyed as she ended up sending Melissa through a sudden fault. As she went up to Jeremy she whispered something for Zach to hear later: "Tell Zach my father wants to try his cooking." Just as this was said, she went to punch Jeremy with minimal force, just as Ellis, Ben, Lamb, and now Melissa arrived back on the scene. Not trying to kill Jeremy anymore, she announced that she couldn’t have her father know what happened, as he sees everything. With a snap, her head exploded as she said “Sayonara, for now.” Everyone was alarmed by the sudden explosion, and her body began to break down into mainly mechanical bits and nanobots, causing the church to fade back to normal.

With some conflicted feelings, the group began to think on their next plan. Ellis interjected, stating that they needed to immediately grab his supervisor Nelson, and head out to prevent anything else caused by the Apex Cult, by destroying them. With a card in their possession, Ellis immediately grabbed his supervisor who happened to be residing on the street and watching the Speedwagon agents being put into an ambulance, informing him of the situation at hand. Ellis believed the group had to be enough to destroy the Apex Cult, and readied himself with the others. “Take me home, to the Apex”, were the words uttered to take them to the gaseous site of the Roman Colosseum, to which Ben immediately applied the healing nuke. The bomb, rendering the air breathable for a moment, allowed them to locate the entrance below...