Ocellus had recounted to the team about her quick flight across the jungle to take down Crocodile Rock and its Stand master, Placid Lake. After dealing with him, she had stumbled around the jungle for a while, a little unsure of the way back, but it was then that she found herself approaching the beach on the north side of the island.

At first, it had been nothing out of the ordinary, just the glimmering waves upon the powerful sea of Polynesia, and the hot sun up in the sky. But then the sun disappeared behind a pillar of cloud and fog and it was there that Ocellus had realized it was only foggy thirty degrees in front of her. In three minutes, the sun was back, away from the clouds as it rained its heavy ultraviolet rays down on anyone away from shelter.

“That’s odd. Why is it only foggy here?” Ocellus wondered out loud.

And then something brief reflected at the corner of her eyes. She looked back down at the ocean’s surface, just in time to see something disappear under the waves.

“I waited there to catch it again,” Ocellus told her friends. “It was orange and white, something like a lifebuoy, but more oval. It moved like it had a mind of its own. It has to be there. The TWIsland.”

“Ocean Man’s Charter,” Subterra said. “That’s it. You found it! We found TWI’s island!”

“So, it’s just a matter of catching it now, is it?” Shiho held one hand in the other, wiggling her fingers back and forth. “So let’s go. I’ll get the Brandy 2 around and we can get after it.”

“It won’t be so easy,” Subterra said. “And Leilani still needs to rest. She can’t continue on in this state.”

“No, we cannot rest.” Leilani sat across from them, leaning against the cafe’s oven, surrounded by bloodied rags and old bandages. She had newer bandages wrapped around her chest wound where Sharks had stabbed her. “God did not rest until the last day of Creation. I will not rest until we see the end of this unholy plan against mankind. No matter how good and just one’s goal is, if they have to murder, steal and cheat their way to get it, it cannot be considered good.”

“Right.” Ocellus gave her a pat on the shoulder. We can take her with us. After all, we’ll be in the boat. She can rest there.”

“Then let’s get to it. We’re wasting time.” Shiho was the first to leave the cafe, heading for the dome’s exit.

Subterra and Ocellus helped support Leilani all the way back down to the boat. Though it wasn’t an easy trek, with their Stand’s helping them, they got there a lot faster than the normal person.

Shiho was already in the Brandy 2, its engines rolling. Subterra helped Leilani sit, and before she could even find a seat herself, Shiho had already sped off down the blue waters, heading north along the island’s perimeter.

“So it looks like a lifebuoy?” Shiho asked as she eased up on the throttle. “It’s an effect generated by a Stand, yes? So it stands to reason that only Stand users can see it.”

“Then it’s lucky we’re all Stand users,” Ocellus said.

“Assuming we can pick it out among all the rubbish in the sea,” Shiho said, taking a beer out of the fridge on the Brandy 2 and opening it with a hiss. “Although, I don’t see that much rubbish in this part of the ocean. It’s clean. Suspiciously clean.”

As the boat came around the north side of Nuku Hiva, Ocellus directed their attention towards the foggy area ahead where she had seen it when she was out in the jungle. “Right there. The Charter’s moving around here somewhere.”

“Wait, if it’s just a smokey blotch on the sea, then isn’t it obvious where the island is?” Shiho scoffed as she gunned the boat’s engines. “That means the island’s right there.”

“No, it doesn’t work like that,” Subterra started, but Shiho already had her mind set.

The Brandy 2 sailed into the fog; the sea became noticeably more violent and rough, and visibility shrunk to a mere meter in front of their faces, which meant none of them could see anything in front of the boat.

“Shiho, we need to turn the boat around and get out of this!” Ocellus grabbed her shoulder. “We can’t find the island this way!”

“B. S.” Shiho shrugged her arm off. “If we travel far enough, we’re bound to find it.”

“It doesn’t work like that!” Subterra added to the debate. “This is Ocean Man’s power. It hides the island completely. That includes just sailing up to it. It’ll be like it doesn’t even exist in the real world.”

“Good grief…” Shiho fought to maintain control of the boat’s wheel, but eventually decided to turn it around.

As they began speeding back in the opposite direction, the fog eventually began to lighten and soon, they were back out in open skies again, though with the sunlight shining harshly against their exposed skin.

“Right, this Charter, then.” Shiho stopped the boat’s engine and waited till it slowed to a standstill before planting one foot on her chair as she surveyed their surroundings. “How fast does it move? Curtain Call has good accuracy. If it comes close, I’ll catch it.”

“It-it isn’t that easy,” Subterra said.

Shiho snorted and drank from her little flask. She waited, narrowing her eyes to focus her view as she leaned on one knee. Waves crashed around their boat, splashing water into the hot air around them. Shiho hadn’t been born early enough to know what it was like to go to the beach with her parents. That was a luxury her mother had when she was younger. All she had ever known about beaches and the sea was the trash washed up on shore and the zealous hunters out over the water looking for fish, a resource that had started to disappear drastically as more and more fishermen went out to sea.

And now here she was, though for a much different reason, but all the same, this was an experience she never thought she would have.

“Right now. I’m going to finish this. I’m going to get us to that island.” Shiho steeled her resolve as she clenched both fists. “I’m getting my granny back.”

And there it was, sailing just over the water’s surface through the fog. Its orange body was a stark contrast over the blue waters. It did a spin, then dived down under the water only to come back up three meters away.

Shiho took her jacket off, handing it to her Stand. With a swish of its cloth, Curtain Call turned it into a lasso. It coiled one end beside its hip before swinging the other end above its head. The loop swung around in the air above Shiho and her Stand, making whipping noises as it caught the air around it.

With a flick of its arm, Curtain Call threw the loop out over the water, just as the Charter sped by. The rope tightened around one of its four spikes coming out from around its round body.

“Got it. Leilani, reverse!” Shiho gripped the side of the boat as Curtain Call took a step back and began pulling its end of the rope.

Leilani did as she was told and got into the driver’s seat, pulling back on the lever as the boat’s engine gunned back to life, sputtering behind them. The boat began to move away from the Charter, but as the rope ran out of length, the boat jerked forward, fighting hard against it as Curtain Call fought with all its might to reel it in.

Shiho clenched the side of the boat tighter as she too struggled to keep her Stand pulling. The Charter had immense strength, much more than her Stand did, but she wasn’t about to give in. Until her arms gave out, she would give it her all to find the TWIsland.

“Come on, you piece of crap float, stop!” Shiho grunted against the Charter’s pull as Curtain Call looped its end of the rope around its elbow for added grip.

Ocellus and Subterra got their Stands out as well, both of them grabbing Curtain Call and the rope as they began pulling the Charter closer. Inch by inch, they managed to get more of the rope looped around Curtain Call, but all of a sudden, the Charter skipped high in the air before doing a dive under the water’s surface.

The Brandy 2 began to dip further down, tilting almost to a forty-five degree angle now as its engines sputtered on the surface of the water.

“It won’t hold!” Leilani read from the console’s readout as red lights began flashing on its holographic screen. “You have to let go, we won’t catch it this way!”

“No. Not till we have it!” Shiho yelled as the three Stands pulled with all their might.

“Shiho, she’s right.” Ocellus had Forest Rangers split apart. “If we don’t let go, the whole boat’s going down with you.”

“Not yet. Not while there’s a chance to save my granny!” Shiho gritted her teeth down together as Curtain Call continued to do its best to pull on the rope. “I can’t give up yet!”

“Shiho, we’ll find a way. We’re not going to abandon your grandmother.” Subterra put a hand on her arm. “We’ll get the Charter. But if we lose this boat, we won’t have a chance at getting it and beating Ocean Man.”

“Gah. Good grief…” Shiho shook her head. It took her a while more before she convinced her Stand to let go of the rope. The remaining length of rope disappeared under the water in a blink as she fished out another similar coat from one of the boat’s compartments. “Fine. What’s the plan now?”

“We can’t get it by brute force alone,” Subterra said, sitting herself down as the boat rocked along with the waves. “We’ll have to outsmart it and Ocean Man. Only then, we can get to the island safely.”

“And that’s already been done.” Ocellus folded her arms and tilted her chin up. “Here, I’ll explain. You see, when we were all busy tugging on the rope, I had some Forest Rangers slip on down to the Charter by walking along the rope.”

“But I thought your Stand couldn’t go underwater?” Shiho frowned. “This won’t get us anywhere.”

Ocellus smiled and wagged a finger. “I never said it couldn’t go underwater. Forest Rangers slow down underwater, but that doesn’t mean it can’t go in the water.”

“And now that we have a precise location on where it is…” Shiho looked back to the ocean’s surface.

“We can set a trap!” Leilani raised a hand. “Jellyfish!”

Leilani’s Stand appeared, hovering just in front of the Brandy 2. It stretched its tentacles out and spun in a circle before stretching them all across the immediate area like a spider’s web. They stopped the boat and Leilani moved herself to the floor, crossing her legs as she closed her eyes and waited.

“North. About fifty yards ahead,” Ocellus said, spying through her Stand. “Moving east. No, now west.”

“We’re going to get it, Shiho,” Subterra said and brought up Crafteon beside the boat. “As a team.”

Shiho nodded. “This was something my grandmother always told me. Friendship triumphs all. I guess this is one of those times.”

“She’s smart.” Ocellus nodded, then looked down sadly. “It’s something TWI taught us as well.”

“And it’s something she’ll regret doing.” Shiho raised a hand and clenched her fist. “This amazing power’s gonna blow up in her face.”

Leilani suddenly looked up. “Something’s touched Jellyfish’s web.”

“Time to reel it in,” Ocellus smiled and pointed to the ocean with a finger, just left of a large rock. “There.”

Leilani nodded. She stood up and raised both hands. From the water, colorful tentacles began rising up from below the surface, pulsating with small currents of electricity as the Charter came up on top of it, bouncing on the spot.

“Jellyfish’s sting might not work on it, but I can still keep it from going back into the water.”

“It’s time.” Shiho shared a look with Subterra as Curtain Call pounded its fists together.

Crafteon spun once, then fired out two shadowy tentacles from its palms, grabbing ahold of two of the Charter’s four spikes.

“Now!” Subterra yelled as she had Crafteon begin to reel it in.

Curtain Call immediately joined in, swinging another rope that it made with a seat cushion over to the Charter, catching another of its spikes as it let out a powerful roar. It looped the other end of the rope around its shoulder before leaping to the edge of the boat on the opposite side, using all of its might to pull. Jellyfish’s web began to fold inwards. Ocellus had her Forest Rangers crawl over on Jellyfish’s tentacles, forming into a line as it too began pulling.

The Charter bounced up and down on the tentacles, attempting to get back into the water, but Jellyfish’s tentacles left it no room to squeeze through, not even if it turned itself sideways. With Crafteon and Curtain Call working together, the Charter got closer and closer, unable to fight back against their combined strength.

The Charter radiated with yellow energy before launching itself into the air. Crafteon’s tendrils dissipated and Subterra was knocked down, and the rope snapped once again. It dropped back down and began bouncing in the opposite direction, but Shiho was going to have none of it.

“You’re not getting away again!” She whipped an arm up and pointed a finger at it.

Curtain Call threw itself forward, expertly navigating across Jellyfish’s tentacles on its toes as it tackled the Charter down. It wrestled with it for a few seconds, fighting to maintain its grip on it before standing back up and pushing hard against the Charter’s bagel-shaped body. Part of it burst like a float, while the edges around it cracked and flaked away. Almost instantly, the Charter stopped struggling and Shiho had her Stand run it back to the Brandy 2.

“We have it. Now how do we get to the island?” Shiho observed the Charter in her Stand’s hands.

Before she knew it, a yellow glow from within the hole in its body began to beep and the Charter’s spikes faded away, leaving it as a simple buoy with a pulsating yellow light in its center.

“About time.” Shiho shook her head. “Good grief, is it always this hard to get to the island?”

Subterra shrugged. She had never herself left the island only to come back. It was only what she had heard from the others that served TWI. She looked into the fog as Shiho started up the boat once again. She had never imagined ever returning here, but here they were, ready to venture back to the place she had been kept in for years.

The ride through the fog went a lot smoother than before. There were no waves to buffet them and there wasn’t even the earlier feeling of danger. The glow of the Charter flicked itself in various directions and all Shiho had to do was turn the boat’s wheel. In a matter of minutes, they were out of the fog and sailing straight towards the shore of a foreboding island.

A grey volcano sat at the center of it all, towering just under the dark sky above. It was a sharp contrast from the burning heat they had just come from as the air here was also cool to their skin. A canopy seemed to surround most of the island, but even from here, Subterra could see a pathway leading deeper in, a pathway she now remembered well.

They stopped the boat by the docks, letting the autopilot kick in as it maneuvered itself into place. Shiho was already off before the boat came to a complete stop, tying a rope around one of the metallic orbs by the side.

Subterra got off last, running a hand along one of the railings as she recalled her eventful escape all those nights ago. TWI had personally been there herself, anxious to get her back. Even with her memories back, she still didn’t know why TWI wanted her so badly. She had been through test after test, but Subterra had never known just what she had been after.

“Welcome home, Subterra Shiver,” Crafteon said, almost spooking her as she made her way down the stairs of the docks. “We have gained much power since leaving here. One might say our power has doubled since we last met TWI.”

And that it has. Subterra had left this island with Crafteon ACT1. Perhaps with ACT2, and the help of her friends, they could turn the tide. But first, there was one more thing to deal with.

“Strange.” Subterra scratched her head as she looked down at the beach beside the docks. “He’s not here.”

“Who isn’t here?” Leilani followed her gaze.

“Imbibed Man,” Subterra explained. “The one behind Ocean Man’s Charter. I’ve never seen him leave his spot on the beach.”

And that was true. Sun or rain, Imbibed Man stayed motionless on the sand, almost like he was dead. He loved tanning there, letting the weather eat away at his body. But Ocean Man did control the Charter. Perhaps he now knew that they had bested his device and were on the island.

“Behind you!” Leilani pointed as Subterra flipped around to see a rather large being with four legs jump at her from the roof of the dock shed.

Subterra rolled away from its falling body, before Crafteon grabbed it around the back with both arms. The creature squirmed and tried to free itself, but its little legs were too short and its body was too wide to do anything. Subterra knew this was Ocean Man, the Stand of Imbibed Man. It was bulky and strong, capable of smashing through stone, but it was slow and its ability lay in masking locations. Compared to Crafteon ACT2, there was no way she was going to lose this fight.

Shadows spread out from around Crafteon, enshrouding both itself and the enemy Stand in darkness.

Ocean Man looked around, its arms finally free, but all of a sudden, the darkness shrunk and before it now a snowy landscape blew in from the ocean, freezing the sand under its four feet. The Stand’s expression suddenly changed and it raised both arms, blocking its face from the freezing wind.

“Imbibed Man’s greatest fear,” Subterra said, remembering the man. “He can’t stand being away from the sun, away from the heat. A winter country scares him the most.”

Ocean Man scurried back and attempted to flee through the forest, but Curtain Call got in its way, smashing it down to the sand with a shoulder bash. The enemy Stand was sent sprawling on its back and from there, it was unable to get up. It wiggled its legs in the air, but it could not right itself from its downed position.

Subterra’s eyes shone a purple gleam as Crafteon rose into the air, spreading both arms to the sides, before bringing its left arm up over its head, palm facing skyward. Its right hand pointed forward into a fist as Subterra moved to reflect its new stance.

From the sides, the winter snow swirled into the air, spiraling into a small twister before swooping over to envelope Ocean Man. The Stand flailed its arms around, but there was nothing it could do against Imbibed Man’s worst fear. The others covered their faces with their arms as the cold wind picked up, but eventually, it released all together, sending Ocean Man crashing into the side of the mountain. It fell backwards, disappearing from view.

“That’s that…” Ocellus dusted sand from her body, collateral from the snowy whirlwind.

Above, there was a crackle, almost like something was shattering. Subterra thought it to be thunder at first and was about to suggest they take cover, but then the sky pulsed blue and suddenly exploded outward, allowing the sun’s harsh rays to shine down upon the island. The fog around the island began to fade as well and Subterra found that she could see some of the other islands from here.

“We did it, the TWIsland is unhidden,” Leilani said in exposition. “That Stand had been hiding it well from the outside world, but now that its power has faded, anyone can find this place.”

“Then it’s only right to let the Crusaders Foundation know.” Shiho took out her lightphone.

Subterra looked up at the mountain path. They had finally done it. They were back to the island once again, the island she had longed to escape. And she had escaped, only to return here again. She understood now. Running away from her problems didn’t mean it was gone. The only way to deal with it was to stop it completely and that meant helping Shiho and the others take TWI down once and for all.

“The time comes near, Subterra Shiver…” Crafteon looked her in the eyes as it faded away. “Ready yourself. The choice must be made, to spare or to destroy. Will you embrace who you are or will you deny yourself.”

Subterra looked up at the tip of the volcano. “There’s still time to show TWI the truth. That there are better ways to save this world.”

“As long as you don’t waste the chance given to you…” Crafteon’s final words lingered in the girl’s mind as she anticipated the final confrontation.

But first, they would have to get to TWI. And Subterra knew there were still plenty of obstacles to clear before getting there. TWI wasn’t going to give up so easily, and neither were they. They’d already come this far as a team. Together, they would see it to the end and they would end TWI’s tyranny one way or another.

TWI looked down at the beach from her balcony. Her purple hair wisped around her face as she spied Subterra and the others standing on the sand.

“So, she made it back…” TWI gave the railing one more pat before walking back into the darkness of her room. “That settles one problem. I won’t have to send my hunters after her anymore. But her friends on the other hand…”

TWI clenched her fists as she stopped before her bed. She turned to look at Sunset Shimmer, unmoving in her tank. “Your granddaughter has come to retrieve you, Sunset. The power of friendship flows within her, as does me. We will see which of us has a more just cause. Her need to save you and my need to save this entire world from itself.”

“Are you sure your cause is still just, TWI?”

TWI closed her eyes. She didn’t have to turn around to know who was there. “I have to save this world, Spike. Do you not remember the calamity it has brought itself to? The world is dying, if I do not do something, the entire planet might cease to sustain life. I cannot just stand by and let it sink to disaster. If the world’s leaders will not save it, then I will.”

Spike stepped closer, but stopped shy of her. “You know I’ll stand by you no matter what, TWI, but that doesn’t mean I won’t try to convince you the path you’re going down is not what you believe in.”

“I know what I believe in. And that is why I need Subterra. And now she’s returned to me.” TWI looked up and spun around. The room was now empty save for Sunset in the tank and she walked towards a dresser by the side and grabbed her striped garb hanging against a chair. After getting dressed, she made her way to the door. “It’s time for the prisoners to get to work.”

• To be Continued...-

Author's Note

And so here we are, at the end of the first arc. A really long first arc compared to my planned second arc, but the team has finally arrived at the island and are ready to work their way towards TWI.