In Chucalissa, Mississippi a miracle was unearthed for all to see. A statue of what was named the Mourning Woman was found cradling what looked to be an empty space. The native Mississippians of the era had sealed it deep inside the earthen burial mounds they also stored their dead in. Was she a guardian goddess? Or maybe something more like a curse? The beautiful statue was purchased by Crence Saunders to be a centerpiece of his mansion's collection...

  Only to be found on October 14th, 1953. Penniless and dead at the feet of the statue. His personal collection was donated graciously to the museum itself. It now stands as a mysterious reminder of what could only be described as ancient divinity.- From *The Secret Histories of the Mid-South.*

  The four of us arrive to the Pink Pace the house itself stands proudly in the distance. This time Miss Wainwright made it all on the downlow. Mack gets out of the minibus alongside us and we begin our walk towards the museum proper.

  "So, we're here to stop the Pilr Woman, secure her, and ask her about the Masks." Loredana sums up, "Whatever happens stay on your toes."

  Brocas Helm fshes out of its sheath and she gives a few practice swings, "Jolyne, I want you to hit and run. Daniel, be her support."

  "Ugh... what a pain..." Jolyne groans and I can practically feel her disdain, "But okay, whatever."

  "Jolyne, I-" I start almost wanting to apologize but she looks at me

  "Save it for ter, Dio." she snaps, "We got ancient history to win against." I almost feel nervous but she doesn't seem so mad at me like she was before. Back when the storm almost gave me that weird fleshy-crucifix I almost hurt both her and Loredana.

  So why is she calling me by the name of the monster that almost hurt her?

  Mack looks about ready to fight and he swings a cane as he walks, "Got it. An' all y'all will have Banana Boat's full support." The little Stand walks with him almost with a jaunty step, everything kind of focuses down to one focal point in my mind. I need to overcome this trial. To prove myself worthy of the freedom I crave. I whip off my suit jacket and roll my shoulders. I had made sure I tied my hair back in something more manageable and less likely to be grabbed. The pristine grounds give way to a rge atrium that was once filled with people. Various employees watch as we pass by.

  I take off my sungsses and pocket them. Sacred Heart's power glows around me and all I can do is focus. Where could it be?

  Loredana takes point, "Excuse me, where's this living exhibit?" her question is met by a young employee telling us in a shaking almost quivering voice.

  "U-u-upstairs! Ah... just be careful!" he points to the stairs, "It's... near the miniature circus!" Just as we're about to go up the stairs there's a loud woosh and Loredana suddenly deflects whatever was thrown at us. In two smoking halves is a cannon ball? Banana Boat dashes up the railing and Mack follows him. Only for another cannonball to be chucked at him. Mack meets it with a golden sun-like energy that kills its momentum.

  "Force-Killer Overdrive!" he cries after a breath in and whacking it with his cane that left it spinning free and then slowing down.

  Then it thunks on the floor like nothing happened. Jolyne and I stick close to each other. A voice like the sun and warm like summer echoes down to all of us.

  "This is your only warning, little ones. Any further and your lives will be forfeit." I take a step forward regardless and call back.

  "Whatever's wrong with you, the employees here and the guests don't need to be in the way. You're probably in pain or something awakened you." I smile, "So maybe go back to your home and-"

  "I HAVE NO HOME!" out of nowhere screams out a woman who towers over me. Her attack hits me hard in the chest (What I'd ter learn was a punch) and I'm sent screaming backward like I was the cannon shot.

  Blood and breath flow out of me like a tide of the ocean. Spinning bodily through the air with everything whirling into a heavy blur. Jolyne's stand springs out of my body because she wove her strings through me and tries to hit her. The woman winds out of the way like a pro contortionist. She flips forward and stands tall. I skid back into her arms and she holds onto me.

  "Consider that a taste of the pain and agony you will experience should you continue to fight me." the woman rumbles as she poses with her arms outstretched almost like she's basking in the light. Her long golden hair is woven with bright red, green, and blue feathers.

  "I am Sister Golden Hair, and I have never tasted defeat."

  Her body is adorned in a long feathered cloak and her eyes are as bck as obsidian. Her sun-kissed skin is almost a bronzed look. But she gres imperiously down at the four of us. Loredana takes out the Rhinestone mask.

  "A bargain first, if I may." she offers the mask, "We defeat you, you tell me what I need to know about these masks. You win and we'll let you do as you please."

  The woman inclines her head a little, "A bargain? A game? Oh, I love games!" her expression brightens, "One condition however." she holds up her hand and then points at Jolyne and I.

  "Those two will be the ones to fight me. I shall tell the one who should not be of his destiny." she smiles and steps towards me. My body is still rollicked by the punch but Sacred Heart appears and closes the distance with its power hitting one of the cannonballs.

  It rewinds as I throw my arms around the Pilr Woman's waist. Her own hands lock around my own and we push against each other like two Rikishi. My skin is on fire and my shirt is eaten away by the feeling of sunlight on my skin.

  "Wrrr... Wryyyyyyyyy..." I hiss out of my mouth as the warmth fills my body and makes the cells of my... base in my body shirk away from it. The cannonball's potential energy skyrockets thanks to Sacred Heart plucking it out of time.

  "Day-O!" Banana Boat appears and charges it with the weird sunlight energy.

  "NOW!" I yell. The cannonball screams right into her chest and she lets go of me to catch it. It spins free of time and of friction, grinding her through the floor and into the back wall. Smming hard into it.

  Banana Boat sticks with us and Mack spins his cane, "Banana Boat'll stick around. He's got my Ripple, so y'all will have a fighting chance."

  Jolyne makes it up the stairs, a coil of string coming out of her arm like she was Spider-Man. Sister Golden Hair's ugh courses through the air when the smoke clears and she's... pying with it like a soccer ball?! Soft golden light mends her chest as she smiles and kicks it back at us, Jolyne netting it up before it could hit. She groans when blood courses from her arm. The two of us face down the Pilr Woman and she just grins.

  "You little ones sure are interesting. My brethren further south had fought those of the Hamon tribe. Yet I have never seen such... spirits." she shoots forwards and her kick brutally punts Banana Boat and Mack too out the museum doors.

  Loredana turns to chase after him and Sister Golden Hair looms above both me and Jolyne.

  "As I have stated, I only wanted you two to fight me." she snarls, "Do not call for help, do not break that rule. You are in my prison, respect my rules and I swear I will honor my word."

  I grit my teeth and my Stand appears in front of me ready to do battle, but Jolyne grabs my arm and breaks into a run, dragging me behind her as Sister Golden Hair gives chase. How could she see our Stands? Was she even capable of having one herself? I begin to think about what I could do if there was anything I could do at all. Stone Free keeps up the attacks. Pulling down dispys and trying to stall the Pilr Woman.

  But anything we can throw at her is completely tanked. Until I see an opportunity. I take a bit of Stone Free's string and wind it around my waist, "Jolyne, I'll be right back!" I decre as she looks at me like I'm crazy.

  "What're you-"

  "Just trust me!" I snap.

  I leap from her arms and Sacred Heart reveals its gambit. Muskets fire off and pock into her skin. She keeps coming though, but her attention is on me. I dash towards the dinosaur exhibits. Past the roaring and moving animatronic T.Rex and the immovable triceratops across the way.

  Then the Triceratops comes flying at me and I catch it with my muscles screaming and my Stand barely managing to rewind it just enough to go back in the dis-

  A hail of feathers shoot into me and Sister Golden Hair sms her arms on either side of me, standing me against a wall. Her light burning into me despite all of that. But I jab. I set out a real assault against her. No vampire cells to worry about. I just need long enough to distract her! That's when a blue arm shoots out of my waist and nails her in the liver making the Pilr Woman stumble backward. Then... a rumble. A step.

  Boom. Boom. Boom.

  BOOMBOOMBOOM.

  It's running.

  "WAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHH!" The mastodon roars out of its area half-mad from being woken up from its longtime slumber with its body restored. The roar has Sister Golden Hair absolutely enthralled.

  The Mastodon rams itself into her, sending her flying back as it continues its attack. All six tons and ten feet of it with straight tusks that ssh into the Pilr Woman's body. Scarred from many battles and definitely a bull. It stops and I walk up next to it. It chuffs and I pat its leg. Jolyne manages to catch her midair and nail her with a flurry of punches as she swings in.

  "Never do that again, Dio!" she snarls, punching me gently in the arm and the beast turns back to head back to where it should be. My body... ugh... it...

  At a single punch my muscles just give up the ghost and I'm on the floor. Darkness is at the edges of my vision

  "Why... are you calling... me Dio?" I groan up at her but Jolyne smirks.

  "Because, you're not that bastard." she stands up and Sister Golden Hair rises from the crater in the main atrium. Her golden light still shining and Stone Free appearing next to Jolyne.

  "Leave the rest to me, Dio." she says as I pass out.

  When Dio drops I can notice the toll this bitch took on him. The feathers were like bullets and the damage he took was bad enough to even make me wince. Wait, do I care about him? Since when? I mean... he didn't even know what the Wizard of Oz was or whatever else I wanted to show him.

  The Pilr Woman jumps and nds in front of me, "Ah, the Starmarked girl. The runaway without a home."

  "How did you know that?" I move back over my friend. His breath is quick and fitful. His sleep is too. His Stand floats over him with its golden light dimming in the presence of someone stronger than him.

  But I clench my fists, "How do you know?" I snarl again and Sister Golden Hair ughs that golden and warm ugh despite the injuries from the charge almost threatening to drown it. The same anger bubbles in me. The same anger my Dad has. Then it focuses and hones itself on the woman. Stone Free answers me and I close the distance. Who the fuck cares about him? About my dad? Mom did and I did and look where it got me. Slugging the crap out of an endangered species of superhuman my great grandfather fought back in the thirties to protect the lookalike of some bastard who hated my family enough to make them suffer.

  A wave of force bsts out of her and sms me into the far wall, "I shall admit, your odd spirits are fascinating." she grins and something in the light appears. A new cloak. Her feathers become bright and golden along with her hair, and her eyes shine with a deep gold color.

  "Your little spirits won't save you from SOL, OUR VERY SOLAR SYSTEM'S STAR!" she roars, closing in but Stone Free and Sacred Heart try their best to head her off. Even though the other Stand is barely strong enough to stall her and the way my strings cut into her isn't deep enough.

  I just hope I can hold out just long enough to figure out what her weakness is. I shake Dio a little and he groans.

  "Get up come on get up!" the smell of burning flesh fills my nose and I start dragging him away, "Wake the hell up!" I snarl as more and more wounds open up on me. I try my best to carry him but he feels like a bag of stones.

  Then it dawns on me.

  He has Dio's Cells in him. Dio was a vampire. Something about this woman's power weakened the cells and made him just as vulnerable as the rest of him! Just as Sister Golden Hair's feathers are about to fire off I scream...

  "TIME OUT!"

  The feathers stop and return to her hair. Her steps halt and she stands tall, "Oh? A time out? Why?"

  I turn towards her, "It's not fair to completely destroy us, right? Your power's really strong, but Dio and I... don't you want to fight us at our strongest?!" my plea goes heard but at the same time its desperate and dumb and really, really stupid.

  But this woman has some sense of honor, "Hmmmm... well, I suppose I can give you little ones the evening to rest and recover." she steps closer and I can't help but hold my friend close. She kneels and almost looks full of remorse.

  "I won't hurt you two. You've called a time out." she reaches out, "The least I can do is heal the both of you."

  Dio, no, Daniel. He groans and Sister Golden Hair takes him into her arms. The cloak closing around him as a soft glow shines over his body. Her eyes are closed and he settles down. She unwinds him and I scooch closer. Her hand is warm, gentle, and it almost reminds me of how Mom used to make me feel better after falls and scrapes. The warm sensation makes me tingle from my head down to my toes and I shiver just a little.

  When she lets go I'm left almost completely healed. But my friend's a little worse for wear. I hoist him into my arms and I try my best to find a pce we could rest.

  The Pnetarium would do nicely.