Ermes Costello

"Revenge is for settling a score with your own fate! (「復讐」とは自分の運命への決着をつけるためにあるッ!)"

- Ermes Costello

Ermes Costello (エルメェス・コステロ) is a primary ally featured in the sixth part of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, Stone Ocean.

Ermes is a woman voluntarily imprisoned in Green Dolphin Street Prison in order to seek revenge for her sister Gloria Costello's killer, Sports Maxx, and soon allies herself with Jolyne Cujoh in the hostile environment that the jail is. Thanks to a certain pendant, Ermes acquires her own Stand, Kiss.

Appearance
Ermes is a woman of average to above-average height and a fit, medium build.

She wears her hair in braided locks and multiple barrettes and has long, triangular tattoos approaching her eyes and lips on her forehead and chin. In the manga's coloured print, the top tattoo was coloured similarly to her barrettes. Ermes's clothes consist of a sleeveless coat that is cut down the middle in a "V" shape and has serrated edges at its bottom, with pockets on each breast and two pairs of pins, over a sleeveless turtle-neck, metallic armbands with patterned gaps, and belted pants with two stripes running across its sides.

Ermes also surgically altered her breasts in order to be able to hide money from their sides.

Personality
Ermes Costello is a headstrong, pragmatic, and down-to-earth person, who's nonetheless been consumed by a thirst for revenge for much of her youth.

At the start of the story, Ermes is mostly concerned with her own survival. Her only goal is to last long enough in prison to eventually murder her sister Gloria's killer, Sports Maxx. Being a seasoned convict, Ermes is well aware that Green Dolphin is practically run on bribes - as such, she is preoccupied with amassing money through any means necessary, having even surgically altered her breasts to smuggle in curled up dollar bills. Her partnership with Jolyne Cujoh, despite Ermes genuinely liking the girl and giving Jolyne advice at the potential expense of her own safety, was initially also one of convenience, as Jolyne knew more about the reasons behind the growing number of Stand Users inside the prison, something that would pose a constant risk to both of their stays. Ermes stresses the fact that she's not willing to truly rely on anybody, and it's implied through her criminal record and prison experience that after losing her family and home she had to get by on crime for an undetermined amount of time.

Ermes's pragmatism informs a lot of her mindset, as she usually chooses the most apparent way of action and tries to approach problems in a direct, down-to-earth and often blunt manner. For instance, when trying to calm down the suicidal Thunder McQueen, she appeals to the simple fact that it's impossible for someone to not get a stroke of good luck eventually. She similarly takes Enrico Pucci's and his followers' more esoteric claims and diatribes as simple signs of derangement or straight up bluffs. Although she is baffled by the increasingly bizarre instances of the supernatural, Ermes quickly adapts to them, preferring to take them for granted and connecting them only to whatever objective she has at hand. For example, despite the initial shock of discovering her newly awakened Stand, she immediately gets back some stolen money with its ability, concluding that even though she doesn't exactly understand what it is, it's at least useful. Allying with far more eccentric and far less prison-savvy people, Ermes often finds herself being the voice of reason, although not a very succesful one. Ermes regularly tries to hold back Jolyne's reckless or idealistic decisions, like sparing Foo Fighters because of her supposed lack of agency in killing humans, or just blindly jumping into a fight. Not one to mince words, Ermes can turn brutally honest, like delivering a verbal takedown of McQueen's character despite the risk of driving him into another murder-suicide attempt.

Ermes speaks in a very familiar tone. She loudly and openly voices her frustrations, curses frequently and often shouts in anger to get her points across. She enjoys taunting and trash mouthing her opponents, and sometimes joins in on Jolyne's more vindictive exploits, like helping her get revenge on her boyfriend or indulging in her grudge against alligators.

Ermes is a dirty fighter, using any underhanded methods available to get what she wants. She prefers to avoid open confrontation and usually goes into a fight with a winning strategy in mind, for instance preemptively deciding to cheat in a game of catch while betting against Miraschon, and choosing to swiftly execute the target of her vengeance by first methodically stalking him and then setting a trap, rather than meeting him face to face. She's also not above bargaining or begging to avoid a fight she can't take. However, when the chips are down, Ermes proves to be an extremely resilient brawler. She can stay up on her feet and moving even with multiple severe injuries, and she often inflicts them herself by tactically duplicating and fusing her own bodyparts back together with Kiss.

Having lost her father and sister, Ermes hides a vulnerable and tumultuous emotional core beneath her generally blunt outlook on life. Her desire to get revenge and kill Sports Maxx is fuelled by raw anger and grief, as she fully admits to having no pretense of a moral high ground or any other strong underlying rationale for her actions besides simply getting closure. With this in mind, she purposefully avoids revealing the actual reason for her arrest to Jolyne or F.F., preferring not to drag anyone else into her personal matters. However, when met with genuine affection, Ermes opens up and receives it in earnest, becoming flustered at Thunder McQueen's inital gratitude for saving his life, or shedding tears at Jolyne's side, as she realizes the sacrifices Jolyne was willing to make for her by sidestepping her own goals and joining the fight against Sports Maxx.

Despite believing in a higher power, since she considers her Stand a divinely granted license for revenge, Ermes doesn't like to dwell on the headier specifics. Pucci's idea of predestination especially disturbs and enrages her, in no small part because it would mean that her sister's death was meant to happen. When one of Pucci's followers relays this philosophy to Jolyne, Ermes reacts by knocking him out in anger.

When she needs to ground herself, Ermes tries to remember the dates of Columbus' arrival to America and Mickey Mouse's birthday.

Stand
Ermes's Stand is the humanoid Kiss, with the unique ability to duplicate objects on which she plants a removable lip-designed sticker. Once the sticker is removed, the duplicate returns to the original and can cause severe damage.

Background
Ermes is of at least partial Mexican descent through her immigrant father. She had lived her youth in the slums, her family managing a restaurant there. Though she had a father and a big sister named Gloria, who is 10 years older than her, there is no mention of her mother. Gloria would eventually inherit the restaurant at the age of 20 but would receive no assistance from her little sister. Gloria wanted Ermes to help at the restaurant but Ermes wanted a sports scholarship in cross-country and to go to college.

One night, three years before the events of Stone Ocean, at the age of seventeen, Ermes left the familial restaurant to run off to the city instead of having another fight with her sister. In doing so, Ermes accidentally ran near a spot where the gangster Sports Maxx was about to commit murder. Sports Maxx was in turn caught red-handed by Gloria, seeing him looking at Ermes, running in the distance. Gloria understood that Sports Maxx mistook Ermes for a witness and that he would try to kill her. In order to save Ermes, Gloria called the police but was killed for it several weeks later because of the police's negligence. Ermes lost her whole family and possessions. Due to lack of proof, Sports Maxx was sentenced for no more than five years of imprisonment.

This prompted Ermes to seek revenge. She began to repeatedly commit armed robbery, letting herself be arrested. By doing so, she was condemned to 8 years in Green Dolphin Street Prison, where Maxx was.

Meeting Jolyne Cujoh
Ermes first meets Jolyne Cujoh when they are held in jail in adjacent cells. Annoyed by Jolyne constantly banging her head due to her humiliation earlier that day, Ermes yells at her to pipe down. When Jolyne confesses to having been masturbating and being seen by a guard, Ermes's mood turns from anger to amusement and defends her against a co-prisoner. The two of them are then brought out of their cells to be transported to Green Dolphin Street Prison. In the visit room, Ermes finds a and brings it with her.

On their way to the prison, Ermes and Jolyne sit near each other. Intrigued by Jolyne's ability to hear the guard through the door but not sensing any maliciousness, Ermes bonds with Jolyne. Ermes then warns her to quickly acquire money. Jolyne asks where Ermes is hiding her money and correctly guesses that she is hiding it in her breasts. Embarrassed, Ermes shows her the holes in her breasts. However, when the bus arrives at the prison, the guards single out Ermes and beat her up to take her money, having eavesdropped on the girls' conversation. Ermes begs the guards, but they keep beating her and decide to check her breasts. Struggling, Ermes hits a guard with her elbow, causing him to swing his baton. However, the guard surprisingly cuts his own ear mid-swing and Ermes was left off the hook. Unbeknownst to Ermes, Jolyne helped her with her new ability, Stone Free. Ermes pricks herself on the pendant and sells it to Gwess.

Ermes's Sticker
Ermes then falls ill and is placed in the infirmary for enough time that the doctors come to check on her on six separate occasions. When she wakes up, Ermes notices that the janitor has stolen some of her money. However, something strange is happening to her: stickers keep appearing in her palm. When she tosses a sticker off of her and lands on her shoe, she notices that there are now two of the same shoe and that she somehow finds a sixth finger on which another sticker is stuck. Panicking, Ermes removes the sticker from her finger and sees her two indexes fuse together, although the remaining finger is cut. The same happens with a jar of urine which she understands that she has acquired a power through these stickers.

Battle Against Thunder McQueen
Ermes uses her power to make a trap and duplicates a mop to trap the janitor's face in between the mops when he passes by, knocking him out. However, Ermes notices that DISCS are sticking out of his head and instinctively takes one of them. On her exit check-up, Ermes inquires about the janitor but the guard refuses that she learns anything. In the toilets, Ermes examines the DISC and sees Whitesnake confronting the janitor near the janitor's secret hiding spot where he stashes his money.

Freaked out, Ermes jumps back, only to be confronted by the janitor, Thunder McQueen. Ermes angrily accuses him of being a creep for having discs sticking out of his face but is surprised to see McQueen bursts into tears as he cannot remember what he's recently done and where he used to hide his money, blaming himself. Ermes asks him if he's okay and McQueen is moved to have a woman caring about his well-being. Figuring that he'll never meet a woman who'd truly care for him, McQueen decides to end his life and hangs himself on a pipe with his belt. Ermes then feels herself being lifted by the neck and it being crushed. Seeing propellers sticking out of her neck, Ermes understands that McQueen has an ability like her. Unable to reach McQueen or call for help, Ermes summons a sticker and throws it at the belt. She then takes off the sticker from the belt and damages it so that McQueen's weight makes it snap. The two of them are saved, for the moment. McQueen is seemingly grateful and explains that he's depressed and hung himself on a whim. Ermes is still suspicious and asks how he obtained his ability, but McQueen is ignorant of Highway to Hell. Ermes is embarrassed when McQueen says he is indebted to her and promises to live a proper life, but as soon as she turns her head, McQueen attempts to drown himself in a faucet.

A watery substance appears around her mouth and nose, preventing her from breathing. Seeing other scars around his wrist, Ermes understand how much of a suicidal madman McQueen is and that she must stop him somehow. Ermes is forced in the same upside down position as McQueen because of Highway to Hell. To give herself time, Ermes duplicates her nose to breathe the air and manages to knock McQueen out of the faucet. Again, McQueen expresses depression because there is no way he could repay her and even talk to her again. Furious, Ermes tells McQueen not to approach her again and threatens to kill him but McQueen agrees to the idea. Freaked out, Ermes flees and takes the DISC with her.

On her way back to the women's ward, Ermes encounters a boy playing baseball in a staircase, Emporio Alnino. Ermes touches Emporio's ball and realizes there's a hidden crack on the wall. Emporio thus pulls her inside of a mysterious room, where two other inmates are quietly posing on and by the piano. Emporio presents his ability to Ermes and how the ghost room works, and clarifies that he isn't a ghost. Emporio then explains what is happening with Jolyne Cujoh and asks her what she's learned from the janitor. Ermes shows him McQueen's DISC but their conversation is interrupted when Ermes feels a shock on her arm. McQueen is trying to electrocute himself. To help Ermes, Emporio explains that McQueen will probably look for saline water so that he can properly kill himself. Ermes remembers that there's a good supply of saline water used to wash wounds next to the medical room and rushes here. Because there are too many potential witnesses, Emporio decides to stay near his room.

Ermes finds Thunder McQueen in the medical room tied with a denuded power cable and ready to electrocute himself to death. He douses himself in saline water and a panicking Ermes tries to dissuade him from killing himself. She explains that he risks killing her alongside himself and tries to make him see the bright side of life. McQueen explains the extremely unlucky circumstances in which he was condemned for murder. Seeing him ready to end his life, Ermes tries to promise her to give him her panties but McQueen retorts that she's only being nice to save herself and calls himself trash again. Ermes loses her composure and speaks her mind, calling him a selfish scum who only thinks of himself. This pushes McQueen over the edge, who decides to kill himself and Ermes so that they can die together. Ermes runs towards McQueen who flips the switch to electrocute himself. Thankfully, she manages to put a sticker on McQueen's face. The sticker duplicates McQueen's head and burns out due to the electricity, making the two heads fuse together. The shock knocks Highway to Hell's Stand DISC out of McQueen, making him harmless.

Ermes remembers McQueen's stash and retrieves $5,000 from it. Now aware of Whitesnake and wanting to stop this chaos, Ermes decides to seek Jolyne and cooperate with her.

Battle Against Foo Fighters
By looking at McQueen's DISC, Jolyne and Ermes find a hidden stash of discs near a farm.

Incidentally, two prisoners disappear in the farmlands surrounding the facility. Loccobarocco gathers the female prisoners to gather a search party. Jolyne volunteers, as well as Ermes. They and three other prisoners are cuffed with and must run to the farmlands behind their supervisor, from whom they must not get too far away from or else the cuffs will explode. On the farmlands, the duo take out McQueen's disc and confirm that there is a stash of DISCS hidden in the tyre of a tractor. The guard tells the two to start searching but Ermes makes a disapproving remark, attracting the guard's anger. He hits Ermes's bracelet with his baton and tries to make her fall on feces, but Jolyne pulls a leaf to cover the feces as Ermes falls on it, splashing the guard's pants. However, the guard angrily orders everyone to go toward the swamp instead of the hangar where the farming equipment is kept. Suddenly, Jolyne and Ermes notice that there are now 6 of them among the female prisoners. Furthermore, the guard is killed while everyone is distracted. The prisoners must retrieve the guard's body and one of them dies when she accidentally strays too far.

It is clear that an enemy is there and Ermes discovers a peculiar creature in the water that drags her away, with the bucket stuck on her face. This small creature also seems to multiply in the water. Using Kiss, Ermes breaks the bucket but is still in the middle of the water and the creature has grown to a human sized monster. Jolyne comes to her and fights the monster. It is a match for Stone Free but Jolyne repels it. Jolyne tries to pull herself and Ermes back to the land, but the enemy pursues them and manages to grab Jolyne's leg. Ermes puts a sticker on its arm and kicks it away, damaging it and forcing it to let go. The enemy writhes in pain while Jolyne and Ermes manage to join solid ground.

One of the prisoners is an enemy but they cannot remember the five original members. The dilemma is rendered moot when it is revealed that the enemy is controlling the bodies of all of the prisoners. The enemy is a sentient plankton colony named Foo Fighters. It splits itself in two: one body runs to the hangar to hide the DISCS and a second one grabs the body of the guard, aiming to indirectly kill Jolyne and Ermes. Ermes takes care of the one in the swamp, Jolyne runs back to the farmland. Ermes attacks with Kiss and tricks Foo Fighter into chopping a decoy arm. That way she can take the guard back to the land. Foo Fighters splashes the land around Ermes, allowing itself to come and pin Ermes to the ground but Ermes takes one of the dried corpse Foo Fighters was possessing and destroys it, the dry dust sprinkling Foo Fighters and taking the moisture off it. This part of Foo Fighter dies and Ermes can lift the guard's closer to the hangar.

Jolyne forces the other Foo Fighters to run on dry soil, which almost kills it and Ermes prepares to deal the finishing blow. However, Jolyne spares Foo Fighters and gives it some water despite Ermes's protestations, figuring that it didn't know any better and only wanted to survive. Touched, Foo Fighters accepts to become Jolyne's ally and they get Jotaro's Stand DISC. Foo Fighters disguises itself as a woman named Etro to pass off as a prisoner. Foo Fighters explains that this stash is only a hiding spot for DISCS Whitesnake doesn't need. It hides in in its cleavage when the guards arrive. The trio make up a story to keep suspicions off themselves. This whole operation catches the attention of Whitesnake's User, the prison priest Enrico Pucci.

Battle Against Miraschon
The next day, Ermes, Jolyne and Foo Fighters play catch with a ball and gloves. Miraschon comes to them and bets $100 that they cannot complete their 100th consecutive throw although Jolyne and F.F. are already at 87 throws. Jolyne is suspicious but Ermes convinces her that they will need the money to contact the Speedwagon Foundation and proposes to pitch in. Besides, she argues, Miraschon would have attacked them already with some weapon or ability if she was an enemy. Despite suspicious interferences, Jolyne and F.F. complete their 100 throws, meaning Miraschon has to pay $200 in total to each of the player.

However, Miraschon makes another bet that they cannot complete 100 throws again, but for $1,000. The new bet entices Ermes to play with F.F. while Jolyne steps aside. However, it soon becomes apparent that the free time is over and everyone is beginning to put their balls back. A guard confronts F.F. and orders it to stop playing. The trio tries to postpone the bet but Miraschon refuses. Ermes is forced to bribe the guard for $100 so that he looks elsewhere for 2 minutes. However, when F.F. throws again and Ermes readies herself to catch it, the guard snatches the glove. Ermes finds herself without glove and fails to catch it. Before it reaches the ground, Ermes must use her secret ploy. Having stuck a piece of gum to the ball and keeping a duplicate on her, she peels the sticker off to forces the ball back in her hands.

However, this makes an enemy Stand appear. Marilyn Manson, the debt collector, appears to take the debt because it is automatically detected that Ermes was cheating. It takes the cash on her, which amounts to $380. Ermes summons Kiss to attack but it is ineffective; likewise, Foo Fighters cannot harm it and it takes one of her gold tooth, $30 more. Marilyn Manson finally takes Ermes's liver since she thought about it. Ermes is out of commission and Jolyne must step in. For the remainder of the fight, Ermes stumbles through the ward without a liver but Jolyne manages to make Marilyn Manson give the liver back to Ermes, which saves her.

Fujiko's Bizarre Worldly Wisdom
In the spin-off one-shot Fujiko's Bizarre Worldly Wisdom, it is revealed that Ermes told Atroe about the time Jolyne got caught masturbating in her cell, which apparently resulted in the story spreading across Green Dolphin Street Prison. Foo Fighters tells this to Jolyne, who gets angry at her.

Kiss of Love & Revenge
Ermes decided to accomplish her primary objective: assassinate Sports Maxx and avenging Gloria. She stalks him for a time to learn his habits and see where he is the most vulnerable. At the chapel, Ermes's approach is interrupted by Enrico Pucci, the prison priest. Later, Ermes singles out Maxx in the workshop where he stuffs animals. She lures Maxx near a pipe with a photo of Gloria. When he takes it, Maxx peels off a sticker and makes the pipe and its hidden duplicate merge together, trapping Maxx. To seal the deal, Ermes creates another duplicate to cover the hole left by the merging and turns the pipe into a coffin for Maxx. However, she soon hears a disquieting incantation.

Something invisible approaches her, something coming from a stuffed colibri and with bird legs. Worried by a flapping sound, Ermes sees her finger being suddenly cut off and something pecking her face. She attacks blindly with Kiss but loses trace of the enemy, who then manifests itself by pulling her carotid artery out. Ermes duplicates her jacket to trap the invisible enemy in it and punches it against a wall, destroying the stuffed colibri. Confused, Ermes realizes that Maxx has a Stand ability but doesn't understand why he hasn't attacked yet and thus theorizes that Maxx has a different purpose. Something else then knocks the table and Ermes sees a stuffed alligator. Realizing the danger, she tries to run away and hangs on the pipes on the ceiling. She then sees Maxx' pipe breaking. Jolyne and F.F. barge in and thankfully manage to defeat the alligator.

Ermes and Jolyne follow Sports Maxx's trail to the prison cemetery where Sports Maxx summons a mob of invisible zombies. Jolyne is wounded but Ermes is conscious that Sports Maxx will be going for her personally. She lets herself be grabbed and devoured by the zombie mob, awaiting the moment Maxx tries to bite off her head. However, she splits her head with the stickers, protecting the original, and attacks. Maxx reveals that he's detached his head to throw off Ermes and overwhelms her thanks to his invisibility. However, as Ermes collapses and Maxx leaps to deal the finishing blow, the piece that he bit off burst out of his body. Ermes has peeled off the sticker on her head and lets the piece of head fly out of Maxx to see his current position. This allows Ermes to violently beat him up with Kiss. Maxx tries to flee but Ermes has put another sticker on his head, allowing her to track him. Ermes finishes off Maxx and gets her revenge, but she is gravely wounded and her head split open.

Escaping Prison
Ermes remains in intensive medical care after her battle with Sports Maxx.

In the anime, Emporio informs Ermes of F.F.'s death in the infirmary. Ermes pours a glass of water out of the window to pay her respect and promises to avenge her.

At some point, Jolyne successfully evades Miuccia Miuller, the head guard, and breaks out of prison. Ermes subsequently accompanies Jolyne and Emporio on the way out. They head for Romeo Jisso's house and Ermes creates a duplicate of his tongue to listen to what he says. Romeo Jisso gives Jolyne the key to a helicopter and then calls the police. Ermes plans on peeling off the sticker to punish him but Romeo then misleads the enemy. Jolyne still peels the sticker off as a precaution.

Battle Against Rikiel
In the helicopter, Jolyne feels Pucci's presence and asks Emporio to head West toward Orlando. Ermes notices that one of the windows is open and closes it, but feels something passing close to her hand. Suddenly Emporio's eyelids fall down and he is blinded. As Ermes's eyelids close too, she can see that everyone's eyes are now forcefully shut and Jolyne is bleeding. Jolyne manages to force her eyelids open, and sees that the helicopter is crashing while Emporio is unable to find the autopilot button. Ermes yells that something is inside the helicopter with them, but it manages to avoid Jolyne's string net, making its presence unconfirmed.

Ermes sees that her hand is inflated and cannot understand the nature of the enemy. However, Jolyne decides to use extreme ways and makes everyone jump out of the helicopter. The falling speed allows Ermes to spot a skyfish Kiss crushes, but many skyfishes follow. Having attached herself to the helicopter, Jolyne manages to soften their fall and all crash into the water, unharmed and well again. However, the enemy Rikiel awaits them. Jolyne, Emporio and Ermes see that the corpse of the skyfish Ermes killed is melting away, explaining how they weren't discovered until now. Understanding that Rikiel must be controlling the skyfishes, Emporio urges Jolyne to first learn how the rods function. Jolyne and Ermes approach Rikiel, ready to fight, although Rikiel knows it will be to his advantage. However Jolyne and Ermes work out quickly why Rikiel is trying to lure them closer, and discover one of his weaknesses. Disturbed, Rikiel's bad luck begins to reappear as his bike is sinking in the mud and the loses his keys.

Ermes uses Kiss to throw pebbles at Rikiel, but the skyfishes deviate them. However, those pebbles where doubles Kiss created and Ermes manages to hit Rikiel's head from two sides as she detaches the stickers. Overwhelmed by the multiple rocks Jolyne and Ermes throw at him, Rikiel begins to lose his confidence: his illnesses come back and the skyfishes stay still in the air, deprived of their master. Yet, Rikiel finds his keys, and manages to control the rods again, stopping Ermes from throwing any more rocks by manipulating her hands indirectly. Confident again, Rikiel rants about Apollo 11's symbol as a triumph of the human spirit as he prepares his next attack. Emporio now begins to urinate his own blood, and Ermes's fingers begin to fall off. Jolyne rushes toward Rikiel trying to punch the skyfishes, but they effortlessly avoid Stone Free's strikes. Jolyne's ankle joint suddenly bends backward, immobilizing her. Rikiel then begins to toy with Ermes, forcing her to talk thanks to the skyfishes. Emporio manages to work out the mechanisms of the attacks and warns Jolyne, but Rikiel puts them out of commission. Ermes's eyes and throat swelling while damaged tissues is spat out of her mouth. Thankfully, Jolyne manages to defeat Rikiel. Rikiel then reveals that Weather is Pucci's younger brother, but is interrupted when Kiss puts him out of commission and Ermes violently punches his head against the ground, dismissing his claims. Jolyne, Ermes and Emporio now leave for Orlando.

Battle Against Donatello Versus
Jolyne, Ermes and Emporio soon reach the hospital in which Pucci is hiding. Before going in, Jolyne lets Emporio stay outside and gives him Jotaro's memory DISC. However, Donatello Versus, the third of DIO's sons, intervenes with his Stand Under World. A stray bullet flies from a room, catching Jolyne and Ermes's attention. They enter the room and see a sinkhole in which are Pucci and Versus. Jolyne goes into the hole. However, a memory of Sports Maxx appears and drags Ermes in the hole and Ermes finds herself in the memory of a plane bound to crash. Jolyne briefly exits the plane, finds herself in a fighter jet and decides to make the fighter jet collide with the plane. Emporio informs them that precisely two passengers survived. The pair find their seat but Under World throws a couple of sick children on the seat. Nonetheless, Ermes and Jolyne cooperate to survive. Ermes duplicates the memories of the survivors to act as protection for her and the children, and Jolyne unravels herself to hide inside Ermes. Jolyne confronts Versus and immobilizes him, but Versus reveals Weather Report's memory DISC that he's stolen from Pucci. Under World returns the DISC to Weather, and several rainbows appear.

Heavy Weather Unleashed
As Weather regains his memories, he awakens a previously sealed power named Heavy Weather. When Ermes accidentally touches the rainbow, her arm turns into a bunch of snail eggs and she herself slowly turns into one. They try to get out of the hospital, but a swarm of snails is blocking the exit. Moreover, Jolyne has touched Ermes and is also slowly turning into a snail. Navigating the main hall manage to create a safe path by duplicating a glass window and surfing on it, the duo reach a car, but their condition as half-snails prevents them from driving properly and they crash near Versus and Emporio. Worse, a horde of ground beetles appears to devour the snails. The duo barely escapes the beetles and Jolyne pursues Donatello.

Versus summons the Miami Dolphins to push Jolyne away but she hides inside a pipe, rolls towards Versus, and attacks. When Versus summons a memory of the salt to dehydrate Jolyne's body, her arm is desiccated and Versus obtains Jotaro's memory DISC. Nonetheless, Jolyne has touched Emporio who has touched Versus and thus Versus is turned into a snail. The heroes subsequently capture Versus and force him to drive their car.

Unfortunately, they crash the car against Weather Report and Pucci, who were in the middle of a fight. The distraction allows the priest to kill his brother and escape. Jolyne tries to attack Pucci but it is revealed that it was Versus turned into an illusion. Versus is dead, and so is Weather Report. Thankfully, they acquire his mighty Stand Weather Report, in the form of a DISC. They also manage to give Jotaro's memory DISC back to the Speedwagon Foundation.

Countdown to Heaven
On their way to Cape Canaveral, Ermes spots an alligator. Still angry about the invisible zombie alligator, she and Jolyne take a small revenge by tossing something at it. As they approach the Kennedy Space Center, the group try to plan their approach. However, the group then falls victim of a gravitational anomaly pushing them sideways. The ground can now be considered as an enormous cliff with the sideways gravity keeping them away from the space center. The group must escape the falling car but Ermes fails to catch Jolyne as a debris knocks her out and Ermes is pushed away. However, Ermes then meets Jotaro Kujo who was revived and the Speedwagon Foundation. Ermes duplicates a metal harpoon and the foundation manages to shoot it towards the Kennedy Space Center. By peeling off the sticker, Ermes and Jotaro are able to have the duplicate pull them towards the center and join the fight against Enrico Pucci. However, Pucci discovers a way to obtain the ultimate power early and unlocks Made in Heaven before he can be stopped. The center in engulfed in a light.

Battle Against Pucci and Made In Heaven
Some time later, the group wakes up unharmed while approaching helicopters confirm that gravity has returned to normal. Somehow, everyone was moved 200 meters from the shuttle, and the priest has disappeared. Jotaro can still sense Pucci though, and Ermes claims that Pucci is hiding, entering a building to protect herself from an incoming rain. However, everyone finds themselves soaked, and the rain has already stopped. Suddenly, the automatic door of the building closes itself at a tremendous speed on Ermes. Dumbfounded, Ermes escapes with some difficulties due to the speed of the door. Jotaro now notices that he's dried off, and Anasui, trying to stop an unbalanced rock from falling on Ermes, realizes that it's already fallen. Jolyne, looking at the already setting sun, realizes that things are going way more rapidly than usual.

While everyone decides to move away from the open space, Jotaro stops time with Star Platinum, managing to see the new Stand briefly. To Jotaro's dismay, time resumes before he could act. Anasui and the others pull Jotaro up a roof, and Anasui uses this moment to stupidly ask permission to marry Jolyne from her father, dumbfounding Jotaro although Jolyne accepts to hear him later. Jotaro stops time and sees Pucci and his Stand Made in Heaven bending a palm tree to use it as a catapult, eventually thrown to the roof faster than Jotaro can react. Due to his overwhelming speed advantage, Pucci mortally wounds Jotaro but Diver Down absorbs the damage. The roof is unsafe now and thus the heroes ties themselves together. Shooting a bullet while holding a replica of the bullet from Kiss, they are able to "fly" around but Pucci still pursues them. It is here that Anasui dooms the group and tells Emporio to shoot towards the sea where Pucci has supposedly nowhere to hide. During the flight, Anasui formulates his plan. With the heroes so close together, Diver Down can protect them all and shield them. The moment Pucci attack, Jotaro will have an opportunity to retaliate. Seeing hope in this plan, Jolyne tells Anasui that he can ask her for her hands when this battle is over.

In the water, the group realizes their mistake. The accelerating time causes a heavy tide and the waves block the view. Pucci manipulates Stone Free to kill Anasui and throws knives at Jolyne. Fearing for his daughter, Jotaro loses time pushing her aside. Time resumes before he can properly attack and Jotaro's head is split in two by Made in Heaven. Similarly, Ermes's arms are cut off. Her corpse rots away in the water.

Alternate Universe
After Emporio Alnino manages to defeat and kill Pucci, Ermes is reborn but with a different fate. She is seen being ejected from a bus for attempting to pay with a fifty-dollar bill. She feels infuriated and even wonders if the bus driver mistook her for an inmate of Green Dolphin St. Jail. She then meets Emporio and asks him for change for the bill. Afterward, she and Emporio meet the reincarnated Anasui, now named Anakiss, and the reincarnated Jolyne, named Irene. Anakiss and Irene invite her and Emporio to ride with them in exchange for using her money for gas. She feels skeptical at first, as her older sister told her not to ride with strangers, but the coming rain forces her to give them the gas money and ride with the group. The group later picks up the reincarnated Alternate Weather after refilling the car's gas tank.

Family

 * Gloria Costello: Ermes greatly cared for her older sister. Because of their mother's absence, Gloria becomes a mother figure to her, despite having no interest in helping her with their family's restaurant. When she is killed by Sports Maxx, she went as far as getting herself arrested to avenge her.

Allies

 * Jolyne Cujoh: Ermes is possibly the first true friend that Jolyne encounters in her life when they meet and bond in jail. Her relationship with Ermes resembles that of Jotaro Kujo's relationship with Jean Pierre Polnareff. Similar to Josuke Higashikata's relationship with Okuyasu Nijimura in Diamond is Unbreakable; Jolyne and Ermes see each other as worthy allies and friends, and because of their similar temper, get along well and kill time together. She has fought alongside Jolyne against many powerful enemies like Sports Maxx, Rikiel, & Donatello Versus.
 * Foo Fighters: Ermes and Foo Fighters meet as enemies, but even though she is reluctant to let Jolyne spare the plankton-Stand, they quickly become friends later on. Ermes inevitably starts putting her trust on F.F. when Ermes is attacked by Marilyn Manson. Later on, they stand side-by-side with Jolyne in retrieving Jotaro's stolen discs. After her battle with her sister's killer, Sports Max, F.F. is the first person to treat her, though she was still in a critical condition.
 * Emporio Alnino: Ermes is the first person whom Emporio approaches when Jolyne is locked in confinement after their encounter with Johngalli A. He also quickly notices Ermes's new profound Stand ability, which he then uses as a reason for them to help Jolyne and retrieve Jotaro's memory and Stand discs that were taken by Whitesnake. This acquaintance soon proves valuable as they become two of Jolyne's most trusted allies. They work together until the end, especially during their pursuit to stop Pucci and Made In Heaven.
 * Narciso Anasui: Ermes first meets Anasui in Emporio's secret room, though she was initially unbothered by his presence. They become allies during their pursuit for Pucci at Cape Canaveral. After Pucci finally achieves heaven and unlocks Made In Heaven, Ermes and Anasui work side-by-side in defeating him, together with the rest of the group, despite knowing the odds against it.
 * Weather Report: While Ermes and Weather are considered acquaintances through Jolyne, they are never seen to have interacted once with each other. However, Ermes still cries when Weather Report dies, implying they grew close some time before his death.

Enemies

 * Sports Maxx: As the man who had her sister killed, Ermes despised Sports Maxx and got herself imprisoned just to take revenge. She finally gets her revenge when she pummeled his reanimated corpse.
 * Enrico Pucci: Although Ermes has no real qualms against Enrico Pucci. The many assassins the priest sends against Jolyne and thus herself cause her to antagonize Pucci.
 * Thunder McQueen: Ermes and McQueen incidentally meet when McQueen tries to steal her money and Ermes beats him up for it. However, McQueen reveals his Highway to Hell, forcing Ermes to act nice toward him to stop him from committing suicide although she doesn't care in reality and despises him for wanting to drag someone down with him.
 * Miraschon: When Miraschon introduces herself, Ermes mistakes her for a loony inmate and plans to take her wage with ease. However, Miraschon reveals herself as a Stand User and takes some of Ermes's vital organs.

Creation and Development
Due to her rather masculine manner and appearance, Ermes was given the endearing nickname older brother (兄貴) (similar to Keicho Nijimura and Prosciutto) among Japanese fans. Araki considers the fan nickname a compliment for Ermes because "it means she looks tough enough to take a real punch and still be in the fight."

Araki states that Ermes's position in the story is "kinda like a female version of Polnareff". Similarly, both pursue a perpetrator (J. Geil/Sports Maxx) who killed their sisters (Sherry Polnareff/Gloria Costello).

All-Star Battle (PS3)
Ermes makes her video game debut in the PS3 title. She was confirmed for the game along with Jolyne, Part 4 Josuke, and Okuyasu. She's the only non-DLC ally character from Part 6.

Alongside all playable members of Bruno Bucciarati's Gang of Part 5 (with the exception of Narancia Ghirga), Ermes is one of the only characters who activate Resolve Mode instead of the normal Rumble Mode when low on health. In this state, attacks that do not result in hard knockdowns or blow-backs no longer phase the character.

As one of the mass majority of playable characters in the game with the "Stand" Style, Ermes can turn Kiss on/off, changing move sets, as well as having access to the Stand Rush ability returning from the Capcom game, being able to attack in conjunction with her Stand. Ermes has 1050 HP.

Command List
In battle, Ermes can utilize various attacks featured in Stone Ocean.

Gameplay Overview
Ermes is a close-ranged brawler who applies stickers to herself to bolster the safety, damage, and combo ability of her attacks; Arm stickers generally improve her standing attacks, while leg stickers generally improve her crouching and jumping attacks. Her Stand Off normal attacks possess greater-than-average range, offering a variety of unpunishable poking tools that benefit her in skirmishes. With Kiss active, Ermes can become more aggressive, her normal attacks trading range for improved safety and offensive pressure. Adding further to her capabilities are a very strong anti-air reversal attack, a kick that can hit downed opponents, and a "rekka"-style attack useful for combos. Combined with an innately impressive resilience and her uniquely having the highest base health of the roster, Ermes maintains a very threatening presence up close.

Inversely, Ermes' glaring issues come when battling opponents who have a significant range advantage over her. She struggles to close the distance due to fairly limited mobility options and sluggish specials, and also lacks any form of projectile. As such, defensive and zoner characters may easily keep themselves out of her effective range. Risky or aggressive overuse of self-applied stickers can also result in Ermes suffering significant amounts of unnecessary extra damage from the opponent's attacks, thus knowing when to apply them is key to using them effectively.

Ermes's strategy revolves heavily around careful usage of her stickers and an extraordinarily potent neutral game while within effective range. She is at her best when she can apply offensive pressure, repeatedly utilizing brute force until she finds the opportunity to break past her opponent's defenses and pulverize them into submission.

Miscellaneous
Ermes possesses one alternate costume, which is the outfit she initially wore in the beginning of Stone Ocean.

Eyes of Heaven (PS3/PS4)
Ermes was confirmed as a playable character alongside Jolyne, Pucci, and Weather Report.

As a Stand User, Ermes is one of many characters with wildly varied abilities that grant her uniqueness in battle.


 * Style Action - Here's where ya stick it!: Ermes places stickers on her limbs to duplicate them, starting with her arms, then her legs (she may not apply anymore after that). This skill doubles the number of hits Ermes and Kiss deal in all of their attacks and skills except for DHAs, greatly increasing her overall strength. However, if Ermes is hit or otherwise recoils from any source of damage, the stickers on her limbs fall off and disappear, damaging her in the process. Ermes takes more damage if she had stickers on both her arms and legs at the time.
 * Have Lance...: Ermes launches a small lance duplicated with a sticker forward, or towards an opponent, if locked on. The lance will send any opponent it hits flying and will also be lodged into their bodies, indicated by an icon of the lance and sticker next to their health gauge. If the skill is used again while a lance is stabbed into an opponent, Ermes takes off the sticker on the lance duplicate she herself has, causing her to propel at high speed towards her target. If she connects, she spears the opponent and leaves them crumpling and vulnerable to further attack. This skill is not affected by Ermes's Style Action.
 * Uryaaaaaaaaaaa!: Kiss unleashes a barrage of 5 punches. This skill can be inputted up to twice more to unleash new subsequent attacks. On the second input, Kiss continues its assault by kicking 3 times. On the third input, Kiss spins around and delivers a strong backhand, sending opponents flying.


 * Pull off the sticker, and it tries to turn back to normal.: Ermes stabs a lance into the ground. If this skill is used again while another lance is active, Ermes deactivates the sticker on the first lance she placed, causing it to rapidly fly towards and combine with the second one. If an opponent is between the two lances, they will take damage and be pulled in the direction of the second lance. If they end up at the second lance, they receive extra damage and crumple, left vulnerable to further attack. This skill is not affected by Ermes's Style Action.


 * EX - Have Lance...: The projectile lance gains a speed and damage boost, and Ermes gains super armor while she's being propelled.


 * EX - Uryaaaaaaaaaaa!: The skill does more damage and Ermes recovers from using the backfist quicker.

JoJolities

 * Kiss is my license... for vengeance!: Ermes must use her Style Action twice. (200 Points)
 * And soon, I realized... It's pretty useful.: Ermes must connect "Pull off the sticker, and it tries to turn back to normal." twice. (200 Points)
 * Ready? This kick is for Gloria!: Ermes must break 3 of the opponents' health gauges. (300 Points)
 * Revenge is the way to settling the score with your own fate!: Ermes must perform a Dual Combo Finish. (500 Points)
 * Why am I crying all of a sudden?: Ermes must Retire an opponent with a Dual Heat Attack. (800 Points)

Dual Heat Attacks

 * Solo - Eat this! And this! And this!: Ermes has Kiss punch the opponent, then the two both unleash a spinning kick that knocks them off their feet. Ermes places stickers on both her arms, duplicating them for both her and her Stand. Kiss proceeds to uppercut the target into the air and unleashes a devastating barrage of punches with an extra set of fists, finishing with a strike that sends them flying.
 * With Jolyne - We're gonna kick your ass!: Ermes uses Kiss' stickers to create multiple arms for Jolyne and Stone Free. Having done so without warning, she is reprimanded by Jolyne who knows that the stickers' removal will cause her pain. Ermes reminds Jolyne that they are in the middle of a fight, forcing Stone Free to angrily pummel the opponent with an extra set of fists and blowing them back as Ermes laughs.

As with other Stone Ocean characters returning from All-Star Battle (except Pucci), Ermes's default and secondary alternate costumes swapped their places; her default costume in ASB is now her secondary costume and vice versa.

Tournament
She is paired with Robert E. O. Speedwagon in the Eyes of Heaven Tournament but was eliminated in the preliminaries by Narancia Ghirga and Diego Brando.

Monster Strike (Android/iOS)
Ermes Costello was obtainable for a limited time as a collaboration character in the mobile game Monster Strike.

Gallery
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Trivia

 * The English localization of All-Star Battle has a translation error concerning Ermes's interaction with Joseph. If Joseph activates the "Your next line is..." counter-taunt, the subtitle for his prediction of Ermes's line reads "Your foe is right here!" (a near-direct translation of her Japanese quote), while her actual taunt will read "Come at me, bro!" (the translation used in-game).
 * This was fixed in the remaster, where the latter quote is exclusively used for both instances.