Chapter 58
Summary
Joseph initially questions Santana about his species and constantly repeats formal greetings to him. Baffled by this Speedwagon asks Joseph why he is doing this and Joseph says that the reason he is doing this is so he can determine if Santana is actually a genuinely good life form. Stroheim argues that he is truly evil because he killed his men but Joseph writes this off as Stroheim provoking Santana to kill his men since Stroheim did awaken Santana from his slumber. In addition, Joseph adds that he only came here to take Speedwagon back with him to New York and there is no reason to provoke conflict with Santana if he isn't genuinely vile.
Therefore, Joseph continues to greet Santana trying to get him to talk but Santana just ignores this and starts to walk past Joseph. Taking this as offensive Joseph trips Santana to get him to speak. But Santana leg simply goes through Joseph, to his shock. Santana makes his way over to a dead officer's machine gun and asks what it is, as he has never seen anything like it before, to no reply. He proceeds to dismantle the gun, showing he is an amazingly fast learner with high intellect.
Not bothered by this, Joseph continues to gain Santana's attention, eventually Santana uses his “Rib Blades” attack to eat Joseph, but instead of absorbing Joseph into him, Joseph is repelled back by his ripple energy. Confused by this and the fact Joseph felt different than any other human he encountered before he test to see if Speedwagon is like Joseph and Santana confirms that Joseph is truly one of a kind. An enraged Joseph then picks a fight with Santana trying to punch him with the ripple only to find that his current Ripple did not work on Santana.
