Julius Zeppeli drives his old jalopy through the streets of London, making his way to the museum. A small, black and white bird flies overhead, keeping an eye on the car. As Julius passes an Indian restaurant, he reaches down and grabs one of his Beatles from its holster. He throws the glass sphere at the plate of a customer sitting on a sidewalk table, sealing it within the glass sphere, and summons the sphere back to his hand. He throws it straight up, striking the bird.

"Son of a bitch!" Kan shouts, clutching her eyes.

She sits in the back seat of the white convertible, which is tailing Julius from two blocks away. "What's wrong?" Johana asks.

"He threw a plate of curry in my eyes!" Kan shouts. "Or...Dora's eyes? Our eyes? He threw a plate of curry in our eyes!"

"It seems that he does not want us to follow him," Nero says.

"Do you have a bottle of water, to wash my eyes out with?" Kan asks, forcing her eyelids open with her fingers.

"I don't think that'll help much," Johana says.

A glass sphere lands in the back of the car and burst open, dropping a piece of paper in Johana's lap. She picks it up and reads it aloud. "Go home, children, before I drop a car on you," Johana says.

The man in the black raincoat and grey stocking cap, Stanely Mathers, sits on a bench inside the Tote Museum, smoking a hand-rolled cigarette. The museum is bustling, as various visitors, tourists and Londonites alike, tour the various exhibits. A woman with white hair wearing a red dress sits next to him. She wears black sunglasses and a blue headscarf. The duo hold hands.

A nearby security guard coughs, gaining Stan's attention. "What?" Stan snaps.

The guard taps on a sign listing of an absurdly long list of rules. No running in the museum, no flash photography, no outside food. And, of course, no smoking of tobacco.

"Not tobacco," Stan says with a smirk.

The guard crosses his arms and walks over. Stan's companion lowers her sunglasses and stares at the guard. He freezes. "We'd prefer it if you left us in peace," she says.

The guards sheepishly apologizes before backing away. "I could have handled that, you know," Stan says.

"I know, sweetie, but I don't want you to worry about this kind of thing today," the woman says. "Your new exhibits opening, that has to be nerve-wracking."

Stan kisses her on the forehead. "I love you, Stef," he says.

"Yes, I'm well aware. Speaking of your exhibit, you should probably get going. It's a bit gauche for the artists to be late for the unveiling of his new gallery."

Stan rolls his eyes. "Is there anything I do that isn't gauche?"

He sighs, tosses the cigarette into a nearby trashcan, and stands up from the bench. "Stefani, there's something you should know," he says. "Woodstock called two days ago, helped me arrange a fight with the man that I've been hunting. He's some Italian bloke named Zeppeli."

"That's great honey," Stefani says. "I know how much this has been eating you up. When's the fight?"

"That's the thing, it's happening today."

Stefani frowns. "I see," she says. "I assume this is the part where you tell me to run home so I don't get hurt?" She extends her arm, showing off the silver bracelet around her wrist for the world to see. "Lest you forget, I am more than capable of taking care of myself."

"I know, but this is my fight, my revenge. It's something I have to do alone."

"I understand," Stefani says. The two kiss and Stan walks away towards his destiny. He walks through the museum, past exhibits on dinosaurs and ancient civilizations, to the third floor. The modern art wing.

A large crowd is clustered outside of a new exhibit, one dedicated to an up and coming painter, Stan Mathers. Large posters showing Stan standing in front of one of his paintings hang outside the exhibit. Stan winces at the posters, the fake smile forced by the photographer is cringeworthy.

The inside of the exhibit is filled with paintings and even more filled with people. The people gawk at the paintings, depictions of human suffering. A burning building, a man bleeding out on the sidewalk, a man drowning, these horrors and more are captured on canvas.

From outside the exhibit, Stan hears a museum curator drone on about him. "Marshall Stanely Mathers Jr., more commonly known as Mad Stan, has lived a life of pain," the curator says. "His mother died in childbirth, his father abandoned him and his brother when they were young, he was placed in a dreary orphanage, and to top it all off, he was beaten into a coma at the age of fourteen."

"But this pain Mathers experienced, instead of breaking him, it gave him strength," the curator continues. "After awakening from his two-month coma, he began painting, pouring his suffering onto the canvas. These visceral paintings he made, these displays of human emotion, there is nothing quite like them."

The curator notices Stan in the crowd and smiles. "Ah, Mr. Mathers, I was hoping you'd show," he says. "Please, come to the front of the crowd."

Stan sighs and shoves his way through the crowd. "Yeah, I'm Mad Stan Mather's, I'm the guy whose art you like," he says. "Enjoy the paintings, or don't. I really don't give a shit."

The curator forces himself to keep smiling. "Our eccentric artist, everyone," he says. "I suppose I can't complain about Stanely's eccentricity, I suppose. After all, I can't think of many artists generous enough to donate dozens of paintings at once-"

"It isn't generosity, it's a tax write off," Stan says.

"Regardless, the museum is in your debt."

Stan scans the crowd, searching for his opponent. His eyes land on a man in a white and orange outfit, with slit goggles and blonde cornrows. The man stares back and Stan knows that he is Zeppeli.

Just then, one of the paintings on the exhibit wall bursts into flames. The crowd screams and runs out of the gallery. Stan and the man with the cornrows, Zeppeli, stay behind.

Johana, Kan, and Nero finally arrive at the front steps of the museum. "It took too long to get here, Julius may have already started his fight," Johana says.

"Taking a back street to keep him from attacking us was slower, yes, but it was the only option available," Nero says.

Kan summons her Stand. It's bloodshot eyes match her own. As the trio run up the stone stairs of the Tote Museum, The Doors does a loop around the museum, scanning for any signs of trouble. Kan stops dead in her tracks. "Guys, we have a problem," she says.

"What?" Johana asks.

"Inspector Sting is here."

To be more precise, Inspector Sting is sitting at a table in a cafe half a block away from the museum. The Doors hovers above him, watching as he sips a cup of tea.

"That cop guy from the airport?" Johana asks. "What is he doing here?"

"Having a calming morning cup of tea, I guess," Kan says. "He doesn't know we're here, but things will go to hell quickly if Scotland Yard shows up."

Inspector Sting takes a sip of his tea and looks up at The Doors. He stares at it for a moment before raising his arm, opening his palm, and squeezing. The left wing of The Doors heats up.

Kan falls over and screams. "Fire!" she screams, clutching her arm. Burns have appeared on her arm, the damage taken by her Stand transferred over.

Johana grabs Kan. "What's wrong?" she shouts.

"Why does everyone have to attack me when I'm scouting?" Kan mutters. "Sting attacked me, set Dora's wing on fire."

"He should not be able to attack you," Nero says. "Stands can only be harmed by other Stands and can only be seen by Stand Users."

"Which means that Sting is a Stand User," Johana says. "Damnit, he was already a prick, and now he has the ability to actually hurt us."

"Did you see one of the silver bracelets around Sting's wrist?" Nero asks.

"No, I don't think he's one of Woodstock's Stand Users," Kan says.

"The arrow," Johana says. "He had it at the airport, he must have accidentally cut himself and gained a Stand."

"We should all calm down," Nero says. "Mr. Sting does not know that we are here. Nor does he know that there is a battle going on within the museum. As far as he knows, he killed an odd bird for looking at him funny."

As soon as Nero says this, the museum's fire alarm goes off and dozens of people come flooding out. "Well, that is unfortunate," he says.

"If the museum is on fire, then Julius's fight can't be going well," Kan says.

"Julius will have to sit tight," Johana says. "We need to take out Sting before he calls in more cops."

"I have a better idea," Kan says. The Doors reappears on her shoulder. "I'll lead Sting away, you two can go in and help out Julius."

"We don't know what abilities he has, trying to fight him alone is dangerous," Johana says.

"I'm not going to fight him, I'm going to distract him and lead him away from the museum."

"Are you sure you can do this?"

"Come on, Johana, have a little faith."

Johana sighs. "If things go bad, desummon your Stand and run into the museum, okay?" she says.

"Will do!" Kan says as she performs a mocking salute.

The Doors flies off in the direction of Inspector Sting as Johana and Nero run into the museum. The fight against the shoving crowd, heading in the direction of the smoke. As they climb the staircase to the third floor, where the Stan Mathers exhibit is, they see a menacing figure stood atop the staircase.

She wears a bulky suit of red armor, with a helmet shaped like a crown, and rests a large two-handed battleaxe, stolen from the medieval history exhibit.

She points her axe at Johana and Nero. "Those bracelets mean that you are Stand Users," she says. "You have come here to interfere with Stan's duel with Zeppeli, haven't you?"

"Guilty as charged," Johana says.

The armored woman, Stefani, slams her axe down on the floor. "I cannot allow this," she shouts. "I swore to Stan that I would not interfere with his fight, but I am more than willing to keep you two from interfering."

Johana cracks her knuckles and summons Twisted Sister. "Nero, find another way to the third floor," she says. "I'll handle this one."

Only Julius Zeppeli and Stan Mathers remain in the exhibit. The flames have spread, destroying many of the paintings. Stan stands there, his back turned to Julius, staring at a large painting on the wall.

"You're Zeppeli, aren't you?" Stan says.

"Julius Zeppeli, at your service," Julius says with a sarcastic bow.

"This is my most recent painting. Tell me, what do you see when you look at it?"

Julius glances at the painting. It shows a young man in a black hoodie with a massive hole in his chest. His eyes are filled with fear. "I see a scared boy," Julius says.

"Is that all you see?"

"Yes."

Stan clenches his fist. "Wrong answer, asshole!" he shouts. His Stand, the bony figure named Slim Shady, appears at his side.

Julius reaches down and grabs one of his Beatles. Before he can throw it, a car bursts from one of the paintings on the walls. Julius barely leaps out of the way in time to avoid being run over. The car crashes into the opposing wall and crumples as it quickly stops.

Slim Shady lunges at Julius, paintbrush in hand, and jabs at his throat. Julius disappears into the red sphere in his hand and flies past Slim Shady. As he passes by the shadowy Stand, Julius bursts from the sphere and chucks it over his head. It hits Slim Shady, sealing it away.

Julius grabs the grey ball from his holster and cracks it open, releasing his silver sledgehammer. He slams it into Stan's stomach, bringing him to his knees.

"Nice try, kid, but it'll take more than that to take me down," he says, holding the side of the Sledgehammer to Stan's face.

Then, the painting of the boy with a hole in his chest turns real, and a corpse falls onto Julius's shoulders. Stan scurries backwards. Julius tosses the corpse off him just in time to see the painting directly across from the body's former home turn real. Specifically, the painting of three men firing machine guns.

STAND STATS

Name: Slim Shady

Dub Name: Thin Shadow

User: Stan Mathers

Namesake: "The Real Slim Shady" (Eminem Song)

Appearance: Slim Shady takes the form of a bony shadow colored, with a wide smiling mouth. It wears a hat resembling a black mushroom cap. Paintbrushes covered in black goo pop out of various body parts.

Abilities: Slim Shady is able to turn people and objects into drawings by stabbing them with its brushes near a flat surface. Slim Shady's drawings are held in stasis, unable to move but able to think. Stan is able to free his drawings at any time.

Stats:Power-C, Speed-C, Range: D, Durability-B, Precision-C, Potential-B