Hey, I'm back with this Jojo fic and I've been planning out the last few fights that will lead to the final showdown with Creedence Clearwater.

Chapter 26: Shadow Running part 1.

Franky had his eyes glued to a pair of binoculars, looking out from the window of the group's hotel room. He'd been told to keep an eye out for anyone that might be looking for them, and he was keeping his promise. The others were all waiting for Kite to return, having left nearly an hour ago to get some things for them. He's said only that they were important to the plan.

In the meantime, Doc was sitting on the bed strumming his guitar and humming a tune under his breath. Mary was freshening herself up in the bathroom, while Keith twirled his gun around with a cocky grin. John sat in his chair watching them all with a satisfied smile. Yet all of their activities were soon interrupted by a knock at the door.

"It's Kite, so you better not attack me," Kite's muffled voice called out from the door. John opened it to let their leader into the room, a map clear in his hand. He walked over to the desk and unrolled it, while the others surrounded him in an attempt to look at the map.

"Alright, here is what I know. The Major's mansion is right here, and we...are here," Kite said, using his finger to indicate the distance from their target.

"That could take a little while to get to," John noted, seeing that Kite was showing them nearly the whole length of the city map. "And based on the remaining people from the photo, there are at least three more Stand users guarding him."

"Yeah, I thought that over, and I believe I have a plan that'll work," Kite started, sending a quick glance at his group before continuing. "I'll head towards the east side with Keith, while John and Franky approach the west side. This way, we can clear any enemies from their hiding places. I'd prefer to deal with them one at a time, so we don't have to worry about being attacked from every direction at once."

"Wait, what about me and Doc?" Mary asked, realizing that she wasn't going to be involved with either group. From so far away, she wouldn't be able to aid them if anything happened.

"If they learn your location, they might try to organize a group attack, which would put your group in danger. So for the plan to work, I want you to stay here until we defeat the remaining Stand users. You two can join us before we attack the mansion," Kite explained.

Mary looked at him, guilt filling her mind at the thought that she might be putting them in more danger then they could handle. A hand on her back caught her attention, and she turned to see Doc standing behind her with a comforting smile.

"Don't worry, we'll be in touch in case they need back up," he said softly. As he spoke, American Pie appeared behind Franky and Keith, placing its speakers on each of their right arms. The two sent comforting smiles her way, which she slowly returned.

"Okay. But you should still be careful. I'm hoping that you won't need my help in the first place," Mary said. Kite nodded, and the duo of Mary and Doc quietly watched the others head out. Doc soon returned to playing his music with American Pie at the ready, but Mary continued to stare at the door for a while longer.


Stu sat on a bench, looking down at his shaking hands. His two subordinates were standing there beside him, waiting for him to elaborate on their finalized plan. Though, it was mostly his plan in the end. With that in mind, he steeled his resolve, taking a deep breath before addressing the two.

"Alright, with all the Stand attacks they've faced, they're likely not willing to take risks at this stage. I imagine they'll try to find us before moving on to the Major." Stu said, looking up at his fellow teammates.

Then, his face formed a smirk. "You two are going to let that happen. Doug will go west, and Tom will go east. I'm confident you'll be able to take them out, but if I don't hear from you in half an hour, I will activate my Stand. At that point, well...you'll need to get indoors." Doug and Tom both nodded quickly, heading out and leaving Stu in silence. He took out a pocket watch and looked it over, setting the countdown that he was willing to give his team. He could only hope for them to win before that time ran out.


John and Franky walked along the sidewalk, through busy streets filled with citizens, each with their own business to attend to. Franky scanned the area for any signs of a potential enemy, but the random movements of the crowd made it difficult.

"Man, this is a lot harder in a city like this. Almost makes me miss being on the road, if only for how easy it was to find those guys," Franky said, turning to look at John, who met his gaze and nodded in agreement.

"That's not the only problem. They know who we are, but we don't have anything; we don't know who they are, what they look like, or what their Stands can do," John added.

Suddenly, a scream came from deeper in the crowd, along with a low growling sound. The two immediately turned around to see the crowd scrambling to get away from a pack of dogs, who were running with no concern for the people.

"Shit, let's get out of here!" Franky exclaimed, running the few feet to a nearby cafe and throwing open the door. He slipped inside, John close behind him, and swung the door closed behind them. "You would think the dog catcher would have already caught them if they started running-"

A dog's head burst through the glass window in the door, barking madly and snapping its jaws in an attempt to bite them. The glass shards forced them to move away, only to see nearly twenty dogs scratching at the door, cracking the glass as they tried to break through the barrier and get to them. John turned to see the scared faces of the people already in the cafe, gazing in horror at the pack of dogs outside.

"Franky, I think they're coming after us. We need to get out of here now, or this could be really bad," John whispered. Franky nodded, the two of them running into the bathroom, where Franky summoned Graceful Door. The Stand punched the wall, letting them climb out into an alley behind the store front.

"Who knew a Stand could control so many things at once?" John asked rhetorically. Yet his only response was a growling sound coming from behind them. They slowly turned to see three dogs stalking towards them with their teeth bared, drooling as they approached the duo.

"Great, just great. Now we have to find the user as fast as possible," Franky said, watching the dogs inch closer towards them until they lunged forward. In a flash, Graceful Door hit the ground to create a door, opening it directly into the dogs' path. With no time to stop, the dogs slammed into the door. Franky moved to climb into the sewers beneath the door, only to pause as he saw one of the dogs climbing up to look at them. Blood ran down its bruised face, but it didn't seem to care, only continuing to snarl at them. Seeing Franky's hesitation, John pushed him with his shoe and jumped down after him. Under the weight of the dogs, the slab quickly slammed shut, leaving them alone in the sewer.

In the sudden darkness, John tried to see anything he could about their surroundings. "Damn, that was fucked up. Right, Franky?" As his eyes adjusted, he saw Franky glaring up at him from the damp floor. His hair was dripping wet, and he seemed incredibly annoyed at being pushed in.

"Sorry, had to get us out of there," John said, offering a hand to help Franky out of the dirty water. After another few seconds of irritated looks, he begrudgingly took it, letting John pull him to his feet. The ground made a strange squelch as he stood up, and John quickly placed his free hand firmly on his nose.

"Sure, you definitely had to push me in," he grumbled, turning his gaze from John. He soon saw a small light coming from a manhole cover a few feet away. Pointing it out to John, they headed towards it until they reached a ladder. Franky looked at John, who nodded towards the ladder, indicating that Franky should go first. Franky shrugged, and using Graceful Door, formed a tiny hole in the manhole cover. He peeked through, seeing nothing near it. Feeling braver, Franky formed a larger door to look around, only to have a dog's jaws snap inches away from him. He yelped, losing his grip on the ladder and falling back down towards the floor. Thankfully, he stopped midair thanks to a large bubble from Lonesome Dove.

"Those things are still after us, and somehow, they seem to know where we are. Can they smell us?" Franky asked with an unnerved expression. As John helped him to his feet, they both heard growling, looking up to see the dog trying to squeeze its way through Franky's door. It was completely ignoring the pain of trying to go through a small hole, focused only on getting to them.

"We're in a sewer, so there's no way they can pick out our scent in here. Still, this Stand makes them act like mindless monsters, so they have to be following something," John thought aloud. Looking around for any hints, his eyes soon fell on the speaker on Franky's arm. "Wait, do you think they might be listening for things like our voi-"

A loud splash came from deeper into the sewer, and John's eyes widened. The two turned their heads to see four pairs of eyes staring at them. They glanced at each other, then started springing in the opposite direction, sending brief glances over their shoulders to see the small pack running after them.

"We're in deep shit," Franky groaned. John nodded before summoning Lonesome Dove, which unleashed a large wave of bubble mines behind them.

"There, we should be okay with that behind us, at least for now. Still, we need to find a way out of here if we're going to defeat the user," John said. The sounds of popping and whimpering echoed through the sewer while they ran on, until finally, the next manhole exit came into view. This time John went up and used Lonesome Dove to knock the cover off, allowing him and Franky to climb out. There were no dogs waiting for them, so they took a moment to catch their breath and try to form their next plan.

"You two seem to be having a little trouble," a voice called out to them. They both turned to see a man standing there on the sidewalk, a crowd slowly surrounding them as he spoke. The man wore a pair of sunglasses over his eyes, and looked at the duo with a cocky smile on his face.

"Watch out John, it's the enemy!" Franky shouted, summoning Graceful Door and sending it shooting towards the man. Yet he remained still, simply watching them even as the Stand moving closer towards him. John noticed this with confusion, and as he looked for an explanation nearby, he saw the milky eyes of the people in the crowd. Now that he was looking, they did seem unfazed by Franky's shouting. All at once, something fell into place inside John's head.

"Franky, wait a minute!" John yelled out, but he was too late to stop Graceful Door's attack. Its fist slammed into the man's cheek, knocking his sunglasses off his face while a door formed on his cheek. Despite that, the guy's head turned to look back at them, seemingly unfazed by the punch. The cocky smile was still on his face, but his eyes were milky, just like the rest of the crowd.

"I think he can control more than just dogs," John finished quietly.

They turned their heads as they looked at the crowd, who took a step towards them in unison. "Great, now what do we do?" Franky wondered, seeing that they were surrounded. Even with their Stands, he knew they would still be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.

Thinking fast, John summoned Lonesome Dove, which created large bubbles for the duo to step on. With some assistance from their Stands, they managed to climb the makeshift staircase before the crowd could reach them. Soon, they were on top of a nearby building, looking down at the horde of people on the street. "Not sure how long we can hide here with that crowd," Franky said, looking back to John, who gave no response. From his expression, he was clearly in deep thought.

"So, we're dealing with a control Stand that can control a large crowd of people and animals at the same time. It even has enough control to make one person talk and act suspiciously," John noted, working over all the information in his head. Still, something didn't seem to add up; how could a Stand do something like that?

"We have to be missing a detail in how this works. If he could just do it whenever he wanted, he would already be controlling us," Franky pointed out. John looked up at him, suddenly struck by a new thought.

"Well, if the condition isn't just being close, I think those people must have all done something that allowed him to control them," John said. After thinking it over in his head for a few more seconds, he nodded to himself and stood upright. "Alright, I might have a plan on how we can find the user."


From outside of the crowd, Doug smiled up at the building where he had watched John and Franky flee to. He watched his pawns stand there, completely motionless outside of the occasional jerk every now and then. Of course, he wasn't bothered by that.

"Hmmm, I guess it's time to move Legion of Monsters," he said passively. A large cloaked figure appeared behind him, holding up long arms with visible doll joints. Its face resembled a plague doctor's mask, with a long nose jutting out from beneath its hood. Gesturing with its right hand, the horde of people started to advance towards the fire escape.

TBC.


That is it for this chapter and I hope you enjoyed it. Please leave a review for it and tell me what you think since we're getting closer to the end.