Here it is, the final part to the Legion of Monster's arc with Franky trying to figure out how to save John while also stopping Doug from getting to Mary.


Chapter 28: Shadow Runners part 3.

The pain surged through Franky's face with the swelling from the air bubble, placed there by the mind controlled John, who was in the middle of leading the enemy to the hideout. back up waiting for word of the coast is clear.

"D-Damn it. Damn it! What can I do?" Franky whispered under his breath, filled with frustration at his helplessness. He held a hand to his face, only to wince with pain as he felt the bubble begin to grow beneath his skin. "A-Am I going to die?"

Through the haze of pain, he tried to think of a way to survive the situation. Suddenly, his expression shifted, and Graceful Door appeared before him. His Stand reared back its fist, punching him in the face and creating a small door on his cheek. The door opened up, releasing the bubble to float harmlessly beside him. He quickly closed the door as blood began to pour from the opening.

"Alright, now I need to find them and take that guy out somehow," Franky said to himself. He dashed past the piles of bodies left in the wake of Doug's attack, heading in the direction of the hotel. He only had one option; he would intercept them before they got there. Franky used Graceful Door to slip through the buildings in his way, leaving dozens of people confused at the holes randomly forming in their surroundings.

As he was running through an empty office, he heard a familiar voice ring out. "Hmmm, you picked a pretty far hotel, didn't you?" Franky stopped in horror for a moment, though he quickly realized that the voice wasn't talking to him. Moving to a nearby wall, he created a small peephole to look out at the street nearby. He saw John moving towards the hotel location followed closely behind by Doug, who had a look of slight annoyance on his face.

"Alright, need to figure out what to do," Franky whispered frantically, going through ideas in his mind. He glanced back to watch their movements, giving a nod as they continued forward. Finalizing the plan he'd decided on, he summoned Graceful Door, who reached out a hand.

Doug groaned in irritation at the time it was taking to reach the hotel. He sent a sullen look towards the puppet that was leading him. "Man, I wish my Stand could make live people move faster. Hell, I'd use it on myself," he said, sighing but still following after John. At least, until he suddenly vanished from Doug's sight. Shocked, he looked down to see a door close just as a splash emerged from the sewers below. His eyes widened with the realization that Franky was still alive.

"Got you!" As Franky's voice roared from behind him, Doug turned his head. He was barely able to register the door left in the side of a nearby building before Graceful Door slammed into Doug's head with a vicious uppercut. He staggered back a few feet, gasping for breath as a door popped open along his chin, letting blood pour out from the hole.

"Bastard," Doug muttered, ripping part of his shirt and wrapping it around his head to force the wound closed. "Your friend is still under my control. It's only a matter of time before he arrives here to finish you off."

"Then I'll have to finish you sooner," Franky said, launching Graceful Door towards Doug, its arms reared back to unleash an onslaught of punches. Suddenly, the ground below Franky began to expand upwards. Before he could react, an air bullet burst from the ground and knocked him back. Franky jumped back a few feet to avoid the dozens of other bullets.

"See, what did I tell you?" Doug bragged, smirking as John slowly pulled himself out from the hole that was made from the air bullets. Then he paused, simply standing with lifeless eyes.

"John, I know you're there. Snap out of it!" he cried out. John and Lonesome Dove turned to stare blankly at Franky and Graceful Door.

For a moment, the two faced off across the sidewalk. Then Doug's smug voice broke the silence. "Well, of course he's there. At least, his body is. As for his mind...well, with Legion of Monsters' strings controlling him, nothing you say or do will even register."

Legion of Monsters appeared behind him, lifting its left hand as Lonesome Dove mimicked the motion. "Here, let me show you." Lonesome Dove launched a barrage of air bullets towards Franky, who made a makeshift wall out of the concrete using Graceful Door. Hiding behind it, Franky covered his ears from the loud blasts coming from the impacts of the attack.

"Come on Franky, you need to think of something to get an upper hand," he thought aloud, just before a large hole formed in his wall. He had to jump back to avoid any more damage from the explosion. Soon after, the wall crumbled into pieces, allowing a wave of air bullets to approach him.

"Graceful Door!" Franky yelled desperately, summoning his Stand and launching several punches to stop the air bullets from reaching him. Graceful Door popped the bullets before they could reach Franky, but the sheer force of the attacks steadily chipped away at the skin on Franky's hand, until it began to slowly peel off his body.

"I hope you realize now that you were a fool for trying to stop me." Doug said from a safe distance. He smirked as he watched the blood run down Franky's hand. Franky's teeth clenched as he fought the pain that coursed through his body every time his Stand blocked a bullet.

"You're the fool if you think this will stop me," Franky said, determined to stand strong in front of the enemy.

In an instant, Doug's expression shifted into an annoyed scowl. "Then I'll show you a fool," he hissed, forcing Lonesome Dove to send an even larger amount of air bullets towards Franky. Graceful Door tried to keep up with the attack, but soon a bullet hit its leg, ripping away a chunk of Franky's thigh in a burst of blood and sound.

"AHHHHHH!" Franky screamed, instinctively looking down to check the open wound on his leg. But in his moment of weakness, Graceful Door was hit by many more bullets, launching Franky back with the force of the assault. He skidded across the pavement until he landed in a heap beside the office building, blood already beginning to pool around him. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he registered loud noises and a voice, but it seemed so distant.

"Now you see, don't you? You're nothing to me, least of all a threat. And you never were," Doug said. He turned to John, who once again began leading him to the hotel, leaving the still form of Franky. A crowd of bewildered citizens cautiously approached his body, and one young lady crouched down beside him, trying to find any sign that he was still alive.

As she shifted his body onto his stomach, a gasp escaped his lips, followed by a stream of blood. Slowly, he struggled to rise to his feet, glancing up towards the crowd around him. But his eyes caught on something else; holes in the wall above him, seemingly left by John's air bullets. The force of the first few had knocked him out of the remaining bubbles' paths.

"Doesn't that mean…" Franky murmured. His eyes narrowed in deep thought, though he was soon interrupted by the worried questions of the crowd, so he raised his voice to add, "D-damn it, that hurt. I've got to talk to my doctor about this medical condition."

Trying to act like coughing up blood was normal, he forced himself up to his feet, legs shaking as he tried to keep his balance. As the crowd slowly wandered off, his head turned to look in the direction John had led Doug. Panting with exhaustion, Franky slowly began to limp after them, each step more painful than the last.


Doug wore a broad smirk as he followed John to the doors of the hotel. He stopped to look at his puppet, gesturing towards the entrance. "Well? Aren't you going to open the door for me?" As Legion of Monsters raised its hand, John's body jerked towards the door. As soon as Doug walked through, John scrambled after him to open the elevator door and press the button for the third floor. His Stand could be more precise, of course, but Doug always found it fun to force his puppets into such situations.

"I need to call the others once we get to the room. I don't really want to deal with Stu's Stand activating," Doug mused nonchalantly. As the door to the third floor opened up before him, he added, "But first, let's escort our guest out."

John and Doug strode down the hall until they reached a plain door. Once they came to a stop, Doug's smirk widened, and his Stand turned to John. Wordlessly, Lonesome Dove appeared, kicking the door off its hinges and bursting into the room.

"Ahhhhhhh!" A female voice shrieked. John surged forward, with Doug just behind him, but they immediately came to a halt when they noticed who had screamed. Instead of Mary, a little girl in a sundress was looking at them, eyes filled with terror.

"W-what the hell?" Doug muttered. Suddenly, the wall behind him opened up, and Franky's bloody arms wrapped around him, pulling him back into the hallway. In the same moment, Graceful Door pushed John and his Stand out into the next room before slamming the door shut.

Doug looked up at Franky, who was panting and seemed barely about to stand up straight, with his entire body covered in crimson stains. Doug's moment of fear quickly became rage, and pushing himself to his feet, he yelled, "What the hell! Where did you hide her?"

"S-secret room...only Kite and Mary knew where it was...in case something happened..." Franky gasped out. Yet, despite his condition, his face was filled with grim confidence as he met Doug's gaze. "...You'll never find her."

"B-but John shouldn't have brought me here then. He shouldn't be able to do anything but obey orders," Doug said, eyebrows furrowing with confusion. He looked to Franky, only to see his hand move to the speaker on his shoulder.

"I only tuned in to warn them after I saved myself from the air bullet you put in my head. So as far as John knew, they were still here," he explained. Doug clenched his fist tightly, gritted his teeth, and sent a murderous stare right at Franky.

"Well then, I'll just take you out and find her, even if I have to use this whole city to do it!" Doug screamed. With a motion from Legion of Monsters, Lonesome Dove burst through a nearby wall, John sprinting out to get close enough for an attack. Yet Franky's confidence was unshaken. He summoned Graceful Door, and instead of attacking John or Doug, the Stand's punch went for the floor.

Doug's eyes widened in realization, but before he could respond, a massive door formed under their feet. The door opened beneath their weight, sending all four of them falling into the next floor. Graceful Door grabbed John's arm to make sure he didn't fall, while Franky himself held onto the edge of the door. With his legs free, he kicked at the falling Doug, sending him directly towards a bed post. The wood fractured and cut deeply into his back.

"Take that, bastard," Franky said, letting go of the door to land safely, though he still groaned with the pain from his earlier injuries. He grasped at his side and looked down at Doug lying on the splintered bedpost. Yet he didn't have a moment to catch his breath before Lonesome Dove launched another punch toward him. Franky managed to dodge it, glancing back at Doug to see him holding himself up, even as sweat dripped down his face.

"I'm not done yet, you asshole!" Doug shouted. With a motion from Legion of Monsters, Lonesome Dove's arms reared back in preparation to unleash more air bullets. Franky winced at the thought and leaped to the side before the Stand could attack. But Lonesome Dove adjusted its trajectory to follow after him just before unleashing its attack.

This didn't seem to bother Franky, who simply said, "Really? Because it looks to me like that's exactly what you are. Done." Intentionally tripping in time for the air bullets to fly over him, the attack now had a new target.

Doug's eyes widened in horror before his body was blasted with explosive force, pressing the wooden shards deeper into his back. He screamed in pain until the shards seemed to reach something important inside him. The scream became a quiet groan, which became silence. The fury in his eyes slowly faded to a blank stare.

Legion of Monsters slowly vanished, releasing its hold on John, who groaned with a combination of pain and confusion. He gripped his head, his brain trying to process how he'd arrived in a hotel room.

"Oh, what happened?" he said groggily, scanning the room more until his eyes fell onto Franky's body laying in a heap on the floor. His eyes widened in shock, and he rushed forward to kneel by his friend. "Franky-Franky, are you okay?"

"Y-yeah, I'm fine. I'm just glad we got you back. I was worried that I might screw something up. But I guess it all worked out," Franky said with a soft smile. He tried to bring himself to his knees, only to sit back down with a hiss of pain.

"Yeah, but sorry I roughed you up so much," John said, helping Franky to his feet and supporting him with his shoulder. With most of Franky's weight on his shoulder, he walked out the door and towards the elevator.

"It's fine. Let's just meet up with the others at the mansion. I'm sure Mary can heal us once we arrive," Franky said, clutching to John as he tried to keep his balance. Yet despite his optimistic words, his expression fell as his mind went to the other group. With no idea of what Kite and Keith might be going through on their own quest to find the enemy, he could only hope that they would be alright.

TBC.


That is it for this chapter and arc, please tell me what you think and please leave a review. We have two more battles until the final fight with the Major.