A/N: Let's get a few things out of the way before we can begin.
1. If you don't know by the summary, Part 6 does not exist in this universe, the only original character from Stone Ocean present in this story is Jolyne. So Dio never had a diary and whatnot.
2. I know that there are many returning characters from part 3, especially part 4, but this story isn't really about them. You'll see in future chapters that this story will really be about my own original characters and their own Stands, (I've made 20+ original Stands for this fanfiction).
3. This will be updated every Friday with no exceptions. Doesn't matter if it's a holiday or not. So expect a new chapter every Friday without any breaks until the story is finished. (As I said before, I've worked ahead and have already written the first 24 chapters). If I don't post on a Friday, then assume I'm dead. Or my internet's down. You choose.
4. Lastly, there is a bit of cursing in this fanfiction, but there will be no slurs or f words. Enough rambling, enjoy and feel free to comment, I will respond to all the comments I can, so feel free to ask questions.
...
Episode 14: Inner Disruption Part 2
Portobello Belle was born in 1988, his mother, Shelby Belle, was a twenty-two-year-old fashion model. One night while walking home late in the Floridian streets, a man in his late forties came up to her with a gun.
"What do you want?!" Shelby yelled in fear, "I don't have any money! Please let me go!"
The man eyed Shelby while licking his lips, "Don't have any money?" He said, "Well that's a shame. I know what you could do for me instead of giving me money."
"No!" she yelled in fear.
The man licked his lips again while he led her into an alleyway. Nobody was there in the empty streets. Maybe if someone was out, then the atrocities caused by that man that night could have been stopped. But nobody was around, and Shelby was claimed victim by this sick, vile man.
Portobello was the result of this encounter. Shelby didn't know how to feel. She still loved her unexpected son, but for obvious reasons, she felt incredibly uncomfortable.
Portobello had to grow up with a single parent. Never knowing his dad didn't really bother him. Shelby had contacted the police right after the incident, and they had been tracking down the man all this time. One day, when Portobello was three years old, the man was caught. The man had raped twelve women and impregnated three of them, including Shelby. The trial lasted for several months. But somehow, the man named Gerry Silver had managed to hire an incredibly good lawyer, bribed the judge, and won the trial. Silver, after having robbed the dignity of twelve women, was allowed freedom without punishment.
By the age of fourteen, Portobello began to hate and resent his father. His mother was overworked having to take care of her son and maintain her job. One day, Portobello saw Gerry Silver walking around not too far away. Portobello rushed home before grabbing a small handgun that his mother kept in case of emergencies. After silently following his father until he made sure he was alone, he confronted him.
"Who are you?" Gerry Silver asked upon seeing Portobello.
"My name is Portobello Belle," Portobello said, hiding the gun behind him, "You are scum lower than shit!"
"Go back to your country you Italian freak!" Gerry Silver said before walking away from Portobello, completely ignoring him.
"You've forgotten already, have you?" Portobello said, "Does my name sound familiar? Specifically my last name, 'Belle'? Well, perhaps you remember my mother's name, Shelby Belle?"
"Are you…" Gerry said in disbelief, "The brat of that bitch who tried to have me arrested? I suppose killing you would be justifiable payback, don't you think, you little brat?!"
Portobello saw something appear behind Gerry, something inhuman. This was the first time Portobello saw a Stand. His father had been a Stand user, one of the lower people who worked for Dio. Somehow, he was able to shoot off his flesh bud and avoid being mutated after Dio's death. He lived his life taking advantage of women and getting away with it. Perhaps that was linked to his Stand ability. That didn't matter, however, because upon seeing his Stand, Portobello unloaded all the rounds on his handgun into Gerry's head, killing him instantly.
Portobello tied Gerry's body to a rock and threw it in a river. Gerry had no family or friends, all he did was pray for women whenever he had the chance. Nobody noticed his disappearance, nobody even cared. On that day, Gerry Silver had disappeared from the face of the Earth, and nobody ever knew. Nobody that was, except for Portobello, who rushed home and acted as if nothing happened. This event psychologically snapped Portobello, and he became extremely laid back, so laid back in fact, that some people thought he was unable to feel fear. This also caused Portobello to forget things fairly easily.
Several years later, at the age of twenty-one, Portobello was walking through the streets when he heard screaming coming from not far away. Portobello quickly rushed to see what was going on. He was met with a ghastly sight. Twelve men that looked to be in a motorcycle gang were holding a girl in place and slowly stripping off her clothing. Portobello knew he had to act quickly.
"What the hell do you think you're doing!" he yelled.
One of the guys who looked like the leader of the gang looked at Portobello, a switchblade in his hand, "Me and my buds are just getting to know this girl. Get lost before you get yourself hurt!" the other members laughed at Portobello.
"Yeah, scram!" Another said, laughing, "Mind your own business!"
Portobello looked into the girl's pleading eyes. He knew he had to help her.
"You're going to have a bad time if you don't let her go right now!" Portobello yelled as intimidatingly as he could, "Wait…" Portobello's mind blanked for a second before he snapped back to reality, "What's going on?" he asked before looking at the girl, "Say, miss, are you in trouble?"
The girl looked at him, a confused expression on his face. Portobello observed his surroundings again, "Oh yeah!" he said happily, "I remember! You guys are sexually assaulting this girl! I remember now!"
"What are you talking about, freak?" One of the men asked.
Without thinking, Portobello rushed the men, tackling the leader to the floor.
"You've just dug your own grave, buddy!" The leader said as he threw Portobello to the ground. The others let go of the girl and grabbed iron bars and chains before using them to beat Portobello.
Portobello spat out blood as the relentless gang kept hitting him over and over. "Expresso… Love…" he muttered under his breath.
"What was that, punk?" The leader asked, "I didn't hear you, you're going to have to speak up!"
The ground below him turned into a hand that grabbed the leader by the foot and threw him four meters in the air before he fell back down. The other eleven stepped back for a second, unsure of what just happened. Portobello stood up, his face bleeding heavily. The gang couldn't see it, but Portobello's Stand was right next to him. Portobello had first seen his own Stand a few months after killing Gerry Silver and soon after, met Jotaro. Jotaro told him all about Stands and helped him discover his abilities.
Expresso Love put clay on the table around its waist and the clay began to move, assuming the shape of a man. The clay doll began to idly pound its fists at the gang but was stopped when one of them swung the chain at its neck, chopping off its mushy head.
More clay dolls arose from Expresso Love's table and began to clobber the remainder of the gang relentlessly until their screams of pain ceased. The twelve men had been beaten to the ground. Still breathing, but badly injured.
"Damn," Portobello muttered, "I can't believe that just happened… I can't believe they killed one of my clay dolls… What was I doing here again? Oh yeah, I'm buying some groceries for my mom… Do I still have time?" Portobello spat out blood and fell to the floor unconscious, surrounded by twelve men, all badly injured with multiple broken bones, and one scared woman.
...
"Here he comes!" Stevana yelled happily.
Right on cue, Jotaro walked into the room, except something was off about him, his facial expressions were different.
"Hello there, Jolyne!" Scallion's voice came out of Jotaro, "I have become well accustomed to your father's body. I even took the time to learn how to properly use his Star Platinum. You didn't stand a chance before, and you definitely don't stand a chance now!"
"Jotaro!" Portobello said happily, "I'm glad you're here! We really need your help!"
"Do you not understand this situation at all?!" Jolyne yelled in frustration, "He's my father! He's the one being controlled!"
"Ah, I see now." Portobello said, "Hey Jotaro, your daughter, Jolyne, is here. She says that her father is being controlled, think you could help out?"
"This is the man Jotaro spent his final conscious seconds telling Jolyne to find?" Scallion said through Jotaro with a laugh, "You're kidding, right? Anyways it doesn't matter. I won't kill you or Jolyne, Dio might want to do something with your Stands. I am going to beat the shit out of you, however! Star Platinum: The World!"
In the blink of an eye, Jotaro was gone. "He stopped time!" Jolyne yelled, "He stopped time for five seconds! What did he do?!"
"Don't… worry, Jolyne…" Portobello said, blood dripping from his face, "He went for me first… He was going to do that 'ora ora' thing to me, but I was able to block most of the attack beforehand and walk away with a minimal amount of damage. Jolyne looked down and saw Expresso Love with its hands down on the floor of the room. Part of the floor was raised to form a wall in front of Portobello. The wall had been broken by Star Platinum's fists, and the flying debris had hit Portobello in the head.
"I'm not sure exactly what happened in the stopped time," Portobello said, "But it seems whoever is controlling him is still getting used to the stop time. If we were fighting someone more experienced like Jotaro himself or even Dio, we'd already be dead. Jolyne, you said your Stand controls strings or something? You think you can use them to protect yourself at all times? There's no telling when he'll stop time, so we need full protection at all times, do you understand?"
Jolyne looked at Portobello, astounded. His quick thinking and intuition were amazing. Was this the same forgetful, annoying guy she had just met?
"Alright," Jolyne said, "Sounds good. Stone Free!" The blue Stand appeared and created a net made out of strings to fully surround herself.
"Now we have a way to counter one of the enemies," Portobello said, "The other one has a gravity ability, correct? We just need to find a way to counter that as well. Do you have any ideas, Jolyne? How do we counteract gravity?"
"I'm not sure," Jolyne said, "We'll figure that out as we go."
"That's not smart," Portobello said, "My ability is to create things from the ground or other natural resources, yours is to control strings, how can we use these abilities together?"
"I have an idea," Jolyne said, "Got any more of that clay?"
"Beside my bed," Portobello said, "The one you killed, I can use his remains to make another doll."
Jolyne rushed towards the bed. It was against the wall, meaning Jolyne could reach it in her changed gravity. Portobello followed.
"Don't think you can get away that easily!" Stevana yelled. Portobello and Jolyne felt themselves slipping off the wall.
"We're falling to the ceiling!" Jolyne yelled. She quickly stretched out her hand and turned it to strings that rushed towards the dead clay doll and grabbed it before falling. Jolyne and Portobello were standing upside down on the ceiling, the clay doll hanging from Jolyne's strings.
"Don't let go of it," Portobello said, "Or else it's going to fall back down to the floor."
"Don't underestimate us!" Scallion said through Jotaro, "Star Platinum: The World!"
Jolyne suddenly felt a sharp pain in her arm. She looked to see her strings cut, and the clay doll falling back onto the floor.
"He stopped time and cut my strings!" Jolyne yelled, "Goddamn it!"
"Don't panic just yet," Portobello said, "We haven't lost just yet!"
Expresso Love appeared and put its hands on the ceiling and it began to lower, pushing Portobello and Jolyne towards the clay doll.
"Got it!" With a touch of Portobello's hand, the clay doll's head now became intact and it came back to life.
"What did you just do?" Jolyne asked in astonishment.
"I lowered the ceiling," Portobello said, "That way I could jump and reach the clay doll."
"Yeah I know," Jolyne said, "But how?"
"Do you know what alchemy is?" Portobello asked.
"I think so," Jolyne said, "Isn't it the act of transforming one thing into another?"
"There's a bit more to it," Portobello said, "What alchemists do is that they transmute one thing into another equivalent thing. It's a bit complicated, but that's essentially what my Stand can do. Although it specializes more in creating clay dolls, it can control other things. I simply reworked the position of the ceiling, I didn't add anything or take anything away from it."
"I guess that sort of makes sense," Jolyne said.
The clay doll stumbled towards Stevana. "What is this?" she asked, "Is this how you think you'll defeat me? I'll just shift its gravitational pull."
Above Earth appeared and sent an invisible wave at the clay doll. Anything that touches the wave gets its gravity shifted to any direction of the user's choosing. But something was off, the clay doll kept walking on the floor, although it was noticeably slanting towards the wall.
"What is this?" Stevana asked, "What's going on? What did you do, Portobello Belle?!"
"Do not worry, dear," Scallion said through Jotaro, "I'm not sure what's going on with this clay doll, but it doesn't matter. I can stop time, remember? Star Platinum: The World!"
In the blink of an eye, Jotaro was on the other side of the room, blood dripping out of his fist.
"What?!" Stevana yelled, "What happened?"
"I don't understand," Jolyne said, looking at Portobello, "What was that?"
"I'm prepared this time," Portobello said, "I know how we'll beatJotaro."
"I don't get it," Jolyne said, "He stopped time and now he's suddenly bleeding."
"Take a good look at that clay doll, Jolyne," Portobello said.
The doll had a huge dent in its chest, the dent had multiple cracks coming out of it that ran through it and broke off small chunks of its body. Regardless, its clay feet had solidified themselves onto the floor, preventing it from falling down to the wall.
"It's hard!" Jolyne yelled in surprise, "Why is it so hard? Wasn't it all mushy just a few seconds ago?"
"This was a risky maneuver," Portobello said as he clutched his arm.
Jolyne hadn't noticed it, but Portobello's right sleeve had completely burned off, and his arm seemed to be burned as well.
"What happened to your arm?" Jolyne asked, "How did you get hurt?"
"Friction," Portobello said, "Jolyne, do you know what can be found in the air?"
"Oxygen?" Jolyne asked, "But what does that have to do with your arm."
"Not just oxygen," Portobello said, "But nitrogen as well. With enough friction, this nitrogen can ignite. Right before Jotaro stopped time, I used my Stand as I rubbed my sleeve which I had fitted with pyrotex cloth a couple of days ago. It gets pretty boring in this hospital, you know? I thought it would be fun to practice cool fire tricks with my Stand. Anyways, I realized that I could use Expresso Love to isolate the nitrogen from the oxygen and just create a line of fire in the air whilst rubbing my sleeve. That's what I did here, I isolated the nitrogen into a continuous stream that lit up the clay doll. In this extreme heat, the doll became extremely hard. Hard enough to withstand a punch from Star Platinum."
The clay doll broke apart from the cracks around its body and fell onto the wall.
"Well," Portobello said, "I guess I was exaggerating a bit when I said it could withstand Star Platinum's punch, but whatever, we at least injured him."
"I'm impressed," Jolyne said, "I thought you were a joke up until you showed your ability. I guess I misjudged you."
"I'm just a bit forgetful," Portobello said, "That's all. Anyways, what were we doing?"
"We need to find a way to free my father and take her down," Jolyne said pointing at Stevana, who was running towards the injured Jotaro.
"So you said that the enemy took control of Jotaro's body, right?" Portobello asked, "That means that the enemy's body is without a mind, correct? What happens when we kill the enemy's body, will his mind go along with it?"
"I'm not sure," Jolyne said, "But let's give it a go!"
"No, you don't!" Scallion yelled through Jotaro, "You think you can find my body? That's laughable! Even if you two manage to escape this room, there's no way you'll be able to find my body! Honey! Switch their gravity!"
"Above Earth!" Stevana yelled.
The black Stand appeared, and Jolyne and Portobello felt themselves slipping backward. They were on the ceiling before, but now they fell to the wall farthest from the door. The wall had a broken window that had been used to throw out the other clay dolls.
"Damn!" Jolyne said, "Now we're too far from the door, we can't get out of the room!" She looked under her at the broken window, "You think we can fall from this drop without too many injuries?"
"That is unneeded," Portobello said, "Going out through the window is not our best escape route right now."
"What?" Jolyne asked, "What do you mean?"
"And they call me forgetful," Portobello muttered, "Don't you remember my tunnel?"
Jolyne looked at the cupboard, it was within jumping distance, "But I thought the tunnel wasn't complete."
"It isn't," Portobello said, "The initial intent for it was for me and my clay dolls to escape through the ceiling and walls without anyone noticing. But now things have changed, I'll use my Expresso Love to burst through the ceiling. We'll fall down to the first floor, and if you use your Stone Free to create a net for us, we'll be closer to finding Scallion's body. It's inside the building, correct?"
"Yes," Jolyne said, "How did you know?"
"I heard a huge commotion while in the tunnel. I didn't think much of it until you showed up."
"I see," Jolyne said, "But how are we going to escape with these two after us?"
"I'm still thinking about that one," Portobello said, "But there's one thing bugging me."
"What is it?" Jolyne asked.
"That guy," Portobello said, pointing at Jotaro, "He looks an awful lot like your father, Jolyne, do you think there's an enemy ability that can perfectly replicate other people?"
"Huh?" Jolyne asked, "That is my father. A man named Scallion has a Stand ability that allows him to take over a person's body through their bloodstream, don't you remember?"
"Right, right," Portobello said, "I remember now… No, I don't… Either way, it doesn't matter. I have an idea on how I can get past them, but I'm going to need you to distract Scallion for a bit."
"Way ahead of you," Jolyne said as she used Stone Free to create a slingshot in between her arms. She grabbed a shard of broken glass from the window and aimed it at Jotaro.
Sorry about this, Jotaro, she thought, I won't aim for any vital points, and I'll stitch your wound after all this is over.
Scallion immediately noticed the glass shard being flung towards him, "Star Platinum: The World!"
Suddenly, Jolyne felt tiny glass shards protruding from her cheek.
"What happened?" she asked herself.
"You foolish girl," Scallion said, "Did you think that would stop me? All I had to do was use Star Platinum to flick the glass shard into tiny pieces before it could even hit me. And it looks like some bounced back and hit you instead!"
"Alright!" Portobello said, "I think that's enough time, I just needed a few seconds, but I think I'm ready to do this!"
"What are you going to do?" Jolyne asked.
Portobello rubbed his left sleeve on his chest, small sparks could be seen protruding from it, "Expresso Love!" A burst of fire erupted from the sleeve and followed a straight line until it engulfed Stevana who cried out in pain.
"Stevana!" Scallion called to his burning wife as he ran towards her.
"Now's our chance!" Portobello said, clutching his newly burnt arm as he and Jolyne began to feel their gravity shift back to normal. The two quickly hurried towards the cupboard and crawled inside. They could hear Scallion crying Stevana's name as he quickly tried to put the fire out.
"She might survive if she gets immediate treatment," Portobello said, "The enemy, Scallion, now has to choose. Either get help for his wife and possibly save her or let her die and keep pursuing us. Either way, it's a win on our side. Stevana is out of this battle no matter what. Now we just have to see if we can find Scallion's true body in time."
Portobello, who was in front, stopped crawling once he reached the end of the tunnel, "This is where I'll make the hole that'll take us down directly to the first floor." he said, "Expresso Love!"
The Stand touched the ground and the symbols around it began to glow. A hole burst open, sending Portobello and Jolyne down into the waiting room of the first floor. Everybody looked in shock as they saw two bloodied people fall from the roof of the first floor.
"Are you ok?" One of the nurses asked, "Did the floor give in? That's strange. Did you break any bones? Don't worry, a doctor will be with you shortly. Maybe this is linked to two other strange events that happened earlier today. There were reports of a girl running on the second floor and falling onto the ceiling. There was another of that same girl and presumably her father getting into a fight and breaking a wall in one of the hallways. A single unconscious man was found and is in a room. Doctors still do not know what happened to him, he seems to be in perfect condition."
"An unconscious man?" Jolyne asked before looking at Portobello, "That must be Scallion!"
"Ma'am!" Portobello said, "We're friends of this unconscious man, what room is he in?!"
"I'm afraid you'll have to sign a bit of paperwork before you can visit him." The nurse said.
"No," Jolyne said, "We need to visit him now, my dad's life is on the line!"
"Are you two okay?" The nurse asked, "Do you both have a concussion from the fall?"
"Forget it!" Jolyne said, running off, "We'll go find him ourselves! Come, Portobello!"
Portobello followed, leaving a stumped nurse and equally stumped patients in the waiting room behind.
"Damn, how are we going to find Scallion now?" Portobello asked, "He could be anywhere!"
"To be honest, Portobello," Jolyne said, "I don't know what to do either, It'll take too long to search this entire hospital."
"Maybe I have an idea," Portobello said, "We can go outside of the hospital and find the bodies of the other clay dolls that fell out the window. There were seven of them. If I can revive them with my Stand, then in total, there'll be nine of us all looking for this Scallion person. This should make the process much faster."
"Let's do it!" Jolyne said, "The exit's this way!"
The two ran out of the hospital until they found the broken bodies of seven hardened clay dolls. Portobello used Expresso Love to revive them.
"Okay," he told them, "We are looking for an unconscious man who was put into treatment just over an hour ago, if you guys find anything of the sort, then let me know, got it?"
The clay dolls stood idly and only moved upon hearing their orders.
"Won't this freak a lot of people out?" Jolyne asked.
"Probably," Portobello said, "But it's the best shot we have. Except for one thing…"
"Oh?" Jolyne asked, "And what is that?"
"I have no idea what we're doing," Portobello asked, "I completely forgot what just happened. I just know that it involves Jotaro in some way. Speaking of, I'm going to give him a call. Have you tried his scrambled eggs? They're to die for!"
Jolyne growled in frustration, "Jotaro is under the enemy's control! We're trying to find the enemy with the help of your clay dolls, do you understand?"
"Oh, yeah!" Portobello said, "I understand! Wait… No, I don't. I have no idea what's going on right now. Oh, wait! I sense something! My clay dolls have found an unconscious man? What's that supposed to mean?"
"I'll tell you on the way, come on!" Jolyne yelled as she and Portobello ran back inside the hospital.
...
"Don't worry, dear," Scallion said, "I was able to put out the fire quickly during stopped time, none of your wounds are fatal."
Stevana slowly stood up, she had large burn marks all over her body, "Those bitches dare to deform my body! I'm going to kill them!"
"Dio wants them alive," Scallion said, "But that doesn't mean we can't break several of their bones."
The two walked out of Portobello's hospital room.
...
A/N: And that's chapter 14! I know Portobello's backstory was a little heavy, but I wanted to go into darker themes a bit. I like the idea of character backstories at the beginning of chapters, so I'll probably do more of it in the future. I really wanna go more in-depth with the characters. Anyways, I really like Portobello, he's one of my favorite characters to write! I hope you're enjoying his character as well. Anyways, see you all next Friday for Episode 15: Inner Disruption Part 3