Mortis paced back and forth as assistants maneuvered around the corpse on the ground, though the blood puddle resulting in an interesting pattern now spanning the floor. He turned away from the rather bloody trail and quickly flipped through the various printed readouts checking for any odd numbers or figures. The procedure rested on a razors edge since any deviation from the received values could spell disaster, especially in the case of turned to address one of the assistants, when a sudden series of bangs sounded over the bustle of the surgery suite.

There was a sudden deathly quiet that Mortis made use of to summon his stand and put it to work patching up the more life threatening wounds. With well rehearsed precision his stand cut and stitched his body back together, making use of the surgical thread he always kept with him. Despite the feeling of flaying skin Mortis pivoted his head and pinpointed Marshall standing in the main entrance. Admittedly he wasn't surprised that his subordinates failed at actually stopping the invading force, though he had faith that Free had managed to take a few out of commission. He supposed it said something that a former thief was his most trusted ally, especially since Rod had been killed. He snapped back to the moment as the last suture pulled tight coinciding with the moment Marshall fired his second volley of bullets.

His stand lashed out grabbing the two closest assistants by their shirt collars and slamming them in front of Mortis as a makeshift shield. As the two slammed heads the bullets changed their trajectory to going up and over his shield, still targeting him however. However, that change gave his stand enough time to adjust itself and pick off the bullets before they were able to reach his body.

As his stand deflected the final bullet Mortis fixed his attention onto the two dazed assistants, sparing them a passing thought, 'it wasn't as if this was going to end with them alive anyway.' His stand then swiftly used it's fingers to kill the assistants, before Mortis kicked the newly made corpses towards Marshall.

As the corpses landed Mortis reached out and called upon his stand's ability and let the grin he had been suppressing crawl out onto his face. Despite his annoyance with Marshall and his annoying gaggle of complete fools, he always enjoyed a chance to test his stand against another. 'All in the name of progress…'

Marshall kept his face neutral and breath under control as he quickly reloaded his Model 27. It was not great that Mortis knew the biggest weakness of『FOUGHT THE LAW』; The bullets will never hit a person who is innocent of the declared crime. The fact that Mortis remembered that from their first encounter was worrying because it put into question how much Mortis actually knew about this investigation and others. Marshall snapped back as the last bullet slid into the chamber as the two fresh corpses sailed towards him. He noticed the tightening of the clothes of both of the bodies, and quickly remembered one of Mortis's abilities before diving behind some sort of medical equipment.

As he hit the ground there was a wet ripping sound followed by several screams and yells as the two corpses exploded in a shower of viscera and bone splinters.

Marshall exploded back to his feet and quickly noted that there was now a growing pile of dead assistants around Mortis caused by his stand. It's spinal like tail whipped around limbs, throwing the unfortunate people off balance, while the claws made short work of their flesh. He elected to ignore it and took aim at Mortis declaring, 'Guilty of Murder in the First', and firing at the same time. Marshall quickly reloaded his gun as he kept his eyes focused on Mortis, who seemed rather unworried based on his posture. The confident posture was confusing for Marshal to see,l because based on what he knew Mortis was capable of slowing down or speeding up any of the processes of decay or associated processes AND his stand was definitely unable to react quick enough to block all the bullets.

He went wide eyed when he received his answer in the form of one of the recently killed assistants exploding to their feet and acting as a shield. Despite his shock he still categorized the two pieces of information he had learned; 『FOUGHT THE LAW』doesn't recognize corpses as an innocent person, and Mortis has new abilities he doesn't know about. Mortis suddenly spoke up confirming his second piece of information, "It's a little different than what you remember isn't it?"

Marshall didn't respond, but Mortis continued on anyway," Whoever holds the power dictates the tides of history, and with this power I'll drive the world forward and succeed where they have failed."

He kept his eyes steeled after hearing what could be called an insane and radical message delivered by somebody who is clinically sociopathic. Though it was a fight to keep his face neutral when all the dead assistants pushed themselves up to their feet before beginning to make their way towards him.

He backpedaled as the shambling bodies made their way forward, reminding him of some of the movie trailers Joy would talk about. However he did notice that Mortis had put himself near some cover but was still in the open to watch the fight progress. He snapped his eyes back to the leading corpse of the mob as it tripped over itself. He calmly raised his pistol and fired two shots into its head, since it was oddly stiff in its movements.

The two bullets tore through and caused the body to once again drop to the ground. However, Marshall noticed that the remaining assistants suddenly picked up their pace and seemed to move with greater control than before. He immediately backpedaled again as he put two and two together; the more corpses Mortis had to control the more fine motor control was lost. 'Though the method to eliminate them seems straightforward,' he thought while backing up and firing the remaining four bullets between the two closest.

He went to plant his feet and reload his gun, but suddenly found both the corpses, with both their heads bearing bullet holes, reaching out in an attempt to grab his pistol bearing arm. He quickly batted the hands away and slammed his back into the wall while quickly reviewing all the information;

The first one had been killed by two shots to the head, so what made these two different. Marshall dodged the reaching hands and moved along the wall while he quickly reconstructed the initial two shots. The first bullets had pierced about a inch below the hairline and tore through the frontal, parietal, and occipital lobes, normally a guaranteed kill on any living thing, which was the logic he had used originally. The second bullet had been a little lower, almost going straight through the nose, and would have torn through...he racked his brain for his anatomical knowledge...the cerebellum

It suddenly all clicked as Marshall dodged another grabbed and slammed in the final two bullets to fully reload his gun. It wasn't a new ability, like Mortis had claimed at all, instead it was the same ability, control over dead organic material, applied in a different manner. All he was actually was doing was taking control and manipulating the dead cerebellum to make the body move. Knowing that he had figured it out he calmly waited for one of the corpses to lunge, and in response he shoved his pistol in it's slack mouth and fired. He swapped his targets letting loose two shots before a sudden sharp pain exploded in his calf.

He glanced down and was able to see the arm of Mortis stand having ripped through the outstretched arm of the first body he had killed. He aimed his pistol down, but the arm faded away in time for one of the remaining corpses to tackle him. The other three corpses descended on him like hyenas creating a large dog pile in which he was being bludgeoned and bit . He grimaced as a pair of jaws clamped down on his shoulder, but he managed to get the gun to his other hand before putting it to the side of the offending head and slamming the trigger. The jaw went slack and he got his free hand under its jaw and pushed it up enough that he could scramble out. In doing so he pistol whipped one of the offending corpses hard enough to break the skull, though it didn't actually prevent it from grappling him. It's fingers, now much stronger with another corpse dead, clamped down on the leg that had been gored making him grit his teeth in order to avoid yelling. He slipped his pistol holding hand free and unloaded the remaining bullets into the top of it's head without even really aiming. Thankfully one of the bullets actually hit the cerebellum making it drop stiff and allowing him to get out of the pile, though he internally swore when he realized his pistol was empty.

That worry was shortly lived as the corpse on the bottom suddenly swelled with gas prompting Marshall to use his one good leg to create as much distance as possible. It wasn't a second too late since right as he pushed off the body erupted in a shower of viscera and bone shards. Marshall couldn't help but grind his teeth harder as some of the bone shards went through his pant leg and tore into his already gored leg. Thankfully the impromptu organic grenade had also killed one of the remaining two corpses, leaving one stand enhanced corpse. Said corpse wasted no time charging after Marshall who had just pushed himself up to a shaky standing position. He managed to slam a speed re-loader into his pistol and open fire, though he wasn't aiming at the corpse as it tackled him...in fact he wasn't even aiming. He activated『FOUGHT THE LAW』 and declared 'Guilty of Medical Malpractice' and sent the bullets hurtling through the room towards Mortis, who attempted to get behind cover but was just a man and didn't have the talent or ability to read trajectory and ended up catching four of the six bullets, One in the shoulder, Two in the left arm, and one impacting the hip from the sound, before he made it fully behind cover.

Marshall, however, was once again made an acquaintance of the ground but it was the corpse went slack, the focus needed to control it broken. He threw it off ignoring the pain emanating from broken ribs and a mauled leg and struggled to his feet. One hand reached inside his viscera decorated suit jacket, and at the same moment from the corpse exploded outward.

Mortis hit the ground and almost let out a scream, not one of pain but of annoyance at his body being put into this state. It had been a complete oversight to believe that Marshall was completely entangled with the corpse soldiers, and that he wouldn't be able to determine the precise location needed to cease the movements. 'Well,' he thought as he observed his bleeding arm," Such is the price of pride.' He wasn't too worried though because he knew the corpse was still close to Marshall, which meant his close range stand could be summoned farther away.

It was an interesting ability, the ability to increase the range of his stand by using a dead corpse as a mostly made use of it to compensate for his stands rather lackluster speed, and it let him catch his target off guard. As he pushed himself up off the ground he quickly activated his stands ability making the corpse swell and explode, while at the same time he directed his stand to attack while Marshall should be blinded by viscera.

He smirked at what he assumed to be his success as he made his way to his feet, when suddenly his left side exploded in a shower of blood with large hole shaped wounds appearing. He spit out a glob of blood in shock, and after trying to wipe it away with his left arm realized it was thoroughly decimated. He quickly recalled his stand to his side and stepped out from his cover…

Marshall was able to catch the fingers lunging towards his chest, but this time he pulled his secondary weapon; A Franchi Model PA-8 with the collabsable stock removed. It was originally a weapon created for Italian law enforcement but given the nature of his stand it was a great fit, and the only reason he hadn't used it before was that he was legally required to limit his lethal force. Against Mortis however he had no restrictions, and he made liberal use of that as he fired the buckshot shell again only missing because the stand disappeared.

He pumped the forearm again as he turned to fire at where Mortis had been hiding when he heard him say," Now I understand how pride comes before the fall."

He completed the turn only to find the spinal column-esque tail whipping forward forcing him to bring up the gun in an attempt to block. It rattled his arms and made his body shake, but he didn't have time to acknowledge it as he then had to dodge the followup swipe by its scalpel sharp claws. He stepped back and felt something squish underfoot, and a quick glance down showed him one of the earlier corpses. It suddenly swelled and detonated giving him barely enough time to raise his arm and fall to the ground, since he still couldn't run with his bad leg. The biological grenade went off sending visceral everywhere and dousing in more flesh, though that was least of his worries as Mortis stand pounced towards him again making him roll out of the way.

He quickly shoved himself up ignoring the pain in his leg and firing off another shell from his shotgun. As it fired the pellets arced around the stand and headed straight towards Mortis, but his stand grabbed one of the destroyed corpses and throw it back towards it's user in time to intercept the bullets. Marshall grit his teeth and leveled the barrel before firing his last shell directly at the stand. And even he couldn't help but swear out loud as it leapt into one of the eviscerated corpses. The pellets flew into empty air and Marshall quickly began to reload the gun while swearing," What The Fuck!"

"You know," commented Mortis while holding his limp arm and dripping blood," When I said my new ability I was lying about that technique….but you will be the first in exactly seven months and fourteen days too see my newest ability."

Marshall watched with morbid caution, while slamming shells into the gun, as the body began to twitch before getting to its feet. As it stood up Marshall could see the writhing tail of the stand inside one corpses blown open torso. He turned the gun forward and pulled the trigger, aiming for the living corpse, only for it to charge straight forward ignoring the pellets impacting the body. It closed the difference and with an inhuman yell punched forward barely clipping his shoulder but still knocking him off balance. He slammed his bad leg down, being forced to ignore the intense pain shooting through his body, and fired the shotgun point blank obliterating the top of the corpses head. It did little as Marshall then caught a fist to the ribs that sent him into one of the machines.

As he caught himself with one arm and coughed up blood, Mortis began to talk," I hope you enjoyed trying to get revenge for your murdered compatriots, but you should have known it would have been an ultimately fruitless effort," Marshall felt fear actually creep down his spine as the severely injured man kept talking," I have the very power of death at my fingertips, a corpse is a living weapon, a shield, and a vessel for my stand...and it's still improving. So I have to ask….Did you really believe that you could stand a chance against the『CREEPING DEATH』."

Marshall propped himself back up, feeling even more of his ribs creek, and looked towards the macabre flesh suit 『CREEPING DEATH』was wearing. It blitzed towards him and ate another of the buckshot filled shells before closing a hand on the gun and crushing the gun barrel, before ripping it out of his hands and backhanding him to the ground again. As Marshall fought back a yell of pain while he rolled away from the stomp, 'It's strength hasn't increased any but the body is acting as a shield, so the buckshot isn't hitting the stand."

Another stomp missed him by an inch and he took the opportunity to redraw his Model 27 and slip three bullets into the chamber. Before a powered stomp impacted sailed towards his face forcing him to move, but as he did he raised the pistol and without using 『FOUGHT THE LAW』 he fired one bullet directly into its knee, unable to support its weight. 'Seems the body can't move if it's physically impaired.' He quickly switched it's target and shot the other knee grounding it permanently. He pivoted and went to shoot at Mortis when an explosion of pain in his ribs caused him to curl up out of pure reflex.

He glanced down and saw the fist of the corpse embedded in his side, apparently fired like a projectile from the body. Suddenly the fist began to swell and the skin began to split before it violently exploded sending Marshall flying across the room and slamming into the wall. He managed to maintain consciousness, but pain filled his entire body, though he could still hear the cruel calm voice of Mortis, "You thought you had figured it out right? The way to stop this ability….except you forgot about it's base ability to manipulate dead organic material."

Mortis began to walk forward as the corpse went limp and 『CREEPING DEATH』 appeared by his side. He was enjoying this now, the elimination of one of the major thorns in his side and the completion of his life's work. "My stands only real weakness is its speed and even then you couldn't capitalize on that."

He walked forward, fully aware of the remaining bullet in the chamber, and readied his stand to finish off Marshall. Some small part of him had to acknowledge the tenacity of the FBI agent, but in the end he wasn't letting anybody get in the way of his goal. Especially now that Living Colour had succeeded, at least preliminary, which put Powerslave in an attainable position. He snapped back from his reminiscing and had his stand prepare to decimate Marshall's body. The pistol came flying at out and mortis didn't even flinch as the bullet left the chamber and tore through his left shoulder, further destroying the arm.

A normal person would be worried or upset about the complete mutilation of his left arm, but Mortis couldn't care less. Especially since with 『CREEPING DEATH』 he can force the blood vessels to pump, muscles to weave themselves, and he can stitch it up himself. In honesty that was why he fell in 'love' with his stand, the sheer amount of versatility and focus on biological matter. For a doctor, or rather former doctor, he found himself in his element and was in a very good position. It really made him grateful to the man whom he had spent very little time with but still left a large imprint on his life, as his influence sent him down this path. It honestly made him wish he could remember the face or even the name, but the alterations he had done to his brain had scrambled a good deal of his memories. He snapped out of his memories of the past and had his stand begin to slowly pierce the skin.

At least that was the plan until the hair on the back of his neck stood up, prompting him to use his stand to shove him out of the way. It was just in time as well, since a bolt of lightning tore the area he was standing a moment ago.

John sprinted down the stairs three at a time, trying to make up for the time he had lost dealing with the damn lockdown doors. He had been forced to take the long way around to find any sort of staircase and even then it only took him down a single floor. At least after backtracking he had managed to find the correct staircase and the emergency release code for the security system, so it wasn't completely pointless. He hit another landing and swung himself around by grabbing the handrail in order to keep his momentum. 'Honestly...despite getting them back not much has really changed,' he thought as he slammed through a set of doors.

He had somewhat expected a large life shattering revelation from the returning of his memories, but all he got was info on the next address and the reason he ended up in Alcatraz in the first place. That reason being an investigation into disappearing medical supplies, using a trail that he had found through a small paper trail and some dumb luck with underpaid thugs. However it had all come to a head when he broke into a warehouse where he had been caught and threatened before being shot by Mortis's golden gun. He snapped back to the present as he kept his pace up as he cut past more generic office doors before rounding a corner and laying eyes on what should be the door the the main lab….assuming he read the map right.

He slowed his steps up and stopped right outside the door, breathing rather heavily but there was no way he was going to stop smoking. He peered through the window and caught sight of Mortis, dressed just as he remembered him, looking down towards the injured form of Marshall. He noted the heavily injured arm and felt a small degree of satisfaction knowing that Marshall had plugged him a few times, or one judging by the spread of the wounds. He quickly summoned 『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』 as Mortis weird looking stand approached the downed Marshall. He placed his hand on the door and waited, though he almost rushed in on the gunshot, but the moment had to be when Mortis's guard was the lowest.

He saw the stand go to finish off Marshall and he silently swung the door open and had his stand send a bolt of electricity flying forward. Issue was that the injured man threw himself out of the way making the bolt collide with the wall dissipating across the metal. He swore under his breath, but charged into the room anyway looking to press the advantage. He closed the distance and『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』struck down with a vicious punch, only to have Mortis's stand intercept the fist and ensnare.

John could see the damage the punch had caused since it had moved Mortis, but it had been stopped from doing worse. "Seems Leen failed to make up for his initial mistake," Mortis commented from the ground.

"What can I say," John commented as his stand struggled against Mortis's," I'm a hard motherfucker to kill."

There two stands stayed in the power struggle even as he felt deep cuts opening up on his arm, especially since Mortis was in his perfect range. In a sudden moment 『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』 shrieked and a deluge of electricity pulsed from the held arm. John winced in pain as his right arm immediately spasmed sending pain throughout, giving him a clear sign still hadn't recovered from the fight against Leen and『MR. EGO』. Mortis took the worst of it as the deluge surged through his entire body and burning his hands because of where his stand was touching.

Mortis let go and had 『CREEPING DEATH』 lash out with its spinal tail nailing his stand across the midsection, the segmented portions pinching and grabbing skin before ripping it off. He ignored the blood soaking his Hawaiian shirt and followed it up with another punch that the disorientated Mortis narrowly avoided by having his stand hit him across the room.

John saw Mortis make his retreat and quickly dashed over to Marshall, who thankful was still breathing. He opened his mouth to talk but Marshall interrupted him, " Keep going after him and watch out for any dead bodies," John glanced around the room and saw a few too many corpses for his taste," I can't walk too well anymore but the Model 27 still works."

John decided to trust him and quickly spun around to see Mortis having gotten back to his feet, and wearing a blood stained smile. "It honestly is disappointing that I couldn't have added you towards the Living Colour procedure," Mortis spoke up suddenly," Adding your power to the project would have truly changed it entirely."

"Glad to know I'm wanted," John responded as he began to feel out what limbs could handle another discharge.

"Despite the fact you have been nothing but a thorn in my side, I truly can't regret using the arrow on you," Mortis commented as his stand curled around his legs like a pet snake.

John raised an eyebrow and couldn't help but ask," What do you mean by arrow, you shot me with a golden gun."

Mortis laughed and ran his good but bloody hand through his hair," You idiots really don't get how big this world of ours is...but I suppose I can give you some is a stand user in Europe who had the interesting ability to convert varying materials into firearms, I believe she went by her stand name『LULU』. And I can't help but believe gravity directed us to be at this moment."

John exhaled as Mortis went quiet before he ran forward with his stand ready to throw down. However『CREEPING DEATH』used its superior range to rush forward and meet him early, and then narrowly dodged an electrically charged kick. However John quickly realized in this brief encounter that his stand held the greater speed, based on how many more attacks he was able to fire off compared to his opponent. Issue was that the opponent had been with a stand longer and was easily able to utilize it's limited speed to the utmost potential.

John dodged as best as he could from the claws as they swiped through the air. He wasn't incredibly effective as the claws raked across his stands torso, though his stand's durability came into play as it was just on the surface.『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』came back though and clipped 『CREEPING DEATH』sending it off balance, though no electricity was in the hit because his body couldn't handle any more voltage. It honestly made it incredibly difficult to fight without the main ability of his stand available, well he could but he wouldn't be able to move at all. Another line of scratches appeared across his arm and he grit his teeth in pain while attempting to nail the opposing stand. As his punches missed he noticed Mortis breathing a little heavier, something he should have expected given the severity of the wounds. But for him all it meant was that if he kept dragging this fight out Mortis would eventually bleed out, so now it was just a battle of endurance.

Mortis wasn't a fan of this battle of endurance, especially with how mauled his left arm was. He was sure that eventually he could win, but it was a matter of how much time he would waste. He glanced up at the clock and saw that about five minutes had passed, which meant that the patient had officially cleared the building and most likely the city. Now it was just a matter of trying to keep up with the original timetable and deal with the complications in Living Colour. There was a sudden repetition of bangs that broke through the noise in the room and very quickly he received six rounds to the chest.

That would have likely been a kill shot on any sort of normal person, but in Mortis' case the bullets impacted the metal plates he had put in with his ribs. A precaution he had taken after Lulu had shot him with some of her specialty guns. It also served as a decider for what his next move was; To make his getaway. It wasn't that he believed he was losing, but is more so the cost of victory was rising too much. He also still had some subordinates in New York that were competent enough to, at the least, delay this group, though he had thought the same of Leen and Priest.

『CREEPING DEATH』made a heavy attack against John's stand that forced him to impair his vision in order to block it. Mortis took the opportunity to spin on his feet and make his way towards the stairwell, he was able to hear the surprise behind him. He used his good arm to push the door open and began to go up the stairs as quickly as he could, and he managed to make it up to the first landing before he heard his opponent even make it to the door. His left arm hung limply by the hand rail leaving an obvious trail of blood, though he wasn't worried about being followed.

He knew that the car would at least be started, and if things went according to plan any of his remaining subordinates would be there to support. After that the plan was to head straight to the New York lab, but now they may have to make a detour in order to drag the followers somewhere else. He exhaled heavily and made it to the third landing now, when suddenly something heavy attached it to his left arm.

He glanced over and saw the aggravating blue and silver stand gripping his left arm with John hanging on behind it. 『CREEPING DEATH』exploded into reality, but Mortis was forced to pause as he felt electricity through whatever working nerves were left in the arm. Several possibilities ran through his mind, but one quickly stood out.

He stared down at John and with a cruel smile on his face. 『CREEPING DEATH』used it's scalpel-like fingers to separate the entirety of his left arm from his body at the shoulder. The blood splattered and fell all over John as gravity took it's hold pulling down the stairwell while Mortis continued towards the garage. Though he was now missing a few pounds.

Free tossed back some more painkillers as he stumbled towards the driver seat of the last transport, since the last of the mercenaries had taken off after giving him whatever morphine they had. He hauled himself into the seat and went to check his watch only to hear a door slam open, followed by the heavy shuffling of footsteps. He glanced back into the rear view mirror and his jaw nearly dropped at the sight of Mortis shuffling forward with a mutilated left arm and several other injuries. The passenger door was thrown open and he made the wise decision to keep his mouth shit and just start the car. They peeled out of the warehouse and onto the main road before Mortis spoke up," Where are the rest?"

Free weakly threw a thumb over his shoulder as he turned the car," I was able to get Leen back here in one piece, but Hetfield wasn't anywhere I was able to make it and Priest….well, he used the modifications you gave him to the fullest."

Mortis grunted and grabbed his stump before asking," How did you handle the group?"

Free glanced over before responding," I had to fight Joy and the bug guy, and it took me a bit but I figured it out eventually. Got my body all kinds of messed up when she started using fire as a weapon though."

He could almost hear the sneer on Mortis' face as the two conscious people went quiet with just the sounds of tires meeting road filling the transport. It was almost relieving for Free since it meant he didn't have to deal with his bosses wounded ego at being unable to finish off the small party. 'Pride cometh before the fall….or however that damn verse goes,' He thought as the car finally made it onto the highway. He pressed the pedal down and felt it speed up before letting himself fall into a relaxed sort of lull.

That lull only lasted about three minutes when Mortis suddenly started chuckling. The sound made Free go wide eyed and prepare『SMOOTH CRIMINAL』for a quick escape. It turned out to be unnecessary because Mortis started talking instead of stabbing him in the throat," The way things stand we are going to be pressured while trying to complete Powerslave and keep Living Colour alive if any complications arise….I think we may need to get Jett's help."

Despite the rather numb feeling in his body, Free's hands still tightened around the steering wheel at the mention of that name. Jett was an agent of Mortis with a rather unique stand, but he also was one of the cockiest and inconsistent bastards ever. The fact they were going to have to actually use him and his crew on this level really was…."Wait, isn't Lulu in town? Can't we just pay her to deal with it?"

Free was playing the odds on both sides, but at this point he was very much trying to play more to Mortis considering the mood the man was in…..and his complete dislike of Jett's sloppiness. Another dark chuckle set him on edge," She's only here to see the results of Living Colour and Powerslave, and I don't think she's in the mood to do anything more after I threw her onto Passiones radar."

Free couldn't help but wince in sympathy for Lulu due to his bosses tendency to drag people out of the shadows and into the spotlight of crime. Hell, he had been a thief at one point before getting shipped off to Green Dolphin and then he was dragged into the world of Stands because of Mortis. It was honestly annoying that he even had to work for this man when he would much rather do things from the shadows. He snapped back to the present when Mortis spoke again," Working plan is to head through Jett's trafficking point, pick up some...extra materials… and take off towards the lab. That should drag the annoyances through his territory and at the best delay or kill them in time for me to complete Powerslave."

Free couldn't help but ask," What's the worst case scenario here?"

"They get delayed and kill Jett," Mortis responded with a wicked smile," And I can at least count on him to slow them down more so than Priest, Leen, and Hetfield….I can't wait to get my hands on them."

Free couldn't help but chuckle nervously at how pissed his boss was at the moment. It really made him thankful that he made himself useful regularly, though he did understand the frustration a little bit. Since in order to finance the entirety of this operation he had been forced to cut deals with other groups and even start selling drugs. This forced him to spread some of his operatives out meaning he had less of his best around him at this moment. 'Certainly doesn't matter to me,' though Free casting a side eye,' If you go down I can make my getaway and if you win I have a guaranteed job in a new criminal superpower….lets just hope there isn't an option c I'm not seeing.'

"I am forced to find it odd," Suddenly spoke Mortis," That you, a former thief and all, are my most trusted subordinate….at least in the states."

Normally such a statement would have been appreciated, but in this context it made Free feel like there was a rope being pulled taught around his neck. Talking about how much more useful Jett was compared to the others he worked with and then calling him useful, really was just a threat for him to keep being useful or he would be cut out quickly. He tried not to think about what would happen to both Leen and Priest but his morbid curiosity came in and forced him to ask;" What exactly is your plan with the two in the back?"

The immediate silence put him on edge and he only grew more nervous when Mortis spoke after a minute," I'm going to put them to goooood use."

As the o stretched on Free could only feel some sort of impending dread. But from where he was there wasn't much to do. He settled on going with his go to strategy; just try to roll with the tide and come out on top. As of right now though he doesn't feel like those FBI agents have any chance to deal with Mortis, much less those under him.

'Damn that agent really was capable of dealing with me."

Hetfield stumbled down the back alley clutching the sloppily bandaged wound in his throat as he awkwardly made his way to the nearest medical center. Despite the wounds his thoughts were still on the fight against Marshall and how much he had underestimated the agent.

He had assumed that without his sight he would have at worst made it damn near impossible to fire accurately. Of course he had been proven wrong initially, but it had been a quick recovery and change of plans when he removed his ability to hear. Of course that hadn't worked either considering he had been shot several times and handcuffed, which thankfully had been loose enough to get a hand out of. He hadn't accounted for the floor they were on, or rather the fact that vibrations could be felt. He could only blame himself for believing that his opponent had no ability to fight without his sight or hearing. He also had discounted the power of 『FOUGHT THE LAW』 since it seemed so simplistic when Mortis explained it, all he had to do was hide behind cover which the bullets wouldn't avoid. However…..it's true strength was that it forced you to deal with both his stand ability and his marksmanship.

He snapped out his depreciating spiral of thought as he rounded the corner and was able to see the small urgent care center. He spit some blood out of his mouth and resumed his trudge through the rather empty back road. He briefly thought about whether or not he should kill the workers after he got stabilized before meeting back up with Mortis , but quickly settled on just taking his chances. Mortis had a reputation of….dealing with deserters and traitors like an arachnophobe dealt with spiders, but he was willing to take his chances at this point. Since if he made his way back he was basically asking to be 'punished' by Mortis for his failure to defeat Marshall. He also just had an instinctual feeling that this whole organization was going to get rocked, the same feeling he had when he abandoned his original group . They had been a decent sized group with a hand in the cocaine trade in Florida but Mortis had rolled in trying to get his hands on something called MK-Ultra. They thought that was some sort of new coke and killed a few of his associates, it was at that moment that he had gotten the feeling that they were fucked. Mostly because responses were hard and quick when you stepped on someone's toes and from Mortis there was nothing. He had taken a 'leave of absence' and a day later all his former friends had been completely slaughtered, and then he made his way to Mortis and joined up.

He reached the door and shoved it open getting the attention of the medical staff who were incredibly startled by his appearance. As he stumbled forward into a nurse his thoughts wandered to another fact he had somewhat ignored; Marshall also got his stand through the MK-Ultra drug. He couldn't help but smile as he was led to the back room, the fact that the person who beat also took that damn drug.

-STAND STATS- 『CREEPING DEATH』

User: Victor Mortis

Strength:A

Speed: C

Range: C

Durability: A

Precision: A

Potential: A

『CREEPING DEATH』is a semi humanoid stand that consists of a body resembling a human torso, with incredibly thin arms resembling the color of bones, and fingers ending in scalpel like claws. In place of legs the stand has a tail resembling a human spinal column. The stand has a fairly simplistic ability in general; The manipulation of Dead Organic Material. However Mortis knowledge of the human body allows it to use it's great potential. Some it's abilities include: Speeding up the decay process to form human bombs, Manipulating the cerebellum to create zombies, taking full control of corpses musculature, and more.

User History: Victor Mortis was an abnormal medical student and blooming killer on his way to graduating when a chance encounter introduced him to the vampiric Dio. Fascinated with the power of stand Mortis took the risk and was able to gain a stand, he was then able to receive an arrow with which he was supposed to raise Dio an army. Mortis however had different ideas and he instead began to test the limits of what both the arrow and a stand was capable of all with the goal of completing his ultimate projects Living Colour and Powerslave, and surpassing the man who first gave him this power. Overall he's a ruthless, pragmatic, and cunning bastard who only works with people as long as they continue to be useful and when you are not he cuts your life short or begins his experiments on you and your stand.