Stand Proud

Its strange waking up with memories that aren't your own. Its terrifying to realize that those memories come with future knowledge of just what would have happened to your family. Fortunately, they also came with powers. There is no way I'm letting the world go down the toilet, even if it means I have to die.

...this started out as a normal CYOA story with only a few references to Jojo. What the heck happened? Oh right, my Muse decided to down an entire crate of red bull and went apeshit on me. Oh well, nothing I can do now. Enjoy!

Chapter 1

"Hurrph..spitoo."

I stood up from where I had been throwing up in the toilet as I wiped a hand across my mouth. I turned to the sink to wash out my mouth out, before leaning against the sink and staring at my reflection. Looking back at me was a face that was both familiar and not at the same time. The face was handsome, if pale and pinched from lack of sleep and having just thrown up, and belonged to a tall and slim young man with black hair currently in a bad state of bed head and dark blue eyes. It was the face I'd had for 16 years, but the dream I'd just woken from and the deluge of memories that had come with it had come with also came with the memory of a very different face. One that belonged to someone who knew how this worlds future was due to go.

I gritted my teeth as the nausea surged again. I'd read plenty of stories where a character found him or herself in another world, either at random or reborn, but this was different. Most of the time, they already knew what was coming and had plenty of time to absorb it. I'd had it all dumped on me in one night after living in blissful ignorance. To make matters worse, one of the things that had caught my attention had been the fate that awaited my…

"Jojo?"

I twitched and turned to see my 11 year old sister stood in the door, rubbing her eyes with one hand while the other held the ragged looking ear of a very old rabbit doll. I swallowed and, more than a little hesitant, activated one of the powers I now had lurking in my head. My grip on the sink increased as my sister lit up with a golden flame and my power helpfully provided the details. Percentage based precognition in response to stimuli. Shit.

"Are you OK?" asked Dinah, her nose twitching slightly at the smell of vomit that still lingered in the air, "Were you sick?"

I sighed.

"I'm fine," I said, "Probably just something I ate."

"Oh...OK," she said, yawned widely, and went back to her room.

I waited until I heard her bedroom door close and turned back to the mirror, my eyes hardening. No. No, I would not be letting Coil take my sister. And if he did, I'd make damn sure that he couldn't hurt her. I could do it to. It was just a shame that I had to be able to see the target to use it. However, it was better if I stopped him full stop and that meant that my other power would get a work out. The power that could actually do some damage.

I felt a shiver go up my spine at that thought as the air behind me shimmered slightly and a humanoid form appeared. He had a similar build to me and was wearing a simple black waistcoat with a white shirt underneath and a long, black coat over the top, short, brown gloves, brown steel-toed shoes, a pair of black trousers held up by two brown belts and a black fedora over green hair and a featureless, white face with a large, slit-like grin and narrow, yellow eyes with snake-like pupils. I couldn't help but grin at the sight of the Stand. Thriller was far from the most powerful, but that didn't mean he was harmless. Yes, I called my Stand Thriller. Wanna fight me over it?

Anyway, I dismissed the spectral warrior and headed back to bed. It was four in the morning and I had school in the morning.

School was...odd to say the least. It was extremely bizarre to suddenly realize that I regularly sat with the Wards during class and lunch. Yeah, I was friends with Dennis and Chris and had been since middle school, so I ended up making friends with the other members of the Wards after the two Triggered and joined up. Apparently. God, that was weird.

It was so weird in fact that I ended up walking home deep in thought. I was undergoing something similar to a minor existential crisis. I'd realized at school that I had no idea who I actually was, whether I was Jonathan Alcott with extra memories or...huh, I couldn't remember my old name...whatever, if I was my old self in Jonathan Alcott's body. There wasn't really that much of a difference between us from what I could tell and no one at school had called me out on acting strangely. The only thing that was really different about the two of us was that he was a massive introvert and had a range of geeky interests that guaranteed that he'd have been at the bottom of the social ladder. Then again, I wasn't really that different, but a combination of martial arts and the fact I was the mayor's nephew made me a rather unappealing target for would-be bullies.

I was distracted from my existential crisis by the sound of impacts and shouting coming from the alleyway I was walking past. I paused. Normally, I'd just walk right on by and not get involved (Oh, don't look at me like that, this is Brockton Bay bitch!), but that was before I had powers. Now I could actually do something to help. Well, Thriller could. Same difference.

Mind made up, I stepped into the alley and quickly found the source of the noise. Four young men, Merchants by the looks of them, were giving a fifth man a good kicking. I scowled and summoned Thriller. The Stand appeared on the other side of the thugs. Yay for long ranged Stands I guess.

"HEY!" I shouted, getting the Merchants attention, "Leave him alone!"

The Merchants looked at one another and started swaggering towards me. It was blatantly obvious that they didn't think I was a threat.

"Ohh, lookie here mates," said the apparent leader, "Rich boy thinks himself a hero!"

The junkies giggled inaninly.

"So, what ya gonna do about it?" asked the leader, "Take us down?"

He scoffed and pulled out a rusty looking gun.

"Nah, I think ya gonna give us all ya cash. An that nice jacket."

I resisted the urge to be sick, both at the horrible smell coming off the three and their horrible grammar in favour of smirking and pointing over the Merchants shoulders.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," I said, "Theres a Cape behind you."

The three Merchants immediately spun around, apparently ready for a rumble. However, instead of reacting like I'd expect to a floating, dapper man in a scary mask, the thugs looked around for a moment, before turning back to me and sticking the gun in my face again.

"Choo on about fool?" growled the leader, "There ain't no Cape here!"

I raised an eyebrow. They couldn't see Thriller? Then again, Stands were invisible to non-Stand users in Jojo, so maybe normal people wouldn't be able to see him? That had the potential to make him quite dangerous.

I'd have to look into that later though, for now, I had some goons to take down. I turned my attention back to Thriller and my Stand tilted his head in a way that made me thing he was smiling. Then, he drew back his hand and punched. Now, Thriller wasn't exactly the strongest when it came to Stands (although I had no idea if I should actually be comparing him to the Stands from Jojo), in fact, he wasn't any stronger than a normal Human. He couldn't punch through a person or pulverize concrete with a simple punch. No, instead his most dangerous ability was to be in multiple places at the same time. That meant that when he punched someone, they weren't being hit by one fist. They were being punched multiple times at the same instance, either in one place or from multiple angles. Even when compared with his ability to fly and create unbreakable chains, it was that ability that made him truly dangerous.

He was also pretty damn sadistic.

All four goons abruptly bent over at the same time, their breath blasting out of them as if they'd been punched in the stomach. Then, Thriller exploded into action and the gangsters started being pinged around the alley like some kind of demented pinball machine as the masked Stands demented laughter filled the air. I was so taken aback by the sudden explosion of violence that it took a moment for me to yank back on the mental tether before my Stand accidentally killed the idiots.

Or maybe it wouldn't be so accidental if the air of disappointment that hung around Thriller as he backed off was anything to go by. I made a mental note to keep the Stand on a short leash.

I ignored the idiots falling back down to earth (I didn't want my Stand to kill them, but I didn't care enough to stop them from getting banged up a little. They weren't that high up anyway) and turned to the man they had been attacking as he sat up. Well, man might be a bit generous. He was older than me, but not by much, with an athletic build, brown and blond hair that reached his shoulders. He had a large scar on his left cheek from his nose to the corner of his mouth and was wearing cheap, but well made clothes that were currently stained by dirt and blood from his split lip.

"Are you OK?" I asked.

"I think so," said the man and I was rather taken aback by his thick cockney accent, "Thanks for the help. Them blighters'd have cracked me skull if that beating had gone on much longer."

He spat out a mouthful of blood.

"No...problem?" I said, still trying to adapt to the utterly unexpected accent, "So...what was that all about?"

"We had a...disagreement over the ethics of selling drugs to underaged children," said the older teen, "They took exception to me telling them to bugger off."

"That doesn't surprise me," I said, "Your new in town, aren't you?"

"Is it that obvious?"

"Yes."

I sighed.

"Well, I guess if your fine, theres nothing more I can do," I said, "Just be more careful. The gangs around here don't tend to take threats well and if you annoy the wrong one…"

The teen winced. Yeah, everyone knew about how dangerous the likes of Lung and Kaisers goons were and that was before you took into account the Capes.

"I'll be more careful," said the blonde, "But I owe you one. If you ever need help, I'll be happy to provide it."

I blinked.

"I appreciate the thought, but I really didn't do anything."

The man gave me a shrewd look.

"Look mate, I've been on the streets for a long time," he said, "And in that time, I've learnt to tell the good from the bad with naught but a look. You are one of the best I've ever met. You helped me, despite not having to and in a town where no one would blame you for looking the other way. I owe you a debit."

He puffed up his chest and jabbed his thumb into it.

"And Robert Speedwagon always pays his debts!"

I was so glad I wasn't drinking anything at that moment or I'd probably have spat it all over him. As it was, i could barely keep myself from gaping. I'd thought he looked vaguely familiar, but I would never have connected him with a character from Jojo...which didn't exist in this world. These new memories seem to be messing with my perception.

Still, it did bring up an interesting thought. The cause of this whole thing was one of those CYOA things that I occasionally read (in both lives), but they generally didn't delve into crossovers. Even my Stand could have been passed of as a wierd Master power and I was only really treating it as a Stand out of amusement of it all than anything. However, if Speedwagon was here, that meant that either I was being messed with, it was a crazy coincidence or Thriller was actually a Stand. I'm not sure which I'd rather be true.

Suddenly, my thoughts were banished as I abruptly fell straight down. Through solid concrete. I yelped as I suddenly appeared near the top of the building above the alley and started falling, only vaguely noticing that I'd apparently fallen through a blue ringed hole in space-time that connected to an identical, orange ringed hole since most of my brain was screaming in utter shock. Fortunately, Thriller was more on the ball than I was and appeared to grab my collar and stop my fall.

"MROWWWW!"

"GAHHH!"

I yelped in pain as a black ball of fur and claws suddenly flung itself through another portal and landed on Thrillers face, proving in the process that, yes, I was connected to him enough that any damage would be passed on to me. Fortunately, Thriller managed to grab the furball and held it at arms length, revealing that it was a small, black and white cat...with what looked like a Portal turret with a Portal gun sticking out the front floating behind it. I blinked.

"Is that a Stand?" I asked dumbly.

"Backstreet, thats enough!" shouted Speedwagon from the ground, "Hes not an enemy!"

The cat stopped trying to scratch Thrillers eyes out and looked down at the blond.

"Meow?" it mewed in a questioning tone.

How does a cat even sound questioning?! Then again, all of the Stand using animals in Jojo were far more intelligent than they had any right to be, so maybe having one made them smarter? Wouldn't surprise me.

"You know this thing?" I asked as I rubbed my face, trying to get it to stop throbbing.

"MROWWW!" said the cat.

"His names Backstreet," said Speedwagon, "He's my...partner? Yes, partner. I found him bleeding out from an arrow wound and patched him up. We've been together ever since."

Huh, I guess that must have been the Arrow that gave him his Stand...oh fuck me, this is gonna make things so much more problematic!

I directed Thriller to set us down where Backstreet bit Thrillers arm to get him to release him and jumped into Speedwagons arms. I grumbled under my breath as I rubbed my now throbbing hand.

"So, does that Stand of yours have a name?" I asked.

Backstreet looked up at me, surprise clear on his face. Yeah, hes a lot smarter than any cat had any right to be. Well, so long as a Biotinker has not got their hands on it. After a moment, he nodded and his Stand appeared again. There was a rapid fire flash of light and blue and orange portals in the shape of letters appeared across the wall. Still Alive. Well, that was...odd. A Stand thats basically a reference to Portal being named after its credit song? Sounds perfect to me. Although I would like to know how a cat knows about that.

I sighed. Well, if this world is some terrifying combination of Worm and Jojo, I'd need all the help I could get.

"Well, if your insistent on paying me back, I guess I won't argue," I said, "I'm always happy to make new friends anyway."

I grinned and held out my hand.

"My full name is Jonathan Joseph Alcott," I said, "But my friends call me Jojo."

Right, that'll do. So yeah, this will be a full on crossover with Jojo and, for once, I have a ready made excuse for why he didn't notice the fact that the Speedwagon foundation is a thing. He literally only gained meta-knowledge that morning and had other things on his mind than realizing that Jojo is part of the world.

I have plans for one other team member to appear before I start him making friends and recruiting Worm characters. You might be able to guess who it'll be a reference to.

Speedwagon is not related to the original Jojo's friend and has no claim to the Speedwagon foundation. That said, hes basically identical to him and has no powers of his own. Well, other than a supersmart cat with a Stand.

I still have no idea where Backstreet came from, but he is really a cat and not the result of a shapeshifter getting stuck or a Biotinker. I'm going with the idea that Stands make their users better, including increasing the intelligence of animals. As for Still Alive, well, its abilities are pretty much exactly what you'd think. It can open portals of various shapes and sizes on any flat surface.

Jojo is genuinely a Parahuman, but his Stand is an actual Stand. I'll include the list below. That said, I will put Thrillers stats here:

Destructive Power: A. Not due to out and out strength, but instead due to the fact he can land multiple blows in an instant. He isnt actually any stronger than a Human.

Speed: A. Can be in multiple places at once and fly at a max speed of 350kph.

Range: B. Can operate within 30 meters of Jojo.

Durability: B. Again, despite only being as strong as a Human, he can still withstand a lot of damage by replicating to undamaged versions of himself. It would take a wide area attack within his area of operation to take him out with any guarantee.

Precision: B. Can create clones wherever he can see and is very accurate with his chain attacks. However, he wouldn't be able to perform many of the feats that Star Platinum is capable of.

Development: A. Due to its relative fragility, Thriller lacks the capability to fight directly and instead must fight smart. As such, Jojo is constantly improving on his use of his Stand. Its adaptable abilities are very helpful in that regard.

Yes, I know its stats are very high, but remember that it would be no match for most other Combat ready Stands in a direct fight. Most of Thrillers strength comes from its adaptability and speed. It wouldn't stand a chance against the likes of Star Platinum or the World.

Here are the choices I made:

Jonathan Joseph Alcott (Dinahs brother), Jojo (nickname)

Gestation

Hero 2 free followers

Insert (Dinah's older brother)

Teen (16) Highschooler

Budget. Because you don't need a costume with a Stand

Stealth (natural)

Martial Arts (-4)

Parkour (-2)

Banter (-1)

Abaddon Trigger (-3 -3)

Second Trigger (-4 Cape -3 Shard)

Identity Reveal (+3 Cape)

Blind Spot (-3 -4)

Psychic Nosebleed (tied to Power Sight) (+3 Shard)

Slaughterhouse 9 (+4 +2)

Worst Day Ever (+2 +1)

Plot Relevance

Powers: Stand (Second Trigger) (Stand Powers: Schrodinger, Flight and get over here) Called Thriller. Cannot be seen by normal Humans, although its just as effective at kicking their arse. Is a genuine Stand.

Power Sight (-1)

Lawgiver(-3)

Other (-3 Cape)

And with that, I'm done. Don't forget to leave a review!