Chapter 1 - Devils meet Keyblades
"Dante, why don't you ever clean up after yourself! Ugh, this is why we never get any clients!" A girl with curly blonde hair squeaked loudly. She was a girl who Dante was asked to take care of, but he never got rid of.
"What's the damn point? It isn't like we'll keep the shit clean, besides we'll just get more clients when the demons start acting up again, right Zell?" Dante, the white haired man who was known for his red coat and uncaring attitude, sighed and kicked his feet on his desk which was littered with old pizza boxes and moldy pizza and leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.
"Well, Patty, Dante's got a point. We don't get much work now because of the fall in demon activity... But if something was to happen and demons start appearing again, then we'll probably be able to get rid of our debt." Zell leaned on a windowsill, with his arms folded and glanced out at the dark night's sky that was illuminated by the various neon lights in the distance.
Zell was a red eyed brown skinned teen of slightly above average height and body build; his clothing color scheme was similar to that of Dante's with the red and black alternating, but he wore black long shorts and a black school sweater vest and a red button up short sleeved shirt that stopped at the elbows, and he wore a pair of black fingerless gloves. He had a red wolf's tail as well. His shoes, swordsmanship, and intellect of all things technologic and demonic were the things he prided himself on. He was rather slim for someone who could eat like a Viking god. He was usually serious, but that was when work was involved, any other time, like now, he tends to be aloof and immersed in his own thoughts, he has scarlet hair and eight bangs that would hang over his eyes, and two weapons; one he made himself, a gun blade with a black desert eagle pistol for the handle and the blade was crafted from a red metal that shimmered and moved like fire and was seven feet long, and a weapon that he awoke with just recently, which was a pair of giant skeleton keys that were the basic design of classic keys that interlocked with one another and fused with a black blade shooting from the top. One of the keys was gold on top and silver on the bottom, while the other key was silver on top and gold on the bottom. The two keys fuse at the handles and interlocked at the portions that were to go into the keyhole, Zell dubbed the weapon "Two become One" due to the two keys fusing into one blade. It's length was twice that of any normal single handed sword, but Zell wielded it with no effort at all.
Zell just joined Dante's ranks a year before, after saving Patty from a horde of a thousand Fire scythe reapers. Zell found them just as the ambush was taking place and helped ward the demons away, and because Patty asked, Zell agreed to join the rag tag team.
Patty, or Patricia Lowell, was supposed to be the heir to a wealth of estates and such, but was an orphan who was used as a decoy in one of Dante's earlier jobs. She was left with him at the age of twelve, and five years have passed since that job and now Patty has become more mature in both body and mind. Her body was more curvatious and developed, and often times Dante would remark that she was one of the sexiest jobs that he took, but never got. She didn't understand that and thought Dante to be a pervert from that point on. She has trained under Dante's acquaintances, Trish and Lady, who are both fellow demon hunters, but Patty seems to be the one whose job is to keep the office clean, Zell helps out as well, and despite her nagging and chronic complaining, she seems to enjoy hanging around the too laid back pervert demon hunter. Patty is one year younger than Zell, and she uses two platinum pistols with silver and Adamantium bullets. She also has a habit of stealing Dante's strawberry sundaes, although she says that she "charges a strawberry sundae" for her work.
"It's HIS debt and we got stuck trying to help him pay it! Ugh, I'm tired of being here. Zell, do you wanna go out and see the sights?" Patty corrected and left to get a jacket from the closet.
Zell smirked and looked out the window once more and noticed a shooting star streak across the sky, and he noticed that it was pretty close to the city as well."Well, you don't see many of those here..." Then a horde of black demons zoomed after the shooting star. Zell's eyes widened and the phone rang. Dante kicked down on the desk and caught the phone and his eyes shot open.
"Devil May Cry, You say 'em and we slay 'em... Okay, Morrison... Yeah, alright... Great, meet ya there. Well you two," Dante started and spoke loud enough for Patty to hear in the closet, "Looks like something's come up, and we need to take it down." Dante smirked and went to the same closet that Patty just went into.
Zell looked toward the closet and sighed, then as if Zell signaled the event, a scream and gunshots were heard from the closet and Dante flew out with his coat and equipment on.
"Don't you ever get tired of being shot in the head, Dante?" Zell and Patty both asked simultaneously, but Zell's tone was dry like it always was, and Patty's face was red and she was breathing heavily.
"Heh, only by you Patty... Only by you." Dante said coolly and pulled the bullet from his head then tossed it to Zell.
Patty shrieked and yelled "You are unbelievable!" She stormed out the door and Zell and Dante followed after her.
"Zell, I think she digs me..." Dante smirked and closed the door to the building.
"What gave you that idea?" Zell asked and continues his walk.
"No clue, but I think we got a job. Nothing too heavy, just cleaning up a few demons on the east side, you know, near that old warehouse across the street from the hotel?" Dante scratched the back of his head then pointed in them in the right direction.
"Well, at least you got a gig!" Patty yelled, apparently she was still mad about the event prior, she was a few feet ahead of the boys, but could still hear what they were saying.
"I'll try to calm her down." Zell sighed and walked up to catch Patty and the two exchanged word, but Dante, who tried to eavesdrop, couldn't hear a thing, but based on Patty's expressions, he knew that Zell was working that strange magic that he had with the ladies, it even worked on Trish and Lady.
"Man, that's seriously fucked up. I try, and I either get stuck with bills, or bullets in my damn skull, but him... He gets all the good attention. What... the... hell?" Dante grumbled under his breath as he watched Patty wrap her arms around Zell.
A girl with short blue hair shot forth from the dark night sky, she was wearing a black and blue, high-collared halter top, with two pink, intersecting belts over her chest, and black shorts, on the girl's arms were two white bell sleeves and two silver metal pieces, and on her hands were gray fingerless gloves, and on her legs were long thigh length stockings that stopped near her upper thigh, and on her waist were two strips of blue cloth that draped over either side of her hips, along with a smaller, white strip of cloth tied around her waist, draped in the same manner, and she wears pointed, armored, silver boots with a sharp "hook" on the outer side of each. The girl crashed in the middle of a street that separated a bright and tall hotel from a rusted warehouse that wasn't used for over fifty years. She slowly sat up and grabbed her head; she opened her eyes to reveal a strange bright blue color within them.
"Ugh... Where... where am I?" The girl glanced around and spotted the bright hotel nearby.
"Huh, well maybe I could see if that place can help me out." The girl started slowly toward the hotel, she took three steps, then was tackled back several feet and into the old warehouse and followed by ten dark creatures, each with twelve tentacle-like arms and skulls for faces.
The girl was shocked at what she saw, but stood and summoned her weapon, which was shaped like a key, but was the length of a normal single handed sword. The Key was white at it's hilt, and the blade part that held the three prongs was black. She was injured, but regardless of what was going to happen she wouldn't go down without a fight. The demons roared loudly and shook the earth below then the demons and the girl dashed at each other, each determined to destroy the other.
Zell and Dante both felt the surge of demonic energy and went into serious mode. Zell and Dante shot looks at one another then nodded. Zell released Patty from his shoulder and he jumped then released a burst of energy from his shoes and began to fly toward the destination.
"Dante, what's going on?" Patty asked; she was a bit flustered by the sudden jolt from Zell's body.
"The small activity we were headed for just surged one hundred fold. We've gotta help him out, but we can't get there as fast as he can, so he'll be on his own until we get there." Dante's eyes were on high alert and he grabbed Patty by her hand and they jumped on the nearest Motorcycle they could find and zoomed off toward the warehouse.
On their way there, a few small demons came in waves, and Patty gave a few rounds of silver to them while Dante curved and drifted throughout the streets.
"Well, Patty, looks like we'll be getting that business that you wanted." Dante smirked and spun the bike in a 360 degree turn, the fire from the muffler burning the few extra demons in their way.
"Good, so now I won't have to see you all the damn time!" Patty yelled and unloaded on another wave of demons, these were looking like the tentacle monsters that the blue haired girl was in battle with.
The blue haired girl sliced a demon in half, and then surrounded herself with fire, ice, and wind. The incoming demons were burnt, frozen, or ripped to shreds by the magic, then she took her key into her hand and crossed her arms in an "X", then a long aura took the form of a blade on her key and it extended well past ten feet in length. More demons surrounded her and she spun the aura blade around several times to cut the demons and then brought the aura crashing down and sent a shockwave to the grounded demons and wiped them from existence. More demons shot up from the ground and these looked like the grim reaper, except they were red tinted instead of the eerie blue that they usually were. The girl crossed her arms and released another form. She held her keyblade in mid air, and began to gracefully evade the attacks from the reapers. The girl spun to the left and two reapers lodged their scythes into one another's skulls, so the girl blew them both away with a fire spell, then she threw the keyblade into the air and put up a force field and guarded against a surrounding horde of the reapers, and lodged their scythes in her barrier. She gasped at how close the scythes were to her face, but quickly replaced that look with one of great vigor, then she caught the keyblade and held it in the air and shouted "Release!" and sent the plates of her barrier to slice the reapers into confetti. However, she missed one reaper, and it slashed her left shoulder and sent blood sprawling all over the floor. The girl let out a cry and drove the keyblade into the reaper's head, then cast Mega Flare and nuked the single reaper in a fiery flash of light.
A third wave of demons appeared and jumped high into the air, but was cut down by Zell. Each of the reapers burst into flames and Zell landed right in front of the girl.
"Who are you?" Zell asked and turned toward the entrance of the warehouse.
"My name is Aqua, and what's your name, and why do you have the X-blade?" The girl replied, and cast a healing spell on her wounded arm.
"Aqua, eh? Well, the name's Zell." Zell smirked and stood at the ready with the Two becoming One in his hand.
"Zell, hmmm... You never told my why you have that weapon." Aqua replied and readied herself for the next battle.
"I don't know how I got this thing, but I do know that it comes in handy." Zell stated and lowered his guard.
"Well that's strange, it doesn't look like the one Ven had..." Aqua mumbled and lowered her guard as well.
"So what are you doing in a place like this, Aqua?" Zell asked simply.
"I... I'm looking for my friends, Terra and Ventus. Have you seen either of them?" Aqua replied with some hope in her voice.
"What'd they look like? Although, no one's been around here for a long time." Zell was thinking about the names, they seemed familiar to him.
"Ventus is a bit shorter than me and has golden blonde hair. Terra is a bit taller than me and has spiked brown hair." Aqua answered simply, hoping that description would be good enough.
"Hmm, well I haven't seen them yet, but why don't you stay with us while you search. We could always use the extra power." Zell replied, and almost broke Aqua's spirits.
"Who's 'Us'? There's just one of you here..." Aqua asked she was a bit downcast now that she truly didn't know where her two brothers were.
"Oh, the others will be on their way, just come with me. I'll try to help you as much as I can." Zell stated and started toward the front of the warehouse, his tail appeared as he walked away.
"Oh, Y-you have a tail? What type of tail is it?" Aqua was shocked to see that she was getting help from an animal.
Zell sighed and stopped walking for a moment, "It's a wolf tail." He sighed again then said, "So, you coming or what?" The tail faded away with a fiery whoosh and Zell resumed his walk.
"Y-yeah, I'm coming." Aqua was shocked at what she just saw, but quickly ran so she could catch up with her apparent ally.
Just as the two were crossing the street, Dante and Patty pulled up and skidded to a stop in front of Zell.
"Well, looks like you cleaned up pretty nice, Zell." Dante smirked and cocked an eyebrow a his red headed accomplice, then turned to observe Aqua's body figure, to much of her embarrassment, as she blushed when she caught the eye of the demon hunter.
"It's not what it looks like. She just needs a place to crash while she looks for her friends. You wouldn't mind having another girl around, would you, Dante?" Zell's dry voice was that of Squall's from Final Fantasy VIII.
"Well, she is certainly a beauty..." Dante continued to eye the Keyblade Master.
"Her name's Aqua, and she was the reason for the demonic surge just now, more or less due to her strange weapon." Zell introduced Aqua to Dante and he smirked again.
"Well, this little bluebird would be welcome at Devil May Cry anytime she needs something." Dante stated and revved the bike and skidded off with a stunned Patty on his back.
"Well, there you have it. You can stay with us." Zell stated with little interest and started the way Dante and Patty had gone.
"Thank you, Zell" Aqua stated and followed Zell to Devil May Cry.
When the two reached the doors of the shop, gunshots were fired once again. Zell stopped and held out an arm to signal Aqua to stop as well.
Aqua looked at Zell and sighed, "So they're always like that?"
"Not always, just when we are about to get some work, or when we just finish a good job." Zell scratched his head and thought for a bit, "Or maybe Patty's getting jealous?"
"Who? Oh, you must mean that girl that was riding with that white haired guy that kept staring at me?" Aqua recalled and blushed a bit.
"Yep, they'll do introductions when we get in there." Zell stated and walked in, then led Aqua to the couch underneath the stairwell, and he returned to his post on the windowsill with his right leg in the window and his right arm leaning on it.
"Sorry about the mess. Our leader here doesn't like to keep up appearances." Patty stuck her tongue out at Dante, who was riddled with bullets in various areas of his body, then Patty turned back to Aqua. "My name's Patty Lowell, I meant to tell you when I first met you, but things happened kind of fast."
"No, It's fine. I'm Aqua. So what type of work do you guys do here?"
"Well we hunt-" Patty started then Dante turned toward the bathroom and, with Zell, finished "Creatures of the Dark."
"Right, those. Are you familiar with those beings?" Patty asked and placed her full attention on the new girl.
"Well kind of, you see, where I'm from we called these monsters 'Unversed', but they looked very different from the ones I've fought back home." Aqua placed her index finger on her chin and recalled the last time she was faced with monsters from the Dark Realm.
"...Patty, she just got here. I don't think you should just dive into stuff like that. I think Aqua just needs some time to adjust to things here, then we'll get that information. Understand?" Zell stopped Patty from starting her barrage of questions.
"...Fine..." Patty pouted and folded her arms with a huff and Aqua let out a small giggle.
"What's funny, Aqua?" Zell cocked an eyebrow and stared at the blue haired girl.
"Nothing, you just reminded me of Terra for a second..." Aqua's smile faded, and as she remembered the night before her Mark of Mastery exam with Terra and Ventus, she let out a heavy sigh.
"Well... you can talk about your friends whenever you want, but Patty, don't make her nervous or uneasy." Zell stated monotonously as he oftentimes would.
"I won't make her nervous... that's Dante's job." Patty remarked and Dante heard her.
The famed devil hunter emerged from the hot shower with steam pouring from his hair as he scratched his scalp and shook the remaining water from it and retorted, " Get real Patty, besides, the only person here that's worn their welcome out is you. If you wanna take a hike, then be my guest." He smirked and resumed his lounging at his desk with his legs crossed on the top of the desk, and his arms were folded with the picture of his mother right next to his heel.
"Please, Dante, you have gotten so used to me being here that if I were to leave you would be worse off than usual."
"Ha! Sure I would..." Dante remarked then his sharp sky blue eyes locked onto Aqua, and she felt his stare.
"You two need to give it a rest. We'll probably get that money from Morrison from this job in the morning, so let's get some rest. You know how he gets sometimes, so good night to you all." Zell interjected with his expressionless voice and started toward the upstairs.
"Aqua, come with me. You can sleep in the room with me." Patty jumped up from the couch and pulled Aqua by the hand.
"Okay, but shouldn't I sleep on the couch, or something?" Aqua asked, still slightly rattled from the monsters that attacked her a few hours ago.
Patty was using the guest room as her bedroom. It was pink and white and a little bit of blue was seen here and there. The bed was something taken from a fairy tale book, as it had drapes and curtains and very soft pillows and blankets with frills.
"Well, I hope you like what you see. I made all of the drapes and sheets for the bed." Patty walked over to the bed and began to change her clothing.
"You made all of this yourself? When did you have the spare time?" Aqua asked and looked around at the typical girl's room with a hint of awe in her voice.
"Well, it was mostly because of Zell. He helped me with the cleaning and even brought me some sewing kits. So I would trade shifts with him and sew some of my things and the we'd clean a bit together and repeated the process." Patty replied and removed her shirt and bra, then moved to the nightstand and put on a snug white T-shirt and started to unbutton her pants.
"It doesn't look like he would be the type to do things like that..." Aqua remarked softly and sat on the side of the bed that was opposite the side that Patty was on.
"Well, it just goes to show that you can never judge a book by its cover." Patty stated with a yawn, then gave Aqua a teal colored night gown to wear for the night.
"Um, are you sure this is alright?" Aqua reluctantly took the night gown and proceeded to remove her own clothing.
"You can wear it. Good night." Patty added sleepily and lay in the bed and covered herself with the blankets on the bed, and Aqua followed suit.
The two girls slept together in the same bed, but facing opposite directions, Zell returned to the main floor and slept on the couch in his beast form, and Dante slept in his chair, like he would always. As they slept peacefully in their own places, the group of three had no idea what was in store for them tomorrow.