I do not own Devil May Cry or any of the characters.
Ruined First Date
In a small shop tucked away into a filthy back alley in a filthy city, a single man leaned back, feet propped up on his desk and eyes staring up at the ceiling fan, head resting on his folded hands as he watched the fan spin round and round and round, the fan wiggling slightly as it did. It was a slow month. No calls for the last week, and the calls before that had only taken a few hours at most and paid very little. After hours of watching a fan spin, the phone rang and the man kicked the desk, the phone flipping into the air and landing in his hand, the man raising it to his ear.
"Devil May Cry," the man said. "No, we don't accept credit cards. No, no checks either. That's a little on the light side. What's the problem?"
He was silent as he listened to the description. The caller didn't have the password, as the man usually required, but this time he was so bored he didn't care. And besides, he always had his cellphone on him in case something more important came up.
"I see," the man nodded to himself, picking up a knife and throwing it into a target on the wall, this target painted onto a bloody, mounted mantis head the size of a beach ball. "Yeah, seals on the wall in blood does sound pretty bad. About how big? That big huh? Man they really ain't playin' around. Say, how'd you get this number anyway buddy? Really? No kidding. Well, I'm actually a little tied up here at the moment. How about you call back, say, tomorrow if anything changes."
The man suddenly sat up straight, face growing serious as his free hand gripped the arm of the chair.
"They're doing what?" the man asked. "You're sure? Alright. I'm on my way now. What's your address?"
A moment later, he threw himself onto his bike, twisting the throttle and streaking out of the alleyway, taking off down the street.
"What's the rush Dante?" a female voice shouted over the wind and engines as a second bike pulled up beside him, this one's rider wearing a black helmet, tight black leather corset, tight black leather pants, black leather boots, and with a massive sword on her back with red flame designs on the sides and a crescent blade reaching to the bottom of the two-handed grip before stopping.
"Can't talk now Trish," Dante said, expertly zipping through traffic, Rebellion sitting proudly on his back, its decorative skulls eyes seeming to glow every time they caught the light of a car's headlights or a streetlight.
"What's the job?" Trish asked.
"Summoning circle a hundred yards across, already starting to release plasma," Dante responded before swerving between two cars, taking their mirrors off then flipping them both off.
"That's pretty big," Trish said. "Need a hand?"
"Not yet," Dante said. "Keep your phone on you, though. And give Lady, Nero, and Lucia a call. Better to be safe."
"Agreed," Trish said. "See you around Dante."
She took a side road and Dante gave the throttle a sharp twist, the front tire lifting off the ground before setting back down as the bike sped up, streaking through traffic at a frighteningly fast pace. Finally, he squeezed the brake, skidding to a stop outside a black wrought iron gate with spikes on the top and an entire family plus housemaids, cooks, and a gardener standing in front of it, all terrified. One of the housemaids quickly swung the gate open and Dante sped through, skidding to a stop in front of the house then letting his bike fall to the ground as he sprinted inside, drawing Ebony and Ivory.
As soon as he was inside, the door slammed shut and a glowing red barrier formed over it, the shadows in the room all slowly stretching toward a point opposite him. He sighed, raising his pistols just as the shadows rose and formed into a silhouette before solidifying. A moment later, the silhouette changed. It had pale skin, bright orange hair, red irises, black short shorts, a black hoodie, and yet Dante still had no question who they were imitating. Kat. The first person who Dante ever cared about and who had been killed by Vergil. This Succubus just made the worst mistake of their life.
"Hello Dante," the Succubus greeted. "You're very handsome. How would you like to come and stay with me for a bit?"
"I don't know who you think you are, but if any part of your tiny brain thinks taking that form was a good idea, you better think again," Dante snarled before raising his pistols and opening fire.
The first two shots found their marks, punching through the Succubus's shoulders before they exploded into a swarm of bats. The bats flew at Dante, swirling around him, but just as they did, he spun, firing a bullet through each. They all dropped to the ground then melted into shadow again before rising as the Succubus once again. This time, just as she reformed, Dante pressed Ivory to her forehead and pulled the trigger, splattering her brains across the floor, the Succubus falling to the ground. Dante turned, stalking away from the body to the stairs and climbing them, reaching a long hallway leading away from the entrance hall. Dante kicked the first door he reached open and looked inside. Library. Empty. He walked to the next door. Supply room. Massive, but empty. Next door. Bedroom. Enormous, probably not the master suit, and still empty.
He reached the end of the hallway where there was an elevator and a stairwell. He punched the button to summon the elevator and after a moment it dinged open, a demon with the lower body of a spider, the upper body of a female with a webbing strip covering her breasts, and the head of a lizard of some kind leapt out of it at Dante, only for Dante to split it in half with Rebellion then put his sword away in time to catch Ebony. He stepped into the elevator, kicking one of the demon's legs out of the way and closing the door before hitting the button for the roof. The elevator rose up several floors before dinging to a stop and the doors hissed open. He stepped out of the elevator and stared at the corpse on the roof before him, an elderly man, roughy seventy years old at a guess, and with his eyes wide with fright, mouth open slightly, and a gaping hole where his heart should be. This was the man that had hired Dante.
Dante walked past the corpse and stopped, staring at the massive pool of blood nearly three hundred feet across, covering most of the roof, with a glowing red circle of symbols and Devil Script in the center, a massive sigil shining blindingly in the center of the circle. Dante put his pistols away, drawing Rebellion as the light shone high into the sky, lighting the seal up like a spotlight, the symbol reflected in the clouds above. He crouched, readying himself as blood sprayed skyward, splattering back down in an endless geyser. Then, something began to crawl out of it. At first, it was a hand, black with two fingers and a thumb, each with a claw as long as Dante's forearm, the hand itself the side of his torso and the fingers as long as his arms. Then, massive scaled arms followed the hands, the scales all a dark green, then a torso the size of a full-sized van. Then legs just as massive as the arms, all of which were as long as two of Dante's whole body with his arms extended over his head. The creature's feet were like T-rex feet, but black with claws about half as long as those on its hands. Its head was on the front of its torso, between its shoulders. It was a massive mound of flesh, not even really a head except that it had four small glowing yellow eyes in two diagonal lines on the end of its head with a fifth larger eye in the center, and a gaping maw of a mouth with a pair of gigantic fangs jutting up from its lower jaw, dripping acid. Then, the creature's tail appeared from the geyser of blood, the entire thing shaped like that of an iguana except for the morning star tip.
Blood rained down on the creature for several seconds, flooding down it in rivulets before the geyser finally died down, leaving a gaping hole where the seal had been. From the hole, millions of tiny glowing spiders made out of lava and stone began to flood out and toward Dante, a shrill cry piercing the air as they did.
"Phantom," Dante spat, stabbing his sword into the ground and drawing Ebony and Ivory again, opening fire on the tiny spiders.
Before more than a couple of seconds, the massive creature shot forward, fist pulled back. Dante put Ivory away, grabbing his sword in his right hand and leaping to the side swinging the gun around to the creature and squeezing off a shot, the bullet bouncing off of the creature's scales. Dante growled in annoyance and put the pistol away, glancing at the hole, where steam was starting to rise into the air.
He looked back to the creature as it charged again, slashing at him with its claws. He ducked under it and slashed, carving a small scratch into its leg, the scratch barely a paper cut to it thanks to its massive size. It turned, swinging a kick at him and he rolled out of the way, hearing the building below the creature groaning with the effort of holding him up. Dante leapt into the air then flipped and landed on the creature's hand as it swiped at him. He sprinted up the creature's arm then leapt into the air as the other arm tried to knock him off. This time, he got over its head and when he fell, he brought Rebellion down on top of its head as hard as he could. The creature blasted through the roof instantly, crashing down in the Entrance Hall. Dante crashed down a moment later just as the creature burst out of the rubble, grabbing a chunk of wood and driving it into Dante's chest. Dante coughed a mouthful of blood before the creature turned, crashing out through the facade and destroying it before charging at the family. Dante grabbed Rebellion, slashing the wood above himself before forcing himself up and off of it, then hurled Rebellion into the creature's back. It roared in pain, the sound deafening and shaking the ground. Then, it took off, abandoning the family and crashing through the main gate and the building on the opposite side of the street.
Dante grabbed his bike, hopping on and speeding off after it, riding straight through the debris. It crashed into a mall, plowing people out of the way as it crashed along the bottom level of the store, Dante hot on its heels. After a moment, it blasted out the other side and turned right on that street, charging away, Dante skidding around the corner and speeding after it again. After a couple more seconds, they reached a park, the creature skidding around a left turn then charging straight at a couple sitting beside a lake.
"TRISH! ! !" Dante screamed into his phone. "HELP! ! !"
Then, the creature had reached the couple.
Marcus smiled as the girl before him laughed. It wasn't often that someone put on so much of a show of actually liking him. Of course, a show was all it was. All it ever was. No one liked him. Not really. He was just "that guy" in college. "That guy" who sat alone in the back of the room, aced every test, could climb the rope in a matter of seconds, and who could get a date with almost any girl he asked simply because he was popular and they wanted to say they dated him. Yeah, immature stuff like that was why he truly despised the human race. But, for the time being, this girl was willing to pretend he was funny, and charming, and anything but the boring, exceedingly average person that he knew his personality portrayed. After all, he worked hard to be that. Sure physically and with his grades he was far above average, even if his build was mostly lean muscle, but he came off as average with his personality. Not too interesting, and not boring or weird enough to stand out.
Suddenly, her laugh turned into a scream as a painfully loud thundering sound began behind them, growing louder as the ground began to tremble. He sighed, turning and looking back as a massive creature bore down on him, a bike a ways away but beginning to catch up.
"You're interrupting," Marcus growled, raising his right hand, his black jacket's sleeve and his glove burning away to reveal an arm from the elbow down with brown almost scale-like spots over a glowing blue arm and hand with short claws. "Back off!"
A massive spectral replica of his hand appeared beside him, catching the creature by its face before smashing it into the ground, his actual arm doing everything the spectral arm did. Then, he raised his hand, the spectral arm rising and both forming a fist. Then, he smashed the massive spectral fist down on the creature's head, splattering it across the ground. The motor bike skidded to a stop a ways away and the man riding it, a man wearing a red trench coat, stepped off, pulling off his helmet.
"Oh Nero!" the man called jogging over. "I didn't even recognize...who are you?"
"Who're you?" Marcus asked.
"The name's Dante, kid," the man bowed. "You've got quite the arm. Only ever seen one more like it. Mind telling me your name?"
"Marcus," Marcus said. "And this arm is a curse."
"That arm is a gift," Dante said. "You have an amazing power. You just killed a class three demon like it was nothing. You could do some serious good with that kind of power. You could be a hero."
"I don't want to be a hero," Marcus snapped. "I don't want this arm, I don't want demons to chase me everywhere I go, I just want to be normal! I'd cut this goddamn thing off if it didn't break anything I cut it with!"
"Marcus, you're not normal," Dante said. "I hate to break this to you, but you're exceedingly abnormal. You can hide your arm, you can hide from demons, but in the end they're still going to find you and they're still going to ruin any sense of normalcy you try to create. So you can either accept that and make that your normal, or you can spend you life running away like a coward."
Marcus narrowed his eyes at Dante before huffing and turning away.
"What would you know about it?" Marcus snarled.
Marcus looked to the girl he had been talking to before but she turned, screaming and sprinting away from him. Marcus sighed.
"Looks like I'm moving schools again," Marcus sighed.
"Or, you can come back to my shop with me, and I can give you a job hunting demons," Dante said. "Do some good, save some lives, make bank having fun."
"Yeah, that'll happen," Marcus snorted, swinging his leg over his black Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle and starting it. "Why don't you give me a call when non-demonic pigs fly."
Dante smirked as Marcus sped off. Then, he got back on his own motorcycle just as Trish slowed to a stop beside him, looking at the dead demon.
"Looks like it was a false alarm," Trish said. "The kid okay?"
"Kid's fine," Dante said. "Demon didn't even phase him. Tough little shit. Come on. We're hosting Nero and the others tonight."
"Oh, that's right," Trish said. "Can't be late."
Dante nodded and they left, heading back to Dante's shop where Trish began to clean up Dante's pigsty while Dante ordered pizza.
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