Disclaimer: I don't own Devil May Cry: The Animated Series, sure wish I did though…

Long Live the Queen

By General Zargon

It was supposed to have been a simple job: get in, kill the few demons nesting there, get out, blow the place up, and then head back to Devil May Cry to wait for Dante and tell him all about how she'd completed the job all on her own.

But then, things could never be simple when it came to demons, and what the information had said were only a few demons were actually a few dozen, and they all looked alike, which explained why – since they were only seen from a distance – people had thought there were only a few demons in the old house.

The Gallows' Hill Mansion was the town of Gilstreph's local haunted house, and it was a miracle that it hadn't been torn down years ago. It was a stereotypical dark and scary-looking house, with creaky shutters and wooden floorboards, and the hinges on the doors were in dire need of oiling. The paint on the outside was peeling, and the wood used to create the majority of the house looked rotten, part of the handrails that bordered the stairs leading up to the porch having rotted through entirely. She had avoided touching or relying on the rails on her way up to the house, having more sense than to rely on rotten wood to support her weight and not trusting that the rails wouldn't give out halfway up the dozen stairs leading to the front porch.

In its' prime, Patty Lowell had no doubt that the mansion would have been an impressive sight, a silent sentinel overlooking the town, but after so many years of neglect it had become an ideal place for demons to nest. Lately the townspeople had been feeling incredibly uneasy around the old place, and what had once drawn teenagers seeking to prove their bravery by staying a night in the 'haunted house' was now avoided like to get close to it was to disappear forever…which hadn't been far from the truth as of late. Lately at least a dozen homeless people and drifters had vanished in the house, and three days ago several teenagers – really just kids who'd had a bit too much to drink – had gone inside the mansion and never come out again. Local law enforcement had searched the place but found nothing, and then a day later a middle-aged woman walking her dog had reported seeing frightening shadows and hearing unearthly screams coming from the building. And so a call had been placed to Devil May Cry, since this was obviously a job for a devil hunter.

The now seventeen year-old Patty had been hanging around the office while waiting for Dante to get back from a job when the call had come in, and she'd answered the phone thinking it was Dante calling to tell her he would be back soon or something like that. What it had been couldn't have been more different than what she'd been expecting. She had picked up the receiver, said 'hello', and the person on the other end had responded by giving her the password. Dante had told her the password in case of emergencies, but she'd never thought she'd hear someone actually say it when calling the office. The combination of fear, desperation, and hope in the other person's voice had floored her, and she'd floundered a bit before she'd asked what the job was.

She had figured that she'd take down the information for the job and then hand it to Dante when he got back, but as she'd listened to the specifics an idea had begun to niggle at the back of her mind. It had sounded easy enough, a simple demolition job that Dante could probably do in his sleep, and after she'd hung up the phone she had sat on the couch in silence, torn about what she should do. She had argued with herself, part of her wanting to wait for Dante, and the other part urging her to take the job herself. She had been tired of Dante treating her like she was still a little girl and what better way to drive home the fact that she wasn't than by taking care of a job all by herself?

So Patty had changed into some clothes that she'd thought would be easy to move in while fighting – tight denim shorts, knee-high leather boots, a long sleeved black shirt, and to top it all off, a large ammo belt like the one Lady wore all the time – and had begun grabbing all the things she'd thought she would need. First, a well-stocked first aid kit went into one of the pockets on the belt, then she put a few vials of Holy Water (just in case) in another of the pockets, and lastly she began packing the remaining pockets with ammunition, since although Lady had been training her and helping her to improve her aim, she didn't want to bank on always being able to take out the demon she was aiming at in one shot. Hence, extra ammo in case things went south.

Before she'd left, she had emptied out her backpack and then refilled it with the explosives that Dante kept around for missions like the one she had decided to take. She had also written a short note to Dante saying that she'd accepted the job that had come in while he'd been out, and that she should be back sometime in the next few days. As an afterthought, she had written down where she'd be going in case Dante decided to freak out or something. All the preparations done, she'd set out to catch the next bus to Gilstreph.

The specifics of the job were simple: They wanted her (or rather, Dante) to go inside the mansion, kill the demons nesting there, look for any survivors from the disappearances and if possible get them out, and then blow up the mansion in order to prevent other demons from nesting there. She had thought for sure that she could handle it with no problem.

Now as she ran along a dark, rickety hallway with flickering lights with her guns held at the ready and the hair on the back of her neck standing on end she wasn't so sure about that. She had already killed at least sixteen demons and more were coming, and she couldn't concentrate fully on tracking them down and putting bullets in their heads because she had to thoroughly check every room for survivors. Considering the number of demons there were, she seriously doubted that she would find any. The demons were mostly Hell Prides and Hell Lusts, as Dante had told her they were called, but she didn't want to take any chances that there might be a more powerful demon controlling the lesser ones, so she determined that she would have to take out the foot soldiers quickly.

Patty swore loudly when a Hell Pride materialized in front of her and raised its' scythe and she quickly lifted her own guns (similar to the ones that Lady used) and shot the thing in the head and chest, the loud bang of the gunshots likely alerting other demons to her location. The demon obligingly dissolved into piles of sand, but her guns clicked several times, signaling that she was out of ammo. She swore again as she hurriedly dug out two spare clips, now grateful that she had decided to err on the side of caution for her first job. She ejected the spent clips from her guns and slid the full clips home, hearing a satisfying 'click!' that told her they were secure and ready to fire.

She used a gun in each hand like Dante did, something she guessed she picked up from him, and now she was grateful that she did, since it let her shoot in two directions at once, something that came in very handy when two more Hell Prides materialized on either side of her and attacked.

Two more 'bangs' and the total of demons she'd killed went up to nineteen.

Somehow she didn't find that very reassuring.

This is actually something that I came up with while working on another fic…that has absolutely nothing to do with this. The two fics are in no way connected, and I can't seem to figure out how this idea came from that one…Hmmm…Anyway, I know I should be working on my main fic, but this idea wouldn't leave me alone! As always, constructive criticism is welcome, so please read and review!