Fuck this.
That was the thought that kept repeatedly running through Dante's mind as he strolled through the underground tunnels of Fortuna. He didn't even know where the fuck he was going anymore. He had long since lost the scent of demon that had led him down there in the first place. He was beginning to think he was lost, not that the devil hunter would ever openly admit it.
Fucking Lady, he thought sourly, sending me on these stupid fucking missions that she's too lazy to do herself, then takes all of the goddamn money that I work my ass off for. Also, more often than not, he also gets the added bonus off a bullet embedded in some part of his body, just because the bitch feels like it, but he'll worry about that later, he has find a way out of these fucking tunnels first.
This had all started three days ago, when Dante had been rudely awakened at 8 o'clock in the goddamn morning by Lady (which was at least six fucking hours too early then when he had been planning get up), who, had essentially decided that he was being a lazy prick and that he has to get off his ass and travel all the way to that fucking religious hellhole of a city Fortuna, just to kill some low level demons that had been apparently been causing chaos in the outskirts of the city. When Dante had asked her why in the hell he had to go all the way there for that asshole city and kill a couple of demons, he was promptly shot in the damn foot and was then threatened that the next shot would be in a more private area. From years of experience, the demon hunter immediately backed down to the very real threat (he should know, he's lost count of how many times he had been shot by that crazy woman), and had agreed to leave immediately for the mission.
When he had found the demons (after one shitty ferry ride later), he quickly dispatched them, only to have one quick motherfucker sneak away from him and disappear into a small cave that was hardly noticeable unless you knew it was there. Knowing that Lady would kick his ass if he let even one get away, he had followed it, thinking it couldn't have gone too far into the dark space.
Only it had turned out the cave was actually a tunnel. A maze of tunnels, he soon discovered, all leading in different directions. At first he had easily followed the rank scent of the demon, but soon he had found himself in a chamber that had several tunnels branching off from the larger one he had been following. That really shouldn't have been a problem, but for some unknown reason the trail of the demon he was chasing had abruptly cut off, which shouldn't have been possible, not with Dante's heightened demonic senses doing the tracking. He had eventually decided to backtrack, thinking that he had maybe taken a wrong turn at some point, finding that the demon smell had completely disappeared even in the places in knew it had been moments ago.
This really had not helped his situation at all, as he couldn't even follow the trail to find his way out of the goddamn maze he found himself in. The slayer, at that point, was becoming quite pissed, enraged that he, Dante, the Great Demon Hunter and Son of Sparda, had been outsmarted by a fucking lower level devil, and, to make things even better, was now lost in some underground shithole and had no way of knowing which way the damn exist was.
So here he was now, cursing Lady and stumbling around in a dark passage, certain he was going to fucking kill her when he next gets his hands on her. He had been walking for hours, or maybe days - he didn't fucking know anymore - nothing changed in the darkness at all to even give him a hint of the time. Not that it really mattered, he just wanted to get the hell out of here, as soon as goddamn possible, get back to Devil May Cry, and order a pizza.
He was starving.
Then I can call Lady, he thought humorously, and tell her the mission was successful and I have the money. The leech would be at my door within minutes, and then I can shove my foot up her ass, tell her to get fucked, slam the door in her face, and eat my pizza. Not bad for a nights work really-
Dante stops abruptly, thoughts cut off as a light appears at the end of the tunnel, but something about it seems unnatural, and it unnerves him a little. He moves forward slowly, cautiously. There's something threatening about the place he's slowly approaching, something that makes the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
His inner demon growls softly at the thick scent of blood that he picks up in the air, a scent that somehow seems familiar to him, but Dante can't place why. All the same, it definitely makes him anxious. He suddenly knows with a certain clarity that he's not going to like what's going to be around the next corner. Not. At. All.
The demon hunter pauses, and finds out why the light seems wrong, that's not natural light, he thinks, narrowing his eyes, that's man made, but why would humans be in a deserted place like this? He can hear murmuring now, voices, getting louder as he gets closer to the next turn. Dante leans against the wall of rock on one side, and slowly, making sure not to make a sound, takes out Ivory and walks to the edge of the turn. He carefully peers around the corner, making sure to keep his face in shadow, not wanting to be seen until he accesses the situation first.
Dante had a feeling he wasn't going to like what he saw, and his instincts did not disappoint him. But the sight that greets his eyes still shocks him right to his core.
What the hell is this...?
He's finds himself looking into a brightly lit room, finding that the place Dante is standing is actually a crude, carved out hole meant to serve as a door. There are several people inside, all wearing white coats, some scribbling furiously on clipboards and murmuring to each other, caught up in their work. The bright room seems clinical, like some sort of hospital, there's electronic equipment scattered around the room, cords tangled everywhere, like the instruments were set up quickly, without much thought. It's a lab, Dante realizes, one definitely not for Fortuna's public eye, given the isolated location...but what the hell is this...?
'Cause there, right in the middle of the gathered scientists, strapped to a metal chair, was the object of the discussion in the room, and the source of the thick scent of blood that Dante had picked up before. It was a boy, unconscious, covered in his own blood, wearing nothing but a pair of torn and stained jeans. But underneath all that, Dante could see that the kid was around eighteen or nineteen years old, his stained red hair showing the original platinum colour underneath, just like Dante's own. But the boy's arm, while the left was what humans considered normal, the right one was definitely demonic. The outside armour covering the kid's arm was red in colour, but the hide underneath was a dark blue, nearly black, but it glowed weakly with a soft light blue, pulsing like a fluttering heartbeat.
And all of a sudden Dante understood why the scent smelt so familiar to him, why he had recognised it. The blood was a mixture of both demon and human. Just like his brother, Vergil. And like Dante himself.