Dead Men Walking

The man leapt from rooftop to rooftop with an easy grace, clearing distances that would have been impossible for any normal human. His brilliant red coat stood out in the pitch black of night, contrasting with his strangely pale skin and unnatural silver hair. A huge sword was strapped across his back, and a pair of pistols at his waist. Anyone could tell at first glance that this man was not normal by any standards which would have been a fair assumption. He was a half demon. One of the two sons of Sparda.

His name was Dante.

The devil hunter dropped twenty feet from one building to a smaller one and landed with a cat like grace. He straightened up and brushed a hand through his hair before walking over to the edge of the rooftop. The half blood took in a deep breath of the night air, smiling to himself.

He loved the smell of the air in New York. It was one of the reasons why he called the place home. That, and the fact that he had set up shop there. All his favourite aromas were thick and heavy in the atmosphere. Fast food (pizza in particular), gasoline, alcohol, it was all there. On this particular night, it seemed like there was even a little bit of fire and brimstone thrown in to the intoxicating aroma, but Dante figured he was just imagining things.

Dante looked down at the narrow alley beneath, tightly wedged between the building he was standing on and another building opposite. A small group of demons was being assaulted by a rabid mob of humans. The strange thing was, the humans seemed to be winning. Dante had heard of incidents like this and that was why he had been patrolling the rooftops.

Groups of humans attacking and defeating demons. Of course, they could have just been demon hunters, but as far as Dante knew, hunters never hunted en masse. The crowd members appeared to be human, ranging in all sizes and shapes, women, men even children. Dante frowned. Something just...didn't seem right about them. They seemed to give off a strange aura which basically screamed unnatural.

The humans dispatched the demons in a wild variety of fashions. Limbs were ripped off, necks broken, skulls crushed under fists and feet. Eventually, only three demons were left, Marionettes, wielding wicked looking blades on their arms. Dante noticed that they seemed to be bunched around a bundle of blue rags. One human man drew too close to one of the demon's blades, and soon a gout of blood spurted out of the stump where the man's arm once was. Dante winced. That human was a goner. Just as Dante was about to leap from the rooftop and into the fray, he saw that the man had shrugged off the demon's attack like it was nothing and was now using his own severed arm as a club to batter the demons with.

What the hell is going on here...these guys are definitely not normal humans.

Dante watched in amazement as one woman's leg was forcefully removed and she simply grabbed onto the demon's leg as she fell and held on like a pit-bull. More humans were seemingly mortally injured, but just kept on attacking the demon's with an animalistic ferocity. Two demons fell to overwhelming numbers until just one remained, fighting desperately to protect the blue rags at its feet.

Why does that thing want to protect those rags so much?

Then Dante's eyes went wide as he saw the rags stir and a head poke out. A head covered with silver hair. The face was obscured by the demon's leg, but Dante had seen enough.

No...it couldn't be...well, it doesn't hurt to check.

In an instant, Dante's twin pistols, Ebony and Ivory were in his hands. He twirled them expertly with a grin on his face.

Time for some fun.

The Marionette cut down two more humans with a slash of its scythe, but the human's simply picked themselves back up again. It raised its scythe once more, but then there was a sound above it. The demon looked up and saw a red shape descending from the heavens to drive a boot in its skull. There was a horrible cracking sound before the demon crumpled to the ground under Dante's weight. The half devil stood with one foot on the demon's body, which soon crumbled to dust. He eyed the crowd warily; Ebony and Ivory cocked, loaded and ready to unleash hell.

"Aww, you started the party without me? And it's almost over too! I got to say guys, I'm really offended."

There was a growling all around him as the mob of people pressed in closer. There were more of them than Datne had thought. They seemed to create a solid wall of flesh around the devil hunter. Still, the more the merrier. Dante looked down at the bundle of blue at his feet. He still couldn't clearly see a face, it was pressed to the concrete. He turned back to the mob.

"Lucky I got here when I did. Cause what's a party without your favourite devil hunter, right?"

Dante's eyes darted back and forth, looking for options. Up close, it was clear that the people really weren't human. Or at least not living. Several of them had deep, bleeding gashes that no human could survive from. Many had rips in their chest so that their rib cages were showing, gruesome strips of bloodied flesh hanging from their wounds. Half of the face of one woman had been completely ripped off, revealing her bloodstained skull underneath. As they closed in, Dante also noticed the horrible stench that emanated from them. The stench of decay and death.

Zombies? You've got to be kidding me. What is this, a bad horror movie?.

"I can see you're all eager to get a piece of me. So, without further ado," Dante bowed down low and smirked.

"Let's get this party started!"

As if on cue, one of the humans, or rather one of the zombies broke away from the crowd and lunged at Dante.

BOOM!

The walking corpse was blasted clear out of the air and crashed to the ground at Dante's feet next to the blue rags, a neat hole drilled into it's forehead.

"One down...what the hell?"

The zombie he had just shot suddenly grabbed onto his leg with strength that would have broken the bones of most humans. But Dante wasn't most humans. After a powerful kick, the zombie went flying back into the crowd, sending several of his fellow zombies tumbling to the ground. Dante fired off a barrage of bullets, each one driving itself into the skull of a zombie. But each of them that had been hit soon lurched back to their feet and lunged towards Dante, only to be put down again with a well placed bullet.

"These bastards are tougher than I thought," growled the half demon.

A zombie managed to jump onto Dante's back and prepared to sink its teeth into the Dante's neck. The devil hunter easily flipped it off of him so that it landed back first in front of his feet. Dante raised his boot, and brought it down on the zombie's skull with such force that its head exploded like a watermelon hit by a sledgehammer, skulls fragments and bits of brain matter flying every which way.

Finally...one down, a hundred more to go.

A constant stream of bullets burst out of Ebony and Ivory, keeping the crowd of undead at bay as Dante slowly turned on the spot, creating a whirlwind of searing metal. A zombie managed to sneak through Dante's assault and lunged at him, a steel pipe in hand. In an instant, Ebony and Ivory disappeared from his hands and were replaced by Alastor. The huge sword sliced through the air, crackling with electricity. It sliced clean through the pipe the zombie was holding before moving on to cleave its neck from its head.

The decapitated zombie's head hit the ground with a sickening thud leaving its body standing awkwardly, blood spurting from the ragged hole in it's neck before collapsing to the ground, lifeless once again. Dante smiled as he gave Alaster an expert flourish, wielding the massive blade as if it were as light as a feather.

So, I've got to cut off their heads, huh? Seems easy enough.

Dante looked down at his feet at the bundle of rags.

But I've got to protect him as well, that might be difficult...ah, screw it, I can take all of em on.

The half devil tightened his grip on Alastor as the remaining zombies closed in, preparing to rush him all at once. Dante smirked and motioned for his undead opponents to bring it on.

"What are you waiting for? Give me everything you've got."

As if in response, one of the zombies gave an inhuman roar of rage and in a split second they all lunged forward as one, arms outstretched to tear Dante apart. Lightning pierced the air once again as Dante sprung into action, whirling like a tornado. The zombies fell back by the dozens, some decapitated, others with various limbs removed. Alastor was a blur as Dante ducked and weaved slashing and stabbing like a maniac. Anything in his path was cut into ribbons. Blood soon began to pool across the floor, forming a gruesome puddle of gore around the devil slayer.

Dante stood panting amongst the gruesome mix of blood and severed body parts, surveying the situation. Despite the number of zombie's he had managed to kill (well, re-kill actually), there seemed to be even more surrounding him than before. He gave a growl of frustration as he cleaved a charging zombie in half. Once again, there seemed to be a literal wall of undead surrounding him. They hung back for now, regrouping before they would launch another attack.

"What's the matter, chumps? Afraid of little old me?"

Dante readied himself for the next wave when suddenly, the bundle of blue rags stirred again. A human shape rose from beneath the rags, fighting up to its hands and knees. A fragment of blue cloth faded away, revealing a face that had haunted Dante's dreams for years. A face that looked almost exactly like his.

"Vergil," Dante whispered.

His twin brother looked up at him with a look of confusion and pain.

"Dante?"

Vergil's eyes glazed over and closed and he collapsed to the ground again. Dante looked up again, a mix of anger and determination in his eyes.

"You've got a hell of a lot to answer for, brother."

Dante picked up his twin on his shoulder and returned Alastor back to its place on his back. There was no way he could protect Vergil and fight the zombies for ever and there seemed to be a limitless supply of the undead warriors. So, though he hated to say it, Dante had to run away. For now at least.

Dante flashed a cocky grin at his undead opponents as he hefted Vergil.

"I'm sorry, my adoring fans, but unfortunately, I have to make my exit."

He crouched down as the zombies rushed forward, building up energy in his legs. Just as the zombies were about to converge on him, Dante leaped high into the air, at least fifteen feet straight up, with Vergil still on his shoulders.

This is gonna be difficult with my fat ass brother on my shoulder...well, we'll see how it goes.

Still in mid air, suspended above the seething mass of undead beneath, electricity crackled all over Dante's body. His entire body glowed with unearthly light, and with a tremendous explosion of power, Dante unleashed his devil trigger.

In an instant, his entire body transformed from a man to a demon. Dark scales covered his body, his face became demonic and beast like. Claws sprouted from his hands and various jagged spikes and horns jutted out from various parts of his body. Finally, a pair of black wings sprouted from Dante's back, lightning flashing with each flap. Dante ascended into the air at a rapid pace and smiled down at the zombies below.

"Count yourselves lucky! You got off easy this time! I'll be back!"

And with that, he disappeared into the night.

Standing on a building over hanging the alley, a scarred man with strange eyes watched the Devil Hunter leave. Arkham frowned and whispered to himself.

"This will complicate things."

There was a puff of smoke, and Arkham was no where to be seen.