Chapter 4
The Phoenix
The moon glistened over the market building in the dark night, lighting up parts of the closed and dark store. Lady takes cover with her back against a metal chimney on top of the market building across from Speedway Batteries. She pulls out a handgun and slowly edges toward the corner. She tilts her head over the side to get a look at the so-called sniper. The human figure no longer had the sniper in it's hands but on it's back. It was standing upright holding binoculars to it's eyes witnessing the battle Dante was still fighting in at the time with the demon. Lady turns her head back behind her cover and gets ready to face the person. She lifts up her pistol with both hands and slowly, stealthily, approaches the shaded figure pointing the gun at it. The figure lowers it's binoculars and turns around to see a gun pressed against his forehead.
"Start talking," Lady started, "you've got some nerve coming into my territory stealing my demons; stealing my jobs. Who are you?" Lady glanced at the person's face and gasped.
She took a step back, still pointing the gun, and examined the figure's unique features. It was a man. He stepped out of the darkness and into the moon light. He was wearing a faded white and black knight-like armor only much more advanced with multiple layers of armor stacked on top one another with a helmet mask that covered over the top of his head but not his mouth -which had a five o'clock black shaven beard. The layers of armor were sharp shapes, mostly slanted trapezoids, all pointing diagonally up symmetrical to one another. His shoulders and elbow were left open but had black clothing underneath. Two slits were open on his helmet for eyeholes. His lower-half was armored less with plates on his knees instead of stacked armor. The armor on his chest had an engraved painting spread out throughout his upper body's armor of a phoenix. A red and orange phoenix (that had a context shape like the Pontiac Firebird) design. Other parts of his armor, including the plates on his knees, had a flame design of some sort that matched the chest design. His hands had white plated gloves too. What was shown of his skin was lightly tan and his eyes could be seen in the moonlight which were brown but bright.
Lady was in awe at the sight of him and his visually spectacular armor.
The man had a shocked look on his face when he saw Lady's gun, "well now! This is quite the entrance!" He had a slight Italian accent to his young voice.
Lady was surprised to hear how young he was as she cocked an eyebrow and tilted her head slightly. She shook her head then added, "you didn't answer my question!" She said pressing the gun against his cheek.
"Ow! Ow! Easy there. I'm not going to hurt you. Now, your question, what was it?" He said putting his hands up in surrender with the binoculars still in his right hand.
"Who are you?" Lady grumbled pressing harder.
"Ah yes," he said with an ecstatic voice. "If you will," he said slowly grabbing the barrel of the gun and pointing it away from him. Lady complied. "You may call me… eh. The Phoenix! Or… just… Phoenix. Phoenix! Call me Phoenix!" He jumbled away at his thoughts for a name.
Lady continued looking at him with a confused look on her face. "Phoenix?" She repeated, "that's a pretty obvious name to give yourself especially since you have a bird imprinted on your chest." She lowered her gun with both hands still clenching on to it.
"Well it's… statutory," he replied also putting his hands down and setting his binoculars away.
"Statutory?" Lady questioned, "what does that mean?"
"It's a name recognized by my people as a judicial mercenary," he explained.
"Whatever, tell me, why are you stealing my jobs? I guess it's not bad going after the demon that wrecked my bike but stealing my spotlight isn't one of my favorites from people," she said.
"Well," he started crossing his arms, "for one, I didn't realize these particular demons were part of your job and two," he said raising two fingers in her face, "I'm under an investigation."
"Us Devil Hunters have territory, you want demons? Go to your own territory and stop budding in on our spotlight; we don't need competition," she said crossing her arms too but then sitting on the edge of the stone railing of the building.
"That is true, but now when the stakes are these high," he said unfolding his arms then reaching to a pouch on his belt behind him.
He pulled out a picture of a tattoo or marking of a seven-stared pentagram which appeared to be carved on a demon's forearm. "This is what it has come to, for me." He handed it to Lady which she took it and peered at it.
"What is this?" she said looking back up.
"The symbol for a demon cult named Zion," he said looking at her with a serious face. "If you want to know the reason I'm taking you're jobs -it's to get your attention. I'm looking for the son of Sparda, Dante."
"You're not here to kill him are you?" she said suspiciously readying her pistol again.
"No, I need to-"
Out-of-nowhere, Dante crashes down onto the building, dropping bits and pieces of demon flesh and chunks off his body, with blood pouring down his face and his hair highlighted in red too. He stands up and grunts as he bends backward and cracks his back. He then elapses a big sigh. He looks to his right and sees Lady and Phoenix staring at him with huge flabbergasted expressions on their faces. Phoenix jumped a bit when he saw Dante's, now extremely bloody, appearance.
"What the hell are you two looking at?" Dante said walking over to them stretching his arms in the air.
Lady shook her head and set her gun back into her pouch while Phoenix put his hand to his face and looked away in sickness.
"It's about time you got here," Lady said looking at Dante.
"I'm always fashionably late," he said raising his arms and shrugging.
"I don't think there's anything fashionable about blood-stained cloths," she said examining his battle-torn outfit with a grin.
"It's the new look, 'Bloody but Badass,'" Dante smirks presenting himself by doing a "voila" gesture with his hands.
Lady was still unimpressed. "This is Phoenix," she says standing up and presenting him. "He's a Devil Hunter like us."
Phoenix looked back at Dante after revolting his "new look" for a few seconds. "Son of Sparda, it's an honor to be in the presence of such a legendary warrior as yourself," he says nodding his head slightly.
"Oh, uh, thanks," Dante was unsure on how to react to the compliment, "not many people know of my existence or my father's for that matter," he finished. He put his hands behind his head, "so," he begun, "what's crackin'?
"Oh jeez Dante there's no need to act like Mr. Badass right now," Lady spat at him.
"Well you two sure look like you've made your acquaintances, I'm heading back to Devil May Cry," he said setting his arms down then turning around and walking away, waving his coat in the air.
"W-Wait!" Lady got up, "where are you going? You just met him!" she said pointing at Phoenix watching Dante walking away.
Dante stops and turns around, "as you can see," he starts pointing at his graphic coat and other body parts, "I'm not exactly in the mood for sitting and talking. I need a shower and do the laundry. Don't make me put it on your bill Lady," he points at her with his finger.
"C'mon, lets go to Devil May Cry, you can explain more there," he says turning back around and walking back.
Lady and Phoenix look at each other and shrug their shoulders.
Phoenix questions, "is he usually this arrogant and stubborn?"
"Please," she starts, "you should see him on his bad days," she says as they catch up with Dante and walk back together.
End of Chapter 4
There you go, first original character (OC). Give more reviews and I'll pick up the pace on the story (ecstatic look on my face).
