"So how'd you end up hunting demons?" Andre asked asked, glancing at the red-head.
"..."
"Are you going to tell me?"
"...no."
"Tell me."
"No."
"Tell me!"
Avana's final reply was with Celsius.
"Hater." Andre replied calmly, looking at the wound that would be fatal to any others.
"So we have something in common." Avana stated as she started to walk away.
Andre looked forward with his hands resting on the back of his head while he began his thought process, "Well, the way you fight with a sword is very choppy, hack and slash basically, very little technique with a whole lotta rage, however, your very calm and collected with your bow, focused, serene. This would mean inner term oil. You've not excepted your demon blood. Maybe you lost a loved one to a demon, or your demon fore fathers weren't exactly human friendly. You also seem to be doing this on with no benifit to yourself, meaning your on a vendetta. I'd have you guess the person you lost was your mother or father, but most likely your mother. You're also quite young, meaning that you lost them at a young age, it must have been even more traumatic. From the phone call that I received informing me of this job, I'd have to say that the person that killed your parent has either been defeated, or you don't know who it was, meaning that even though justice has probably been carried out, you still hold onto the anger from that time. At least that's what I can deduce, was I close?"
She spun, slamming Efreet's pommel into the side of his face, and pinning him to the wall with Efreet at his throat. Her eyes were full of cold rage.
"Don't ever even mention my father again. He's a heartless bastard that left my mother after one night, and almost 9 years later, he didn't even try to protect her. As far as I know or care, he has no reason to even be called my father." She put Efreet away, turned her back, and stalked off down the corridor.
"Was I close?" Andre yelled down the hallway before sidestepping and catching the arrow that flew past his face. He just looked at it and snapped it in half.
"Whatever" Andre stated, waving her off and taking a different hallway.
Avana walked into the room, bow half drawn. She scanned the room for demons, only to see that there weren't any. Standing in the middle of the room was a man, with black hair and pale skin.
"Are you okay?" she asked him, lowering my bow.
"Ahh, yes I'm fine," he said, his voice sent shivers down Avana's spine, "You must be Avana. I'm your client, Gabriel Chemson."
"I am," she told him, "Now lets get out of here, before this place is flooded with demons."
"I'm afraid I don't want to leave quite yet," he said, "You see, Avana, I just needed you to come here."
"What?" her voice had an edge to it, her guard was up. Her bow was half drawn again, and pointing in Gabriel's direction.
"I needed to lure you here," he said, "See, I have most of the devils arms, except for your Celsius, Efreet, Luna, and Celeste, along with Alastor. I've managed to steal Andre's Yamoto, but I haven't figured out how to use it yet. And I can't leave demon hunters alive if my plan is to succeed."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that it would be really nice if you would die." And he lunged at her. She twirled out of the way, drawing Celsius and Efreet as she moved.
"I'm afraid that's slightly harder to do than you seem to think."
"Well then," he said, "I'll just have to go all out. After all, you are the daughter of Lucifer."
Her eyes widened, then narrowed.
"How did you know that?" she hissed as they circled each other, "I've never told anyone that."
"I have my ways," he said, drawing a sword, "Now, I need to kill you before Andre gets here." He lunged again, only this time she caught the blow on Celsius and Efreet's crossed blades.
"Kill me?" she questioned, "Don't you know how hard it is to kill a half-demon? I'm no exception to that rule."
"Are you sure?" he asked, suddenly appearing behind her. He slashed down her back, and she bit back a scream. She could feel her bone filling the wound, stopping the blood.
"And what is this?" he asked, looking at the strip of white that had appeared on her back.
"Bone, and nothing short of a nuclear explosion can break it. It's an armor of sorts." She stood, "I'm a lot harder to kill than you think." He attacked her again, and they sparred for the better part of twenty minutes. He leaped backward at one point, taking out a pair of greaves.
"Since I can't figure out how to use Yamoto, I'll use this instead," his body started to change, becoming the body of Ifrit. "Now let's try this again." He attacked, opening two more gashes, this time in her torso. She fell, and as the bone filled the wounds, glared up at him.
Gabriel just walked towards her with an expression on his face that matched the demon he had become.
"Why do you look so sad. Cheer up, the daughter of Lucifer will make a fine addition to my collection. I can't wait to see what kind of a devil arm you turn into."
Gabriel rose his hand as he still slowly advanced. A flame began to charge as he stopped in front of her. However, Avana's attention was drawn on the door, as she heard the faint sound of footsteps draw near. Gabriel also turned to the door, waiting for Andre to enter.
"STOP! DON'T COME IN HERE!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, but it was to late. The mad man had already filled the hallways with flames, and a small tear could be seen glistening as it ran down her cheek. A moment of silence was taken.
All of the sudden the silence was shattered "We weren't done talking yet" and a volley of bullets overtook the wall, just feet away from the door. the rain of ammunition was so immense, one could not hear one shot being fire from another, but more of a constant sound of rounds cycling and ricocheting off the walls, forcing Gabriel back. When he was finally against the wall, he braced himself and brought his arm up to fill the hole with flames, only to have it pinned their by a sword with a dragon's mouth and wings as the guard.
"I hope you weren't talking about Avana," a commanding voice spoke out as Andre stepped through the hole in the wall, walking past Avana as his coat tails swayed in a breeze from the top floor window in a heroic fashion. "Because I don't think you could handle her, she's one hell of a firecracker."
"But how? How did you know where my lab was!" Gabriel asked, still pinned to the wall.
"How? Because I'm amazing." He flexed his hand to call back Alastor, and the sword quickly obeyed its master. "That's one sword, now for the other one."
Andre began to slash at Gabriel, however he was able to catch each slash with his gauntlets, and every bullet he fired would just melt when it got close to him. Gabriel finally rushing in close to Andre, making his weapons useless. Andre was in a tight spot.
Avana slowly picked herself up and shot an arrow into Gabriel's arm, "You better not have forgotten about me," she said, "Cause if you did, you're in big trouble."
As he was distracted by Avana, Andre formed gilgamesh and punched Gabriel in the stomach, forcing the gauntlets off his hands.
He howled and disappeared, forced to run from their combined efforts.
Avana looked at Andre, "Are you insane? Why did you come back?"
"Well you sure as shit weren't gonna get anything done"
She rose an eyebrow, "So how much of our conversation did you hear?"
"Enough, your heiness." he said, bowing to her in a sarcastic way.
She shook her head, "Does it answer all the questions you had about me? Or do you need to know that my mother was Sophia Xavier, the heiress to the famous Renegade Computer company that was known for her charity work?"
"Hm, than can you know how to fix my Ipod? Its busted and slaying demons just isn't any fun without a good beat."
She rose her eyebrow again,"Does it really need to be fixed, or are you just being clever?"
"That depends, how high can you jump?" He asked before tossing her up in the air and jumping out of the way right as Gabriel, now in the form of Beowulf, lunged at them.
"You make really good bait." Andre said, catching Avana in his arms.
"I'm not bait," she said as he put her down. She sent five arrows in quick succession into Gabriel, "And don't you dare forget that, Son of Sparda."
"Wouldn't dream of it." Andre retorted, twirling Alastor in his left hand while advancing on Gabriel. "Are you ready for another ass kicking already?"
"Of course," she'd say, drawing Efreet and Celsius, "After all, we have pizza waiting, right?"
"Hmph, fine, but your pie, you buy, got it?"
She just shoved him back and Gabriel shoots between the two of them.
"First person to finish him off doesn't have to pay, sound fair?"
"Ok, but you better get your wallet out!" Andre states leaping at Gabriel, who transformed into Nelo Angelo as they were arguing.
"And you better not be broke," she returned, spring-boarding off of his back and bringing Efreet and Celsius down on him with the full force of gravity behind them.
However, Gabriel forced them both back with his demonic energy, each landing on opposite sides of the room, and manifested Yamoto "And now son of Sparda, you will die by your own blade! But first, maybe a demonstration is in order." And he turned and slashed down with it at Avana, but Andre jumped off of his head, and getting nailed with the blast, sending him flying into the wall beside Avana.
"Andre, why do you keep doing this?" She asked, holding his head up in her lap as Gabriel admired his handy work as he sheathed Yamoto.
"Take a moment to grieve, I don't mind. You'll both die soon anyways."
"Avana" Andre said in a weak tone, "Tell Dante, that he owes me money!" and with that, his body fell limp, and his head rolled to the side with his tongue hanging out.
Avana moved his bangs away from his eyes, only to see his nose still moving as her face turned red.
"GET UP YOU ASS!" She yelled, slapping him.
"You have really firm thighs, do you work out?" He asked, staring up at her with a smile as he bounced his head in her lap.
"Ugh, get off of me." Avana said, rolling her eyes and shoving him off.
"It was the tongue, wasn't it? I knew it was too much." Andre said, perched up on one shoulder.
"You are an idiot," she muttered.
"But how is that possible! You don't even have a scratch!" Gabriel asked, dumb founded by the sight.
"Well, its actually quite simple. Yamoto knows who it's true master is. My powers are Yamoto's powers, there for it would be like lightning striking lightning, isn't gonna do a damn thing. Now do you get that, or do I need to bust out the sock puppets and crayons and dumb this down for you?"
Gabriel reached for Yamoto once again, only for it to fly out of the sheath before he could reach it, and watched in horror as it landed directly in Andre's hand.
"Now let me show you how its done." and with one swift swing, another energy blast over took Gabriel, who was forced to transform back into a human with the loss of Yamoto.
"It's not over yet," Gabriel said, pulling out another devil arm. This one vaguely resembled a praying mantis. Transforming, he turned into someone Avana would know anywhere.
"Lucifer, huh?" she said, brushing her self off as she stood. "I can't tell if you're really bold or really stupid."
"We'll see about that," he said, launching a shockwave at Avana. she dodged, jumping into the air.
"Well, I've always wanted to fight my daddy dearest, so why not take this chance?" She landed in a roll, but found herself slammed against a nearby wall. Her teeth slammed together from the force, and she bit her lip.
She tasted blood for only a moment when she thought, 'Oh crap...' and her Devil Trigger activated.
Andre just leaned against the wall "looks like this party's about to start"
She felt the wings sprout from her back, the claws grow from her finger tips, and her hair turn to flames.
"It's about time!" Efreet cheered as my clawed hand wrapped around his hilt.
"For once, you and I agree on something Efreet," Celsius said, "Now he'll see what she can really do."
she ignored them, and rushed Gabriel, slipping the two swords between his ribs.
"Try this," she growled in his ear, "The product of a ice fire mixture. Its called, lightning." And she shocked him, forcing Lucifer to let go. She grabbed it as her Devil Trigger wore off, leaping to the other side of the room.
As Andre watched all of this from his vantage point, he gave her a small applause as she absorbed the devil arm.
"So, ya got anymore lame ass tricks up your sleeve or are you just gonna give up?" Andre asked, walking up behind Avana, who was starting to feel the effects of her devil trigger.
"Just one." Gabriel mumbled as he manifested the Sparda in his right hand.
"Oh boy, your one of them? Really?" Andre asked as Gabriel slowly turned into Sparda.
"Uh, Andre this is bad. Andre? Andre-" Avana looked around to see that Andre had casually walked back to the wall and lazily sat down, obviously not caring about the recent turn of events.
"What are you doing! This isn't the time for a nap." Avana scolded, bobbing her head back and forth between Andre and Gabriel.
"And three, two, one, bingo-" Andre stated with a point of his finger, and on bingo, the pommel of the Sparda began to smoke, forcing Gabriel to drop it.
"Right on time." Andre said as he stood up.
"What are you talking about?" Avana asked him, still kind of woozy from her fight.
"The power of Sparda can only be used by those who wish to benefit man-kind. Someone as greedy and self-centered as Gabriel could never hope to control his power."
"I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED BY THE LIKES OF YOU!" Gabriel shouted as he began to twist and turn. His shape radically changed, and he began a giant, discolored blob.
"And here I thought you couldn't get any uglier," Avana commented, dodging I swiped from the blob.
"This guy never ceases to amaze does he?" Andre retorted, slashing off another oncoming spike.
Avana pulled out Luna, and took three arrows from Celeste.
"Haven't had to do this for awhile," she muttered, notching all three and letting them fly. The landed in a straight line pointing at his face. "Now Andre, send a spark at the lowest arrow, then watch the fireworks."
Andre spun Claro around his finger, catching it and aiming at the arrows.
"What ever you say princess." He retorted in a mocking tone before firing on them.
As the bullet flew, Avana launched two shock waves from Efreet and Celsius, hitting the back and causing electricity to crackle through it. It hit the lowest arrow, and traveled up the line, pulling energy from both of the other arrows, and when it hit the third, Avana smirked.
"Boom." And the third arrow exploded from the raw power contained in the shock that hit it.
"Wow, remind me to call you in July." Andre stated as the smoke cleared to reveal that the blob was still alive.
"Tougher than he looks, isn't he?" Avana said. She dodged a spike sent at her from the blob, only to be hit in the back by another spike. Efreet and Celsius flew from her hands ans she rolled across the ground.
"You ok?" Andre asked as a spike shot out of the ground in front of him, forcing him to jump back as it knocked Alastor out of his hand.
Avana stopped rolling and came to her feet, reflexively grabbing Alastor as it flew at her.
"I'm good,"She said, wrapping both hands around the hilt, "But it looks like I'll be teaming up with Alastor this time around."
Andre straightened his coat and outstretched his arms just in time to catch Celsius and Efreet. "Are you sure you can handle that big thing without breaking a nail?"
She smirked at him, "Just don't get Efreet and Celsius dirty. They hate being cleaned."
the two rushed in, a furry of slashes was all that could be seen as they slowly picked apart the giant blob. After dealing the deadly blows, the two stepped back and and readied a final assault.
The two demon hunters returned their weapons the their rightful owners as they readied for a final blow.
Avana notched another arrow as Andre drew Sombra and Claro. "You do know that mine'll get there faster, so you owe me a pizza."
Just then Gabriel shot out two arms with Agni and Rudra outstretched.
Andre and Avana both stepped in to avoid the blows, but Angi knocked Claro into the air as Rudra knocked Luce to the ground.
The two both severed the respective arms that attacked them and placed their swords on their backs. Avana then caught Claro and leaned against Andre's back. "How bout we split the bill."
"Sounds good to me." Andre smirked as the two blasted away and watched as the blob imploded, sending devil arms flying everywhere.
"And now I'm covered in blob," Avana said, and she was. The remains from the gray blob covered her from head to toe. "This is just nasty."
"This is nothing, try getting eaten by a giant whale." Andre returned, covered in the nasty remains as well.
"No, this can't be!" The two heard the faint cries from where the blob was. Covered in the same substance as the other two, Gabriel slowly drug himself to his feat.
"How is this possible? I had all the power!"
"its not just about power," Andre started.
"What do you mean? Might is right. That's the truth." Gabriel snapped back.
"That's where your wrong." Andre began his explanation. "Its all about souls. And yours is nothing but rotten. You can get as big as you want, you can get all the power you want, but in the end, a pure soul will overcome a greedy one."
"Well than son of Sparda, holder of the pure soul, what now. Are you going to just let me go?" Gabriel smirked.
"Hmph, not a chance." Andre said, leaning against Alastor as he spun Sombra around his left index finger.
Gabriel simply charged at him, not willing to let it end like this. "YOU BASTARD!"
"And jackpot." Andre smirked as the bullet tore through his forehead. The sound of the casing echoed before the body hit the ground. Andre just turned and began to walk away.
Avana just looked at him lazily, "You know where I might be able to wash up?"
"Yea, follow me." Andre said as the two walked across the bridge as the sun began to rise.
"So what are we gonna do about Lucifer?" Avana asked, "Will Dante want him back?"
Andre just shrugged, "I doubt it. He probably forgot he even has it, or thinks Lady took if for payment."
"Good, cause I don't think he's coming out," she said, "I can't eject him, is that a bad thing?"
"Don't know, I can call out Yamoto whenever I want, but then again he was never really alive."
"Ah well" She shrugged, "So where are we going?"
"Back to the office" Andre said casually, "The pizza should be there by now."
After walking in silence for a bit, the two stopped infront of a building with a large neon sign.
"Is this it?" Ava asked, looking over at Andre.
"Yep, home sweet home." He said, walking past the broken door.
"Good, I call dibs on the shower." She said walking into the bathroom.
Andre went into the closet and unloaded all of the devil arms, and then walked behind the desk and placed the Sparda and Alastor in their respective mounts before sitting down and grabbing a slice of pizza.
"Aw, its cold," Andre said, tossing it back in the box and putting his feet up to finish reading his magazine.
Ten minutes later, Dante walked back inside.
"I'm home!" Dante yelled as he walked past the broken door to see Andre sitting at his desk reading a magazine.
"Why did you kick my door?" He asked his little brother.
"Demons did it." Andre sparked back, not looking up from his magazine.
"but your boot print is on it?" Dante looked back at the door.
"Demon boot print." Andre set down his magazine and leaned forward in the desk, "So how was Limbo city?"
"Boring, must have been a prank call because there were no demon's there. Luckily I ran into Trish about halfway there. She said she just left Limbo city and it was all clear. Now back to the door-"
"Ah, I feel so much better!" Avana walked out of the bathroom, drying her hair.
"Hey, its you!" Dante exclaimed pointing at Avana.
"You must be Dante, I didn't realize it was you at the warehouse." She said, tossing the towel on the couch.
"Andre, is there something you want to tell me?" Dante asked, looking first at Ava, then his door, then his bloody, gut soaked coat on the floor.
"Pizza?" Andre asked nudging the box towards him while picking up his magazine.
"Sure," Dante grabbed a slice and took a bite. "Ah, it's cold!" He proclaimed before tossing it back in the box.
"Hmph. Whatever, I'm going to bed." Dante stated, but as he walked up the stares he heard someone in heels walk through the doors. He replied with only a sigh.
"Dante! Morrison told me you just got back from a big job, So where's my money!" Lady yelled as he walked back down the stairs.
All of the sudden the phone rang, and Ava picked up.
"Devil May Cry."
After a few moments of silence she hung up. "Anyone up for a early morning slaying?" She asked the group. Dante just smiled and grabbed his clean coat.
"Only if I get to kick in my door this time." Dante spiked back, grabbing rebellion and taking off out the door, followed closely by the others.