September 26th 1944, Bremen, Germany
"Have you pinpointed his position?"
"Negative, Commander. We lost him when the bombing began. The smoke is blocking our satellite feeds."
"D'Arvit! What about the homing beacon? Isn't there a homing beacon in his helmet?"
"Yessir, but we're not getting a signal. He's either disactivated it, or in a sealed chamber."
"What about Bad Dog's plans?"
"They're crumbling around him. Some of the prominent members of the Nazi Party are fighting the Mesmer. If this keeps up, he'll find himself stranded above ground with no support. We're winning!"
"Are we? What if this is his plan?"
"I don't follow you, sir..."
"Why would Bad Dog go through the trouble of luring Vergil to him, when everything seems to be falling down around him?"
"Do you think it's a trap?"
"Either that or he's too delusional to realize what's happening..."
"Could it be both?"
"Excuse me?"
"Well sir, just because Bad Dog hasn't realized he's lost, doesn't mean he can't hold a trap for Vergil."
"You're right! Get me Cahartez, officer, and call Recon and Retrieval. We're going up."
"Raaaagh!" shouted Monster-Bad Dog as he jumped through the roof of the bunker, concrete, asphalt and all, on to the street.
The city was still being bombed, and all around the gaping hole in the ground, buildings were crumbling.
Vergil lept out of the bunker with ease and landed in a pounce position, ready to leap if necessary.
"Roaaaaaaar!" screamed Bad Dog as he raised his fists to strike the crouching operative. Vergil lept to the side and, raising his pistol, he shot two slugs into the beast's chest.
"Gaaah!"
Vergil lept on to a nearby wall, then jumped straight towards the hulking behemoth, hoping to get an open shot of it's cranium.
"I have to take this thing down, before he harms anyone."
The monster, however, had other plans. Spinning around swiftly, he deftly caught Vergil's right leg, and dangled him in front of his face, and then the monster...
giggled...Giggled?
"Oh Little Vergil, I think you're trying too hard." he laughed.
"You can talk? You can think? What was that before?"
"Oh, just some fun... I've never played Monster before, and I like it!" he guffawed, throwing Vergil back into the wall he had lept off of.
"Now, where were we? Oh yes, the name-calling. I believe it's time to give you a lesson..."
Bad Dog raised his hand, and concentrated a large amount of magical blue sparks in a sphere of light, tossing it at the prone elf.
The sphere exploded with a loud bang, propelling Vergil into the rubble of a nearby building. Slowly he pulled himself out, bleeding from the mouth.
"How.. How did you do... that?"
"Oh you fool. That's human magic."
"Human magic? That's impossible, Human's don't have magic."
"A fairy misconception." Bad Dog laughed, "The truth is that humans used to have magic, but it was eradicated by the fairies. But put enough human DNA in a fairy and..."
"What about the muscles and the growth?"
"Oh, this? This is nothing. It has to do with certain tweaking I did to GLD drugs. I must say, I myself did not anticipate this sort of result... But now, enough chit chat, let's get back to business, shall we?"
With that Bad Dog began sprinting towards Vergil, who jumped out of the way, and making the monster collide with the pile of rubble that Vergil had just climbed out of.
Moving back into the street, he saw Bad Dog getting up and facing him, rage burning in his eyes.
Vergil pulled out the gun, and aimed for the head. What happened next was a blur. The behemoth charged, Vergil fired and a few seconds later they were both lying in the hole in the street, and Bad Dog had turned back to normal, a red streak on his scarred cheek.
While the operative lay back, winded, Bad Dog got up and hurried down the corridor, returning with a pair of wings, his wings, and began to fly away.
"You haven't heard the last of me, Hemlock. I'll be back."
No. It wasn't going to end like this.
Vergil looked around, trying to find a long distance weapon to shoot the escaping elf. Then he saw it. A Buddy. His favorite weapon. Picking it up, he lept out of the hole and onto the street. Aiming the gun, he tried to lock on to his target, but to no avail. Bad Dog was simply too far away.
Come on, Vergil, think outside the box.
Then the idea came to him, crazier than any of his previous ones.
Setting the gun to blast, he aimed it downwards, towards the street, and fired.
The resulting blast propelled him high into the sky, past Bad Dog until he stopped and began to fall. Opening his wing suit, he began to glide downwards until...
"Hey, Bad Dog! Did you miss me?" He shouted, before shooting the Wings.
"Wha... No!" Bad Dog screamed as he began to fall to earth, before landing with a resounding thud into a destroyed building.
Vergil slowly made his way down. The fairy had not been lucky in his landing: He had fallen on a series of metal spokes which pinned him to the ground. He was not dying, but he would without help.
The dying elf giggled once again.
"I knew it would end this way... In a way you're just like your father. Only... he was dead on the outside and alive on the inside, while you..." he raised a finger and touched Vergil's heart, "You're just a Phantom. Alive on the outside, dead on the inside."
Bad Dog giggled again,
"Come on, kill me! I know you want to. Don't you want revenge?"
Vergil definately wanted that, but something stayed his hand, something that went beyond hatred.
"No, I don't think I will. I'm not you, Wolfberry, and I never will."
Something inside Wolfberry Hemlock's mind cracked then.
"What?! No! You have to kill me! Please! What would your father think if you didn't kill me?"
Vergil moved closer to Bad Dog and looked him in the eye.
"I think he would be proud of me."
With that he walked away. Retrieval could take care of the rest.
