Lady and Dante left the Chief's office, returning to the main hall to continue their exploration. "Say, Lady…" Dante began as they walked.

"What is it? Is something wrong?"

"Not really wrong, but…I've got a question for you."

She rolled her eyes. "This isn't about me eating your pizza that one time, is it?"

"Nah, not this time."

"Good, because you really need to let that-"

"Remember when we first met?"

She stopped, staring at him. "Vaguely. I got into that tower, and you were in my way…you wouldn't stop talking…"

"…And then you shot at me with a rocket…" he reminded her helpfully.

"Ugh…we really don't have time for this."

He held his arms out. "I don't see anything that needs killing here. Gotta pass the time somehow."

"Can't you pass the time some other way?"

"More importantly, why do you keep dodging the question?"

Lady turned her back on him and continued walking. "Does it matter? It did nothing to you; you just smiled and jumped on the thing like a skateboard."

He smiled. "Yeah, true. I remember that part. But why fire it?"

"Because you were a demon," she replied shortly. "I've learned my lesson since then, in case you didn't notice. 'Even a devil may cry'; I know you heard that."

"Nice try, but you didn't know that yet, remember? And if that wasn't enough, right after you didn't hit me with the missile, you tried to run me over…"

"Now that is a lie. I jumped my bike over you with plenty of distance."

"So you DO remember. Then you remember when you shot me in the head? ALSO before you knew I was a demon?"

"Since you remember everything so well, you'll recall I apologized for that one already."

He folded his arms, though the pose didn't quite work since he was still walking. "But why do it? Why try to kill a human you barely knew?"

She stopped, giving a long-suffering sigh. "…I was trying to miss, okay?"

He blinked. "…What?"

"I was trying to miss you with the rocket launcher. I fired backwards, remember? I thought it wouldn't hit anywhere near you."

His eyes widened. "Seriously? That one almost hit me in the nose; you've got some serious luck to pull that one off. Kinda dumb to be doing something that risky."

She snorted. "Oh, YOU'RE the one to lecture me about being reckless, Mister Drop-A-Building-To-Kill-One-Demon."

"Hey, that was only twice in five years, and don't change the subject!"

"Whatever. I'm not nearly as impulsive as when I was, you know, a teenager. So can we drop it?"

He shrugged. "Okay, okay. I forgive you."

"Good." Lady hoped very much that would be the end of it, so that she could have at least a full minute of peace and quiet.

…

Ten seconds later…

"Wait a minute! The time you shot me in the head was still intentional!"

"Damn it…"

After hearing Ben's explanation of who had spoke with him earlier, the group of three retraced their steps. To the confusion of the other two, Ada led them past the kennel entirely, in the direction of the parking lot. "Ada, where are you going?" Leon asked.

"There's a shortcut up ahead that he doesn't know about. It was under construction before the outbreak, so we might be able to shorten the distance between us and our…'friend'."

"How do you know about this shortcut?" asked Claire, an accusing look on her face.

"I found it in the blueprints of this place. Now let's save the rest of our questions for later, or we might lose valuable time."

Claire obliged, though not happily. And how did you get your hands on those blueprints? Something's off about this woman… They returned to the basement corridor, sneaking past the autopsy room as quietly as possible, and continuing on past a set of doors. The next corridor was partly open to the outside, which seemed to make Leon nervous as they traveled it, but nothing eventful had happened when they reached the open manhole at the end.

Claire went down first, scanning the room. It was much like Ada had predicted; corrugated steel and plastic everywhere, with numbers and words marked with spray paint. "Clear!" she called to the others, and they descended to join her. All of them went through a door mere feet from them, finding a small room with a large red box and a typewriter. With a shrug, she unwound the crank handle from her belt loop and dropped it inside the box.

They left again, and the door had barely closed behind them when Claire noticed a small figure not far away. Her eyes widened; it was the girl! "It's you!"

The little girl looked at her. "Lady? Oh!...I'm sorry, you're not her."

Claire shook her head, holstering her pistol. "You're supposed to be with her and Dante. How did you get here?" she asked gently.

She fidgeted, not meeting Claire's eyes. "I sort of…ran away. But I had to! That monster was after me!"

She sighed. "Well, I'm glad you're safe, anyway." When I get a hold of that irresponsible woman… "My name is Claire, and this is Leon and Ada. What's your name?"

"Sherry. Sherry Birkin."

"Nice to meet you, Sherry." She looked at Leon. "Could you hand me the radio, please?" she asked him, her smile fixed and her voice dangerously soft. He nodded, handing it to her silently.

"Claire to Lady. Come in, Lady."

She withdrew the radio from her belt. "I read you. What is it?"

"We've just found Sherry. In the sewers. Alone." Even through the radio, they could hear her voice thick with sweet venom.

"Ohh, you are in soooo much trouble…" Dante said in a sing-song voice.

"Don't think you get to saddle me with all the blame here," she shot back. Thumbing the radio, she responded "Is she okay?"

"She is. But you don't seem to be anywhere around. Strange, isn't it?"

"She ran off on us while we were under attack. Our bald friend wasn't in the mood to wait politely for us to catch her."

There was a pause. "Fine. But in the future, it would be helpful to hear about that. You know, on these radios that we use to communicate?"

She grimaced. "…Understood. We'll keep you updated sooner. Lady out." She released the talk button, returning the radio to its original place.

"Didn't want to tell her about the doorway of doom puzzle?" asked Dante airily.

She glared at him. "You want to tell her, be my guest."

He held his arms up in a placating manner. "It's cool…we can tell her when we find the last piece. No rush."

"I thought not."

Claire handed the radio back to Leon. "Sherry, we need to get going, okay? If we stay here, that monster might come after us."

The girl shook her head rapidly. "No! I won't!"

"What's wrong?" Ada asked softly, chuckling. "Don't you trust us?"

Leon cast a sideways glance at her. Not after that laugh…

"It's not that," Sherry said. "But we can't leave without my dad. He's over there; I heard him call out my name!" She pointed to a corner of the room, where several boards were topped by a chain-link fence. The fence in question had a hole in it; Claire doubted they'd be able to fit through it without leaving behind all their weapons. "Daddy must be running from the monsters; I have to help him!" And without any further discussion, she scrambled over to the boards, climbing through the hole.

Claire pursued her, reaching out a hand. "Sherry, wait! SHERRY!" But her shoes had disappeared through the gap. "Sherry, wait for us! Leon, boost me up!"

"Boost me up." They both looked at Ada in shock. "I'll help her look for her father; you won't fit through with your weapons and armor. We don't have time to debate; hurry."

Claire looked at Leon, who nodded. She cupped her hands, and Leon set his into them so they could lift Ada up to the fence. She wiggled through, and a few moments later, they heard a thud as she landed. "She's still here," she called over to them.

"Thank goodness," Claire said, letting out a sigh of relief. "Wait there, we'll join you."

"No, you wait here and keep this area secure. We'll see what we can find, and we'll be back in ten minutes."

"But…"

"I'll watch her. Trust me."

That didn't reassure her, exactly, but there wasn't much choice. "Okay. Be careful." She looked down, noticing her hands were still on Leon's. She backed up a step, clearing her throat. "…Sorry."

"It's fine." He leaned against the wall. "Well, got a deck of cards or something?"

Ada smiled at Sherry. "Let's go look for your father. Stay close, okay?"

The girl nodded, and they walked forward to a small elevator. She pushed the button, and it rose for a minute before stopping at a walkway with several half-rotted dogs padding around.

Ada drew her gun. "Stay behind me." She fired at the closest dog, and the others perked their ears, racing at the two. She managed to get the final dog with her last bullet. "So, you're William Birkin's daughter," she said casually as she removed her clip, feeding bullets into it.

"Uh-huh. Do you work with my dad?"

"…Not exactly." She returned the now-full clip to her pistol, and they continued forward to a door some feet away from the elevator. On the other side was a room that, according to the map on its wall, was the "Cesspool Tank" of the sewage disposal plant. Much to their fortune, it was empty, though a set of steps off to the side led down into it. She saw a panel with several levers that she guessed might be able to raise and lower the water. A platform on the other side of the room had a shelf with something glinting green; it was, however, separated from their platform with a drop straight to the bottom of the empty cesspool. "It looks like there might be a key over there. Any thoughts?"

Sherry looked down over the railing. "I can see some boxes down there. Maybe you could stand on one and lift me up?"

"Worth a try." They walked down the steps to the bottom. The water may have been gone, but the steps were still coated with residue to make them slippery, slowing them down. When they had reached their destination, they both pushed a box under the ledge they were trying to reach. Ada picked up the girl, hoisting her up until she could crawl onto the platform herself.

The glinting object was a key with a green, club-shaped head. She took it and returned to Ada, who helped her back down. "We should bring this back to the others."

"Claire can wait a little longer; let's take some more time to find your father." They returned outside, following the only path they hadn't tried yet. "Just curious, but did you ever hear what he was working on? He might have a cure for this."

She shook her head. "Mom and Dad never talked about their jobs; they said they wanted to be scientists at work and a family at home." Sherry looked at her feet. "…They were scientists a lot."

"I see. But keep your eyes up; we don't want to get surprised, do we?" They went through the door at the end of the path; there was a small room with a metal shutter and an open ventilation cover at the far end, and a few objects on the floor. A box of shotgun shells and a case of grenades, Ada thought, picking them up. Shame there isn't any ammo for me. "This should do it. Let's get back to them, okay?"

They returned to the walkway, and Ada drew her pistol once more; the remains of the dogs she'd shot were gone, and three new undead canines were pacing around. Sherry plugged her ears as Ada fired, taking them out. Once they'd been dealt with, she trained her pistol on what looked like a human corpse in the middle of the walkway. Can't be too careful. She put a round through its head; it gurgled once and twitched, but was still once more. Stepping over the body, they returned down the elevator.

"We're back," Ada's voice rang out.

"Sherry? Did you find your dad?" Claire called over to her.

"No…we couldn't find him anywhere. But we did find a few things for you. Here!" A small metal object flew through the hole in the fence, clattering at their feet.

"Think fast; here's another," Ada's voice said.

Leon had only just registered her words when a small cardboard object hit him in the head. "Ow! That was uncalled for."

"Are you okay?" Claire asked worriedly.

"Should be fine. Nothing to-hey!" She was pushing his hair aside, looking at his scalp. "I'm fine!" he insisted. "It'll be a bruise at worst; nothing to get worked up over."

Claire stopped, walking over to the hole. "Watch where you're throwing things!"

"I did say 'think fast'," Ada's amused voice taunted her. "Tell you what: if you trade me a box of handgun shells, I'll hand this case of grenades over as gently as you like."

She complied, Leon hoisting her up so she could drop the box through the gap. Moments later, she saw Sherry rise up to her eye level, holding the case out to her. Claire took it, smiling at the girl. "Thanks. Now, why don't you come back over with us, okay Sherry? It's better if we all stay together." Leon set her down, and the two of them held out their arms to catch her as she crawled back through the fence.

"Thanks for the goodies, Ada," Leon said through the wall.

"My pleasure. But it looks like I won't be able to reach the hole on my own. You three stick together, and I'll meet up with you later." They heard the sound of footsteps walking away.

"What?" he said. "Ada, wait! Ada!"

Sherry gave him a look of sympathy. "At least I listened."

"Leon to Lady."

She readied her radio. "Lady here. Go ahead."

"We've got a club key for you here, but we're a long way off. Where do you want to meet?"

Dante got next to her. "Before we do that, are you near one of those red boxes?"

"Well…yeah, there's one in a room right next to us. Why?"

"Drop it in there and come back to the station. We'll use it to unlock everything we can in the meantime."

"…What?"

He sighed. "Just do it, okay? The quicker we get outta here, the better."

"Okay…if you say so. Where should we meet?"

"The office with the safe. Hopefully we'll find the heart key soon."

"Roger that. Leon out."

Lady re-clipped her radio, looking at Dante. "Well, looks like we're heading for one of those rooms with boxes. There was one in the secretary's office; let's get moving."

It was only a short trip up the ladder and to the other side of the walkway, and they'd reached the office. With a look between themselves, they opened the box. Sure enough, lying inside was a crank with a square end and the club-headed key. Dante scooped them up, and they were on their way to where the map said their first door was.

Before they got there, however, the final diamond-key door awaited them. Once it was unlocked, they found an interrogation room on the other side. Sitting on the table was what looked like a power cable, and just past the large one-way window were two objects. One was a small, square stone that looked very familiar; this one was colored black. The other was a plug topped with a white rook.

"Okay, first things first," Dante announced. He knelt down, touching Cerberus's rods to the ground. A wall of ice formed over the mirror, solidifying in an instant.

"What was that for?" Lady asked him, stuffing the cord into an empty ammo pouch.

"Give it a few seconds." He walked over and grabbed the stone and plug.

The instant he had, Lady saw the mirror shatter through the ice, and a skinless creature hurled through it…crashing into the ice wall mere inches beyond the mirror, which sent it reeling back, roaring in pain. As much as she hated to admit it, she was impressed. "I can't believe you predicted that."

"Are you kidding? Those Lickers are in love with crashing through glass; always so desperate for attention…"

"Oh, please, you're the biggest attention monger I've ever met."

"Exactly; the last thing we need is another one!"

She actually smiled at that. "…A fair point, and well made." They left the room, continuing to the blue door at the far end. With their new key in hand, they unlocked it, finding themselves in a large press room. Near the door was what looked like a painting of a horse-drawn carriage with a gold cogwheel jammed in where one of its wheels would have been. An inscription under the painting read: Light the Queen, the King, and the Jack, then the carriage will start running. They walked to the end of the room, where a table of microphones sat in front of three flame faucets, with a large inoperative boiler at its side. Lady took out the lighter she'd found, carefully returning the boiler to working order.

"Hey there, all you Raccoon…ites!" Dante yelled into a microphone he'd grabbed off the table. "We're the Devil Hunters, and tonight our first song will be…Blood On Fire!" He imitated the roar of an imaginary crowd.

"Having fun?" she asked wryly as she closed the lighter.

"Nah. For a concert hall, this place is kinda dead."

Lady quickly covered her mouth, but it was a split-second too late to stop a laugh from escaping. She removed her hand, clearing her throat. "Well, maybe we'd better…warm up the crowd first?"

He shrugged, setting the mic back down. "Sure, sounds good."

She looked at the faucets; starting from the one closest to the boiler, they were marked '11', '12', and '13'. "Hmm… 'Light the Queen, the King, and the Jack, then the carriage will start running', wasn't it?" Lady wondered out loud.

"Something like that, yeah. The designer must've had some sort of gambling fetish, I swear…like Nero."

"You might be right. Call me crazy-"

"You're crazy." Lady turned to stare at him. "Hey, you walked right into it." She continued staring. "Fine, fine, I'm listening."

"Anyway, I think I might know the solution. You know how cards have a certain value to them that puts them in order?" Dante said nothing, staring at her blankly. "…Well, my point is, of the three face cards, the Jack is the lowest, the Queen is the second-highest, and the King is the highest. So, if I'm right, then it-"

"Then it goes '12, 13, 11', right?"

"Exactly," Lady nodded. "Wait by that gear and see if I'm right."

Dante rolled his eyes, but complied. When he was in place, Lady turned the respective valves. And just before Dante could mumble how he should've ripped the gear out of the wall, it fell out into his waiting palm.

Grinning, Lady made her way past the desk. "Told you s-"

CRASH!

Lady whirled around, seeing Mr. X right behind her. She retreated rapidly, drawing a pistol. "Did that bastard just punch through the wall?!" she shouted, shooting at said bastard.

"Yeah, so?" Dante asked as he fired Ebony and Ivory as well. "If someone wasn't so picky about-"

"Not getting our asses gnawed off?"

"Yeah, being wussies, that's it. If it wasn't for that, I'd do the same thing." Mr. X keeled over, falling flat on the ground. Dante paused, then put three more bullets in his head.

"...And that was necessary."

"Well, you've killed him a couple times already, you tell me!"

"It's a waste of ammunition either way! If he's dead, he's dead, if he's not, what's three more bullets going to do?"

"Oh, spare me…worry about your own ammo. I've got PLENTY, thank you very much."

Their argument continued as they left the room, the door slamming shut behind them. Neither one noticed Mr. X's body twitch.

Not long after, when they were nearing the door to take them out of the corridor...

SMASH!

Mr. X crashed through the wall behind them.

"SWEET MERCIFUL CHRISTOPHER WALKEN!" Lady screamed, firing rapidly in Mr. X's general direction while retreating to the opposite end of the corridor.

Dante rolled his eyes and joined in with his trusty pistols, backing up as well. "Way to keep a cool head, Lady."

She ignored him. "Don't you ever STAY DOWN?!" She holstered her pistol and un-slung Kalina Ann. "Dante, get clear!" He flipped over her head and she fired, the missile traveling the length of the hallway and impacting Mr. X. The resulting explosion was enough to make her wince, but it also had enough force to send their opponent flying straight through a boarded-up window. "Get up from that," she challenged. Her cocky smirk turned to a scowl as several crows swooped into the now-open window, cawing angrily.

"Nice one, Lady! That really solves all our problems!" Dante said cheerfully, holstering his twin pistols and pulling Cerberus from his coat.

"I regret nothing," she said as she quickly returned Kalina Ann to her back, drawing her pistol and firing several shots at the angry birds. "I'll trade him for a few birds any day."

Dante raced for the open window, batting aside a few of the avian aggressors before slamming the Devil Arm into the windowsill. A huge block of ice promptly formed, blocking the opening once more. He grinned as birds fell around him. "Always counting on me to fix your-!" Dante broke off abruptly and ducked as a bird dived for his head, quickly drawing Ivory and knocking it out of the air. He put away both firearm and Devil Arm, looking at Lady. "That must've got you ruffled, to miss a shot like that."

She didn't respond, taking a steadying breath. Keep it together, Lady. Keep it together.

"Lady?"

"I'm fine," she insisted. "Sometimes the temptation to shoot you instead of the enemy just throws me off."

"…If you say so." With a shrug, he continued on, Lady close by.

Having left behind the remains of the giant spiders, Nero finally rejoined Kyrie at the end of the pathway she'd retreated to. "Hope I didn't keep you waiting too long," he said to her.

She shook her head. "Just in time, actually. I think we're close to the waste treatment plant; maybe we'll have time to catch our breath."

"Let's hope so. Ladies first." She led them up the stairs, and they found themselves in a gray corridor, with a door to their immediate left and another straight ahead. "What do you think?"

"Left first."

"Okay. Let's see what we've won." He opened the door, and they went inside. "Nice!" The room within had a typewriter, a large red box, several of the colored potted plants, and a quiver full of crossbow bolts. Nero frowned. "…Maybe a little too nice. I'm getting some weird vibes here."

Kyrie nodded; the whole thing felt just a little too convenient to her as well. "Do you think we're about to be in another big fight?"

"I wouldn't doubt it. Let's get everything we need before we leave."

She slung the quiver over her back; to her fortune, it wasn't nearly as heavy as she'd worried it would be. "Shall we?"

He nodded. They left the room, taking the only other door. It had a strange lock, but a simple twist was enough to open it. They went inside. It was what looked like a large storage room. "That's weird…this isn't what I expected."

Kyrie looked near the door. Hazardous Materials Storage and Processing. "We should be in the right place, I think. He didn't say where to go once we got here, but maybe we should go to the end of the building and start from there."

"Sounds good to me," he agreed. He drew Blue Rose, and they began cautiously making their way through the warehouse. Rows upon rows of sealed metal containers and various crates lined the shelves around them, but there were no zombies or other creatures to be found. Soon enough, they had reached the other side, and there was a heavy freight elevator with large doors that split horizontally rather than vertically. "I really hope that this goes up; we've both probably had enough of the lovely smell here."

She nodded, looking over the elevator controls. She tapped "Elevator Call", and with a loud mechanical clunk, they heard the elevator ascend. Nero spun Blue Rose impatiently, and Kyrie checked her crossbow to make sure it was still fully loaded. The elevator arrived, and with a smile, Kyrie tapped the "Door Open" button. The doors slid open, and her smile faded to a look of terror.

A large, humanoid creature was lying in the elevator. Its skin was a pale grey, with massive veins over its lumpy flesh. The monster stirred, rising up slowly on its legs. On the back of its left hand was a large, bloodshot eyeball, and its legs seemed to have the tattered remains of a uniform on them. It straightened up, and they both backed up slowly. A gas mask covered where its face should have been, and skin seemed to have grown around it, almost like how trees grew around fences. It looked in their direction. "Dieee…" it hissed through its gas mask.

Both of them fired. Nero's bullets hit it in the chest, and Kyrie's arrows stuck into its left shoulder. It took a step toward them, and as soon as Kyrie had reloaded the crossbow, they fired again. It groaned at them, its breath rattling. "Dieee…"

"Get some distance!" Nero called. They retreated several steps, retraining their weapons as the mutant slowly advanced on them. He fired several times at the gas mask, but the flesh of the creature's shoulders was so bulky that he ended up hitting that instead. Eight bullets and it's not even fazed! What's this thing made of?!

Kyrie, meanwhile, took aim not at where the head would be, but at the eyeball on its left arm. She fired, and to her astonishment, all three bolts managed to hit her target. The creature roared in pain, reeling backwards and clutching its arm. Nero took the opportunity to brace his gun and charge up a shot from the Devil Bringer. The appendage glowed a dim white, and he fired, the bullets piercing where the creature's heart would have been. He holstered the revolver, drawing Red Queen and slashing across the wound while twisting the handle. It gave a rumble, and he pulled the trigger while slashing a second time, cutting a blazing wound across its chest. "Now, Kyrie!" he yelled, leaping backwards.

She shot directly into the wound, the arrows embedding deep into the creature's tissue. It froze for a moment, and then its arms drooped. The monster dropped to its knees, wheezing miserably. "Cannot…die…" It fell over, a final rattle escaping its throat. With a clatter, a small metal object fell from its pockets onto the floor.

Keeping a wary eye on the monster, Nero picked up the object, examining it. Unless he was very much mistaken, it looked like the parts to some kind of gun; specifically the grip, action and trigger of what looked like a pistol. Well isn't this a strange-looking setup. Missing half the gun, but what the hell, I might be able to strip it for parts. He stuffed it into his pockets, putting some distance between him and the fallen monster. "Let's get going. If this guy's like the bald one, he's probably not gonna be too happy when he wakes up."

She nodded, and they entered the elevator, taking it downward. What was that thing? It spoke…was it still alive, or…? Something about the whole situation felt wrong.

Just what was happening here?

CHAPTER END

This one was fun to write! I hope you enjoyed it. :-)

See you next time; you're all awesome!