Author's Note: Welp, welcome to future, Issues will now be updated on Saturdays as promised, and in the meantime please enjoy my new, not Grim Tales related fic coming soon, The Dark Lord.
Chapter 37: The Great Cycle of Time
For an angel the prisoner certainly knew how to screech like a banshee. Or maybe it was the electrical shock that she received every time she rubbed up against the side of the cell trying to phase through it. Or was it the drill tipped needle that kept carving off samples of the angel's flesh. It was hard to say. Either way, the resident undead mad scientist Finklestein was busy in the process of isolating the angelic genes needed for their efforts. The others, namely the ones who had gone through the efforts of retrieving the raw materials that were currently being experimented on, were now asleep on the couch. With exception that is of Junior who was sitting at a computer. Before he went to sleep Walker had set up a search algorithm designed to examine major historical events from the time periods that they had invaded, and then compare that information to the personal hard drive that Walker II carried around with him. Over all, the events behind Aku's founding of his namesake city had remained intact, as well as the human world during the time of the Ghost Flu, it seems that a small rampage that Chi had went on barely even registered in the grand scheme of things, of course Junior supposed that he couldn't expect less from the professional time traveler. As had Junior's small rampage into Fortuna barely made a blimp, on the contrary, it seems that a sample of Junior's Nergal blood made things run even more smoothly over there in regards to the course of events. But in Ancient Greece, the ripples of the two gods whose lives were spared by Mimi's intervention were still being felt to this day.
"Shit. Oi old man is that infernal contraption done yet?" Junior asked looking over to the Ragdoll that was working the contraption that had been torturing the angel.
"You don't mind if I take the opportunity to boast of my accomplishments do you?" The Mad Scientist stated a big happy grin on his face.
"Give me the bluff notes." Junior stated cross his legs and turning the Nergal chair he had made around to face the mad doctor.
"Firstly." Finklestein brought up a image of a creature that looked suspiciously like a caterpillar. "I was able to utilize Tardigrade DNA in the Encroaching Doom Syndrome."
"I assume that a Tardigrade is that ugly looking caterpillar on the screen there, what's so special about them?" Junior asked looking at the screen suspiciously.
"Tardigrades are the most durable creature that the humans have ever known. They are able to be deep frozen, boiled, exposed to large amounts of radiation, and the vacuum of space without taking a scratch. Really if it weren't for the fact that they're the size of a spec of dust then they probably would have evolved as the earth's dominant species instead of the humans." Finklestein stated a look on his face which indicated that he was starting to form an idea in his head.
"You're not going to turn Minnie into one of those right?" Junior asked a confused look on his face as he pointed at the screen.
"Of Course not!" The doctor opened up a new picture this one of some type of cell. "Radiation is quite similar to Holy power. Tardigrade cells are reinforced with a dense cluster of proteins that when transplanted into other organisms raises their radiation resistance by 40%! Combine that with the Graphene protein reinforcement research that we've already completed..."
"You're saying that that these things will make a physical body that's immune to holy power?" Junior asked indicating the screen and wondering why he went through the trouble to chasing down those demons for.
"Immune is the wrong word." Finklestein stated tapping his fingers on his lap. "When you say something like 'Raising someone's resistance against X by 100%' it doesn't mean that they become immune, it means that it would take twice as much of X to do the same amount of damage as it had done before."
"So what you're saying is that we still have work to do before we can get Minnie and bring her back here?" Junior asked leveling a questioning glare at the mad Doctor.
"Well, even that little girl from before and this... creature here can survive exposure to small amounts of holy power for prolonged periods of time." Finklestein stated indicating the angelic prisoner being held prisoner. "And that's without Tardigrade DNA. If I can apply my research to their cell structures, then that will be further improved. Even though the acquisition of the Fallen Angel was still invaluable. Do you know why?"
"You tell me old man." Junior stated annoyed.
"A Fallen Angel, is the evolutionary middle ground between Angels and Demons. In order to survive on the physical plain, angels who had 'fallen' IE booted out of heaven took on physical bodies and became demons." Finklestein stated as he cleaned his glasses using a cloth from his pocket.
"Minnie was kicked out of Heaven before." Junior stated as he cocked a brow at the mad man in front of him.
"There are several theories here. First and foremost is that in order to prevent their own destruction, the Heavens made the decision to send the only individual in all of creation who could halt your rampage. If they had only intended to release her temporarily it would explain why she didn't take on a physical body immediately, instead forcing us to shove her inside of her old body after we stitched it back together." The doctor stated putting his cleared glasses back on his face.
"They didn't come here for her though." Junior's fist clenched in anger.
"You build a cage to trap a monster to keep it from killing you: What do you do first, kill the monster, or remove the cage?" Finklestein asked wheeling himself away from the snarling Nergal in front of him.
"How long?" Was Junior's uncompromising question.
"For your Encroaching Doom Syndrome? Give me a day, also you'll have to take a few injections of those for a while afterwards." Finklestein stated indicating the vials of 'Ecto Dejecto' on his desk. "For your sister on the other hand, that will be longer."
"Then in the mean time we got things to do." As Junior said that he promptly shook his three companions into consciousness. "Oi wake you three, we got problems."
Not waiting for Mimi to stir to consciousness Junior grabbed her by one of her horns and dragged her over to the computer. Immediately Mimi's half asleep eyes shot straight open in surprise at what was on the screen.
"What's going on?" Walker asked as he stretched his back into a standing position.
"Your algorithm found a discrepancy from what was and what is." Junior stated showing the computer to Walker and slow to wake Chi.
"How Bad can it be?" Chi asked walking over to the computer. "Oh that's bad."
In the vast waste land that stood between the Grim Castle and the far off borders of the land separating it from it's neighbor a well equipped army was marching forward. Mimi had to admit that the army was familiar, more accurately it was impossible for her to forget her father's forces, so many twisted and deformed demonic monsters. But that was not all she recognized. She immediately saw that the armies were carrying various weapons of familiar craftsmanship, the quality of which was worthy of the gods. After all Mimi had many weapons created for the gods on her person, so she would know what they looked like. By now the others understood this as well, based purely on the suspicious looks that she was getting from them anyway.
"Okay so I understand that somehow me and Junior going on rampages didn't do squat to the timeline." Chi asked rubbing her temples remembering how much she despised quantum physics. "But how does whatever Mimi did result in that?"
At this, the group turned their attention to Walker who only let out a sigh.
"Quantum loop Theory." Walker stated adjusting his hat. "Which states that every time someone alters the timeline the changed timeline affects the time traveler in someway that triggers further changes. For example, mind you this is just my theory here, in some universe, some timeline, some alternate thing that is not our own, Junior went back in time to get the Ghost Flu instead of Me and Chi, and ended up getting into a fight with Aku, which is what leads him to retire. The towns which will lead to the creation of Megaville is saved in the process, resulting in the birth of myself and Mimi in the human world, while Chi gets born in the underworld. Then when we find each other and all end up going to the Infimap for help, instead of getting this smash happy idiot to do all the work it divides us up based on who's best qualified to what job." Walker stated indicating Junior who only just rolled his eyes in response.
"Yah, Yah I know I leave a trail everywhere I go. Can we go and kill these guys now?" Junior asked getting his shoulders to limber up a little bit.
Mimi stepped out in front of the group as if she wanted say something.
"Something you'd like to add?" Walker stated annoyed, aware of just who was responsible for this mess that they found themselves in.
Using her powers Mimi made three Phoenix feathers appear, before they disappeared in a flash of light that then went into Junior, causing him to feel like his reserves of power had increased slightly.
"So you learned some enhancement tricks while you were in Ancient Greece eh?" Junior smirked knowingly at this revelation. "Hurry up, We don't got all day."
It took Mimi a few minuets to sacrifice enough Gorgon eyes, Minotaur Horns and Phoenix feathers for the entire group to reach their limit.
"Okay now that we've powered up a little bit." Junior pulled out twin pistols as he smiled knowingly. "Let's go tear something apart!" Junior leaped through the air, his legs turned into spring coils as he left the ground giving him another little boost, wings sprouting from his back to help him fly and glide through the air, and pistols raining down hell from above.
Mimi was second to enter the fray, her Zoner abilities allowed her to simply disappear and reappear in the middle of the crowd, at which point in time she unleashed her collection of sin enhanced godly weapons on the enemy, soaking up more sins, chopping down the enemy forces.
"Oh lovely." Chi stated noting the massive destruction of the enemy forces. "I have a type. Homicidal mass murders: Lovely."
"You were the one who married them." Walker stated as he flew over the battle field.
Junior had landed, making use of the unpredictable nature of his demonic powers to rip through the enemy forces. It was around that time that he noticed the sparkles of red coming out of the enemies he butchered. Grabbing one, Junior saw what looked suspiciously like a ruby.
"Hey Mac." Junior stated as numerous blades appeared from his mid-section to massacre the demons trying to take advantage of him while he spoke into the newly formed head phone. "Yah got a minuet?"
"I'm working here. Is something the matter?"
"These demons I'm cutting up have some kinda rubies in em." Junior stated observing the crystal in question.
"It's not uncommon, you can probably get your Nergal to dig a few out of your body some time."
"But what are they. I can tell that they're important but I don't know why." Junior stated noticing that the demons were avoiding him now.
"That's your demon instincts talking. Think of them as one of the evolutionary steps between the Primordial Evil and the Devil Arms."
"One of the steps?" Junior asked sounding confused.
"Basically, the Rubies are crystalized Primordial evil, Denser and harder to remove than the ethereal form that what Mimi's uses takes on. Collect enough of them, and you can take the next step, collect enough of that and you get a demon lord class demon."
"'Next Step?'" Junior asked suspicious.
"Sacrificing one's humanity for power via ritualistically devouring one's own heart."
"Nasty." Junior stated darting around and noticing that Mimi was making use of the discarded weapons of the fallen now in storm of sharp pointed things.
"The end result condenses the Rubies as you call them into crystalized humanity, or Sapphires if we're going with the gem theme. Combine enough of those together, and you get the core of a Devil Arm."
"So shoving enough of these rubies into something and then ripping out the sapphire is the way to go eh?" Junior smiled knowingly in a way that unsettled the demons that he was fighting against. "That's good to know."
Review Section:
Detrametal: Well it was a obvious candidate to me, we needed angel, demon, human hybrids and they were trying to manufacture them. As for the angel she's no one special, DMC 3 had them as a type of enemy. My head cannon is that the Order of the Sword raided both the Temen Ni Gru and Mallet Island after Dante tore them both apart and captured any surviving demons they could find and the massive pile of corpses for use in their experiments with the help of Uroboros corporation, IE the antagonists of DMC 2, who took over their research into artificial demons and ambitions for world domination by creating a demon god after they were dismantled by Dante and Nero.
DPSS: Yes, that was my intention from the beginning, purely because I don't see Junior caring as much about the preservation of the timeline and the likes of Lucifer, Pandora and Gilgamesh giving him any real trouble. Besides in retrospect it would be difficult to divide Junior's demon hunting exploits into three chapters and then retroactively insert them between the past chapters with Chi and Mimi. No, going with my original plan was the best idea after I committed to it.