Alright. Another chapter. Finally moving along with this. Thanks for all reviews so far. Keep 'em comin.
Here's the next chap
Enjoy
Blasting Rats
Dante stood outside the warehouse for some time, scowling as he took in the image of the rundown building. His eyes glanced over the broken windows, the glass and rubble that littered the ground, the smashed in walls, the holes in some places big enough to drive a van through; all the decay of something having long been abandoned. He wasn't impressed by any of it. And the longer he stared at the place, the less he wanted to be there.
What the hell was he doing wasting his time here anyway? Did he really have nothing better to do? Was he that desperate to blow off a little steam? And would any of this really make him forget what had happened in the past hour and a half, even for a little while?
Not likely. But here he was anyway. Waiting outside, and just itching to get it all over with…or abandon the whole thing entirely and let the guy on the phone deal with it. Dante didn't think he'd feel sorry if he did.
Sure the client had sounded distressed, they all usually sounded somewhat apprehensive. But so did people calling for exterminators as they stood on chairs to try and get away from a helpless little rodent.
And a rodent problem was exactly the vibe Dante was getting from this place. Rats—in his line of work. Just a load of minor, mindless demons he'd have to round up and wipe out.
How exciting. He'd get to be an exterminator. And as far as Dante was concerned, there was a fine, but very distinct line between being an exterminator and a devil hunter. Hunting was helping people and saving lives. Exterminating just involved getting rid of a nuisance. And a nuisance was what this had become to Dante and what it was to the guy who had called.
Apparently all the demons that had set up shop in the warehouse were ruining the construction schedule by protecting their home from the demolition crews. Expensive machinery had been destroyed and some workers had been attacked—all in broad daylight. Yet no one ever saw what was causing the damage and the crew refused to go back to work until all the weird happenings stopped.
It now fell to Dante to fix the problem and see to it that everything got back on schedule.
Nice.
This little outing was precisely the kind of thing Dante had been trying to avoid all the years he'd run DMC. He hadn't even accepted these pathetic jobs when he was first starting out and he couldn't believe he'd done it now.
"Whatever," Dante told himself. "Just get in and get out. It'll be that easy." Too easy to be any fun or worth my time.
The devil hunter came up to the front door-or at least what appeared to be the main door-and found it chained. He almost laughed when he remembered the abundance of broken concrete walls, whose gaps left plenty of little doors for the demons to come and go as they pleased. How was a chain on a breaking door going to stop anyone or anything from getting in or out?
Didn't really matter, but he found it funny all the same.
Dante kicked open the doors and the rusted chain snapped easily. One of the doors flew off its wrecked hinges and landed with a loud thud ahead of the devil hunter and he walked over it as he stepped inside and looked around.
"Here's Johnny!" He half smirked to himself, but his frown soon set back into place when all he saw around him were shadows, thickly dusted machinery and otherwise empty space. No signs of any demons, at least none visible to him in the meagre light coming through the broken panes of glass.
He walked in deeper, his feet crunching and sliding in things he didn't want to think about and he continued scanning the area for the supposed demons. Nothing. Everything seemed normal and the place looked empty.
"Great," Dante muttered. A large brown rodent scurried by his foot and into the shadows again. He glared at it, beginning to think maybe it was just rats, even if it didn't explain the trashed machinery outside.
Dante made a circle around all the machinery, watching and listening for any signs of life, but all he could hear was the tiny patter of rodents scuttling about the warehouse. It was just an infestation of common rats, nothing demonic about this place.—A big waste of time.
He kicked a hunk of some unidentifiable machine in frustration and the sound echoed throughout the nearly vacant building. But the noise died quickly and Dante was left listening to the scattering rodents. He didn't think about being quiet now. There was nothing in this place to be weary of. He was far from the point of shrieking if he saw a mouse.
Ten minutes of searching fruitlessly for demons, Dante drifted angrily back to the door he'd come in through, not that a door was really needed to make an exit, but he didn't feel like climbing through a whole in the wall like the other rats running about.
He was jabbering his irritation under his breath as he stomped through the dark towards the opening and the broken doors. Something rushed by him as he was just about to step over the smashed slab of door but he didn't catch what it was. All he felt was a strong wind rustle his long jacket and his hair. He shrugged it off as a gust from the open door and proceeded to leave, suddenly stopping mid-stride when he heard a smooth growl from behind-nothing more than a whisper-but it was a noise uncommon to any wind he'd ever heard.
Dante spun around and still could not see a thing. His eyes squinted. He searched his surroundings, trying to see deep into the shadows. All his gaze told him was what he'd already determined: that the place was empty. But his gut was telling him something different. He suddenly believed he was no longer alone with the rats.
"Where are you?" Dante said softly, taking a few steps away from the doorway. He reached into his jacket, clasping the hilt of a handgun.
The rats were still running around blindly in the darkness and it took all the devil hunter's concentration not to be distracted by, or shoot at them wildly. He was beginning to hear the strange rumbling noise from all around the warehouse now. There was definitely something out there, but just how many and what exactly they were was another story. Dante couldn't see them no matter how hard he tried.
Soon enough, he felt his other hand rise inside his jacket, without entirely meaning to, and he pulled out Ebony and Ivory, waving the barrels slowly in front of him as he sifted through the darkness with his eyes for the creatures.
The rumbling got louder in his ears and before long it was just one long buzzing sound that blocked out everything else. Dante shook his head, pressing his palms to his ears, trying to clear his hearing. It was like listening to the constant static of a television set; one he couldn't turn off. It was irritating and off-putting and it quickly became the only thing the devil hunter could focus on—Trying to stop the hum.
Distracted, he barely noticed a rat skittering up his pant leg until he felt its tiny sharp claws dig into his leg and he shook it off angrily, swinging his hips. The rodent dropped to the ground a few feet away from him, letting out a little squeak. Dante snarled at it. Lowering a hand from his head, he aimed a gun at it, slowly pulling the trigger.
The rat squealed shrilly, blood exploding from its body. Dante gaped and narrowed his eyes. He hadn't fully pulled the trigger. No bullet had left his gun.
"What the fu-" The words fell short before completely leaving his mouth. Dante watched the dead rodent slowly rise into the air and he caught the faintest glimmer of razor sharp teeth as the vermin's blood trickled over the feeding creature's massive jaws.
"Oh shit." Dante's breath caught in his throat and his comment turned into more of a gasp as the jaws tossed the rat's crushed body to the side, having lost interest in it. The mouth focused back on Dante and the growl of the creature staring at him became clearest, rising above the din of the others in his ears.
The devil hunter stumbled back a few feet as the invisible head cocked to the side, studying him hungrily before slowly bobbing towards him. He could now see large, birdlike footprints left behind it in the dust and grime of the floor. The demon wasn't too tall. Its whole body seemed to stand below Dante's shoulders, around mid-chest, but that wasn't much of a comfort when he couldn't see it, or know how many of them there actually were. The only saving grace was that the one stalking him at the moment had its mouth smeared with blood so he could keep track of it.
"Come and get me you freaky sonuvabitch," Dante growled at the creature. He raised his guns again and fired a few shots at the demon. Green spurts of blood rose up as his bullets hit their mark and the creature dropped, its bloody jaws opening and closing slowly as it emitted a high pitched squeal, similar to the one the rat had made earlier when it had killed it.
Dante's eyes widened when he heard an answering cry from a creature no more than an inch to his left. He should have known it was there just by the hot acrid smell of its breath, but he had been distracted by the other demon.
Clever plan.
He turned his head slowly and saw a haze, a brief outline of the creature before he was blasted hard in the side by its thick head and blown back onto the broken door.
Not letting him get up, the demon jumped on his chest heavily, knocking the wind out of him. Dante wheezed and felt his sword press into his spine as the creature pinned his shoulders down with its clawed feet. Its hold on his arms was crushing and he nearly whimpered when the jagged claws wrapped around his collar and dug into his back.
He wriggled beneath the weight of the demon, watching a glob of thick saliva drip down from what had to be its open jaws. He turned his nose up at the stench of its breath, twisting his head away from the almost dizzying smell and the disgusting blob of demon spit making its way towards his face. The creature dipped its head down and Dante felt the nauseating warmth of the saliva drop onto his cheek and seep down his neck. He groaned and scrunched his eyes, hearing the demon suck in air, taking in his scent. A sharp pain followed as its razor teeth grazed his jaw, immediately drawing blood. The creature's tongue flicked out and lapped at Dante's cheek quickly before it raised its head and screeched deafeningly.
Dante wished he could have covered his ears in that brief moment, not only because it was loud, but because he could hear the tinge of delight and warning in its cry; the demon had claimed its prize and told the others to back off.
The first rush of fear came to Dante at that precise moment. How the hell was he going to get out of this? He was pinned, alone and unarmed. He was completely helpless. His guns had been knocked out of his hands by the surprise thrust to his ribs and he couldn't get to his sword. Even if he was able to reach back for Alastor, it would be impossible to pull it out from under him. It was wedged between his body and the door and there was no way for him to push up and make room to slip it free.
Great. He was going to die here, only to be feasted upon by rats-if the demons left any part of him after they'd finished devouring what they wanted, that is.
And that was a comforting thought. The half devil that had beaten the Darkness Mundus would die in a warehouse by a flock of giant invisible turkeys—or whatever the hell it was that was attacking him. The podgy guy with the briefcase would love that. He'd thought the son of Sparda was invincible. This little event would at least show him otherwise.
All around, Dante heard the stomp of the other creatures and their disorienting growls beginning again. He nearly fell into a trance, listening to them, but a sharp cry from the creature on top of him brought him back to the moment and he was sprayed with sticky drool as the demon bent down to tear at the soft flesh of his throat.
The blood gushed out of the bite wound, just as Dante's scream lodged in chest. He was lost in the white hot pain and the terror of being eaten alive. He'd never felt this kind of absolute fear. Even when he had fought Mundus, he had remained cool and collected, infuriatingly calm. Now he'd gone straight from jittery panic to heart-stopping terror; completely skipping over the pants wetting stage that should have followed the initial shock.
The demon was eating him! Dante couldn't believe it. If he hadn't been in such real pain he would have shrugged it off as a bad dream. But he couldn't get past the agony and the heat of his blood leaving his body through the gash on his neck. The creature hadn't torn any flesh away just yet. It seemed merely content to make him bleed for now, licking at the fount when smelling the coppery liquid wasn't enough, but the threat of it was dangerously close. It wouldn't be long, Dante figured, before the demon was ripping at him, or the others joined in, creating frenzy.
Dante had his eyes shut tight. Feeling the demon shredding his flesh was enough, he didn't need to see it too. A painful press on his chest and shoulders told him that the creature was standing up on him again and he heard its shrill cry for the third and what he decided was the final time. The demon was done tasting him and was going in for the kill.
The devil hunter scrunched up his face as much as he could, preparing himself for the inevitable torture as he bit back his fear. He felt an excruciating pain in his shoulders as the demon ripped back its clawed feet, breaking his collar bone on one side and splitting the skin up to the bone on the other. The weight on his chest suddenly disappeared. Dante opened his eyes and blinked widely. Lying there, feeling almost paralyzed, he watched the demon with his blood smeared on its face fending off a hoard of other creatures like him, their screeches rising up in the warehouse. None of the battle was all that visible to Dante since all he saw were random bursts of the demons' green blood as they fought each other over him, but he could get the gist of what was going on just by their harried calls.
The impatient and greedy little bastards weren't going to let one have Dante all to itself. They would fight. And if Dante was lucky, they'd wipe each other out. But just to be sure, he slowly rolled up onto his knees, not wanting to draw any more attention to himself. He was almost forgotten by now anyway and he edged towards his guns, nearly passing out from pain as he was forced to put his weight on at least one of his shoulders.
He looked for the haze in the darkness to know whether he was getting too close to a demon. Their bodies weren't entirely invisible and he could see their slight, wavy outlines if he looked hard enough.
He reached Ebony and thrust it into its holster before sliding over and picking up Ivory, which he kept in his hand. He couldn't hold a gun, let alone move his right arm so there was no point in keeping both weapons out. He moved into a heavily shadowed area of the building and leaned back against the wall, hissing air as the pain shot through his limbs. He hoped to conceal himself long enough to either watch the demons take each other down, or heal a sufficient amount to be able to fight back if they turned on him again.
He couldn't get out just yet. Sure there were plenty of holes to escape out of. He'd already made a note of all of them when he'd been searching the place earlier, but the truth was he didn't have the energy to crawl through them. He also didn't want to risk exposing himself to the light coming through the gaps in the walls in case one of the straggling demons happened to notice.
No. It was best to just lay quiet and let the demons deal with themselves.
Dante didn't know how many had actually fallen by the time one of his shoulders had healed enough for him to be able to really pull the trigger of his gun without the pain being unbearable, but it didn't matter. He'd had enough of their screeching and was now ready to do something about it.
Standing and putting the least amount of pressure on his arms as possible, Dante walked steadily towards the rippling air that had to be a cluster of demons. He pointed his guns straight at the center of the waving mass and fired as many rounds as was left in the magazine of his handgun. A shower of demon blood blew up in the center and covered the remaining creatures lightly. Dante could now see each and every one that was left fighting.
They all turned on him, some sounding panicked or angry cries before jumping at him. Dante simply grinned and reached over his shoulder for Alastor, completely ignoring to the ache of his wounds. He clipped two vaulting demons in two and moved on to the remaining six.
It was not long before he'd slashed through the rest of the demons and was satisfied that the place was empty of all living things, save for himself and the rats. He stepped through the littered bodies of the dead, snarling at the thought of how close he'd come to being their little snack.
There must have been about thirty of the invisible, bird-like, or maybe even reptilian demons, but they were all gone now. At the center of a particularly large pile of creatures, Dante found what he was looking for—the demon that had attacked him and taken his blood.
The wound had healed on his neck, but the skin there was still raw and Dante brushed his hand lightly against it, wincing. He saw that his blood was even now plastered to the demon's large head and it made him angry again at the fear it had made him feel. The thought of his terror made him want to slash the demon to little bloody pieces. And he would do it. Just to make himself feel better.
"Motherfucker," Dante growled and raised his sword above the demon as he drove it down in a rage. The creature suddenly reared up and rammed him in the stomach with its head. Dante fell backwards over the other bodies and it charged past him and escaped through one of the holes in the walls. Rapidly, the devil hunter got to his feet and pursued it, jumping out of the same gap in which the creature had fled. He was livid and had an even stronger urge to rip that demon to shreds.
In the streets, Dante had a hard time trying to keep up and at one point he even thought he'd lost track of it, but it wasn't long before he heard human screaming and was back on the creature's trail.
He found it in an alley, stooped over the body of a young man whose face was so white and his eyes so vacant from fear that Dante almost thought he was a store mannequin. He silently wondered if he'd looked that pale when the demon was attacking him.
Again, it didn't matter. But it was something to think about later…maybe.
Without a second thought, Dante flung out his sword like a boomerang, cutting through the demon as the sword twirled and returned to his hand. The demon squealed and jumped away, not completely dead.
"Get up!" Dante barked at the boy, whose eyelids never batted once as he spoke. Dante fired at the demon as it tried to escape again and it fell. "GET UP!" he yelled again, hauling the boy to his feet himself. He shoved him towards the end of the alley. "RUN." He said shortly before turning back to demon to finish him off.
The demon squeaked pathetically as he stood over it, the point of his sword hovering above its head. Dante caught sight of a few quick white flashes before he hissed and plunged his sword down. The demon died with a spray of green blood.
Dante wiped his face with his sleeve and walked calmly away from the wasted demon. He brushed past the boy at the end of the alley.
"Go home kid," he said, glancing at the boy's vacant purple eyes. The young man said nothing. And Dante clapped his hands before his face. "Hey! Did you hear me?" He repeated his earlier words and the boy finally nodded.
"What…what was that?" He asked a little shakily, blowing dirty blond bangs out of his face as he stared into the alley.
"What was what?" Dante asked dismissively. "I didn't see a thing." He smirked and slung Alastor onto his back. The boy gawked at his sword and he smiled, grasping his shoulder gently before walking away.
Poor kid. Didn't know what he'd seen—or hadn't seen. All he'd remember was falling over and running into a crazy white-haired guy with a massive sword. And that was almost as unbelievable as the existence of real demons.
Dante shook his head and laughed. "Poor kid."
So that's it for yet another chapter. Hope it was entertaining. I tried. Of any reviews are very much appreciated.
REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW
