There were very few people in the world that Erika Yekaterina Romanov felt that she could trust, and after seeing what this Dante character and his friends were capable of they were definitely not on that list. The only real explanation she could come up with for why she had gone there was shock. Either way it didn't matter now. There was no way she could stay here anymore. Losing the Skyline was the only real upset as she had put a lot of time and effort into it, but it was too recognisable as it was and going back for it meant heading back into Dante's territory. That felt like a bad idea.
For the past six months 'Calhoun's 24 hour Auto repair' had been home to a young apprentice mechanic by the name of 'Erika B. Spilner'. It was here that Erika had rebuilt her Skyline from a wreck. It was also Erika's destination. The taxi she had caught pulled up alongside the garage. The lights were on, which was no real surprise, Hank Calhoun insisted that there be a mechanic or two on call at all times. Sometimes he even rented apartment space above the main garage to ensure that his claim of service at any time could be met. Of course very few people ever called at 3 am looking for a tune up. Being the 'resident' as it were meant that the graveyard shift was usually hers, but this was supposed to have been her night off. Erika wondered for a moment who it was that was on call tonight, and how she was going to explain packing up and leaving on such short notice.
Entering the garage something felt amiss, everything looked right but Erika couldn't shake the feeling that there was someone here who shouldn't be. The problem with places like this was that there were too many places a person could hide. Looking around she made a mental note of her blind spots. The truck used for transporting parts, a family car with an engine that leaked water, the body of a Dodge Charger a client wanted rebuilt the same way the Skyline had been (Hank had made flyers boasting about the rebuild of her car, there were pictures of the Skyline everywhere), the office.
"Stop being stupid" she told herself. Whoever was watching the garage would either be in the office or upstairs. The office was closer, she would check there first.
At first everything looked ok. Hank was slumped in a chair sound asleep, watched by a poster of James Dean; a cup of coffee was on the desk. That was odd, the coffee machine was broken. Hank must have fixed it. Erika could have kicked herself for being so paranoid. She turned to leave when the phone rang, making Hank jump. He spotted Erika as he grabbed the phone and gestured to her to stay where she was.
"Calhoun's 24 hour Auto Repair, How can I help?" He began. After listening to the other speaker's response he replied "Red car with a tiger on the side? Yes, this is the garage that built that particular car. It's on all my flyers". Erika's blood ran cold. Hank's flyers were everywhere. Anybody looking for that car would know where to look. How could she have been so careless? Hank finished his call
"You know, that was the third call about your car tonight".
"Who was that?" She asked
"Don't know, he asked about your car then just hung up" said Hank
"He? You're sure it was a man?" said Erika, slowly backing out of the office
"You sure are jumpy tonight, what's the problem" Hank got out of the chair
"The evaporator on my Skyline's blown out, the engines completely flooded" She said, sounding completely natural
"Well, we can get a new one" said Hank, reaching an arm towards her. She grabbed his outstretched arm and yanked as hard as she could, forcing Hank to his knees. He screamed as his shoulder dislocated.
"Who are you and what have you done with Hank" Erika spat in his ear
"I am Hank" He cried
"Any mechanic could tell you there's no such thing as an evaporator" Erika twisted the impostors arm "now who are you".
'Hank' turned, his dislocated shoulder twisting at an impossible angle
"Well, aren't you the clever one" the fake Hank said in a female voice. 'He' kicked Erika in the stomach, throwing her out of the office. Erika landed on the body of the Charger. The fraud popped the dislocated shoulder back into its socket before placing its hands over its face. It was Giselle.
"This could have been so easy, you know." She said, taking off the mechanics overalls she had worn over her leather outfit. Her stiletto heels clicked loudly in the silence. "If Marcus had bothered to read the nerd's work, he'd know that I don't need you after all. All I need to do is present your heart to Brajin's altar and he'll come back to life." Giselle pulled a wickedly curved dagger from the back of her pants.
"So what are you getting out of this, Brownie points? And where's Hank?" Erika asked, trying to buy some time while she came up with a plan
"I'm not gonna say where your friend is, that would spoil all my fun. And what I'm getting is Brajin's favour. He rewards those who are loyal to him"
"You're insane, you know that? Do you really think that this guy cares about his little minions?"
"How dare you call me that!" Giselle leapt in her strange cat-like way but Erika was ready for her this time. She flipped backwards away from her attacker. Giselle landed hard enough to crush the frame of the car. On top of the wreck, Erika was on her feet before Giselle could recover from the impact. She kicked the blade from Giselle's hand before Giselle could regain her composure. The witch shrieked with fury and tried to claw at Erika but the girl was too fast for her. She cartwheeled off the top of the car leaving Giselle to land unceremoniously in the space she had previously occupied.
"I'll kill you for that you little bitch" Giselle spat. She looked around for something that she could bring to life, as she had done the statue at the cemetery. Erika spotted this and ducked back into the office.
"Showing your true colours? I wouldn't expect any better from your kind" said Giselle. She jumped off the wrecked car and picked up her fallen dagger.
"Dear dear Marcus was so scared of what might happen. If it were up to him we'd still be looking for a way to get the heart we need. It was my idea to make our own. If I'd been more careful in choosing a mother I wouldn't be in this mess" She said aloud as she closed in on the office. She came up to the door, licking her lips, her eyes glowing red.
"Come out; come out wherever you are... Aah!" Erika threw the cup of coffee from the desk into her face before kicking her in the chest hard enough to push her from the room. A sharp hook to Giselle's ribs followed by a quick jab, Erika spun into a hard kick to Giselle's head and followed it though with a second, a roundhouse this time. It caught Giselle squarely on the jaw, knocking her to the ground. Giselle screamed in rage and indignity, she staggered to her feet.
"You..." She charged at Erika with murder in her eyes. The heel of her stiletto boot caught on the ground and snapped under her weight, taking her to the ground. Erika caught her with a sideways kick to the mid-section, Giselle landed on her backside and Erika held her pose, her flat boots letting her balance perfectly.
"You obviously didn't think this through properly, did you?" She said with a sly smile.
"I'll kill you!" Giselle hissed
"That line's getting old, either do it or shut up" Erika commented as she put her foot down. Giselle forced herself to her now mismatched feet and threw herself towards Erika. Just then something moving extremely fast hurled towards Giselle and struck her hard, pinning her to the wall. It took Erika a few moments to realise that it was a sword. She turned in the direction that it had come from. There he was. Erika assumed a defensive posture as Dante came into the garage.
"Relax kid, I thought you'd have realised by now that I'm not the bad guy" He said
"I still don't know anything about you. You tell me what makes you so different from her" said Erika.
"How about the fact that I'm not trying to kill you?". Dante looked at her more closely this time. He could definitely feel some kind of demonic energy coming from her. For a second he seemed to recognise the feel of it, but then it was gone. For a moment he wondered how he had missed it before.
Behind them Giselle wailed in rage. They ignored her. Erika considered what Dante had said and decided that he was on the level, at least for now. She relaxed her posture.
"I'll see you both burn for this!" Giselle spat at them, furious at being ignored. She pulled herself along Alastor's blade as far as she could go. "You're going to pay dearly". Dante trained a gun on her face
"Unless you've got something useful to say, keep your mouth shut" He said in an icy voice.
"To start with, what did you do with Hank?" Erika demanded, matching Dante's tone perfectly. Giselle started to laugh. Quietly at first, but getting louder and more demented. She looked at them with that evil red glow in her eyes. Behind them the family car roared into life. Dante grabbed Erika and jumped out of the way. The car slammed into the wall, hitting Giselle. They looked back at the wreck and Giselle was gone, leaving Alastor behind.
-
Trish had agreed to stay behind only because she liked to know what she was going up against. The information Wilson had pulled off the computer was going to be excellent when they eventually found the cultists. But Wilson had spent the past 20 minutes talking about PC upgrades. Getting the computer had been her idea but she had absolutely no idea what all the technical mumbo jumbo meant. She was bored.
"I wonder how Dante's doing" She said aloud, more to shut Wilson up than anything else. He turned to face her.
"He's half man, half devil, kicks ass with both guns and swords and you're worried about him?" He asked
"I'm not. Its Erika I'm more worried about. What could have made her take off like that?"
"You mean other than Dante's little home surgery over there? Think about it. Here we are talking about her being half devil, what if she doesn't even know about it?" Wilson pointed out.
"No, she would have known. It's not the type of thing you can keep hidden from someone "
"Not necessarily. The Seer wrote something in the manuscript about a seal that was designed to keep a child like her from ever reaching their 'full potential'. I'll see if I can pull it up".
Wilson placed his hand over the keyboard. The keys clacked with the speed of a machine gun. Trish watched the images on the screen change, listening to Wilson swear occasionally at the slowness of the computer. A noise coming from outside caught her attention.
"What was that?" She said.
"What was what?" Wilson asked without looking up.
When it came to swords, Dante wasn't the only one who kicked ass. These days Trish was the proud owner of the sword that was once carried by Sparda himself, the sword that bore his name. So far she had kept it attached to her back, now she drew it. Wilson stopped typing.
"What are you doing?" He asked. Trish didn't answer. She went to the door. Outside stood three men, all wearing identical black robes to the one the first one had worn, All bleeding from one eye. The first spoke.
"The Son of Sparda, where is he?"
"What's it to you?" Trish yelled at them. The three of them moved into a semi circle.
"Our master has ordered his death" said the speaker. His companions unfolded their arms, all eight of them. The Herikarras crystals had given them both an extra pair and bulked up their muscles to the point that they made steroid users look normal. The leader spoke again.
"You will tell us where he is"
"I'll tell you to go to hell" Trish replied coolly. The multi armed men closed ranks. Trish looked bored; she drew a line on the ground with her sword. The leader hung back while his companions advanced. They moved slowly, as if their bodies were too heavy for them. Trish felt a small smirk play across her lips, this was going to be easy. The first was able to force himself into a lumbering charge, holding his arms out for balance. Trish jumped almost lazily, flipping in mid air and striking her assailant on the back of his head with her sword. Too easy. The colossal form fell to the ground and didn't get back up. The second saw the ease in which Trish had dispatched his comrade and held back cautiously. Trish lunged forwards with her sword ready. The towering figure tried to dodge her attack but he was too slow. She caught one of his arms rather than his chest. He swatted at her with his remaining three arms. She dodged it effortlessly and swung a deathblow to his neck
"You expected to go up against Dante? With this? What makes you think you would have stood a chance when I'm not even breaking a sweat?" she laughed. The remaining cultist said nothing. It was as if he hadn't heard her. Trish was confused; he had just watched her wipe the floor with his buddies yet he was acting like nothing had happened.
"Hey, moron. Am I not even gonna find out what 'gift' you got stuck with?" Again he didn't reply. This was boring. Trish walked right up to him and punched him in the face. He fell into a crumpled heap by her feet. She went back inside.
"Wilson! You mentioned a curse on the sword"
"Yeah, whoever tries to use it gets hallucinations. They see what they want and nothing else" was his reply.
"Could that be on the crystals as well?"
"Well, err... it is possible..."
"Wilson, yes or no"
"After what just happened I'd say yes. What did just happen by the way?"
"Later. Did you find anything on that seal you mentioned?"
"Oh sure! All the actions outside and you expect me to be chained to a desk!" Wilson complained. Trish set the sword down on the desk. Wilson returned to the computer, grumbling under his breath. Neither of them noticed that Trish had put the sword Sparda on top of the Herikarras crystal that Dante had left behind.
