Disclaimer: As always, I do not own either of the Evangelion or Devil May Cry franchises and characters, but damn, do I need the money that is being made of those cash cows!
Author's note: Damn, I'd never expected people to see more of this fic continue, ah, well. I guess it can't be helped seeing a crossover like this in motion, thanks for waiting for the update and all the kind comments, guys. Here's my little author's thanks to those who reviewed:
To DarkFusion: As always, thanks for the comments and support, I know just how many people just love Lady so she has to be included in this fic, but if only there was a way to play as her, dammit! She rocks more than Dante sometimes with that gunplay! Anyway, be looking forward for more Lady-style asskicking and more of our loveable Dante in action in the coming chapters. Dante's confrontation with Gendou draws near…
To X-Over: Glad to see that you still like the story and it's now becoming one of your favourites as well. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about Touji, Hikari and Kensuke or the rest of SEELE itself in this story, as I can reveal at this point I got some surprise bonus chapters focused on what was happening with those three during Dante's decimating of the JSSDF at NERV which you will only get to see around the end of this story. I'm sure you will like them.
To Majin Naraku: You're going to love the moment Dante meets Gendou, but I'm just warming everyone up by the meantime with what kind of torment our favourite demon hunter will rest on Gendou with his DMC 3 based attacks and abilities. I am basing the fight scenes from DMC's combo system after all and I am combining two Styles in them, so yes, the possibilities are limitless. (Heh-heh. That means Gendou is in for a new, whole world of suffering when that happens.) And I can understand you about my description of Dante's attacks and moves, I just have a good visual imagining about these kinds of things, you know? Guess it must come from writing too much SX lately. Thanks so much for the comment anyway.
To RuneKnightPictures: What, you're going to cosplay as Dante? Which version? I was planning to go as the coatless DMC 1 version for an anime festival later this year in my country, but I doubt I will get the chance, since preparing something like a cosplay takes time and money. Anyway, I wish your cosplay turns out decent and that you update something of your works soon. I promise you will get to see Artemis, Agni and Rudra in action soon as per your wish very soon, but not in this chapter.
To windwingxs: Gendou's going to get more than just a smackdown…more like a smackdown from Hell, compliments of Dante! Thanks for the support as always.
To nick2951: Thanks for the nice comment; it's good for me to see a new fan who's interested in this story.
Now with that aside, time to move on with the story. The rest of the battle scenes will have 'Taste the Blood' as its theme till further chapters. Enjoy as always. I dedicate this chapter to all the Gunslinger Style, Nevan and the Crazy Gameplay video fans!
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ShardclawKusanagi presents:
End of Evangelion May Cry
Chapter 7: The Proposition
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By the time Dante had driven inside back in NERV headquarters through the corridors, he can see that most of the enemy JSSDF troops have been driven back or eliminated during the invasion, which meant an easier access to the Command Centre without interference by the enemy.
However, Dante found himself blocked by the walls of bakelite as he got into the deeper areas of NERV. With a simple grin on his face, he drove the motorcycle he was riding to the side and took out his Ebony and Ivory twin pistols. Having charged up his demonic energy into them, he executed his Gunslinger Charge Shot attack, as huge, energy bursts of bullets shot out of his guns while still moving. For a few moments, the power of the shots he fired ate through the bakelite, but Dante continued on, using his Rapid Shot to fire his guns and soon, the shots he was firing became as powerful as a turret gun, continuous number of bullets that were fired burst an opening through the bakelite wall.
Still spinning the motorcycle, he then entered another JSSDF infested area, as a number of them were ambushed by Dante's entrance. Leaping off the motorcycle, he had enough leverage while in mid-air to perform his Rain Storm attack, firing his guns at a number of troops just under him as he spins at a breakneck fast speed, while the motorcycle crashed into another unfortunate group of the enemy troops.
"Don't tell me you ass-feeders still don't get the message, do you?" Dante said, landing in front of them, now holding his Cerebus nunchucks. He began to clobber one troop with the Cerebus 2 attack, continuously attacking other troops along the way. As he was done with the combo attack with the ice nunchucks, he performed his Windmill attack and suddenly cancelled into his Satellite move, which cut down a number of troops still surrounding Dante.
"Whoaa-aaa! Too easy!" Dante shouted, catching the Cerebus from it as it spun around his waist and replacing it with his Rebellion sword, which he continued his bad ass assault on the JSSDF. As soon he was reequipped with the Rebellion, Dante then performed his Million stab move on the same troop, before cancelling the final attack and getting back to Cerebus, he then executed his Crystal attack, plunging it into the ground and creating a huge ice pillar in front of him, impaling the troop with it.
"Chew on this!" Dante shouted as he performed his Crystal move. The rest of the troops who didn't get cleaved by Dante's attack rushed him, but Dante wasn't done with his attack, as during the Crystal move, a huge ice glaciers shot up from around Dante and impaled the rest of the troops as he had just executed his Million Carats attack.
"It's cool!" Dante said, freezing the troops in his path and around him. After taking care of that section, the demon hunter moved on forward, hoping he won't have to waste his energy in fighting more of the enemy troops. However, there was no rest for the weary as Dante almost got himself in the line of heavy fire from a group of JSSDF sniper and rocket launcher troops, who were waiting to ambush Dante as he turned a corner.
"This is getting old…" Dante said, as he got ready to execute his Ice Age attack which consisted of spinning his Cerebus and creating a mass of ice that encircled the area of his body, creating a shield of ice that soon deflected the oncoming bullets, grenade and missile rounds that were fired by the troops. The ice casing made him impervious to the attacks for the time he executed Ice Age.
"Freeze!" Dante shouted, finishing his attack and now equipping his electric reaper guitar, Nevan. He smiled a bit as he got into his Tune Up stance, readying the guitar in front of him. Starting to pick its strings, Dante was set to perform a heavy metal rock concert that the people in NERV won't soon forget.
"Consider yourselves lucky…it's an open concert today!" Dante challenged his enemies while holding unto Nevan. As he started to jam on the Nevan with a combo attack, electric current started to build up around him, and soon, he was sending waves of electric bolts, coupled with bloodsucking bats at his enemies. The troops met their ends by either the high current waves of electricity or the bats that started to feed off their bodies. Dante then charged at the troops that he missed and executed his Reverb Shock attack, knocking the troops in front of him airborne, as bats and electric bolts followed them, but Dante was far from done with them.
Leaping on top of an airborne troop right after the Reverb Shock attack, Dante then took out his twin pistols and fired at the troops, and then executing his Air Play move, summoning more bats and electric bolts at his enemies. As soon as he landed, he took out his shotgun and performed his Fire Works move, swinging and firing the shotgun around his body as if it was a nunchuck. He then performed his Gun Stinger attack, blasting many of the troops around him with a charged energy shot.
"You want more of this?" Dante said, taking back out his twin pistols and seeing a downed enemy troop in front of him, he began to shoot at the troop with repeated shots, and continued by planting his right foot on top of him, as Dante used his Wild Stomp moved to show the JSSDF that he was not one to be messed with.
"Begone!" Dante shouted, kicking the bullet riddled and battered corpse at the group of enemy troops. To clear out the rest of the troops, Dante then got into his Nevan Tune Up Stance once more and started to use his Jam Session attack, an ultimate move which got Dante picking the strings of his Nevan guitar at breakneck speeds, while creating a rocking, melody of death for the troops, as he summoned a massive horde of bats and powerful bolts of lightning that attacked the remainder of troops.
"Let's rock!" Dante continued to use his Jam Session attack to take out the number of troops around him with the electrical bolts and vampire bats attack. By the time Dante did this, the passageway was already clear of the enemy troops, as he finally took a breather while proceeding closer to the Command Centre.
"When I eventually get my hands on those old bastards for starting this mess up…they regret the day they pissed me off." Dante said to himself. Along the way, Dante then saw one passageway that clearly marked the entrance to the NERV Command Centre. As he got closer, he then saw Lady's personally trained military forces guarding the door leading to the centre.
"You boys actually made it, huh?" Dante said as the white coloured troops recognized Dante. "Your boss really took her time to get here."
"She had to get final negotiations going with the team and the leader in charge of finding the so-called Fourth Child and those who are staying with him." One of the troops answered.
"So it went alright, then?" Dante asked.
"Better than we hoped for. There's no way we'll let these bastards will get close to the Fourth while we're busy here." The second troop spoke.
"That's good to hear. Okay, I heard that I was called here, so I might as well introduce myself to these people." Dante said, as he stepped through the door which leads to the Command Centre.
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Meanwhile in the Command Centre, the atmosphere was more settled down thanks to the recent arrivals and the events surrounding them. Major Misato Katsuragi and Trish were joined by Lady and her own troops and were safely led to the Command Centre some moments before. To Misato's surprise, she saw her friend, Ritsuko Akagi, standing next to Maya Ibuki's chair with a serious, yet calmed look on her face.
"Ristuko! You're actually here!" Misato said in a tone of surprise.
"Unbelievable, isn't it?" she remarked. "I guess if some of these troops that call themselves the White Devils haven't shown up as soon as I left the Terminal Dogma, I wouldn't be here. But of course, all thanks goes to that other woman who came with these two…"
"Wait, Lucia's down below this base?" Trish asked.
"With the Gendou and the First Child." Ristuko replied. "When last I saw her, she was about to offer a piece of her mind to Gendou. Too bad I couldn't have stayed around to see the show…but I'm actually worried about her."
"Lucia's able to handle herself pretty well…but you can never tell what may happen, especially since your bastard Commander has that Adam as part of himself as you've told us before." Trish spoke.
"How are we holding up on the outside?" Misato asked Makoto Hyuga as soon as she got close. Makoto got an easier sign to breathe more easily now that Misato's back, as the same with Maya for Ritsuko's safety.
"It seems that both the Second and Third have managed to take down a number of the reactivated Eva series." Makoto reported. "A few of them had already been taken down by that man in red just moments before and so far, I'm not reading any more signs of power in any of their internal systems."
"The name is Dante to those who don't know it yet." Dante's voice spoke from behind as he stepped in the room with the Nevan guitar hanging on to his back, most of the people in NERV was taken by not only his appearance, but the fact that this single being has the balls to challenge an entire strategic force like the JSSDF was walking amongst them. The half demon-human coolly walked up to the Sub Commander, while Misato, Ritsuko and Maya took a good look at his cool-as-hell good looks as he started to talk.
"You're the one running this place?" Dante asked Kouzou Fuyutsuki face to face.
"As of now." Fuyutsuki answered. "Andüyou're certainly living up to your name, son of the Dark Knight, Sparda. I've heard only rumours of you…"
"Get that, Trish? People far and wide have heard about me…" Dante boasted.
"Why are all of you here?" Misato asked suddenly as Dante looked at her direction.
"Let's cut to the chase…the reason why I'm here with my partners is simple: To put a stop to this Third Impact that both your asshole of a Commander and those geriatrics at SEELE are planning to start." Dante said. "Of course, stopping those lame troops and those robots from totalling your base was an added benefit…so I'm expecting hazard pay out of this, got it?"
"You were paid to do this? Who was it that did that?" Ritsuko asked.
"That, I was told not to tell, Blondie." Dante said simply to Ritsuko. "Let's just say he went out of his way to help you people in this base."
(It can't be…Kaji? No, it couldn't be….it's not possible.) Misato thought to herself, as Kouzou continued to speak.
"It may be an odd request for one who hunts devils to do this, but…" Kouzou stopped for a moment, only to have Dante pat his shoulder.
"Take it easy, old man. You want me to stop that Gendou Ikari for good, is that it?" Dante asked.
"If you do that, it would mean lifting a burden off NERV's shoulders. You have no idea how many people hate him…" Ritsuko spoke bitterly.
"He's neglected his own son and those around him with no regards to what they feel, only for himself…" Misato had her say, but Dante had put up his hand before she continued.
"You don't need to go on…I've been given enough details about him which made me choose this job in the first place." Dante said. He remembered clearly on some significant details of his own growing personal hatred for Gendou while preparing for his mission. All the dirt he got about NERV came from Enzo Fellini, Dante's snitch in the demon hunting business. One of his 'famous' acts as a Commander which had lead to the activation of the Dummy Plug for Unit 01 while Evangelion Unit 03 was possessed was proof of that. Dante can rememüer being told what the Commander did during the incident and afterwards. It sickened Dante totally to hear what have happened and he thought that's where Gendou have drawn the line.
"Still…we think that what you are doing is not your average procedure." Maya spoke.
"She's got a point…why did you all get involved with this?" Misato asked.
Dante sighed and started walking around the hall in front of the NERV personnel as he spoke.
"Personally, I really don't give a damn about what the outcome is going to be like, but that doesn't mean I don't care what will happen to everyone on this planet if this Impact takes place, either." Dante said. "You can say I'm carrying my old man's torch in protecting this world from going to hell. If I don't do my job, he might as well come back from the dead and give me a beating for not cleaning the garbage that's infested this planet, namely your Commander. It's because of people like you; I know what's important now. I know what I need to do."
Misato and the other people looked at Dante in surprise as he said this. Little did they know Dante had a soft, caring side for humans, which would make him go through such lengths to help the people of NERV. With a slight grin on her face, she nodded at the demon hunter.
"Guess that sums up that you have an obligation…Dante." Misato said. "Do you think you can do it?"
"Oh, please…the Commander's nothing special. But I'll make sure he has a long and agonising period of suffering before I actually off him." Dante said with a smirk. "You have my word on it."
"Not with Adam in his possession now…" Ritsuko said. "He could as well take your partner out with its power before she knew what hit her."
"Never underestimate the power of devils." Trish said, as she got closer to Dante. She handed him the Sparda sword. "Something tells me you'll need this sooner or later."
"No kidding…" Dante said, putting the sword on his back. Lady got close to Dante as well and handed him her KalinaAnn rocket launcher, a long range rifle named the Spiral, two dual swords of a red and blue colour with serrated edges that were named Agni and Rudra and a weird weapon that was shaped like the Nightmare, but it was in a metallic colour, which was named the Artemis.
"Thanks for holding this for me, Lady." Dante said, equipping the Agni and Rudra weapons along with his Rebellion sword. Lady simply stared at him with a quizzed look on his face. "Now to do your part of the deal…"
"To find the Fourth Child? Yeah, I already got the details when I had my team hacked NERV's data relating to the pilots and which friends they knew before we got here, that's why we took a while to find and confirm an exact location of where he's staying." Lady spoke, which made Misato look up.
"Are you saying that SEELE's gone after Touji Suzuhara as well?" she asked in shock.
"Most likely." Dante simply said. "But don't you worry your sweet, little head. My 'other' partner got it handled."
(There are more of these guys helping? I wonder who it that I wasn't told about yet is.) Misato thought to herself as Dante started to head for the door.
"Terminal Dogma…which is the fastest way I can get there?" Dante asked.
"I'll show you the way via the fastest possible route, though all the elevators going down there are now either destroyed by the enemy or taken over." Misato stood up.
"If there are no elevators, I can still get down without trouble anyhow." Dante answered with a shrug. Misato just looked at him with a puzzled look, as she has yet to see Dante's true self in battle, especially since he has a knack for going down long fifty feet-plus tall buildings and towers in style.
"Hyuga, make sure to tell Shinji and Asuka that I'm hoping for them to continue working together in taking out the remaining Mass Production Evas. I'll meet back with you all when this is all over." Misato told Hyuga this as he nodded in response.
"Roger." Makoto replied.
"Let's get a move on then." Misato said, as she and Dante prepare to leave. As he did, Trish called out to Dante.
"Be careful down there, Dante. And don't mess up while trying to have your fun." Trish warned Dante.
"Yeah, yeah…whatever, spoilsport. And I'm counting on you to hold your end of the bargain, Lady." Dante said to her.
"As I am with you when you deal with Gendou Ikari." She said as he left the Command Centre with Misato. Ritsuko seemed interested in how Lady remarked the last one.
"Can I ask you something…Lady is it called?" Ritsuko asked.
"Go on ahead."
"It seems that you're hatred for our Commander brings up some kind of mutual feeling you may have, isn't it?" Ritsuko asked.
"You're quite right about that….my own father was just as much scum as Gendou Ikari…he murdered my own mother and innocent people so he can attain demonic power at the cost of his soul." Lady explained. "Those two are almost so alike…it's pathetic when you think about it."
"How miserable…."
"That's not the worst part of it. He had even used me, Dante and his brother once to break the seal leading to the demonic world. He was actually more powerful than us and even fooled all of us into battling each other for his cause." Lady said. "In the end, I got sick and tired of his lies and needs and planted four bullets in his skull after Dante was through with him."
"Reminds me a bit of how Gendou only cared for his well-being all this time and is now going to pay the price for it." Ritsuko said with a near wicked grin.
"Let's hope Dante gets to him in time to return the favour." Lady replied as they looked on at the monitors as the battle outside the GeoFront continued. Looking at her watch, she nodded her head and looked at few of the troops surrounding her.
"Okay, let's move out to secure the Fourth Child. Our partner must be tired waiting for us." Lady said as she and her troops hurriedly stepped out of the room.
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"This seems to be it right here." Misato said, stopping in the deepest, top secret areas of NERV, a tunnel leading further down into Terminal Dogma. Down below, both Misato and Dante can see the mess that the JSSDF had caused, nearly blocking the path. But Dante bravely stepped close to the edge.
"What are you doing?" Misato asked. "It's a long drop to where Lilith is being stored…"
"I'll race you." Dante simply said, pointing to an elevator which was still working to Misato's surprise. "You'd better get going if you want to see all the action; you wouldn't want me to take all the credit now, would I?"
"But…" Misato said, as Dante waved his finger at her.
"There could still be unwanted guests down that way; I'm just killing two birds with one stone while saving us the trouble. Trust me on this." Dante said. Misato had little idea what he was planning, but she simply sighed as the elevator door opened and she stepped in.
"Okay…I have faith in you." Misato said, nodding her head as she pressed the button to close the elevator's door. Seeing the elevator proceed downwards safely, Dante then looked down the large, never ending looking shaft.
"Here I go again. I'm coming, Lucia." Dante said, bravely leaping off the edge and into the darkness of the shaft of Terminal Dogma.
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Meanwhile in Terminal Dogma, Lucia was still on a standoff with Gendou, while he still was holding unto her as hostage. She can't attack him as he is, as he could hurt Rei or initiate the Third Impact in front of Lucia, either way, Gendou would succeed anyway.
"I dare you to make to attack; you can't do a thing while I still hold the medium for creating the Third Impact." Gendou spoke, while Rei stood motionless in his arms, his right hand covered with blood from the wound Lucia gave him earlier.
"You're saying you're willing to use her for your own causes, is it not?" Lucia spoke.
"That's right…it's her sole purpose. She was created for no other reason." Gendou spoke. "To me, she is just an instrument for reuniting me with my Yui…"
"Silence! I will not listen to your false words any longer, Gendou Ikari!" Lucia said, suddenly shifting to her white Devil form. Her body had changed its appearance to a white and grey figure covered in feathers. Gendou stepped back in fear as he saw Lucia had activated her Devil Trigger in front of him.
"You…you're not human, aren't you?" Gendou asked in shock, but Lucia didn't care, as she began to speak to Rei while in Devil Trigger form.
"Are you going to allow yourself to be just an 'instrument' for this man any longer, Rei Ayanami? Surely, you do know you are more capable of that!" Lucia said.
The First Child was silent as Gendou sneered in pain at Lucia. He started to point his gun at her as she charged at him, but she easily evaded the bullets without hardly any effort.
"Don't allow yourself to be under this man's control any longer, First Child. You are capable of your own will and choice…that's what a certain man told me sometime ago when I had doubts about my own existence." Lucia said. "He has no right to even touch you as he is…"
"How dare you could speak to her like that, you monster!" Gendou shouted as he fired some more shots at Lucia, but she leaped into the air and threw a wave of knives near his feet to scare him a bit.
"The choice is yours to make, Ayanami." Lucia said. "You can use the chance you've been given to protect those you care about the most and help me, or let this man take them away from you. It's your choice."
"Don't listen to her, Rei. Why would anyone listen to a monster like her and believe her words…?" Gendou said, but Rei suddenly turned at him and suddenly drew herself away further away from him as he was distracted by Lucia's new appearance.
"I'm not a doll, nor am I your tool." Rei said calmly. "You've hurt Ikari and the others…why would your wife come back to you after done those things?"
Gendou looked on in shock as Rei had begun to defy his command, having grown a will for her own. She no longer wanted to be served as Gendou's tool to initiate the Third Impact and this didn't make him too happy.
"You can't defy me now, Rei!" Gendou shouted, stretching out his bloodied right hand to touch her. However, before it got close enough, it started to spasm. Gendou let out a cry of pain as he grabbed his right arm and threw himself into the ground.
Rei stepped back as Lucia stood close to defend her, while still in her Devil Trigger form. Lucia can sense something was very wrong with the picture she was seeing.
(Is that Adam embryo causing something to happen to him?) She thought to herself. Her suspicions rose as Gendou's mouth started to foam, and his body size began to grow in a slightly larger form. She can see his eyes were changing colour as well, as both she and Rei can see clearly through his tinted glasses. After hearing his screaming for a while, Gendou seemed to have calmed down as he took his time to get up, with a much different appearance than before. The right side of his face had been infected by the Adam embryo, white large veins coursing blood that ran from his right arm was seen so clearly, that he didn't even looked human any more. But the face itself was etched with a power hungry look that was the sign of him being possessed by the Adam embryo, yet giving him a cursed power.
"This…is this power that Adam has blessed me with?" Gendou asked, looking at himself with some pride. "So it is true…I'd never expected Adam to fully lend me his strength once I'm hurt."
"You've become a monster because of your own worm infested heart!" Lucia implied. "You've truly become a monster…"
"Nothing will stop me from being with Yui and Lilith…not even the enemy of the ones who condemned your kind to this Earth since the beginning of time." Gendou said. "I will smite you all with this power Adam has granted me with!"
Lucia simply got into a fighting pose as Gendou, now possessed with Adam's power, got closer. She had to defend Rei at any cost, and she still had high hopes that Dante would show up soon in time to finish the job.
"Dante, wherever you are, you'd better get your ass down here fast…" Lucia spoke to herself as she prepared herself to battle Gendou in his state.
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ShardclawK: And that concludes this chapter…never expected Gendou to get powers from Adam like that, huh? Well, don't worry, I have no plans to kill off Lucia, as Dante closes in on Gendou with the order of stopping by any means necessary before he can initiate Third Impact with each update. I know you guys can't wait for the confrontation any longer, so you're going to get it sooner than you think, but now the only thing holding me back is how much Dante can torture Gendou once he gets to Terminal Dogma. (Damn…so many ways to make the wankster suffer…choices, choices.) And just what is Lady up to with finding Touji? Just where is she heading and who is going to work with her, since Dante's got his hands full? Nah, I won't tell you who it is just yet, but very soon as the story get closer to the end…
Anyway, I just had to focus on Lucia a bit on this chapter, since that's probably one of the only good things that I liked DMC 2 was her and some of the soundtrack from the game naturally, so I do hoped I portrayed her right. I do hope also that Dante's interaction with NERV was done well, I know he's not the talking type currently, but I really loved with what they did with his character in DMC 3, so I just had to have Dante use that speech. Be expecting more cool interaction bits of the DMC crew and NERV cast later on.
Just one more note before we do, since I'm already using DMC 3's soundtrack for the battle scenes, be expecting other tunes than 'Taste the Blood' to be played soon, like 'Suffer' and 'Divine Hate'. Right now, I'm looking for links that have the 'Divine Hate' theme which could be heard right from the net, so if there's anyone who can tell me if there are the available soundtracks for the game's music now anywhere via the net or if the official soundtrack music cd is out, let me know in a review, please? After nearly ninety hours of playing DMC 3, would the music from the game make you think it's catchy as well?
In the next Chapter: The conclusion of the Mass Production Eva battles against Unit 01 and Unit 02! And Lucia takes on Gendou, and Dante joins in mid-way! The party's almost drawing to a close, people, so I'll leave you now to review the chapter while I get cracking on another update. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and see you all again in the next one.
Collis aka ShardclawKusanagi.