Alexander frowned at Dante, going through his magazine while there are clients in the shop. he shook his head with the devil hunter making an order to get a large pizza, no olives as usual, after dealing with a dive that was infested with demons as Morrison spoke. "Are you listening to me, Dante?" Dante lifted his head a bit in speaking to the dark-skinned man in answering.
"Did you hear me? I'm studying, I may take the occasional odd job here and there, but I've no desire to babysit some kid."
"Kid?" The subject of the job that Morrison was talking about paused in the center after a brief wander around as Dante closed the magazine in speaking.
"Sorry, young lady." Dante voiced in walking over to his pool table. "Maybe, in ten years or so, I'll ask you on a date." The girl huffed as she retorted.
"And I'll tell you no in ten seconds. Me? I'm only into younger guys." Dante chalked up one of the cues as Morrison searched the fridge before grabbing a beer as he walked back over to the couch as he spoke.
"Listen, Dante, she may be a kid, but-" he turned his head to the girl as he corrected. "Oh, I'm sorry, my apologies." The young lady pouted as Morrison spoke. "But the young lady standing before you is not just any girl, she's Patty Lowell. The Cinderella girl who's heiress to the Lowell family fortune." Dante cast an eye to her as she took to looking around again, the office going through another renovation for the time, so only Dante's magazines were left unchecked for the moment.
"Sure doesn't look like it."
"That's because all this time she's been living as an orphan downtown." Dante lined the shot as Alexander kept a eye on Patty, his brow narrowing on the last name, Lowell...
In recent days, the Lowell name started to crop up in a large fortune, but the timing was incorrect, the Patty in that fortune would be an adult, not a child, so that left one other Lowell family, a family who carried an ancient amulet, used to contain a powerful demon, a rival if you will to the Dark Knight Sparda.
"I can tell, kind of like Cinderella, but after the magic wore off." Morrison took a drink as he corrected.
"Actually, it's the opposite, the head of the Lowell family passed away, when the will was read, existence of an illegitimate child came to light."
"And the lucky winner was a young lady."
"Precisely." Dante shot, knocking the billiards around as Morrison agreed. "In other words, the magic is just about to begin." Patty straightened up with Dante's chair flopping on the ground as she spoke.
"If you like, I could always hire you as my very own personal servant."
"Yeah." Dante huffed as Patty smiled as Morrison continued, Alexander switching up spots to the table as Morrison spoke.
"Basically, it's been requested that you escort miss Patty back to the Lowell mansion by six p.m. tomorrow. Think you can handle that?"
"That's all?"
"That's all." Dante huffed as this was just a courier run, he may take the job, but getting the chaffer of some rich kid was not really in the contract, though if he refused, then Morrison would try to shanghaied Dante into doing it and Alexander did say that Dante had a bad streak with gambling on mediocre things.
"Look, as much as I would like to help, my tab has been paid a long while ago, Andy knows this and will send me the pizza, so unless you had a talk with him to not do it unless I do this job, then I wouldn't do it, you would have to talk to my accountant about that anyway." Morrison flipped a coin, but all except Dante jumped to Alexander lashing out a hand and catching the coin in midair as he spoke.
"That would have been tails, Morrison." He pulled his hand back as he spoke. "Still, I think it best we check out the Lowell mansion, Dante. I can take Mist along for the ride, Shanoa wanted some time getting her skills up to snuff."
"Fair enough, Al." Dante answered back with putting on his coat, Alexander standing up as Patty joined them before Morrison spoke.
"Dante, don't forget." Morrison held out a leather guitar case to Dante, and both narrowed their brows as Morrison spoke. "You've got a show to put on." Dante took the case as Morrison left, catching the coin that Alexander flipped to him as he mused. "I'm counting on you, you guys." Both huffed as Dante spoke.
"This took a turn."
"Oh yeah." Alexander mused with a shake of the head before he went next door with Dante getting the car, knocking on the door as he spoke. "Mist, we have a client, we are riding with Dante."
"Okay, papa!" The door opened and Alexander steadied himself to the tackling figure of a ten-year old girl with snow-white hair, glowing amber eyes, and ink marks about her arms as she spoke. "Mama said that I have been a good girl!"
"And I believe her just as well, Mist." He looked up to a radiant woman with a black waterfall of hair, lace done up the sides and hidden at the back, spats briefly seen with some feminine combat boots adorning her feet as Alexander spoke. "Shanoa... are you sure you want to stay inside to work on your skills?"
"I am perfectly fine with it, I still need a bit of time before my own strength is increased in compare to this world, Mist's own skills and abilities adapted more readily." Alexander nodded as Shanoa closed in and both shared a kiss as she spoke. "I'll be fine, I thought I lost you several times in the past, but I am not about to let you fall without me doing my worst to any that dares to take you from us again."
"Well, a clown tried, but he's gone now." Shanoa frowned as Alexander just smirked with turning his attention to Mist. "Let's go, Dante is in the car with an 'heiress'."
"Did she turn him down, Papa?"
"If she was ten years older or so and said that she would in ten seconds." The two headed out and Shanoa breathed as she spoke.
"This is quite the world, but I think that this world does have need of more fighters to protect it, after all..." Her smile went dangerous as her hand seemed to form a broadsword from a trail of energy surging into her palm. "I am sure that Albus would be thrilled to show a few demons what an exorcist of Ecclesia truly is made of..."
The red car rode up the road, Patty taking the front seat with Dante driving, Alexander and Mist in the back seat with the 'guitar case' before she spoke up. "I could come and see your show. I mean, there must not be anyone who comes to see you otherwise, right?"
"Sorry, my shows are for adults only." Both Mist and Alexander snorted to the excuse as Patty changed the subject.
"So, the woman in that picture is coming to your show then, huh?" Dante frowned as he spoke.
"If only... she passed a long time ago, I keep her photo in remembrance of better memories." Patty went quiet in hearing that as she tried again.
"Well, whatever you do, you should buy yourself a new car, I don't see any romance happing in this car, that's for sure." Patty huffed as she listed off how disgusting it is. "It's dirty, it stinks, and it's falling apart."
"It's only like that because this is the company car and I am often the only one who drives it. Me, I have been keeping my eye on getting a motorcycle, dangerous sure, but my accountant keeps telling me that a motorcycle is more fit for two people, not a band of members. I trust his judgement on these things often." Dante smirked as he finished. "Besides, I don't think I dare even ask a few of my female friends at the shop for a date without the risk of assault and torture on the line, they got some interesting past times when they are off the clock." Patty huffed to the air before Dante gasped, Alexander bolted up, and Mist whipping forward as a voice filled their minds.
"Dante, this girl's life is mine." Dante readied as Patty spoke.
"Are you listening?" Mist quickly pulled down the hat and held Patty from behind the seat. "What are you doing!?" Dante pulled out Ebony and Alexander pulled out a revolver as they both aimed, mentally speaking.
'Alex...!'
'Truck!' They zoomed in and, sure enough, there was a demon on the side of the truck and both fired, pelting the demon with firepower before firing a shot into the air, Alexander sheathing his gun while Dante held his high as Patty got free and exclaimed.
"What is wrong with you!? What was that all about!?" She yelped to Dante driving past the semi with an edge as she continued to exclaim. "Don't you think that's a little dangerous! What are you trying to do, kill me!?"
"It was that trucker's fault for hitting up the middle lane like that, Miss Lowell." Alexander answered as the demon fell off and crashed into the road. "Mist had to cover your eyes to keep it safe, Dante and I just gave the guy a warning. Seriously, what is wrong with people in taking up most of the road?" Patty huffed with accepting the answer as Mist joined the mental connection.
'Uncle Dante... Papa... that demon didn't have an eye on the Lowell fortune, but it was still sent to kill Patty.'
'I thought as much, we do have the fortune, but we also have the idea of Alan's Tear.'
'Right, the alchemist enslaving powerful demons and who barely sealed away a powerful one by the name of Abigail, Patty is being used as bait for the real fortune girl.' His hands tightened, signaling Patty to keep quiet as he continued. 'Wonderful, just the luck of Devil May Cry to get a job that just screams demons on the hunt.'
'We'll be fine... we can handle these buggers... loosen up on the wheel.' Dante did so with a breath as they continued on the trail and onto a train station, taking a train ride and booking seats, Mist close by Patty's side and Alexander keeping Dante company on the other seat as Dante took notice of Patty staring at a locket she had pulled out. Alexander and Dante sharing a look before they looked forward and Dante spoke with amuse.
"So, you can look cute when you want to." Patty gasped to the sound as Dante nodded his head in motion. "Is that a picture of your boyfriend?" Patty huffed as she corrected with turning the locket around, showing them the image of a woman holding a baby, long blond hair and green eyes in a colored vest and white undershirt.
"No, it's my mom, you half-wit!" Alexander and Mist stared with disapproval as Patty continued. "And she's a lot prettier than your girlfriend!" Dante showed no reaction to the exclaimed as Patty went sorrowful as she spoke with lowering the locket. "But... I don't remember anything about her, my mom got sick and died when I was just a baby. That's what the hospital director said. That's why i don't remember anything about my mother." She stared at the photo as she continued with her hat covering her eyes. "The only thing I have is this picture." Silence went over them before someone spoke with awe.
"Wow, that's one pretty lady. That wouldn't be a picture of your mother, would it?" Patty glanced to the fellow that arrived with a briefcase in hand. "Hey, and you're pretty charming yourself.' Patty chuckled to the polite nature of the man as he inquired. "Mind if I sit here?" Dante stirred as Alexander spoke.
"Quite interesting, don't you think? Dozens of open seats and you pick the seats belonging to us, sir." Patty didn't mind as she tossed the case to Dante, she not realizing that the click was not of a guitar, but something more metal.
"Here you go!"
"Oh, thank you." The man huffed in taking a seat as he spoke. "Hope I'm not bothering you."
"Not a bother." Alexander voiced as he glanced to Dante. "But, in our line of work, we can get into a bit of dangerous settings, and this protection detail is getting more and more hazardous." The train passed through another tunnel as Patty exclaimed.
"I mean, really? Why would anyone need some promise like that, just because they sit-" She stopped to the man's breathless stop and something barely able to touch him, Alexander huffing as he looked to Mist.
"Nice job."
"My pleasure, Papa." Mist sat back down with a demon's hand in her grip as Patty yelped as Dante breathed.
"Good grief. That's why he told you." The scene was not pretty as the man still slumped forward, still alive, but not looking great as Dante sat up in speaking. "You were almost beat to death, you are lucky that you had some cover with us." So it was that the scene was broken down before the conductor, the issue being that while there were eight people on board, there were only suppose to be seven.
The old man was asleep in the ten seconds that the train passed through the tunnel, the couple were making out in the dark and the last five were in the same seats, but the problem was that there were four humans in the seats.
The fifth, as the train passed through another tunnel, was a demon, connected to a fisher demon that Dante executed promptly, but Patty saw it, a four-eyed monster outside the window before it was sentenced to death by bullets as they left the train behind for the police to roll in as Patty asked.
"That man on the train, do you know who killed that guy?"
"Who knows..." They walked the way before she spoke.
"It was a demon. He was killed by a demon, wasn't he?!" Dante, Alexander, and Mist stayed silent as Patty tried to rationalize what had happened. "But... could a demon be hunting me too!?" She opened her mouth to exclaim for an answer before he spoke.
"If there is, I am the one protecting you. I am your bodyguard with Alexander and his daughter and I have yet to fail, not even once, Patty. The man on the train was used as an angler bait, so it should stand to reason that you are bait for whoever is after the fortune." Patty was quiet as Dante continued to walk, Alexander and Mist behind her. "It is just as Morrison said, this is my show and I don't intend to mess up, so pick up your feet, we have some distance to cover." She nodded solemnly as they four of them continued the path to the Lowell manor. They arriving to a hotel before Alexander deadpanned.
"Okay, Dante, if we are renting a room here, I am going to shoot that keeper in the head." The keeper winced to Patty nearly exclaiming as Dante spoke.
"I get it, he is a demon, a low-ranked one, but he is a demon, but there is no need to get hostile right now, Patty needs some time off her feet and this is the closest place to get a rest in." Dante answered as he turned back to the demon. "Give me your cheapest room. I don't mind if it gets sun or not, we'll be out of here first thing in the morning." The keeper nodded as he spoke with missing teeth.
"Two adults and two children." Dante picked up the keys as he voiced.
"Oh, they are not children, they are young ladies." Dante walked the length in calling out to Patty who was staring at a poster of a singer. "What are you doing? Come on, let's get to sleep."
"That's my mother..." Dante hummed in looking at the poster as well, the four crowding it as Mist spoke.
"She has blonde hair and looks like fair skin, Patty. She could be..."
"But you told us that she had died when you were a baby and the hair is shadowing the eyes, so we can't tell if she has green eyes or not." Alexander answered with resting a hand to his hip. "We can check it out before we leave or after the job is done, Patty, but we really should get some sleep." She seemed insistent, but held back as they took to the room and Alexander settled in a seat while Dante took the couch, the girls taking the bed before Patty spoke.
"I didn't tell you the truth. My mom didn't actually get sick and died, she disappeared..." Dante glanced to her as she continued. "I happened to overheard the hospital director talking about it, my mom is being hunted by a demon and she didn't want me, a baby, to be in danger so she put me in the care of the orphanage." She exclaimed as she directed her grief to Dante. "Anyone hunted by a demon is as good as dead! Is my mother really dead!? Tell me, Dante, am I going to be killed by a demon too!?"
"Who knows..." Dante answered which made Patty droop before he continued. "But I am aware of her." She perked up to the sound of it. "Alexander Helmsmith, the man you see in the chair and a personal friend for several years, has been the one who files and sorts out the details of demons and demonic artifacts." Patty glanced to Alex as Dante continued. "He is aware of the Lowell Family, having descended from the alchemist Alan Lowell, a powerful sorcerer who employed a number of demons for his works, but his greatest tool of power is called Alan's Tear, used to restrict the powers of a intensely powerful demon by the name of Abigail, the barrier to it would repel or even destroy demons, weaker demons would get a reaction, but in order to undo the sealing, one would need a number of demonic items and a ritual to do it." Dante breathed as he spoke.
"I don't think the woman in that poster we saw is Nina Lowell, Patty. What is happening right now is that you were accidentally planted as bait to lure away demons from the Lowell family fortune, a different family, and you bolting off to meet this woman would be isolating you, a show like that... that is asking for trouble." Patty hummed as Dante spoke. "Still... that's what any kid would want, no amount of fortune could ever replace the love of a parent to their child, the orphanage must be like that, those kids want to know the truth, just like you, sating them with new clothes, treats, and other things is just a stop-gap. Good or bad... they would still want to know." Patty nodded before she froze in looking at Dante.
"How did you...?"
"Became an orphan myself, lost family and memory because of it... I saw the way you lit up with your locket and the poster. Dad was tough, but mom was sweet, a contrast with my brother." Dante huffed as he spoke. "Get some sleep... we should be heading out in the morning."
"Papa and Dante will protect us, they are really good at what they do." Patty nodded as they tucked in for the night... if only it had lasted for the time...
The keeper screamed in pain as his hand was severed, the poster turned back into a large moth that was impaled with a thick blade as Dante spoke. "Okay, let's try again. Patty Lowell, I checked in with her last night and she turned up missing. You telling me some bullshit of not knowing, despite how my allies here are quite preceptive, ain't going to do you any good, little man. So where is she?" The demon seemed hesitant before agreeing to guide them, the night light lighting up the car as they headed for where Patty was heading as well, the demon being a grunt, but even one of the grunts had info as Alexander drove them to an opera house where Patty almost got diced by several demons, saved by Dante as he gave Patty a shadowed preview of his show, the bloody kind.
The demon tried to grab hold of Patty, but was stopped with a scythe to the throat as Alexander spoke. "There is a limit to our patience and mercy, Sid." He gaped as Alexander continued. "Demons often get drawn in with rewards of great power or fortune to their names, but you should be aware, or perhaps you are smarter than the rest of the goons here." Alexander smiled a chilling breath as he spoke. "Ah, yes, you are aware that the real Patty Lowell in the will has been using a pleasant trek to the meeting, she took every precaution to toss off attention to herself and leave the fortune details on our Patty, but you know, don't you? You are not some grunt anymore, you are aware of our Lowell truth, aren't you?"
He snatched Sid's vest and pulled him close to black and blue as he spoke. "Hit the road and don't you come back." Sid whimpered in getting tossed off, he booking it as the house ended with Dante finishing up the demons and spoke as he directed his vision to Patty.
"Sorry that it turned out this way..."
"You... you did protect me." Patty rested a hand to her chest as she spoke. "Thank you, Dante... thank you..." She gaped as she turned to him as she spoke. "The Lowells, they're in danger!"
"Then we better make tracks, that demon that Alexander nicely sent off did make a notion that one of the Lowells there was calling the shots, so I say we keep them safe too, this is my job as your bodyguard and where you go right now, I keep you in sight." Dante answered with stashing the guns and they hurried to the manor, time was not on their side for the moment as they soon arrived and it was certain that the brothers were out, wounded by the giant demon that was after the wealth and nearly killed the woman who was Patty as Dante mused with arriving just in the nick of time, having launched a few rounds into the demon's chest. "So it was you who requested I serve as a bodyguard for Patty." She gasped to Dante pointing out the facts. "Did you think you are making some small atonement for your sins yesterday."
Dante huffed as he kept eye contact with the woman. "You're got a pretty face, but you're more terrible than those demons." He stepped fully into the room as Alexander and Mist took to the other side. "Well, if you were a demon, I'd be able to kill you without thinking twice about it." He slung off the guitar case as he spoke. "Okay, if I can't let this go, I'll work off the anger. Guess it's gonna be one hell of a party!" The demon got back up as the case opened to his sword, Rebellion, as he riddled the demon with gunfire and slashing through the demon's body before staking it to the ceiling, the life draining out before Dante pulled the sword free and swished it, blood gushing everywhere as Dante beamed to getting the anger off before the trio headed out, Patty racing after them with Rebellion slung on Dante's back.
"I saw it all! The adult-only part!" Dante huffed with a shake of his head, but he still smiled before dropping it to another voice.
"Wait!" They stopped with Patty looking back to the older Patty as she pleaded. "Please wait a minute. I'm begging you, that child, please let me take care of her. I want to do what I can to make amends..." She has that chance, but none of them said a word, it was not their decision to make, it was Patty's choice, they had done the job in bringing her to the manor, they wouldn't decide what she wanted to do with her life...
Back at Devil May Cry, Morrison spoke. "So, is it alright that you're not staying at the mansion?"
"That's fine. I received compensation."
"Compensation?"
"Yep. Because I'm a little girl who has been scarred from being exposed to the ugly world of adults."
"And those clothes? Are those the compensation?"
"As well as the clothes and sweets for the kids at the orphanage.. in all three truck loads!" Morrison laughed to Patty exclaimed as he congratulated her.
"That's great, well done." A door opened and Morrison looked to find Dante done with his shower before he paused.
"Patty..." He looked up and huffed to the finished dish of a strawberry sundae. "I can't really shout about my place looking like a girl's playroom, but come on, I like treating myself to strawberry sundaes, you did me wrong, Lowell." Patty was unapologetic in her new pink dress as she beamed.
"It was the best sundae ever!" Mist laughed at Dante's huff while Shanoa and Alexander just beamed with cuddling and getting a bit of fluffy plush to enjoy, Shanoa's time training was quite the time and since the apartment has a few extra rooms, Patty Lowell became a resident for Devil May Cry...