Chapter 12
Chance sat stoic at his desk, chain smoking and staring off into space while basking in the culmination of recent events. It took very minimal effort on his part for everything to line up just as he had hoped. Soon, his influence and power would grow to where the city would be his, and he had no intentions of stopping there. It was all a matter of keeping a steady balance and growth of the problem for his power to grow in direct correlation.
His train of thought was interrupted by Ricky entering his office.
"Is it done?" He asked.
"Yeah." Ricky emptily replied.
"Good. Don't want any loose ends." He ashed his cigarette, then lit up another. "I can't wait until it literally blows up in their faces." He laughed.
"So you think we'll be able to stop it when it happens?"
"Who said anything about that?"
"… What do you mean?"
"If we stop the problem, how do we continue to profit from it?"
"So we're gonna just keep on doing just enough to look like we're having any effect while it gets worse and worse? Are you fucking insane? It'll get to the point of no stopping it!"
"Oh, grow up, ya dipshit. We won't be able to stop them once it happens anyways. Might as well get rich from it."
"Chance, we can't let that happen. If they're about to use that, we have to stop them."
Chance stared coldly at Ricky.
"Sit down." He said. Ricky obliged.
"Not only are we going to let it happen…"
"Before Chance finished, Ricky felt the guard behind him. Instinctively, put his hands to his neck to stop the garrote, spinning the guard around to absorb the gunshot from Chance. He then took the guard's pistol along with his own and began spraying towards Chance, who quickly fled the room, allowing Ricky his chance to escape through the window. Landing on the ledge, he ducked immediately, correctly anticipating the shot from Chance's sniper. He turned and fired a few shots at the window the shot came from while descending down the ledges, quickly turning the corner once he was at street level. He made a dash to his car, getting out of dodge before any more of Chance's guards could move in.
"… as the National Guard begins to mobilize. Residents are advised to stay indoors, cautioning that a mass evacuation would only put them in the middle of potential conflict due to delayed construction on many of the city exits stemming from the recent attacks."
"Tax dollars hard at work." Eddy said.
"Yeah, between that and the cops running Dante out of town just long enough for everything to go to shit, I want a bigger damn refund." Johnny added.
"See, that's that 'I have a bigger dick than you' syndrome I've been talking about. Cops wanted to take all the credit for cleaning up the demons instead of him."
"Oh, see, I thought that was you just venting about your small dick."
"Your old Lady seems to enjoy it."
"Oh, good, then you can go fuck her instead of me, because my hip hurts. So I'd better cut you off then."
"Nah, I don't like her that much. Pour me another one."
"So, what are we supposed to do? Sit in here and hope a bunch of bodies and demons don't come crashing through the wall like the fuckin Koolaid Man?" Jose complained.
"You think it's gonna be safer out there, door's open."
Jose didn't reply.
"Yeah, I thought so.
"So… you staying open a little later, Eddy?"
"Fuck yeah, I'm not going anywhere. And since we cant control what comes crashing through the wall or not…" he poured himself a glass of his favorite top-shelf whiskey. "… I say we celebrate the chaos."
"The creaking of the wood floors made the room all the more haunting. He could almost sense exactly how it happened by standing there, taking in the aftermath. All of it made him wonder how anyone, or anything could be capable of such evil. It made his stomach turn. Even worse, it made him relive what he did. The brutality… the blood… the screams… maybe it was his own capabilities that he should have been questioning. It worried him. He'd worked hard on maintaining control of those most demonic of instincts and tendencies. He didn't want to lose control. He didn't want to become what he had spent his life fighting.
"Hey."
If any voice were to rescue him from that flashback, it would be hers. If there was any reason he absolutely could not lose control, it was her.
"Hey." He turned. He had to smile a bit at her knowing he would be here. She made her way over to him.
"It's hard being here." She said./p
"Yeah… I still can't get past it... if I could've just-"
"Dante, stop it." Lady snapped. "You have to stop blaming yourself for this."
"I wish it were that easy, Lady. Every night I go to sleep, she's in my dreams… my nightmares."
"You have to let it go, Dante. It's over and done with, and the only way to get past it is to move on. For all the good you've done, don't let one day change you."
The hybrid looked deeply into his companion's mismatched eyes. Everything he ever needed was there. Strength… comfort… friendship… love…
"Lady…" he started, a small smile now on his face.
"You're responsible for anything good I've ever done. Hell," he laughed. "I'd probably be dead if it wasn't for you. You made me realize the responsibilities that came with my powers. You've made me a better man, and I'm so glad it was you that did it. That it was you who I fell for…"
Try as she may, Lady couldn't ignore the lump in her throat.
"It works both ways, Dante." She started. "Until I met you, I thought demons and evil were exclusive to each other. But you've opened my eyes… you've let me be able to be close to someone again… you're always there for me…" She planted a soft kiss on his lips. "That's why I'm glad it was you who I fell for…"
The two stood lost in each others' eyes until the sound of the door opening broke them from their trance. They could've been knocked over with a feather when Ricky came into the room.
"The hell are you doing here?" Dante said.
"We got a serious problem." He said. "Chance just tried to kill me, and I don't have time for the preliminaries, so I need you to just listen. Chance's mole found out that Amethyst was selling the demons to the military."
"No way." Lady said.
"Way. That's how they got that powerful tranquilizer. Military-grade anti-demon weaponry, designed specifically for capture. It's also how the cops almost took you down. Amethyst gave the cops some as part of their deal, but without telling them where they got it from."
"Why would the military want captured demons? And why wouldn't they just do it themselves?" Lady said
"They're using the demons to harness their energy. They're storing their energy kinetically through specially made conductors connected to the demons. Tapping their most aggressive attacks, they absorb the energy into large ammunition shells designed to hold such powerful energy. And they can't do it themselves because the government has disallowed them for engaging in such. It's getting funded by a CIA Black Operation. They can't have troops seizing demons in the streets without someone noticing."
"How do you know this?" Dante asked.
"Some of Chance's old CIA buddies just so happen to be in charge of the ops. They let him know, and he started doing the math."
"What do you mean?"
Ricky hesitated. "Chance was the one behind what happened to Patty."
"What?"
"Once Chance got wind of what was going on, he started to time things out. He put on a front by attacking Amethyst to save face for his crews but knowingly not enough to wipe him out. He wanted the military to get enough demons to achieve what they needed to. Once he got word from his CIA buddies that they had enough, Chance gave him Patty and her mother's address as part of a faux truce. Even though the cops were on Amethyst's payroll, they refused to give him their address, and they were unlisted. Chance got the information through his mole. By giving him that information, knowing how you'd react, he got rid of Amethyst and, more importantly, you. That way, things would get bad enough to where Chance would start to gain more respect and trust among the public after absorbing all the remaining hunting crews, being that he was more successful at combating the demons than the cops, whose asses he's been kicking since you left. Also, bad enough to the point where the National Guard has been called upon to fix this, and, word from his CIA buddies is they intend on using it as an opportunity to unveil and test the weapon. He intends on letting things get worse and worse, profiting from it and using it to gain influence to where he becomes leader of a new world order that will stem from public distrust in the powers that be. And unlike them, you know what that means, so we'd better get the fuck moving."
"Sure. Right after I disembowel Chance."
"Hey, Dante, I want him dead as much as you, but I think we need to prioritize a little."
"Who the fuck are you to try and be my moral compass? You can kiss my ass, Ricky."
"Fuck you, Dante. Unlike you, I don't have the luxury of being nearly-invincible, so I did what I had to do to survive."
"Yeah, and you aided in disabling the cops from combating the demons, and only fighting the demons enough yourselves to get the people on your side, knowing it wasn't enough to prevent THIS from happening. You knew it was going to get to this, and only when it's too late to stop it do you get the balls to do anything about. And because he tried to kill you."
"Okay, fine, I'm a piece of shit. You happy? Can we try to stop this now?" He fired up a cigarette. "Stop pissing and moaning about the past, maybe?"
"You know what, their lives didn't mean shit to you, but they meant everything to me."
"Yeah yeah, I lost all my friends in this too, get over it you fuckin baby."
Dante walked to him and harshly slapped the cigarette from his mouth. He then grabbed him by the throat and pinned him against the wall.
"Dante…" Lady started.
Dante let him go, fixing his ruffled coat after.
"You finished?" Ricky said somewhat shakily.
"Dante only looked at Lady, then started out of the house. Lady only looked at Ricky briefly before following behind Dante. Ricky only stood there for a few moments, then made his exit.
Well, five and a half years later, finally got this finished. Let me just say a bunch of shit has happened since now and then, and a lot of it was going on at the time of my last update. Got my degree. It's useless. Started a band. It ended after three years due to laziness. And I said fuck UPS and started hardscaping. So lately I've just been getting my chops up n building a bunch of shit, so hopefully it won't be another half a decade until the next update. Hard to believe it's been almost eight years since I published this. Hopefully this chapter didn't go too far off the rails from the plot (not gonna lie, was too lazy to re-read the whole damn thing) but if yinz notice anything, let me know and I'll fix it. A lot of this I was like, "wait, what the fuck did I even write? How was I gonna make that shit work again? What was that character's name? Where's my keys?" So bare with me if I fucked it up. Now im gonna hit this roor n pass aht before I have to wake up and build a versalok retaining wall or some shit.
"Let's drink up."
"Here's to your health."
"Ah, shit, let's drink to something else."
