Author's Notes: Reiko and Arson reach the Temen-Ni-Gru, engage in a little combat, and receive some unexpected support, enjoy .
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At the base of the Temen-Ni-Gru, Reiko and Arson had just arrived at the front entrance.
That is to say, they could see the front entrance, but there was one small obstacle between them and it. In front of the large open portal into the tower, which for some reason was surrounded by an enormous puddle, were six Enigmas. These possessed statues were bizarre creations armed with bow-like energy arrow firing devices on their arms.
"Sentries..." Reiko mused to himself, knelt behind some debris with Arson. He figured they had been put here to watch for intruders besides Dante or Vergil, like Lady, or themselves. Using their energy weapons they could probably send a signal and call for a giant horde of demons as reinforcements if they spotted anyone. To either of the incredibly powerful sons of Sparda this was a distraction, but one they could easily handle, however to the less gifted vampire and hybrid it was a much more serious threat.
Reiko sat for a moment to think on a course of action, while Arson poked his eyes over their cover to have a look himself. Tilting his head he gave a confused look and mumbled "Didn't know stones followed the news". His attention caught by this bizarre statement, Reiko turned and leant round to see what he meant.
Several metres away from them, all six Enigmas were watching a newspaper blow through their midst with enamoured, rapt attention, as if it were the most amazing thing ever. The reason for this was that the statues had been stuck in the tower for 2,000 years, not moving, not even breathing (being statues), nothing changing for all that time. Compared to that watching a newspaper blow by was as utterly amazing to them as say, seeing two shooting stars doing it doggy-style across the night sky would be to a normal person.
Seeing their distraction gave the crafty vampire an idea, and double-checking there weren't any others lurking around, just the six of them, he turned to Arson. "Hey Arson, those statues are protesting against strawberries" he said calculatingly. This had the desired effect, the teenager's face transforming into an expression of righteous fury as he hissed "Those malefactors...". Reiko smiled slightly, having effectively motivated Arson, and held up a finger to his lips, "But we've got to make it a surprise attack". Nodding with furiously focused understanding Arson knelt down with terrorist poise as Reiko picked up a piece of rubble.
Back with the Enigmas, who had been so excited by the Flying Paper Spirit that some of them were spacing out, a sudden sharp noise caught their attention. Turning towards the tower they saw a chunk of rubble which had hit the ground and rolled for a bit before coming to a stop. Utterly captivated by this, the statues gathered round and tried to communicate with the newcomer, believing it to be alive since it, like them, was made of stone.
They were still inquiring as to the traveller's tales of strange lands when with a surging battle cry of "For Fragorum Fraga!", Arson came crashing out of the skies into them and happened, as he had a tendency to.
The Enigma he landed on was instantly destroyed by the cyclone of whirling flames, sharp edges and expressions of manic, fanatical zeal Arson had wound himself up into. As it crumbled to dust the last thought to pass through its mind was that this was the most amazingly exciting thing it had ever seen!
As the hybrid leapt towards the next-closest target, swords stretched out like mantis blades with a yell of "Banzai!", Reiko, bo-staff in hand, circled round and leapt out at another Enigma. Behind their cover he had had Arson stand on his weapon then had basically catapulted him into the enemy group. After this he'd looked for the enemy moving furthest from Arson's wrath and moved to strategically pick it off.
Having calculated his position expertly, Reiko swept the legs out from under his target with one swing of his staff, then brought it round and stabbed it down into the torso of the creature, damaging the stone skin. Before it could gather itself, the vampire finished it off with a series of precise strikes to its prone form.
This caught the attention of another Enigma who turned and began powering up a salvo of energy arrows, aiming at him. With all his inhuman speed the vampire rushed the demon, which chose to stand its ground as it would easily be able to charge its attack fully before the distance was closed. Forming a volley of bright red energy shards, the demonic statue let loose on the closing vampire.
But Reiko had anticipated this and slammed on the brakes. Bringing his staff round, he spun it like a helicopter blade and deflected the entire salvo of arrows, leaving him unharmed and only a couple of paces from the vulnerable Enigma. He leapt forwards and twisted as the statue fired a weak desperation shot, turning around and evading the arrows, then drove his staff backwards into the centre of the demon. With a precise flick he lifted it up into the air and spun his staff, building momentum then smashing the Enigma clean in half with a baseball-style swing as it descended.
By now Arson had dismantled the second of his playmates and jumped towards the third, who fired a round of arrows at the airborne attacker. Arson didn't even flinch and in a move of shameless craziness Dante would have been proud of, caught the lot of them out of the air with his mouth, snapping out and grabbing them in his jaws like a dog playing Frisbee.
Crashing down clumsily on the disbelieving Enigma, he took the arrows out of his mouth with his hands and grinned an unnervingly helpful-looking grin. Shouting "You dropped these!", he proceeded to smack them over the statue's head, stunning it. "Littering fine, ten stomps!" he yelled without warning, and then began bouncing up and down madly, trampling the demon to death. "The environment strikes back" he remarked when he was done, pointing down at the remains of his opponent in moral triumph.
This left only one Enigma, which Reiko was dealing with. He had lured the statue into firing at him and then pole-vaulted the attack, and was now arcing down ready to hammer the demon into the ground and finish it off. However as his weapon came round in a brutal swing, the Enigma suddenly scooted backwards, narrowly avoiding the strike.
Reiko landed and cursed, "Cheap evasive manoeuvre" he growled as the statue began charging another volley. This wouldn't be a problem for Reiko to dodge, but instead the Enigma aimed upwards, intending to signal for reinforcements, and both Reiko and Arson were too far away to stop it in the moment it needed. It looked like they were in serious trouble now.
Suddenly Reiko's sharp eyesight caught a tiny orange and glowing-red blur rapidly descending towards the Enigma. With a cry of "Bulls-eye!", the form hit the Enigma dead centre in the eye, driving its lightsabre straight into it. Zone grinned triumphantly, hanging on with a mix of his climbing ability and using the lightsabre as an anchor, as the statue convulsed. When it stopped shaking he pulled the red energy blade out, then made two quick slashes horizontally and vertically, scoring an upright cross in the Enigma's eye.
The energy arrows died away to nothing, unfired, and the statue slowly toppled backwards, shattering as it hit the ground, Zone jumping clear just before it did. The hamster dusted himself down, coughing slightly from the dust, hoped it wasn't noticed, and slipped his lightsabre away to wherever he kept it on his person. He turned to face the gawking Reiko.
Smirking, the rodent savoured the moment. It was rare that he managed to achieve something impressive enough to truly astound the vampire, let alone so stylishly, and Reiko's temporary tongue-tied expression was like a medal to Zone, to be cherished and enjoyed.
"You know, we'll have to get you a collar with a bell if you can't go out for ten minutes without me having to come and save you" the hamster remarked with a wickedly cheeky grin. The silence having been broken, Reiko managed to recompose himself and looked at the rodent with an analytical, suspicious expression.
"How?" he finally said, Zone laughing happily and grinning up (way up, but it didn't bother him this time) at the vampire, playfully replying "How what? Come on, I deserve to hear you say it". Reiko hesitated for a moment, but whether or not the hamster did indeed deserve it, something he was in two minds about, he wanted to know. "How did you do that? There's no way you could jump that high, or overpower a demon just like that" Reiko didn't say 'because you're a half-foot tall ball of fur with a fraction of the physical strength it would take', but he didn't have to, it was obvious.
Zone grinned, or rather grinned wider, as he hadn't stopped the whole time. He was well aware of his limited capabilities and regrettable general puniness, but as said before he'd be damned if he'd let them hold him back. So having just slain a demon single-pawedly and possibly saved Reiko and Arson's lives, he was enjoying a nice sense of accomplishment and achievement, and rightly so he thought cheerfully.
"Aaah, well you didn't say please" he paused teasingly, "But I'll tell you one of them". Pausing again he pointed a paw past Reiko's shoulder, "See up there?". Reiko turned and looked, Zone pointing at the ruins of a building overlooking the entrance of the tower. "You guys had just vanished without me, so I came looking, and was climbing that to get a better view when I found you, so, I jumped down" Zone explained.
Reiko nodded slightly, that explained how the tiny mammal had got so high; he'd climbed. But the answer to one question raised another, and he turned back to face Zone to ask it. "Why did you coming looking for us?" he asked, Zone caught off-guard by that, coughing and mumbling "Cus..." hesitantly after a moment. Reiko waited, then replied "Because, what? Why should you care what's going on?", speaking somewhat bluntly, the subtleties of social interaction not one of his strong points.
Zone winced ever so slightly at that, it was barely a movement at all, but Reiko's sharp and focused eyes caught it. The hamster rallied himself though, and looked to the side with forced disinterest, snapping back "Oh like you'd understand... Anyway, I can't rule this world if someone else takes it over first can I?", the aspiring tyrant covering himself with he felt, a pretty good excuse.
There was an awkward silence as neither rodent nor vampire knew what to say, Zone wanting to ask to join them but not wanting to let his guard down to do so, especially after the harsh implication that he didn't care, and Reiko simply not understanding the hamster's motives.
Before it could grow too big, Arson broke it. "Are you coming to the party?" he asked Zone, who looked at him a little bemused before figuring out what he meant. "Uh, yeah. I mean..." he hesitated and looked back to Reiko, the vampire meeting his eyes curiously. "Can I?" Zone swallowed his pride and forced himself to ask, humility not easy for the rodent to adopt, as he hated the vulnerability of it, something he felt he had more than enough of already.
Reiko looked at the hamster critically. He was, he reminded himself, only six inches tall, a furry, and he supposed, cute and cuddy little creature, although he did have a razor-sharp tongue. But insults wouldn't work against demons and he feared the hamster could be easily killed if he came with them. Then again, he was a small target and easy to defend, and wasn't totally helpless either. After all despite his minimal strength he was pretty deft with his lightsabre and had just taken down a demon single-pawed. Plus Reiko considered, there was an unusual earnestness to Zone's request to join them, something he didn't witness from the rodent often. Lastly, however little he was, Zone was an individual and an adult, even if he didn't often act like it, and while Reiko had no desire to put the rodent in mortal danger, he and Arson were walking headfirst into it, so he figured Zone had a right to come along, if he really wanted.
"Alright, you can come" Reiko said finally, Zone letting out a breath he'd been holding all along in a tiny phew, somewhat relieved and glad to be accepted in. "Thanks" he replied with a small smile, and not quite sure how to elaborate he chose to leave it at that. The rodent wanted to explain his reasons for coming along and show his gratitude a little better, but he felt he'd gone through enough awkwardness and vulnerability just asking, and he had got what he wanted, so he left it. Reiko gave a small nod in return, then refocusing on their objective, turned back to face the entrance.
"We best get going" he said, Arson already splashing around and rolling in the puddle at the opening. Zone nodded back and followed, scampering along to keep up, crossing some rubble to avoid getting needlessly wet and taking cover when Arson got up and shook himself dry. As the other two fell in behind him, Reiko, who was sort of the leader of their unlikely trio, weighed their assets, figuring that even if it wasn't by much, Zone could only add to their strength and chances.
So it was that the hamster, the vampire and the devil-angel hybrid entered the Temen-Ni-Gru, walking into unknown danger together, an unlikely response to an unlikely threat.