Author's Notes: Very near to their goal now, there's just a few loose ends for Zone, Reiko and Arson to tie up before catching up to Mary Sue, Dante and Vergil, who meanwhile have their own issues to deal with. I'd like to thank every single reviewer I've had so far, I'm really grateful to you all, and a special thanks to Sin Oan for reviewing each of my chapters without me even having really met him, let alone asked. Thanks Sin, I'm hugely grateful for the honesty and effort put into your reviews, and while this and the next chapter were written prior to putting up chapter 8 so I would have a little leeway to continue writing while settling into university, your advice has been taken to heart and in future I'll try and keep your words in mind, I hope you and everyone else enjoys this instalment :).
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The trio were now back in the room with the strange crane like device. Reiko took the essence of wisdom and inserted it into what he had determined to be the correct slot for it. After several seconds of nothing, Zone chuckled. "Haha, your stone is a dud" he teased playfully. Reiko ignored him and took the next stone, Zone's red one, and tried that.
This did have an affect, the three looking up at the strange device on the head of the crane, which had begun to hum. As they watched purple energy coalesced around the front of the contraption and drawing to a single point, suddenly lanced out in a violet beam, striking the pile of stones blocking the door it faced, disintegrating them.
"Hehe, my stone was way more bad-ass than yours" Zone said, smirking up at Reiko. The vampire rolled his eyes at the cheeky rodent and nudged him gently with his foot, chidingly saying "Quiet you", while suppressing the urge to grin back, thinking the furball's attitude must be infectious. Arson was rubbing his chin, and at this point spoke up, "So wait, the fallen stones were part of the design of this place?" he asked.
Reiko looking at him and raising an eyebrow, realising he had a point; it was strange. "... That is bizarre" he said, rubbing his chin also, Zone looking up and smirking at all the chin-rubbing, chipping in with "Hey, this whole tower is". Reiko looked back down at him and after a moment nodded, "Yes, that much is true".
The vampire was about turn to leave when he noticed Arson had a sad, wobbly look on his face, a stark contrast to his previous observational sharpness. Raising his eyebrows at this in silent question, Reiko was answered with a whimpered "Do mine too" from Arson. Reiko looked down at his hand, still holding the hybrid's essence of fighting, and shrugged, figuring it couldn't do any harm. Lifting it up to examine it for a moment, he inserted it besides the others, completing the triangle, and waited to see what would happen.
After a moment, the crane-thing began making odd mechanical sounds, and its neck retracted in a jolty fashion, lowering the head with the device that had emitted the laser earlier. When the noise and movement stopped, Reiko reached up and gripped the thing Arson had been trying to remove earlier, giving it a gentle tug. It came away in his hands, and he pulled it down to examine it. It was some kind of cross between a gun and a gauntlet, curved surfaces of a black metal-like material around a socket designed to fit a hand.
"Artemis" Reiko spoke out loud as he recognised the weapon, which Dante must have left, probably not bothering to complete all three trials. It was a demonic energy gun, which fired homing energy arrows, but it only launched multiple shots if charged enough and was a very tactical weapon.
Looking up from his inspection the vampire noticed Arson's saucer-like eyes riveted to the gun, and suddenly got a bad gut feeling. "You should let me use this Arson, it's a very tactical, precise weapon" Reiko explained truthfully, after all it was an advanced tool, not a primitive gun, and he logically would be best able to employ it. Logic however wasn't one of the hybrid's strong points, nor was diplomatic phrasing one of the vampire's, as although he was being honest the way he'd said it hadn't sounded too convincing.
"Aww no fair, my stone got it, it's mine!" Arson whined in protest. Before Reiko could even reply to this, Zone cut in with "Hey, you guys know how much I love lasers, give it to me!", making up for his small size with loud demands. Reiko realised they weren't going anywhere fast like this, since their arguments were all based on very different points, and things could only be resolved with a method they all agreed on…
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"Alright, three, two, one, go!" Reiko called, him and Arson shaking their hands and in Zone's case, his paw, getting paper, stone and scissors respectively. "OK, go again" Reiko said, a slight sigh creeping into his voice. The next game was an all-stone draw, and the one after that they all picked a different choice, again, a draw. On the fourth game they were getting a little impatient, none of them wanting to spend all day here, and they hurried up the round. "Three, two, one, go!" Reiko called, temporary games manager and custodian of Artemis until one of them won it.
He slammed down an open palm at the same time Arson did, paper on both cases, and he thought it was another draw for a moment. Then he looked at Zone's tiny paw. He thought he'd chosen paper too, but now he looked closely, the rodent had only two digits extended and as if to confirm it, a mad grin spreading across his face like a sunrise, only much faster and with even more beaming. "Hahahaha, yes I win! In, your, faces!" he yelled, jumping up and triumphantly chopping at the other two's hands in a variant of the scissor beats paper motion.
Reiko shook his head, looking at the weapon and its new, and he felt poorly suited owner. Then he realised something, and looking at Arson, the hybrid clocking on a moment later, and the two shared an evil grin. "OK Zone, you won, here's your prize" the vampire said, the rodent ceasing his celebrations. He looked up and managed a confused "Huh?" at their sudden, uncharacteristic cooperation. Then, before he could further inquire, Reiko placed Artemis neatly in the rodent's paws, who was several times smaller than it.
"He-!" Zone's cry of protest was cut off as Reiko let go, and the full weight of the weapon caused him to stumble, lose his balance and land smack on his furry behind. Kicking Artemis slightly aside, he looked up to see Reiko and Arson rapidly strolling up the stairs, the vampire calling back "Well come on Zone, bring your new toy, we've got to get moving", neither him or Arson turning so as to hide their snickering grins.
Growling, Zone grappled the gun and trying to drag it, pulled it painfully slowly across the floor for a few inches before snapping. "Oh that's it deadbeat and sugar high, you two are so dead!" he yelled, pivoting the weapon and aiming it at Reiko and Arson as they burst out laughing and broke into a run, reaching the door and opening it. The hamster scrambled into the gun and fired in their general direction, his attack striking the door as Arson yanked it closed.
Scowling the rodent backed out, looking at the door, the stairs, then to him heavy gun, then finally the door again. He was actually glad they'd left, otherwise they would have caught the grin he couldn't stop breaking out over his fuzzy features. They'd got one up on him, just like he so often tried and sometimes managed to on them. "Cheeky asses... Hehe, maybe there's hope for them yet" Zone chuckled to himself as he started pushing Artemis again, secretly glad they'd done something the way he usually did, even if he was the victim. It felt like it meant they approved and found some worth in his ways, which was heartening.
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Now we move up above the three unlikely friends and even less likely heroes. Above the laughing hybrid, amused and glad to see the other two getting along. Above the vampire who was thinking his furry friend's boisterous, smart-assed attitude might have some merit to it after all. Above the rodent confiding to the dark that having had one put over on him, he felt in a way initiated by the parody of his own cheeky style.
Above all of this, though not nearly so far as before when this had all begun, for the trio were closing on their goal, another three sat. Like those below them, these three had their differences, but unlike the other group whom, while far from a flawlessly harmonious union, were slowly developing stronger bonds together, these three were only growing more disdainful of one another as they spent more time together.
Mary Sue had tried to salvage the situation, but even her near-endless perkiness was wearing thin under the ceaseless animosity between Dante and Vergil. She had resorted to playing Monopoly, that so miss-advertised family and friendship-building game that starts feuds more often than brings it people together.
There had already been one major fight over who got to be the car, Vergil wanting it because it was classy and Dante because it was the closest thing to a motorbike. The resulting exchange had left Vergil with a tiny top hat indent, which was still visible though fading on his forehead. Meanwhile Dante, at the command of Mary Sue, had been forced to bury the dog player piece, no easy task on a stone tower, which in all the chaos had been decapitated.
While they were now past this one incident, the tensions that had fuelled it remained, and looked ready to boil over as Dante rolled the dice, moved, and landed on Mayfair. Vergil owned Mayfair, and Park Lane, and had a hotel on each...