I Don't own Devil May Cry, just my OC's.
Three fricken days on this bus, and so far it's been just fine, sitting in the middle by myself while everywhere else everybody else sat, at the moment it wasn't that crowded at all, but where coming up to a stop at the moment, so no idea what this one will hold. Sighing, I turn up Fall Out Boy on my ipad and attempt to sleep through a current onslaught of chatter through an open window. Sucks having senses that are more enhanced than before, you hear everything if you don't have something blocking out most of the sound. And don't get me started on smells either, ugh, I swear I wish people actually wore more deodorant or showered more often, seriously people, what the hell?
I looked out the window at the station to see a group of people lining up at the entrance of the bus, a group of teenagers or college students, some trendy and others looked like me, simple jeans and shoes with maybe a good jacket on top. Ugh, only three more hours till I get off this rolling piece of crap, it wouldn't be so bad though if some of these people would just quite trying to talk to me. Though the old Mexican lady near the back of the bus somehow saw what I was immediately, she started cursing in Spanish at me and waving a rosary around, I grabbed ahold of it and cleaned it up and handed it back, she didn't say much after that. The group of teens sat down in front of me taking up a few rows of seats, and I have to say they we're loud and obnoxious. The bus moved forward away from the terminal and I started a mental countdown of how long this was going to be.
My song ended and I sighed and went back to song directory, but during the short amount of silence the teen's conversation came to my ears. "Did you see that weirdo behind us?" one asked to another with a giggle.
"I know, serious freak!" another exclaimed and the others laugh.
"And what the hells up with that fucking eye patch?" one of the guys asks. The eye patch was because I didn't want to bother with covering up my true eye, too damn tiring.
Sighing, I take out my headphones, pull off my eye patch and lean over the seat and tap one of the guys on his shoulder. "Wha-" he starts, then he stops and stares open mouthed at my face, the others turn and they all grow pale and the Mexican lady in the back starts chanting something.
"You know, some people would get really angry from people mocking their disabilities from some preppy little assholes." I tell them with a bored look, then I smirk and get in real close. "And I'm one of those people. So shut the hell up before I beat the shit out of you."
Bigger guy registered what I had just said and then he glared at me. "Think you can take me you fucking freak?" he says with a lot of bite to it as he gets up from his seat and turns around to fully face me. "Come at me bro!"
I sigh and facepalm. "Oh god, you're one of those guys." He swings a fist at me and I bring up my hand and grab his wrist effortlessly. "I swear if you say Swag or YOLO… you know what, I think I just will break your wrist." I then start to twist it slightly and he makes a pained noise as he grabs ahold of my hand, then the bus stops and the driver comes to the back as big boy goes down on his knees.
"I ain't gonna take no shit on my fuckin bus ya hear!" the driver yells as he grabs ahold of big boy and tries to throw him into the seat, I let go and they both go flying back.
Sighing, I grab my backpack and shove my ipad in it and start heading to the front of the bus. "Fine enough with me, only drove two miles away from the terminal." I hop over the two idiots and when I got to front I opened the door with the lever thing. "Won't cost me that much to change over anyway, see ya later assholes." I jumped off the bus and began my trek back to the terminal. People these days, no subtly to anything.
-Three hours later-
"Thanks for the ride." I tell the old couple with a large smile as I hand them a hundred bucks. They let me sit in the back of their truck for about thirty miles since the bus dropped me off a ways from the port town to Fortuna, they lived about another twenty miles away from there, so they were nice enough to give me a ride, the money was just for being nice.
"No problem son." The old man said with a smile and waved his hand no. "And we don't need your money, just glad to help."
I smile and nod at them, and then crumple up the bill and throw it inside. "Yeah, but still, thanks." I then ran off before they could protest and started walking into the town, bout twenty minutes or so since the town branched off from the main road.
"Be careful son, and I hope you enjoy those cookies!" the older woman said waving out the window. I turned, nodded and waved and pulled the bag of cookies out of my pocket and did a thumbs up. They waved goodbye and drove off as I kept on walking. Pretty soon I was in the town, nothing much besides a few shabby brick houses and other small stores, a homely little pass through town that didn't really have much to go to it.
Found the port with a sign out front with times and dates on it. "Lllleeeettttssss see, next time around is," I ran my finger down the list and found it. "one thirty." I pulled out my phone an checked the time, it was almost 12: 23. I blew out a sigh and turned around to see a old building that said food and drink on the front. "Well, got time to kill."
Plus there's a good possibility that they may know some gossip going in, the guys who arranged this whole show didn't say jack shit one way or another. Well, at least I'm not putting my whole blind faith in them, rarely do, but maybe I should have Googled them? Oh wait, the bar has free Wi-fi. I happily strode into the place, not like I owned it but with just a little smirk. I still had my hat on, but I had taken off my eye patch when I got on the truck. Fake eye activated, my head was buzzing slightly with a dull thump from the concentration needed to control and monitor it. A thirty year old woman came out front with a tired smile on her face when she saw me, then twitched a little when the scares became visible to her.
"Uh yeah, table for one please?"
"Sorry." She says apologetically as she grabs a menu.
"Don't worry about, you'd be staring more if I didn't have my fake eye in." Loads of truth to that one. That one caught her off guard, and then she shrugged and took me up to the bar where it was basically just an empty section of nothing. No one around actually at all.
"How'd it happen?" she asks with a concerned look. "Hunting accident?"
I chuckled as I sat down and turned to her while putting my bag on the floor. "Not hardly anything like that. You know those traveling circus's that used to come around towns a whole lot?"
She laughed at that one. "Honey, how old do you think I am? I grew up around things like that, biggest damn event of the year."
I shrug and open up the menu. "Yeah well, my older step-brothers stole the key to the tiger cage and thought it'd be funny as hell to throw me in there for my thirteenth birthday." Not exactly a tiger cage, but damn close. Cage full of demons to be precise.
"Jesus Christ!" She said, but someone else joined in with her, I turned and saw a guy in a plaid long sleeve shirt and jeans with a scraggy beard.
"Sounds like you had one fucked up childhood." He says dramatically with a laugh.
"Tell me about it, and if you think this is bad you should see these." I hold up my hands, still gloved and covered.
"Fuck kid, that's bad." He says.
"Jim, get the kid a drink, probably came from a long trip." The waitress said.
"No thanks, not a fan of alcohol." I tell them with the 'don't bother please' hand wave.
"Why not, with your back story you just told me, sounds like you need plenty of drinks." Jim says and then shrugs. "Well Catharine, do your job."
She glares at him and pulls out a notepad. "What would you like to drink?"
I look at the menu and smile when I see it. "Chocolate shake with strawberries please!" I say enthusiastically. "And a cheeseburger and fries, leave off the tomato, pickles and onions please."
"How bout an IV pole?" She asks with a smirk as she writes down the order. "Been a long damn while since someone ordered a shake here, last time was for some grown ass man asking for a strawberry sundae." She says with a laugh.
"Give me a break, I spent three days on a greyhound full of people who wouldn't stop saying, oh look at the freak!" I snort and prop my arm on the bar and rest my head on my hand. "Besides, I got kicked off the last one cause the assholes weren't exactly subtle with insults."
She rolled her eyes as Jim laughed when she passed a order form to him and he left his spot and went into the back. "So, what the hell you doing this way around, from your accent I'd say you're a long way from home. South?"
I nod and sigh again. "Mississippi, and I'm on my way to Fortuna at the moment, just waiting for the ferry." Jim comes out with a old style glass full of chocolate with fudge sauce on top and strawberries dotted in a circular pattern on top with a dollop of whip cream. My mouth waters and as soon as he hands me the spoon I dive in. "Oh god, this is soooo good." I say as I shovel in more ice cream.
"Glad you think so." Jim said with a smile, then it turned serious. "So you're heading to Fortuna huh?"
Oh yeah, info on the town. I nod and finish up the spoonful in my mouth. "Yeah, gotta uncle there, why?"
Jim and Catherine share a look. "Just be careful up there kid, they aren't exactly kind to people who don't look… normal."
I shrug and eat another chunk, relishing in the strawberry as it sorta pops with the chocolate. "Yeah, but then again who does?"
He sighs and leans onto the bar. "You obviously don't know jack about what's happened over there huh?" I nod my head yes. "You should know kid, they've had demon problems out to wazoo. And you should have seen how they treated the last kid who actually bothered to hunt the damned things for the bastards there."
"Huh?" I ask dumbly. How many demons to be exact? And what the hell do they mean other kid?
"Man, you know jack shit." Jim says with a grim look.
"Do you even know what the people on that island are like?" Catherine asks skeptically. I give her the obvious duh. She shakes her head and sits down on a stool. "You're from the south, think t.v evangelist, multiply by three and that's just the citizens of the place."
"Geez, hate to meet the people that run the show." They both nod at that one. "What the hell do they worship?"
"Heard of the legend of Sparda?" Jim asks as he pulls out a beer and opens it up.
I nod my head yes. "Yeah, when I was a kid, the demon that had a human conscious and fought for humanity…. They worship him?"
"Sure as hell do, but they're hypocrites, the whole lot of them." He adds on with a sip of beer. "Remember that kid we told you about? Well after years of helping their asses out, he gets attacked and his arm mutates into a devil arm." I look down at my arm and feel the urge to scratch the back of my head with a sheepish grin. "Anyway, kid hid it from them for the longest time till a few years ago when they had this massive demon infestation, and then after that, after all the shit he went through to help them out, they shunned him. Made him out to be some monster that didn't deserve the right to live, and yet they still wanted him to go around and kill demons for them."
"Kid must have had one hell of amount of patience after all of that shit." I remark quickly and finish of the shake/sundae.
"Yeah, glad he left though. Even if he was part demon." Catherine remarked with a nod, and then something dinged and she got up and in a few minutes came back with my burger. "Here you go."
My eyes go wide and my mouth starts to water as she puts it down, I pull off my gloves and dive in as the grease squirts out onto the fires. "Um, oh god, this is so good." I say through a mouthful.
"Glad you're enjoying it." Jim said with a big smirk, then looks at the bandages on my hands and narrows his gaze. "How old are you kid?"
I swallow my bite and look at him. "Legal, but not that legal if you're looking to sell me your booze."
Catherine rolled her eyes and swiped a fry. "He means well, lately Fortuna's been having problems with kids going missing."
Dun duh duh! And there's the problem. "How many kids exactly?" Jim and Catherine point to a wall on the opposite side of the bar, I turn and look to see a cork board full of pictures, all of which were kids 10-12 years old, boys, girls of every size and shape, thirteen in total. "Don't worry, I'm older than them and I can take care of myself up to a point."
"Well at least you put 'to a point' onto that statement." Jim said with a snort. I shrug my shoulders and finish off another third of the burger.
"So, is the rumor that demon's are taking the kids?" I ask after I swallow another bite.
"That's popular word of mouth." Catherine shrugged. "Personally, I'd say that one of the tops of the group is behind it, they get away with basically anything cause they got the whole damn island wrapped around their finger. Brainwashed, the lot of them." My stomach dropped at the brainwashing comment, dear lord not again? This is sarcasm just so you know, not moaning or bitching. I'm just tired with the whole idea of brainwashing, too far real and too far annoying to deal with again.
Guess I should explain a little huh? Well you see, my stepfather, Hank Belfast, was a demon hunter once upon a time, he trained his kids, Chester and Lester, yeah I know, stupid. Anyway he taught his kids how to be hunters as well, mediocre ones compared to some at least, but they developed a major superiority and god complex because of the training and somewhat legacy that their father had, they basically ruined my childhood when Mom came around to marry him when I was five. But shortly after marrying Mom, he started getting really hungry for power and control, dominance over all and that jazz. So, somehow he developed a drug, a mind control drug in its purest form, an alluring scent to demons at the base of it all, and it worked on humans and allowed him to control them. But if that person took enough, the lowest form came out and attracted the demons to those people. And if a demon consumed that person, the drugs concentration was so high that the demon comes under control of him.
I groan and hang my head down as I stuff in fries into my mouth. Ugh, five damn years since I ran away from those bastards after nine years of building up a resistance to the fucking drug. God if this is connected to that, I am so going to be pissed. "So kid," I look to see Jim finish off his beer. "why exactly you going to see your uncle? Besides the obvious of course."
I shrug and eat some more fries. "Hopefully it'll be a nice summer before I start college." I'm not starting college, didn't finish high school since I left when I was fifteen. Thank god for the internet though, learn plenty of crap like that online without trying your patience with social events. "Mom basically could care less about me, Step-loser and his sons made my life hell since I was five. Figured I'd have a nice time before the semester starts."
"Why would you mother care less about you?" Catherine asks with a sigh as she leans onto the bar. She looked bored with her job but my little story was keeping her occupied.
"Because I'm the real definition of a bastard," I say with a shrug as I bite into the burger again. "in the most unpleasant way."
"So," Jim says with a shrug. "my dad was a drunken dick who didn't marry my mom, doesn't mean she didn't care for me."
I look him in the eye as I finish off the burger. "Yeah, but your mother wasn't raped and forced by her parents to keep the child now was she?" That knocked the looks off their faces as they stared open mouthed. I shrugged and polished off the fries and looked back at them. "Yeah, Mom went to Jackson when she was seventeen and then… well I think you can understand the rest. Anyway, Mom wanted to get rid of me but Grandma and Grandpa wouldn't let her cause it's against her religion and since she was 'soiled', she wouldn't have much of another chance at producing a child, so here I am."
"Wow." Jim says after a few minutes of silence, then he blinked and looked down at my plate. "Dessert?"
I smirk and shake my head no. "No thanks, but some coke would sound good till the ferry gets here." I looked down and pulled out my phone, had about forty minutes or so left. "And the password to your Wi-fi if you'd be so kind."
"Well you're a simple person." Catherine said as she left for a quick second and came back with a glass and a straw. "Password is *********, enjoy and don't forget to pay me a damn tip." I reached into my wallet and pulled out a twenty and handed it over to her and grabbed my gloves.
"Rest is all yours." She smirked and snatched it away and I grabbed my bag and went off to a booth and sat down with the drink and hand. Pulling out my ipad I plugged in my headphones and typed in the password. Soon I was listening to Shinedown and looking up Fortuna, thank you Google. So far, yeah they sound like a horrible town. Leader of their little theocracy basically turned their own people into demons, captured demons and used them as weapons for own personal use. Went on a rampage with some big demonic powered statue in order to make himself out a god, then killed. Oh, not to mentioned he also turned himself into a demon. So yeah, these people, bright bunch. Can't wait to deal with these zealots, have I said how much I hate zealots?
Someone tapped on the table and I looked up to see Jim. I pulled out my headphones and looked at him but saw the time on the screen out of the corner of my eye. "You got about ten minutes to get to the docks kid. Good luck with your uncle, and hope your life gets better."
I nod and lock the screen and put the ipad away. "Hope so to, but somehow, I doubt it highly." I nod my head at him and exit the bar with my head buzzed slightly. God it sucks having to put on my false eye. I was waiting at the time sign with my gloves on, watching the sea as the ferry was getting closer and closer. I heard the rumbling of a muffler and turned to see a motorcycle coming up and stopping next to the sign. It was red and crotch rocket style, I guess, don't know much about bikes. The rider wore just a red helmet and a… I would say skimpy white outfit, but I think liberal would be a better term of phrase. Short white pants with a utility style belt around it and a with red pin stripes. Definitely a woman, confirmed everything when she leaned back to take off the helmet. Girl had knockers out to wazoo, and the outfit was only restrained by a single button that allowed people to see plenty without showing all. And then I noticed the big ass rocket launcher on her back and my grin was set to 'well… shit' expression. "There goes my job." I mumble as she puts her helmet on the bike and looks at me and I see her two different eyes and the mark across them.
She did a 'hrmph' and flicked back her black hair and then pulled a pair of orange shades from out of nowhere and looked at me again with a slight smirk. "Seems I'm just in time." she remarks as she hops off the bike. "So, what exactly are you here for?" she asks as she saunters over. The smirk now bored like. i sniffed the air subtly and she smelled… well better than most people that's for sure. Her smell made me feel a little more relaxed than usual.
"Oh, pretty sure the same reason you're here." I tell in her response, then see the ferry only a dozen or so yards away from the port. "But here's my question, who exactly are you lady?"
She smirked at me smugly and stopped. "You just said it. Names Lady."
I do the whole slight eyebrow cock and shrug routine before I stick out my hand to her. "Adiel, fellow hunter."
She looked at it, then at me and then shook it and pulled out a gun and pointed it at my head in a flash. "So Adiel, wanna show me your true form?"
I smirk and let go of her hand and put it to my eye and then swipe it to reveal my true eye. "So you aren't just another everyday hunter. Good, was getting tired of just meeting those dumb luck pricks who think they can do the job correctly by going in shooting wild."
"Go back to hell." She says with a bored expression.
"Sorry, never been there."
Lady looks at me like she doesn't believe me, and then shrugs and starts to pull the trigger. I stop and push up her wrist and put my finger between the hammer and the slide to make it stop. She glares at me. "Aren't you going to finish the job?"
I cock an eyebrow at her boredly. "Aren't you going to pull your other gun out of my crotch?" we both look down to see her other gun, Skorpion 9mm with a bayonet attached, the bayonet poking into my zipper. The ferry sounds its horn and we both look. "Alright, we both have appointments on the damn island, lets be calm and peaceful about all of this and get on the ferry."
"I've got plenty of time," She says calmly as she pulls away the Skorpion. "but I don't want to spend it here." I nod and let go of her wrist and step back as she points it at me and nudges it at the boat. "Demons first."
I shrug and turn and walk down the docking ramp. "Technically, it's half-demon, I think at least."
She groans as her boots clack on the walkway. "Oh great, another hybrid."
I stop at the lip of the ferry and look at her. "What do you mean another 'hybrid'? Are there others?"
She pushes me onto the ferry roughly and we both pay the fee and sit down on the side bench. "Yeah," she says with a sigh. "and I work with all three of the assholes to." She looks at me with an accusing glance. "But what's to say that you're just bull shitting me about being a hybrid, that your just another created demon by these" she nods towards the island. "bastards and are here to meet me and then kill me."
I sigh and look down at my gloved hand it pick at it. "Created demon? Probably. By those guys over on the island? No way in hell."
"Oh," she says as she puts a hand underneath her chin and rested her elbow on her crossed knee. "then who the hell exactly would be the person to create you?"
"You ever heard of Hank Belfast?"
She snorts and rolls her eyes and splays her arms out on the railing. "Who hasn't in our line of work, crazy nut job, former hunter mediocre 'extraordinaire'." She did the 'extraordinaire' with air quotes. "How do you know him?"
"You're looking at his stepson." She did a sideways head turn, and then sighed.
"So why did he decide to experiment on you then?" she asks boredly.
"Cause no one would give a damn if I disappeared." I say with a shrug. "You heard of his kids?"
She nods. "The moronic duo, had the pleasure of dealing with them a few times in the past. Idiots could barely even fight against a hell pride."
"Uh… that's the one with the black cloak and a scythe right?" she gives me the 'you kidding me right?' look. "Hey, I don't go by names, I go by smells and appearances." She shrugs anyway. "Yeah, well they seemed to enjoy torturing me." I point up to my eye and hands. "See this? Locked me in a cage full of demons on my thirteenth birthday, gave me these as well." I held up my hands to her and wiggled them.
"Huh." She states uninterested, after a little bit she looks at me boredly. "So, those rumors going around about what's going down around him, the mind control and hunter , demon gathering thing. They true?"
"Every damn bit of it." I tell her sternly. "You know the black demonic beetles that control those scarecrow demons?"
"Trypoxylus beetles." She says.
"I guess that's the name. Anyway, crush up those beetles into a paste, add multiple addictive substances that bring on a almost catatonic mental state. Dry that up and add it to a water source and then you can control an entire population." Her eyes narrowed behind her glasses at that one.
"And since you said it's true that it draws demons as well, sacrifice an entire town and you have a whole armada of demons ready at your disposal." She concludes with a sigh. "So tell me Adiel, how exactly did you get away from them?"
"The drug Hank created is highly effective, highly addictive without the cravings or withdraw symptoms, but you build up an immunity quickly, or humans do at least. You have to create thousands of gallons of the shit to keep those people under your control."
"And let me guess, at some point the person develops such an immunity to it, that no matter what amount of the drug you give them, in the end it doesn't work at all." She concludes. "So you have to put them down."
I nod and look ahead, we were barely a half of the way to the island. "Yeah, left five years ago."
"Despite the obvious, why?"
"I'm looking for someone."
"Who exactly?"
"My father."
"Oh great, another hybrid focused on daddy." She points her gun at me. "If you say you're after his power, I swear to god I will shoot you."
"Huh?"
"Never mind, continue." She says as she holsters the gun.
"Daddy issue's huh? Yeah, I guess that's it. But I'm not out for his power, I just want to know him, I guess. Or kill him more than likely."
"What, daddy was never around for you and now you wanna kill him?" she snorts.
"I guess you could say that. I just want to know if he's actually responsible for these popping up," I motion to my eye and hands. "or if I really am just some fucked up freak." I shake my head and watch the waves splash against the ferry. "But I don't know what I'm expecting, sympathy from a devil?"
"It's actually a lot easier to obtain that these days." She said matter of factly. I just look at her and she shakes her head. "Yeah, they say it's impossible, but I've met a few. Actually, I work with them all."
"Are those hybrids one of them?"
"One is." She says with a sigh. "Though truthfully, I'd still rather shoot him between the eyes. Problem is he won't go down that way."
"What are they like?" I ask energetically. Wait, Jim and Catherine said that the kid here had a mutated arm. "Did one of them use to live at Fortuna?"
She jumped at that one and pulled out her gun again. "Now how do you know that?"
I pointed at the bar back at the mainland with my thumb. "Loose lips sink ships. They told me back at the bar that there used to be a kid with a mutated arm that worked for the theocracy of Fortuna and after the big incident, he left a few years later."
"Is that so?" she asks rhetorically, then shrugs and lays the gun down across her lap. "In that case, yes he is one. His names Nero and he's the youngest of the trio, about a year older than you." She did a pondering glance. "What's he like? Well, I'd say he's a little more teenager angst than anything, moody as hell some times. Sure you two would butt heads more often than not."
"HEY! What's that supposed to mean?" she smirks and waves it away.
"Next up are Vergil and Dante, the twins I have an unfortunate opportunity to deal with."
"Take it you don't exactly have the best of turns with them huh?" the 'you think' look was her response.
She sighed and scrunched up her face. "Where do I start? Vergil's a power hungry, blood thirsty cold hearted bastard and the oldest of the two. Unfortunately he's also the smarter of the bunch as well. Hates humans for their weaknesses and easy corruptibility and morals." She sounded like she was quoting him. "Let's not forget to mention that he also raised a tower of demons to connect the human world to the demon world back when I first met them both." She adds with a bit of snark.
"I have a feeling there's more to this as well." Lady's look was 'shut up or I'll shoot you!', so I left it at that. "And Dante?"
She did a snarling groan and threw her hands up in the air. "Where's not to start with him?! He's a grown ass man that acts like a fucking child! Eats nothing but pizza and strawberry sundaes all the goddamn time, laziest bastard you'll ever meet with the worst kind of attitude that would compare to a misogynist and a fucking gigolo. And you wanna know what else? He never even pays back the goddamn money he owes people. Do you even know how much he owes me?"
I held up my hands in defeat. "I think your coming a little close to becoming a demon there Lady." She glares at me and I see her finger twitch slightly towards the gun. I look and see that we're a little more than halfway there now. Damn, how fast is this trip?
She sighs and leans back again. "Yeah, but despite a few of his numerous faults, Dante usually does make up for it in dependability. He's the one that helped Nero out inadvertently with the savior incident five years ago."
"Is that what it's called? The thing with the last guy who lead the group on Fortuna?"
"Yep, pain in the ass cause they kept butting in on my damn jobs." She said and ground her heel into the deck and pulled a phone out of a slot on her utility belt. "Ugh, we have about thirty minutes left till we get there, damn that went by quick." She put it back and sighed again. "Can't even believe I took this fucking job."
"Tell me about it, don't usually agree to shit like this without some sort of description."
"When'd you get it?"
"Almost two weeks ago, had another job that took a few days to deal with and then had a bus ride here for three days. Only just heard about the supposed details from the guys back there."
She nods her head at that one. "So what'd you hear?"
"Kids gone missing, 10-12 of every kind. You?"
"Same, though I had to get mine by greasing a few wheels." She grumbled.
I shrug and pull out the bag of cookies that old couple gave me. "Yeah, well so did I, with just a ten dollar tip and some good ole southern hospitality." She snorts and motions for a cookie, I hand over the bag and she takes one. "You heard anything else?"
She finished up her bite and nodded. "Yeah, that this jobs been out there for the last couple of weeks, seems that multiple small timers have actually taken it before." And there goes the stomach drop. "You seem to have an idea on whats going on, care to share?" it wasn't a question.
"Yeah, don't drink or eat anything here, and lets pay the ferryman to stay in port for a few extra hours."
"Or better yet," she gets up and starts walking toward the ferryman's cabin. "we ask him politely for him to stay, along with his keys."
"Huh, didn't know ferries needed keys to operate."
"I don't either, lets find out." I feel sorry for this poor bastard.
Twenty minutes later, we had the ferryman glaring at us while he handed over a set of keys, this one actually had to have keys to start the motor, and I had a few extra components needed to start said motor in my backpack. "Thanks for being cooperative, we'll return everything in a few hours." I tell him with a smile.
"Bastardos!" he yells at us, wow where did they get this guy? We shrug and walk off the ferry and onto the port, no reunion, how sad.
"Where do we go exactly?" I ask Lady as we continue walking down the port and through a small little local market area. "And how long does it take to repair a city?"
"After Dante and the demons got through with it? Probably a good three years if you don't want to deal with detail. But these people are obsessed with it, so another ten or so." She says as we walk onto a main street with people wearing what looked like a mixture of assassin's creed cloaks and outfits from the era where all women had 'goody' at the front of their names. They stopped and stared at us, and some got pissed when they saw me. "As for where to? I'd say head towards the opera house. Their headquarters blew up in the savior incident."
I turned to look at a woman on my left and when she saw my eye she flew backwards into another man. "Da…da..demon!" she shrieked.
"You're no looker yourself sweet heart." I remark dryly at her. Lady smirked as we kept on going. More and more people kept stopping to stare at us, all with the same look in their eyes. Dread, hate, fear, and some far off gaze I recognized all too well. I took a sniff of the air and came back with something that smelled like baking plastic, dead earth and rotting corpses mixed with bad water and salt. "Remember what I said about not drinking the water?" I ask Lady.
"Yeah."
"Well, just wanted to tell you again." she nods as a man stepped out of his way to bump into me and spit on my shoes. I swiftly turned around and did a mild sweep of his legs and was back in place as he face planted. "I'm not one much for grinning and bearing." I tell Lady with a smirk.
"I've noticed." She said with a smirk, then another guy bumps into her and grabs her ass, she snatches his wrist and twists it hard until it snaps. He cries out and she lets go and kicks him in the gut. "Don't understand how Nero lived with these assholes for so long." She said with a head shake.
"I think it was as a way of trying to prove to himself he was stronger than they are… or at least better." We pass through a partially destroyed archway and soon come up on a destroyed square. Walls busted up but in the midst of repair work, the buildings surrounding where almost freshly rebuilt. I stopped and stared at the crumbled remains of a bit white stone monument. "So that was the hell tower mentioned in the article."
"Yeah, Dante destroyed it with Vergil's sword." Lady stated boredly. I felt something go up my spine and switched to demon vision and came up with plenty of fun surprise's. "Don't look now, but the welcome wagon's been rolled out." I turn and see a group of guys in white marching forward, swords at hand and a determined look on the leaders face, a face of which I knew.
"Marcos." I say boredly.
"You know him?" Lady asks slightly intrigued as she looks aground.
"Yeah, and I think I know what's happening." Marcos and his group finally get to us and stop, a pissed off look on his face. I looked at the others and thought I saw a few I recognized, Shotgun Eddie, Razor Jimmy. Just minor hunters who majored in bounties on humans.
"Are you the hunters asked to come here?" Marcos demands. "Because if you are, we no longer require your services. Leave now because if you kill any demons here you will not be paid."
Lady's expression was that of someone seriously pissed off, she stepped forward and started raising her pistol, but I stopped her. "That's okay, but let this one be a freebie." In one motion, I swiped my hands at my eye and found the Steckin's in both hands, whirled around and shot eight demons disguised as humans. I then turned and both me and Lady where pointing weapons at them. "Your move Marcos."
