Chapter 4: What lies beneath
"I'm thirsty" Luffy complained.
The group had been running consistently for the past hour ever since their little skirmish. Nobody paid much mind to Luffy seeing as he had been saying that for the past forty five minutes. Dante, who was leading the group, began to slow down. He motioned the others to do the same. They had reached what appeared to be the edge of Hell. Several meters in front of the group, there was a drop off. Over the edge, there was nothing, but high flames. Accompanying those flames was the sound of screaming. Directly in front of Dante, there were two four foot pillars spaced approximately three feet apart. Dante approached the pillars. He began to examine them, and then called Leon over.
As Leon approached he got a good look at the pillars. Inscribed in the stone were snakes. The eyes were protruding slightly more than anything else on the pillars.
"Press the eye" Dante said simply.
Leon listened, and watched as Dante pressed the other eye. Nothing happened for several seconds, then suddenly the ground began to shake. The group struggled to maintain their footing as the shaking became more violent. Then suddenly it was over. A narrow staircase had appeared before the group in between the two pillars. They began to file into the staircase with Dante in the lead. There was absolutely no light as the group began to go further.
"Kage Bushin no Jutsu" Naruto suddenly whispered. A shadow clone appeared immediately behind Naruto, while simultaneously on top of Ichigo.
"What the hell!" Ichigo shouted as the clone began squirming, and moving his arms on top of Ichigo.
A small blue sphere began to appear in Naruto's hand. Naruto smirked as the shadow clone disappeared, and the others realized why. The sphere was giving off a dim blue light, but never the less, it was enough to see with. Naruto squeezed past Dante, and took the lead, very proud of himself for the quick thinking. They continued down a little more, and eventually they reached an opening that widened into a large room. Naruto extinguished the Rasengan. The room was well lit with several torches lining the wall. The room was crowded with large metal tables, and various crates. The tables were cover in vial, and flask. There were jars full of strange things, and other things that were unrecognizable. On the other side of the room, there was a hallway that was lit with torches as well, and it was lined with several doors.
"I recognize this" Leon said as he approached one of the tables. He picked up a vial that contained a light blue liquid contained within a spiral. "This is the T-Virus"
"The wha-"Ichigo began but suddenly something huge rose from the shadows in the corner of the room.
A massive creature stood before the heroes standing about nine feet tall. The creature was grotesque. He was wearing a black trench coat with black boots and gloves. The trench coat was ripped apart on his right shoulder, and revealed rotted skin, and bulging muscle. There were metal staples running from the top of his head, and down through where his right eye should have been. There were tentacles running along either side of his neck. The skin around his mouth was completely rotted away revealing disgusting sharp yellow teeth. The most prominent feature that the heroes focused in on was the massive mini gun mounted on its right arm.
"Take cover!" Leon shouted. He immediately recognized the creature from the Raccoon City case files he looked at following the incident. Leon never imagined he would have to face the Nemesis. The heroes immediately dove behind crates. Leon flipped the metal table over, and drew his handgun. He took cover behind the table, and began to fire. He aimed for the head.
"Leon S. Kennedy. Kill." The creature said as the barrels on the chain gun began to spin.
"Rasengan!" Naruto shouted as he slammed his jutsu into the creature's chest. The B.O.W. knocked Naruto away, and sent him crashing into some crates. Seeing Naruto suddenly leaping into action spurred the other to follow.
"Gear second" Luffy growled as steam began to pour from his body. "Gomu Gomu no Jet Pistol!" Luffy brought his arm back all the way to the other side of the long room and whipped it faster than the eye could see. His fist slammed into the chest exactly where Naruto Rasengan had hit. The Nemesis' chest exploded in a shower of blood. This knocked it off balance just as bullets began to fly from the chain gun. It stumbled backwards driving bullets into the ceiling above. As debris rained down on the group the others continued their assault.
Ichigo charged the monster with his blade. He swung diagonally cutting the Nemesis from his left shoulder down to his right hip. Blood burst from the wound.
Dante appeared next to Leon firing Ebony and Ivory in rapid succession. The two continued to fire bullets into the monster until with a final guttural scream it fell over backwards unmoving.
"Well that was easy" Luffy said, now his usual happy self. He approached the Nemesis, and started laughing. He turned to face the others, and was about to say something when a massive hand grabbed his head, and slammed him deep into the stone wall.
The Nemesis stood back up with no wounds on him at all. The only thing that even showed it had been attacked was the rips in the trench coat. It threw the chain gun aside, and shouted as it charged Leon, and Dante. It smashed right through the metal table like paper, and shouldered Leon sending him flying. Leon slammed into the floor, and tumbled into a shelf that collapsed on him.
A large right arm was flying directly towards Dante's head, but was met with the Rebellion instead. The force behind the blow caused the sword to dig several inches into the creatures arm. Dante did a backflip catching the creature in the chin with his foot as he did so. The Nemesis stumbled back, but as it was falling shot its right arm forward. Several tentacles suddenly burst forth, and caught Dante in midair, bringing him down more forcefully than he planned. Three kunai knives found their way into the right shoulder of the monster as Naruto charged forward.
"Kage Bushin no Jutsu" Naruto shouted again as he rushed forward. Two more shadow clones appeared. The two clones in front of Naruto slid forward, and kicked the Nemesis in the chin. The real Naruto jumped way above the creature ready to kick him back to the floor, but the sheer weight behind the creature kept it on the ground. Instead Naruto was met with tentacles that wrapped around his throat making it hard to breathe. The two clones disappeared in a puff of smoke due to the distraction facing the original. Naruto was the slammed into the floor, breaking several of the stones as he did so. The Nemesis proceeded to pick him up again, and was about to slam him into the ground again. However Ichigo appeared, severing the tentacles. They began to flap around aimlessly, loosening their grip on Naruto.
"BANKAI!" Ichigo shouted. He was immediately engulfed in black flame like energy. After it cleared, he stood there holding an all black slender sword and a now more slender all black outfit. Ichigo moved so fast that he was suddenly behind the Nemesis. He slashed the back of the monster several times before appearing in front of him once more. Dante joined Ichigo in the fight against the Nemesis. Dante slid forward holding the Rebellion out like a spear. He pierced the abdomen of the monster just as Ichigo delivered a slice that cut off its left arm. The Nemesis fell to its knees from the onslaught. Dante ripped his sword out, and brought it down harshly into the neck of the monster.
The Nemesis shouted out in pain as several tentacles suddenly burst from its body swinging wildly around the area. Ichigo and Dante leaped away from the monster.
"Getsuga Tensho!" Ichigo shouted sending a massive black wave of energy flying towards the monster. The attack collided with it as it cut almost all the way through him. Dante appeared next to Ichigo glowing slightly red with an aura around him. He suddenly rushed forward as the Nemesis fell, and slammed his sword through its head. The tentacles fell limply to the ground as he did so.
"It's over" Ichigo sighed as he wiped sweat from his brow. He looked around at the others, they were all unconscious. "That was a close ca-"
Ichigo was cut off as the Nemesis began to move again. The monsters head snapped back, and its jaw stretched open. Two white hands appeared on either side of the Nemesis' mouth, and began wrenching the jaw apart. A man began to appear from its mouth. He was clothed in a tan outfit, with a purple belt made of a thick rope. He had long black hair, and sickly white skin. He had yellow snake-like eyes with two purple points running from the corner of his eyes towards his nose.
"I really wanted that body." He said as if it were normal. He looked at the two heroes in front of him sizing them up. "I want yours!" He suddenly shouted.
With that his neck began stretching, and his mouth widening as he launched his head towards Dante.
Author's Response:
AllynDM: Here's your Naruto enemy. This story is before Ichigo went to hell… I haven't seen that movie yet, but I do want to include an Arrancar at some point too. Thanks for the reviews; a little motivation goes a long way with these stories. Keep updating Shosento! That's what inspired this story.
Pleased reader: I like that idea about having Claire appear in hell. That may just happen. Thanks for the reviews.
Everybody else: Leave reviews. Let me know what you think. I will respond, and incorporate your opinions, and ideas.