Chapter 3 – Old Friends
"I hope you four are ready." Zell stated solemnly.
"What do you mean by that?" Clover asked between heavy breaths, still recovering from what occurred in Jerry's office.
"We'll be fighting for our lives as well as for the lives of those who don't possess our skills or gadgets, right?" Britney asked, attempting to further survey her newest comrade.
"Yes, sadly." Zell replied with his eyes fixated on his searing right hand.
"What are you staring at, Zell?" Sam asked, as she was the closest one to Zell, so she noticed his eyes first.
"Huh? O-oh nothing, it's just a scratch from a minute ago…" Zell lied, he sensed something within Sam just as he sensed Dante's demonic energy flowing from Alex. His hand was a sort of sensor to the things paranormal and hybrid like.
"So what's our next move Alex?" Clover asked, nearly fully recovered and messing with her hair.
"Well…" Alex began to say, but she was cut off by Zell.
"We head for the immediate area surrounding the tower. There may be people who need our help. I'm taking point of the mission from here on out. Understand?" Zell spoke with great fury in his voice due to the pain and rapid pulsations from his hand.
"Okay, geez. Why are you so upset and edgy all of a sudden?" Clover snapped back.
"I'm taking the responsibility for this mission. You four must succeed even at the cost of my life. Jerry requested me for this mission for confidential reasons, one of which you already know." Zell stated with a smart ass tone, while putting on two black gloves over his hands. The gloves had red glowing fingers to signify that they were operational; these special exclusive gloves serve to reduce the pain of the "Z-gene".
"Why didn't you say that when we were in the office?" Britney asked, now sure of some shady business going on.
"Hey, Britney lay off Zell. I'm sure there's a reason why he won't tell us, but he IS an ally. Now maybe perhaps later on he may give us a few more details of what and why, so for now let's trust him." Sam jumped in hastily, backing Britney off of Zell for the time being.
"Hmmm… Okay, I guess, since he hasn't done anything too bad yet." Britney replied in a somewhat softhearted tone.
"Now ladies, if you would take out your X – powders and push the colored button, your specially designed AeroCycle should materialize in front of you." Zell instructed with his back to the entire group, except Sam.
The four girls pushed a small button and then a light was emitted from their X – Powders and then shortly afterward four bikes that resembled futuristic hoverbikes(See Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity for actual look). Sam's bike was green, Alex's was gold, Clover's was red, and Britney's was sky blue. The girls were impressed that one boy who was their age managed to make such high tech items for their disposal. Sam was especially interested in Zell now.
"These are great! When did you make these?" Alex asked excitedly.
"Not too long ago, actually. I just finished testing them the day before you reported." Zell explained in a relaxed manner now that his gloves working their full effects.
"Working for WOOHP must be fun for you, right?" Sam asked now interested in Zell's time at WOOHP.
"Eh, sometimes it's good and sometimes… not so much. I'm probably the most overworked person there; after all I'm the only agent in R&D and active in the field." Zell explained with a huge sigh at the end of his sentence.
"Wow, you know, I'm a smart girl, and maybe I could help you with some of the gadgets that you work on?" Sam whispered so that Zell could only hear her.
"Yeah… that'd be nice, y'know if you would." Zell replied equally silent, causing the other three girls to get excited.
"Oooooh! Sam's getting a new boyfriend!" Alex called out jokingly.
"Huh? N-no… well maybe, but um, he wouldn't.." Sam stammered and began to get red in the face.
"I wouldn't… what Sam?" Zell asked getting closer to Sam's face almost causing her to topple over her bike.
"…You wouldn't like red heads would you?" Sam asked nervously, as she wasn't used to a guy showing this much interest in her.
"Hmmm… Actually, I do. My hair IS red y'know." Zell smirked at Sam's Reaction.
"Oh, yeah… I didn't mean that type of red though. Heh, heh. But you do?" Sam became giddy and almost forgot she was around her friends.
"Yep, but that's for a later conversation. Now, we need to get going. You all ready?" Zell said immediately snapping the girls back to the problem at hand.
"Right. So let's ride!" Alex yelled excitedly then revved up her bike.
"Yeah, wait what about you Zell? Do you have a bike?" Clover asked, trying to figure out how he was to keep up with the girls on their bikes.
"No, but it's okay. I've got this." Zell said then he hopped in the air and a hoverboard was produced from the soles of his shoes.
"Show off…" Grumbled Britney as Zell began to pick up speed and head toward the giant black tower.
Elsewhere, two female demon hunters on motorcycles were nearby on a rooftop watching over the spy group.
"Well Trish? What do you make of that group?" The female with one red eye and one blue eye asked.
"Hmm… one of them definitely has inherited Dante's power; however, it's difficult to determine which one it is, Mary." The blonde female replied as she took off her sunglasses and faced the other known as Mary.
"How many have an energy signature?" Mary asked.
"Three, there is the one girl with white hair, the boy with the scarlet hair, and the girl with the gingery hair." Trish replied then she revved her motorcycle.
"Hmm… So shall we?" Mary asked as she followed suit then two of them sped off the rooftop and down the building to tail the group.
When the group reached the base of the tower, there was a series of screams in a nearby smaller scale building, and the group's fast reflexes led them to turn right into the building, Clover crashed through a window, Sam and Alex Burst through the double doors, and Britney crashed through the opposite sided window. Zell walked in after the girls made an entrance then quickly assessed the location. Then he led the girls farther in, and not too far behind the two hunters, Trish and Mary, had followed.
"So Trish, would you know if the reincarnate has Dante's Weapons?" Mary asked quietly.
"They would have the Rebellion sword, and His twin handguns, if anything." Trish replied with a nod.
The two Hunters were careful not to alert the spies of their presence, however, Zell and Alex felt the presence indefinitely. Zell opened the door to another part of the building to what seemed like a ransacked strip club, covered in blood and with furniture scattered and destroyed everywhere. The debris was all around. The lights were hanging off of a wire and sparks off the wires allowed the group to catch glimpses of their surroundings. The eerie silence made Sam and Clover uneasy, and as if it were instinct, Sam clung to Zell like a scared cat to a soft cloth.
"Sam and Zell sitting in a tree…" Alex and Britney sang quietly, teasing Sam.
"Stop that you two. This isn't the time to be doing that." Zell whispered harshly to the two girls.
Then a soft crash was heard throughout the room.
"Okay." Alex replied dully, and then drew the Rebellion from her back.
"Clover, Sam, and you two have the S sabers, so pull them out, now. We'll need to use the light to fight the demons… and our two new guests." Zell stated with a grim calmness and spawned his Wolf Tail rapier, which was a long rapier, embedded with various symbols and had a black blade. When the sword it at full power the symbols glow a strange white color, giving it an otherworldly look to it.
Sam and Clover followed the orders exactly as instructed, and Britney followed suit as well. The five stood still and waited until they heard the sound of glass shattering, then turned around and rushed into different parts of the destroyed room. Sam was the first to be swarmed by the little reapers, then Alex, then Britney, and lastly Clover. Each person was ambushed by the reapers, and a new powered up form of the little reapers, these new reapers were grey instead of blue and appeared to twice as plentiful when attacking, not to mention they were significantly stronger and faster than their blue counterparts.
Zell noticed what was going on and quickly hopped onto a nearby rail to aid Sam in defending herself against so many opponents. As the reapers struck Zell swiftly reduced their numbers by half ultimately freeing Sam up to do some special moves of her own. Sam delivered an upward slash to two little reapers then used her bungee belt to latch onto one of the airborne enemies, propelling herself toward the little reaper and turned it into glass by igniting it using the jetpack backpack, then she flew toward the other airborne reaper and pierced it through the abdomen, the severed it's upper body with two swift slashes. Seeing this, Alex was more relaxed and began to wipe the little reapers out four at a time and made efficient use of the Stinger technique (Alex's style is trickster mixed with swrodmaster). Alex downed a reaper then used it as a boogie board and fired off several rounds at the other reapers while skidding around on the reaper, then quickly disposing of it by sending it flying into the pole in the middle of the room. Alex quickly grabbed hold of the pole immediately following the reaper's destruction and spun around the pole and released herself, causing her to fly into an incoming grey reaper, and blew it to pieces, then while still airborne she air dashed toward a larger grey reaper and began to assault it with a flurry of slashes and thrusts, then ending the combo with a powerful spinning slash, which sent the reaper whizzing past Britney and burst in to pieces when it collided with the wall. Britney was having a fair deal of trouble with the grey reapers, as she couldn't leave a scratch on any of them. Having seen Sam's display of quick wits, she came up with a combination of her own. Britney did a triple backward somersault into a corkscrew off a nearby railing, and then used her accelerator earring and jetpack backpack to plow through several grey reapers who jumped off the railing after her. Britney powered up her S saber to the point that it resembled a neon blue version of Cloud's Buster Sword and plowed through a large grey reaper and shattered it into pieces. Clover utilized her accelerator earring to give her a boost of speed and dashed past four little reapers, severing the heads of them all, then jumping off of one of the heads that flew through the air and halved an incoming grey reaper vertically. After a brief pause the grey reapers summoned a skeletal monster holding a pulsating metallic ball and walked toward the group. Alex positioned herself to be ready to unload a salvo of bullets at the throbbing monster, but Zell called Alex to stop.
"Wait, Alex. I don't think you should do that. It's too close." Zell stated holding his rapier out in front of Alex.
"Then what am I supposed to do?" Alex asked nervously and reluctantly putting down her guns.
"I'll force it toward the wall, then you will bombard it, okay?" Zell replied not taking his eyes off the pulsating monster.
"O-okay, I guess." Alex stated slightly fearful of the next few seconds.
"Good, now when I say 'go' you unload on it." Zell instructed then darted off toward the bomb reaper.
Zell's speed was something none of the girls expected, for when they saw how fast he ran they were almost frozen with amazement. Zell kicked the knees of the bomb reaper and aerial roundhouse kicked it into a corner he yelled for Alex to finish it.
"Now! Hit it with it all you can!" Zell yelled as the recoil of the kick sent him hurdling toward the opposing corner.
"Gotcha." Alex mumbled then unleashed a salvo of bullets into the bomber and it exploded leaving a huge hole in the wall, then a horde of reapers and grey reapers appeared and attacked the group.
"Let's go, Trish." Mary stated then ran through the double doors to the area that the spies entered, and Trish followed.
Mary ran into the room first, guns blazing and Trish followed, wielding the Force Edge and plowing through the horde of reapers, destroying all reapers in sight. Zell and Alex jumped into the carnage and covered what Trish and Mary overlooked, or missed. Sam and Clover watched from a distance, Clover being more worried about her looks stayed in a corner, and Sam was simply exhausted from all of the fighting and had no time to recuperate from the last battle. Mary recognized Alex as Dante and Trish sensed Dante's energy emerging from her. Alex dove into a crowd of reapers and blew them all away using some acrobatic gunplay. Zell pulled back to check on Sam, Clover, and Britney.
"Sam, are you alright?" Zell asked, then placed his hand on her slumped figure, which was breathing heavily.
"Y-yeah, just tired is all." Sam replied between exhales.
"Oh man! My hair is all frizzed out…" Clover whined as she inspected her hair carefully.
"Clover now's really not the time for that." Britney stated sarcastically.
Trish showed her fighting prowess as she hauled the enormous blade around her waist and knees, as if she were dancing. Several grey reapers charged at Trish only to get cut down by the Force Edge. Trish followed up her attacks by catapulting several reapers for Mary to shoot down. She and Mary were quite synchronized; they fired off shots at the grey reapers and slashed the incoming grey reapers with amazing speed. Trish launched Mary high into the air off of the tip of the Force Edge so she could end the fray with a bang. Mary pulled the Kalina Ann out into the ready with ease as it was strapped to her back and fired off one rocket and disintegrated the remaining reapers in a huge cloud of sandy smoke.
"Are you all okay?" Trish asked as she pushed the Force Edge back onto her back.
"We're all okay, alive in the least." Britney sighed then struggled to stand up.
"What about you two?' Mary asked looking at Zell and Sam.
"I'm Fine. Sam? Are you okay?" Zell asked, scanning her for signs of life.
"Oooohhhhh! My hair! I can't keep this up anymore! Rrrgh!" Clover yelled and jumped up and down like a small child.
"Oh yeah, she's fine." Alex giggled to herself.
"I-I'm fine… Zell, help me up." Sam said quietly
"Can you stand?" Mary asked with a tiny hint of concern in her voice.
"Yeah. I'm fine." Sam sighed.
"Who're you guys?" Alex asked as she put her weapons onto her back.
"Trish. Nice to meet you, reincarnate of the son of sparda." Trish replied with a smirk.
"The name's Mary; however, I don't allow too many people to address me by that name." Mary stated coolly.
"Nice to meet you both. You saved our lives." Alex said back.
"Yeah, thank you both." Zell added as he walked up to the two demon hunters.
"You're welcome; but you… You have a strange aura. Are you even human?" Trish asked with a hint of bitterness in her voice.
"Calm down, Trish. Cut him a break. He did keep us alive." Alex interrupted, although it wasn't Alex speaking.
"Dante? What happened?" Mary asked in disbelief of what she heard.
"Let the kid explain." Alex Stated.
"Very well…" Mary agreed and took several steps back from the spies' group.
"My name is Zell. These are my comrades Alex, Sam, Clover, and Britney." Zell began and pointed to the corresponding girls.
"Okay. So tell us what happened to Dante." Trish demanded.
"Okay, okay. This is the story: Dante and his brother Vergil fought, but Dante lost and his spirit escaped and is now inside of our friend here." Zell explained then gestured to Alex as he finished his statement.
"Damn that Vergil…" Trish gritted her teeth and turned her back toward the group and pushed the Force Edge through the wooded floor into the earth below the building.
"A-are you for real?" Mary asked out of disbelief.
"Sorry, but I don't kid around about this stuff." Zell replied coldly.
"So what're you kids doing in a place like this?" Trish asked, her back still to the group, in an attempt to hide her tears.
"We're here to help Alex, that is Dante's reborn self, to stop Vergil from ruining this world." Sam stated.
"Do you realize how dangerous this is?" Mary said roughly.
"We get the point. But we still are obligated to help our friend." Britney said back with much resolve in her voice.
"So… she's your friend?" Trish asked.
"Yes, our best friend. We'd do anything to keep her safe, as she would do the same for us." Clover stated with her arms crossed.
Then there was a strong silence, as if the two groups were planning to do something, then Trish turned around and finally said "Fine, then. But would you all mind letting us talk to Alex for a bit?"
"Yeah but no funny stuff." Britney stated then took a few steps away from the group to think.
"You know that you possess a very powerful demon within you, correct?" Trish asked Alex.
"I do now that I've been in these battles… but what's Vergil like? I've tried to ask Dante, but he just gets angry." Alex replied
"Vergil… he's a vile demon, he took advantage of my father's curiosity and drove him to kill my mother. Then my father was so corrupted that he wanted the power of Sparda's son for himself… and even tried to kill me as well…" Mary started to cry, as she recalled the last time she'd encountered her father.
"That scuzzball! Why would a father even think like that?" Alex asked, unable to believe what she heard.
"That's why I became a demon hunter, in order to avenge my mother." Mary continued, with the tears coming down her face. Zell stared at Mary's teary eyed face, and a look of ferocity crossed his face.
"So, what about you?" Zell asked darkly shifting his gaze to Trish.
"Dante… helped me to attain my freedom from a demon. He fought for me even though I attacked him when we first met. I was certain that he was as pure and powerful as his father, after I saw him destroy the one whose power rivaled his father's power." Trish replied trying to hold back tears as she spoke of her lover's noble deeds.
"So will you two join us in getting rid of Vergil for the last time?" Alex asked, and then Zell nodded silently.
"Yes. We both have been working together to try to infiltrate the Temen-Ni-Gru. With your help, I think that we'll be able to defeat him and at least seal the demonic realm back." Trish replied and extended her hand.
"Very Well. Then welcome to the team." Alex said back, then shook Trish's hand.
"So what's the plan from here on out?" Mary asked.
"I think that we'll have to find a way to get past the guardian, that is the first test." Trish added, with little thought of the legend of the Temen-Ni-Gru.
"Zell, what'd you recommend?" Alex asked with her arms crossed.
"Let's just get in the tower first. Then we'll go from there." Zell replied in a deep thought, as if he were expecting something bad to happen.
"Understood. C'mon girls. We're going to the tower." Alex said loudly, so the rest of the girls could hear her.
Britney and Clover helped Sam up, as she was still tired. Zell walked over to the three of them and carried Sam himself. While he carried Sam, he noticed that Sam's face was coming to resemble that of a human leopard. "So the gene is within her…" Zell thought to himself then moved Sam's hair over her face to hide the change.
NOTE: This is a hint of an upcoming crossover fanfic, it will include Bloody Roar and Totally Spies.