Chapter - 7 Doppleganger
The group proceeded into the next room through thr red double doors from the room where Zell battled the guardiabs of the chamber, Agni&Rudra. When the group proceeded up the stairs they had seen a statue with three spherical slots, then the group proceeded to the next room, and in the next room there were three chambers, each one with a pedestal of a different color from the last. The three colors were red, blue, and green. The blue chamber was the chamber of wisdom, which Zell, Britney and Sam went to do; the green chamber was the chamber of skill, which Mary and Clover went to do; the final chamber was the chamber of technique, which Trish and Alex decided to do. The chamber of wisdom was a maze in which the three tried to navigate their way through to the other side and obtain the artifact that was needed to proceed further.
Zell, Sam and Britney initally decided to split up, as it would be the fastest way to get the Essence of Intellect. However, after taking a wrong turn in the maze they were attacked by reapers, the usual set, and they were plenty in numbers and were not going down as easily as the ones before. These reapers were faster and more powerful, but they were still no match for Sam, Zell and Britney. The group of reapers appeared from behind the group and thrust their handles into the backs of the team and sent the team colliding into each other. Sam collided with Zell, which was similar to running head-on into a brick wall due to his genetic makeup. Then Zell staggered backward and was skidded forward by Britney, as she was spiraled into Zell's back and he was tripped by a reaper who was laying on the ground. Sam used the momentum of the impact with Zell to dart toward an attacking reaper, and tackled it into the nearest wall, then she pulled out her S saber and rapidly slashed the reaper and sent sand burtsing everywhere. Britney used a similar method of quickly gaining speed and she ran at an incoming reaper and jumped on top of the reaper and used it as a board and spun on it and pulled out her weapon, powered it to full power and spiraled into what seemed to be a cyclone and sliced quite a few of the reapers in two. Zell rolled onto his side after seeing a scythe plummeting toward his head and flipped forward, delivering an axe kick in the process, planting the reaper into the cement of the room. He transformed into his half wolf form, which only exposed the ears and tail of his wolf self, and began to ravage the sudden group of reapers that managed to materialize right in his face. Sam and Britney were in opposite corners, and when they caught sight of what was going on in the center of the room, they both triggered their jetpack backpacks and flew into the impending chaos that erupted. The two girls diced multiple reapers and Zell let out a howl that emitted soundwaves from his mouth and shattered an entire row of the reapers. Sam and Britney maxed the power of their S sabers and unleashed a huge X shaped wave, then Zell followed their attack with one of his own using the newly acquired Agni&Rudra swords, and he sent an X shaped wave of fire and air immediately following the two spies' wave, emptying the room of the reapers and headed through to find the item on the other side of the next room. In the room was the item, Essence of Intellect, Sam grabbed the metal sphere and handed it to Zell. Britney stayed in the background, as the two exchanged looks of lovers. Although Zell didn't get the explaination that he'd wanted, he still got the girl that he wanted; Sam, on the other hand felt as though she could trust Zell, and she was at ease when he was around. She somehow wanted to be with him, and have him by her side, and he returned these feelings, but then again so did all of the other pairs of teammates, except for Britney, she was the only one who was alone there. Sam tried to apologize to Zell for the earlier events, but he simply put one finger over her soft lips, and then the two kissed a nice apologetic type of kiss, and Britney just stared at Sam with envy. After the kiss between them they decided to return to the chamber and wait for the others to get done with their trials.
Mary and Clover's test was more direct; get to the other side without getting impaled by the rows if javelins coming from the holes in the walls, celing, and floor.
"We can do this, Mary. Here, hold my hands. I'll fly us over there." Clover said enthusiastically.
"No, Clover. It's alright. I'll just wait here for you. I know I can't do this, so I'll just support you from here." Mary smiled and gave Clover a brief, friendly peck on the cheek, and Clover returned the favor and both were blushing furiously, but Clover slapped herself and regained her focus and flew toward the other end of the tunnel and the javelins began to appear and move toward Clover at the same speed she was going towards them.
Clover flew and turned and barrel rolled out of one sets way and adjusted herself as if she was doing a pole vault to dodge the next row, which was coming up from the next row of spears came from the left and Clover elegantly twirled to avoid becoming swiss cheese. Several fancy evasive maneuvers later, Clover obtained the item and turned around just in time to duck and avoid an incoming scythe, then she suddenly heard a missile coming her way.
"Clover, look out!" Mary yelled from the other side of the corridor and as if on cue the reaper exploded and Clover rolled out of the way and grabbed her S saber and shot lightening at several airborne reapers.
The two fought through all reapers, tearing them apart with bullets and lightening alike, until they were back to back; however at the same time, they were surrounded by a humongus horde of bloodgoyles, all with killing intent in their eyes. Clover stopped and stared down one bloodgoyle as it was right in her face, unflintching, much like she was. Mary was fearlessly doing the same thing, except the two girls had each others' hands as they stood back to back, then with one swift motion, Clover spun Mary around with astounding strength, and blasted the circle of bloodgoyles into all directions, then the goyles screeched loudly and bolted toward the two females. Mary stepped forward calmly and held her Kalina Ann, and Clover stood by her side and attatched the Accelerator Earrings, both of them, onto the back of the Kalina, and Mary rapid fired twenty-seven missiles, then shifted to the smaller mini salvos and fired off multiple bursts of them causing significant damage to the goyles, then Clover activated her bungee belt and reeled a stoned goyle in, and whipped it into an incoming wad of bloodgoyles blowing them into tiny splotches of blood. Mary flipped off of Clover's back and into mid-air and rotated the Kalina Ann rapidly around her waist and blew the remaining bloodgoyles to bits and shattering the stoned one that flew into the wall. After a brief survalance of the area Mary hoisted the Kalina Ann back onto her back and approached Clover with a gleeful smile. Clover returned the smile, and after a second of staring into the others' eyes, the two slowly got closer and finally their lips touched, first slowly and gently then the two embraced each other with immense passion. They kissed for nearly a minute, and unaware that they were even kissing, then stopped for air and then began to blush and reluctantly looked at each other.
"S-So should we head back now, or wait a few minutes?" Clover stammered slightly nervous of the act she had just committed.
"I think we can sit here for a few more moments." Mary said slyly as she sat down on a stone thay had once been a part of the walls.
"Well, then I suppose we could... for a minute, I guess..." Clover replied lowly with her head pointed at the ground as she crept over to where Mary was sitting, and sat next to her, and placed her hand on Mary's thigh. The two sat and stared into each other's eyes like that for a few moments and began to talk and try to get to know each other, and Mary explained the reason she was upset from before as well.
Alex and Trish were required to do the most work, as they were the two who had to fight reapers upon entry into their test. When the blue reapers appeared, Alex and Trish immediately split up jumped onto the heads of several reapers, and noticed the mysterious wheel-like object they had encountered earlier in the room with all the statues and the elevator platform. So the two decided to do the same thing Zell had done, light the wheels, as it seemed it was the only logical thing to do. The two ran toward the wheel that was closest to them and struck it repeatedly until it lit up, dodging the reapers in the process. Then, a spherical appeared on what appeared to be a pedestal where someone was beheaded a long time ago. Alex proceeded with great caution, and her new hand began to resonate with a red aura, like if it were trying to warn her of impending danger, so Trish took the warning and followed behind Alex to the pedestal. When the two girls reached the pedestal, they were greeted by bloodgoyles, Alex jumped back and pulled out the revolver and fired one shot to each goyle, then Trish shattered the goyles with a stinger strike, causing the goyles to fly into the wall then burst into tiny stones. The two girls turned around to see a grim reaper wailing and pulled out an enormous blue tinted scythe and swung it down in Alex's direction. Alex, being more careful of what she'd do to avoid strikes like that, somersaulted backwards, then Trish leaped over her and buried the Sparda into the skull of the grim reaper. Alex followed up with a high jumping kick to the Sparda and sent it spiraling toward the ground behind the grim reaper. The large monster wailed and sank into the ground, then a bell tolled and the reaper shot upward with great speed, the two girls barely avoided the attack and rolled to either side of the monster, then it disappeared again and after the bell tolled it struck again, this time from the side, twirling the scythe like a baton. The two rolled out of the way, then the reaper faded again, and the bell sounded, then the reaper came down from above and struck the ground with much force, in fact it's scythe got stuck as a result. Trish and Alex took advantage of this occurence and wiped the grim reaper away with shots from the Blue Rose, and thrusts and slashes from the Sparda, the Rebellion, and the Red Queen. The two finished the large adversary with a swift cross slash, causing moonlight to erupt from a wound like blood, then finally the reaper screeched and burst into light, then was gone. So the two obtained the Esscence of Skill, and decided to take a breather in the now vacant room. Trish and Alex sat rather close to each other on a wall near the exit and Alex lay in Trish's lap for a moment, breathing heavily and Trish begen to stroke her hair gently.
"You've grown stronger, Alex" Trish whispered in Alex's ear. The sound of Trish's voice was really soothing to Alex.
"Thanks, Trish. Although I wouldn't have gotten this far without Dante..." Alex replied and moved her head closer to Trish's stomach.
"But his power is yours now, so that it all that truly matters, is it not? He gave you that power because he trusted you with the task of ridding the world of evil demons - especially ones like Vergil. That was his responsibility, now it's yours." Trish explained in the same whispering tone, then Alex sat up and the two faced each other again and stared intently into the other's eyes.
"I-I guess you're right Trish." Alex stated and placed her non demonic hand on Trish's cheek.
The two slowly began to ease into the other and once again their lips touched and they began to kiss once again. Trish placed her other hand on Alex's cold demon hand, warming Alex's hand. Alex placed the Devil Bringer hand on Trish's waist and pulled Trish close to her, until Trish was laying on top of Alex. When trish noticed what she was doing her face became very pink, then red. Alex's face did the same, except Alex wasn't being as shy as she was the first time. The two stared at each other again, and in the cold silence quietly shared yet another passionate moment of romance, that is, until they heard Zell's howling. The two quickly shuffled upward and rushed back to the entrance and were disappointed to find Zell, Sam and Britney standing with their arms crossed. Mary and Clover rushed out as well and were upset to find that it was a false alarm. Little did they know that he could smell their emotions so he suprised them with his next statement.
"Listen all you lovebirds, we still have a mission to complete so the extra mushy stuff can wait. I'd still like to go back to a soft warm bedroom and rest when we complete this mission, and I know that you would like to as well, maybe even with your new partners too." Zell stated bluntly, then walked out the double doors and onto the pedestal with a laser perched on top of it, the girls followed all in shock that he knew what they were doing.
"H-hey, um, Zell?" Britney stammered as she stumbled over the debris that was near the large laser statue.
"Yeah? What is it?" Zell asked, showing more concern for the intellectual asian.
"What exactly did you mean back there? About them all being lovebirds?" Britney asked, trying to hide the jealousy and nervousness from her voice.
"I meant exactly what I'd said. They all are getting attatched to each other. I have to admit though, I'm suprised that you still hate me." Zell stated in a matter-of-fact tone and crossed his arms.
"I-I don't hate you..." Britney replied, more confused about how she felt being left out and about her sudden superior.
"I can smell your emotions. Right now, you're trying to determine if you still distrust me, or not...and wether or not you will be able to tell Sam about how you feel." Zell smirked when Britney blushed after his last comment, then put the Essence of Intellect into one of the slots on the statue, and it began to glow dimly.
"So that's what these are for..." Alex said with suprise in her voice, then she placed the Essence of Skill into the statue.
"Looks like you were right about this, Zell." Mary complimented, then motioned for Clover to put the Essence of Techinque into the statue, then the statue began to emit a bright light which flashed and temporarily blinded the team.
When the sight of the team returned it only took a brief amount of time to notice that Alex had disappeared and wasn't around anywhere. Alex was whisked away to a room filled with lights and shafts to block the lights. Seconds later the shadow had risen from underneath Alex and taken it's own form. It had her phisique and weapons. The lights around them had been shut off, so in an attempt to regain her sight, Alex ran to where the last light had been lit and attacked the case shielding it. Her weapon of choice for this battle was the Cerberus, she knew how to trigger a shield of ice from it which was to come in very handy. Alex got to the wall, and the shadowy other was gaining on her. Alex began to panic, as the shadow was getting closer to her with a dark form of the Rebellion in hand. Alex swung her nunchucks as hard as she could with her human hand, then as if it took over by itself, the devil bringer hand had began to punch the case of the light, ans when the shadow was within the sight of the light the devil bringer had broken the case on the light and destroyed the dark shield that was protecting the being, then Alex froze it with the ice spikes from the Cerberus. Alex hopped over the frozen being then ran across the room to shatter the other cases, and when that happened the bright light erupted from th center of the room and the shadowy being shattered like glass. Then the dark aura the was on the being had been absorbed into the devil bringer and Alex was able to regain control of the new hand she had acquired. Whan the light cleared there was a new weapon in its place. Alex stepped toward the weapon slowly and picked it up, it didn't respond and then she was warped back to the room with her friends, and a new doorway had been opened. Alex dropped the weapon out of excitement of being with all of her friends again.
"Glad to see you're in one piece." Zell greeted the athlete with a smirk.
"Yeah, me too..." Alex sighed then she was grabbed by Trish, Sam, Clover, and Britney.
'You scared the crap out of us! Don't ever disappear like that again!" The girls blared at Alex.
"Well, I didn't know you all cared so much..." Alex giggled and made all of the girls red.
"Wow... So are you all ready? This next area may be the last." Zell sighed and reminded the girls of the severity of the mission for the third time.
"Um, yeah. Let's move." Alex agreed reluctantly, then followed behind Zell, then the rest of the team did so as well.
"Glad that nusiance is out of my hair." Vergil said to himself as he overlooked the city from the top of the Temen-Ni-Gru.
The group went through the large door to find a corridor that was blocked by two giant skulls of skulls, and Zell stopped the group and Sam and Britney noticed that in one of the collages there was one missing, and Zell pulled a skull out of his mouth, yes his mouth, that was shiny like they other key and inserted it into the empty slot, then an unlocking sound was heard. The group went through the doors behind the skull collages and it was raining. The group followed Zell carefully and went through a gate and Vergil was on the other side.
"Long time, no see... brother, or should I say sister?" Vergil stated, unfazed by the fact that Dante's powers lie in the body of a teen girl.
"...Vergil..." Alex growled, Rebellion in one hand, Alastor in the other.
"All of your struggles are about to end here, Alex." Vergil stated and clenched his fists tightly and summoned the Beowulf gloves and greaves.
"I'll help you Alex." Trish called out, but was stopped by Zell, who had the Agni&Rudra equipped, however, the two blades were resonating with fire and wind surging through them.
Sam and Britney caught a glimpse of Zell's face, and it was scary. Trish got the message, and readied the Sparda in it's spear form, Mary took aim with the Kailina Ann, Clover readied her S saber, and Britney and Sam did the same. The rain began to fall more quickly and heavily with each passing moment, and Zell's whole body became the wolf that it was when he killed Tim Scam, complete with the blood red aura that surrunded Zell when he reverted back into his human state as well. The final battle was about to begin and it would take more than just one person to prevent the end of Beverly Hills as the girls, and the world knew it...