Chapter 10 - The Final Encounter
The three spies and Trish went through the portal and were falling through a black sky that seemed too familiar to Trish. Alex and Sam activated their jetpack backpacks, Zell kicked his feet together and his hover board appeared, Trish activated her Devil Trigger, as it was the only way for her to fly, and they all were following a dark figure toward a tornado.
"Zell, what's our next objective?" Britney asked via her X powder
"Get to the bottom of the Temen-Ni-Gru, and clean up any remaining demons along the way." Zell responded
"Okay, over and out." Britney said back, and then closed the transmission.
"So, we meet again eh, Sparda?" A demonic voice asked.
"Yeah, looks like it." Alex responded subconsciously.
"Good, and this time I shall emerge as victor. Then I shall take what little purity remains in the pathetic humans you fought so hard to protect." The being stated with an evil voice.
"We won't let you do that, you arrogant bastard!" Zell yelled.
"You can't defeat the mighty power of Mundus!" The monster yelled.
Trish gasped in the same horror that Mary had displayed when she found the Jester.
"What's the matter, my failure of a puppet? Surprised that I came back?" Mundus asked, then turned around to reveal himself as an Angelic demon combined with a broken up colossus.
"You, you won't do anything to harm those humans!" Trish cried out, in great fear of the power that stood before the team.
"Trish, relax. We can take this guy. There's nothing that can top the power of our love." Alex assured her.
Zell and Sam were near enough to hear this statement and Sam was surprised, but Zell saw it coming thanks to his senses.
"What? What'd you just say?" Sam asked confused if she heard Alex correctly.
"I...I love Trish... I can't deny that." Alex explained reluctantly.
"At least you found someone who cares for you. I glad that you were able to do so." Sam commented kindly.
"No offense, but we have to get rid of this guy first!" Zell yelled from behind the two girls.
"Oh yeah, sorry Zell…" The two replied nervously.
Trish began to fire some form of sealing incantation at Mundus, Zell covered her by zooming ahead of her and subduing the incoming lightening and fire spells from the demon. Sam and Alex followed Zell and Alex triggered her Devil Bringer, and the arm made a duplicate of her. The Duplicate possessed the Red Queen, and Alastor; while Alex was to use the Rebellion, Cerberus, and the Ebony & Ivory handguns. Zell took a split second and noticed the moon. It was black, which meant his ultimate, or near fullest power, was able to be harnessed. Zell's body surged with flames of black, white, blue and red, and then all of his weapons hovered around him. Zell bursts forward, breaking what would have been the sound barrier and tears into the heart of Mundus with a large explosion, and Trish finished her incantation and a dragon shot from her hand into the exact spot that Zell had opened. Alex's duplicate followed a similar trail; however, she veered to the right and fired a large Ball of energy at Mundus, tearing his left wing away, and then bolted forward and sliced a chunk of the being into oblivion, and tearing his shoulder. Alex and Sam were on the other side of Mundus. Sam told Alex to fire two of the same energy bursts that her duplicate had done. The two friends shared the desire to want to protect those near to them, and as a result they both made the guns glow with yellow (for Alex) and green (for Sam). The two whispered Dante's signature word: Jackpot.
Then as if on a signal, the two guns shot the yellow and green energy and pierced the head of the demon emperor. Seeing this happen Trish, Zell, and the Duplicate of Alex (who was Dante, but he took on the form of Alex, just a darker tint) all flew forward and slashed the lower part of the body of the flying golem, causing it to fall into the abyss below, and then Alex had taken the Rebellion, and Sam using the last of the energy in her Masamune Saber collided with the hands of Golem Mundus. The two were gradually, but slowly tearing through the hands of Mundus, as they could hear the crumbling of rock among the buzzing of the saber and scraping of the sword. Zell flew around the body of the distracted demon, and helped Sam, and Trish and the duplicate went to Alex. The two hands broke and shattered to pieces, and the demon let out a cry and plummeted to the darkness below.
The lower sky grew dark, and then it quickly turned red and molten magma shot from the area where Mundus had fallen. Zell sniffed slowly, and then nosedived in the direction of the pillar of magma. The girls followed Zell carefully, as he skillfully maneuvered through the other incoming pillars of magma. Zell followed his nose to a volcanic eruption, and a figure stood up and the magma fell off of him.
"Time for round two girls." Zell stated.
"We're right behind you Zell." Alex said back trying to assure herself that they weren't going to be killed in a painful manner.
"Alex, we're going to win." Sam stated in a big sister's soothing tone.
"Yeah, you've got us and we've got you." Trish added and placed a hand on Alex's shoulder.
Alex began to regain herself, and was ready for the next battle, and took the lead, just as Mundus erupted from the volcanic ashes, now clad in a charcoal black form. Mundus swung down with great force of his weapon, which appeared to be an augmented version of Vergil's Devil trigger Yamato, the size increased 100x. Zell jumped high over the blade as It collided with what little earth the team had, and Alex and Sam had just ran out of fuel for their jet pack back packs. Trish hurled both spies up toward Zell, who was now on the giant blade, then joined the group on the sword.
"You two still have the Anti-gravity boots on, right?" Zell asked kindly when he caught the two girls.
"Oh, yeah, we don't use our boots often though…that's why we forgot…" Alex laughed weakly, Zell sweat dropped.
"You useless creation, how dare you defy me again!" Mundus blared is a deep sluggish type of voice.
"I'm not useless. I just don't have a use to you! I will no longer abide by your rules, father." Trish yelled back then ran up the huge blade.
Alex and Sam activated their anti-gravity boots and flew behind the raging Trish, and Zell ran after them, easily keeping up pace with the girls. Zell handed Sam another saber, this one had a handle that resembled a katana. Trish leapt from the huge hilt of the weapon and bolted up the arm. Alex and Sam flew around the other side of Mundus and served as a distraction by flying into the face of the giant demon, slashing and burning his face. Zell followed Trish and threw her rocketing toward the ear of Mundus. Trish dashed in the ear of Mundus and carved his ear with the spear form of the Sparda. Mundus let out a cry of pain, then emitted a forceful shockwave from the depths of his mind and sent all of the girls flying back to the outer ring of the top of the volcano. Trish and Alex were still flying, but Sam's boots shut off and she was unable to regain her balance. Zell noticed this and lunged toward Sam's direction and caught her, but was hit in his back by the enormous blade. Zell had Sam in his arms, but was hurtling off the edge of the volcano. Alex and Trish gripped each other's hands and flew in a circle nearly creating a tornado with their speed. Then Alex hurled Trish at the Blackened Beast, and flew after her with speed a little slower. Zell was holding an unconscious Sam, afraid that the Z gene had awoken again. With a new resolve Zell gave several bursts of energy to regain his balance, and several to Sam, which seemed to work, as she came around quickly. The two returned to the top of the volcano, and saw Mundus swing his hefty blade horizontally. Zell and his swords slowed the giant sword to a halt by himself. Trish and Alex were in awe for a brief moment, and then they snapped back to the battle. The girls all ran up the huge blade, but with a more direct approach. Zell held the blade, causing Mundus to struggle to get the blade up again.
"How? How can such a lowly creature match my strength?" Mundus growled.
"Because I'm better than you!" Zell yelled, and shattered the weapon with little difficulty.
The girls heard the blade shatter, then Alex warped next to Zell and she began to shoot the fragments of the sword at Mundus, and Zell followed suit, except he launched them with his howling attack. Trish and Sam evaded the incoming fragments and continued up the hard black arm. The fragments of the weapon pierced his head. Sam augmented her new blade's power and alongside Trish's blade and the two cut the head of Mundus in four places. Zell grabbed Alex by her arm and launched her blazingly fast toward one of the openings that Sam and Trish had cut open, and She poured a large amount of ammo into the nearest wound. Zell suddenly appeared above Mundus and rocketed himself downward and collided with Mundus with the force of a meteor onto the planet, causing massive damage and even shattering his being.
The volcano erupted with black magma, warping the team into the depths of Hell. There was a small platform and the four friends were standing on the platform. Suddenly large amounts of fire appeared and swarmed around Zell, Trish, and Sam. They couldn't move, it was as if the fire restricted their movements. The three struggled, Mundus appeared again, this time with a body of flames and one bat wing, and one angel wing, the giant sword he had in the previous battle was reconstructed, but it was smaller in size. Alex dropped onto her knees, and cupped her face with her hands, and the muffled sound of crying could be heard.
"What's the matter, Sparda?" Mundus yelled at Alex.
"Why don't you just die and let us go! I'm tired of seeing your ugly face. I just want to go back with my friends, and relax while I still can." Alex cried, thinking of the grief that her other friends were going through.
"Alex! Get a grip!" Zell yelled sounding rather harsh.
"Yeah, Alex, don't worry about what has happened, just focus on kicking his sorry butt!" Sam added, with a more encouraging tone.
"We'll be fine, and the others are doing just fine without us at the moment. Just beat him so we can all go back home…with you." Trish said in a slightly sexy tone.
"You guys are right. I can do his. Let's go, Mundus!" Alex stated powerfully, all of the demonic energy flowing through her body, with wind swirling and an aura of condensed yellow energy.
The two of them, Mundus and Alex stared each other down, with Alex constantly gaining energy with each moment. Alex bursts forward in a run, as did Mundus. The two opponents swung blades and blocked each other's attacks. Alex was gaining the upper hand and gradually was wearing the demonic emperor down. Alex's attacks were increasing in speed and strength as well. Alex slashed through the demon emperor's defenses and shattered his blade in his face, and then she cut several parts of his body, tearing what remained of his flesh. Mundus dipped into the ground and reappeared behind Alex and kicked her furiously into the flames of a barrier, teleported into her face and kicked her into the opposite direction then he tried to impale her with the broken portion of the blade. Alex took the attack and at the same time, she thrust the Rebellion into where his heart should have been, and jumped off of the demon emperor and impaled him from below with the Red Queen blade.
"Damn it… I u-under…estimated…your powers…again…" Mundus dropped on his knees and blood dripping from his mouth.
"Well, that's what happens when you mess with my home!" Alex yelled, then pulled the Blue Rose revolver out and aimed it at Mundus.
"NO!" Mundus screamed then his voice stopped as he was finished with the final shot from Alex's weapon.
The fire restricting the other members disappeared, and a blue portal appeared. The four fighters entered the portal and were greeted by Britney, Clover and Mary battling reapers and bloodgoyles. The four friends joined in the frenzy and helped clear the final set of demons that were in the area. Then Zell made the call to Jerry via his Earring communicator, and recommended that they start developing a demon radar in order to further protect the planet, but Jerry declined the offer.
"That type of work is strictly left for The Center, Zell, If you wish to help them then be my guest. I won't hold anything against you, but you'll still have your responsibilities as a W.O.O.H.P. agent, understand?" Jerry stated.
"Nah, I'll pass." Zell replied with a nonchalant smirk.
Hours later, at the renovated W.O.O.H.P. building, the team of spies and demon hunters joined in Jerry's office to discuss things.
"So girls, what's your evaluation of Zell?" Jerry asked and placed his hands crossed over his face.
"He's a great comrade, and friend." Britney stated, avoiding eye contact with Zell.
"He's protective and considerate of his allies." Sam said, trying not to turn red again.
"He's a good asset to our team." Clover added happily.
"He certainly had our backs during this mission, too." Alex stated proudly.
"Good. So now Zell, you have your team. You will be living across the street from them as of tomorrow." Jerry said with a smile.
"Awesome! Thank you, sir." Zell nodded with a smile.
"Now you two… What exactly are your professions?" Jerry asked the two demon hunters.
"We're demon hunters. We also played a role in Alex's mission." Trish began.
"We've been searching for Dante…and we found him, residing in her." Mary continued.
"Hmm…I see. So what course will you take?" Jerry asked with little anticipation.
"Um, Jerry could I still be a spy and a demon hunter?" Alex asked hesitantly.
"Sure…if you think you can handle all of the responsibilities." Jerry simply replied
"So, where's Dante's old office?" Alex asked with newfound enthusiasm.
"It's not too far from here actually. C'mon I'll show you" Trish explained then Jerry gave Alex permission to depart.
"So Zell how's Samantha's Z-gene?" Jerry asked as Trish and Alex left the room.
"It's nearly done. Her transformation is into a cheetah. The reason I say it's not done is that she still hasn't gained her animal instincts, nor the ability to control her transformation." Zell explained with his arms folded.
"Oh, I see. So Zell would you mind accompanying her while the gene develops?" Jerry asked kindly of one of his best spies.
"Well…" Zell began, but was cut off by Sam.
"He sure would!" Sam finished the thought with a big smile, followed by a blush.
"Then it's settled." Jerry said then nodded in approval of Zell's leave, Sam went with him, on his arm.
"So Clover who is this?" Jerry asked skillfully hiding his curiosity.
"My name is Mary, sir. I aided Clover in her mission just as Trish did." Mary explained while she unsuccessfully tried to hide a smile.
"So I see." Jerry stated simply.
"Um, Jerry? Could I join Alex as a Demon Hunter?" Clover asked, then she caught a look of approval from Mary.
"Like I said to Alex... you can go as a demon hunter, only if you still uphold your duties as a Spy as well." Jerry explained then nodded at the two girls and Clover squealed with glee and left the office, talking with Mary.
Britney let out a quiet sigh, that Jerry was able to detect with relative ease, and was concerned.
"What's the matter, Britney?" Jerry asked one of his most accomplished female spies.
"It's Zell… I thought he was a double agent, but I was wrong, then I developed feelings for him, as an older brother and then some." Britney explained with her head down in disappointment.
"Relax Britney. You'll be with him more often than not." Jerry began.
"What do you mean?" Britney asked in slight confusion.
"You'll be living with Zell, that way I can contact you both when needed. But try to force yourself upon him." Jerry stated with caution.
"Understood." Britney nodded then she left too.
"Well Zell, it appears you got what you wanted and more, as did Alex and Clover." Jerry smiled to himself and turned to face his monitors. M.O.M. appeared on the many screens.
"So Jerry, should I enlist them as members of The Center?" The short-haired brunette asked.
"Well, I'll have to say no to that M.O.M. simply because they want to remain spies for me, and hunt demons, not investigate as they already do that for me." Jerry explained satisfactorily.
"I see. So I'll just leave them alone, unless attacks happen?" M.o.M. asked
"Yes, that would be the best course for the girls. I believe" Jerry replied with a thought
"Very well, M.O.M. out." M.O.M. saluted to Jerry then cut the transmission, Jerry saluted as well.
"Well, spies your lives will only get more difficult from here… I wish you all luck." Jerry sighed as he left his now quiet office.
Outside, not too far from the W.O.O.H.P. headquarters, the four demon hunters were at Dante's shop, Devil May Cry, and decided that they each needed some form of communication aside from the phone in the office, so they decided to forward all calls to Alex's X powder, as she was the inheritor of Dante's powers and mementos, and she wouldn't be able to stay at a desk all day, as she was still in school. Trish led Alex, Mary, and Clover into the once bustling demon hunting shop, and they four of them placed their Devil's Arms on hooks and inside cabinets, to hold the guns.
"So this will be our new meeting place, right?" Alex asked.
"Yeah. But we'll need to fix it up a bit, don't you agree?" Clover asked as she pulled an old pizza box from the ceiling.
"Yeah, but we don't have any money, so we'll just have to make do with this." Mary sighed as she threw a molded box into the trash.
"Hey, we still need to keep business going so let's just grin and bear it until we get the money to renovate." Trish explained then set the trash ablaze.
"Yeah, we don't have a choice, do we?" Alex and Clover sighed and sat down. Alex was in Dante's old chair, next to the phone, and Clover was next to Mary on the red sofa. Trish sat on the desk near Alex.
Zell had decided to take Sam out for a latte in the mall, and there in Café dès le mieux, was Mandy and her cousin Mindy as well as her two followers, Caitlin and Dominique. Sam tried to avoid the five rivals, but was spotted rather quickly and nearly became victim to their jokes and embarrassing remarks. To begin the confrontation Mandy spilled an iced latte on Sam's new outfit, Sam gasped in surprise and out of the sudden temperature meeting the area below her waist.
"Stupid Sam, watch where you're going next time!" Caitlin yelled.
"Me? It was your stupid leader's fault! She spilled it on me!" Sam yelled, attracting much of the attention of the Café.
"You should really learn to watch your mouth little Sammy" Mindy growled darkly.
Zell reentered the café to find his new girlfriend dripping wet between her legs and red with enough anger to blow Mandy and her friend's to smithereens, but he intervened just in time."Um, Sammie-baby, is there a problem?" Zell's soft voice instantly calmed her down.
"C-can we just go somewhere quiet? I'd really rather do something else now." Sam replied, trying her best to control herself.
"Hmmm…let's get you cleaned up first. I'll buy you a new outfit then we can go to the library and play a quick game of chess or two."Zell stated, then he kissed her and guided her out of the café, leaving Mandy's group speechless.
"…When the hell did that happen!" Mandy screamed in a high pitch tone, causing the group to hold their ears.
Outside the mall Sam laughed and knew she had won this time, as Mandy's shriek was so loud it was heard even outside in the parking lot. Zell gave her a careful look and laughed as well.
Britney decided to speculate on her new home and she ventured to the address that Jerry had sent her via a text. The house was surprisingly large for a two bedroom house, as it appears to resemble a smaller scale version of a mansion of some rich entrepreneur. Britney sighed then fished her key out of her pocket and opened the door of the house and was in awe of how large it truly was. She immediately began scanning the rooms to decide which rooms were going to be hers and which rooms she would share, but when she entered the master bedroom she squealed with glee, but stopped instantly when she saw a note on the floor. It was from Zell, stating that he was taking the master bedroom, but she was welcome to share it with him if she ever felt the need. She was disappointed, but then read the last part again, which explained the conditions for sharing the room, and sighed dreamily as she began to think of ways to get around the rules. She sighed and fell to the ground from excitement, then decided to rest on the large and soft bed that was covered in soft sheets and blanket, neatly made up as if it was for display.
The four spies finished their mission and gained two demon hunters as allies, Sam found a boyfriend who showed much promise, and cared for her deeply; Alex found a good mentor in Trish, and so she could begin her training and a demon hunter; Clover did the same with Mary, and Britney found a friend whom she could call upon like family, and she affectionately calls him brother from time to time and all the time in public. The spies began to resume their double lives as they had done before, but this time they all had someone to share in their troubles and help them whenever it was needed.