Ha HA! How's it going, bros? :D I am finally back, and apologize profusely for the delay. I would have gotten this uploaded sooner were it not for my brother hogging the bandwidth during earlier attempts. Quite frankly he is STILL hogging the bandwidth. Ah, how i love my brother...lol, ANYWAY! Managed to get Dragon Quest 9: Sentinels of the Starry Skies, and I enjoy it greatly. It won't weasel in to my writing time as I game at home and write in public, so ya'll needn't worry about that. xD
If you're enjoying this curious adventure, I recommend looking up ThisKittyHasClaws94's newest story! It's similar to this one, because it stars her character (Keeley) and mine (Katelyn), but unlike this one it takes place in the Resident Evil universe.
As I'm sure you're all aware, I do not own the Devil May Cry franchise. Any Games/Movies/Shows/Misc. References made belong to their rightful owners and probably appear by coincidence. Keeley belongs to ThisKittyHasClaws94 and if I DID own Devil May Cry, Lady and Trish would wear clothes that didn't risk their *ahem* assets falling out.
Haha, alright the Peanut Gallery will now be silenced. Enjoy! :D
Welcome to Hell~I Mean Fortuna!
Chapter Seven-Meanwhile…
In the past couple of months since the change, Nero had taken to wearing a glove and a sling in order to hide what became of his right arm. Not even Credo, whom Nero considered his older brother, knew about what happened.
The silver-haired youth walked in to his apartment, tired and starving after several grueling hours on patrol. Stifling a yawn, he removed the sling from his right arm, keeping the glove on. A Holy Knight could get called on at any time, after all, and it just wouldn't end well if someone walked in with his freaky arm a-glowing. Much to Nero's surprise, this new arm didn't hinder him in combat. If anything, it made him stronger!
When no one was around, Nero would sometimes experiment with his "Devil Bringer" (As he'd come to call it) in a remote area on his patrol. He learned that he could extend his reach a bit with the Bringer and pull an enemy towards him, where he can then strike at him with his Red Queen or just slam them in to the ground with no damage to him. That was ignoring the small craters that slamming them may cause.
A knock on the door and the sound of his name being called in an "are you there?" manner snapped the Silver-haired Devil Hunter out of his musings.
"Just a sec!" he called, hurriedly putting the sling back on before answering the door. There was a random Knight on the other side, a "nameless goon" as Credo one jokingly called them. (He has a sense of humor, who knew? Just don't ask him where the Sulfa is when he's sleepy.)
"There have been reports of gunfire being heard at Port Caerula. Supreme General Ledom wants you to investigate it as soon as possible." He said. Nero sighed, rolling his eyes exasperatedly.
"Fine I'll get to it as soon as I get something from the fridge." Of course Ledom would have him investigate a gunfire case JUST as he'd gotten off his very long shift. Why? Because Nero was the only one in the Order of the Sword who was allowed to use a gun; making him the safest, and only, option when and wherever guns were involved, that's why. Anyone else would probably wind up getting shot. Shaking his head in annoyance, he walked over to the fridge. He stayed there for a few minutes before deciding to get a can of iced coffee and a protein bar, and then left for the port.
While all this was happening; Keeley, Shawn and Kate were discussing how to go about doing what it was Lady asked them to do while Vergil was listening in.
"Think one of us could swim across?" Shawn asked. Kate shook her head.
"No dice, you and Kee swim like Turians and my aquatic skills leave much to be desired." She explained.
"Hey, I swim like Altair!" Shawn rebutted. Vergil spoke up, even though only Kate could hear him.
"There may be a way to get the drawbridge down, if you are of a mind." The brunette looked at him skeptically.
"Yo Polonius, more matter and less art!" she deadpanned. Shawn looked at Keeley, who shrugged and said
"She's probably talking to Vergil or something. Don't worry about it." Vergil chuckled, as picking on her seemed to be his new favorite pastime.
"You recall what I was saying about your powers last night? Allow me to assume control for a while." Katelyn sighed.
"Okay, fine. I want control of my voice, though." The elder son of Sparda nodded.
"Fair enough." And with that, he took over.
"Alright Vergil, what did you have in mind?" Kate mumbled as she felt herself go forward. Looking up, she pictured herself in the balcony where the drawbridge controls were kept.
"Hang on to that thought, Kate." Vergil's voice echoed in her head. She took one step forward before being obscured by blue. To her surprise, the blue deposited her right where she wanted to be. "One of the Dark Slayer's Techniques."He explained in her head. "Comes in handy, wouldn't you agree?" Nodding, Kate smiled.
"Indeed. Now let's get this bridge down, shall we?" Walking to the control panel, she looked at all the buttons and switches. "Let's see…I wonder where the Self-Destruct button is?" she mused aloud.
Unbeknownst to everyone aside from the sadistic ghost that was Vergil, Nero managed to make his way to the port and subsequently to the spot just behind Kate via the same route he took in the fourth game. He overheard Katelyn's musings and smirked, leaning forward slightly with his free hand resting on the Blue Rose.
"You're looking for the red button next to the blinking green lights." He said lowly. If Vergil didn't still have control over a majority of her limbs, Kate would have squeaked and jumped a foot in the air. Luckily for her, their favorite Dark Slayer prevented what would have been a fatal embarrassment in front of the handsome Knight. Mentally, the Shrew blushed and thought a lovely string of curses in several languages, both real and fictitious. This made Vergil snicker.
"So glad you're enjoying this you pasty-faced rabbit-sucker." She deadpanned in her head. Vergil snickered yet again.
"I must admit, for a human you have proven most amusing." He replied.
"I really hate you right now." She thought.
"No, you don't. You appear to take comfort in my teasing, clinging to something that feels familiar to you. Shame I cannot determine the identity of this something unless you're presently thinking of it…"
Nero leaned closer, ready to shoot if necessary. Kate noticed this as she glanced over her shoulder. Gold-streaked brown eyes met azure for the briefest of moments before Kate slowly put her hands up in the classic "don't shoot" manner. The half-devil caught a faint hint of her scent with his constantly improving senses. She was definitely a human, that much was clear, though he caught faint tones of lilac and something sweet which he couldn't put his finger on.
"Sooooo…" Kate began, fully aware of the changed rhythm of her heartbeat in the presence of one of her favorite DMC characters. "What brings you out this way, fella?" If Nero caught on to her nervousness, he was kind enough not to say.
"Well, there were some reports of gunfire in the area and I'm the guy they send to investigate. You wouldn't happen to know anything about it, would you?" He casually asked. As the voices in her head told her to play dumb, she did just that.
"Gunfire?" she repeated, sounding confused. "Haven't heard anything other than birds and the waves up 'till now." She said, slowly turning around with her hands still up so she could have a proper conversation with him. "How long ago was this?" Nero looked at her, as though analyzing her face, before his eyes trailed down towards her chest, noting the bright orange WARNING: I BITE. Kate felt her face heat up as she realized where he was looking.
"H-HEY! My eyes are up HERE, Fella!" she asserted, staring him in the eye while pointing at hers. Blushing madly, Nero snapped his attention back to her face.
"Sorry about that. You just…ah…" he stumbled, swiping at his nose to hide the blush. Kate looked at him skeptically. Wasn't like she was wearing anything provocative, her black glow-in-the-dark "WARNING: I BITE." T-shirt was pretty modest by her peer's standards. "You aren't from around here. No one in Fortuna wears denim, or anything that isn't white for that matter." He explained.
"Aside from you?" she pointed out, noting his dark-colored jacket, jeans, red hoodie, sling, and leather boots. He nodded. Taking a deep breath, Nero returned to her earlier question. She seemed innocent enough…
"About fifteen minutes ago, travel time included." He said.
"That explains it. I've only been here about…" She replied, pausing to look for a clock. "Oh! Ten minutes! Geez, I thought it was five…" Kate said, shaking her head at the end. Looking back at him, she chuckled and smiled sheepishly. "My friends and I were here last night, you see, but I think I misplaced something of mine at some point. So we're trying to retrace our steps, but the drawbridge is up and since we haven't had any luck finding it here, we're thinking it may have fallen out of my pocket further up the path." She explained, bull-shitting as best she could.
"What was it that you lost?" Nero asked, trying to be helpful. Kate blushed.
"Oh my god, this is so embarrassing…" she admitted shyly. Taking a deep breath, she continued. "I have…an anxiety issue, borderline clinical depression. Doctor thinks I got it from my Mom, since she has it too. I'm on a prescription, but whenever I'm out of the house I have this thing called a "worry stone" with me. It's a small, flat amethyst stone with an indent where you can rub your thumb on it. It works like a stress ball, almost. I THOUGHT it was in my pocket, but when I checked it just wasn't there."
When she saw Nero blink at her, she looked away and began to rub the back of her neck as a blush grew across her face. Vergil noted that she would often do this when she was bashful or embarrassed. Gently pushing her to the side, Nero went to the control panel and input the command to lower the drawbridge.
"Never could turn down a damsel in distress…" He teased. Noisily, the drawbridge lowered. She smiled gratefully. Turning back to look at her he winked, chuckling as she blushed and looked away. "Well, as you can see, the drawbridge is down. You can get across and hopefully you'll find your worry stone. Just try not to get killed or anything, alright? If there's a death on my watch the General's gonna have my head." He said.
"Thanks, fella. I'll let you know if I see anybody with a gun." Kate said, walking to the door with a smile on her face. She hurried through the ware house and had just gotten to where she was before Vergil helped her teleport when Nero's voice gave her pause.
"Hey, wait! I didn't catch your name!" he yelled. The brunette Shrew smiled, putting a hand to her mouth as she yelled back.
"You first, fella! Where I come from, it's rude to ask someone their name before giving your own!" The half-devil leaned over the railing.
"It's Nero. Who are you?" From a third person's perspective, this must look like a Gender-bent scene from Romeo and Juliet. This thought made her chuckle.
"Call me Kate!" she replied.
"Kate, huh? Well…" Nero muttered, noting how easily her name rolled off the tongue before confidently raising his voice. "I'm looking forward to seeing you again; hope you find what you're looking for! Don't get dead!" Smirking, Kate winked and replied
"Right back at'cha, tough guy! Hope your arm gets better soon, too!" This surprised him, as the topic of his arm never came up in their conversation. Before he could come up with a suitable reply however, she was gone.
"How weird…" he mused. Smirking, he went back to doing what he was supposed to. Every now and again, thoughts of the strange girl's smile flickered across his mind.
WOO! DONE! With this chapter, anyways. xD Hope you guys liked it, finally let Nero make an appearance. Next chapter should be up soon, I'm almost done with it. School is EVIL. 'Nuff said. Please review, I love it when I get feedback from people.