Worms May Cry
Acceptance – Chapter 3.2: All These Places and Their Shadow Figured Shapes
[Dante]
It was just another day of driving Cavaliere down the highway for the Legendary Devil Hunter. He had found himself stopping in Montezuma last night and getting a little bit of shuteye in a park under a tree before heading out again the next morning. He'd have loved to stay in a hotel, but the little money he had left in his pockets said otherwise.
Despite the outdoor vagrancy being a small annoyance, the red-clad man found it compensated by the amount of entertaining attention he received from normal people while driving around on Cavaliere. Then again, he did have a stylish and flashy appearance in combination with a demonic motorcycle.
Maybe that flaming skeleton did have the right idea when he was zooming around on his own set of flaming wheels? Dante could only shrug. At least he looked a lot more attractive.
It was after passing by another car of amazed passengers that Dante's ears picked up the distinct noise of familiar thrusters. With a smirk, the white-haired man looked up to see the orange-colored, armored form of Orange Dawn descend until she was flying parallel to Dante.
"Nice morning, ain't it, Robocop?" Dante asked over the rushing wind as he began resting his elbow on Cavaliere's handlebars while holding his head in his hand.
"Been pretty simple so far, Mr. Subhuman." Orange Dawn answered casually through the speakers of her suit, as if she and him weren't barreling down the road at 120 miles per hour in a flying suit of power armor and demonic motorcycle. Dante found himself grinning at the answer.
"So, how can I help you today? Unless you're here to take me up on that offer of a date?" Dante flirted.
"Don't believe so just yet." Orange Dawn mused, as if considering the option, "But I did need to talk to you. A few developments from up on high that involves you."
Dante found that to be interesting. What developments from the superhero's bosses involved him? "Didn't know that I was so important?"
"Try to avoid getting too much of a big head, hotshot." Orange Dawn shot back with amusement clearly in her tone. "We just need to go over a few things, some of which you'll probably like." The woman paused for a moment before looking to Dante, "There's a nice pizza place in the next city that we can talk at. I'm buying."
Talk of free food got Dante sitting back up in his seat and revving Cavaliere's throttle. "Now, that's one way to get me motivated!" The Legendary Devil Hunter found himself internally laughing at channeling his twin's mentality with that statement.
"Good to hear. Hope you can keep up." Saying that, the thrusters in Orange Dawn's suit released more power, rocketing the superhero past Dante and down the road.
"C'mon, Cavvy! Can't let her show us up now!" A roar of the engine and a belching of flame from the exhaust shot the man after her.
It wasn't that long before the pair, neck and neck with each other, arrived at the offramp to the upcoming city and finally slowed down. "Looks like that bike of yours is even faster than I thought. How did you even get it in the first place? From what I've heard, you have to kill monsters to get those weapons of yours, so did one of these monsters just happen to ride a motorcycle?"
The red-clad man thought about it for a moment before finally answering, "From what I heard, Cavaliere did ride a horse until another associate of mine killed it. After that, fought Cavaliere, which was more like a suit of armor being forcibly powered by a friend of mine. Chopped Cavaliere to pieces, and those pieces merged with a motorcycle that I had split in half a little earlier before we fought." Dante's explanation just opened up an entire slew of new questions for the armored cape, but she decided to keep them to herself.
"Nothing is just normal for you, is it?" Orange Dawn questioned with teasing exasperation.
"Normal's overrated and boring." Dante quickly countered.
"To each their own." The armored hero mused as they quickly got onto the main street leading into the city.
The pair made for an odd couple as the traveled down the street, one in a deadly-looking motorcycle while the other flew next to him in a suit of power armor. That drew a lot of looks, made more humorous when they actually obeyed traffic laws and stopped at the stoplights.
Eventually, they arrived at a pizzeria called 'Donnie's Famous Italian Pies' and stopped. Dante dismounted from Cavaliere, the devil arm disappearing in a burst of flame as Orange Dawn gently landed on the sidewalk, her faceplate pulling apart to reveal the lower half of her smirking face.
Dante pulled the door to the pizzeria open and gestured for Orange Dawn to enter. "After you."
"Aren't you the gentleman?" The armored woman said with a snort as Dante followed in after her.
"Gotta be when a pretty lady offers free food." Orange Dawn chuckled, and Dante noticed that she wasn't acting as embarrassed as she had during their last encounter. Guess she had prepared herself for his teasing this time.
"Take a seat and I'll grab our food," Orange Dawn said, getting a questioning glance from the demon slayer. "Suit's got a built-in communications system. I called our order before we got here."
"Our order?" Dante teased.
"I'm being given money to pay for your food by the government. Might as well have some free food for myself." Dante got a laugh from that and gave an understanding nod.
"Fair enough." With this said, he picked out a table for both of them and took a seat. It was more than a minute or so later that Orange Dawn arrived at the table with dish of pizza that she set down. Finally, she took a seat.
Sitting back in his chair, pizza slice in hand, Dante asked, "Mind telling me why you had to meet with me, now?" Orange Dawn picked up a slice of pizza for herself and ate it before she finally answered.
"There are quite a few things on the agenda, Dante. After all, I've recently been made your liaison between you and both the PRT and Protectorate. So, we're going to be seeing each other more often." Orange Dawn replied, taking another bite.
"Oh, is so? I mean, if you wanted to spend more time with me, you didn't need to make it a job to do so." Dante teased, quickly eating the rest of the slice after doing so. An amused smirk appeared on the hero's lips.
"A little cocky, aren't you?"
A large grin filled the man's face. "Gotta be in my line of work." Dante said in rebuttal. "Probably is the same for you superheroes as well."
Orange Dawn thought about it for a moment, then nodded and poked the air towards Dante with her pizza slice, "Fair. It does take a bit of confidence to go out stopping crime in spandex, sometimes even less than that."
A white eyebrow rose in interest, "Got some experience in that department?"
"Going out dressed like I'm about to start spinning on a pole? No." The cape then rapped her knuckles against the armor of her chestplate, getting a solid metallic ring from it, "I'm lucky enough to be able to make my own gear, though I do wear a bodysuit underneath to prevent anything from catching on my suit's moving parts." She took another bite of her pizza and grinned, "It's also toasty to wear during colder weather."
"The armor or the suit?" The Legendary Devil Hunter asked, receiving that same grin as the cape went back to eating her pizza. Dante snorted with a chuckle. He was really enjoying her ability to banter.
"Getting back on topic, for a lot of the normal face-to-face interactions with the PRT and Protectorate, I'll be the one you see. For other cases, and so that we don't need to go looking for you when you're trying to be a badass when fighting monsters, we–"
"Trying?" Dante interrupted.
With a tone of mirth, Orange Dawn teased back, "Yes, trying. Now, do you want to get your free fancy toy that brings you up to date with the 21st century or would you prefer to receive communications through the use of robotic carrier pigeon?" A compartment on her suit opened up and the cape pulled out a little brick with a steel casing and a glass screen that Dante could easily guess was a cellphone, if a tad thicker than the usual kind.
"If you're offering, then I can't be a choosing beggar now, can I?" Dante took the device and examined it before pressing the buttons on the side of the steel casing, causing the screen to light up to a simple orange UI, getting a slight glance of his eyes to the similarly colored orange figure sitting across from him. Pressing on the icon that looked like a phone, it brought up a list of three numbers already programmed into it.
Orange Dawn, PRT, and Protectorate.
"Already comes with your number, huh?" Dante commented with a wiggle of his brows.
"That's my work number. You'd have to do a lot more if you wanted to get my private number." Orange Dawn teased back, "But to explain a few of the functions, that phone, hand-build by me in only a few hours, is made to be very durable since I have a feeling that fragile stuff tends to break around you."
The red-clad man stuck his finger out, about to say something, before he gave up and nodded. "Yeah, that's accurate." He then took another slice of pizza and started eating it.
"Good thing I think ahead. Either way, the shell of the phone is reinforced steel while the screen consists of a material stronger than most bulletproof glass. If you notice how bulky it is in comparison to the usual phone, that's because I did my best to shrink down the type of fusion reactors I typically use in my suit to fit inside of a single phone case, but there is only so much I can do. Still, at the very least the battery is going to take a long time before it dies."
Dante chuckled at this as his finger swiped through the different apps loaded onto the phone. "How long will it last with the charge right now?"
"About 40 years or so. By that point, it's less a problem of the power running out and more an issue of the components degrading."
"Ooh! That's something I really like." Dante then found one app that he opened, leading to a webpage. "What's this?" He asked, showing the phone's screen to the armored woman.
"PHO. Basically, a web forum that can be useful to go through for information, at least if you can get past the memes and nonsense beforehand. I felt it would be relevant to you, both because you're starting to get a bit of a following on the forums, and because users have been posting information about demon sightings."
"Very interesting. I'll have to check it out a bit later." Dante's grin slowly grew wider as he began reading threads that were attempting to detail his badassery. He definitely needed to make an account for himself since he already had a few ideas on how to have fun.
"Continuing on from there, the PRT and Protectorate are willing to hire you for a few jobs down the line if you're open to the idea. From what I've been told, the pay should be generous." Orange Dawn explained, causing Dante to perk up in his seat.
"How generous we talking?"
A smirk appeared on Orange Dawn's lips as she answered, "Do a few of these jobs and you'll be a millionaire."
"Now, that's some good motivation!" Dante's excitement was palpable at the thought of being well-paid. As he wouldn't be back on his Earth for a while, the thought of not having any debts to pay off was a relief.
Though, that did make the Legendary Devil Hunter feel a slight shiver of fear of how much he might owe once he got back. That was going to be horrifying.
Best not to dwell on it.
Suddenly, Orange Dawn froze for a moment before she could continue and put a hand to the side of her helmet. "Yes? What for?" She became quiet as her once smiling lips quickly changed into a frown, "Really? Shit!"
Quickly getting up from her chair, she apologized, "Sorry to cut this short, but there's a pair of crazed capes going on a destructive spree nearby."
Dante thought about it for a moment, pocketed his new phone, and then grabbed a slice of pizza before he got up from his chair. "Where to?" He asked, walking over to Orange Dawn as he did so.
"What are you talking about?" She asked while heading to the door as Dante followed beside her.
"Well," He pulled the phone from his pocket and waved it before her visor, "a pretty lady offered me food and gave me a new phone. Would only be polite if I escorted her safely home." Dante gave a wink and a grin before taking a bite of his pizza slice.
"If you're offering to help deal with a few nutjobs, I'm more than open to the assistance." She replied with a warm smirk. "We'll be going a few blocks away, so I hope you can keep up."
Dante summoned and mounted Cavaliere in one smooth motion before revving the throttle. "Ready when you are, Robocop."
Orange Dawn's faceplate slid shut with a metallic clink and she launched up into the air about 20 feet before flying down the street. With a demonic roar, Cavaliere took off down the street, with both hybrid and devil arm hot on the cape's trail.
This time, Dante didn't follow any traffic laws as he took off down the streets. At most, he'd courteously jump Cavaliere over any streets with a red light, avoiding the cars below with a "WOOHOO" until he landed and continued his dogged pursuit of Orange Dawn.
Eventually, the pair finally arrive to see a street with the beginnings of a PRT barricade as more a group of officers took position behind large chunks of debris and wrecked vehicles. Up ahead, there was a man, or what had once been a man, screaming in the street as he leveled an organic-looking cannon that grew from his arm at a man in a torn purple outfit.
As for the ugly man with anger management, he was bulky. Standing over nine feet, his body had bulbous protrusions that were reminiscent of machinery if it were made from flesh, bone, and muscle. His head reminded Dante of a Picasso painting.
A scope-like growth of bone and flesh over his right eye extended towards the battered cape. His mouth appeared angled, like it had been machined into shape. The hair he did have extended down his back in the shape of sharp, black rods.
Besides the man with a face that even a mother might have a hard time trying to love, there was a figure in a black suit that was too androgynous to get an idea of their gender. Every once in a while, they would pull out black orbs from the inky darkness of their suit before throwing them at a target.
Upon contact, they would explode into black masses of spikes or tentacles before fading away. Dante's eyes simply narrowed at the pair. Behind them, a fire burned a three-story building that screaming was audible enough to be heard coming from within.
"Shit, did not ever expect to see these two." Orange Dawn commented as her gaze turned to the burning building.
"Mind enlightening the choir on the roided out creation of Frankenstein alongside the sleep-paralysis demon next to him?" Dante asked as they got close.
"Brawny one with tumors calls himself Meat Factory. Case 53 with the ability to grow organic weapons – guns, blades, living explosives – from his body. Tougher than you'd ever expect flesh and bone to be. Next to him is Dark Spawn, an edgy name for a serial killer that has been trying for bigger targets, namely capes." Orange Dawn explained.
"Great, mind if I put a bullet in 'em?" Dante asked as he took both hands off Cavaliere's handles and pulled out Ebony and Ivory.
"While I'd prefer you to not kill them, just because of the headache of paperwork that comes after, it would be understandable if you were forced to." Orange Dawn answered before adding, "Besides, these two have basically been on the verge of getting a Kill Order for a while now after escaping their transport to the Birdcage."
"Sounds good. Any plan you wanted to do before I just charge in?" The Legendary Devil Hunter leveled his pistols at the extended cannon of Meat Factory and fired off a few rounds, knocking the monstrous cape's aim off.
"There are people in that building. I need to get them out, especially if Dark Spawn is the reason for the building being on fire. They prefer to let their victims suffer and be unable to escape whatever shit's been set up." Dante gave a nod and the armored cape increased the power of her thrusters, speeding towards the burning building.
"Who did that?!" Meat Factory demanded, his gaze turning over to look at a grinning Dante who flipped off Cavaliere as it went crashing into the large cape, stabbing a few frontal prongs into his body as the man stopped the demonic vehicle in place.
Multiple piston-like bone formations grew from the back of his legs, stabbing into the ground to give him more grip. Eventually, Cavaliere faded away into flame, leaving the mutated cape enraged. Dante also took time to note that he could see the number 53 seemingly tattooed onto his pectoral.
"Hey, buddy. Didn't your momma tell you to not point your toys at the other children? You'll poke their eyes out." Dante replied
Meat Factory's telescopic eye zoomed onto the red-clad man. At the same time, their partner pulled another dark orb from their body and tossed it at the cape in purple. Dark Spawn cared little for the new arrival, at least from how it appeared. Instead, they were focused on the exhausted hero that couldn't get away from the attack in time.
With a quick shot of Ivory, the dark orb was knocked away. Additionally, from making contact with the bullet, it exploded into a new mass of dark tendrils that swiped at anything nearby until dispersing away.
Dark Spawn attempted this two more times, and just like the first attempt, each orb was knocked away before it could hit its intended target.
"Come on, just going to ignore little ol' me like that? Did your parents ever teach you manners?" Dante's taunt finally got Dark Spawn to fully pay attention to the new arrival for interfering with their prey.
The purple-clad cape took this chance to make a break for it, as much as his injured body could take him. He gave a thankful nod to Dante who gave a curt nod of his own.
"Meat, I wanna rip this fucker limb from limb. He got in the way of my fun!" Dark Spawn growled these words out.
"Get in line, Dark. Bastard rammed a motorcycle into me." Meat Factory spat out with hatred in his eyes aimed solely at the gunslinger.
Out of the corner of his eyes, Dante spotted Orange Dawn flying civilians out of the burning building towards the PRT barricade. He needed to keep their attention away from OD's rescue work and fixate it upon himself.
Thankfully, he had just the weapon to do it.
With a flourish of his hand, a white hat that one might see on a cowboy appeared upon Dante's head, followed by a glowing red scarf that draped down from his neck. Oddly, the scarf had a small tendency of moving by itself. Yet, all of this paled in comparison to the changes that occurred to the environment.
Almost like someone dimmed the lights to a theater, the world seemed to grow dark. Suddenly, spotlights of no discernible source lit up upon Dante who struck a pose before pop music started playing.
"CRAZY!" Balrog echoed out over the music.
"Just waste this prick!" Dark Spawn declared, grabbing at their suit and pulling out a few more orbs of darkness that they threw at the demon slayer as he began dancing.
Just before the orbs could make contact, Dante snapped his fingers and red orbs appeared rapidly orbiting the man as he did a spin. These red orbs acted like a shield and launched Dark Spawn's attacks into different directions away from Dante, exploding each dark orb into a mass of tentacles as they did so.
"APOCALYPTIC!"
Multiple cannons grew from Meat Factory's arms and quickly began firing out bullets of sharpened bone in Dante's direction. Infuriatingly enough, the dancing man started moonwalking to avoid the bullets or his red orbs would bat them away.
"SICK SKILLS!"
"Hee hee hee!" Dante infuriatingly said in a higher pitched tone as he gave another spin before disappearing in a blur. The only reason that Meat Factory even knew where Dante had appeared is because the spotlights began shining down upon him.
Quickly turning around, with Dark Spawn copying the action, they found Dante standing behind them raising and lowering his heels while gripping his belt buckle with one of his hands. Before they could react, the dancing man snapped his fingers, causing the red orbs to orbit him once again. And this time, with the two capes being close enough, they got to feel what getting hit by those red orbs was like as they were launched off their feet and into the air.
Smoothly sliding under the duo with one hand on his hat, Dante took it off and tossed it like a frisbee at the capes. Unnaturally, the hat flew over to the heads of both capes, leaving a copy of itself on them as it did so, before returning back to Dante's waiting hand. Placing the hat back on with a flourish as the orbiting red orbs dispersed, the demon slayer extended both of his hands upwards with his fingers pointed at the capes like imaginary guns.
"Time for the money shot!"
Then, red orbs began firing out from his fingers like machine guns. Both capes were impacted by the orbs, screaming in pain afterwards as the red orbs kept both airborne. Yet, only Dark Spawn was really being hurt as Meat Factory, despite any pain he felt, could still move and react by growing a cannon from his back aimed at Dante.
It fired out bones reminiscent of spinal disks at the dancing demon slayer. But, much to Meat Factory's growing frustration, Dante either spun, slid, or moonwalked from each hit, dancing and firing red orbs at the pair that continued to juggle them in the air.
Suddenly, he cut the red orb barrage, allowing the two criminals to fall back down to Dante. But this wasn't a chance of reprieve for the pair as Dante put a hand to the brim of his hat causing the hat replicas on the capes to be yanked towards Dante, with their wearers having no choice in the matter. This had the added effect of dragging the pair down to the red-clad man even faster.
In response to their imminent approach, Dante broke down into a windmill that kicked both capes with enough strength to launch them back into the air. "Come back, I've got some moves to show ya'!"
Spinning back into a standing position, Dante entered a pose and tilted his hat down with his left hand, yanking Dark Spawn back to him as the red-clad dancer's right hand pointed towards Meat Factory and fired another barrage of Red Orbs, keeping him in the air.
"SMOKIN' SEXY STYLE!"
Another set of dance moves followed as Dante's right leg snapped out during one of them. "YOW!" The red-clad dancer called out. This was 'conveniently' when Dark Spawn fell upon the demon slayer's leg, launching the unconscious serial killer away at the PRT officers who had been taking cover.
They quickly took this as the chance to douse the defeated cape in foam from their weapons that quickly expanded and hardened into a temporary prison.
With one crook down, Dante focused upon the other as Meat Factory grew six more organic cannons from his body and fired at the ground. "Oh yeah!" Tauntingly, Dante slid aside the shots with a wiggle and clap above his head.
"STOP DANCING, YOU LITTLE SHIT!" The frustration from Meat Factory falling in the air was palpable as Dante disappeared in a burst of speed ten feet back from where he had been, the spotlights following him.
At that point, Meat Factory smashed face first into the ground with a growl. Pushing up to look at Dante, said Legendary Devil Hunter bobbed on his feet while tauntingly motioning for Meat Factory to come with both hands. Following that, he pumped his hands repeatedly in the air, as if ignoring the murderous cape in front of him.
It was certainly… mocking.
Instantly, Meat Factory pushed himself onto his feet and roared bloody murder while blades of spears of all kinds grew from his arms. "DIE!" He shouted while charging, wanting to do anything to just touch this man even once.
Dante made no move to stop his current rhythm and continued dancing. That was perfectly fine to the killer as Meat Factory swung his bladed arms at the dancing fool.
Just one inch closer before he would finally kill the dancer.
Then, a quick flash of red and his arms were repelled back. "NO! I WAS SO DAMN CLOSE!" What made this funnier to Dante is that Meat Factory's normal eye looked like it was about to pop out of its socket.
"Sorry, but," Dante finally countered with a jumping uppercut, letting some of the energy of Royal Release aid the punch as it knocked the mutated cape unconscious into the air. "Your moves' just got no rhythm to keep up with mine!"
Finishing his display, Dante gave one final spin and posed with his left hand on Dr. Faust and his right arm outstretched and pointing at the spot that Meat Factory soon landed upon with a heavy thud.
Tiny fireworks burst around Dante in a shower of sparks as the music finally ended and the area lit up, as if someone had flicked a light switch. Letting Dr. Faust and the accompanying scarf fade away into flames, the Legendary Devil Hunter looked around to spot Orange Dawn having finished pulling people out of the building.
She seemed frozen, either in shock, confusion, or amazement. Dante preferred to think amazement as he walked over to the cape while PRT officers went to work covering Meat Factory in containment foam.
"Looks like you got the people out," Dante remarked as he got close. That appeared to pull Orange Dawn out of whatever state she was in as her faceplate slid open.
"What the hell kind of cartoon bullshit was that?"
"Just a good bit of stylishly kicking ass." Was Dante's immediate response. "I hope you aren't going to start insulting my amazing dance moves as they did help to keep the attention of Mr. Steroids and Edgy Ball Boy off of you. If so, then we might just have a problem."
Dante could just innately tell that Orange Dawn was rolling her eyes. "Fine, I'll say that your dancing wasn't that bad," Orange Dawn conceded, "still dumb as hell, though." She finally added with a soft smile, "But thanks for your help."
"You're welcome." Dante then summoned up Cavaliere and mounted the motorcycle. "Thank you for the new phone and food. Hope to be seeing you again soon, Robocop." He then gave a teasing wink, followed by a rev of Cavaliere's throttle.
"See you again, Dante." With that final goodbye, Dante sped off down the street and out of sight.