I do not own Devil May Cry or any of the characters.
Family Business
Marcus walked into the small shop and curled his lip in distaste. Demon heads lined the walls, still having various swords stuck in them. A door against the back wall was labeled, "SOUVENIRS" with a picture of a sword below the plaque. A desk sat in front of that with an old-fashioned phone with the rotating disk to dial with. To the right there was a drum set beside a door leading into a living room, more rooms branching off from there.
"This is where you work?" Marcus asked, walking around the room, taking in the demon heads first, then walking to the desk, staring at the picture on it of a woman that looked exactly like Trish, Dante's blonde ex-partner. "Nice picture of Trish. Half expected it to be a nake picture knowing you Dante."
"Uh, actually, that's my mother," Dante said.
Marcus stared at him, then the picture, then Trish before a grin spread over his face and he shook his head slowly.
"That takes the saying that all men marry their mother to a whole new level," Marcus smirked.
Dante turned crimson and Trish raised an eyebrow, also grinning.
"It does, doesn't it," Trish grinned.
A moment later, Nero stepped back into the room with a woman in a white dress with brown hair in a pony tail who stared at Marcus in awe.
"I take it you must be Kyrie," Marcus said, smile gone and face painstakingly neutral, his anger barely restrained.
"You...you...you're alive," Kyrie breathed.
Then, before Marcus had even realized she had moved, she had her arms around him, sobbing. He blinked in surprise.
"I c-can't believe you're a-alive!" Kyrie sobbed. "I'm s-so s-sorry! I-I w-would h-have f-found you if I h-had known! Y-You w-were stillb-born! Th-The d-doctor s-said th-that y-you just couldn't k-keep y-your heart b-beating! B-But...y-you're a-alive! I-I'm s-so g-glad!"
Marcus hesitated for a moment before wrapping his arms around her in an awkward and reluctant hug.
"You...really had no idea?" Marcus asked.
"N-no!" Kyrie said, pulling away. "W-We w-would h-have f-found you i-if w-we h-had!"
"For almost a year Kyrie cried herself to sleep at night," Nero said. "Every night."
Marcus glanced at him before back at Kyrie.
"Then how did I end up in the Demon World?" Marcus asked.
"What!?" Kyrie asked, eyes wide.
"The first six years of my life I was in the Demon World," Marcus said. "I only survived because the woman that was taking care of me kept me hidden until I was six, when she sent me back to the human world."
"It's because you were dead," Dante said. "Your soul was in the Demon World, stolen by the doctor, a demon that I actually ended up killing a little while later. When you were sent to the human world, you soul formed itself a new body."
"And this?" Marcus asked, holding his Devil Bringer up.
"You inherited that from your father," Dante said.
Marcus stared at him for a moment before sighing.
"So how does this work, the job, I mean," Marcus said.
"People call when they need something," Dante said. "Usually we only accept jobs when they have a specific password. However, work's been pretty slow lately regarding people with passwords, so we've been going on jobs that don't. Actually, both of the jobs that I met up with you on were ones with no password, though the first was recommended to me by one of my older contacts."
"I see," Marcus said. "So, what, you're like devil police?"
"Not really no," Dante said. "We're all devil hunters. And we're also all partially devils. Lady and Kyrie were human at one time, but one one particularly nasty job they got hurt and needed blood. Unfortunately, the only available donors were myself and Trish. So now they no longer age like humans. We actually age about a quarter as fast."
"What, so I'll be this old for ever?" Marcus asked.
"Maybe not forever, but for a while yeah," Dante nodded.
"What's in there?" Marcus asked, pointing at the souvenir room.
"Souvenirs," Dante smirked. "Weapons and such that we've all collected over the years. Come on. You're going to need something other than that arm of yours, even if it is extremely overpowered. It's more fun with sword sand guns."
He unlocked the door and swung it open, stepping out of the way as Marcus walked in, looking around. There were swords, guns, gauntlets, boots, a briefcase with a skull on the front and lines of light spreading off of it, and a guitar.
"I thought you said this was a weapons room," Marcus said, reaching for the guitar, only for Nero's Devil Bringer's spectral arm to catch his wrist.
"Don't touch the guitar," Nero said. "It used to be a Succubus that Dante killed. Now, it tries to fry anyone who touches it besides Dante. Trish can use it because she's electricity proof, but the rest of us can't."
"Good to know," Marcus said. "And the brief case?"
"Pandora," Dante said. "It's a weapon capable of transforming into almost any gun you can think of."
Marcus nodded and Dante began to look around.
"What sort of weapons training do you have?" Dante asked.
"Training none," Marcus said. "Skill, I dunno. I can fight barehanded. And shoot. Not bad with swords, I guess."
"Jack of all trades," Dante grinned. "Good. I was wondering if you inherited our family's natural affinity for violence."
"What are you then, my grandfather?" Marcus asked.
"Granduncle, actually," Dante said. "You don't want to meet your grandfather."
"Why?" Marcus asked.
"He'd kill you," Dante said, staring off into space for a moment as he had been reaching for a sword. "Anyway, here, try this."
He handed Marcus a broadsword with a twisted metal grip, a skull pommel with a spike sticking out of the end, a dragon's head extending a few inches down the blade, and a pair of bat wings for a cross guard. Marcus spun it in his hand a couple of times, electricity running along the sword as he did.
"It likes you," Dante said.
"Really?" Marcus said, no amused. "Swords aren't alive."
"That sword is the manifestation of Alastor, the lightning devil," Dante said. "Its name is also Alastor."
"It's a nice sword but it's too big," Marcus said. "In confined spaces I couldn't use it, plus it's too heavy."
"Too heavy huh?" Dante mused. "The sword's power is lightning-fast attacks."
"That's not the problem," Marcus said. "I'd be wasting energy swinging it around."
He handed it back and Dante sighed, putting it back in its rack.
"Maybe next time Alastor," Dante sighed. "Hm...let's see."
"Is that broken sword I gave you still in here?" Nero asked.
"Your first Red Queen?" Dante asked. "Actually yeah. I keep meaning to get it fixed."
"Do it," Nero said. "If he wants it, it's his. Here, try this."
Nero handed him his sword and Marcus spun it a couple of times, inspecting the weapon before handing it back.
"It's neat," Marcus said. "Not my type though."
"Oh, I've got it," Dante said grabbing a sword. "Here."
He handed Marcus a slim weapon with two small round notches near the tip of the blade, similar to his own sword but smaller, and a hilt that looked like it was made out of bone, despite being as hard as steel. It had no cross guard, but it was extremely light.
"This was my first sword," Dante said. "I used it up until I found one of my father's armories where he had been keeping Rebellion to give to me as a gift."
"It'll work," Marcus said. "How do I get it to stick to my back like you two do?"
"These swords are all imbued with demonic power," Dante said. "They do it on their own."
Marcus placed the sword against his back experimentally and it remained there when he let go.
"It'll stay there until you remove it yourself," Dante said.
Marcus nodded, lowering his hands and suddenly felt weight in each. He looked down, seeing a pair of pistols with the slide of something like a 1911, and the grip a strange twisted, root-looking metal. He inspected them but there was no place to put ammo, and he had no idea where they came from.
"Those come with the sword," Dante said. "It sort of manifests them for you. Here."
He handed Marcus a double under-arm holster, and Marcus set the pistols on a shelf, putting the holster on over his shirt before putting the pistols in it.
"You're also going to need something with more of a kick," Dante said. "At least until you learn to charge those with your demonic energy. So here. You can take Pandora."
"How's it work?" Marcus asked.
"Picture a weapon and it forms it," Dante said. "And no, you can't make a pistol that shoots explosive bullets or something. Whatever weapon it makes functions the way it should."
Marcus nodded, accepting the briefcase and Dante picked up a broken sword's hilt and blade then walked out of the room, closing it behind himself.
"I think it's about time I had this fixed after all," Dante said.
Just then the phone rang and Nero answered.
"Devil May Cry," Nero said. "Yes we accept cash. Alright. We're on our way."
"What's up?" Dante asked.
"Another Summoning Circle," Nero said.
"Three in a day?" Dante asked. "That can't be coincidence. Password?"
"Yeah," Nero nodded.
"I see," Dante nodded. "Nero, Trish, take the kid out for a spin. See what he can do with his toys."
Both nodded and Marcus glared at him.
"I'm not a kid," Marcus growled.
"Course you're not," Dante said. "Anyway, I gotta go get this thing back in working order. See you when you get back."
The three of them nodded, walking outside and getting on the bikes then speeding out into the street. Nero took the lead, as he knew where the job was, and before long, they reached the same park where Marcus had killed the creature from the first summoning circle. Here, there were a pair of Alto Angelos hovering over a glowing blu summoning circle.
"Alright," Nero said, just as the ground in the summoning circle fell away, blood flooding out of it. "Looks like we're late."
"What is it?" Marcus asked.
"Don't know," Nero said, drawing Blue Rose and shooting the two false angels. "But we're about to find out."
The blood began to rise, running off of whatever was below it rapidly. Spikes began to rise out of the top of the blood before finally the blood fell away, leaving a creature with a body like a cross between a gorilla and a pufferfish.
"Huh," Nero mused. "And here I was expecting something familiar."
The creature swung its arms upward and several spikes hot out at the three devil hunters. They scattered and Trish and Nero landed on the roof of a building a ways away. The creature turned toward them before Nero pointed at Marcus. It turned toward him and he drew his pistols, aiming at it.
"You," the creature snarled. "What luck. I get to be the one."
The creature swiped an arm at Marcus, missing by a hair's breadth as he leapt to the side, opening fire on the creature. It roared in pain as blood flew into the air but it swung the other arm, firing more spikes at him. Marcus flipped into the air over the spikes, firing at the creature even as he flipped upside down then back to the ground. He put his pistols away and drew his sword, slashing a spike out of the air then charged. The creature slammed its hands into the ground, massive spikes blasting out of the ground at him rapidly. He rolled to the side, getting to his feet and lunging, stabbing at the creature, only for it to leap to the side. It swiped at him, firing several spikes and Marcus rolled under them before sprinting forward. The creature swiped at him at point blank range and he ducked under the arm then stood, splitting the creature's front open, knocking it onto its back. It roared in range as Marcus's spectral arm slammed down on it, getting its spikes stuck in the ground, pinning it. He stepped up onto it, putting his sword to its throat.
"Why are all of these demons after me?" Marcus demanded.
"I don't answer to you!" the demon spat.
Marcus drew a pistol and shot off one toe. The demon roared.
"Wrong answer," Marcus said. "Answer the question."
"Fuck you!" the demon spat.
Another toe gone.
"I've got plenty more to go," Marcus said.
"Alright!" the demon roared. "The master demands your blood! only your blood can open a portal strong enough for the master to come through!"
"Why mine?" Marcus asked.
"Your blood is special!" the demon said. "Your body only existed after your soul left the Spirit World! You're special! i don't know why!"
"This is about my Devil Bringer, right?" Marcus asked. "Nero's got one."
"The Devil Bringer is only a part of it!" the demon said. "It has to be yours!"
"I see," Marcus said. "Then I suppose your master will just have to come and get it himself."
He drove the sword into the demon's throat, killing it. Nero and Trish landed beside him just as the world around them began to freeze and grow dark. They looked around just as a light began to glow in the distance. After a moment, a pair of glowing red females with long tentacles for hair stalked seductively out of the darkness toward them. Once they were a few meters from the devil hunters, the two glowing females turned toward each other, kissing as their bodies began to rub against each other, their hands exploring.
A gunshot rang out and blood exploded out of the side of one of the two's heads, the other shrieking and looking to Marcus, who turned his pistol on her, killing her as well. Once both were on the ground, he shot the tendrils of flesh and cartilage attached to their heads. Then, Marcus put his gun away, drawing his sword.
"Well, get out her toad," Marcus snarled.
"How did you know?" Nero asked.
"He's not the first to attack me," Marcus said as the world around them lightened slowly, revealing the massively oversized toad demon, ice crystals covering its back.
"You!" the toad roared, staring at Nero. "You killed my brother! You killed Bael!"
"You're goddamn right I did," Nero said. "You're next."
The toad roared, a wave of ice spikes exploding out of the ground toward them. The three scattered and Marcus charged. The toad turned toward him just in time for Marcus to split its face open. It reeled backward as golden lightning blasted into its back, exploding and shattering the ice just before both Trish and Nero crashed down on its back. The toad roared in pain and Both jumped off as Marcus put his sword away, drawing his pistols and opening fire into its mouth, the bullets shredding its insides for a moment before exploding out of its back. After a moment, he put both away, picking up Pandora as it opened and began to grow, forming a massive cannon with three barrels. He smirked, pulling the trigger and the cannon fired three rockets that all flew into the toad's mouth as it roared. Then, Pandora collapsed back into a briefcase as the rockets exploded, splattering the toad all over the ground.
"Not bad at all," Nero said. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you had been using those weapons all your life."
"Is that it?" Marcus asked, looking at the seal. "No more?"
"Not right now," Nero said. "Let's get back to the shop."
Marcus nodded and they all got back on their bikes, driving back to the shop just as Dante walked around the corner.
"Perfect timing," Dante said. "How'd it go?"
"He's good," Nero said. "We fought one of those ice toads and he tore it apart in seconds. We helped, granted, but not much."
"Good," Dante said. "Come on. Let's see if our payment for the last two has shown up yet."
They all nodded, walking into the shop.
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