Worms May Cry
Revelations – Chapter 5.1: Done Waiting Patiently
[Unknown]
Striding upon the street was an odd man. He was certainly dressed strangely, in a messy collared shirt, a vest that looked to be made of a crimson leather of some unknown animal, a pair of grease-stained trousers that could almost be mistaken for blood. But the two parts of his ensemble that made the man stick out were his coat and glasses.
His coat – almost in the style of a lab coat – seemed to incorporate long red and black feathers going downwards that almost seemed to fluff up at times like a bird's would. It had numerous pockets dotting it that were filled with random objects sticking out of them, such as wire, a few – potential– animal bones, sticks, and more.
The glasses, made of a dark-silver metal, had lenses which shined with an unnatural glare that prevented the man's eyes from being seen. His deeply-tanned skin made the effect of his glasses stand out all the further. This, combined with his extremely messy dark hair gave the stranger a type of eccentricity to him.
Another oddity to the stranger is that his head seemed to constantly twitch, almost like a raven, greedily observing his environment with great interest. It was amid his odd exploration that a buzzing could be heard above him.
Looking up, the stranger saw a small drone fall from the air, crashing to the ground before him.
"Hmm, what is this?" The stranger asked aloud as he knelt down and picked up the little drone that had fallen at his feet. "Rudimentary in design, but quite resourceful with the materials."
As he continued to examine the device, his smile grew at the cleverness of it. The drone controlled its flight with a combination of rubber bands, paperclips, some chewing gum, a few plastic knife blades acting as propellers, and a little receiver hooked into a strange type of battery mixed with a chassis holding some type of circuitry. "Odd, but intriguing," the man remarked as he could sense the faintest amount of demonic power coming off of it.
It was amid his continued examination of the drone that the patter of shoes of pavement echoed in the man's ears. "I-I'm so sorry about that, mister," a child's voice apologized.
This made the stranger look up to see a young boy in a green shirt and some jeans. The child had hazel eyes, a tanned complexion, and messy brunette hair. In his hands was a contraption that was made from a broken keyboard and part of a gaming controller. Yet, there was also that faint… demonic presence about the boy – almost miniscule if one didn't know what they were looking for – which the man could sense.
It made the man immediately guess the creator of the little drone. "Did you happen to make this?" He asked while motioning to the drone.
Slowly, the boy nodded. "Y-Yeah. I made it over the course o-of a week, mister," he answered.
This made the man smile. "A little rudimentary in design, but amazingly resourceful with the materials you had available," the stranger remarked, causing the boy to slightly blush at the praise.
"Oh," he said with a little surprise in his voice. "T-Thank you."
At this point, the man sat down upon the sidewalk, completely uncaring of how it may have looked to any casual observer. "Come, sit. Let's see if we can make some improvements, hmm?"
While the boy seemed interested at the offer, there was a bit of hesitation. "M-Mom says that I-I shouldn't talk with strangers," he said.
The stranger chuckled in amusement, "Smart mother. My name is Mack. What is yours?"
"J-Jamie," the boy hesitantly replied.
"Good to meet you, Jamie. Can't call us strangers any longer now, can we?" Mack mused as he gestured to the open sidewalk in front of him. "Go on, take a seat. It'll only be for a few minutes."
Finally, Jamie slowly sat down in front of Mack as the man reached into his coat pocket and began pulling out an assortment of random objects with one hand while the other delicately began disassembling the little drone. Yet, Jamie actually didn't have any complaints about the act.
Something told him to just let this fellow crafter tinker with his design.
"Let's see. Cerberus muscle strand; springy, durable, and a good conductor of energy," Mack seemed to talk to himself as his fingers weaved out a red, rubbery line from his coat. At times, his fingernails turned into talons that snipped through the line before turning it into a small band.
Then, he replaced what had once been rubber bands with the new material. "Stygian steel can better house the craft and channel power." A dark metal was shaped in Mack's hand like it was clay, reinforcing the structure of the drone as his hands became a blur of motion that Jamie's eyes couldn't even follow.
"Concentrated and refined blue orbs to deal with power issues," Mack remarked as, almost like a wing, one of the tails of the man's feathered coat swiped the controller from Jamie's hands, before depositing it in the inventor's lap.
From there, the controller was dismantled and Jamie watched as the man pulled out two glowing, blue orbs with faces on them that he quickly slotted inside the drone and dismantled controller. From there, the boy watched in amazement as Mack began assembling both controller and drone together at the same time.
The controller, once made from broken parts, was replaced with sleek, metal buttons and a joystick that slotted together as a single unit. No longer did it look like a kit-bashed device held together by duct tape.
And, as the drone was rebuilt, Jamie could see a little, happy face of metal on the front of the drone that spun to reveal an angry face before spinning back to happy. Its eyes and mouth soon lit up with a blue glow.
Then, before Jamie could react, Mack's hand struck out, pulling the boy's hand over to the devices before one of the man's fingernails turned into a talon. He then lightly pricked one of the child's fingers and allowed a droplet of blood to fall upon the drone, then another onto the controller.
"Creation never comes without sacrifice," Mack sagely stated as the two devices fully lit up with blue circuitry. The drone's propellers, now steel blades, quickly spun up, causing the invention to hover up into the air before it began orbiting around Jamie, much to his amazement as the tiny wound on his finger became fully ignored.
"I-I never gave it an autopilot function," the boy remarked, much to Mack's amusement as he chuckled.
"I improved it, but added some additions." As he said this, the drone's face flipped to the angry face as the circuitry on it turned red. Then, a small barrel expanded from its mouth and aimed itself towards a trashcan before firing out a laser of all things, easily piercing through the metal and into the pavement.
Then, the drone's circuits turned blue and the barrel retracted. "But while I did improve it, and added a few additions, there's always room for more. What they will be is up to you, and what I added, I'll leave for you to discover," Mack said with some mirth.
Finally, Mack handed the controller back to Jamie. "T-Thank you! I-I've got s-so many ideas for this! Ho-How can I-I repay you?" The boy asked with a smile.
"By using those ideas to continue building, little inventor," Mack replied while tousling the boy's hair. "Now, run along and enjoy yourself."
Jamie nodded enthusiastically before picking up his controller and running along down the street, his enhanced drone following after him like a loyal dog. Mack sighed in satisfaction from this as he stood up, his coat's feathers puffing up like a bird, removing any dirt clinging to the feathers before settling back down once more.
"That was satisfying," Mack said to himself before walking down the street once more. "Now, when will he finally show up? My calculations on the next Qliphoth root should place it in this town."
As he said this, Mack heard cracking concrete, crashing cars, and the screams of humans in the distance. "Looks to me like that's my queue…"
[Dante]
It was another day of speeding down the highway for the Legendary Devil Hunter. He could feel the faint trace of a Qliphoth root up ahead and had been moving to take care of it. While driving, the hybrid couldn't help but feel quite pleased with the past few days. He got to style on some demons, acquired a new devil arm, and even got to go on a date with the resident power-armor clad hero.
If he ever had the chance to shove it in the face of that billionaire playboy that there was someone doing a better job than him while looking a hell of a lot sexier, it would be too soon. Until then, he'd have to imagine what the guy's expression would look like.
Speaking of the armored woman, Dante felt his phone buzz in his pocket. Taking it out, he found that it was his Maria Romano contact was calling him instead of Orange Dawn. The man smirked as he accepted the call and put the phone to his ear.
"Morning, Robocop. How's the weather up there?" Dante asked as he glanced up to see some type of aircraft following him with a familiar orange color scheme. "By the way, new ride or did you just get tired of flying around in your suit all the time?"
"No, I've had this baby for a while. You can imagine it like an RV that I use to haul my gear and tools with me. After all, can't make or repair my cool toys if I'm stuck flying in a suit all day," Maria answered while the sounds of a powered drill could be heard in the background alongside some metal music that sounded familiar.
"You really are just taking after Nero at this point. He and Nico both pal around in an RV together for their jobs," Dante remarked with a snicker. "Still, do you just live in there or you got an permanent place somewhere?"
"Got a house in New York as a physical address. I don't tend to stay there that often because I am usually mobile across the country. So, I do live part time in here," Maria explained as the song in the phone's background took on a familiar beat.
You cannot kill me!
Dante couldn't help grinning like a loon as he did his best to hold back his laughter. "Loving the choice of music right now."
"I'm just a girl who likes listening to metal while working with metal. Funny that," Maria chuckled as the buzz of drills came from her end.
"You're just someone who appreciates the finer things in life, like a good guitar riff," Dante replied as he veered around a couple of slow-moving cars. "So, I was thinking that after taking care of this next weed-infestation, would you be up for some lunch or dinner together?"
"Sure, there's a nice Chinese place with good reviews in the upcoming city," Maria replied quicker than possible for such a spontaneous question. That immediately made Dante's brow rise in question.
As he turned onto the off-ramp to the city, the red-clad man asked, "Were you already planning to ask me out today?"
"Hmm? Who could say? Maybe I just wanted food off the government's dime without having to pay it myself. But I guess you might be decent enough conversation if I bring you along," the tinker teased back.
"Decent enough?" Dante asked with playful indignation. "Wow, these are some standards that you're hitting me with."
A laugh came from Maria. "With how you claim to be amazing at a lot of things, I think that you won't have problems with meeting my standards," the tinker replied.
Pulling into the main street of the city, the Legendary Devil Hunter slowed down and began to feel around for the demonic presence that he was sensing. It was close, but there was also something else beyond this feeling of the Qliphoth. Dante had no idea on what to compare it to, but it didn't feel active.
"Huh… That's a little odd," Dante commented over the phone.
It felt a lot more passive, which made it a lot more concerning.
"How's it looking on your end, Red?" Maria asked over the phone as Dante continued to look around, driving through the city's streets.
"Real peachy. Might even say that–" Dante didn't get to finish as the Qliphoth's power flared and both the street and sidewalk cracked apart as the dark, demonic plant roots erupted out of the ground like spears.
As soon as that happened, civilians began screaming and tried to run away while a few cars crashed into one another. "Never mind. Time to get to work," Dante concluded.
"Dropping down in a minute," Maria replied before Dante ended the call and pocketed the phone.
Following that, he pulled out Ebony and Ivory and began shooting any of the roots that were about to attempt impaling the fleeing humans. Jumping to ride on Cavaliere like a surf board, the demon slayer spotted a family trying to escape their crashed cars as Qliphoth roots surrounded them.
With a grin, Dante jumped into the air off Cavaliere and flipped upside-down while spinning and firing his guns as a spray of bullets. This killed any roots nearby the family while Cavaliere cut through or ground down any plants in its way until stopping right where Dante landed upon it once more.
"BADASS!"
"Go on, get to safety. Doubt you want to be killed by overgrown salad," Dante motioned to the family who nodded and gave their thanks before rushing away.
It was after this that multiple new pulses of demonic energy appeared around Dante until he saw lizard-like demons crawl up from portals in the ground or drop down from dark portals in the air.
They were split into two different groups. One consisted of humanoid lizards with gray scales which had small spines on their backs, jaws that split open down the middle, and razor-sharp, crimson claws. These claws soon extended by a foot upon seeing Dante as their eyes flashed red. These were demons known as Riots.
As for the second group, while lizard-like as the Riots, they lacked the massive claws their compatriots had, and their scales had a browner color. Additionally, their jaws had a large overbite to them with numerous fangs sticking out. Yet, even while lacking claws, they made up for it with razor-sharp, bladed scutes growing down their backs and tails. They were called Chaos.
"Well, well, well, who knew that the sewer gators were in town?" Dante taunted as he holstered Ebony and Ivory before dropping down to mount Cavaliere. Each demon growled at the hybrid as they tensed in preparation.
Revving his devil arm's throttle, Dante called out, "Okay, geckos, I hope you all remember that if you play in the streets, be prepared to become roadkill!" With this, Dante let go of the break and sped forwards.
A few Riots managed to jump out of the way, but one unlucky member found itself impaled upon Cavaliere's front prongs with a yelp. Dante then transformed the devil arm into its dual buzzsaw form and slammed the free buzzsaw into the Riot's face, grinding through it.
"SAVAGE!"
In his ears, the red-clad man could hear whirring and flung the – essentially decapitated – demon off Cavaliere and into another Riot before jumping into the air. Below him, two Chaos slammed into one another where Dante had just been like a pair of living buzzsaws.
Their scutes, while sharp, were quite brittle, and after a few spins upon each other, the plating broke for both demons. "Missed me!" Dante laughed as he fell upon both dazed demons and began cutting through them. A moment later, the hybrid shifted the throttle for both halves of his devil arm, pulling himself forwards, almost like he was walking unruly dogs.
This launched him to a Fury that leapt to slash at him. In response, Dante swapped out Cavaliere for his own devil sword and ducked his head under the attack while holding the blade up to slice the lizard-like demon in half, allowing its own momentum to kill it.
"SICK SKILLS!"
"Come on, boys! You can do better than that," the Legendary Devil Hunter taunted, causing all the demons to charge on him at once. As this happened, the demon slayer pushed some power into his sword, making the blade split down the middle to reveal a glowing, almost molten core.
Crimson, ethereal blades appeared around the man as he dashed at the closest Chaos. The ghostly blades spun forwards like a drill, stabbing into the armored demon before Dante appeared in front of it, slamming the sword into the side of the demon's head like he was using a bat.
This knocked the Chaos over into a few of its fellows before, much to Dante's amusement, a rocket flew down from the air and blew the creatures into bloody chunks. Maria quickly followed after the rocket and hovered near the hybrid, firing a few lasers at two charging Riots, knocking them back.
"SMOKIN' SEXY STYLE!"
Dante noted with some interest that Balrog had scored Maria's attack for that instead of his.
"Nice to see you join the party," Dante commented, swapping out to Grenadier and flipping forwards into the air before slamming the glowing axehead onto a spinning Chaos, instantly cracking its scutes before cleaving through the rest of the demon's body.
"You know me," Maria began as she shot a laser through another Riot's head when it leapt up at her. "Gotta pick out the perfect outfit for the occasion."
Allowing a few ethereal swords to shoot out at four more demons – in a move reminiscent of his brother's typical usage of his own blades – Dante swapped to Balrog and gave a Riot an uppercut. He then switched to the incomplete Ratatoskr devil arm and used it to create a portal above the demon's head.
Just as the lizard-like demon's head poked through, Dante cut the portal off, decapitating the demon before punching forwards with his free hand. This launched the head into that of another Riot's, cracking its skull.
"Doubt that any of the members of the pet store can actually appreciate it." Pulling out his shotgun, Dante fired a round of buckshot into a Chaos, launching it back. "Me though? I think you look good in pretty much anything."
"You're going to make me blush," Maria laughed as she flew up into the air and began looking around until she spotted two things. "Got a lock on the Qliphoth root cluster and… I'm seeing a man literally standing horizontally on the side of a building right now."
Looking over to the direction Maria was, Dante also took note of the 'man'. It was pretty easy to tell that he was a demon, his presence all but screamed it to the demon slayer.
The only real question was what this demon was doing, and more importantly, why was he even bothering to disguise himself as a human when when he was anything but? A lot of demons wouldn't bother since they saw humans as weakling insects, so why should they hide themselves from them? And that's what made this one an oddity, since it wasn't even being subtle.
"Yeah, I see him. Can you take out the Qliphoth cluster from here?" Dante asked, his eyes trained on the man, even as he fired his shotgun at a Riot charging to his left side.
"Way ahead of you," Maria replied, aiming a cannon at the target before firing. The fact that the demon didn't even react to the Qliphoth being attacked told Dante that he wasn't interested in it.
All around them, the Qliphoth roots began breaking down before scattering into black dust. A final shot from his shotgun left Dante, Maria, and now this stranger as the only ones in the area.
"Robocop, be careful. He isn't human," Dante warned, putting Maria on edge as she descended to the ground next to the red-clad man.
That was when the man began walking across the wall of the building with a grin. "Any idea on what he is or what we should do?" Maria questioned.
"Wait and see," Dante replied as he couldn't get any form of hostile intent from the stranger.
Finally, much to the confusion of both Dante and Maria, the man started clapping.
"Simply a delight to witness you in action, Dante," the stranger clapped while continuing his stride on the wall of the building, slowly walking down to the Legendary Devil Hunter and the armored woman.
"Thanks…" Dante said cautiously, prepared for anything from this stranger. Even if he hadn't attacked just yet, it didn't mean that he wasn't hostile. Though, from the vibe he got from the guy, he didn't seem to be looking for a fight, even if he was an obvious demon.
So then, why was he here?
The red-clad man finally decided to ask, "Sorry if I'm not the best at remembering names or faces," Dante began — which was a bit of a lie — before he continued, "but do I know you from somewhere? I don't recall ever meeting you before."
Chuckling good-naturedly, the man smiled and shook his head. "No, this would be our first meeting," he replied before disappearing in a scattering of feathers. Both the noise of the stranger's feet against the ground alongside Maria's surprised gasp caused Dante to whip around with his sword summoned into his hand and pointed out towards the potential enemy.
Color him surprised when, instead of some form of classic hostage situation, the disguised demon was closely examining just a single arm of Maria's suit with intense fascination. "Oh, very lovely design. An alloyed steel composite, mixed with internally housed wir— no, scratch that. Built in circuitry. I like this," he commented, already on the other side of the armored woman, examining her other arm.
And as he did so, Dante could just feel the slight pulses of demonic power the disguised demon sent out, almost like a weird form of echolocation. "Fission reactor is built into the arm, but doesn't power the suit. Set of reactors in the suit performs the job." He then owlishly looked at Maria's visor as the faceplate finally slid apart and asked, "Prosthetic?"
Cautiously, Maria slowly nodded, making the man grin in delight. "Marvelous. I always love a fun design," he complimented while sending another small pulse of power through the armored woman's suit. This time, much to her surprise, the weapon compartments on her arm opened up to reveal themselves, yet none of them were primed just yet.
"H-How the hell?" Maria questioned.
"Sorry, just like to see designs when they're fully revealed, is all," the stranger apologized, sending another pulse through her arm that caused the weapon compartments to close once again, giving back Maria control over them.
Finally, the man backed away from Maria and looked over to Dante. "I can get a little distracted, bad habit, yet I can't help but investigate things that interest me. Now, as I was saying, we haven't met before, Son of Sparda, but you've used a few creations of mine throughout your career, and to great effect is how I heard it," the stranger explained, making the Legendary Devil Hunter consider his words for a moment.
Dante used a lot of weapons over his career, but most devil arms were a one-and-done deal that came from single demons only once. But… now that he thought about it, there were a few devil arms he's either used or encountered that had been made by one particular demon.
"You're the devil arm craftsman, Machiavelli, aren't you?" Dante guessed, making the demon's face light up with a smile.
"Marvelous! You managed to guess my name correctly on the first try!" Machiavelli said excitedly. "But you don't need to be so formal with me, Dante. Mack is more than enough for me."
By this point, Maria had to interrupt, "Wait, so is this guy an actual demon that isn't hostile for once?"
Mack looked over to Maria and shook his head. "The only hostilities I'm ever involved with comes from what others do with my creations. I just enjoy building," the demon answered.
To help clarify, Dante added, "Just like some humans can have a great capacity for violence, some demons can have a capacity for peace. It's rare, but I've encountered a few who could live peacefully with humans, one of them is even a friend of mine."
Then, Dante quietly muttered, "Though she can be violent when I owe her money…"
"Huh, that will be something to add to the reports. Mind telling us why you are here?" Maria asked.
"Why, because I'm interested, young lady. As a fellow crafter, you likely also have that constant call to make creations that grab your interest," Mack began enthusiastically while the feathers on his coat puffed up in response.
"See, I enjoy projects. As it is, prospects in the Underworld have been low as of late. Too many uninteresting commissions to 'make a sword that can cut well', 'build a hammer that spews lightning', 'make a big club'," the demon mimicked with a gruff tone. "You can see how boring it can get when a craftsman of my caliber is requested to make the equivalent of a boring stick," Mack explained with a small amount of disappointment.
Then, he hopped over to Dante, almost like a bird, before poking him in the chest. "But you, oh, I've heard so many stories of you. The man who has used thousands of weapons with the skill of masters. Who is never held down by a single design. You are the type of warrior I've dreamt of making weapons for. So many designs that become possible with you in mind!"
The Legendary Devil Hunter found himself smirking at the demon's answer. "So, you want to build weapons for me?"
Mack laughed with a nod. "Hell yes. You'll probably be the most interesting patron I've ever had in millennia. The once in a lifetime artist to wield my works."
"And what would you want in exchange?" Dante questioned, getting a cock of Mack's head.
"Payment? I create because I can. The only thing I want is to see you create a glorious symphony with my instruments," Mack replied before quickly dashing over to Maria. All the while, Dante found himself liking this odd demon more and more.
"As for you, this suit of yours could be improved in so many ways. I'd love to have a some time to work with you on it," the demonic craftsman offered.
"M-Maybe a little later," Maria replied cautiously which seemed to be enough for Mack. He simply gave her a nod and turned to Dante.
"But I should begin with you," Mack said as he zoomed over to Dante, leaving a small trail consisting of a scattering of feathers. "Would you be willing to part with that shotgun of yours for a short while? I have a few ideas in mind."
Resting his sword on his shoulder, the Legendary Devil Hunter pulled out the customized shotgun and handed it over to the demonic craftsman. The Coyote-A was a weapon of his own, custom design. It wasn't the best or prettiest weapon, but it did its job well.
Guess this could be a good test to see how honest Mack actually was about his wish to make weapons for him. And hell, he might be getting a free devil arm out of it, so that was a plus in his book.
"Knock yourself out. Let's see what you can do," Dante answered, casually holding the gun out for Mack.
An excited grin broke on Mack's face as he took the weapon before spinning and flipping it in his hands as he examined the shotgun. Dante could feel the small pulses of demonic power coming from the demon's hands, scanning the item.
Finally, Mack stored the Coyote-A into his coat pocket, somehow able to fit the entirety of the weapon inside without issue. A small pat to the pocket with a satisfied sigh, and the demon gave a nod to Dante.
"I'll bring you back my completed work in a day or two. Until then," Mack said while rubbing his hands in excited expectation as the feathers on his coat puffed once more. Then, he seemingly disappeared, leaving only a small amount of feathers gently falling to the ground.
Unable to sense the demonic craftsman any longer, Dante let his sword disappear in a burst of flames. "Looks to me like it has been a productive day," the red-clad man commented with a grin.
"Productive is one way to say it. Meeting an actual demon that doesn't want to kill us and wants to make you weapons was not on my bingo list today," Maria remarked as she looked over to Dante.
The red-clad man simply shrugged. "When you're around me, expect weird things to happen."
"Already do," the armored woman retorted with a smirk as she surveyed the damage. "Luckily no one was seriously injured, just rattled. But I would really hate to be the ones to clean this up."
Around them were destroyed vehicles, demonic corpses, and ruined streets and sidewalks. Dante simply chuckled.
"Agreed." The red-clad man then looked to Maria and asked, "So, about lunch then?"
"Give me a few minutes," the armored cape answered with a smile before her faceplate snapped shut and she flew off.
From the sky, Dante noticed Maria's flying crate descend from the sky and towards an alleyway which the Legendary Devil Hunter made his way over to.
Soon after, Maria came striding out wearing tight jeans, her bodysuit under it, and a glove. "It's a few blocks away, so we can either walk or drive," the brunette replied as she tied her hair into a ponytail.
In an instant, Cavaliere was already summoned and Dante mounted the devil arm with a grin. "All aboard, Maverick."
Maria rolled her eyes and sat behind Dante, wrapping her arms around his waist. "Punch it, Chewie," the brunette replied.
A rev of Cavaliere's throttle, and the pair took off down the street.