JL Sigman (jlsigman) wrote in no_true_pair, @ 2009-01-12 05:50:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! 2009 eight characters challenge, author: jlsigman, fandom: devil may cry, pairing: cat/lady |
The Eyes Have It [Cat & Lady, Devil May Cry, PG-13]
Title: The Eyes Have It
Author: jlsigman
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: language
Word count: 1281
Prompt: Cat and Lady: "Well, I never saw that coming."
A/N: Cat is another OC of mine, set ten or so years after Devil May Cry 4. She works with Lady sometimes, on jobs that Dante and Trish aren't interested in. It's a chance to bring in a whole "underground population" theme, as well as a way to explore the large city Dante's shop is located in.
“I thought this was supposed to be an easy job?!?”
Lady was too busy gasping for air as she ran up the stairs to do more than glare at her partner. Cat was running just as fast but didn't seem to be the least bit winded, making Lady wish for her youth again. She stopped at the next landing to try to get the burn out of her thighs as she snapped, “It was supposed to be.”
Cat grinned at her quickly, gun drawn and pointed down the stairs. They were being followed by something that had hooves instead of feet. Lady didn't want to face it here in the narrow spiral of the stairwell, and so they were heading up to the roof. Which was still three floors above them. “Come on,” she said, starting up again.
“Damn thing better be worth it,” the younger woman muttered as she easily caught up. Lady couldn't talk again, but she silently agreed. If it wasn't worth the 13 story climb she would take it out of someone's hide.
An inhuman roar behind them urged them onward.
The city's air never smelled so sweet when she finally stumbled through the roof exit. It was much better than the stench of their pursuer, which managed to combine the worst of goat and lizard into one nose-assaulting attack. Cat was beside her, scanning the rooftop from behind her dark glasses. “What now?” she asked.
“Now we kill that thing.” She stepped away from the door and loaded Kalina Ann.
Cat smirked. “I figured that much” She had her sword out in a deceptively casual stance, one that had been the last thing countless demons and evil humans had ever seen. “But really, what made this turn from an easy buck to a complete fuck-up in thirty seconds flat?”
“Hell if I know,” Lady answered, aiming the rocket launcher. “My informant said that the place was geared to fend off demons, but that humans shouldn't have a problem. That's why I didn't bring Trish along.”
“Oh,” Cat answered in an oddly subdued tone. But before Lady could question her, the door and most of the rest of the frame around it was torn apart by scaly hands attached to scaly arms, which were attached to a pale scaly torso, which had a horned lizard head and brown furred goat legs sprouting from it.
“Someone's confused,” Cat quipped.
“Not for long!” Lady braced herself against the recoil and fired. The RPG closed the distance quickly, but before it could explode the demon opened it's mouth and belched out a cloud of something acidic enough to melt half the rocket to slag. It snickered and stepped forward.
“Never saw that one coming,” Cat tried to joke. The shock and slight tremor in her voice ruined the effect.
Lady already had her pistol in hand and set it to semi-automatic. “Just shoot the fucking thing, it can't do that forever!”
Luckily she was right, even though it took several dozen bullets to do the job. With a choking howl, it finally fell down dead. They backed away as it melted into a puddle of acid and acrid fumes.
“I swear, I'll have Derek's balls if he doesn't double what he owes me,” Lady said, watching the puddle eat it's way through the roof. Cat chuckled at the thought of Lady intimidating the 7 foot tall man, then paused. Lady walked past her, then looked over her shoulder when she realized her protégé wasn't following. “What?”
Before Cat could answer, the roof starting vibrating under Lady's feet. It very quickly escalated to an intense shaking that knocked her to her knees. From the curses coming out of Cat's mouth, the same must have been happening to her, but Lady was too busy focusing on the cracks appearing on the tarred surface to look. “Run!” she screamed.
There was nowhere for her to go, she realized as the roof tilted to dump her to the street far below. She couldn't leap across the street to the nearest building. She could swing over there because she'd used all the zip line earlier. There was no time to reload anything. Her only regret was that she hadn't introduced Cat to Dante yet. She looked up and gave the young woman a fond smile before falling.
Lady closed her eyes. She had just relaxed when something grabbed her around her waist, then she was flying through the air. Her first thought was that Dante had somehow appeared out of nowhere, then there was Cat's strained voice saying, “Hold on, damnit!” in her ear. Her eyes flew open but nothing she saw made sense, so she closed them again. Then there was the crash of glass and the scream of rusted metal breaking under tremendous strain and the jolt of a sudden stop. Then she was dangling in air, her upper arms being tightly gripped. Something bounced off her head, and she opened her eyes and watched Cat's glasses fall to the ground several storys below them.
She looked up, and her mis-matched eyes met dark copper ones with vertical pupils.
“It's me,” the being holding her said in Cat's voice. She was wearing Cat's clothes, speaking with her voice, and now that Lady could think again, the only off thing was her eyes. And the velvet point on each ear that had been revealed by her awkward position. And her generally tawny coloring that had always seemed a tad too orange to be real.
“You could've warned an old lady,” she finally managed to say.
Cat's smirk was upside down. She was gripping the railing of a broken fire escape with her knees, her back towards the wall while she kept Lady from falling. “It's not something you can just randomly bring up in conversation,” she said wryly. She twisted to look around and Lady felt her back wince at the inhuman agility. “If I swing you a little, can you get to that ledge?”
Lady managed, and stood back to let Cat make the leap from the broken railing to the narrow concrete ledge. There was an awkward silence from Cat, who seemed both embarrassed and defensive but desperately nonthreatening. “OK...” Lady started. “I understand the shades and that ragged mop you pass off as hair.” That got a grin, of the look-who's-talking variety. “Why the gloves?”
“Ah,” Cat started, then stopped. She took a deep breath, then shrugged. “Easier to show than tell,” she said as she stripped off the thin leather. She held out her fingers, showing the complete lack of fingernails. Then she turned her hands palm up, curling her fingers slightly, and claws the length of the top joint of each digit appeared.
Lady whistled quietly. “So you're the reason the building blew up?”
“Yeah. Must've been tuned to half-breeds, too. Sorry.”
The older woman looked up from her partner's fascinating hands, but Cat wouldn't meet her eyes yet. “So Dante's not the only one...” she mused.
Cat shook her head. “He never has been. Most of us just aren't as pretty as he is, so we can't be all out in the open.”
Sirens wailed in the distance, drawn to the destruction. “Come on,” Lady said, starting down the ladder beside the ledge. “Time to go make Derek pay.” She pretended not to see Cat's delighted and quickly smothered grin, and decided she really needed to hurry up and properly introduce her to Dante.