Chapter 4
One Crazy Party
Tony just finished dropping off the last package at Enzo’s, and he decided to explore the city a little more. Tony parked the moped in the garage and peeked his head into the bar. “Yo Enzo I’m gonna go sight-seeing a little.” Enzo replied, “Mkay I shall see you whenever ya get back kid” as he stacked his supplies. It was a beautiful afternoon, the sun was shining, the weather was at a perfect temperature, and the autumn leaves rained upon the sidewalk. Each building that Tony passed had its own unique style to it, but each building shared similar gothic architecture. As Tony followed the sidewalk he passed apartment complexes, clothing stores, restaurants, and shops of all kinds. “Even though its fall, this place is as bright as a summer day. Haha I love it!” Tony said to himself. The perfect day was then cracked by a rigid scream. Tony, startled by it, began searching for the origin of the scream. “Please just get off me!” are the words Tony heard as he approached an alleyway between two apartment complexes. “Here take my money, my credit cards, take the whole purse just leave me alone!” “I don’t want your money lady, I want something more valuable.” A man and a woman quarreled in the middle of the alleyway that Tony was approaching. Tony then slipped in closer to the man and woman as they continued to argue. The woman nervously clamored, “Well then what do you want from me?” The strange man pinned the woman up against a cold brick wall and slurred out the words, “I want your soul…” The man maniacally laughed as he raised his fists towards the sky, threatening to slam them against the woman’s body. “Hey freak! I think you should keep your hands to yourself,” Tony shouted at the vicious stranger. “Leave the lady alone and pick on someone your own size……hmmm…no takers ha! Guess im up to bat!” As the man was distracted by Tony the woman he had pinned up against the wall ran away, fleeing for her safety. “Damn it kid! You let my meal get away!” the man shouted at Tony. “Well you should be thanking me, last I checked humans don’t make for a healthy diet.” “Oh you think you are so funny don’t you? Well let’s see you make smart ass remarks after this!” The man growled as his skin began to stretch, and convulse. His eyes flooded with golden light, claws ripped through the exterior of his hands, and his body plated with a white, waxy armor pasted together with black ooze that seeped through the rips in his skin. Tony watched in awe, knowing exactly what the man had transformed into…..a demon.
Once the stranger’s transformation was complete there was no hesitation in attacking Tony. The demon leapt forward claws leading the way, and Tony rolled under him, avoiding a deadly blow. Tony immediately whipped out his sword and began to slash away at the creature’s back. Vertical slash followed by horizontal slash, and again a vertical slash popping the demon into the air. “Time to get crazy!” Tony shouted as he followed his adversary into the air. A kick and a stab met the demon’s body as the two floated in the air, then dante slammed the demon back to the ground with a helm breaker. The demon bleeding profusely uttered, “Uh…you…are not an ordinary human are you?....No of course not…I know who you are boy! You..you are the son of Sparda…you are Dan-“ the demon was interrupted by the end of Tony’s blade. The demon’s head rolled off of his lifeless corpse, as Tony walked off leaving the demon’s remains to disappear into thin air. “Hu! So much for a challenge,” Tony said to himself as he walked away from the alley. Moments later Tony’s stomache began rumbling uncontrollably. “Man I’m really hungry, think I need to find some place to eat, hmm preferably pizza.” Just as Tony’s cravings proceeded him, he passed a small restaurant, and decided to take a look inside. The floor had black and white tile, and numerous pictures of movie stars lined the walls. It gave the overall restaurant a cozy, quant look. Tony stepped up to the counter to be greeted by an elderly man. “Welcome to Captain Blue’s Pizza Place I’m Blue how may I help you?” Tony quickly replied, urged by hunger, “Ummm yeah I would like a cheese pizza with mushrooms and onions and that’ll be it for me.” “Alrighty sir, one cheese pizza with mushrooms and onions that’ll be $7. 95.” Tony then reached into his pocket to pull out the remains of money he had, and slapped it to the counter. After inserting the money into the register Blue told Tony, “It’ll probably take around ten minutes to bake, if you would like to take a seat at a table and make yourself more comfortable you can.” “Okay thanks, I believe I’ll do that,” Tony said as he sat at one of the booths in the restaurant. Just as predicted about ten minutes later Blue delivered the cheese pizza to Tony’s booth. “Enjoy your pizza sir!” “Thank you, it smells delicious!” Tony did not hesitate to dig into the pizza quenching his hunger. “Aw man this is the best thing I’ve eaten in quite a while!” Minutes after the pizza arrived it had just as quickly been devoured. Day had descended as the night arose, and Tony decided to head back to Enzo’s. “Well again thank you for that magnificent pizza, it was to die for!” “Hahaha well I’m glad you enjoyed it youngster I do hope you’ll be back.” “Oh trust me, I’ll be back!” Tony said as he exited the restaurant.
Just like the previous night, the streets were packed with people wandering the streets in search of good times to be had. However, tonight it was twice as packed since it was a Friday night after all. The bright, neon sign that had drawn Tony to Enzo’s, lead him through the crowded streets. Tony approached the double wooden doors of Enzo’s and entered. There were over a dozen teenagers hanging out in the bar, and Enzo was busy serving customers drinks and snacks. Enzo spotted Tony walk in and shouted at him from across the shop, “Hey Tony I told you this place gets full on the weekends haha!” Tony smiled and continued to walk around, when he noticed Nero playing pool at the pool table. Nero was with a girl and a couple others laughing and talking as they played a friendly game of pool. Tony then said to himself, “Should I go over there? I mean the only person here I know is Enzo, and I gotta get used to talking to people if I’m gonna live here. Well I guess I gotta make friends sooner or later.” So with his decision, Tony walked towards the pool table. He approached Nero first, “Hey there Snow white.” Nero quickly turned around to see who insulted him. “Oh it’s just you…Tony right?” “Yeah that’s me haha, sorry I saw you guys having fun, and I don’t know really anyone else here so I thought I’d come by and say hey at least. Well I see you guys are busy with your game so I guess I’ll leave you alone..” Nero grabbed Tony by the shoulder, “Woah woah what’s the hurry man I haven’t even introduced you to my friends. Guys this is Tony. Now everybody introduce themselves to the nice stranger haha!” The first to introduce herself was a girl. “Hi Tony my name is Mary, but most of my friends just call me Lady. I’m not too fond of the name Mary.” “Hello Tony my name is Samanosuke, but since everyone here has trouble pronouncing my name you can just call me Sam for short haha!” “I saved the best for last, my name is Leon, no nickname just Leon,” Leon chuckled to Tony. “Well it’s great to meet you all. I probably should see if Enzo needs any help at the bar.” Nero again stopped Tony, “What’s the rush dude, hang out with us for a bit, let us get to know you better. We gotta make sure you’re a good guy if you’re gonna stay here with our good friend Enzo.” Tony replied, “Well how about we start another game of pool!” Everyone agreed to this, and so teams were picked and the game began.
Numerous conversations took place between Tony and the others as they played their game of pool. Tony was learning many things about the Nero as well as his group of friends; this was something Tony was not used to. Most of Tony’s childhood, no one was around to talk to you or hang out with. He was what society called a lone wolf or even an outcast. Nero then broke everyone’s silence, “So Tony I noticed that you kinda uhhh carry a sword around. Is that just for protection or what?” “Yeah I guess you could say that Nero.” “Well I will probably be the first to tell you that that is totally bad ass! The craftsmanship of it is superb, do you mind if I take a closer look at it?” Tony then glared at Nero, “Actually I kinda mind. No body touches this thing but me.” “Aw come on Tony! I just wanna look at it!” “Im sorry Nero but I gotta say no to ya.” “So there’s nothing I can do for you to at least hold it?” Tony replied with a stern “Nope.” “Can I buy it from you?” “Hell no. The only way you can get this sword from me, is if you take it from me, and that’s just not gonna happen Snow white haha!” “Oh really,” Nero replied. “Well Tony how about we fight for it?” Tony began chuckling as he responded to Nero, “Haha no thanks, I believe if I fought with you, you might not survive taha!” “Ah so the mystery man is pretty arrogant about his fighting skills, well how bout we take this outback and settle this, if I win I get the sword, if you win I’ll never ask about it again.” Tony looked into Nero’s eyes and saw that Nero was completely serious about the fight. Tony thought long and hard before he replied. “Alright Nero let’s do this. I mean what do I have to lose, but be warned I’m not gonna hold back on you, I’m coming at you with full force until you admit defeat.” “Mkay that’s reasonable, I’m ready for this, so let’s head to the parking lot out back.” “Okay but let’s not make a big scene, only bring your friends with us. “Alright that sounds fair, don’t want to get banned from Enzo’s anyway.” Tony, Nero and the others stopped their game of pool and headed out the back door leading to an old, un-used parking lot.
“Alright, so let’s lay down some ground rules for this. It’s gonna be a friendly duel, so no weapons, no low blows, and no one interferes. The winner will be declared when the other admits defeat, sound good Tony?” “Yeah sounds great. Now how bout we get this started!”
“Okay mystery man let us begin!” Tony and Nero dashed at one another impacting each other with blows. Nero landed the first punch, but Tony quickly recovered with another blow. Lady, Sam, and Leon watched in anticipation. Nero leaned back to connect a kick to Tony’s midsection, but to no avail. Tony blocked his kick with his forearm, and jutted towards him with the force of two or three punches hitting Nero’s sternum. He then stumbled from the blows, breathless. Tony ran up to meet Nero’s haziness, but Nero recovered and began punching Tony wherever he could land hits. Most of the hits landed on Tony’s sides, and one or two contacted his face. Each punch had a ton of momentum behind it, but it did not affect Tony much. Tony then began evading the kicks and punches that were thrown at him. As Nero missed blow after blow, his stamina began to deplete. Tony used this to his advantage by implementing multiple kicks to hit Nero’s weakened body. Tony then ran in to tackle Nero to the ground, but Tony’s attempt was countered as Nero twisted around to put Tony into a headlock and wrestled him to the ground. From this position Nero pummeled Tony with knees to the head. Blood began to ooze from the freshly wounded head of Tony. It looked like Nero was close to victory, but Tony rose from the ground still locked underneath Nero’s body trying to escape. Tony was now on one foot and a knee, gaining enough leverage to pick Nero off the ground. Nero was surprised by the raw strength of Tony. Nero applied the headlock even tighter to block the flow of oxygen to Tony’s lungs, but this did not stop Tony from rising to his feet. Nero was now helplessly in the air, and at the whim of Tony’s tactics. Tony pulled the grip of Nero away from his head, and continued to lift Nero even higher off the ground, and then with a ton of impact slammed Nero down to the cold pavement. From the expression on Nero’s face the slam delivered an enormous jolt of pain through his body. While Nero was weakened from the slam, Tony took advantage and kicked Nero across the empty parking lot. From the impact of the kick it looked as if Nero was out cold; however he slowly rose to his feet. Staggering and coughing blood from the internal damage, Nero regained his position. Everyone watched in awe as Nero continued to resist defeat. A staredown between Tony and Nero commenced, but was abruptly ended as Nero rushed towards Tony. Tony didn’t even bother to move as Nero came closer. Once Nero was a few inches away from Tony he began striking; forceful sloppy strikes. Each strike connected, and each strike cause Tony to stumble, but none of Nero’s hits managed to put Tony to his knees. Tony didn’t even attempt to stop Nero’s attacks at this point, he just let Nero continue to rack up hits. Nero, noticing Tony’s resiliency to fall, angrily slurred, “Say you quit! Give up you bastard! Just give up already!” Something truly bizzare happened as Nero throttled Tony with punches and insults. A red aura began to emit from Tony’s body, it grew more apparent as Tony took beating after beating from Nero. “Give up damn it!,” Nero screamed with frustration ignoring the red light emerging from Tony’s body. “Tony surrender! Tony! Just ****ing quit! Do it Tony I want that damn sword!” Nero reared back to land the final blow on Tony, but as he shot forward to attack, Tony blocked his shot with his bare hand, and Tony uttered “I’m not Tony….My name is Dante!” At that moment, all the red aura that covered Tony’s body, instantly gathered at Tony’s palm dissolving as Tony twisted Nero’s arm into a very contorted position, obviously breaking the bones in his forearm. Nero shouted with a cry of agony, “AGGGGGHHHHH!!!! DAMN IT! MY ARM!!! UGHHH! HE BROKE IT! ****! HE BROKE MY ARM!!!!” Nero’s friends quickly surrounded Nero to see if he was alright. They took a look at his arm to see the damage, it was definitely broken. “Oh god Nero we need to get that arm into a cast!” Lady exclaimed. “Yeah let’s get the hell out of here.” Nero cried. The crowd scattered as Tony stood there in shock of what he had just done. “Oh no. What did I just do? Why couldn’t I control my rage? Now they know my real name, they know who I really am..…and there’s no way they could not have seen the demonic energy emitting from my body. Why did I freeze up like that, why did I just stop fighting? Oh god….. what’s gonna happen now?” Dante was left to ponder as the night became silent.