Devil's Bash CHAPTER 1

Hey everyone! I'm back for a new Halloween story called Devil's Bash! I know it's a horrible play on 'Monster Mash' but you know not every title can be gold. This story is starting out teen but the next chapter is probably going to take it up to mature for explicit content.

In relation to where this is-Dante and Nero are already together. For those of you who don't know this story is DANTEXNERO. It's safe to say if you read my other story Diamondback-it takes place after that. But I will try not to make anything but vague references to it.

Anyway-I do not own Dante, Nero, Trish, Lady or any of the DMC cast. But I do own Artimus and Leo! So enjoy!

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Nero still wasn't quite sure how Dante had talked him into this as he carefully buckled the belts across his chest over the tight black zip-up shirt that he was wearing. He had on red jeans with black leather chaps with his own boots on. Still resting on the bed was Dante's red leather jacket as well as the older man's signature weapons Rebellion, Ebony and Ivory. He supposed that meant Dante trusted him not to lose or damage his precious weapons.

Nero started to pull on the coat wondering how this party was going to go. They were invited by his old co-workers from a bar a few blocks over. He'd worked there for about a month or so before he was able to locate the elder hunter. So he was happy to be going to see them…but it was a costume party for early Halloween. They could only go on the thirtieth because the local teenage population didn't like the devil hunters to sleep on All Hallows Eve. They kept all four of them pretty busy by summoning hordes of demons.

The younger hunter picked up Rebellion and fixed it to his back before picking up Ebony and Ivory and locating their holsters on his back. As a joke Dante thought it would be hilarious for them to dress up as each other, since their physical characteristics were so similar anyway. He was fairly sure that the older man had gotten him drunk before suggesting this-but he had agreed and Nero never went back on his word-even if he was drunk while giving it.

Nero went and looked at himself in the mirror, smirking slightly someone probably could mistake him for the older hunter. The only thing giving him away was his young face and the slight glow of his devil bringer. He quickly combed his fingers through his hair making it lay down flat.

He caught a glimpse of blue in the mirror and grinned.

"Are you stalking me kid?" he asked, without turning around.

"Oh, don't flatter yourself old man." the other quipped happily.

Nero chuckled and turned to face him, taking in the older man's messy hair, Red Queen resting over his shoulder, the younger hunter's jacket, hoodie and blue jeans and Dante's own boots.

"I guess it's a good thing that we're about the same size or we would never be able to pull this off."

Dante laughed. "No kidding."

"I have to admit-this is kind of weird though. We're…not going to call each other by our own names are we?"

"Maybe just for the first few minutes-see who we can fuck with."

"Okay." he agreed with a sigh. "I guess we should get going then. We're probably both going to get pretty sloshed, so we should walk there."

"Yeah, let's go."

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The two walked the four blocks over to The Opal Lounge. It was named for the owner, though Nero had only met her once.

The bar was hopping with people dressed in different costumes. "Hey! There's Trish and Lady!" Nero shouted above the noise.

Dante looked over and spotted the two. Trish-dressed to impress, as always-she was wearing a slinky black dress caps on her teeth and dainty trails of blood dripping down her face. And Lady-who would never be caught dead dressed like a demon was dressed like a flapper from the twenties with a red dress and feather in her hair.

The older hunter grabbed Nero's hand and dragged him over to the two females.

"Hey ladies, how's it shakin'?" he called over the music. Lady turned and confusion flickered across her features. Trish just laughed.

"You two are crazy-let me guess, Dante's idea?"

"Yeah." Nero agreed, laughing lightly as Dante elbowed him playfully offended. The two boys forced themselves between the girls up against the bar. "Yo Artimus!" Nero hailed one of the barkeeps. He had black hair and purple eyes, he was dressed up like a devil. He looked over and grinned.

"Hey Leo! Check Nero and Dante out!" he called out to his coworker. The other man seemed to be the polar opposite of Artimus, he had blonde hair and yellow eyes. He appeared like he was suppose to be an angel, but his shirt was spattered with red. Leo looked up from mixing drinks and smiled at the four.

Artimus was the one that approached. "Nice costumes guys." he chuckled. "You two look pretty scary all the time, so I guess you can get away with switching up your clothes." he grinned. "What do you guys want?"

"I'll take a beer." Dante stated, figuring that one of them should keep alert he didn't really like the feeling of getting totally drunk-at least not outside the shop.

""Bloody Mary." the younger hunter ordered.

The brunette smirked. "I guess you're getting in the Halloween spirit. And for the lovely ladies?"

"I'll take a margarita." Trish smiled, showing her pearly white fangs.

"Rum and coke." Lady said with a small curl of her lips.

"Can do. Leonardo! Bloody Mary and a Marg!" he shouted over.

"Got it! Bloody M and a marg!" the blonde replied, his hands moving at a fast, efficient pace mixing the drinks up.

Artimus pulled out a beer and handed it to Dante before making up Lady's drink, by the time he was finished Leo was over, handing Nero and Trish their alcohol.

"So what are you suppose to be? A murderous angel?" Trish asked with a light giggle.

Leo looked down at himself and laughed too. "No…I was actually going for more of a fallen angel type deal-hence why I have no wings!" he said.

"Really? I thought it was because it would be damn near impossible to move around with wings on back there." Nero stated.

"Yeah…that too." he chuckled. "We're really swamped tonight. I didn't expect this big of a turn out for the day before Halloween."

"Short handed?" Nero inquired.

"As usual." Artimus dead panned.

"Well if you need-"

"Come on Nero let's go dance!" Dante interrupted.

Nero laughed. "Wait until I get a little alcohol in me-would ya?" he took a gulp of his drink.

"You guys have fun-unfortunately we have some other customers to take care of." Artimus stated heading off further down the bar as Leo returned to making drinks.

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After a few hours three out of the four hunters were buzzed and Nero was on his way to going a bit too far. The younger hunter sat at the bar, trying to cool off as the girls and Dante stayed on the floor. He lightly smiled watching them.

"Hey Nero?" Leo asked politely.

"Yeah Leo?" he asked.

"I know you're not here to work-but we're swamped-would you mind going down to the basement and grabbing a case of beers?"

"Oh, sure-no problem." he replied, carefully getting to his feet, trying to make sure his gait stayed steady he made his way behind the bar and down to the basement where the extra alcohol was kept. He grabbed the case, but paused when he smelled something odd, and looked over to the doors that lead outside and saw a man standing there. What was really odd was the fact that he smelled slightly of death.

"Hey dude. The party is upstairs…you're not allowed to be down here." he said. After a moment the guy lunged towards him and Nero grabbed him up by his shirt collar with his demonic arm. His eyes widened though and he turned his head away when he caught scent of the man's breath it reeked of human flesh.

"What the hell are you?" he asked slamming the man against the wall. The young hunter made a noise of disgust as a few chunks of skin fell from the creature. "Well you're certainly not human and that's enough for me." he stated, turning his head away from the thing's horrible breath once again as it tried to bite him.

Nero pat his side, but felt Blue Rose missing. He huffed a sigh and reached back behind him to grab Ebony, aiming at the creature's head and firing one decisive shot making the thing go limp. He put Ebony away and frowned. Great…now where could he stash the body where Leo and Artimus wouldn't find it until it dissolved?

He spotted the closet for the water heater and shoved the dead creature inside only for it to fall back out on him. "Oh, gross." he grumbled under his breath in complaint of the stench that was now so much worse, now that it was actually dead.

Nero shoved it back inside, holding his hands out as if to catch it if it fell out again-it did and he quickly stuffed it back inside and slammed the door, leaning his side against it. "What the hell was that thing?" he wondered to himself. "And how in the hell did it get down here?"

"Hey Nero! You okay down there?" asked Artimus from the top of the stairs.

"Just fine! I'll be up in a minute!" he called in response, picking up the cartridge casing from the bullet he'd fired, no need to be drawing attention to his partner. He walked over to the basement doors and looked them over. It wasn't locked…

"Nero!?" asked Leo this time.

"I'm coming!" he answered, flicking the lock closed and headed back upstairs with the case of booze.

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Once dropping off the case and taking one bottle for himself, he made his way back over to Dante who frowned upon seeing him, smelling death and gunpowder on him.

"What happened to you?" he murmured in his ear as soon as the younger hunter was close enough.

Nero took a swig out of the bottle before answering. "Just a creepy crawly in the basement. No big deal."

"What was it?" he asked.

"Have no idea, seemed kinda zombie-like. Kept trying to bite me-he didn't though. Crisis averted." he grinned, lips meshing with the older half-devil's heatedly, earning a few whistles from some of the people in the bar.

Dante pulled away first, lightly laughing. "How much have you had to drink kid?"

"Four Bloody Marys and this beer."

Dante chuckled. "Seems to me you're feeling pretty good then."

"Damn right, I am." he smiled widely, lightly nipping at the older man's neck.

"Maybe we should get out of here then." he suggested.

"I like where this seems to be going." Nero purred. Dante smiled slightly and waved to Trish and Lady catching their attention before he pointed at himself and the kid and then the door, letting them know they were leaving. Lady just nodded in affirmation that she understood and Trish gave a salute to say good bye to them.

With that Dante started to lead his lover out of the bar. The cool night air hit the hunters as soon as they exited the front doors and they breathed it in deeply, getting rid of the smoke in their lungs. Nero laced the fingers of his devil bringer through Dante's as they started the trek back to the shop.

Both hunters kept up the teasing and playful touches as they walked down the deserted sidewalks. Nero was dragged around in front of Dante with a sharp tug and pulled into a passionate kiss, tongues twining, hands groping-until the older half-devil abruptly stopped and pulled back, his hands flat against Nero's chest as he quickly pushed him away.

The younger devil, still somewhat tipsy as well as not expecting the motion fell back on his ass, recovering as best as he could by rolling and placing his hand on the ground to get his footing, seeing a giant black tentacle had smashed the sidewalk where they'd been standing and separating the two lovers.

Both frost blue eyes followed the appendage back to it's source a woman inked in black with red eyes, a light scent of death hung in the air. Both hunters quickly recognized this woman.

"Hey Dante? Didn't we kill this demon yesterday?"

"Yeah kid-I'm pretty sure we did."

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And that's it for chapter 1. I at least wanted to get this out by Halloween, since it technically is a Halloween fic, but the next chapter will be out sometime next week if the muses are with me-and my professors don't pile on too much homework after Wednesday!

I do hope that you didn't mind Leo and Artimus too much, I really wanted to do that little scene in the basement! XD They shouldn't show up again.

Please leave me a review! Until next time!

Ja ne!

~Bitbyboth October 31, 2009