Chapter Text
(Art made by me, using outlines created in Scribblenauts Unlimited and an edit of Dante's sprite from Project X-Zone)
It took weeks of nagging and convincing, but little Evie finally managed to do it. After the many exciting commercials that had aired day after day when she got home from school, she convinced her father to take her out for her sixth birthday to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. He long argued that the place had no dignity to it, that he didn't want to support any business that forced its employees to dress up in such demeaning (not to mention creepy) attire, and that their pizza would surely be subpar. At best.
Still, constant cries from his daughter led to constant cries from her little brother Arthur, which led to further irritation from his wife, Lucia. So, with a swallow of pride and a roll of the eyes, Dante agreed to take Evie to Freddy's for her birthday.
Evie was so excited she didn't even mind that he wanted to sit in the corner with his fingers rubbing at his forehead as he shamefacedly slurped down strawberry malt after strawberry malt, Lucia next to him with young Arthur.
"You know today isn't supposed to be about you," his wife said. "You should be happy that Evie is happy."
"This place stinks… literally." Dante squinted his eyes and scanned the room. "Smells like spit and blood. Last time I was in a place that stank like this a gigantic tower just spurt out of the ground a few blocks from my place and a bunch of Hells carved up a strip joint."
"Would you keep it down! What if someone overhears you?"
"Over Teddy and his band of nightmares over there?" Dante pointed a finger at the animatronics unconvincingly playing instruments on stage. "Oh I'm sorry, Freddy and his band of nightmares… I'll give it this much… It's not as bad as the last time I dealt with a Freddy and nightma-"
"Refill your drink sir?" A disinterested, pimply-faced teenage employee in an oversized teddy bear costume asked.
"Please! And you got anything, y'know, heavier back there by any chance?"
"Unless you wanna try the oil that lubes the robots, no." The kid took his malt glass.
"How about that chicken?" Dante asked. "I want what that chicken's having! She looks like she's havin' a great time!"
"Do you need to insist on being a nuisance any time we go somewhere you don't want to go?" Lucia asked.
"Aw c'mon. This is supposed to be a fun place right? This is how I have fun at these places. I'm too big for the ball pit."
"Well why don't you try and have fun with Evie?" Lucia said. "She's over in the arcade next to pirate's cove."
Dante sighed and pushed himself up, made his way past the out of order "Pirate's Cove" attraction, and found his daughter standing on a stool as she desperately mashed buttons on the Street Fighter 2 machine.
"Hey squirt, how you holding up?" Dante asked. When she didn't answer, he looked at the screen as Chun Li struggled to defeat Vega while he delivered swipe after swipe from his claw hand. "I could swear his name was Barlog back when I last played this." Dante said to himself. After many failed combos, Vega landed the finishing blow and Evie lowered her head in shame for a moment before sadly turning to her father.
"Daddy… could you finish the game for me?"
For the first time since arriving at the third-rate pizza parlor, Dante felt happy to do something, patted Evie on the back, and said, "Leave it to me."
Dante shoved in a few quarters and took Evie's place. His mind raced for combos as he made short work of Vega. Afterwards, he suffered a defeat at the hands of Sagat, but bounced back quickly and defeated him as well, leaving only the dreaded M. Bison to contend with. "This one's for you, kiddo," Dante said.
But true to his status as final boss, Bison would not be overcome. Dante's usually excellent memory of attack combos began to blank as he starred enraged at lose-screen after lose-screen at the hands of Bison and his ridiculously unfair slide kick. Again and again he pushed on and tried, at one point pulling a five dollar bill out of his pocket and demanding Evie bring him more quarters.
"Dad, I really don't care if you—"
"He is NOT going to beat me.”
Evie sighed and went to retrieve his change.
Dante kept at the button mashing, struggling for any possible hit he could land as Evie kept feeding the machine quarters. When she told him she ran out, he pulled out his wallet to find it now completely bare of cash as Bison delivered his final slide kick.
Dante starred in disbelief, every pixel on Bison's face mocked his poor performance. For a moment he forgot entirely who and how powerful he was, the look of mocking forced his hand.
Dante's fist sailed right through the machine, which let out a loud, horrible crash as it broke and he tore his hand out from it.
When the furious moment passed, he heard a few small children crying that he broke a machine, and one of the men in the teddy bear costumes telling another to go get the boss. It wasn't ten awkwardly silent minutes later that Dante's shoulder was tapped on by the infuriated manager.
"Do you have any idea how much damage that little stunt you pulled did?!" He said. "Do you know how hard we struggle to get business around here as is?"
"Maybe you outta consider washing those animatronics of yours once in a while," Dante said. "It stinks bad in here."
"Quiet you rat! I should have you arrested for damage of my property!"
"Please sir," Lucia said as she pulled Arthur closer. "My husband gets impulsive sometimes. We can pay for the broken machine."
"Well… actually," the manager sighed. "Look, our last night shift security guy just quit and we're out anybody for the rest of the week. You owe us money, so you think you could stop by here and work that off?"
"Wouldn't be my first pro-bono arrangement," Dante said.
"He would be happy to." Lucia glared at Dante shortly thereafter. "When can he start?"
"Well… I dunno, tonight? Midnight til six AM?"
"Yes sir, he'll be here," Lucia still leered at Dante.
"Yeah. Sure. Why not. What my wife said. Midnight to six. What could possibly go wrong?"