Nexus (fanfic)

Nexus is a fanfic posted on Fanfiction Dot Net by Shade Penn. It is a crossover AU with the newer Transformers Prime series and Devil May Cry. It’s central character is Jack Darby and the fanfic picks up in the middle of the episode “Speed Metal,” with some thoughts beforehand and a preface.

It is rather gory for the first chapter after the preface and is appropriately labelled ‘M’ for violence and sexual situations.

Integrates a great deal of both series, especially during the story’s first Arc.

Tropes used in Nexus (fanfic) include:

• Accidental Marriage: Jack and Knock Out.
• Affably Evil: Late in the story it gives us Alto, who is nice, pretty….and is a soul sucking succubus from hell.
• An Ice Person: Technically, it’s not Jack himself, but his sword/bow that he uses that creates ice.
• Awkward Father-Son Bonding Activity: Subverted with Jack and Vergil. While killing demons may count as ‘father-son bonding’ it does not count if your father is an amnesiac and doesn’t know you’re his son at the time.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Jack and Knock Out all the way.They first try and kill each other when they meet in their mental world. Their relationships currently showing signs that there getting better; as they're at least they’re not trying to kill each other now.
• Berserk Button: Knock Out gets rather angry if you insinuate he actually cares about Jack. Dante is also shown to get pissed if you call him a hypocrite.
• Betty and Veronica: Jack takes the role of Archie, and between the two of them in terms of their attraction to Jack, Knock Out is Betty and Alto is Veronica.
• Bow and Sword in Accord: Jack’s weapon is a sword that can turn into a bow when he transforms it.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Alto.
• Clothing Damage: Jack’s had to get rid of two shirts because they were bloody and ripped.
• Cool Loser: Jack states that other kids will brush him off, yet he is very popular with demons due to his Gender Rarity Value.
• Cool Uncle: Dante.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Knock Out got angry when he saw Alto standing so close to Jack, and finding out about Jack’s crush on Arcee.
• Cute Monster Girl: Alto, and Jack could count as being an inverted example.
• Dark Action Girl: Alto has been shown to not only dress stylishly, but can even go toe-toe with Jack and Knock Out.
• Dark Is Not Evil: This seems to be the mindset for Miko and Raf when Jack tells them he’s a half-demon.
• Death-Activated Superpower: For Jack to have finished his transformation into a half-demon, he had to die first.
• Demon Slaying: Jack does this occasionally, and Dante does it for a living.
• Disappeared Dad: Jack’s father is Vergil in this fic. Jack though later meets him when he gets transported to the Demon World.
• Doting Parent: June Darby.
• First Kiss: Jack laments how his first kiss was with Knock Out.
• Foe Yay: Jack and Alto in the woman's introduction chapter.
• Form-Fitting Wardrobe: Jack described Alto’s dress to be ‘form-fitting’ and despite her having green skin, was apparently so beautiful that he called her the ‘prettiest girl he’d ever seen.’ When his inner demon called him out on his crush on Arcee, he said ‘Who?’ prompting his demon half to mentally snap him out of it.
• Green-Skinned Space Babe: Subverted. While Alto may be beautiful and green-skinned, she is certainly not from outer space. In the most recent Chapter she even reveals she used to be a human.
• The Glomp: Miko and Raf both give one to Jack after he comes to the Autobot base after fighting Scarecrows. They back off though when he winces.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Jack was originally quarter-demon, but then got turned to half-demon status after he died for the first time.
• Healing Factor: Jack. Knock Out also gets this from his and Jack’s bond.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Jack.
• Ho Yay: Jack and Knock Out. Not that either of them are happy about it.
• Human Mom, Nonhuman Dad: Technically it’d be Human Mom and Half-Non-Human Dad for Jack Darby.
• Hunter of His Own Kind: Jack and Dante.
• Identity Amnesia: Vergil Sparda.
• Idol Singer: June, and Rosanna is referenced as being this.
• If It's You It's Okay: Jack clearly likes girls, or girl robots in this case, but he makes an exception with Knock Out. And even then it takes a while to warm up to the mech.
• Immortality: Jack lampshades that he doesn’t want to die ‘for a very long time’.
• Instant Armor: This is pretty much Jack’s demon form. Albeit, ‘cool looking robotic’ white armor.
• Katanas Are Just Better: The sword form of Jack’s weapon is a katana.
• Like a Son to Me: In the pre-cursor, Dante sees Jack as this.
• Likes Older Women: Jack’s crush on Arcee, and his first encounter with Alto (until he learned she wanted to steal his soul).
• May-December Romance: Alto has a rather one-sided crush on Jack, who is significantly younger than her.
• Mental World: Basically the premise of the ‘soul plane’ where Knock Out and Jack go. It’s revealed that the world will gets old and dusty if one of the ‘bond’ees is ‘out of range’ or not asleep.
• Mindlink Mates: Knock Out and Jack, but only when they’re both asleep.
• Oops, I Forgot I Was Married: Subverted. June has remained faithful to Vergil for the span of 15 years when he was in the Demon World.
• Orgasmic Combat: This is an interesting thing because when Jack and Knock Out are fighting, Jack tackles him to the ground; their sparks connect and they have no idea what happened. But it’s obvious to the reader what happened.
• Parental Abandonment: Jack is understandably pissed when his mother tells him that his father left them for power.
• Parental Substitute: While Jack still had his mom, Dante had been the father-figure in his life until he was four. Not that he remembers him.
• Power Dyes Your Hair: When Jack goes into his demon form, his hair turns white; June even said when he was in his ‘powered up’ form, that Jack looked like his father.
• Power Is Sexy: Knock Out notes how much better Jack looks in his demon form.
• Power Makes Your Voice Deep: Subverted. When Jack’s in his demon form, his voice has a metallic edge; much like the Autobots.
• Psychotic Love Triangle: Both Knock Out and Alto like Jack, even if the former will deny it, and they both can't stand each other to the point where they attacked each other.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Decepticons. Vergil and Jack in their demon forms. Also Alto.
• Selective Obliviousness: After Vergil gets his memory back, he immediately refuses to think about something that seems to be an upcoming plot device, claiming he hadn’t thought about it ‘back then, and wouldn’t think about it now’.
• Shirtless Scene: It’s implied Jack sleeps shirtless after he wakes up and sees the bandage covering his chest and when his mother was cleaning his wounds from the Scarecrow fight.
• Shock and Awe: Alto with her black lightning attacks. Jack even lampshades how much it hurts compared to getting electrocuted by a Blitz.
• So Proud of You: Subverted. After discovering that Jack is his son, Vergil thinks he should feel proud of him, but can’t really bring himself to since he’s currently an amnesiac. That and he barely knew Jack beforehand.
• Story Arc: The official first arc is labelled ‘Demon World Arc.’
• Super-Powered Evil Side: Jack’s demon side is a snarky and darker version of him. Dante and Vergil’s demon sides also count.
• Super Speed: Vergil and Jack use their superhuman speed to run across the Demon World. Jack even berates himself for not thinking of using this in his fight with the Scarecrows.
• Talking to Animals: While Bumblebee is certainly not an animal, Jack couldn’t understand him before getting ‘bonded’ to Knock Out, and caused generally surprise when later he found he could.
• Talking to Themself: Jack when he speaks to his inner demon.
• The Nose Knows: This is how Jack was able to realize he was about to get attacked by Scarecrows. He also deduces that while in the Demon World, that if he could smell the demons, they could smell him. More specifically they could smell his Sparda blood.
• Third Option Love Interest: Arcee is this to Jack as he actually likes her.
• Tsundere: Alto and Jack are a mix of the two types as they're both noticeably nice to the ones they like, but also noticeably meaner to the ones they don't.
• Unfortunate Implications: Jack once expressed his tentative opinion when he asked his mom if she only got into medicine so she wouldn’t have to take him to the hospital if he got a severe enough injury. Unfortunate indeed, but June rebuked it by saying she was already interested in medicine.
• Unrequited Love Lasts Forever: It is clearly implied that Dante likes June a lot, even after her being gone from his life for 13 years. Only she’s married and has no intention of cheating.
• Unwanted Spouse: The entire focal point of Jack and Knock Out’s bond was that it was an accident. Jack even tries to figure out a way to break it without killing himself.
• Verbal Tic: Jack’s inner demon refers to them as ‘we’.
• Villain by Default: Jack could be considered this since not only did his father try to literally raise hell, but he’s been officially labelled a Decepticon because of his bonding with Knock Out.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Jack states that his demon half has a complex to please their father even more than he does.
• "What the Hell?" Dad: Vergil was there for his kid for exactly a year before literally going to hell. And when he found out Jack was actually his son and not his nephew like he assumed, he punched him in the skull for it.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: Subverted wit Jack. He barely thinks about his father unless he has too.
• White-Haired Pretty Boy: Dante, Vergil, and Jack when he’s in his demon form.
• Yandere: Alto. She and Knock Out even try to kill each other when in the soul plane.
  • And Knock Out himself is a Type A as he even states that he's going to make sure that Jack's crush on Arcee stays a secret.
• Your Soul Is Mine: Averted. Alto tries to steal Jack’s soul on their first encounter, but she can’t get past his mask to get it.