Yeah! And so I return! Yeah, comin' back with another episode of Hard Luck. Thanks to all that've reviewed and Yeah…. Let's party.
"We should not shed tears. That is a surrender of the body to the heart, it is only proof. That we are beings that do not know. What to do with our hearts." – Bleach Volume 7
2. Street Walk Hustle
"And to what do we owe the pleasure of your visit, Mr. Styler?" The sickly sweet voice of X's English teacher called out to him.
"Your lovely visage," X answered smoothly, heading towards his seat.
Catching sight of a familiar face, he raised a hand in greetings, receiving a bright smile in return from the said person.
"So, what's going on, sunshine?" X asked coolly, sliding into his seat along side of his friend.
"Nothing much, X," replied the redhead sitting next to him. With a mane of bright red hair, big, bright emerald green eyes and a bright smile, Kori Anders was one of the most popular girls because of her friendly nature and because of her model looks.
"Were you out doing one of your jobs last night?" Kori asked, sliding X a PDA with several emails on display.
"Yeah, but I kinda ran into Storm, Jinx's older brother." X replied, wincing as he gingerly touched his head. He grabbed the PDA, browsing through several of the job requests he had lined up for the day.
"Seriously? You ran into him where?" Kori asked, surprise etching her voice while she started taking notes on the subject of the day.
"At the park. Fought him, got caught slipping by another punk who kicked me in the head and well after that it was kinda weird," X replied off handedly, writing responses to the requests he had received.
"What do you mean weird?" Kori asked, clearly interested in something that X considered weird.
Before X could respond, their teacher called out "Jeon, Kory, please refrain from talking during this assignment."
"Yeah/ Yes" both Kori and X responded before returning to their conversation.
"So what happened?" Kori asked.
"You know that quiet chick that we got for AP Calculus?" X said, the pencil in his hand moving as he quickly made a sketch.
"Oh, Raven, right?" Kori answered.
"Yeah, he- Wait a minute, you know her name?" X was surprised, he even stopped his sketch.
"Oh yes, she's actually very nice," Kori said before motioning for X to continue his story.
"Yeah, well anyway, she comes out with a Berretta in her hands and gets them off of me," X continued, adding the finishing touches to the sketch of an elven ranger carrying a bow with a full quiver of arrows on his back and two swords buckled at his sides.
The teacher came around collecting the assignments of the class. "Well, your drawing seems to be the best in the class," she noted before moving on to the next pair of students.
During Lunch…
X walked out of the school building, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. It was a bright, sunny day with nice cloudy blue skies and breezy as well. All in all, a nice day.
X had been bored most of the day already and it seemed like lunch would be no improvement. That is until he spotted a familiar indigo haired girl sitting down on the stone steps to the library.
"Hey, what's up?" he asked, looking over Raven's shoulder, his sharp eyes gaze revealing the Kanji written on the page.
"Move your head or I'll break your jaw," she stated, her voice cold.
X gave raucous laugh before sitting next to her on the stone steps. "Wow, so violent," X said airily "Young people these days," he finished, shaking his head in a mock serious manner.
"Not everyone is as energetic as you are after no sleep," Raven said calmly before shutting her book.
X pulled out a pack of cigs, placing one in his mouth before offering Raven one. Wordlessly she took one and waited until X pulled out a black zippo lighter engraved with a jagged red x, lighting his cig and hers.
"You know we're going to get in trouble for this, right?" Raven said, taking a drag of her cig as she watched X make a smiley face with the smoke.
X gave a nod before Only in Dreams by Weezer interrupted him. He pulled out his cell, answering with a crisp "Yo!"
After a few minutes, he said "No, she said that her brother wouldn't be involved and look at what happened yesterday."
"It's not about the money, it's just too troublesome," X answered after a few seconds.
"She what? Alright, whatever, sure. Bye." X slid his cell back into his pocket, taking a long drag from his cig before flicking it away.
"Seems like you have a job to do," Raven said, giving him a strange look.
"Yeah," X answered before turning and walking away. He raised a hand in the air, calling back "Adios," before he disappeared from view.
Raven sat there for a few minutes before her own cell rang and she pulled out a black RAZR cell, answering "Hello?"
Several minutes passed as Raven listened to the other voice on the phone. "Okay. I'm on the job," she said before hanging up the phone, sliding it in her pocket and leaving her quiet place.
Several Hours Later…
"I don't think my brother will bother you again," Jinx said as she lay on her bed, breathing heavy. X slowly got up, his unclothed form visible to Jinx, who only gave him a purr.
"Can I use your shower?" X asked, unfazed by Jinx's mannerisms.
Jinx gave him a nod and he walked inside, immediately firing up the shower with ice cold water. After he spent more than 15 minutes inside, he heard the door open. Jinx stepped inside the shower with him, hugging her body close to him as she asked "How about we try it here?"
X gave her a look before shrugging his shoulders.
Sometime Later…
X walked out of Jinx's house and away from it with his hair still wet. He checked his watch noting that the time was 6:15 'I'm late!' he thought as he audibly cursed, pulled out a cigarette and lit it with his zippo. He took a deep drag after pocketing his zippo, he then started running.
Down the street, dodging through traffic at the more crowded areas of Jump, he went. He ran down an alley, jumping upwards and pulling himself onto a fire escape which he climbed two more floors before launching himself to an adjacent roof top.
He landed with a roll, not slowing down as he kept running. He spotted another smaller fence to which he jumped at, kicking away from it at the last minute and towards another fire escape in a different alley. Once he jumped down, took a deep drag from his partially finished cigarette and exhaling the smoke as he walked out of the alley normally.
He checked his watch again. "I'm not that late, it's still cool."
X walked towards a fast food place, planning on making a pit stop before heading to his destination. He felt the wind pick up, the sound hollow as it blew through the strangely empty street.
Paranoia is something that comes to X when something is wrong, and his instinct was never wrong. He looked around the street, taking in the sight of several cars that were parked at the end, which set off his alarms. It wasn't that bad an area of Jump, yet these were classy and brand new looking machines just sitting there with their engines running.
He reached the end of the street, his right hand in his pocket holding a midnight blue handled butterfly knife when a familiar form seemed to glide into sight.
She slowly stalked across the street, her walk and mannerisms different from what he'd seen of her so far. She calmly pulled out her Berretta, firing two rounds into one of the parked cars.
As the front windshield shattered, everything suddenly seemed to get quieter. "Grayson, come on out!" Her voice cold and emotionless all through her yell.
A couple of faces appeared for a few seconds before disappearing again; seconds and minutes ticked by until a door opened.
X, who had stood motionless on the sidewalk, immediately moved to the other side of the street, moving closer as he watched the figure that emerged from the building.
Standing at a height of 5'6 with ebony black hair spiked up, Richard "Robin" Grayson walked onto the sidewalk, his sky blue eyes taking in the surrounding area including X and Raven both. "What are you doing in my turf, hellborn?"
"I'm here to finish what we started sometime back," Raven replied, aiming her gun at Robin.
Robin gave her a feral smile before pulling out a pair of 941 Jericho's, firing at Raven and in X's direction.
X swore as bullets flew over his head forcing him to roll out of the way and closer to the shooting. He looked around for some way of halting the gun fight when he spotted another person at a window on the second floor of the building that Robin had stepped out of and he was aiming a rifle down at Raven, who had taken cover behind a junked car.
X stood up, yelling "Raven, move to the left!" Raven responded, yet it was too late as the rifle crack echoed throughout the street. X ran forward, watching as Raven took the round in the shoulder.
"My, my, Raven, you're getting very sloppy," Robin said as he cleared the distance between Raven and himself. "It's over. You can beg for your life if you want, who knows, I might even spare you."
Raven spat on him, trying to pick herself up.
Robin gave her a wicked smirk, one of his already reloaded Jericho's pointing at her head. "See you, hellborn."
X jumped forward, hearing the crack of the rifle again as a round struck the ground behind him. He slammed into Robin, sending both of them tumbling forward in a tangle of limbs with X punching Robin furiously.
Robin lay on the ground dazed, both his guns close by. X reached out, grabbing one of the fallen guns and jamming it against Robin's head, his finger on the trigger. "Tell that punk to get rid of the rifle or I blow you away," X hissed, pushing the gun harder against Robin's head.
Robin slowly raised a hand, curling into a fist before putting it back down. The clatter of the rifle assured X that the other shooter was out of the party. "I offer you this. A life for a life. Yours for her, understand?"
Robin slowly nodded.
"You won't follow me and neither will your boys. I won't catch you around anywhere I'm around, you dig?"
Again, Robin slowly nodded.
X stood up, sliding the Jericho into the back of his pants, pulling down the black sweater he wore to cover it up. Robin stayed on the ground watching as X quickly went over to Raven.
He nudged her still body as he spoke "Hey, are you alright? Hey, answer me." Cursing, he placed two fingers on her neck, finding a pulse, weak but a pulse nonetheless. He gently picked her up, carrying her bridal style as he watched Robin talk to his people through a headset.
"Leave and take the hellborn with you," Robin stated as he sat up, rubbing his head.
X lashed out, his boot colliding with Robin's face and putting him out cold. He turned around and ran, pulling his cell out one handed as he yelled "Call Dante!" The phone rang repeatedly before the voice mail picked up. Cursing, he hung up and yelled into the speaker "Call Vergil!" Again the phone rang and again voice mail answered. He cursed loudly before putting away the cell.
"Come on, girl, hang on. Just hang on." He muttered as he dashed through a park.
Running across the crowded Neros Street, he shoved his way through a crowd of club goers, running across another street. Traffic was backed up in this area and X proceeded to jump across the hood of a car ignoring the owner's outraged yells as he dashed through another crowded intersection and into a small quiet street.
"Don't die on me, don't die." He muttered as he headed towards a two story blue colored house, not bothering to unlock the door as he kicked it down and ran inside.
2 Days Later…
"Ughnn…." Raven regained consciousness with a weak groan. Her sight blurred as she tried to look around.
"Ah… look who awakens at last," an unfamiliar voice fills the room, startling her. She immediately tried to rise, forgetting about her injuries and using her left arm.
"Arghh…" she groans again as she collapses back onto the sofa.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," the same voice repeated, only this ones tone filled with maturity and lacking the initial playfulness.
Raven lay back on what she realized was a couch, breathing slightly heavy and feeling her entire left shoulder burn. She closed her eyes, focusing on emptiness and slowly forgetting about the pain that flowed through her body. She reopened her eyes, noting that they were clearing up slowly as she visually inspected the room.
It was a strange type of living room, weapons mounted on the walls and on racks in several places in the room. She saw that the wall in front of her had a mirror showing her an ample view across the room behind her and revealing another couch exactly like the one she lay on, with a billiards table in between the two couches.
She turned her head when she heard the door open, her eyes catching sight of her gun on the arm rest of the couch. She immediately snatched it up, bring it up to aim at the person who entered the room.
"Slow down, babe!"
A/N: Yeah… Hope it's to everyone's enjoyment... as for what X does in one scene... its called Parkour, something that is practiced in france i think... as well as many places around the world...