Look! Up in the sky! It's a Bird! It's a plane! No! It's another chapter of Hard Luck. Well, here comes another… Like I've said before, I don't own Capcom characters; I don't own DC characters, no one from Del Rey. Just my own personification of Red X's civilian self… so on with the show…

"I can't protect you holding a sword, I can't embrace you holding a sword."- Bleach Volume 5

7. Fearless…

Last time on Hard Luck….

Raven stepped closer as she snarled at him "You don't know what I need."

"That's where you're wrong," X answered as he wrapped his arms around her, his eyes meeting hers fully. He pulled her into another kiss, this time it was gentle and slow as the rain continued to fall.

Well I'm drowning in your ocean
It's much cooler in slow motion

AGX

It was still raining. But even the rain couldn't take Raven completely out of his thoughts. Her scent, her taste, the look in her eyes as she slowly surrendered to their second kiss. He had watched her run away, from him or from herself, he wasn't sure but he watched as she ran away.

"So, you enjoy that?" Vergil's cool voice reached him. X turned, catching sight of Vergil leaning against a dark blue lotus elise. "Don't get attached, you know the rules. She's not one of us, she's a Hellborn."

"Fuck the rules, Vergil, I never like to play by them and I won't start now. Not now," X snarled as he walked away, pulling his wet hood over his head as another flash of lightning lit the sky.

"Genève won't be happy if you die," Vergil muttered as he climbed into his car and drove away.

Raven stopped running, now that there was a big enough distance between herself and X. She stopped to catch her breath a bit as the cold rain made her shiver. "I hate cold weather," she muttered to herself, trying to stop from thinking about the last few moments.

"Ay, baby, got a bit of time?" a coarse voice reached her ears as she walked across an alley entrance. She ignored the man and continued walking on when the man called out to her again "Come on baby, spare a little time for old Willy." A hand grabbed her shoulder roughly and she was pulled into the alley by a hulking, overweight man decked in a thoroughly soaked tacky green suit.

"Aw, sweet stuff, don't you know how to greet a man when he talks to you?" he leered at her, eyeing her over keenly a depraved smile on his face. "Why don't you let Willy show you how to answer properly?" he was reaching for her again, but this time a fist collided with his face followed by a kick to the stomach.

"You goddamned bitch, I'll teach you to attack me," he wheezed as he straightened himself and took a step forward. The sound of the Beretta made when Raven cocked it froze him as another fork of lightning split the sky.

"You never touch me, never." Raven said as she pulled the trigger three times, a peal of thunder muting out the gunshots. She stepped out of the alley and walked back home leaving the dead body of one Willy Stills a puddle of his own blood.

Kori Anders residence….

"I think I did something wrong, Garfield," Kori said, slumping on the couch with a sigh. "I made a big mistake and today, today is the day that I paid for it."

"What do you mean mistake? What'd you do?" Gar asked curiously, watching his sister sad expression.

"I went to meet Richard today," Kori paused, choking back a sob "my boyfriend Richard."

"What? Boyfriend? You have a boyfriend and you kept it from me?" Gar was definitely surprised. He didn't know she had a boyfriend, he thought she was crushing on X or at least close to asking him to be her boyfriend, but this was something new to him.

"Yes, my boyfriend Richard. I went to meet him today and X saw me with him," tears were coursing down Kori's face even as she tried not to cry. "X didn't know about Richard and he didn't know about Richard being one of Slade's Mercs."

At this point, surprised face of Gar turned slightly pale "He's one of the Mercs? Tell me you're joking," his voice was filled with dread as he spoke those words. "I may act like I'm a dumbass, but even I know that X is one of the Dark Knights. And you're dating a Merc?"

Kori broke down in tears, leaving Gar to try to comfort her as he made soothing noises. "There's something you're not telling me, isn't there?" it was more of a statement than a question.

"R-Richard pulled a gun on me, telling me that it's always business before pleasure," Kori spoke through the sobs as the look in Gar's eyes turned murderous. "It wasn't the first time that X has a run in with Richard but this time…. X knows about me going out with Richard."

"What happened then?"

"He saved me, but I think I may have lost his trust. He didn't bother talking to me at all as we left." Gar listened as Kori was wracked with another wave of sobs, slowly rocking her.

At the Lost Avalon night club…. Nighttime…

"Don't you think you've had enough?" Trish asked as she watched both Dante and X knock back another shot of vodka. "I don't want to have to carry one of you home tonight." She gave a sigh as she watched them drink some more. "Idiots," She mumbled as she walked off to the rest room.

Trish stopped near the restroom door, leaning against the wall as she nodded her head to the music. "What do you want?" she asked the person next to her. "You've been watching us for a while, haven't you?"

"Don't worry. I'm not your enemy, not yet. Until I find out exactly what's going on," the casualness in the voice sounded a bit false to Trish's ears as she scanned the room again. "But I can't say anything about her," her companion's blue eyes seemed to almost glow in the darkness as he nodded towards the farthest corner of the room.

"She's tense, but she won't do anything. She's alone and she's outmatched," Trish said dismissively, as she watched Dante and X continue their drinking. "So, what is it that you want to find out?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out. Eventually."

"You know that if you place their lives in danger, I'll kill you. Vergil will kill you. Or he will kill you." Trish stated, giving a glance at her companion before straightening herself and entering the restroom.

It was sometime later that both Dante and X walked out of the club, swaying slightly as Trish led the way to her blood red SRT-8 Challenger. She waited until both Dante and X climbed in before taking a look around quickly, catching sight of someone near the alley next to the club. 'I see you…' the thought crossed her mind as she climbed into her car, starting it and leaving with a roar of its engine.

"Shit… couldn't get close to him," Tara muttered as she leaned against the alley wall, her heart pounding hard. "There were two knights with him and they both knew I was watching them." She cursed again as she stalked out of the alley and into her black SLR. She drove away as another person watched her from the alley; the street lamp's light giving his blue eyes a slight glow to them.

Next Morning….

"Wake up." Setsuna gently shook X, trying to get him up. She'd been doing so for the past 7 minutes and she was getting irritated. X rolled over and continued sleeping. Setsuna bowed her head for a quick plead of forgiveness before she punched X in the stomach. Hard.

X woke up with a load groan, rolling off his bed and landing on the floor with a loud thump. He curled himself up in a fetal position, groaning loudly as he opened his eyes. "What the fuck was that for?" he wheezed, sitting up against the bed slowly.

"Vergil sent me up here. He said it was time for you to get up, it's a school day after all," Setsuna answered back as she watched X stand slowly, still wearing the jeans from the night before. "You were drinking last night," She said, the smell of liquor reaching her nose as she stepped out of the room.

He went to take a shower, returning to the room 25 minutes later only to get his cellphone, two of his knives and only one gun. He walked down the stairs in time to catch sight of Vergil stalking out of the front door, "What's wrong with him?" Dante asked, stifling a huge yawn.

X shrugged his shoulders, grabbing some food off Setsuna's plate before leaving the house. Short while later, he was climbing out of Setsuna's green MR2 Spyder, backpack in hand as he locked it. He slept through his first four classes, waking up only when the bell signaling lunch rang.

"Hey! Styler!" X ignored the shout that filled the hallway, turning and going down a flight of stairs 2 by 2's. He heard the sound of footsteps follow him, speeding up until the owner walked next to him. "Why the hell are you ignoring me?"

"What do you want, Sean?" X took some satisfaction in watching Storm scowl at him.

"Why are the Hellborns interested in you now?" the question was blunt and to the point, which is something that Sean specializes in. "What the hell are you getting tangled up with them?" he pulled out a letter from his jeans pocket, handing it to X.

"What I do or don't do, is my problem. I don't owe you an explanation, got it?" X said irritably as he ignored the piece of paper. "Since when are you an errand boy anyway?"

"I'm not an errand boy… But I was given this to make sure you got it and read it, understand?" Sean explained as X took the paper from him.

X opened it, reading its contents before balling it up and tossing it over his shoulder. "Tell who ever gave you this… that what I do is none of their concern," he stated, leaving as Sean picked up the note and crushed it.

"You're making a mistake, Styler. A big one," Sean walked off, slipping the piece of crumpled paper into his pocket as Kori watched the exchange from above. She climbed down the stairs at a quick pace as she headed to X's hangout spot.

Outside…

"What'd you do to Kori?" Wally asked, his anger evident as he clenched his fists and unclenched them. "She didn't show up to any of the classes you were in. None. And she's been quiet ever since yesterday."

X gave a shrug, eating his bag of chips calmly while Wally glared at him. "I didn't do anything to her. I haven't even spoken to her at all. So why don't you piss off, West."

X knew it was coming, yet couldn't avoid the punch that made contact with his face courtesy of Wally. He stood up, looking at his spilled bag of Doritos with a frown before glancing back at Wally. "Walk away, Wally. And I'll forget about that punch."

Wally took another swing at him, punching X in the stomach. Before he could back up from the doubled over X, he caught a fist to the mouth forcing him to stumble away. "Remember, you started this. Not me." X's calm voice made him even angrier.

Wally's fist lashed out quickly, two sharp jabs that X blocked with his left arm while punching Wally on the side of the head staggering him. X followed through with a kick that dropped him, only backing away to allow his opponent time to get up.

By now, plenty of people had rushed over to watch the fight, surrounding both fighters in a tight ring that kept security out. Wally got to his feet quickly, as he lunged at X once again. X sidestepped the clumsy tackle that Wally tried to nail him with; dropping him with a kick to the side as the people around them boo'd him.

People started to scatter, as more security converged on the place, leaving only Wally and X standing in the center, glaring at each other. "Wally! What the hell did I tell you man?" Roy yelled he watched both of them get cuffed and pulled away to the offices.

"You're late, Kori. But in retrospect, that's a good thing," Roy's voice full of amusement. "They got into a fight. You know how much of an idiot Wally is." Kori quickly ran off, headed towards the offices leaving Roy to his own devices.

30 minutes later…

"Shouldn't you be heading to class?" X arched an eyebrow at Kori, who stood by the stairs. Kori gave a small squeak of surprise before turning to X, who gave her a grin. "Still scare easily, don't you?"

Kori's face reddened a bit as she looked away. "Hey, I'm not going to bite, you know? Unless you want me to…" he added at the end, with a purr. When Kori didn't react as she usually would, he gave a sigh and ran a hand through his hair "Okay, what's wrong?" quick and to the point.

"Um… aren't you mad?" Kori finally turned to face him as he sat down on the stairs, lounging back. "Don't you dislike me for not telling you about Richard?"

X gave her an amused smirk, "Mad at you? Dislike you? Not even close." He stood up again, looking around before he grasped her hand and pulled her away. "Let's talk about this somewhere else, someone's watching and listening."

Kori wordlessly followed, looking back to the stairs and catching a glimpse of whitish blond hair.

"What do you want?" Raven arched an eyebrow at Sean, who climbed back up the stairs. "Why are you following him around? First it was me and now it's him, don't you have some witless thugs to boss around?" Raven moved from where she had been leaning on the second floor rail, listening to both X and Kori's conversation before Sean interrupted them.

"He wasn't supposed to notice me," Sean complained as he followed Raven down the hall. "On another subject though, you know it's bad to develop any feelings towards him, right?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Raven answered, feigning ignorance which only caused Sean to burst into laughter. "He knows that someone's following him and if you're smart, you'll stay away from him."

"No worries, Rae," Sean shrugged, "but if you don't know what I'm talking about, then what about those kisses? What are they?" he asked, returning the conversation to its initial point. "You look like you were enjoying them from what I saw…" He trailed off with a smirk.

"Mention that one more time and this time, I will shoot you." Raven snarled at him.

"The boss won't be so happy if you shoot me. Since I still have to clean up your mess," Sean stated with a shrug as Raven glared at him. "Don't get too distracted, cause then the boss might send me out to eliminate those distractions."

A/N: That brings another chapter of Hard Luck to a close. Thanks to all that've read it so far… Adios for now… and see you all next chapter.