Hal Street, Cyber City

Evening

"...How was it after it's over?" Akira and Fiona were chatting after leaving the cinema house together. The wolf had forgotten to charge his phone while at the campus with the device having a low battery, close to dying.

"Oh it was so amazing. Luke Periwinkle as Lead-Fist was definitely a surprise I wasn't expecting. Especially after she managed to defeat Zaturn so good; she turned back into her civilian form. Not only that but the costume designs for all three characters were pretty spot-on while also adding a bit of modern flair to them. Plus, the story was pretty good too and I applaud the writer for writing these characters close to the source material and the director for utilizing his unique style of directing to allow the actors to perform as naturally as possible while also nailing the characters' personalities spot-on."

"A good few hours spent all in all. Feels like a throwback to the older superhero flicks before the age of the excessive quips and snark blighted the genre. Knowing to shut up when a serious scene comes up and not ruin it."

"Pretty much. The folks who made these movies know their shit. Not to mention the characters are very popular among cosplayers."

"I can name several that are more popular at conventions. Edgar Eagle, Vector-Man, Princess Kurumi, NiGHTS and etc."

"Doesn't nearly compare to the popularity of Sarah Bryant from Virtual Fighter among cosplayers. Seriously, I've seen so many girls cosplay as her that it's not even funny."

"You attend the comic cons yourself?"

"On occasion. Mostly to pick up some merch for myself."

"They're always one of the best places to get hard to find merch and deals." Akira says as the pair were passing through a street alley. "A goldmin—"

"Yo, is that the dickhead who roughed you up at the arcade?" A thuggish voice interrupted him as the path in front of them was suddenly blocked off by a group of punks.

"Yeah, that's definitely him." Said a familiar-looking punk Akira recognises from the arcade and wearing teeth-braces now as he'd glare at the wolf. "Thought you could get away with what you did last time you four-eyed prick? I brought my pals with me to teach you a lesson..."

"And what a nice piece of hot ass you've brought with you too..." Came another voice, coming from a group of thugs standing over at other end of the alleyway to trap the pair in and a few were catcalling at Fiona. "She'll be worth it when we're finished putting your ass to the ground doggo."

"I didn't think a gang like them could even be here in this side of the city..." Akira wondered aloud to the Doctor as he took in the gravity of his and Fiona's current predicament, especially after checking his phone to find the battery in it out of power which puts the Metaverse escape route right out the window on this day of all times. "Shit. What now?"

"We'll just have to fend them off as best we can before a golden escape opportunity presents itself to the both of you." The Doctor replied. "There's nothing around here we can use to get around them. You'll just have to get through them."

"Right..."

Fiona glared at the group, reaching into her purse a moment... Then pulled out a scoped Ruger Super Redhawk .480 Ruger caliber revolver and flipped on the laser pointer mounted on top of the scope, aiming it at the ringleader of the gang; "How about you guys back the fuck up before I cash in on the city's yet-to-be repealed Stand Your Ground law."

"Oh, right..." The ringleader said before letting off a whistle. "Looks like the girl has a weapon after all. Too bad we can't get you either now."

After saying that, a streak of grey rushes out of one end of the alley the pair weren't looking towards them and went for Fiona's gun. Managing to snatch it out of her hands before either her or Akira could spot it and bringing it over to the ringleader.

"Good boy Sonic..." The ringleader petted the greyhound as he took the snatched revolver and held it up, emptying the rounds from the cylinder onto the ground except for one that didn't come out before tossing it aside. "Law's just been repealed now bitch."

"Let her go." Akira calls out to the ringleader, stepping in front of Fiona. "It's me you want, yeah? She's got no part in this."

"How very noble of you to offer yourself like that..." The ringleader gave him a scornful grimace. "But you should have thought of that before you'd raised your hands at Q here and knocked some of his teeth out—"

"Bullshit. He knocked his own teeth out." Akira rebuked the statement. "Plenty of people who were there to see it at the arcade could tell you that. I think they have on security camer—"

"S-Shut up!" The thug named Q spoke up. "You still stood on my arm!"

"You tried to stab at my friend in the ankle while on the floor..." Akira retorted. "And all that over a new VR gaming machine for fuck's sake."

"That's what this is about?" Fiona remarks. "A game machine? God, you guys are pretty pathetic for threatening us over that. No wonder you guys keep getting such a bad rap. Pretty much there's blood on both hands in that regard because of folks like you."

"Shut it you red bitch!" Q barked.

"You shut yours first asshole." Akira glared at Q. Bearing his canine fangs.

"Tch. No matter, we'll be teaching you a lesson in screwing with the wrong people..." The ringleader tutted. "And we'll be teaching your girlfriend in how to keep her smart comments to herself. Get 'em boys."

"You know your self-defence?" Akira asks Fiona, standing back to back with her while the thugs were slowly approaching them.

"Yeah." Fiona replied as one of the thugs was getting close. "I taught myself."

When that thug attempted to throw a punch at her, she quickly caught his arm, shifted it over her shoulder which then broke it with a loud and sickening snap. Making the thug cry out in pain before Fiona delivered two punches to his chest and three to his face, knocking him out cold.

A rushing thug tried to throw a swing at Akira but the wolf used his bodyweight against him and hurls him into one of his friends. Another attempted to have a go at him with a switchblade before the wolf knocks it out of his hand with a roundhouse kick. One of the defeated thugs' pals went for Fiona before Akira intercepted him by head-butting him in the side of the ribcage to throw off his trajectory and making him stumble forwards down onto the ground.

Fiona managed to drop-kick one thug in the chest, then leapt back on her feet before performing a double high kick to another thug's face and jaw; all with swift, graceful movements. She then performed a palm thrust to a thug's chest that made him stagger followed by her punching him in the throat to stun him before following it up with a right hook to his face and an uppercut to his jaw, knocking him out quick.

Akira did a little run up a wall thanks to his experience in the Metaverse before jumping onto a thug's shoulders and booting a colleague of his' in the face. Then flipped back onto his feet to flip him over, crashing into his friends.

Suddenly, a set of hands quickly grabs hold of Fiona before she had a moment to dodge followed by a pair of hands holding onto her legs to stop the vixen from doing any flips and quickly forced down onto the concrete floors. Prompting Akira to rush to her rescue as he elbow-tackles one of her handlers in the face, breaking his nose.

However, the superior numbers of Q's friends became evident as a bunch of them grabbed hold of Akira by the arms. A few of them proceeds to throw some punches on him around the torso area and one of the blows would knock his glasses off onto the floor. All while the vixen could only watch.

"Akira!" Fiona shouted, squirming and thrashing against her captors; "Dammit, let me go you fuckers!"

"We'll deal with you soon sweetie when we're finished with your dickhead boyfriend." The ringleader said as one of the guys holding Fiona captive presses her down against the ground with his boot.

"Not so hot now, huh!?" Q taunted Akira as he threw some heavy punches into him including one to the face before stopping for a moment. "Come on, say something you smart-mouthed bastard!"

Akira spits out the blood in his mouth at the floor as Q held his head up to look at him, gaining a bruise on his face from the thug's punch and feeling immense pain from the earlier blows as someone who's got up against some of the tougher Shadows in Anton's Palace. "...L-Let her g-go. P-Please..."

"Whenever we're done with you, you're gonna wish you've never fucked with me that day when we "tend" to your girl..." Q sneered at him, one of his homies pulling out a switchblade from his pocket. "Don't worry. We won't be hurting her too much..."


Akira's P.O.V

"...We won't be hurting her too much..."

When he said those words and implied what his guys were going to do to Fiona, I suddenly forgot my pain, my inner fears or the calming voice of Doctor Omega. Instead; they took a backseat to a burst of protectiveness for her and a bottle of rage being let lose from the cage in what seems like a long time after my patience had been tested by dirtbags like them.

I first kicked the thug named Q in the stomach, then stomped on the foot of one of the two guys restraining me to force him to release my left arm and proceed to use said arm to punch the goon holding my other arm in the face with enough power to bust his lip open but also hurting my knuckle as well. I quickly swipe the switchblade out of one of their hands so fast that the original owner took a few moments to realise what had happened while I proceeded to swing the blade as if I was in the Metaverse.

The unexpected outburst from me and the swiftness of my blade swings seemed to have startled these hoodlums or at least psyched them enough to afford me an advantage. I was no fencer but my combat experience from Anton's Palace and previous practices in self-defence are proving to be a boon right now...


Q attempted to try and get at Akira but his efforts were rewarded with a knife to the knee by the aggressive red wolf as he was attempting to try to go rescue the wide-eyed vixen from her captors with reckless abandon. To Akira; her safety above his own being is his main priority and he could care less on what happens to him as long as she can get away from these creeps.

However, the wolf's heroics was soon cut short as he got blindsided by a right hook from one of the still-abled thugs and it was enough to send him down to the ground near Fiona's dropped revolver.

"You're going to be so sorry for that buddy..." Q limped over to Akira to deliver a kick into one of his sides for the wolf's troubles with a shit-eating grin on his face. "You're going be another one of Manic's guys to bite the dust. Any last words?"

"Y-Yeah..." Akira coughs out, pondering over his choice of words before throwing caution to the winds; "Y-You must *coughs* be called Q because you've got half a *coughs* brain in your skull and that's why you're doing this over a *coughs* gaming machine. Loser..."

"Brain on this." Q was ready to put his boot to Akira's head when he got socked by a fingerless gloved fist in the jaw and getting laid out cold on the ground to the confusion of Q's still-standing friends as they were attacked by a beanie-wearing brown squirrel in a maroon peacoat. Grabbing one of them in their confusion and hurling him right into the guys holding Fiona down including their ringleader.

One of the thugs tries to box him but the surly-faced squirrel wordlessly responded with a knockout right hook to his teeth and making several of his tooth go flying in all directions, followed by him dropping to the ground afterwards.

"What the fuck?" Fiona winces as she pushes the thugs holding her down off while they were stunned and she got back up onto her feet, dusting herself off. The other thugs tried to have a go at the brown squirrel but they may as well be boxing with a steamroller for all it's worth. Fiona's rescuer would bulldoze through his opponents and any hits that landed, it didn't faze him much.

One of them rushed at him and the squirrel flipped him over the shoulder onto his head, the top of the guy's skull smashing against the concrete floor thanks to his own momentum. His friend goes to try to make him pay for that with a punch; one that the peacoat-wearing male would cancel out when he caught his arm with one hand and gave him a few stiff jabs to his face with his free hand, then introducing the guy to his knee jaw-first before finally dropping him onto the ground.

Fiona got right back into the fight, performing an upwards kick at another thug before whirling around and performing a roundhouse kick on another. With the hostile gang focused on the squirrel and vixen, they left Akira alone on the ground. The wolf laying down injured from his earlier beatings. He groans as he felt really sore from the punches to his torso area and spitting out blood from his mouth again, struggling to find the strength to get back up onto his feet like Fiona.

As Fiona and the brown squirrel that came to their rescue, Akira was feeling useless with himself on the ground while they're fighting off those goons. It was til he spotted one of the thugs sneakily getting out a pistol of his own out and primed to it at the crimson vixen whom was too busy fending off the guys' colleague to realise the danger she's in.

Feeling the urgency surging through him, he fought through his soreness as he shakily reaches for Fiona's dropped revolver near him to load a bullet into it and quickly rotating the cylinder to have the sole round in the gun going upwards into the chamber before closing it up. Aiming the firearm at the armed thug with the help of the mounted-on sights and control his shaking.

Akira shuts one eye closed to focus better on his target and taking a deep breath to steady his aim... Then proceeds to pull the trigger.

Bang!

The gun-wielding thug cried out in pain as he immediately drops his pistol after getting a bullet through the wrist; damaging the nerves to the fingers holding the weapon and he clutches said wound with his other hand. Fiona was alerted to his presence along with his sneaky attempt on her life.

She quickly jerked her gaze in the direction of the thug that nearly shot her, then glared at him and she growled. Performing a whirling roundhouse kick to the thug's chest and knocking him flat onto his rear end. The goon grunted before Fiona knocked his lights out.

The squirrel took down the last of Q's friends who was still willing to fight him with the rest fleeing the scene when their number advantage proved useless against the two right as Akira's gun arm drops down and the revolver clacking against the concrete below him.

"Nice shot." Fiona said, going over to Akira and retrieving her revolver before putting it back in her purse while crouched near his side to check on his condtion. "You fired it like you've used a gun before."

She smirked, then added; "There something you're not telling me?"

"You... Alright?" Akira's eyes were looking unfocused, pointing up to Fiona with a shaking hand. The brown peacoat squirrel having come over to them once he was done with the goons.

"Yeah, I'm alright..." Fiona said, then gained a look of realization and added; "Your glasses! Uh, okay... Shit, where did they fall to?"


"Yeah, I'm alright..." She replied while I felt my eyelids getting heavy and the world spinning on me, myself struggling to continue staying conscious. Can feel a little wet trickle running down one side of my face which means it's either sweat or blood that's trickling down there. I'm not sure of which.

"That's good..." I said in quiet voice in response. At least I managed to save another person's life this time with the help of that fella and she'll get to live without the trauma that could have befallen her if I had done nothing at all. I did what I couldn't do that night.

"Akira!... Akira!..." Fiona's cries out in worry. I didn't have the energy to assure her.

I feel myself drifting off as the other voices drifted off into the void of silence. If this is the calling of a dark-feathered angel, then I shall't ignore the call and turning my back on where my ultimate destination will be...


"...Akira-kun. What is the meaning of Homer's Odyssey?" A red bespectacled wolf asks the younger Akira in Japanese. Both at the kitchen table reading a copy of Homer's Odyssey with the former helping him out for a class assignment.

"Well dad, I think Homer's Odyssey is about the journey more than it is the final destination." The youthful Akira says. "Right?"

"It could also be a metaphor for the long journeys we all each undertake ourselves. All it's glories and missteps literally or spiritually."

"Wow. I never thought of it that way."

The older wolf smiles gently. "Having a variety of friends with distinct personal philosophies and diversity of views can afford you unique perspectives on all. See the world from many angles..."


Fiona's Suite, Cyber City

Night

Akira slowly flutters his eyes open and his attempt to get up right away were responded with a sensation of soreness shooting through him. Forcing the wolf to settle back down with a quiet groan.

When he laid back down, the surface under him formed a shape around his form and it's a soft surface unlike the hard concrete surface he was on moments ago. The wolf can hear voices as the world around him became coherent again with substance and sensing someone coming over to him.

"Hey... Hey, easy there..." Fiona said as Akira began to regain consciousness and helping him adjust back into a comfortable position; "Jeez, these guys really roughed you up huh?"

"That sneaky bastard was going to shoot you and couldn't do it to you eye to eye..." Akira runs a hand over his face, quickly retracting it when it went over a sore spot. "Wether he was trying to kill you or wound you, I don't know... Where am I?"

"You're in her penthouse." Came a new voice, revealing himself as the brown squirrel from earlier and the other day. "Your girlfriend here didn't know where your house was or found it too far away to get you treated. I carried your red ass all the way to here at her pestering."

"Yeah, it uh... It's..." Fiona replied, rubbing the back of her head. "...It's a top-floor rooftop penthouse... I hope it's not too extravagant..."

She said that and yet a couple of feet in front of her bed was an in-floor circular bathtub with therapeutic bubble jets.

"Anywhere that's not the alleyway is fine by me..." Akira said before spluttering at the newcomer's wild statement upon further thought; "G-Girlfriend?! Where are you getting that from?"

"Yeah, about that..." Fiona added, looking at the squirrel; "You do know that just because him and I are friends doesn't automatically mean we're a couple."

"Yet your reaction when he lost contentiousness and the subsequent on the spot panicking does not look very friend-like..." The squirrel countered. "Even holding his hand and making prayers on the way over."

"That's... Really none of your business..." Fiona replied, blushing and looking away. "A-And that was to check on his purse by the way..."

"Whatever. You two can keep at your hot-cold thing while I'm out of here." The squirrel shrugs as he starts taking his leave.

"Wait!" Akira calls to him. "We appreciated your help back there but why?"

"Why? I ran into some bullshit earlier that pissed me off and I needed to kick someone's arse to vent." The beanie-wearing squirrel replied to his question. "The Jebroni Gang there happened to be nearby for me to do just that."

"That who Q's gang is?"

"Compared to the other gangs in this city pal, they're nobodies with only two turfs to their names over the border and used to be a bigger gang years back but not anymore now. Next time Akira, bring a weapon with you and work on your combat skills while you're at it."

With that, he curtly left the two's company and out of the room to be on his way back to his life.

"A 'you're welcome' would have sufficed..." Akira murmurs, not sure on what to make of the guy. The blush on his cheeks subsiding now.

"It was great of him to come to our aid but what a rude jackass..." Fiona murmured. Remembering why she never interacts with the guy that much."

"See what I meant earlier about him?"

"I do now…"

Akira nodded before asking her; "Are you alright? Not too badly hurt or anything?"

Fiona shook her head. "I've had way worse than what those guys put out. Believe me."

"Good, good..." The red wolf sighs, adjusting himself to sit upright. "At least you're alright."

"Yeah…" Fiona replied, smiling a bit and touched by his concern. "I honestly had no idea you knew how to fight like that. You sure there's nothing you wanna tell me about yourself?~"

"Used to take taekwondo lessons often after school back home since I was this big..." Akira did a gesture to indicate he was a child when he started it to the vixen. "I got up to Third Kup; that'd be a blue belt with red stripes but I stopped at that level three years ago because of personal stuff going on in my life at the time. I'd be a black belt by now as well as currently climbing up through the Dan ranks tied to it for my dojo or at least being a Second to First Kup with a red belt. I'll definitely need to get back into it again some time to get rid of the rust."

"Ohhhh, I see then." Fiona replied, smirking at his explanation. "And yet you handled that revolver of mine like it was nothing~"

"Played the shooter games at the arcade back in Golden Bay City. That's how." Akira replied with a half-truth, finding the arcade explanation more believable to someone like Fiona than the Metaverse one lest he wants to make her worry by making the vixen think he took a bad concussion in the beatings. "I only did what I did with your revolver because he would have had you shot and shooting his wrist was the best option I could have taken. Plus the attachments on it helped too."

"I did kinda go overboard with that revolver's modifications a bit. Still, thanks for saving me in that regard. Though, I'm kinda sorry things got out of hand like that…"

"It's not your fault Fiona." Akira shook his head. "I'm the one who earned their ire over what happened at an arcade a few days ago after all. Though, they seemingly took a while and I didn't think gangs like them could even show up in this side of the city the way they did. I assume that's a very unusual occurrence, yeah?"

"Yeah, usually it is." Fiona admitted, now that he mentions it. "Not many gangs like that operate on this side of town."

"Basically next to none then."

"Yup. Pretty much."

"...How bad did I look earlier?"

"Pretty rough-looking... But nothing a medical student couldn't fix."

"Felt something running down the side of my head before I passed out."

"That was blood from a cut. I had to put a set of stitches on the side of your head from the cut you had on it and also having to bandage up one of your hand too."

"Thank you for that."

"No problem. If anything, you gave me a means to practice the medical skills I'd learned thus far."

"At least some good came out of this..."

"I guess that's just life in general... It throws you on the ground, kicks your ass, takes a shit on your couch, and then next thing you know; it makes you a nice morning brunch the next morning and tells you what the winning lottery numbers for tomorrow are."

"That's one way of putting it." Akira glances around the room. "Anything interesting happened while I was out?"

"Not exactly. At least, nothing you'd be interested in."

"My phone alright?"

"Yeah. I have it charging over by the bed."

Akira glanced over at his phone placed near the bed, finding it intact and showing no sign of damage on it from his beatings somehow. "Damn phone managed to get out of it unscathed. On the other hand, it saves me from having to get it fixed if they messed it up."

Looking back to Fiona; "Did you check through it or did you leave it be after plugging it in?"

"I just left it be. Why do you ask? You got some 'raunchy' porn on it or something?"

"Nah. I just got information pertaining to Sonic's real name, have Jimmy Robinson as a friend and got a contact line with the President himself. I'm actually a Black Arms spy pretending to be a mobian." Akira replied back to her sardonically. "Anyways, you were curious about that phone app the other day."

"I didn't think about that when I plugged it in. It's funny the kinds of things your mind can block out when you're tending your best friend's wounds after nearly being beaten to death in an alley."

"Any internal bleeding or any permanent damage you found on me?"

"Not that I could see. Only thing really was the massive bruise on your eye that I had to drain a bit and stitch back up."

Akira then takes notice of a few frozen bags of peas on him. "And these bags here are for speeding up the healing process I presume. I was expecting worse from it all but I suppose that's Mobian Physiology or luck for you."

The wolf scratches his chin. "Did you any policeman show up after I went out? People had to have heard that gunshot and a bunch of those thugs."

"Not that I'm aware of. Though to be fair, we left pretty quickly. We didn't want things to get too complicated and all."

"A gang with only two turfs to their name pops up in a part of the city where they're more likely to be caught by the police than where they normally reside and there would have been plenty of people who'd be passing by that'd definitely have heard the exchanges... Something's not adding up here."

"Something seems shady about it for sure. There's usually an officer or two patrolling around that area."

"I get the feeling Anton's behind it somehow and speaking of Anton; how exactly do you know the guy? He knew you by name at the galleria and you seemed to be personally familiar with him to backtalk the guy."

"...Well..." Fiona responded vaguely. "Let's just say that what I do in my spare time allows me to meet and know a lot of people."

"You ever see him with a tigress by the name of Tatiana?"

"A few times. Poor girl looks like she's constantly at gunpoint when she's around him."

"A pack of animals and beastly in manners. Every second of it she despises because of how controlling Anton is with her as are his brothers and having no sense of center himself. She told me such herself after she deduced it was me under the Grady disguise but ain't saying nothing of it to him. Just can't figure her reason for staying with him."

"If I were in her place, I'd just leave personally but that's just me." Fiona replied, shaking her head and brushing back her hair. "I don't know what that says about her but I know what it says about Anton."

"More than what he's already proven himself to be already..." Akira sighs. "By the way, you got the glasses?"

Fiona pulls out a broken pair of Akira's fake glasses from one of her pockets. "Sorry, I couldn't exactly save these..."

"You're not the one who stood on them." Akira said with the vixen's suspicions about the glasses being fake confirmed through a scratched-up left eye-lens and feeling the broken pair in her hand. "They did an—"

"I'll admit, they're pretty convincing fakes..." Fiona interjects. "I'm no lens crafter but even I was nearly fooled. I mean, this thing would've passed off for a convincing pair."

"What gave it away beforehand?"

"For starters..." Fiona began, holding up the busted pair. "These lenses are clearly not made of prescription glass. They're pure plastic and not only that, it's the kind that gets dirty really easy and stains it. In addition, the frames themselves feel like they're made of a much softer, cheaper plastic and it feels like I could snap these in half by accident if I wasn't careful. I've handled enough pairs to tell a fake from the real thing."

"Figures someone would know a thing or two about them..."

"No offense friend but whoever you got to make these for you did a real shit job making fake glasses."

"They did the job I needed them to do."

"And what job would that be?"

"To be unnoticed when I moved to this city, to be unassuming to others and to stop strangers from pestering me while I reside in my own personal solitude."

"So, you don't actually need prescription glasses?"

"You just answered your own question..."

"That's a hell of a way to blend in." Fiona remarks. "Especially wearing it around others for that long."

"If I didn't meet you on my first day at the campus, I'd just be another face in the crowd to you and everyone else."

"You definitely had that aura to you."

"That's the point. I'd have just be attending college and heading back home afterwards with little else in-between if things went the way I wanted them to go."

"You sure succeeded, I'll tell ya that."

"Anything else?"

"That's about it."

"Right..." Akira lies back down, taking in the sight of the apartment. "Nice house by the way."

"Thanks. I worked hard to earn this place."

"It really does pay off..." Akira thought she's earned it with her drive. 'While I drift further down and down year by year in aimlessness...'

"Akira?" Doctor calls to him. Wether the wolf couldn't hear him before or didn't realise he was, he does not know.

"Yes Doctor?"

"Why did you do what you did in that alleyway?"

"You art thou. The answer to that should be obvious and I really don't want to be thinking about it now..." The red wolf lets out a yawn. "How long was I out for?"

"About an hour or so." Fiona told him, checking the time. "I was worried you might've had a concussion or going into a coma."

"I did get punched square in the face by one of them."

"That would do it..."

Akira runs a bandaged hand over his head. Before he could say something next, Fiona's phone rings. "You should probably go and take that call."

"Yeah, I should..." Fiona replied, checking the caller ID. "Listen, uh... As much as I'd want you to stay longer, try to not stay here too long. I uh... I have business to attend to and all. You understand, right?"

"I was planning to head on home anyways." Akira would remove himself from the bed he's on and onto his feet with some assistance from Fiona, then grabbing his phone off the bedside stand. "Thanks. Feels awkward to be sleeping in someone else's house like this."

"Not a problem. Listen... I... As long as I have the time for it, you can come by here any time... Well I mean, I guess for the purpose of studying... I guess..." She blushed a bit as she said it. Barely looking him in the eyes.

"Uh, y-yeah..." Akira said sheepishly, running a hand over the side of his neck and thankful none of the others are around to tease him relentlessly about kind of studying he'd be doing with her or comments about them and a disabled toilet. "I'll come by whenever it's fine for you or I get injured again..."

"Well, I'm not a registered doctor yet but I guess if you get hurt and want to keep it quiet; I could always practice my medical knowledge on you." Fiona said with a chuckle. "Might be able to cure a rainy day."

"If it helps you in the long run, then sure." Akira smiles to her while holding a frozen bag of leas on his torso with one hand and his face having a different look to it without the glasses, affording Fiona a good look at his actual amber eyes. "Night Fiona. I'll see you in the morning if I make it in tomorrow."

"Right. See you then." Fiona replied quickly before answering her cell phone finally. Akira took his leave from Fiona's apartment and took an elevator down from the top level while he switches on the now-decently charged phone to check for any missed messages or calls. From now on, he's going to make sure the phone's always charged to avoid a repeat of the alleyway and staying clear of alleyways period.

The wolf wasn't sure if the Metaverse escape route would have worked from where they were in relation to the Hooligans' hideout and the area of Anton's Palace being large enough to encompass Hal Street. Additionally, he wasn't sure on how Fiona would react to the Metaverse and all. Whatever's the case, the encounter left him a bit shaken, bruised and a little traumatised by it. A small price to pay in doing the right thing.


As Akira left, Fiona was busy with her phonecall. "Sorry I took so long to answer, I had a personal emergency to attend to at that moment."

"Anything to do with Hal Street by any chance?" Said the speaker on the other end. "I'm only hearing about it second-hand just now."

"...A little bit, yeah..." Fiona admitted, "Nothing too major on my end. Though I imagine you guys will want to teach the gangbangers that attacked us a lesson, yeah?"

"Well, know who it was that attacked you?" Her friend asks.


"...Those guys!?" Little John was saying to Akira on the phone line. The wolf waiting on the elevator to reach the bottom.

"Yep. One of them's named Q."

"The Jebroni Gang... That is very weird. Neither me nor Manic ever see them anywhere in Cyber City until today from our years of growing up together." Little John told him. "Weirder still is that they tried to get you and her in an alleyway in spite of every district there having at least one officer posted to them but not a single copper came to your aid when that was going down."

"I just have a hunch that Anton's somehow behind and if he is, I'm royally kicking his ass."

"I'd be pissed too but at least you and her are okay now."

"My injuries might be a problem if the Metaverse can't heal them."

"I'm sure your Personas can do the bulk of the fighting for you."

"Maybe. Doesn't change the fact that I got jumped when least expected."

"Little John, could you put the phone on speaker?" Manic said in the background on the other end. "There's developments on our end."

"Sure." Little John switches the call to speaker on his end.

"Developments?" Akira asks.

"Jean's been getting rather antsy today..." Manic replied with a sigh. "I don't know if it's due to withdrawal symptoms or if it's something else entirely but she's getting really antsy."

"What could that mean?"

"Again, it could be the withdrawal symptoms. She did kinda quit the drugs cold turkey."

"We'll be the judge of that one. Anything else?"

"That's about it really."

"Oh and the money from the sold items came in too." Little John added. "You should be able to do your shopping now..."

To Be Continued...