The Score that needs to be Settled

David waited in the lot in front of his old mega building, just as dusk settled in. He'd sent a message to Maine asking to meet there by nightfall, and he trusted that the older edgerunner would show. The young Latino watched the sun go down, and night fell.

Fortunately for him, he did and came alone. Unfortunately…

"You got a death wish kid? Calling me here, and actually showin' up… I gotta wonder what's goin through your head right now." The man behind the gun growled. He was not in the best of moods.

Slowly, David got up and turned around. He was me with the familiar face of Maine, aiming his gun at his forehead. David met Maine's glare, unafraid. "…death wish or not, I'm here because I owe you, I intend to pay it back in full. That's all there is to it."

Maine just huffed at that before lowering his gun. He didn't put it away, just held it at his side. "Doc Borg still has your spinal column on ice, so he can do the procedure." Maine turned to go. David stood where he was.

The Latino shook his head. "That's not what I mean. I'm not giving up the Sandy."

Maine whirled around to face him. "I paid for the Sandy in advance. So unless you got the eddies, I don't see how you're paying me back… even if I accepted it."

David checked his credits… and smiled. 'Glad they came in for me.' "I do… all 40 grand of it."

Maine tilted his head to the side. "How'd you know the price?"

David shrugged. "Does it matter? All that matters is that I have the eddies to pay you back in full." he didn't feel like ratting out Lucy. wouldn't help him much. Either way, he'd settle things here and now.

Maine stalked over to him, fists clenched like he's gonna punch him into the dirt. David nearly flinched, but held his ground. 'Danger sense ain't going off. yet.'

"And What if I don't give a damn, and plan to rip the damn thing out of you?" Maine threatened.

David's response was equally cold. "Then what's stopping you from doing just that?"

Both of them just stared at each other… then Maine drew his gun and aimed it at David's head. David's danger sense still didn't activate, so he kept his cool. The Latino knew he wasn't going to fire, and when that changed… he'd know.

"Maine!" The deadlock was broken when Dorio called out.

Maine acted on instinct. He aimed his gun. He fired.

In the split second before the shot rang out, David did more than activate the sandevistan. He tapped into the power afforded him by the metaverse. Reinforcing his body was the obvious choice, but he went further than that. He channeled the

He had no idea if it would work. He didn't know what the result would be, but he knew he had to act.

And the winds of the Mediterranean storm were with him. The wind god Aeolus has unleashed the storm for a hero, where once he sealed them for his stead.

In hyper speed, David ducked low, sweeping out his leg to knock Maine off his feet. Then on the return he reached out and grabbed the spinning bullet in his fingers. It caused his digits to sting for a bit, but he didn't let go.

His movements caused the winds to come alive. they knocked Maine further back away from David. Dorio held her arms up to try and block the spontaneous winds that came alive. 'Dammit! What's with these winds?!'

All the while, David was unharmed. He was the heart of the storm. In that moment, He was the warrior king who had the storm sealed in his hands.

As savage as the winds became, they settled down as quickly as they formed.

Maine groaned as he got back to his feet. He was dazed but still conscious. "Da fuck was that?"

David stood up from his crouch. "That was the sound of me not taking any of your shit." He sent the eddies to Dorio. 'Thank you Lucy for the contacts.' "And that is the sound of your output getting every eddie I owe you. Now, if you still wanna tear it out from my corpse…" he drew both halves of his spear, holding the blunt back while pointing the spade at Maine. "Then one of us is gonna die… and I'm fighting to live."

Maine got up at this point and was flexing his arm, as if considering whether to try and blast David with his arm cannon. When that stopped he just glared at David once more… Then it stopped. Maine went from glaring to just staring at him, as if considering his options. And that led to another silence for a few minutes.

"That's it!" The silence was finally broken by Dorio. By the scowl on her face, she'd had enough. She forcefully pulled Maine to the side.

"Hey, Wha- Dorio-" Maine tried to argue but his partner shut that down.

"No, we're not doing this." Dorio put her foot down. "The kid paid you back, so he keeps the Sandy. End of story."

Maine's scowl returned, and he looked between Dorio and David, like he was mulling over who to be mad at between them. Then he sighed and turned to David. "Fine, kid. I'll call it a loss on the Sandy… But on one condition."

David wanted to roll his eyes but refrained from doing so. "Being?"

Maine stowed away his gun. "I got a gig lined up a few days back. I was going to use the sandy to make it work. Since the chrome's stuck with you, I need you for the gig."

'Probably why he's been focusing on the sandy so much in the past few days.' David thought. He wasn't gonna question it further. "I'm in. Just tell me when and where."

Maine nodded. "I'll call when we're ready, and tell you where to go. Just be there then." with that, Maine and Dorio left… but not before he heard the faint few words that came when he formed a new bond. This one being the Counselor.

David just blinked numbly at that. "Seriously? Him? He just threatened to kill me over chrome, how can he… oh, whatever." he sent a brief message to Lubbock before checking out. After dealing with Maine and finally settling the debt with him, he was left feeling just… out of it. Without thinking much of it, or telling the others any more details, he traveled directly to the Velvet room.

_Elsewhere_

"Anything?" Kirishima asked for the fifth time.

Lubbock just groaned in response. "My answer hasn't changed. David hasn't responded back to my calls."

"I knew we shouldv'e just tailed him. To hell with what David preferred." Ryuko ranted as they walked. The trio were waiting around at a bazaar in Kabuki. Kiri led them there, hoping to get some food and to wait for David's triumphant return. He assumed he'd meet up with them, or at least call it in.

Kiri was thus disappointed when David just gave a text to Lubbock.

"He needed to do this on his own. It was the manly thing to do." Kiri countered.

"Besides, between his instincts and his sandevistan, tailing him would have been somewhere between impossible to being a pain in the ass." Lubbock added.

The trio had already traded the manifest and sent the 40K eddies to David, splitting the remaining 10K eddies between themselves. David's only reply was a text: "Deal's done, debt settled." it read.

After that, they headed to his last known location… his old apartment in his former mega building. Sadly, they couldn't find him, though they did learn that he was there earlier. They asked around - Lubbock bribed some locals for intel - about him and learned what happened: David did meet with Maine, they argued, Dorio got involved, after which the big guy left. Not much details beyond that.

Lubbock suggested they find him the next day, but Ryuko and Eijiro weren't satisfied with that, so the two dragged him along in their search.

Kiri's reasoning was simple: 'you don't leave friends alone, unless you're sure they're alright.' Ryuko was more interested in something else.

"Were you really gonna kill that classmate of yours?" Ryuko suddenly asked. She didn't expect much from Lubbock, but was pleasantly surprised to find him reliable in a fight. She wouldn't have expected him to be able to fight, let alone kill, during a life or death battle.

That is to say, she didn't expect him to nearly kill a classmate. People needed to be tuff in this city to survive, but not every person could pull it off. Lubbock pulled it off so well, it gave her pause.

Lubbock just gave her a look. "Calling him a classmate, while true, makes it sound like he wasn't a colossal pain in the ass. He could die in the middle of class, and no one would mourn him… not his cronies, not his parents, not David and not me."

Ryuko hummed at that. She had zero to no sympathy for Katsuo but wanted to be sure of Lubbock. "That wasn't a denial."

Lubbock nodded. "Not at all."

Kirishima kept quiet about that, before weighing in. "Katsuo was weak and not a threat at the time. You didn't need to kill him."

Lubbock was unrepentant, and just shrugged. "Don't care. He was a pain and I'm glad I don't have to deal with him anymore. Hell I'm surprised David let it go."

Kiri wasn't convinced. "I'm not. I can agree with the action when needed, but not the motive. Death shouldn't be done for personal gain... and I think David recognized it would do him no good."

Lubbock huffed. "Doesn't matter now, not since apparently, murder in the metaverse is a taboo."

"Yeah, nice to know." Kiri thought aloud, willing to change the subject just as Lubbock was. Then Kiri repeated the question Lubbock was dreading. "...Anything from David yet?"

Before Lubbock could even consider yelling at the red head for asking that question for a SIXTH time, a newcomer interrupted them.

"Well, well. This is a surprise." The three of them turned to see Saeko approach them. She wore her usual get up: green skirt, white button down shirt and grey jacket.

"We got nothing for you, so get lost." Ryuko snarled. Kiri just asked her to stop being rude to strangers. Ryuko glared at both in response.

Lubbock rolled his eyes at it. He had a solid guess as to what Saeko wanted. He decided to be an ass and have some fun with her. "Sorry babe, David's a no show. I haven't the faintest idea where he's gone."

Saeko's smile stayed, but her mood shifted. She reached for her sword and kept glaring at the verdette. "I'm sure you have some idea of where he is. Couldn't you share with me...?"

"Piss off, Samuri!" Ryuko unleashed her mantis blades, "Unless you want a fight."

Saeko kept her cool. "And if I do want a fight? What then?"

She stalked up to try and intimidate Saeko some more, only for Saeko to just grin back at her. The look in her eyes made it clear: Make a move on her, and she'd return the favor in kind. Kiri saw the potential brawl same as Lubbock, and did his level best to diffuse the situation.

Lubbock chose that moment to back off. He trusted the others to handle her. 'That leaves me to find our missing leader…' he thought as he entered the metaverse. He gave a quick message to Eijiro before he left.

When he landed in the hellscape's first layer, he arrived in his civilian clothes. Since he was just using the dimension to flee, he didn't feel the need to equip his raider outfit. 'Wonder if I can use my claws in the real world. If I could summon my crosstail gauntlets, I'll be way more dangerous and more likely to survive...'

"So this is where you fled to." To his surprise, his thoughts were interrupted by the same voice. He whirled around to see Saeko standing before him. In the metaverse.

"The hell! How'd you get here?" the rogue asked. 'Crap! Did she get past the two muscle heads?'

Saeko smirked. "Doesn't matter… All that matters is that you give me what I want."

Lubbock took a step back and got ready to run. "And what's that?" He already guessed at the answer, but asked anyway.

"I was hoping to duel David, but since he's missing…" Saeko drew her katana. "I'll settle for you." She rushed him.

And Lubbock, brave hell raider that he is… turned around and ran away as fast as he could. 'No way in hell, I'm fighting a deranged blood knight! I don't care how hot she is!'

Naturally, she gave chase. Lubbock used his wires to pull himself up a building. Saeko seemed to gain enhanced strength and speed despite a lack of persona or metaverse attire, because she ran up the building right after him.

When Lubbock got to the roof, he ran forward and dove over the edge. Saeko was only seconds behind him. He used his wires to cling to the side of the building and sling himself into one of the windows. He ran inside, aiming to lose her. He took the stairwell and ended up on the next floor.

Unfortunately for him, Saeko barged in through another window right onto him.

When Saeko finally managed to get close, she kicked Lubbock hard enough to knock him to the ground. Lubbock wasn't finished yet; mid roll, he threw dagger after dagger at her. Saeko deflected each blade with her sword. She kept swiping them aside while pushing forward, until she cornered him against a wall. With nowhere to go, she aimed her sword. Lubbock only twitched his fingers in response.

"Any last words? Prayers perhaps?" Saeko held her sword right at Lubbock's throat.

"Yeah." Lubbock smirked. "I pray that your blood doesn't ruin my new jacket."

Saeko blinked at that, before noticing the dagger hanging behind her own throat, held up by Lubbock's wires. She could feel it right upon her skin, promising her death if she. The thought alone made her grin as well. 'Impressive.'

"You think that dagger scares me?"

"No, but I think it'll convince you to calm the fuck down."

"And what if I try my luck anyways? I'm very fast with a blade."

"Because, in the chance you do die, you won't be able to challenge David again."

Saeko mulled it over, but decided to let it go. 'He's given me enough excitement for now anyways.' She pulled her sword, sheathed it. Lubbock similarly pulled back his dagger. He got up as Saeko gave him some space.

"So… how long have you been involved in all of…" Lubbock waved around to the hellscape around them. "This."

Saeko shrugged. "Not long. Just a few hours ago I followed your group and wound up in this world."

Lubbock held his head and sighed. 'Of course.' "And I take it you faced your shadow?"

"Do you mean the creepy eyed doopleganger who tried to kill me, Whom I fought for hours trying to kill in turn?" At Lubbock's nod, Saeko gave a calm 'yes' as if it was only natural. 'And so soon after the two formed a bond. Man, give me a break.'

Lubbock just groaned but explained to her what was going on. He went into detail about the metaverse, how he got involved with David, and the shadows, including her own. Saeko listened closely, especially in regards to the enemies she could face.

After that, Saeko agreed to leave, provided he introduced her to the others properly next time. Lubbock just nodded and promised to get onto their team. With a blood knight like her, we'll be more set than ever to delve into hell.'

Lubbock called the two sluggers - Ryuko and Eijiro - and told them about what happened. They just. Well, that was Eijiro's attitude. Ryuko told him he got what he deserved for running into the metaverse.

With any luck, he can get in touch with his lost in the winds friend and get his input regarding their surprise fifth recruit. 'Maybe this'll be when things become normal for us.'

_Meanwhile_

An old gentleman, or a creature that looks like one, just smiles. He may not know what his current charge's future will hold, but he has known many like him. 'The path of the wildcard is never easy nor simple. David's struggles will only grow and increase from here. Despite your best wishes young rogue, the journey of you and your friends is only just beginning…' Igor just smiled as fate readied another hand.

This is officially the end of the first arc. I think I did really well with it. Glad to hear alot of positive feedback. Always nice to hear.

Also, fixed the errors. Kinda rushed the first post.

I already have the other future members of the hellraiders planned out. I find that character interactions are some of the best moments, so I try to map those out.

Wow, this has been a while for me. I'm not stopping anytime soon… but I think I might take a break from this series for a few months. I WILL get back to it, but first I should probably show some love to my other works. This is technically my third work, but I put more passion to it than others.

Till then, peace.