16347/An Unexpected (And Unwanted) Visitor

An Unexpected (And Unwanted) Visitor
Date of Scene:	15 November 2023
Location:	Pezzini House
Synopsis:	Impling invade the Pezzini House kitchen and Joshua deals with them accordingly.
Cast of Characters:	Sara Pezzini, Joshua Foley

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Sara Pezzini has posed:
It was six o'clock in the evening. Sara has just texted Joshua that she was headed home, a trip that should take about forty-five minutes from Bushwick to Brooklyn during traffic, but he knew she'd be there in twenty.

The house was spotless, in part due to Joshua being vigilant, and in part due to Ruth still coming by at least twice a week to ensure that her brother's daughter was still taken care of.

Joshua Foley has posed:
>>Just getting home myself. Picking up dinner?<<

Stepping into the house after unlocking it, Joshua puts away his key and steps into the dimly lit home. It still feels surreal that Sara has invited him to live with her and took him into her life. Reaching over to turn on the light switch, he slips off his shoes and goes to remove his coat to hang it up.

Making his way further into the house, he reaches behind him to lock the door, before setting his way towards the kitchen. If she's bringing home dinner, he'll just fix a glass of water. Otherwise, he'll start on dinner prep after he looks in the fridge.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Dinner came from one of several places that Sara loved. Chinese from Golden Dragon, pizza from Carlos', gryos from Greekos (stupid name, fantastic gyros), and so many others that Joshua never knew what she would bring home. Tonight she has decided on Luigi's Lasagna, huge chunks of pasta with amazing marinara, mozzarella, ricotta, italian sausage, meatballs... one piece was normally two meals, so a single perfect meal for Joshua.

In the fridge is a Britta water pitcher to ensure that water for drinking was safe, it was New York after all and water quality wasn't a priority. So when Joshua opened the fridge to get some nice, cold water, he was likely surprised to find three bright red critters wrecking havoc to the contents of the fridge.

Each creatures was a whopping two inches tall, complete with little bat wings, a long forked tail, and they have little horns on their heads. Other wise they looked like tiny red skinned children.

When the fridge opens they all squeal in delight and fly out at Joshua.

Joshua Foley has posed:
Opening the fridge, Joshua finds himself with something that is not a rat. It's much worse. They fly and scratch and bite and Joshua is immediately slamming the door of the fridge hard in order to try to stop them, but it's too late and there's the loud crash of a couple of glass jars in the fridge falling and breaking from the force of the slam.

He slaps at the creatures, trying to drive them back. Their attacks hurt, and his skin is already glowing trying to repair the damage. His hands move for his phone and he just manages to hit the 'SOS' button on his phone to send a call to Sara before the phone falls to the floor and slides under the bar where he can't get to it.

That's not going to help, as he backpedals and swipes again, his hands starting to change from their golden hue to the more ominous black. "Sara!" he calls out, hoping she answers. "I'm being attack-- OW! Goddamn little things!"

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Through the helmet Sara wears her phone chimes and she hears Joshua calling for help. Nothing else is required, no thinking, just action and Witchblade is already sending tendrils of metal out to form the gauntlet on her right hand. A matter of seconds for the gauntlet and then the armor is spreading across her body, even as she is throttling the motorcycle to it's fastest speed, weaving in and out of the cars.

"I'm on my way! Panic room in the basement!" She calls out just moments before the helmet is destroyed and replaced by the armor.

The implings were all squealing with glee and joy, and on occasion he could hear the high pitched voices saying, "Play!". After their first onslaught, one continues to zip in and 'play' while the other two start terrorizing the kitchen... but wait, there are still two assaulting Joshua, and two attacking the cabinets... are they multiplying?!

Joshua Foley has posed:
Oh crap! They aren't gremlins, they're worse! They don't need water to multiply. Joshua realizes he has to stop them and he has to do it now, before Sara gets home - otherwise the whole house may be full of the damn things!

Plus, he can imagine that damn bracelet howling in laughter and telling Sara how pathetic her lover is that he can't handle something this simple. And with that anger in mind, his hand lashes out, grabbing one of the creatures as it flies by him. With his skin completely black all the way up his arms, he imagines the creature's entire spinal cord knotting and suffering major stenosis, something he had studied recently in his medical texts.

Tossing the first one aside, he grabs a hold of a pan that is hanging over the kitchen island, using it as a makeshift flyswatter to try to smack and crush the imps.

He doesn't realize it, but his gold and black skins are working together. Even as he takes injuries, they are healing as he turns around and doles out injuries in turn. A step back into the doorway to keep the creatures from escaping, that is where he draws the line, his clothes getting torn by their attacks, but he continues to fight and try to drive them back into the kitchen. He can't get his powers of death touch to work on contact by others, but when he can grab one, it's an instant aneruism inflicted on their brains.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Implings have dramatic deaths. They wail and cry, twitch and jerk, and then die and even dead look completely pathetic, little tongues hanging out of their mouths. As he tosses each aside it disappears before hitting the ground in a puff of black mist, but thankfully that doesn't mean a new one instantly appears in it's place. The 'respawn' rate seems to be about one every minute, give or take a few seconds.

As he places himself in the doorway however, they seem to start losing interest in him and instead focus on pure chaos in the kitchen. Food everywhere, plates, bowls, cups tossed with glee, the water faucet turned on full blast, everything knocked off the counters (including Sara's coffee pot).

Once the armor is fully in place, and the wings have formed, Sara lifts herself and the bike into the air to continue the journey that other wise was ten minutes away, to now one minute. It was safer for traffic that she just take the bike with her, even if the other drivers were already slamming on their brakes as Witchblade just appeared among them.

Joshua Foley has posed:
Nope, they are NOT destroying Sara's precious coffee pot. Charging in, he slams the pan down on one of the imps that gets close to the coffee machine and he frowns. It's a losing proposition. He has no ranged abilities. Everything is close in. And as it continues, his skin is getting blacker and blacker, the gold disappearing, withdrawing into him, as the pupils of his eyes disappear and the aura of death just surrounds him.

Everything within a couple of feet of him starts to wither and die. Any houseplants, imps, everything. It's the most extreme use of his ability as well as the most draining. His voice is strained, dark as he garbles, "You will not escape. This is my home and I will not let you ruin it!"

Death is quick. Almost instanteous, and when they die, they are reduced to a dried out husk, falling to the ground as he tries to hold the destruction to the kitchen. He has to prove to Sara that he can be there for her. That he can take care of himself. That... he has some form of self-worth. And it's that... that feeling that tears through the kitchen.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Creatures of hell and the nether realms are not highly versed in dealing with mutants, that information is reserved for the higher ranking demons, so these little creatures of chaos have no idea what they got themselves into. Their entire purpose was mayhem against humans, to make the lives of these human persons as miserable as possible. This golden boy gone black, no, that was above their pay grade.

Childlike shrieks of panic and terror fill the kitchen as Joshua goes black and his aura spreads out from his body. This was no longer fun, this was instant death and this.... there were none left to think about what this was any more. Several tiny piles of ash fall from the air to the ground, on the counters, even the one that had tries to fly under the fridge.

It was then that Sara came through the back door... no, she didn't open the door, she just exploded through it. In her right hand was a bastard sword made of the same material as her armor, but extremely intricate in it's design and etched up the blade. Timing was everything.

Joshua Foley has posed:
Standing in the midsts of destruction, death, and a vivid display of exactly how dangerous that Joshua's powers can be, the young man looks different. Thin. Almost skeletal. Almost as if his power is devouring him from within to power it. He had warned her before that is how his power works and that's why he can't do massive healing without rest.

So when the door explodes and Sara comes into the kitchen, his empty eyes meet hers. "Good, you're home." he manages, and just like that, he fizzles out and falls forward, smashing face first into the floor as he passes out.

His skin remains black, but that aura of white and black that was surrounding him withdraws back into his body and he goes still, though the rise and fall of his chest shows her that he's alive. Any imps left are on her!

Sara Pezzini has posed:
The reaction from Witchblade upon entering the house with Joshua's aura present was instantaneous, her entire body was encased in armor from head to toe faster than a human could blink their eyes. It is just as quickly that the armor disappears again as Sara lunges forward to catch Joshua before he hits the floor, so she can lower him down gently.

Witchblade is already searching the area with his eye, seeking out any Impling that may have survived and reporting it back to Sara. In her head she knows she has to deal with that one last creature hiding in the fridge, Witchblade will not rest until she had, but seeing Joshua in this state makes it far more difficult to do what she knows she has to.

Ensuring he's at least in a semi-comfortable position, she stands up and strides to the fridge. Ripping open the door one Impling sits there eating noodles from a to-go container that immediately gets flung at Sara as it squeaks, "Witchblade!" and pops out of existence.

"Annoying little pricks," she growls, then closes the fridge and returns to pick Joshua up and carrying him into the couch.

Joshua Foley has posed:
It will be sometime before Joshua awakens again. Plenty of time for Sara to get on clothes and not have to worry about that. It's with a soft groan that he starts to awaken, smacking his lips as he feels how hot and dry that his mouth is as he turns his attention to his surroundings. His skin is still black, but unmarred, his injuries healed.

"S-Sara?" he asks, his hand pressing into the couch as he tries to push up, a dry cough as he uses his other hand to rub at his eyes. "Eve-everything okay?" comes the immediate question, getting ready to force himself into healing mode if he needed. "They gone?"

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Laying Joshua out on the couch, Sara uses the blanket on the back to cover him with before she begins this angry pace around the room. The fury she was feeling was partly her own, and partly Witchblade... how dare those little bastards appear in /her/ home.

she was still pissed off when she went up the stairs to get clothing, still pissed off when she went outside to get the food from her motorcycle's saddle bags and still pissed off when she came back into the living room to check on Joshua again. Setting the containers on the coffee table, she turns just in time to see him starting to wake up.

"Easy Josh," she soothed, laying her hand on his shoulder then helping him sit up a little. "You're alright, they're gone now."

Joshua Foley has posed:
His hand raises up, and he was just about to put his hand over hers, when Josh stops himself. It shakes and he puts it back down, his fear that his power might still be on the wrong side of things alive and well and the last thing he wants to do is touch Sara and hurt her.

"Good. Glad you got 'em." It's almost as if he doesn't remember what he did, or is severely downplaying his role in it. "I don't know how they got in. Opened the fridge and there they were." He pushes himself into a sitting position and his elbows go to his knees, his face in his hands, fingers in his still blonde hair. "...need water. So damn thirsty."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
The kitchen was a nightmare, but once Sara had him sitting up she went in to collect a glass that didn't get shattered and fill it with water. Bringing it back to Joshua, she kneels down by him the couch.

"I didn't do shit Josh, you got them," she states as she offers the water. "And unfortunately, I think I know how they got in." Shifting to sit beside him on the couch, she wraps the blanket around his shoulders.

"Are you alright? And don't give me random platitudes, I want the truth."

Joshua Foley has posed:
"My head hurts, I'm starving..." Joshua takes the water and he almost chugs, but stops himself to sip. He knows chugging will make him throw up. And as he gets the chance, he leans directly into her. But his hands still don't touch.

"I hate using my powers like that." he admits quietly. Another sip of water and he just stays close to Sara, a soft groan of pain as he feels his power trying to become helpful again, but there's nothing on his stomach at all to help.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Sara slides her arm around Joshua to hold him against her, the other hand grabs one of the containers on the coffee table to pop open and reveal the lasagna. "This was my fault," she admits, not looking at his face. "I brought those little shits home, it's like bringing my work home, only I should have known better."

She finally looks to his face, "Eat something, I'll get you more water if you need." She leans and kisses his cheek, knowing full well that if there was a danger, Witchblade would warn her to stop. "You told me you don't like using your power like that, but... those Implings, they don't belong in this realm. Does it help you to know that they didn't die die, you merely sent them back to their realm?"

Joshua Foley has posed:
She can feel bone, he's worn down that much. Usually, he's healthy and hale, but his rib cage is easily felt when she holds him. "Not your fault they got out." he tries to correct her, "I'll eat and then clean the kitchen. I should've acted faster." There is a little relief in his tone, but it's more on the fact that there is cold lasagne in front of him.

He starts to scarf it down eagerly, the plastic fork pulling up chunks of the meal and shoveling it into his mouth and get it down. "Good. They can spend some time there." he mutters, and then glances at the bracer on Sara's arm. "I'm sure you got a good laugh too."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
His reassurance is heard, but Sara finds it hard to accept. This case with the Implings had been on going for weeks, there had been numerous clues and it was all leading to a final strike, but the micro portals still existed. All she could know for certain is that something she brought home had one attached to it, and since they were in the fridge, it had to be the take out she brought home last night from lunch.

"You most certainly are /not/ cleaning that kitchen," she states very firmly, even as he begins to eat. "I'll take care of it, I need to examine everything anyway."

The red stone on the silver bracelet swirls with read and orange smoke, or at least that is what it looks like. "No, he wasn't laughing... okay, he was at first, but when he saw you and what you'd done... he stopped laughing."

Joshua Foley has posed:
"I need to sleep for a bit, Sara." Joshua admits as he finishes off his food. He's already cleared his container, and could probably use more, but for now? He needs to let everything settle and get back most of what he lost now that he's poured on the calories.

At least he doesn't need to eat like a speedster?

"If it's okay? I'm going to go to our bed." He comments as he moves to rise to his feet. "Don't spend too long down here... I like having you next to me." A quiet admission before he grabs the blanket to head up the stairs.