17403/Hooked, line and sinker.

Hooked, line and sinker.
Date of Scene:	12 March 2024
Location:	Where salt meets fresh.
Synopsis:	A baby adventurer is born. What sea creature? Aliens and Nazi's, that's where it's at! Lara Croft may have created a monster, or at the very least? A mini-me.
Cast of Characters:	Luca Bandoni, Lara Croft

---

Luca Bandoni has posed:
It started with a phone call. Luca's a master level /master/ diver. Everything from open deep water to rescue in close quarters, he can do it all. What he is not an expert in is anything strange and unusual. That's where help comes in.

While conducting a routine training class for some of FDNY's more overly ambitious, Luca saw something weird. Out in the harbor, where the water is often brackish and dark, something was glowing down there. But that's not even the oddest part. The really odd part? There shouldn't be caves or tunnels in this area, yet there is one.

After procuring a boat from a friend - FDNY frowns on anyone taking their equipment out on excursions - he made that call.

They're approaching the location and Luca calls out over the sound of the boat's motor, "I think this is about the right spot!" He's already wearing a dry suit that's suited for the colder temperatures this time of year. He brought a spare for Lara just in case.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara Croft is an experienced survivalist, explorer, adventurer, and she's made a name for herself in the past 5 years doing all of the above. As such, when she was contacted to come on a dive with a Master diver, she was up for the trip. Diving was something she had some measure of experience in, but she yearned to broaden that skillset a little more, and there are few better ways than learning from someone who already knows it inside and out.

On the boat, Lara had gone down to make a change of attire, and now she's arriving in the suit set aside for her. It fit well enough, and she had a bit of her own gear with her from her own diving training.

When she emerges on to the deck, she sets down a few items on the nearest surface, as she reaches her hands up to tie her hair back, approaching where Luca is located.

"What's up?" She asks, dropping her hands down to her hips then, as she lets her loose ponytail hang freely behind her shoulders.

Luca Bandoni has posed:
While Lara was down and changing, Luca took the time to anchor the boat. Nailed it the first time too, that's a feat with a small boat in relatively deep waters. He's definitely in his element out here. Too much so, it's almost palpable, the excited energy rolling off of him. Bit of an adrenaline junkie, although he'd never admit it.

While in the process of dealing with tanks, hoses, masks and everything they're going to need - he triple checks it all, he explains, "I've been down in these waters more times than I can count. There's /never/ been any sort of tunnels or caves down there." His voice isn't raised terribly now, motor's cut so he only has the wind to compete with. "Earlier today? Not only what looked like a cave entrance or some sort of tunnel, but there was something /glowing/ inside it."

He's nothing but professional when he goes about helping Lara into her gear first and he makes certain everything is fitted to a tee and she's comfortable before he says, "Stick close, yeah?"

He pulls his mask down over his face and indicates she should do the same. One sound check later and communication is confirmed. "You ready?" he asks over the comsystem built into the dive masks.

Man, he's an eager little puppy, ask questions now if there are any! He's about to go overboard.

Lara Croft has posed:
"It could be phosphorescent sea life?" Lara had questioned with regard to the sight of something actually em@emit emitting light underwater. "And perhaps your scanning technology has gotten better?" She'd then said while he was helping her in to her diving gear. "But all the same, this should be a nice learning experience." She'd finally said, her London accented English sounding calming, soothing even, how it dances through the syllables that she speaks.

Once her mask is on, she performs the same check with him, before she prepares herself on the edge of the boat. She's checking a few pieces of her gear, when he signals he's going, and in response she gives him a thumbs up.

Mere moments later, and Lara is entering the water with him, clearing the oxygen excess from her mask, and testing her breathing line even further, as she waves her limbs gracefully beneath the surface of the water.

With a light swipe of her right hand over her shoulder, a conical beam of white LED lights up the area in front of her.

Luca Bandoni has posed:
"It's not just the glow," Luca replies, "It's the cave." They aren't known to just magically appear right? Hell, maybe they are? He has no clue and that's why he called in the expert. The water was a bit choppy due to the wind top side, but after about twenty feet, it's almost eerily still. It's colder weather and there likely isn't an over abundance of fish about in these parts but there should be /some/ but there's nothing. Another ten feet and the cave he was talking about comes into view.

It's not a cave though, it's too symmetrical to be a cave, the 'mouth' too perfect of a circle. His voice crackles over the comms, "That? It wasn't here /last week/." The opening is wide enough for both of them to enter without a need for it to be a single file thing, but barely so. As they draw closer, it's easy to see that the glow is spread over the sides of the tunnel as if something might have left a greasy trail of glow-in-the-dark slime behind. This up close and personal and seeing evidence that there may be something /living/ in there? Luca's more than a little nervous.

But...

"You game?" he asks, giving her a chance to back out.

Lara Croft has posed:
It might surprise him a bit how much the British Duchess is able to sink right in to the task at hand, pun intended. But she does, barely even exuding any indication that she hasn't been doing dives her whole life, but if ever asked, it'd become just how damn much she reads, and educates herself on every topic she's immersing herself in.

She advances toward the portal of the cave, that begins to look less and less like a cave the closer to it they get, and the more light from their suits that shine upon it. She's lost in thought, in fact, at what she's seeing, that it takes her a moment before she looks over at him.

He'll see a vigorous nod from the woman, before her filtered voice replies over comms. "Oh, I'm eager." She says back, before her arms and legs move in graceful motions that would carry her inside.

From her utility belt, she pulls a video recording device that she holds up to get HD footage of everything they are seeing, her focus on the glowing walls here at the beginning...

Luca Bandoni has posed:
She may not be able to see it, but Luca is grinning from ear to ear on the inside. This is not a situation that warrants 'ladies first', not in his book. But it's more because he's the more experienced diver than the fact that Lara has different bits than his that he's the first in. Only just though, there's enough room in the beginning for them to swim abreast.

"You ever seen anything like it?" He's not pulling out cameras or anything of the sort. It's just him, his gear and a light. Although he's starting to wonder if a harpoon might have been a good idea? While he can't actually feel the stuff through his gloves, Luca runs a finger along the wall of the tunnel. It leaves a trail in the glowing slime and leaves the glow behind on his glove. "The walls are smooth, like glass."

The further they go, the more narrow their path becomes. Soon it's single file, then it gets to the point that squeezing through in their gear will be a challenge. He's just about to suggest that maybe he can ditch the tank with her and swim ahead to see if it opens back up when something about the way the water's moving changes.

It was pretty still before, now it seems to be rushing toward them.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara wasn't one to dwell on who goes first, she was perfectly willing to let him go first, or take the lead herself. But either way, she's in along with him, and her eyes are taking in the sight of the glass walls of this strange corridor beneath the water... She watches him, as he strokes a hand over the glowing oil coated upon the sides of the tunnel, then moves in close beside him to peer at it on the material of his glove. She captures some footage of that, as well, before she regards him from behind her mask. "I've seen similarly perplexing things on dives in the Savage Lands, in fact." She says, before kicking her feet and moving off ahead, and to the side.

"The Savage Lands are a melting pot of so many different ancient cultures, from Atlanteans, to cultures far beyond the light of our star. I highly recommend it some time, if you're ever intersted." She is saying, while taking in various recording angles, turning herself this way, and that way, before she sees him moving on ahead.

"Be careful." She warns him, as she turns to follow after him.

It takes only a few more moments, before she notes something ahead, and with a strained noise, she aims her light forward. "Luca. I believe... something... is moving. Moving toward us..."

Lara produces a dive knife from her belt, a long blade made for cutting one loose should they get caught up on something. She attaches her camera to the belt cinched around her waist, and slips herself up against the wall, putting one hand upon the glowing oily streaked surface, as she braces herself for what may be danger lurking ahead!

Luca Bandoni has posed:
"Is that an invite to join you sometime?" Luca asks with more than just a hint of interest. If he was really a puppy, his tail would be wagging.

Really would any B Horror movie dive be complete without tentacles? Or at least that's what it seems to be at first, from a distance. It's long and thin and moves like it might be a tentacle?

But as what looks like a tentacle comes closer and closer and closer, it so is not a tentacle. A tentacle would be preferable to the monstrosity revealing itself. The body of an eel, slender and agile, but the face and head resemble more that of anglerfish. But neither one of those particular underwater dwellers have /scales/?

Now, never let it be said that Luca Bandoni is a coward. He's not that in anyway shape or form. He runs into burning buildings for a living! But he still makes a strangled little sound right before he presses himself against the wall as well. "What the /fuck/ is /that/?" Just the fact that he has a mind to ask the question is something.

He's a fireman, he's not some adventuring occult expert. These aren't the types of things Luca deals with on the day to day. He just /barely/ manages to snag his own knife off his built without dropping it.

Lara Croft has posed:
While deep in the jungles of the Savage Lands, Lara had run in to all manner of odd creature, both with tentacles, and obviously those without them. Here, in this situation, she's curiously optimistic that whatever is coming closer to them, is simply a creature of the sea, and not interested in either of them.

With Luca backing up out of the way now, Lara slips herself up against the wall, her own tank brushing against it now, as she stares at the face of the strange creature...

"I have absolutely no idea..." Lara's breathy voice says over their shared communication. She keeps the handle of her knife gripped in her right hand, held at her side, and not in an overtly threatening fashion, but ready to strike, should needs arise.

"Perhaps it has just come to feed on the glowing substance?" She questions, a glance sent back to the portal from where they swam in to this tunnel, before she puts her eyes back on the sea creature, and glides them down over its length. "I've never seen anything like it, but ... the ocean is known for keeping its secrets closely guarded..."

She tries to move along the wall, keeping her back up against it so as not to bump in to the creature itself, as she proceeds further ahead, tentatively seeing if her presence even registers with the odd lifeform between them.

"It doesn't seem interested in us..." She may be mistaken about that though, as she inches her way along the wall.

Luca Bandoni has posed:
If Luca were to say that his heart wasn't about to beat out of his chest, it wouldn't be a lie. The only reason it /wouldn't/ be a lie is because his biokinesis tends to kick in during such moments to keep everything as copacetic as possible. That isn't to say his heart rate isn't up just a little.

The creature really doesn't seem to notice either of them, not on the way out, but what if it comes back? Not noticing them also doesn't mean that they don't get bumped and bounced a little both by its undulating body and its wake.

But now they're faced with the dame dilemma as before. After he rips his gaze away from that thing on its way out, he turns it toward Lara and asks, "How long can you hold your breath? It's getting too narrow to squeeze through in our gear. I can slow my heart rate and my breathing enough to give me about twice, maybe three times the average fit adult."

The implications of his words seem to be that he's going to swim ahead and see if it opens back up and then swim back out to get her. It's further punctuated when he adds, "Can you find a way to secure our gear?" While he's gone?

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara's masked face follows the creature as it continues to glide its way past them, leaving her loose ponytail to glide around behind her neck, like the tendrils of an ethereal ghost. It is not until it is gone, that it is when she looks forward down the tunnel, where she is able to see the tunnel's walls are getting rapidly more enclosed the further ahead they might go. His words of his plan draw her eyes back, however, and after a moment she does a double take, before regarding him. "I'm smaller than you are." She tells him. "I should be the one to go. I've done four and a half minutes of holding my breath before, in the tank at the SHIELD Triskelion."

She glances him over though, as he is undoubtedly already removing parts of his gear. "We don't know what might be in there, either. It could be a nest of whatever that thing was..." She has to state, as she slips her knife back in to the web sheath on the back right side of her hip.

Luca Bandoni has posed:
"Could be I'm just leaving you back here in case it comes back," Luca comments. His tone is dry, matter of fact, but he's grinning. "I can do at least three times that," he adds. "I'll be in and back before you have time to worry." It's just a beat before he adds, "...and I promise, I won't even look at anything until I come back for you."

In his mind, it does make sense because he /can/ go further than on way less air. One of his biggest flaws isn't that he's a man or that he's anywhere near being a sexist sort of man. It's that he's used to giving 'strong suggestions' and have his men follow those suggestions on a call.

But no worries! Once he's taken the right measures to safely remove his gear that won't fit, handed it all off to Lara and is out of sight, it takes him no time to come back and signal that she should come the hell on.

Will they have time to get in and get out before that thing comes back? He's willing to risk it, is she? Luca's betting she is.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara gives the man a weary smirk, not for anything negative, just her British reaction to dry sarcasm. "Be careful." She warns, before she accepts his equipment, and finds as comfortable a place as she can to wait for his return. She eyes him throughout his beginning movements, and her light trails after him to help illuminate his way until he vanishes through the funnel of the collapsing corridor.

And then she waits. Left to simply breathe quietly inside of her own mask. Her eyes wander around the tunnel, roaming over the glowing substance on the wall, and eventually noticing she has it smeared over her left hand now, where she'd touched the wall, and likely across her back now that she's brushed herself along the wall. But, it doesn't seem to be harmful in anyway, so she ignores it.

By the time he returns, she'd switched places from where she originally was, and she rapidly offers him a breath of oxygen from his mask, should he wish it.

Soon there after, however, Lara is removing her own gear, moving quickly to hand him his gear, and with her own out in front of her, and her breath held, Lara blinks her eyes several times before they begin the process of passing through the tight squeeze of a passage, her legs kicking to carry her through it. She's brave, and it's showing off quite a lot, in this instance, as she follows his indicated lead again, moving toward where he tells her to go, her gear held in ways that keep it close, but still allows her to navigate as best as she is able in this underwater mystery.

Luca Bandoni has posed:
While he didn't absolutely require it, Luca goes with caution this time and takes that breath before leading her back the way he came. He's not even really winded when his head breaks water again. But he's a mutant cheater!

Not only does the tunnel open up, but it opens /all the way/ up. It opens into a round chamber with ceilings about fifteen feet high. It's roughly twenty feet in diameter and it's a /perfect/ circle. Not that he's going to pull out a compass and check.

At the very center, on a small island inside the room, is what appears to be a pile of rocks. Closer inspection will reveal that each of them is etched with strange ruins give off a faint blue glow. The almost look like casting stones built for a much larger hand than a human's.

Luca's already making his way toward the centerpiece of the room. Really, the man just cannot contain himself. "What do you think they are?" he asks like an eager kid on Christmas morning.

Lara Croft has posed:
Once Lara breaks the surface of the water, she slips the harness of her breathing gear back over her shoulders, but leaves the mask off to the side. She lets her eyes quickly dart around the chamber, with one hand moving to stroke her hair out of her face, so she can see more clearly.

"Remarkable." She quietly says. "It looks almost like an underwater research station, but... This feels like Atlantean architecture, similar to what I spoke of with regard to the Savage Lands..." She glances toward him on her left, before she begins to swim to that little island of stones.

Once she gets close to it, her eyes begin to roam over it, her lips softly moving as she runs reference translations through her mind. "It's a mixture of Atlantean language, and the language of an alien species that seemingly designed the technology that powers the Savage Lands existence in the heart of Antarctica..." She vaguely explains, while swimming toward the north with small strokes of her hands and feet. "I only know what some of the symbols mean. They're markers for referencing the purpose of this facility. Consider it an inventory of what pieces of machinery, are either on-hand, or were... or have yet to be installed in this site."

She begins to turn to look toward the walls around them. "There might be other tunnels..." She informs him, before she begins to swim forward, and suddenly stops. She kicked something under the surface of the water, and her eyes drop down to it, her light shining down beneath the water.

"A box." Lara says softly, as she lowers herself down to where only the back of her head is poking out of the water. A few seconds go by, before she breaks the surface again, and raises up a red, white, and black tarp? She glances at him, before she begins to struggle with it a moment, before unfurling it enough to cause it to float up against the surface of the water.

A WWII Nazi flag glimmering just against the water, and beneath the light from Lara's lamp.

"Of course..." Lara says grimly, as she holds the edges out in front of her.

Luca Bandoni has posed:
Whoa, yeah, everything that Lara said just sailed a hundred miles over Luca's head. He's been on some weird calls, hell one recently involved a bunch of zombies and a Liche. Whatever a Liche is... isn't that something in the spice cabinet?

Now that flag? He knows that flag. He /aced/ history in high school. Maybe not so much, high school was a bore. But who doesn't know that flag? "So what? Nazi's were really aliens?" He asks as he swims in for a closer look.

"What do we do with all this then? Leave it here? I mean... I could rig a safe explosion, close the entrance?" Clueless. It's not often that Luca follows someone else's lead, but it's also not often that his world expands so much outside the firehouse, his family in it and his blood family. He lives, pretty much, in an FDNY and NYPD bubble.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara releases the flag, and lets it either float away, or be taken by Luca if he should so desire. "No, this site is too important now to let it simply be swept away. I'll need to bring another team here, some of my associate from back in New York." She tells him as she is in the process of swimming over the box she'd pulled the flag off of. "Help me here." She says to the Firefighter then, as she stands on a small ledge beside the box, her hands going down toward her feet, where she grabs a old rope handle on the side of the box. "There should be another grip on the opposite side..." She tells him, as she waits for his aid. "Lets lift it up here." She glances just to her left where another stone ledge is just barely beneath the water.

Once the duo works together, they raise a fairly heavy box up out of the waters embrace, with sheets of it pouring off either sides, slowly revealing an old shipping container, marked in German writing. "The Nazis were explorers like few others..." Lara begins to explain, as she runs a hand across the faded lettering. "They, as I'm sure you know, had ambitions far beyond their time. Mixed with all the unbridled evil, was a fair amount of capable science, technology, and innovation... Some have hypothesized that not all of the wild technological advancements were 'theirs'." Lara states, insinuating something other worldly. "Now that we know aliens are not only real, but quite common... and increasingly so upon our world, it is much safer to make these leaps of logic."

With a click, snap, and a drop of an old lock down in to the water, the lid of the crate pops open, and Lara pushes it aside, causing it to loudly splash down in to the water as well.

Shee peers within the box. It is filled with all manner of military equipment, and a stack of metal containers with a leather bound journal ontop of it. The journal has German writing enscribed in to the old worn leather.

"A crew log, from ... Super Sub U-53." She states softly, as she gathers the journal up, and flips it open. The pages within are filled with hand written notes, and typed out documents, all in German military font, and stylings. "Well, I think we know why there are none of the chamber's installations present here." She adds, as her eyes glance over toward his. "Seems we were beat to this site by several decades..." She offers him the journal to flip through, if he'd like. "Do you speak German?" She asks him with a grin.

Lara turns then to the faintly glowing stones of that small island, and she swims over toward them, treading a bit of water as she reads the symbols. "I think..." She begins to stroke her hand over a few of them, one by one, causing them to glow brighter after she touches each one.

Suddenly, the whole chamber begins to rumble, shake, and vibrate!

Luca Bandoni has posed:
Of course he helps when needed, isn't that what he's there for? One thing about fighting fires for a living, the job sort of demands physical fitness if one wants to go home alive at the end of a nasty shift. Once everything is settled and opened, Luca does his best to listen to what Lara's throwing down. "So, Nazi's were just friends with evil aliens," he surmises from her explanation.

The question of speaking German is answered with, "Gesundheit?" So that's a big no. "Family's Italian." That he does speak fluently. But he does take a journal to flip through. Maybe it has pictures?

"Whoa, hey..." Now it's his turn to say, "Be careful."

Of course she isn't, just like he wouldn't be. So he can't really blame her when the chamber starts to rumble and shake. All he can do is grab whatever he can find and hold on. "Is it supposed to do that?!" he calls out over all the rumbling, shaking and vibrating noise. "Is this where the ceiling collapses or where the floor opens up to pit full of water snakes?!"

Lara Croft has posed:
A few more of the glowing symbol adorned rocks are touched by Lara's right hand, before she takes a step back, moving down another stone stair beneath the water, before she looks upward toward the domed ceiling high above. "It's supposed to do this." She tells him with her neck craned.

After just a few more moments, the domed roof begins to split open, and where should be countless gallons of water pouring down over them, only a mere matter of droplets come raining down from above. The domed ceiling spreads apart, creating a yawning tunnel of blackness above their heads, followed by movement further up, until they're slowly revealed a sight path all the way up to the sky above. A passage directly up to the surface of the sea.

Lara stares up at the new opening, high above, before she speaks. "I hope that didn't clip the boat." She quietly notes, giving hint to a hopefully averted disaster with their ride home.

"Lets put the lid back on that box." She tells him then, as the shaking, rumbling, and vibrations have subsided again.

She crouches down in to the water again, to retrieve the handle of the box lid, her shoulders once more submerged beneath the shimmering surface of the water.

"I'm going to flood the chamber." She admits to him. "it'll give us a quicker route to and from..." She says as she begins to hoist her side of the lid back up toward the surface.

"The Nazis weren't friends with the aliens. The aliens have likely been gone for nearly a million years." She explains, with only a few grunts and noises from the strain of raising the lid back up to cover the German military container.

Once they have it properly sealed again, Lara exhales sharply. "The Nazis found this place, and rapidly began to try and exploit the technology that was left behind..."

Luca Bandoni has posed:
"Holy fucking shit," Luca whispers softly as he watches the entire roof just open up like some sort of missile silo. Following Lara's lead and she doesn't even have a bugle on her hat. But she does have the expertise under her ponytail, so that counts for something. He helps with the box again, although his gaze is still /up/ in sort of a rapt fascination.

There was probably a time, much much early on in Lara's life when she just knew she was hooked. It probably happened for her before she was out of diapers. Well, the expression on Luca's face right now, in this moment, is the same as would have been on that little girl's face. He's /hooked/, line and sinker.

"So, they've just always been friendless thieving pricks? That tracks."

Then he backtracks to, "Flood the chamber and we're just going to float up?" Somehow he's thinking 'float' might be too gentle of a word?"

Lara Croft has posed:
With the box secure, Lara exhales a distracted bit of laughter, as she starts to tread water around the bank of glowing stones, searching for the specific markings that she is familiar with. Her mind is a curious one, with a bank of over a dozen languages learned in her 26 years on this planet, she just seems to absorb languages, as she immerses herself within them.

"When global domination is your game, you'll take whatever leg up that you can get to reach it... I would guess." She says, with her eyes downccast on the stones before her. "Grab your gear, and hold on to the handle of the box."

With a little lean forward, Lara begins touching the stones in a specific pattern, a upward facing triangle, followed by a touch of her hands in a circular pattern. The blue lights are replaced with a glowing, pulsing, emerald hue to their runes, and Lara takes a step back.

The rumbling returns, the water's surface scattering as the vibrations seem to be coming from below them now.

Lara moves to the opposite side of the German container, her hands adjusting her breathing tank on her shoulders, before she takes the container in her right hand by its handle. Her eyes glance up, and then down around her half-submerged legs.

With a sudden rush of motion in the water, the surface level begins to creep upward, gaining speed with every second. "Here we go."

It doesn't take long before the whole chamber is flooded from below, and the pair are left with no other option but to kick their feet and rise up with it, headed up toward the open tunnel to the sky above!

Luca Bandoni has posed:
Up to this point, Luca hadn't thought much about his gear. He was entirely too entranced by everything going on. He winds up hitching his tank over just one shoulder and to hell with anything that comes loose and gets left behind on the trip /up/. It can be replaced.

...and there they go. Any normal, mostly clueless person would probably have some serious skid marks in their shorts by now. Luca is absolutely loving it.

...even if he's wondering if they're going to get shot out of the top like human cannonballs from a cannon. They'll just land somewhere in the bay anyway, right? It'll be fun!

Whenever they do finally break the surface and wherever that may be, Luca barks out a laugh that's nothing but pure giddy joy from a grown ass man. He doesn't giggle, grown men do not giggle, but damned he's giddy.

Lara Croft has posed:
The trip upward was relatively carefree. Once the water level reached the upward tunnel, every three or four feet a new layer of runes became suddenly bright with varying shades of color, and Lara spoke loudly enough over the rushing water around the edges of the tunnel to explain. "It is sensory data. This tunnel was a military station, I think, and it is providing those utilizing the tunnel with information about whatever mission they were on. I believe it is giving us weather updates across the world." She explains of the runes, as she holds on to one edge of the German container, moving to keep above the rising water levels.

Eventually, they crested the top, and were greeted with a sight of the sea all around them, along with the boat about fifty meters to the south. It was a simple enough swim, and the container seemed designed to be bouyant enough to make it fairly easy to swim with.

Once they were at the boat, and the trunk was placed upon it, Lara worked herself up on to the deck as well, helping him, and vice versa where needed.

She found a place to settle down for a moment, and looked back toward the clear ring of a raised tunnel poking up out of the sea from where they'd come.

"I have to contact my team back in New York... We'll have to go over everything we found in the trunk, and likely return here again for a closer inspection." She states, her eyes now going over to him. "If we can track down what the Germans took from this site, it could... either explain a lot more, or even stop the terrible after-effects of an evil legacy left behind by that sinister regime."

She smirks faintly toward him a moment later. "This is a big find, you know. If you keep this up, you're going to become quite a name in the field of archaeological discovery..."

Luca Bandoni has posed:
Once everything's finished and wrapped up in a neat bow of box and people on the boat, Luca just has to take a minute. Just a minute to sit and wrap his mind better around everything he just saw, experienced, heard. The man runs into burning buildings for a living. He never really dreamed there'd be anything else in the world that could come close to that rush, but this did.

It didn't surpass it, because there's still nothing in the world like knowing a person would have certainly died if you hadn't chose to run into that building. But it was so close. A little closer still when talk starts about stopping terrible after-effects.

It might not seem like he's even going to reply to Lara when he stands up and pulls his FDNY jacket off the railing it was hanging from. He fishes around in the pockets, finds a nice expensive Cuban cigar - probably his absolute worst guilty pleasure - and lights it.

"I'm not even sure I can /spell/ archaeological," he admits. "But at the end of the day, if all this," he waves his cigar wielding hand in the direction of that raised tunnel, "Can help set things a little more right in the world AND give this sort of rush? I think I can learn to spell it."

He's hooked, line and sinker, no doubt about it.