17876/Keep the Genie in the Bottle

Keep the Genie in the Bottle
Date of Scene:	07 May 2024
Location:	Run down tenement building: Hell's Kitchen
Synopsis:	Luca does what Luca does best, finds trouble. Somehow Sara managed to keep the Genie in the Bottle but she might just let it out when she meets up with Luca later.
Cast of Characters:	Luca Bandoni, Sara Pezzini

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Luca Bandoni has posed:
It started with a one message in Sara's voicemail - Roscoe, "Hey, call me back." If the call wasn't returned right off the bat, a second - Roscoe, "Sara, Luca's missing, call me back."

No explanation of how Luca went missing or really any hint as to what's going on at all, but for Roscoe to have called in the 'big guns', he must be pretty worried.

Worried and walking around with his cell phone in his hand willing it to ring and show Sara's number on the caller ID.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Sitting at her desk, Sara had been reading through recent reports when she looked at the time. Picking her phone up, she listened to the first and then second voice mail, and immediately jumped out of her seat.

"I'll be back when I can," she announced to the desk sergeant even as she was dialing Roscoe and headed out the door.

Luca Bandoni has posed:
Roscoe doesn't even wait for Sara to speak before launching into it, "I don't even know if it's anything to worry about," but he's calling her so it must be? "Kid wandered into the firehouse yesterday, maybe fourteen or so. Seemed like he was in trouble, wanted to ask for help, but didn't. Banger stuff, is what I'm thinking. He left a back-pack behind, it had a letter from his school in it with an address." The more Roscoe talks, the faster he talks.

He sounds like he might think time's running out?

"Luca took off today to go check on the kid. It's been hours now and his phone's going straight to voicemail..." That's not ominous at all. "Do you want the address?" That's probably a stupid question.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Pulling her helmet on her head, right over the earpiece for her phone, Sara listened to Roscoe explode. He has good reason to be worried, Luca never went off the grid, at least not without telling someone he was going to.

"Take a breath," she said calmly, even though she was in no way calm. "Give me the address, and I'll go find out what's going on."

Her gut was telling her, even as she pulled out into traffic and sped up, that Luca was in serious trouble. Gangs didn't like First Responders, police of course they loathed, but they didn't like fire fighters either. Gangers hated people poking their nose into their business as well, so that was already two strikes against Luca.

"What the hell was he thinking?" she muttered, only partly aware her phone was still on. "He's not a cop! If he'd just called me, I could have checked on the kid, I'm trained for this!"

Luca Bandoni has posed:
He was thinking like Luca: Kid came to us first, means he must trust us? Or something along those lines. Regardless, it wasn't his smartest move to date - probably not the stupidest, but definitely not the smartest.

The address leads to a small tenement property in Hell's Kitchen. It's one of those buildings that just screams drugs and criminal elements. The roaches in that place can probably cart off a full grown man.

Especially if that man is dead and not struggling.

It's absolutely not anywhere Luca should be without back-up.

But there's his car parked on the curb. The '68 Mustang he's been working to restore for about a year now - it's almost there, just needs paint. Right now it's still primer gray. It's a wonder it still has wheels and hubcaps.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Pulling up right beside the Mustang, Sara is barely fully stopped before she yanks the helmet off. Narrowing her eyes slightly she looks around the area, taking in the location of the gangs 'eyes'. They usually used younger kids, even at night, who looked like they were just hanging out or playing games.

Once she's off the bike, the helmet tossed onto the seat, she heads for the building. Thankfully she didn't scream "COP", her demeanor and the way she moved never gave her away. She could just be some Italian coming for drugs, but she could also have already triggered all the alarms with the 'eyes'.

If there is no one to stop her at the main door, she'll head inside and up to the apartment from the address.

Luca Bandoni has posed:
There is one younger boy sitting on the steps leading up to the building. He looks to be, well, about fourteen years old. He's skinny, a little dirty, and sporting a backwards baseball hat and a white and blue bandanna tucked into his back pocket. He's frantically typing away on a cheap looking cell phone.

The kid stands as Sara approaches and turns as if he's going to dart inside and up the steps in a hurry.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
"Hey kid, where's Luca?" Sara asks bluntly, prepared to follow and stop him if her words don't stop him.

"I know he came here for you, I know he's still here, just tell me where he is and we can both help you." She is assuming a lot, but what surprises her more than that is how she is feeling deep inside herself.

Witchblade of course picks up on the level of panic she is feeling, the fear, the pain over the idea of losing Luca. The entity is ready to unleash hell on this gang for her, but she's keeping him in check.

Luca Bandoni has posed:
The kid immediately stops and turns around and then immediately looks back at the door to the building when Luca's name is mentioned. He's not going to win any academy awards, that's a certainty. "Don't know who you're talking about," he replies with just a little too much defiance in his tone. It's defiance used to mask fear - tough-guy talk even when the talker isn't actually so tough.

A man and woman start screaming at one another from inside the building, easily heard through an open window. It's nothing unusual for this building, the kid doesn't even look up.

The next sound, despite being one that's probably heard often as well, is one that might shoot Sara's anxiety absolutely through the roof.

A single gunshot.

The battling couple are both still screaming at one another, so the gunshot had nothing to do with that.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Anxiety is only one word for it, sheer panic might better describe it. If she hadn't been trained to function under fire, she would have lost it right there. Instead what she does is nod to the kid and head into the building past him.

Does she want to help him? Yes, she would love to be able to get the kid out, but right now he's not the one in trouble, Luca is. Even before the door can close behind her, the tendrils of metal spring out from the silver bracelet and form the Gauntlet right over the sleeve of her jacket. She wasn't there as a cop, she was there as Luca's sister, an Avenger, and someone this gang really, really did not want to piss off.

Taking the stairs two at a time, she bolts upwards to the apartment number she was given, all the while praying the gun shot was someone else and not Luca, but her gut... she knew it was him who just got shot.

Knowing full well that Witchblade will armor her up in the seconds before someone can actually shoot her, she pauses for a single moment then kicks the door in. With 'shots fired' she can justify the entry, but truth be told... she was the Witchblade, she didn't need to justify anything.

Luca Bandoni has posed:
Does Sara walk into her worst nightmare? Luca lying on the floor in a pool of blood - possibly bleeding out before help can even arrive. Of course as long as he's alive /enough/, she can save him - or Witchblade can.

It has to seem like an eternity for everything in the room to come into focus.

...only for her to see that Luca isn't shot and lying on the floor in a puddle of blood. No, he's very much alive and kicking. A split lip, a bruise to one temple, what's probably a graze from that fired bullet to one shoulder and probably a few other odd and end injuries that aren't visible, but he's alive.

He's on one knee in the middle of the room because that one knee is square in the middle of the back of an obvious banger - same white and blue bandanna - colors worn by the Scorched Skulls. The Skulls really aren't a gang to mess around with, yet here's Luca messing around with...

Knee on the guy's back, one arm pulled up painfully behind him and the gun kicked a good five feet away from them both.

To his credit, despite his lack of official police training, Luca doesn't get startled and let the man go when Sara comes busting down the door.

Instead he just glances up and asks, "Roscoe called you?" He knows the man all too well. "I had it under control."

In the moment, he certainly seems to, but what about in the hours before he found an opening to make his move?

The kid from downstairs stands in the doorway, wide eyed and trembling a little bit. "He shouldna come here," he states quietly. "Shut-up, Owen you little son of -" The man's words are cut off when Luca snaps that arm up a little further.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Single breath, that is all Sara takes before she strides into the room.

"Of course he called me," she states, no anger, no fear, not even relief in her tone. She is all business at the moment. "You don't go off the grid, we both know it."

She doesn't do anything about the guy on the floor with Luca's knee in his back, in fact she doesn't acknowledge his existence at all. Once she's in the room near Luca, she looks back to Owen. "Don't listen to him... in fact, you don't have to listen to him ever again if you don't want to."

Her eyes shift back to Luca. At the height he is presently at, he can get a real good view of the swirling mist in the rest stone of the Gauntlet. Witchblade was looking at the situation, determining what he would like to do, and wondering if Sara would let him do it.

"So what was your plan Luca, just come and ask nicely?" she then snorts, reaching into her back pocket to remove a set of handcuffs. "Go on, cuff him. You earned it."

Luca Bandoni has posed:
Luca doesn't answer questions until he has the man in cuffs - probably a lot too tight. Then he stands. "I wasn't off grid." Okay, so maybe he was. "Roscoe obviously knew where I was." Only because he found the kid's left-behind backpack, but that's just a small irrelevant detail, right?

He rolls the shoulder that isn't throbbing and then shrugs. "I was just checkin' on the kid when this guy," who gets a boot to the side - not too hard but hard enough - "... walked in."

He glances down at her wrist and adds, "Keep the Genie in the bottle, yeah? I'm fine." Only because luck was on his side. It could very well have ended with him shot in the head and found floating in the river.

Luca's gaze strays past Sara to Owen. "Do you want out?" he asks bluntly. Owen gives a tentative nod in reply. "A'ite, I'll call someone." Probably extended family that works in a gang unit and has connections in CPS to find the good homes.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Another single breath is taken, keeping the calm, it wouldn't do to punch him right now, especially with the Gauntlet in place.

Reaching up and laying her right gauntleted hand on his shoulder, a wave of healing energy washes over him. It was the only option Sara had to keep herself from screaming at him right there.

Looking back to the kid she offers a nod and a smile, then she looks down at the guy on the floor. "Unit already inbound," she states to Luca, now that he's healed she removes her hand. "The Genie stayed in the bottle, but you weren't fine. For now, get the kid and get out of here. I'll deal with the report, and come by your apartment afterwards."

Luca Bandoni has posed:
Luca sucks in his own little huff of frustration when Sara heals him. It's not that he's not grateful, because he is. He's grateful that she cares about him that much. It's just always a little jab to his pride or something - it just always rubs him the wrong way. But he doesn't say anything, not here.

Instead he walks past Sara to Owen. He rests a hand on the kid's shoulder and, in contrast to his previous bluntness bordering on cold, he smiles that damnable disarming smile of his down at Owen. "C'mon kid, we'll get pizza before we go see my cousin."

On the way out, he calls out, "Don't forget the beer!" in regards to Sara saying she'll come by afterwards. Does he know he's in deep shit? Maybe. Would he have done any of this differently? Probably not.