Crossover Escape: Gotta be more than Lucky to survive

1.2 Starting trouble

Luca got up the next morning and headed for the kitchen. He’d just poured himself a glass of juice when he heard the front door open. He deliberately kept his back to the door so that Domonic’s enforcer would feel superior. Luca had never understood why the head of the city’s underworld surrounded himself with goons that liked to jump to conclusions. He must like them to make him feel smarter. It was the only conclusion Luca could come to.

The sound of muffled footsteps grew closer, and Luca shook his head in disappointment. Seriously, did this guy not have creaky floors growing up? Luca pushed his glasses up and pulled the half gloves he wore firmly in place. He’d been prepared for continuous interruptions during the day but hadn’t expected a visit from the underworld boss after they’d reached an agreement.

“Not what I expected.” The enforcer sneered as he raked a look over Luca’s casual appearance. Light brown hair, slightly tanned skin, average features, not too tall and lightly muscled. The most interesting feature Luca had was his hazel eyes, which seemed to shift in colour when the environment changed. However, that was not apparent given the glasses perched on Luca’s nose.

“Something important? Else just make yourself at home and I’ll get back to my packing,” Luca commented blandly before going back to making himself some breakfast.

“You’re really just going to go into the unknown for an out? Not interested in staying?” the enforcer prodded, and Luca raised a brow as he diced an apple. With his back to the man he couldn’t see his expression, but Luca tossed a mental coin as to whether the man was actually curious or had been coached. Since he was a new face, it could be he didn’t know, or it could be that Dominic wanted to try a stranger to get some info. As if that would be likely.

“Boss isn’t giving me another out, I was sold in. Why would I stay if I could leave.” Luca shook his head as he added the banana and orange to his fruit salad. A sensor alert for the back of his house popped up on Luca’s glasses and Luca concluded that it was coached questioning.

“Cold blooded.” The enforcer wore an impressed expression.

Must have been sent for his acting skills. “Emotionally uninterested.” Luca shifted as he spoke so he could sit on the stool by his kitchen bench.

“With your skills, you could have a solid team and fame and you’re just going to walk?” the enforcer raised his brows in disbelief.

“As if the boss could handle a situation where I have a consistent good team.” Luca studiously ignored the clipped footsteps down his corridor as he dismissed the enforces inquisition to focus on his food.

“Always so aware. You’re too charming with that sort of backing I’d have to kill you” Domonic entered the room and casually settled into the seat beside Luca.

“You’d have to try,” Luca agreed as he scooped up the last bite of his breakfast. “Thankfully, I’m not interested in signing others' death warrants for your moods.”

“If you weren’t such a loner, you’d be a real problem for me.” Dominic nodded to himself while Luca suddenly received a series of notifications on his glasses. Rӓv, you have excelled yourself at making it impossible to miss notifications.

[Ghost: Good morning all and a wonderful morning it is. The suits came back, the shadow dropped in. I have nothing but guests.]

Luca looked at the sensor pings all around his house as they attacked the enforcers stationed around. Shifting his hand, Luca typed quickly. [Lucky: Well be careful of the additional guests. They don’t seem house broken.] Luca then turned in his seat and looked out the side window. “So who hates you today?”

In line with Luca’s comment was the sound of something breaking. Better not have been one of the windows the stained glass is on. Dominic leapt to his feet as his enforcers closed ranks around him. “Out the front door, its full view and has no one there.” Luca waved a hand vaguely as he flicked his wrist and two daggers appeared in his hands. “I need to give the guests a lesson in manners.”

Dominic didn’t respond, just hustled out of the house with his enforcers. Luca monitored the movements of the people around his house and then raised a brow when the infiltrators didn’t leave.

[Ghost: It’s a party I’m here.]

[Rӓv: As if we need your help]

[Holly: Ah? You’re all in the same place?]

[Tails: Flew in over the last few weeks since the WIC operates out of here, easier to do the fly sooner over later.]

[Holly: Eheh? Me to me to I’ll get on the plane right now.]

[Lucky: That would be very strange now. Come once you agree to participate.]

[Holly: Puffedcheeks.jpg Sharpsalute.jpg I will get the job done right.] Luca shook his head. The guy really didn’t come across as a Yakuza initiate at all. Probably why he wants out.

Luca sidled to the side of his back door and waited till it opened, then yanked in the infiltrator and struck them hard twice in the chest before Luca tossed them back outside. Definitely don’t want to make a mess in the house. That would be annoying. Following the man outside, he intended to discourage any attempts to go inside that would leave his house trashed.

From out of the darkness three figures rushed him swathed in dark cloaks and clothes . They should have had a difficult time moving but they managed just fine as Luca dodged for a minute as he processed their fighting style, such as it was, more speed then technique. With a twist, he kicked out but was mostly avoided save for knocking the hood of the cloak off. Not that that told him much as there was a second hood on the shirt and the man wore a faceless white mask.

As the fight continued, it became clear that the group was attempting to disable as opposed to kill. In fact, it seemed more like moderately injure rather than permanent harm was the aim they just didn’t seem properly trained for it. Which was fine by Luca. He responded in kind, breaking bones and disabling joints where possible. He had no interest in killing either.

When the fight finished the group withdrew and Luca released a sigh of relief. Realistically, if it hadn’t been home ground that fight would have been a very hard thing. The sheer number and weird resilience made it difficult enough. It helped that they didn’t seem to be interested in lethal force, but still. When the attackers hadn’t used lethal force, Luca had put his knives away but the whole thing had been strange. The only new thing that had happened recently was the WIC invitation, so it was the only association Luca could make.

[Lucky: Seems someone doesn’t want people participating in the WIC competition.]

[Ghost: Weird not shadow opposing despite the death feud but some unknowns?]

[Lucky: Less concerned about the ‘death feud’, more concerned with the random additional funds, charity and development should be expensive and yet they seem cost free for WIC]

[Ghost: The game is going to be very fun]

[Rӓv: Or more deadly than a shadow death match]

[Holly: Shadow death match? You’ve played]

[Tails: Is a hunting game. The last man standing is the apex predator. Lucky we’ve never matched each other for that.]

[Holly: Huh? They say I’m too valuable, so I’ve never played that.]

Yes, very lucky, though part of that is them not wanting us to meet. They just didn’t count on our fathers having introduced us and Rӓv being a tech wiz to connect us up. “Though I suppose we all have our specialities.” [Lucky: Holly you get the care packages yet?]

[Holly: Yes, but I don’t understand most of what is in here. My stuff can’t be shipped so I’ll have to hand over on meeting hangdog.jpg]

[Lucky: Rӓv’s is the most important. The glasses, contacts and earnings are the comms system we use with the glove being the keyboard interface. Getting used to the keyboard is the most important, because there are a lot of times when we need to communicate and speaking over the coms is potentially dangerous.]

[Holly: Oh? Oh! Good thing I already have a daith piercing then.] The system was ingenious. The inner ear piercing worked as the coms speaker. If one side failed, the other side was automatically activated or could be activated with the manual override. The coms were connected to a heads-up display on the glasses that was backed up by a contact version that activated if the glasses were taken a certain distance away. Luca didn’t know what tech Rӓv used for the contacts, but he barely noticed he was wearing them unless they needed to be activated.

The system was designed to operate with a set of operational gloves that let the user operate a metaphysical keyboard to send silent messages with voice to text and text to voice conversation options for when silence of clear vision is necessary. The standard setting was subtitled audio that indicated the source of a voice through the coms. Luca had a text line receival process with low volume audio, with a quick key to turn the audio off altogether. The visual interface showed a map at the minimum, often with pertinent display markers set by Rӓv.

[Rӓv: I’ll set up a private channel for you to practice with me on Holly. Best to get that sorted as soon as possible. Without the Ruski’s commentary.]

[Ghost: Awe, I give good commentary you sucking joy from life]

[Rӓv: Good.]

[Holly: Oooh? Oh! I was wondering how you guys were still talking when you were at Lucky’s. That’s so cool.]

Luca left them to practice as he turned to do a bit of cleanup. Pausing for a moment as he looked around, he frowned. “Grigori, have you done the bodies already?”

“Nyet, I turned around and oni ischezat” the Russian accented voice preceded the man materialising beside Luca.

Luca’s heart jumped because, even though he’d known he was there, he hadn’t been sure where. Ghost was a truly apropos call sign. Thankfully, though Luca managed to prevent any outward signs that he hadn’t known exactly where the man was as he turned casually to face him.

Ghost had the typical Russian good looks, pale skin, pale hair, and pale eyes lean but toned build. He might have given off a harsh or foreboding impression if it weren’t for the mischievous smile on his face, though it wasn’t as prominent as usual, likely for the same reason Luca couldn’t relax despite there being no more attackers on his property. Disappearing attackers was a real concern. They hadn’t been trying to kill, but they hadn’t been gentle either.

“Nothing for it if there gone then there gone. Not like we want to get to killing or such, that is the slope we’ve been running against, not going to slide down now if I can help it.”

“Da, shadow just loosening claws no jumping into mouth of beast.”

“Precisely, since you heard coming in?”

“Da, have idea for trick kit.”

“Then by all means let’s get stuff done.” Note to self, make sure to give Holly a full equipment run down at some point before the competition starts.