Chapter Text
Even though he'd been through it all before, luca still was nervous with his team. He had gone through a perfectly fine match with them before but it was still stressful to work with them.
The woman whom had showed him nothing but kindness, and yet still didn't have a brain in her head, the prospector who'd glowered into his soul and called him pathetic in seven different languages just by his glance, and the man who only once allowed him close to teach him how to dance again.
Luca was confident in their skills but not his. He could hear heavy footsteps behind the hunters curtain, and he almost gave up science in that moment to become a religious man, just to hope and pray that it would be Bane or Leo or anyone else than he thought it was. When he realized everyone had already been readied up as he observed his surroundings, he too prepared for the match.
"Good luck, guys!"
"Mhmm." Norton huffed back, rolling his eyes.
"You too!" demi announced happily, setting her drinks all in order.
Aesop had only nodded, but it was good that he'd acknowledged luca at all.
With the shatter of glass, the team blanked out, only to wake up in a christmasy area, no one around. Luca knew he was in immediate danger, being the sole decoder on the team, but he would manage. Norton was a competent kiter, demi was more than eager to give him a heal and aesop... Aesop was unpredictable. Usually he helped Luca but sometimes...
Sometimes it felt like he wanted to see the other panic.
Speaking of the devil, aesop had just jogged up to him to catch his appearance, however he didn't even stay long enough for luca to say hello. That was fine, luca was immersed in his decoding process, barely noticing how quickly his heart beat had ramped up.
It was only until the cipher started sparking that he practically leaped away, only to narrowly dodge a massive sword that crackled with energy.
It turns out, when you pray to someone you don't believe in, they will not hear it.
Luca could barely muster a scream when the towering undead figure approached him. His whole body froze in place. He should move, he should run- but he couldn't. He could feel tremors in his chest which quickly turned into frightened wheezes and a coughing fit as he finally broke free from his "trance" and skittered backwards, unable to hear the panicked whimpers he made as he turned to pick up the pace.
He could already hear it now, his teammates laughing at his terrible performance, being sneered at by Norton, reassured by demi and probably completely ignored by Aesop. Why was Campbell his biggest worry? He could get seriously hurt from this, and he needed- no, he was REQUIRED to do good.
Make them think you're worth it.
Because your father mentor didn't.
vaulting, and barely missing a terror shock, Luca ran as fast as his legs could carry him, the little muscle that he had left burning while snow crunched under his feet. He just had to keep going.
A faint "Come On! keep it up!" chimed in from a long ways away. Perhaps it was demi? She was the type to-
*WHAM.* First hit. Sure it wasn't painful at the time, but Luca knew that he was only numb because he was freezing. He was nothing out here but skin and bones, if anything, he was the last one who should be kiting here.
Turning back to make sure the Undead was still far enough away was his big mistake. Luca froze again to watch the massive hunter swing his sword again, this time an even larger burst of electricity writhing around it.
No words of encouragement could seal the wound it reopened. Luca's eyes we're wide as he watched the sword come down on him, a shock rattling through his entirety, flooding his brain. He couldn't think anymore, all he remembered was the weightless feeling as time slowed. He was falling back, just like when Alva had shoved him down under a false accusation.
Except this time the one doing the action of influencing danger would not be the one to suffer the consequences ending in a possible foreseeable demise.
Luca would.