It had been a long time since Johnny had ever worn a suit this long, the way the cloth rested on his arms made him aware of each time he moved, to ensure he didn't accidentally tear the fabric he kept thinking that he was training with restricted movement gear. Thankfully the blissful smells of the Italian restaurant had a calming effect, both on himself and his mother.
Raggiani's was a small two-star restaurant with a botanical garden where they grew legacy ingredients. Mama swore by this place, but it always seemed like the sort of place that had been someone's vision, and that person was now gone. Thankfully there was no big lunch rush going on, which made sense as it was half-past two.
"Ah yes, the Bravos. Your party is waiting for you." Said the receptionist, making a flourish before smoothing out his red vest and motioning towards the dining room.
"Waiting for us?" Asked Johnny.
"Johnny! Bunny. Glad you could make it." The nasal, slightly shrill voice of Carl Chryniszzswics called out. Arrayed on the table were five wine bottles, and a serving girl was seated on either side of the well-dressed nerd.
"Carl, thanks for getting us reservations on such short notice." Said Bunny, taking a seat and setting her white package on the table.
"Anything for my business partners." Said Carl, gently waving away the two girls, one of whom gave him a pinch on the cheek as she walked to the bar. "I was just having a little wine tasting while waiting for you." Johnny thought Carl was tasting more than the wine but kept that to himself. Carl was running double duty with a law and accounting firm and had deals to buy out a couple of banks as well as one of his competitors. "How did your family meeting go?" Filling up another glass, he swirled and smelled the bouquet.
"Most of them left without a word. To them, the Will was an open and shut deal before they even got to the office. The only surprises were something about Catalina and the box Mama got from Jebedissa." Said Johnny, as Bunny opened the box to reveal the strange object.
"May I?" Asked Carl, taking the bronze spindle from Bunny, he pulled a jeweler's loupe from his pocket to inspect the details and the crystal at the center.
"You keep one of those in your pocket?" Asked Bunny.
"I'm descended from, and half of my business partners are, Ukrainian Jews. I was practically born with one of these on my face." Said Carl, turning the dial in his hand as he examined the artifact. "The jewel in the center is odd, from some angles it's opaque and others it is clear. Very strange. That's quite the heirloom you've got there." Handing it back to Bunny, Carl picked up his briefcase and pulled out a folder as the waiter came with lunch. "Sorry if it's presumptuous of me, but I ordered lunch for the two of you."
A plate of butternut ravioli with alfredo sauce was set before Bunny and an antipasto pizza was put on an elevated tray before Johnny as Carl slid his envelope across the table.
"Ooh, this does look good." Said Bunny, "Thanks, sweetie."
"What's that?" Asked Johnny, nodding at the package.
"Just some forms I need you to authorize. Business has started to pick up with the Gym, and I need your permission to make a few essential investments." Said Carl, taking a drink.
"Essential?" Asked Johnny.
"You've done some good work building a brand name Johnny, all those celebrity workouts you've been posting online has generated a lot of buzz. I think we have an opportunity for expansion. But it's a bit of a risk, going to use up the rest of your savings." Said Carl.
Chewing on a katamala olive, Johnny, pulled out the forms and signed without hesitation before handing them back to Carl. As it was done, he paused before reaching for another slice.
"I won't betray your trust Johnny. We've got a lot of work ahead of us partner." Carl said like a weight had come off his shoulders.
Johnny couldn't bring himself to say that it wasn't a matter of trust. He had been so distracted this past week he could have signed back up for the Foreign Legion and not blinked twice.
"Yeah, Carl." Said Johnny, feeling his pocket rumble from a text. Reaching down to check it, he found an odd message.
I need to talk to you about your dead Aunt's boyfriend "Vogel". Will be in touch – J.B.
"Strange." Said Johnny, who just as he was about to set his phone it rang with a call, the number in the system was Top Cat. "Excuse me, I have to take this call."
"Johnny, where are you?" Said Top Cat, sounding very concerned, even a little scared.
"Downtown LA, this restaurant called Raggiani's." Answered Johnny. "Did you find my friends? Is something wrong?" Asked Johnny.
"We found the van, it's at Ruby Memorial Hospital. We haven't been able to get inside, so we don't know where they are, but we learned their observation rooms are on the third floor. Thing is, we're not the only ones scoping this place out. A weird guy in a purple suit and top hat showed up about ten minutes ago and I've got a really bad vibe about him, and it's more than my just my usual distrust of people in top hats talking here."
"I'm on my way there." Said Johnny, remembering the scarred man in the purple suit at the Will reading. "Carl, can you give Mama a ride home?"
"Sure Johnny, something wrong? You barely touched your pizza." Said Carl.
Giving his mother a kiss on her cheek, Johnny turned back before leaving. "You really do look good in that dress Mama. Love you." Dismissing a bad feeling, Johnny clutched the keys and make his way out to the car, following the GPS to the Hospital.
As he drove past the front doors, the shattered glass and people groaning in pain on the ground was all the warning he needed. Parking on the curve, Johnny stepped out of his mother's Pink Cadillac and tightened his stomach muscles to prepare himself for anything.
"Glad I didn't eat too much pizza." Said Johnny, as he walked into the hospital. The dark interior was like something out of a horror movie, bodies of orderlies and security guards lined the hallway as a few brave nurses ran about to stabilize the seriously wounded. The sounds of sirens in the distance meant that police had likely been notified after the attack, but it would take them a few minutes to secure the building after their arrival and from the look of things that was time nobody had.
Finding the stairway, Johnny ran up to the third floor, pausing at the door just long enough to hear sounds of a struggle ending on the other side. Opening the door, Johnny ran to his side, hearing gunshots ricocheting off the wall behind him as he dove behind a wall.
"Johnny. Watch out for that guy." A low voice groaned from the nearby ground.
"Top Cat?' Looking down Johnny saw the gang of cats sprawled out on the floor.
"They're in room 314, Johnny. But that guy, we jumped him as he was reloading, but it's too dark in here for me to use Puttin' on the Ritz. He's strong. Get him for us." Said Top Cat, leaning against the wall as he struggled to stand up.
"Are you saying one guy did all of this?" Asked Johnny, surprised at the extent of the damage and injured people. Clenching his fists, Johnny stood upright and dashed across the hallway, dodging gunshots.
"Oh, for crying out loud, it's hard to see what I'm shooting in the dark. Maybe I should have thought through my plan to turn off the power." Said the attacker, as the sound of bullet casings fell to the floor.
'That's my chance.' Thought Johnny, charging the man as he was reloading his gun. With a jumping roundhouse, he closed the distance and made contact but only managed to knock the man's top hat from his head as he had ducked. Pivoting on his landing, Johnny used the momentum of his turn to bring a big right down on the man's head. In a split second, he felt his hand make contact and seem to slide away from the man and into the floor beside him. The only result was a broken floor tile and a sore hand.
"Quite the punch you've got." Said the man, who looked like he was wearing a light blue helmet and shoulder pads. As he stood, the armor seemed to peel off his body and hover directly behind him.
'Is that a Stand?' Thought Johnny, judging his distance from the man and the attacks he would be likely to perform.
"Wait a minute. I recognize you. You were at that Will reading." Said the man in purple.
"Yeah, I saw you as well, strong-arming that other fella. And now you're here shooting up a hospital." Inching closer, Johnny readied himself.
Despite the situation, the man in purple seemed extremely confident with himself, but that started to break as the sounds of police sirens were finally arriving outside. In an instant, his self-assurance became a nervous look in his single eye, like he knew he was running out of time, and that single moment of distraction was all Johnny needed.
"Mama Told Me Not To Come." Shouted Johnny, summoning his Stand. "Hya-ya-ya-ya-ya." A barrage of fists pummeled the man to the ground, but the moment his knees touched the floor, the blue stand wrapped around the man, causing each punch from his Stand to fly wild and never make contact.
"Here to play the hero, are you? Bet you think you'd come to the rescue and save the day with that stand of yours. Life isn't that easy kid. You can't even land a single hit with that stand of yours. Let me introduce you to mine, Twentieth Century Boy." Glowing with a bright blue aura, he stood up and took advantage of Johnny's slightly dazed state to reload his six-shooter.
"I don't think so." Getting his footing back, Johnny tackled the man into the nearby room and began punching him while on the ground. Thinking his fist could be faster than the man's stand he felt himself contact the cheekbone, only to feel all friction vanish as he slid to the other side of the room, crashing into the wall between two unoccupied hospital beds.
"Glad to know that fools didn't get any smarter over the last hundred years." Finishing his reload, the man moaned in ecstasy as he touched his scar before focusing his gaze on Johnny and firing.
If anything, it felt like a pinch. Reaching down to his abdomen, Johnny looked to see his hand covered in blood. What was strange was how it didn't hurt. Not the first one, or the other five bullets unloaded into his chest. Unable to even raise his head, it was less like he was falling forward, rather it was more like the floor came up to hit him in the face. The first pain was the strain of his muscles to draw breath into his lungs, the sharpness of his cough as his lungs fought to expel the blood filling them.
The spent shell casings of the revolver hit the ground by the man's black shoes. He was already making his way to the door while reloading, not even giving Johnny a second thought as he walked next door with murder on his mind.
Reaching out with a hand covered in blood, Johnny crawled his way to the door.
'There's still a chance. I can't let it end like this, I won't.' He thought as the slow, deliberate sound of five gunshots rang out in the next room.