Lucky Luciano’s Disastrous Descent into a Hopeful Hell

by Ivan Martinez

Part IV: Tumbling Down

The atmosphere in the locker room after the match was more welcoming to Luciano than he thought they’d be. Rowan was the first to congratulate him on his win, and even brought him to the medical clinic. “I’m sosososososososo sorry about what happened to your shoulder but I’ll do my best to wrap it up for you.” The doctor applied the bandages to Luciano’s shoulder as he spoke in his thick latin accent. There were a few things about the doctor that struck him as strange, he couldn’t quite place the doctor’s accent and he seemed a bit too apologetic for Luciano’s wounds but he figured that the doctor was just a weirdo. While he was being treated, Ishiki visited Luciano and gave him his pay. The total was already more than what Luciano got at his old gig but Ishiki mentioned that “A portion of the check was put toward your debt to Mr. Enlil.” Luciano was fine with this but the fact that his pay was already more than what was given enticed him. As Luciano began to walk out of the abandoned station, he heard someone yelling not too far from where he was. When he went to investigate, Luciano found the referee that officiated his match standing outside of a bunch of dark suited men. At their feet lay a badly beaten and bruised Dane. “We warned you last time Mr. Salazar, break the rules and you regret it.” The gang of men continued to beat Dane into the ground as the referee continued, “You’re lucky that the crowd loves to see you lose otherwise we would’ve thrown ya to curb by now. No one likes a rabid dog after all.” The ref tossed a wad of cash to the ground in front of Dane. Luciano couldn’t tell exactly how much it was but he knew it was less than what he got. Luciano felt his blood boil after seeing the treatment Dane was getting and he began to storm towards the ref. The ref turned toward Luciano and smiled as some of them black suits went to restrain him. “Ah Mr.Gomez, you put on a wonderful performance tonight.” “What are you doing to him? Is it because of what happened before the bell rang? That's all in the past you don’t have to beat him like that!” The referee responded calmly to Luciano’s fury. “It’d be best for you to turn around right now. All this is, is an enforcement of the rules. If this didn’t happen then we’d have more rabid dogs in our midst, I’m sure you’re well aware of the dangers.” Luciano grabbed his shoulder. “Maybe so but this is going too far, the man lost. The shame of losing is enough of a punishment.” “Oh really? Does a man who took the money and ran at the first opportunity really know shame?” “Huh?” Luciano looked around and finally noticed, Dane and the money were long gone. The referee waltzed past Luciano and began to walk towards the station. “Mr. Gomez, I’m glad you're able to hold on to your pride or whatnot however you must also realize that not everyone can be held to that same moral standard.” Luciano tightened his fists and shoved them into pockets. His face reddened as he began to walk home.

The next day Luciano returned to the arena, the atmosphere was much different, the crowd made the previous day’s look asleep in comparison. It was electric. Luciano walked through the crowd and stood in the corner of the arena. From where he stood, Luciano could see the Scars seated at the front of the ring with Ishiki. Even from where he stood, Luciano could tell there was a different air about them. “So you’re the new guy ‘round here huh?” Luciano looked toward the voice that just called him out. A man stood to Luciano’s side, his greasy hair covered by his hat and his gaunt face sneering at Luciano. “Do I know you?” Luciano wasn’t in costume so being recognized took him by surprise. “Nah, you don’t but I saw your match yesterday. Gotta say, that counter you landed was beautiful.” “Hahaha…I think you have the wrong guy. I agree though, that was really cool and good when the guy did that.” “C’monnnnnn don’t play with me, if you really didn’t want people to know who you were then you wouldn’t wear your ponytail the same way plus you got the same build. I could be wrong but I don’t think I’m stupid.” The look on Luciano’s face must’ve amused this man because he burst out laughing after all the only people who knew Lucky Luz’s secret identity were the organizers of the ring, the referees and some of the fighters. After he finished laughing, the man finally introduced himself. “The name’s Dominic, you don’t need to know the rest. I’m not a fighter yet but I’ll be one soon, I caught a bit of your match last night while my registration was being set up. I had heard some rumblings of a big match happening tonight and decided to check it out, but what’s going on exactly?” “Well, one of the top fighters here is gonna fight one of the pit bosses' personal bodyguards, I didn’t know it was this big of a deal though.” “Huh, that's cool. Oh it looks like it's starting.” The lights around the arena dimmed and the spotlights above the ring got brighter. The crowd settled down, but the energy didn’t go away. An older man stepped onto the stage, his gray mustache covering his upper lip. He approached the microphone dangling in the middle of the ring. “Welcome ladies and gentlemen tonight I, Vlov Belyayev, will be officiating this very special match tonight.” The man's voice was thick, rich and had a slight Russian accent. “I’m sure you are all very excited, as am I, so without further ado let me introduce your fighters tonight!” The crowd exploded with excitement. “In this corner!” Vlov pointed towards the corner near where Luciano was standing. “We have the challenger tonight, Rowan Singher!” From the dark edge of the ring emerged Rowan, although Luciano had become accustomed to his size from the night before, Rowan seemed much larger than he was the night before. The look on his face was very different, it was much darker, more focused. His footsteps were heavy as he climbed into the ring. Rowan faced his turnbuckle, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them Rowan scanned the crowd, eventually his eyes landed on Luciano who raised his fist at Rowan in solidarity, the two men smiled. “AAAAAND in this corner we have, one of reigning champions in this arena, without a single loss to her name! It’s Olympia!!!” The crowd went crazy, Luciano could barely hear himself think over the cheers. From the opposite came out Rowan’s opponent. A girl about a foot and a half shorter than him. A single scar ran across her cheek and through her ear, ending with a missing chunk of her left ear. She yawned as she approached the ring but instead of climbing up the steps she just jumped over the whole thing, landing in her corner almost perfectly. Olympia took the jacket off of her shoulders and placed it on the turnbuckle in her corner. The two fighters met at the center of the ring, the size difference between them only being exacerbated when they stood so close to each other.Their demeanors couldn’t be more different, Olympia stood relaxed with a slight smile on her face while Rowan stood as stiff as a board, anyone could see the nerves were getting to him. Olympia on the other hand, leisurely cracked her neck with her bandage wrapped hands. Luciano swore he saw something poking at the bandages from within them. Vlov explained the rules of the match while the fighters stared each other down until finally he ended his speech with a resounding “FIGHT!”

The match started off slow, Olympia jumped back towards the ropes as soon as Vlov started the match while Rowan didn’t budge. For a moment Olympia bounced up and down near her corner while Rowan inched closer to her. His thick arms spread out, revealing his massive wingspan. Then, in an instant, Olympia jumped back onto one of the ropes and used it to bounce at an angle toward the adjacent side of the ring where she landed and bounced off of those ropes but this time she jumped toward Rowan unleashing a rapid kick aimed straight as his head; however as soon as she jumped off the first rope, Rowan charged at Olympia with a furious shoulder charge. He bounced harmlessly off of the ropes as Olympia’s kick caught nothing but air. She clicked her tongue in response. Olympia landed on her kicking foot and used the momentum to retreat to the opposite corner, Rowan used the boost he got from the ropes to change his direction back toward her. He readied a lariat as he charged at her. Olympia ran at him and slid between his feet, she kept running toward her corner and Rowan turned then followed. She kicked her turnbuckle with a force that shook the ring, Olympia used the tip of her boot to fling her jacket high into the air above her. Still in the air, she spun around and using the momentum she gained from kicking off of the turnbuckle, Olympia used her opposite foot to hit Rowan right as he got in range. The kick didn’t hurt him much, it was more speed than power. For a split second, Rowan stopped. The kick didn’t hurt much so I think… I got this, this thought ran through his head. During the time he had this thought, nothing was going through Olympia’s head, no instead, she kept moving. Olympia landed and loaded all her weight into her right leg, her hands touched the ground as she spun around, then liftoff. She pushed off the ground with her arms and right leg, Olympia’s left leg didn’t touch the mat but instead it accelerated like a whip. The momentum she had been building since she jumped off the mat loaded itself into her left heel, all the momentum made her foot feel less like a part of her body and more like an iron ball at the end of a steel chain. By pushing herself off the ground she was able to gain just enough height for all of that power to slam itself in Rowan's cheek.

He crashed into the mat with a thud that resounded throughout the arena. Olympia spun around and landed on her feet just in time to catch the jacket she had kicked upwards previously. The crowd, which had been quiet ever since the match began, exploded into applause and cheer. Olympia put her foot onto Rowan’s head as the referee began to count down until the match was called, she looked content with her performance. Luciano however was only concerned with Rowan, he hadn’t moved a single bit since he got hit. The medics had to come into the ring to carry Rowan off to the medical room.

It took a while for Luciano to navigate through the crowd and get back to the clinic with Dominic following him but eventually the two made it. When they got there, they found Rowan awake, holding an ice pack to his cheek talking with someone. The man was almost as large as Rowan himself, but definitely bigger than Luciano. Three scars ran parallel down his face, two over his eyes and one down his nose. He wore clothes that very obviously were too tight on him, earrings that dangled almost to the base of his neck and a rosary clasped around his hand. Luciano recognized him as one of the men sitting with Ishiki as well as being one of the Scars. “Sorry if we’re interrupting you guys…” Luciano trailed off. “No no no don’t worry about it!” Rowan laughed like he did the day before and the knot in Luciano’s chest undid itself. “Oh you probably don’t know him.” Rowan gestured to the Scar sitting across from him. “This is Alexander, I’m sure you’ve probably put together right now that he’s a big shot around here. He’s helped me a lot around here so be good to him. (contrary to his appearance, he’s a big softie so he’s just here to make sure I was ok.)” Rowan whispered the last bit to Luciano. “And who is this?” Dominic introduced himself to the two of them. Alexander finally spoke, “Well it was good to see that you're doing all right Rowan, I don’t know what I would’ve done if Olympia had hurt you.” “Hahaha, you don’t have to worry yourself Alex, I just got a bit nervous at the end there…” Alexander looked at Rowan, seeing through his lie. “Ok ok fine… I’ll be honest, I thought I was dead for a second there and when I came to, I thought my jaw had blown clean off! It was terrifying!” Rowan smiled but his eyes told the true story. “I know it's hard to face one of us but you have to understand, Rowan.” Alex stood up and though he was shorter than Rowan by a few inches, in the moment he seemed like the larger man. “Our scars are the marks of our imperfections.” His hand fell across his face as he touched the deep ridges that were etched in. “They serve as a reminder that while we may never be perfect. We have to be closer to perfect than any other, even more than the other Scars.” Alex’s mini speech left the room silent, only broken by Luciano whistling. After all, pushing your human limits was the reason why Luciano wore the mask but the one moved the most was the man behind Luciano, Dominic. “Welp I gotta get going, the boss called for a meeting after the match. It was nice to meet you guys.” Alex got up and left the room, leaving Rowan, Luciano and Dominic alone. “Haha, I didn’t think it’d be so scary to face off against a 5 foot something lass but what do I know!” The night ended on a light note but after seeing just easily Luciano’s one friend in the arena was crushed, a heavy atmosphere would soon cloud his every visit there.

“So what’re the profits looking like?” Enlil reclined in his seat and began to throw darts at the dartboard across the room. Alex was the last to arrive and finally, all the Scars were assembled in Enlil’s office. The Scars already there sat in the couches around a coffee table in front of Enlil’s desk. Olympia lay across one of them and was scrolling through Twitter on her phone. Argus lounged across from her, his face angled towards the ceiling at first but the sound of the door alerted him to Alex’s presence. The way Argus could pick out sounds unnerved Alex. Argus wasn’t exactly blind, but he couldn’t exactly see either. Priam, much like Olympia, didn’t seem to care about what was going on. No, Priam was too busy playing with his puppy, Agamemnon. Ishiki answered Enlil’s question as Alex sat down across from Priam. “Well the odds were stacked against Mr. Singer but we were able to make a pretty penny from this match.” Enlil blew a raspberry. “We would be able to make more money if you didn’t win so quickly every time, Ollie!” Without looking up from her phone, Olympia yelled back. “WellI didn’t wanna bore the people out there either!” Enlil sighed in his chair and looked back at the dart board. Every single one he had thrown had missed the board and holes radiated outward across the wall behind it. “Ok well what about the undercards?” “3 of the fighters in the undercards have officially fulfilled their contracts and one of them has been badgering me for the balance on their debt.” “Have you told them anything Ishi-baby?” “Of course not sir.” Ishiki wished Enlil wouldn’t call him that. “Good. Keep docking the amount from their pay, you know the account to put it in.” “Yes sir.” “And send some of the black suits to quiet that badgering Barry.” Everything happening in Babylon was illegal: the underground fights, the gambling, heck if someone died down here their death would be covered up as if they never existed. All of this is able to keep going through the assistance of the Callieri Family but unbeknownst to them, Enlil had his own scheme going right under their noses. If greed is the root of all evil then Enlil would be a mighty tree. He was embezzling funds from the Family by keeping indebted fighters in the arena through intimidation tactics and keeping them in the dark even after their debt is paid and their contract fulfilled. The money taken (a portion of which is supposed to be given to the Family) is then put into an offshore account outside of the Callieri sphere of influence for Enlil to use “at his discretion” as he would put it. “In total, this month has been a net positive and seeing as we’ll be introducing the Callieri Family heir next week, things will be going very well for us.” Ishiki finished his report to Enlil as he got up from his chair and walked toward the Scars. He gathered them all up and gave them a big group hug, apart from him they were all very very uncomfortable except for Olympia who was glad to be smooshed up against Agamemnon. “I love my little money makers ♡!” 6 months passed and Ishiki’s report came true, Babylon had been seeing record numbers as 2 of the newly introduced began to make a name for themselves but one of them began to fall into a rut. Lucky Luz had entered his flop era.