Look at all these idiots…
Garou irritably swiped at the air in front of his face, as a cloud of somebody's smoke wafted over his way. He'd far rather have gone somewhere less lively just for grub, but letting go to waste the time he'd already spent waiting on his order was something he fancied even less…
'These urchin-skewer things had better be all Blue'd talked 'em up to be…' he thought.
He looked around again, at the type of crowd that surrounded him. It was hard to imagine, of any of the fools he saw around him, getting drunk, fighting, dealing, smoking, god knew what else… that they'd ever all band together to fix this damned world…
Blue's old man's a fool…
Maybe people'd have less time to treat each other like crap if they just had something worse to worry about… some foe they'd have no choice but to share in surviving…
It was an idea that had captured his imagination for the entire time he'd been over there…
Somethin' like, twelve years…?
He barely remembered what age he'd been when he'd left, when his mother had…
He didn't feel like picturing it again…
The ding of a small metal bell rang out.
He gave a gruff nod to the server, paid with the coin Blue had given him, and set off back. He took a nibble of the piping hot food as he walked.
'Ain't bad…' he thought, licking his lips.
Part of him fantasized that he might have a run-in with another troop of enforcers, along the way, so that he could send a clearer message this time. It had frustrated him a little that they hadn't even been there for him, the other night.
'Guess they had some more important business with Blue's old man…' he figured, glumly.
Garou felt his shoulder brush past something made of steel.
He paused for a moment, when he saw her recognize him.
"Hey— kid," the dark-eyed woman spoke. "You with Jinx?"
He grunted in the affirmative, gesturing with the packed meal he was holding.
"Was about to get something myself, before going down and fetching you both," she continued. "Save me the trouble?"
"The old man…?" Garou guessed.
She nodded. "Boss man."
What the hell for…?
"What's he want with me?" he asked.
She paused, giving him a look. "Something in the works. Gotta hear it from him, though."
He gave a shrug. "Fine…"
She stayed on him. "You with us, kid…?"
"You all make it sound so dire, huh?" he retorted, with a furrow of the brow.
She returned it. "You got some real training — most 'round here don't," she argued.
"Yeah, well…" his lips slumped. "Ain't exactly how I pictured puttin' it to use…"
"We all got ideas for how we wish the world'd be — not much you can do alone though, kid," she went on.
He avoided her eyes, hoping she'd just assume he agreed with her.
She might not have noticed. "Well, don't be too long — he's expecting you both."
He nodded and broke off the interaction, heading in his previous direction.
He didn't care that they underestimated him…
The brutes in that damned temple didn't think much of him, either — right up until their faces met dirt. Hard to dispute a statement like that…
Before he'd even realized it, he'd polished off one of the urchin skewers, his stomach reminding him of how ravished he felt. He folded the pack back up, to avoid being tempted further.
He took a glance at his hand as he did it, noting the dirtied cloth.
Bandages need changin'…
~~~~~
~~~~~
~~~~~
Singed stood over him, while he slowly recovered, splayed out on the ground. He attempted to draw his limbs in toward himself, with a grimace.
"I imagine that each time would have been equally painful…?" Singed wondered.
"That—" Viktor coughed, "was not so bad, as a matter of fact…"
"You'd built some… resilience, perhaps?" Singed guessed, finally offering him a hand to help him to his feet.
Viktor took a moment to gather himself, before taking a curious glance at his transformed hand, with the Hexcore bubbling away behind it.
"Hm," Singed vocalized, looking it over. "Supposing you continue, the act of transfiguring your torso may prove… interesting."
Viktor had considered this already. "I would need to modify the rune-set… "
He became somewhat distracted by intermittent echoes which bounced around the cavern, above the background noise of the small stream which ran through.
Part of him had wished he'd kept the small boat he'd once designed, long ago…
"When you…" Viktor faltered, giving Singed a look. "Did you imagine— that I would...?"
Singed seemed to take his meaning. "I saw a gifted mind," he replied, "and an outsider. You wonder now, whether they'd ever have truly considered you as one of their own…?"
Viktor didn't have much of an answer.
"You perhaps even wonder," Singed went on, "what exactly it was that he had seen in you, to lift you into their ranks to begin with…? Heimerdinger has a talent for spotting the gift, as it were, however, he sees only paragons — he'll never allow himself to understand men like you and me…"
Viktor quietly sighed.
"And… men like us," he began, "what... purpose do we serve in this world…?"
Singed placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"I believe that we are all mere servants of nature," he said. "When one is given the tools with which to make the world anew, one finds it difficult not to imagine it nature's will…"
Viktor silently pondered the thought, while Singed wandered out into the darkness, back the way they'd come.
'I've long passed any misgivings about making this body anew…' he thought, carefully enclosing the Hexcore inside of the case he'd created for it.
Both of his hands felt strong, now… strong, but cold— or rather, devoid…
The sensory information he gained from their touch had become less of a feeling, in the conventional sense — he'd found that the features his fingers detected as they graced any given surface seemed to merely appear in his mind.
He did not mind this change…
Part of him did wonder whether it would be enough, though — whether if he plunged his hands into the green, toxic runoff water in the stream in front of him, for example, that he would be unaffected. He needed it to be the case, if he hoped to make the Undercity his home once again, without worsening his condition…
He pinched his nose, with shimmering fingers.
As a child, he'd always wondered what he'd be capable of doing about it all, were he given the resources — he'd imagined ways in which technology could correct the various sources of pollution which plagued the city…
It must become his goal once more, he determined — safeguarding his own life would be a mere step in service of this aim.
He looked upon the half-emptied vial of Shimmer he held in his hand.
Whatever it took…
~~~~~
~~~~~
~~~~~
"—I mean, if you ain't havin' any, it's just all the more for us, kid," Jinx stated with a smile, waving the seafood skewer around in front of Isha's disgusted face.
"Gotta tell me what you do fancy some time," she added, "I ain't tryin'ta starve ya down here…"
Isha seemed to make the motion of eating something akin to a sandwich.
"Oh, you like those flat-press things they make at that one shop down the alley, huh?" Jinx guessed, receiving an enthusiastic nod in return.
"Alright, alright— loud and clear, kid," she said, finishing off the last bite of what she'd been holding.
She looked over at Garou, to whom she'd offered the lion's share of the meal — seemed like he'd needed the sustenance more than she did…
"Whad'ya think…?" she asked him. "Go for a little wander?"
"Yeah, sure," he returned. "Oh— uh, your old man's lieutenant lady said he wanted to speak with us… I don't know, might be important…"
"With us…?" she replied.
"I guess," he said. "Figured it'd just be you, but…"
She rose to her feet, licking her fingers clean.
"I mean, I don't really want her going hungry…" she said, looking at Isha.
Garou slowly stood. "It's alright — I'll take the kid…"
"Oh— you sure…?" she asked. "You know where the shop—"
"—I know it," he confirmed. "Maybe meet you there, or something."
"Well, seeing as he wants to chat with you," she grinned.
He shot her a half-hearted-looking grin back.
She bent down before Isha, placing her hands on her knees.
"Your boyfriend's gonna take ya for a bite, 'kay?" she quipped, as Isha funnily scrunched up her nose.
"I know, I know, meet back up with ya in a bit, kiddo," she smiled, ruffling her hair a bit. "Promise."
She met Garou's eye as she stood back up. His expression toward her was a lot softer recently, in a way that was hard to explain. It was a look that was beginning to do strange things to her…
For example, it had begun to feel like a chore just to part ways with him, even briefly.
Maybe it was just her. She wasn't sure…
"Um," she began, "you guys should go first — I'll lock up and everything…"
He nodded, looking as though he might say something.
He turned to pick up Isha's helmet instead, offering it to the kid to put on. She liked how he tried to pretend he didn't care about her…
"You two be safe, 'kay?" she said after them, as they wandered on up to the surface.
Garou gave her one last look back.
"Hopin' I won't have to come save ya again like last time, eh…?" he called.
She rolled her eyes with a grin, while he shut the door behind them.
He has been doing that a lot lately, huh…?
She exhaled.
Zapper, a few Chompers, and the sure-to-come-in-handy (albeit empty) Shimmer syringe — it was all she could think to bring with her. Perhaps she'd try to have Silco refill it for her.
Coming to think about it, it was out of the ordinary for her to have gone so long without pestering him about whatever it was he had on his plate; what the next big move was, or whether he held any secret plans that naturally only she could force him to share.
Further than that, the feeling of being out of the loop was normally the one that consistently would worm its way through her mind, leaving her so plagued with frustration and worry that it left Mylo no choice but to join in with his taunts, egging her on until she broke — or rather, broke something. Usually, it'd be something of Silco's…
She paused on herself in her shattered mirror, the angled shards reflecting her visage multiple times over.
The feeling didn't come; she felt… fine, and Mylo was nowhere to be seen or heard.
It was odd, she thought — she wasn't often in the practice of breaking her own habits…
'More to do, c'mon…' she reminded herself. 'Stash the gems away…'
She kept her newfound abundance of the twinkling things in a small, magnetic capsule now. And the hindrance any would-be thieves would encounter in attempting to locate it, was the fact that it lived underneath the mammoth turbine-blade that formed the floor to her home. She dangled herself half off the edge, reaching back as far as she could, and allowing the magnet to find purchase against the steel underside of the blade. It left her fingers with force.
Retrieving them again always involved a lot of unpleasant metallic scraping, but at least they would be safe, she figured.
Her newly embarked-upon project sat against her workbench, very much so in the prototype stage. She'd seen Topsiders carry the things around when she was a kid, in order to protect themselves from the rain. Looked dumb on them, but a miniature replicated for Isha which had some magicky-Hextech properties mightn't be so silly, if it helped keep her safe out there.
She stared at it, debating herself — if it were finished, she could set it in Isha's hands then and there, and then the kid really would be safe…
'You'll show it to her soon,' she steeled herself on, not wishing to further press herself for time.
She activated the door trap as she locked everything up, hopping back as the pull-cord retracted into the hidden explosive trigger capsule, taut against the door seam.
Isha knowing the way to the door now also troubled her, at times…
'Garou wouldn't let her be that stupid…' she had to reassure herself.
Outside, the air was humid. She had to wonder whether it was just her, or whether the smog had been getting worse as the months passed.
She supposed she hadn't really seriously entertained the notion that they might all be living in Piltovan palaces sometime soon, if everything Silco wanted came to pass. She wasn't so sure how she felt about all of that, but she figured that it'd at least be welcomed by most of the people scraping by down here in the Fissures…
'If they've got the moves to make it out of a fight with Topside, that is…' she remarked to herself.
When she arrived at The Last Drop, instead of heading straight to her father's office, she had a notion to visit downstairs first.
'Where else'd they keep their little piece of bait, after all…?'
She slipped past without Chuck noticing her, as he stacked glasses behind the bar. There was a grunt guarding the way, so she turned on her unassailable charm.
"They awake yet? He wanted me to do some questioning…" she opened.
The man turned his nose up at her.
"Why you…?" he grunted.
"Hey— you wanna go up there and argue with him? Be my guest," she shot back.
She attempted to slip past, but the man stood his ground.
"I'll come down…" he grumbled. "Supervise you…"
"Not sure how good you think you are at math, but that'd leave exactly zero people standin' guard, genius," she mocked.
The man furrowed his brow, shifting back and forth on his feet. It gave her the opportunity to pass through, while he made up his mind.
"My pistol's holstered — don't worry, jeez," she called over her shoulder.
She definitely couldn't imagine Silco approving of any of it, but it had become something of a curiosity to her…
She inched open the steel door to the pitch-dark basement.
'It really is a girl, huh…?'
The dark-haired enforcer sat, huddled over, by the edge of the room. Jinx didn't imagine the wooden chair they had her bound to made for a very comfortable sleep.
She crept over to the girl, curious of her. She was stirring in her sleep — murmuring to herself.
She'd almost have pitied her, if she weren't wearing the uniform…
It might have been Jinx's cool breath on her face that caused the girl to wake.
Jinx pulled back, so she wouldn't freak the girl out too much…
"H— who… is it now…?" the girl mumbled. She sounded parched.
Jinx spotted a flask over on a side table, nearby. She hummed to herself, before deciding to go and fetch it. She did desire a conversation with the girl, after all…
She took a test swig of the thing, verifying it was in fact filled with water, before giving herself a sip. She then returned to the girl, leaning down to her eye-level.
"Gonna lean your head back, or what?" Jinx said.
The girl gratefully obliged, gulping back as much water as remained in the flask. Jinx grimaced, setting the thing back down by the girl's chair.
"Hear you're from some big-wig family, or somethin'…" Jinx commented.
The girl's breaths sounded pained. "Have you… submitted your terms to them yet…?" she asked desperately. "Has there been a response…? Negotiation…?"
The girl began to weep.
"I… can't bear to stay down here any longer…" she sniffed.
"Let me guess— being pampered all your life didn't prepare you for somethin' like this…?" Jinx replied callously.
The girl forced her eyes shut, cutting off the tears, before attempting to look at Jinx properly.
She narrowed her eyes.
"Who are you…?" she repeated.
"Think I'm dumb, or something?" Jinx answered. "I'm not giving you my name…"
The girl seemed fixated on the faint blue glow emanating from Jinx's belt.
"You're… her, aren't you?" the girl said suddenly. "You have Jayce's gemstone on your pistol… you're Jinx…"
Jinx found herself genuinely impressed. "Smarter than you look, huh, Piltie?" she replied. "Your friends are all dumb as doorknobs…"
"My… friends…?" The girl looked at her with ire.
"Yeah, like, a dozen of 'em," Jinx answered. "Came down here in a big ol' display… it didn't go so well for them… we've got them all tied up down here somewhere, too — the ones that lived, anyway…"
Jinx noticed the girl's breathing pattern change — short, forceful huffs. She'd made her mad, alright…
"And…" the girl spoke shakily, "the bombing, in the square… you were there… that was you too, wasn't it…?"
Jinx wondered earnestly how the girl had come to know so much.
'Had she seen me…? Had… Ekko told her...?'
Jinx leant down to be face-to-face with the enforcer.
"And if it was…?" she taunted, staring her down. "Y'think it'd make up for the amount of us you've all gunned down…?"
The sound of the door loudly clicking open interrupted their face-down.
Damn…
It was Silco.
"Come…" he ushered, in a cold tone.
Jinx huffed and tore herself away from the seething prisoner.
"Have fun down here in the dark, Piltie…!" she called behind her — she couldn't resist.
Silco of course had her feeling regretful of it by the time she met his gaze, pulling her out of the room and shutting the door behind them both.
"Hey— c'mon, I was just playing with her…!" she protested.
He ordered her with his eyes to ascend the stairs ahead of him.
She grumpily dropped her shoulders, complying with his wish.
"She," he began, once they were out of earshot of the basement, "is our most valuable bargaining chip, as of now — I need her alive, Jinx…"
Silco stared daggers at the one standing guard, as they passed him.
"Whatever…" she sulked. "It's not like I would'a killed her…"
"You'll forgive me if hearing the tail-end of the exchange didn't have me feeling optimistic about that…" he shot back.
They entered his office together, assuming their usual seats. Jinx took care not to sit on anything that looked too important — his desk seemed even more cluttered with documents and manifests than it typically did.
He swiveled his chair around to face her, while she glumly avoided him.
"Jinx—" he began quietly, causing her to reluctantly meet his eye. She waited, but for some few moments his words didn't come. It was odd of him, she thought.
"I had hoped that your friend might join us, this once…" he finally said.
She felt herself blush for some reason — it was stupid…
"What— do you not wanna kill him now, or something…?" she deflected.
He smiled a little, in a way that disarmed her. "I can appreciate the fact that he always seems to be around whenever you find yourself in peril…"
"He does not…" she rolled her eyes, grinning slightly. Silence returned only momentarily, before she had to blurt out that Garou was in fact on his way to join them.
"He was only taking Isha to find something she'd like to eat…" she added.
"Mm," Silco hummed, his face settling into a more serious expression. "We'll need to make arrangements for that one, in that case — she won't be able to join us, for obvious reasons—"
"Oh— what are we hitting?" Jinx guessed.
"Well," he replied, "I'm faced with two problems, as of now — a risk of an internal fracturing, with regards to the Chem-Barons, and a need to make a statement to Topside… a loud statement, which might bring them to the table with adequate terms…"
Jinx nodded along. "All that business with Finn?" she wondered. "Y'know, him being a traitor, or whatever?"
"He's as good as dead," Silco replied plainly. "Word is that he's escaped town, but, it matters not — some of the others were loyal to him, or rather, they profited from his movements… I need something that might buy back some good will from them…"
She tried to guess where he might've been leading her, but came up with nothing.
"Soo, what's the plan?" she asked.
He eyed her. "I fancy a prison break…"