Zaun
Firelights Hidden Base
Shit.
Shit.
Shit.
How?! Ekko moved toward the front as fast as possible on his board. Someone had opened up the way into their base, and there were a couple of enforcers coming through.
You'd think that having an old friend as an enforcer might give you something special. Tips. Leads. Shouts of 'we are not here to cause trouble' actually meaning something. But, no! It just meant they lived above, and forgot about everyone else's existence until they felt like visiting one day. They were never there for you when you needed them there. Fuck you sometimes, Vi!
All because of love with a Piltie! He saw this coming one day, he so saw it! "Get the kids toward the back, fighters up front!"
They could have really used Vi's strength with this. He knew she wouldn't take a mission to smoke out their base, so she wouldn't be in the enforcers invading.
But, damn, already the enforcers were starting to take aim.
He heard a kid crying on the ground while everyone ran around. He turned to get it, seeing an enforcer seeing it as an easy target. He moved him out of the way and started to fight the enforcer up close, to keep them from using its weapon.
Then, he heard different sounds outside. He looked outward and saw a bunch of people not from the village had come out, all wearing animal masks. They were ganging up on the enforcers. They had their own weapons, and they weren't playing around.
"Ekko, what's happening?" Scar asked as he found him. "Are they on our side?"
"I don't know. Just hold back, don't fight them unless they fight you first. They could be up to something." Who were these people? He heard the kid crying again, and it had attracted more trouble.
Damn. The whole thing is a mess. Enforcers knew their secret location, but now some people with animal masks did too? What the hell?! He went back and tried to pick up the kid. "Go toward the back, the back!" His parents should have taken him toward the back.
He was too far from the enforcer this time, and the weapon was aimed straight at him.
Then, the enforcer was lifted up, it's neck broken and it dropped to the floor.
Ekko stared at the monkey masked person who did that. They were just hanging upside down, looking at him.
In the outfit of Jinx? Where'd they get that?! "Who are you?!" Ekko was not going to be kind, nor show a kind face. He stood against the enemy.
The strange monkey masked person jumped down and took off. He moved the kid out of the way and started to tag it with his board. They were fast, but he was faster.
He noticed up front that the enemies seemed to already be gone? Still, the regular residents stayed hiding as he went with the guerillas and tagged the animal group as they headed out.
They still knew the way to the secret base, they weren't getting out without giving up some answers. They were fast though. He had to stop and use the Z drive three times to make the turns fast enough to keep up with them.
Nobody just played hero, destroyed enforcers, and ran into the night on him.
Then, they stopped. The others went behind the monkey masked person spoke. "Couldn't just be like 'awesome guys saving us for free, huh?"
No way. That voice. "Jinx?"
"Actually darling, I'm the team leader," she said with a totally different accent. She no longer sounded like Jinx at all.
No. What a dirty trick! Ekko was definitely ready to fight for that trick. First the outfit, now her voice? Who the hell would be that nasty to him? Whoever it was, they were never going to try it again after this!
"Whoah, chill!"
No! "Stop using that voice!" he rushed toward the monkey, her group was definitely getting ready, but so was his Firelights too until-
The monkey jumped out of the way, and started to head upward. Oh no, he wasn't letting that go! He followed her upward, intending on figuring out who that imposter had been.
Up higher though, the monkey took a second to take off her mask-
-He stopped his board so fast-
For just a second, he thought the other world's Powder had found a way to cross over. Her hair was clean. Her makeup was all different. She even wore pretty eye shadow, except it was more lavender.
For just a second, he knew it couldn't be her. The smirk she gave him screamed Jinx, and so did the purple stripes right through the center bangs. He had given those in the last fight for Piltover, that Jinx hadn't survived. The most damning were the pink eyes. She still had shimmer eyes, something Powder would never have had.
A friend he thought, long since dead, was alive. It was a lot to process in three seconds.
"Hey," she answered back. Her Zaun accent, not that ridiculous accent. "Long time no see, Ekko."
Jinx. He moved over toward her closer. This time slower. "How are you . . . alive? Why didn't you ever come back?"
"I had to break the cycle," she admitted. "Sorry about all the death, it couldn't be helped. There were twenty, and we were trying to kill them before they reached here. Got most of them but the Butter twins are butter fingers sometimes."
"Where'd you go to?" he asked. "How do you know these masked people?"
He heard that lean in her voice that even occurred in the accent. "Vi had a rat following last time she came down. None of my comrades are gonna give away this location either, I messed them up extra long on the directions. Don't worry, you know outsiders can't find nothing in Zaun." She placed the mask back on.
She approached him really fast on the side and wrote something in pink on his clothes.
He looked down. It was her usual teasing pink shade, the one she would like to use in the past. Instead of Jinx though, she wrote something else.
:) Made You Look!
He looked back forward and saw her still there. She had no plan to run, she was just messing with him. A thousand percent Jinx. That little. He hung his head to the side to look at her.
She was alive. Not only alive but . . . still on his side. The truce for the war they fought together against Viktor. It was still there. "You. To the base. Now." The other Firelights were starting to come up.
"Oh, to work out payment?" she asked in that strange accent again. "Are you sure you want to do that?"
"Yes, I do want to do that." He'd follow the lead she was throwing down. She didn't want anyone knowing it was her.
"Okay, just a second." She headed back downwards to her team. "Just drop off the bodies as far ahead as you can team," she insisted to the other animal masked people. "Run them far out, come back, and pick up the leftovers." The rest of them left.
She started to run backward. Damn, she was fast. He got on his board with the others and headed back himself, he wouldn't let her leave out of his sight.
When she arrived again, he was right behind her. He jumped off his board, grabbed her hand before she could move again, and brought her into his lab so they could talk in private.
He wanted answers.
Zaun: Firelight Lab
"I don't need money," Jinx said to him. "I was just watching for things, and well, the Firelights aren't my enemies anymore. So I figured, I'd help."
Help? "How are you still alive?"
"I run a team of mercenaries. I pick and choose the missions we take, and the ones we don't," she said. "I know who ratted you out, and they were disposed of before we got here for the enforcers. Nobody knows now, Ekko. You're safe, just be more careful when enforcers visit?"
Vi visiting. "You knew Vi visited." Damn it. "She knew you were alive." She never gave him one warning about it. He shook his head, looking at her. What was he supposed to think? He noticed her eyes were drifting over his lab equipment.
"No, she doesn't know. Don't tell Vi I'm alive, I mean it, Ekko. That's for me for tomorrow."
"Okay. Fine," he agreed as he watched her eyes. They were focused on all the random stuff in his lab. "How did you survive?"
"The shimmer. I can move pretty fast, and there were vents." She pointed to her eyes but still paid attention to the environment more than anything. "I pulled a grenade to destroy . . . Warwick," she said bitterly. "Viktor. Whatever you want to call it, it wasn't Vander anymore." She started touching a gear softly. "Then, I got out. Stole a ride on an airship and didn't look back."
"But, why?"
She shrugged. "I thought I'd try that 'building something new' an old friend told me about," she said softly.
He rubbed his forehead and slid his hand back over his hair. "I meant to try and be a friend, not an enemy. Not fake your death. I . . . thought you were dead!" Understanding had set in, but now so had anger. "I really thought you were dead! Everyone thought you were dead! Vi thought you were dead, you put everyone through hell!"
To save her. To bear the brunt of that bomb five different times to reach her when she wanted to pitch it all in. To get a chance to be with her as a friend, to fight on the same side, only to know she still pulled that grenade.
That hurt. That really hurt.
"I know, and I will deal with that soon." She tried to put the mask back on, but he put his hand out and stopped her from doing that.
"Why get all fancy with makeup just to cover up with a mask?!"
"Never stop using that brain. Nobody can know my identity, Ekko." She said it again in that weird accent.
"Your team saved our home," Ekko said to her, knowing his anger probably wasn't helping. He tried to calm down. He needed more time to understand things with her. Figure out why she did what she did. "Why not spend some time in Zaun now? Let us show you some gratitude, while also kicking your team out the door from our hideout?"
A simple chuckle. "Yeah, we are killer freaks. You should probably kick us out as soon as possible."
"Yeah. I've got somewhere I'd like to show you?"
"I don't know." She bit her lip. "I was gonna find a way to give you your name day gift and split. I don't know if I should stay longer than my business demands."
"No, you'll be fine," he encouraged her. "I'll keep your identity hidden while you are here. I just really want to . . ."
"You are being really gentle with me," she said to him. "You don't have to be that gentle. I'm not like a fairy that just zips off in the night. I didn't leave because of you or because of Zaun. I left strictly because of Vi."
Vi? "You two were getting along better." No answer. "The lanes have been getting a little better," he said. "Not a lot better. Shimmer's more rampant than ever, even being brought into the industry of Piltover."
"Shimmer, huh? Really want to go down this road with me?" she pointed out.
"Okay, fine, then how about talking about yourself and those masked people?"
"Well? I guess I should say-"
There was a knock on the door and one of the masked people spoke to her. "Hey? Powder? There are some people that want to know about us. Do we stay silent or what?"
Oh! She is going by her real name again? Powder. She was going by Powder, not Jinx? He had to know more. "I am the leader of this place," Ekko said to him first. "We just want to show you how much we appreciate the assist." Yeah, there would have been a lot of casualties, their cover would be broken, and hardly anyone would feel safe anymore.
Jinx really did save the day. Fake her death and piss him off or not, she really did save them. "Why don't you join us at one of our best Zaun bars? My treat." With blindfolds of course.