Jinx was humming in the back seat as she looked around. She was moving around.
"Jinx," Sevika called her out. "Stay still."
"Pbbbbbt. This. Is. Booooring." Stuck in a car, for how long already? "Where are my grenades? My glitter bombs?"
"Gone."
"Even my paint bombs?"
"Gone. Like I've said. Several times already," Sevika said. "Our new boss doesn't want you killing anyone."
"I can't kill with a paint bomb." She could distract with it though. Ugh.
"How are you feeling?" Sevika asked.
"Bored. Want to go blow something up already, or make something that will blow something up. Also?" She yawned. "I must be majorly bored, I am tired." She had to wake up. She kept slapping her face to wake up. Tonight was exciting, why was she so tired? Freaking Ekko finally strayed away from the light, she just rescued his butt from Smeech, and after all that, she was tired? Well, he did ask her some weird questions. Maybe it was the driving. Not bumpy enough. She rarely slept that much, day and night were both hers. She yawned again. "What's wrong with me?"
"Your body wants sleep," Savika said. "So sleep."
"Sure, sure." She groaned and lied down in the back, shoving her feet up by the window.
"Break my window, you pay for it," Sevika warned her.
"I'm not . . . gonna . . ."
Sevika looked back toward the back seat. She was sleeping now. She didn't even finish that sentence. She watched Ekko heading over with two boards. He looked in the back seat.
He opened the door. "Jinx." Her legs fled upward. If there wasn't a roof on that car, that would have clobbered him.
"Hm? Oh, Ekko," Jinx said sleepily. "Nnnnnnnot a good idea to wake me up like that. Without a roof, that would have been bad."
"Yeah, thanks for the heads up." Damn, her instinct for even sleeping was ready to hurt someone. That wasn't good at all. "Come on. Be good, and try not to make a scene."
"Mmmm, I always make scenes, it's like in my nature, like breathing," Jinx said.
"Not now. I have to bring you to the Firelight base, and not every Firelight is very appreciative of what's going on."
She just smiled. "Oh, you are a dark gray." She pulled herself upward into a sitting position.
Ekko backed up so she could get out. As PJ, it was tricky enough with the board. He didn't want to risk her going too crazy on it. He gave the second one to Savika. "Here."
"A board? I don't know how to ride one of these."
He gave her a quick rundown. "If you need more help, just ask up there. Jinx, get on."
Jinx looked at the board as it got longer. "I'm really going to get on one of those gnarly boards that are great target practice?"
"Yeah, and you didn't need to add the last part," he called her out. "On. Come on."
She got on and they took off. Sevika had a little bit more trouble, but she got enough of the hang of it.
When they were really close, he got them all off the boards. Eventually. Sevika needed a little more help. He walked toward home, real close. He knocked on the cover and it was opened.
Okay. Just get her to his room. That was it. Not too hard.
"Hm?" Wait, was that-?" While they walked, Jinx found a way to climb up that tree. There was no way she just saw what she did. She heard Sevika yell for her, but she was busy. This was interesting.
"Jinx, get back down here!"
Oh, she was getting ordered now? "In a second!" Geez, Man. She was on a mission here. She climbed higher and higher. Some people were starting to stare at her, but who cared. She had a feeling she should get up there.
"Jinx!"
Oh, great. Ekko knew how to get up higher. He would know the paths like hidden stairs. "What?"
"No more climbing, get in here!" He demanded.
Mmmm. "Do you want somebody to die?"
"What? No, of course not."
"Then let me keep climbing." That wasn't a threat. "Just a little farther, then I'll be down."
She kept climbing, hearing Ekko start to bicker with Sevika. Whatever, she knew that Ekko would have wanted her climbing that tree by the end of the exchange, which kept her in line of following orders.
There we go. "Now this is anything but boring." A young kid was way up there. Real young. Way too young. Normal people shouldn't even be climbing this high.
"Powder!" He grabbed onto her.
Eesh, the name. "You are way too high, Kid. I just got in trouble from my new boss for you, so you better make with the cuteness." Not cuteness, just crying. This kid looked like he'd been crying up there for awhile. "You got stuck up here, huh?"
"I just climbed and climbed. I just wanted to get away," he said. "I'm sorry."
"Yeah, I do that too. Just get on my back." The kid easily knew how to get on her back. He gripped correctly and everything. "Down we go." Strange though, it would be impossible for most folks to make it way up here, how did a mere kid like seven or eight? Bizarre.
She went back down to where she saw Ekko and Sevika. She heard Ekko starting to yell something, then he stopped. Probably when he started to make out she had a kid. "Found a goodie waaaaaay up there."
"Bear?"
He helped take the kid through the opened window before she went in. The kid moved from Ekko and wrapped around her legs again. "Yeah, okay, I get it." She rolled her eyes. "Don't go up so high that you can't come back down."
She watched Ekko bend down toward the kid. "Hey? Did you get stuck way up there?"
"I'm sorry," he said. The kid started blubbering again.
"Jinx is good at climbing," Sevika complimented her. "And she took a few minutes. That means none of you could have reached him easily. In total, she probably saved his life. Hence, she ignored your order for a higher order you would have wanted, if you had all the details. She did that with Silco too."
"I get it." He bent down toward Bear. "Look?" Ekko pulled out some kind of liquid. "I want you to drink this. I want everyone to have a flat, similar time they take this. Okay?"
The kid sniffled a bit then kicked it back like it was a yummy drink. Was it yummy? "Is that good?"
"I don't know." He gave one to her. "On the house."
Jinx looked at it. It was green, dark green, with like glitter in it. Well, the kid drank it. She popped it open and drank it too. Wow, tasted better than she thought. "The glitter texture is kind of cool. What did I just drink?" Ekko looked like he was annoyed with that question.
He stood back up, but held the little boy's hand. "Follow me."
She followed him with Sevika. They had to leave back down a ways, and then they were in a room.
"There." He locked the door. "Everyone stays in here tonight."
Stayed in there? There was just one bed. Well, there's a bookcase. She climbed it while Ekko was talking with Sevika again. Okay, not too bad. She lied down. It'd be better with a pillow, but it'd work.
"Jinx!"
What was he yelling about now?
"You aren't staying up there," he insisted. "Get back down here."
Hmm? "Why not?" He didn't prefer that?
"Why can't you just sleep on a tall bookcase? You could fall off, or Bear could follow you up."
Right, that kid was a climber.
"Don't swing down," Sevika warned her. "We are in a tree, the plummet could make the floor give way."
"Well, that's lame." She went over on the side and climbed down. "There. On the ground. I guess."
"Why are you giving me trouble?" he asked. "I'm your boss."
"I'm not giving you trouble, I'm solving the problem." This guy. "One bed. Four people. I took one of the equations out."
He looked upward to the bookcase. He just looked away a second and smirked. Something weird. Wasn't he just angry at her? She didn't get the smirk.
"You don't need to go up high." All of his anger was gone again. "The door is locked. Sevika's here. We're all safe."
Safe? "I didn't think we were not safe."
"I don't know what you were thinking, but no climbing while you are here. And? Thanks for saving Bear. If it wasn't for you, yeah, he might have died. But, unless someone's life is in trouble, stay on the ground. And? If someone's life is in trouble, tell me. If there's a reason you want to break an order, and you can explain? Just, try?"
"Oh, fine," she agreed. She went toward the side of the bookcase, and curled up on the floor. Her body was worn out again.
"Jinx."
"Now what?" Now what was she messing up on? Yeah, she went after the kid, but that was someone Ekko would have wanted anyhow. She usually went up and out of the way, it was just her, but she came back on the ground. "What am I messing up on now?"
He looked odd for a second. "Nothing. I have sleeping bags."
"Cool, I'll take one."
"No, you are taking the bed," Ekko stated. "You can keep the kid close, so I know he's not out climbing around."
Oh. "Got it." She moved. Sweet, her responsibility got her a bed. Awesome. She went on the bed. Ooh, covers. Ooh, nice and warm. The kid came over and took some covers too. Then he hugged her. "Nuh uh, not sleeping with a hugging kid."
"Sorry."
"Uh huh." She turned to sleep on her side. She'd let the kid have the covers, this was comfy enough.
Ekko gave Sevika a sleeping bag, while he got into his own. Jinx was already asleep. Bear was still trying to get closer to her. Probably thankful to see her. Probably thankful for saving his life. I should have looked harder. This kid went with her on the mercenary mission, his number one skill would be to move to unreachable places to not get caught. By the time they found him, and figured out how to reach him? It might have been too long.
He made some mental notes over the day. Jinx climbed. He knew she climbed a lot as a kid, but she like really climbed. She climbed to the top of that factory area, and she climbed his tree higher than anyone else. As a kid though, she climbed with Vi.
But, vi didn't just seek out the highest place in the room. She was comfortable just standing around with them. Maybe he was just overreacting, but . . . that was a lot of getting high. She lived in the tunnels too, not the Last Drop so much. She was keeping herself isolated and distant. Was that an order? Was that something that she wanted? No one just decided, 'hop on a bookcase for the night'.
He also needed to remember that she'd ignore his orders, if she thought something else was in his best interest. Hopefully she started explaining herself beforehand, but he also caught that ripple. That 'What was I messing up on now?'
She wasn't doing any of it to be annoying. She was trying to figure out the way he handled his orders. Well, they definitely wouldn't be like Silco's.