Zaun
Firelight Base Next Morning
Ekko made sure all of the mercenaries were out there again, trying to patch up what happened. If Jinx was giving the free labor, he'd make sure he got every inch of it. Even Jinx was around, fixing up things.
"Ekko? Pilties were found wandering around," Scar told him.
Pilties? What did they want?
"These didn't happen to be a person of the female persuasion, 30's, no fighting experience, bright colorful flowered long dress with a tufted tail and an 11 year old little look alike?" Jinx asked before she put in another nail.
Scar nodded.
"Oh, Shields."
Ekko grabbed his own mask. Sounded like she knew them. "Come on, let's get to them already. Surface people shouldn't be wandering around down here." Why had they gone down there?
Ekko approached a little, but he let Jinx handle it. "Make sure no one else is here, Scar." She might have to remove her mask to be noticed. He did tell Scar about her identity so he could help cover her up for now.
"Shields, I can't believe you brought Cake down here like this," she said straight out with no accent. She took her mask off.
The girl went toward Jinx. "Pow-Pow, snack time."
Jinx moved closer to Shields. "What the heck do you think you were doing? You could have been hurt, what part of not a safe area did you miss?"
"Jinx, take your snack," The kid said again.
Jinx bent down and started to dot her forehead with lots of kisses. "You are yummy Cake, but I'm trying to yell at your mom."
"You forgot something," Shields said to her. "How are you feeling?"
Jinx looked at her for a little while, almost like a wonder. "Oh. Sorry." She glanced toward Ekko. "I forgot something important."
"Oh, you must be Ekko," that woman just openly announced like that was perfectly fine!
Ekko looked annoyed at Jinx. She couldn't see it through the mask, but she better have felt it.
"It's an honor to meet you," Shields said to him. The whole time she had been tied up, she had apparently felt fine.
At least it was just them. "Yeah. Hey."
"Okay, Ekko." Jinx put Cake back down on the ground. "I'll be out of your hair in just a little while, but I want to give you your name day gift personally. If you can . . .?" She gestured to them. "They won't rat you out, no one even lives in Piltover."
"I already got a gaggle of mercenaries in the village, why not?" He gestured to Shields. "Don't tell anyone who I am outside of here please?"
"Okay, down we go, Cake," Jinx said as she lifted Cake off of her.
Ugh. Ekko started to untie Shields. "Scar, grab the kid."
"Oh no, I got it-"
"Don't change me!" the kid just started to scream.
Ekko paused and looked back. Scar looked like he just tried to hold her hand to walk her. What was that? He undid Shields cuffs. That was a huge change between the kid being loud and playful with Jinx to that. That was a scream, a terrifying scream like someone was about to kill her.
"Don't worry!" Jinx picked Cake back up and comforted her. "You're fine, Cake. It's okay, I promise."
"Sorry," the girl whined. "I don't know why I always do that."
Yeah. That was not normal.
"It's okay. They are fine to hold your hand," Jinx said to her firmly as she gave her a hug, and then gave her back to the now freed Shields. "This won't take long. I'll be out before you know it, I promise, Shields."
Once in the lab, he saw Jinx sitting in the middle of the lab table. She took her mask off again. She wasn't wearing any makeup this time, but she never needed it in the first place. "So, what did Vi get you for your name day?" she asked.
"Mmm, free food for the whole base," he said.
"Man, she's always done better," she said bitterly. "I'm beating her this year." She smiled and handed him a card.
A card with my name in blue. "Put a lot of thought into name day this year."
"Shut up, just open it," she complained.
He opened it up. There was a key, and a . . . deed?
"You always said that one day you'd make Zaun even better than Piltover. That we would rise over them, but things haven't been going your way. Here's a little pick me up for the dream," she finished as she rocked back and forth. "I can't get a whole lot of things when I'm technically dead here, but Silco left the shimmer factories. With the right third and first parties, and the right amount of money, I got one part of my inheritance. A small part, so I could sign it over to you."
One of Silco's shimmer labs?
"It's been locked for almost a year. I've had ownership since then. The protection outside was hired by my boss, to protect the shimmer. You guys keep battling it, but you don't have to. It's yours. It's been yours. I got it for the guy that might be able to. I don't know. Use it?"
A factory that he had tried to take down several times. It was actually his?
"Yeah. I wasn't saving it for your naming day, it's been yours, but those idiots, you know? Still getting paid standing around, I knew they didn't reach out. So. You can either take your key and shut everything down. Get rid of everything. Or, make something useful out of it."
He stared at the key.
"Did I beat her?" she asked.
"I don't know." He smirked. "I mean she gave me real food. You gave me a card with my name and an old broken building." He put his hands out, like he was weighing the options. Heh. The pouty look. Where is it?
He didn't see it though. Her eyes were like glass, lost, clearly something was wrong.
Right. Why did I do that? He treated her like Powder.
She wasn't saying anything though at first. "Do you want me to help you liberate your broken building?" she asked. "I kind of want to. I can do it in a minute instead of you wasting any more time on gaining your own property. It's yours, it's been yours over a year."
Yeah, he really wanted it to. He had no idea if she could get it that fast, but it would be worth it to see. "Sure. Let's go see what it takes to liberate my new place. Follow my actions." He ran and put both boards out, landed on his, and watched her land on hers.
"Whoah, wiggly!" she said. Her name as 'Hijinx' was called out and she said, "I'll be back soon, team!"
"Just try and watch my board." Sometimes it took people a little while to get the hang of it, but this wasn't the first time she jumped on one of his crazy contraptions.
"Whoah hoah! This is a blast, Ekko. Only thing missing is you flipping off enforcers."
He couldn't help a small smile at that. "I save it for when it's called for now."
"Yeah heah! Good thing I am not pregnant yet."
Biuh?! "What?!"
"I said not."
Just give me a small heart attack! He looked back at her, she jumped up and backflipped on her board. "Don't need to show off."
"Not showing off, just writing my name," she said as she jumped up high again and then made little jumps.
Oh man. "Don't hurt yourself."
"Oh come on, who hurts themselves spelling their name?"
Jinx. "Someone spelling it on a hoverboard."
"We are close enough to the ground, we aren't going very fast, worst result is I lose track of movements, fall and die of embarrassment."
Ugh. "I am never going to get the Jinx out of you."
"Why would you ever want to?"
"Just be careful." He watched her move closer toward him.
"I know my limits, Ekko. Promise." She just smirked. "Chaotic good tends to be my favorite playground."
Right. "You're a mercenary now."
"Okay, then chaotic neutral when there's no room for the slides or swings," she teased. "Can you spell your name?"
"Yeah, but I don't have to right now because I have an important goal."
"Pbbbtttt."
"Did you just pbbbtt me?" Nah, nah, nah!
He sailed up higher and curved in and outward for the E. Then he did the Kko.
"Damn Ekko, that's fire. I only did pow so far."
"D's are tricky," he said. "I mean, I could do it. Can you?"
"You would have to drop and then spin." She was looking at it. "Uuh."
"My name was harder," he teased. "My whole name was harder. Are you saying the great Jinx can't do something?"
"I never said that."
"Man, brought it to the field but couldn't finish," he teased her again. "Talked a big game."
"Dear friends we are gathered here today because Jinx punked out at a challenge. Ugh."
"I will catch you if you miss," he promised. She had that same kind of vibe as before, but she wasn't risking death for a fun trick. That was new.
"What happened to me, Ekko? I used to risk death for anything cool. Am I getting old?"
"No, just smart." He watched her try for the d, and it was a good thing she had some self control.
He swooped down and caught her on the side of his board. He lifted her up, made his board bigger, and went after her board again.
"I can't believe I missed that. The writing on that headstone would have been awful." She got on the other board again. "It looks like we're almost there. You should probably give me tips on how to land, Buster."