Luxurious Anarchy (Lux/Jinx)

Chapter 25: Valkyrie

"Agreed my friend," chirped Renni. The redhead inhaled sharply, breathing in a fresh admixture of chems through her augmentic nose. Shaking herself, making the feathers of her collar ruffle, she murmured quietly, "When all is said and done though, I find myself curious as to your presence, Jinx. You must know you don't belong here, so why are you?"

Jinx straightened up, looked to the painted-on faces of her grenades, then she looked at Renni with curious eyes, "Why am I what?"

Renni sighed, and several of the thugs littering the room guffawed, "Here Jinx, why are you here?"
Jinx waggled one hand, making the jaws of her Chomper bounce and click in time with her voice, "Well why didn't ya say so? Gotta finish your sentences if ya expect people to!"

Renni sighed again, deeper, more soul-weary, "Jinx, please, for once in your life, focus. Why are you here?"

"Oh, but I am focused," Jinx cackled, her eyes flashing neon purple as she swung her head this way and that, looking at each of the thugs and chem-barons in turn. "I'm focused on making Zaun a reality, and not just a dream left to gather dust while the rich grow richer on both sides of the river."

"It's your fucking fault that we're not getting richer you wretched little guttersnipe," shouted Smeech, his claws punching clean through the tabletop as he slammed them down for emphasis. "Piltover has directed all traffic away from our docks, there's an enforced cordon in the airspace above us, and the bridges are blockaded!"

More murmuring, more nodding, and a few threatening growls and grumbles threaded through the crowd, and Hazard leaned across the table, pistol leading the way. "You know what, I take it back, you can be here. Briefly, that is. Thank you, Jinx, for doing us all a favor and turning yourself in. Margot, get the girl some Shimmer-grade cuffs, we're going to hand her over to Piltover as a peace offering."

"You know she still has live grenades in her hands, right?"

"I do?" Jinx chirped, before dropping the grenades on the ground. Everyone in the room froze, but there was no explosion, no cloud of shrapnel and bloody mist. "Nope, just like I thought, duds for dummies, hehehe."

The blonde chem-baroness shot Jinx an apologetic look, but gestured for one of her chem-punks to step forward with the restraints nonetheless, "Sorry toots."

"Don't be, it's fine," chuckled Jinx, her eyes still aglow with violet light. "Hey Hazel, before you clap me in irons, do you mind if I take my jacket off first? It's a bit stuffy in here, innit?"

For a frozen instant, the question hung in the air like a half-remembered dream, before Hazard nodded, his pistol swaying in his grip.

"A bit stuffy in here," he slurred, his eyes shining with lilac light, "not a problem."

"She's fucking with his brain, shoot her!" screamed Smeech. Guns were brought to bear, but for just a moment, the complexities of using a trigger were beyond the assembled chem-punks and barons' minds.

The light in Jinx's eyes changed in that instant, from dark purple to neon pink, and she moved faster than thought. Buckles tore, fabric ripped, and a dozen pins freed themselves from the twelve chompers stitched into her coat. Jinx whipped off her jacket and threw it onto the center of the table, tucking herself behind Margot's chair with a cackle. Margot watched pistols and rifles swing her way, and with a yelp, dove under the table.

The chitter-chatter of the grenades lasted for only a single heartbeat, then their jaws clacked open, and each grenade erupted into brilliant gold and neon teal smoke and paint.

"Shoot her, shoot her!" raged Smeech, ripping Hazard's gun away from him to begin blasting wildly through the smoke.

"Masks! Masks!" screamed Renni, digging one such tool from her coat to clamp over her mouth, sputtering as she inhaled a mixture of paint and glitter before getting the mask in place.