There was fire around us, so I should have known why
The touch of his hands were as cold as his eyes
All my life, I've been heading for hell
There's glory ahead, but our love will be forgotten
If my heart was still mine, I would go to the bottom
And apologize to you until the day it went rotten
But hey, baby, take a look
We have it all
Can you hear me?
I am calling out to you for the last time
________________________________________________________________________________
I jump onto Silco's desk. "Sevika said you wanted to see me."
"Yes. I have a job for you."
I slap his favorite mug down in front of him. "Look! I decorated it."
"Indeed." He picks it up and rotates it slowly.
"Do you like it?"
"I do. Very much." He looks at the bottom of it, where I wrote "U R The Bomb (Tell Me When You See This)" with a buck-toothed smiley face shark. "Thank you, Jinx."
"You're welcome." I climb up to the support beam.
"I need your focus now," he says. "Your assignment today cannot involve any... 'goofing off.'"
"Aw, c'mon, Gramps."
"This isn't a joke."
I hinge myself on the beam at my knees so I can swing. "Okay, okay."
He sets his mug off to the side and pulls out a thick paper folder. "You remember the hijacking of the transport cart ten days ago," he says. "Instigated by the Firelights."
I stop swinging.
"I've grown tired of them," he says. "Starry-eyed vigilantes with no understanding of the position Zaun is in. I expected their little syndicate to have dissolved by now, but they appear to be strengthening instead. They've gone from an annoyance to a true thorn in our sides."
"Nah," I say. "They're not that special. I barely even notice them."
"One of my men was killed in that hijacking, Jinx," Silco says. "We can't afford that. We have people in multiple nations now who depend on our empire's survival."
I flip down and land on my feet on the floor. "What are we gonna do, then?"
He pulls a face-down photograph out of the folder. "You're going to take out their leader."
"Oh."
"The problem with the Firelights is that they have forms of technology unavailable to us, and nobody can locate their base of operations," says Silco. "If we could, I would simply have you destroy it, along with all their resources. As it is, I believe that the loss of their leader will destabilize the remainder of the party to the point of disbanding on their own. If not, our countermeasures will quickly finish the job."
My palms are sweating. "What if it doesn't work?"
"Then we shall move on to more drastic methods of defense. Despite working against their own interests, these people are Zaunites— I want to start small, in order that as many of them as possible have the opportunity to turn to the side of good. But I won't see beggars and sick children die for their sake, and sadly, communication has been futile, as has bargaining. This is our next step."
I nod. I've killed five people by now. It wasn't that bad. They all deserved it. And I haven't had a mission in forever— I've been building weapons for the war since my third pneumatics epiphany. I need a new view.
Silco holds out a map with a big "X" on it. "The Firelight leader is expected to be at this location today at noon, with no more than two colleagues. You may bring Sevika along if you—"
"No way."
"A solo mission, then. Very well. I would prefer that you be conspicuous about this one. "
I study the map. "Can I blow them up?"
"If you'd like. And leave your sigil."
"Whoo-hoo!" I tuck the map into my pouch. "So who's the leader?"
Silco flips over the photograph and slides it toward me. "They wear a mask in the shape of an owl. It's equipped with a voice modifier. They often carry an ax. That is all we've been able to gather, but it should be enough."
I still cross my fingers when I look at the photo.
Just come with me, and we'll figure it out. Nobody can hurt you at home.
You think I need you to come barge in here and be my fucking savior? Silco is my family, and you are no one, but if you want me to, I'll make you my enemy.
I didn't know he was the leader. Why would he be the leader? He's only sixteen. But so am I, and I'm Silco's right hand.
"Is something the matter?" Silco asks.
I jump, snagging the photo. "Nope! I'm gonna go get ready."
"Be sure to check in when the mission is finished."
I get on the desk, kiss his cheek, and run all the way to my workshop.
"Uh-oh," Mylo sing-songs. "Looks like trouble." ("Trouble trouble trouble.")
"There's no trouble," I say in my head, picking up a crayon to scratch against the floor.
"I don't know, Jinx," says Claggor. "You really think you can do it?" ("Do it. Do it. Do it.")
"Why wouldn't I be able to do it?" The crayon snaps in two. I lob both halves into the trench and pick up a new one.
I told Silco when me and Ekko met. Vaguely. I said I saw "someone I knew" who was in a gang called the Firelights. They were smaller back then, and I hadn't heard of them until Ekko said it, but Silco had. He told me it was okay if I felt jarred, but that I'd done the right thing: I'm a new person, and Powder's acquaintances aren't Jinx's. And he said the Firelights were dangerous, and that's turned out to be super true. They think Zaun shouldn't happen. They're bootlickers. I don't know why Ekko wanted to be one, let alone to lead them.
"Oh yeah?" says Mylo. "You sure you don't know?"
We have to stay together. You're my best friend, and after Benzo and Vi—
"Yes," I snap. "It makes no sense. No one who knows what's good for them is gonna be a stupid Firelight."
Mylo gives me a mocking laugh. I close my eyes against the flashes.
I stuff my bag with bombs and grab Pow-Pow, which I've just updated the spin mechanism on. I did more painting on it too. The weapons for the war have to be neutral, but I'm allowed to decorate my personal ones now.
Actually, Silco's completely given up on keeping me hidden at this point, except for when I go to Piltover to steal. Probably because I've never gotten hurt in a fight. I used to wear a bulletproof vest and a cloak when I went out, but the vest hides the cute tops I spend so much time making, and my braids reach my thighs now, so it's hard to keep them tucked inside the cloak. Plus I like feeling them whip around me when I fight. Even though I'm scrawny, people almost never bug me when I walk through the streets. They're starting to know my name.
You're stronger than you think. And one day, this city's gonna respect us.
I leave a little earlier than I need to and take the scenic route. Day missions are rare for me lately, which is fine with me, since the sun usually annoys me, but it's nice to see Zaun in the light sometimes. The location on Silco's map is a warehouse where the mechanic lady keeps a bunch of her supplies and half-finished stuff she works on— everything she builds is really primitive, but I can make up for it by the time we're independent— when she's not fixing other people's stuff. I've been there before to steal materials when the trash heap and the junk yard aren't doing it for me. Ekko probably has the same idea.
It's the middle of the mechanic lady's workday, so the warehouse is empty when I show up. There's a nice open space on the concrete floor where I settle down to scrawl my name and my sigil in thick crayon lines. I'm working inside the wide track of light that spills through the doors, so I don't notice anything on the shadowed balcony that stretches across all four walls until the very last second.
I drop my crayon halfway through drawing an angry face and dive out of the way just in time to watch a blob of orange crystal land on my sigil. Four glowing green stripes sweep through the air toward me. I shoot back before I can think. Pow-Pow uses real bullets and is fully automatic and their glue guns are semi-automatic at best, so they should all be toast, but their hoverboards are so fast and they're so heavily coated in armor that I don't get a true shot before a deep metallic voice calls out to them to retreat.
I wasn't expecting four people, but they weren't expecting Pow-Pow.
Either way, the voice throws me off so bad that I release the trigger and drop my hands to my sides. I expected him, at least, but I wasn't ready for that voice again. The one that called Powder's name after two years and sent me running like a weak little child. Colors and chatter surround me. I pant for breath. No no no no.
The Firelights duck behind various scraps of equipment on the balcony. For a moment, we're at a stalemate: right now, they can't reach the doorway to escape without confronting me, and I can't hit them without leaving the doorway open.
Ekko slinks out from behind a sheet of metal leaning against a wall. I haven't seen him this close or this still since our first meeting— it's only been in far-away fragments. He's taller now, and he wears a jacket covered in scribbles that doesn't seem to bother him even in the heat, plus that hideous owl mask, the one he used to spy through at Benzo's shop. That's stuff I gathered from the fragments. Here, I can see the change in how he carries himself. As a kid, he was always light and bouncy, cartwheeling and swinging around turns and jumping to clap his heels together; now he's calculated, serious, light like a matchstick instead of a feather.
"Jinx," he says, and it occurs to me that I'll never see his face or hear his real voice again, and that's as far as he gets.
I won't see beggars and sick children die for their sake.
I fire Pow-Pow at the nearest Firelight, despite the fact that they're safe behind their shield. The others and Ekko all start forward, then stop, watch, and cautiously duck again. When I see the shield getting too battered, I aim at a different Firelight, pressing the trigger so hard I think I'll break my finger until the ammo runs out. In the next moment, as they orient themselves in the silence, I take a bomb from my bag. I pull the pin, hold it high in the air so the metal catches a piece of light, and hurl it in Ekko's direction.
He blinks out of existence. A gaping hole opens in the wall amid a cloud of smoke. I reach to reload my gun, and when I look back up, I catch five figures disappearing into the sky.
A ragged strip of sun spills in through the hole. I yell and kick at the heap of bullet shells in front of me, sending them clinking and glittering across the floor, and I whirl around and trek home in a blur of whispers and smiles that burn.
I sulk in my workshop for the rest of the afternoon before Silco tracks me down. I don't lift my head from my knees until he's right in front of me.
"Jinx," he says. "Where have you been? Did you complete your assignment?"
I put my head back down. "No."
"No?" He probably never thought I'd give him that answer. I hear him drag my chair away from my worktable and up next to me. "Why not?"
"They escaped." I scratch a loose screw against the ground. "They had their dumb hoverboards and I was on foot."
"Why didn't you shoot them down?"
"I don't know."
"You don't know."
"I was overwhelmed."
"By what?"
I throw the screw and slam my hands down flat. "It was an ambush."
Silco's quiet for a long time. I look up.
"An ambush?"
"There were four other people instead of two. They were hiding and waiting for me to come. They took me by surprise."
He stares into the middle distance, then gets back to his feet and paces. Mylo and Claggor make mean faces at me from the trench.
"The informant who gave me today's tip will be appropriately dealt with," Silco says. "It wasn't your fault, Jinx."
I sniffle.
"Did you gather any useful intel in the event?" he asks.
"The hoverboards got faster since last time. They only had the glue guns— no real weapons. The leader knew my name."
"And did you find any clues as to the leader's identity?"
Just come with me, and we'll figure it out.
I wonder what would've happened if I let them catch me. Not that I want to know. I don't.
"No," I say. It's true. He didn't give me any clues today. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay," Silco says.
It's okay. We'll show them. We will show them all.
"There will be other missions," he says. "There will be other opportunities."
That's the worst thing I've ever heard.
________________________________________________________________________________
Intro lyrics from "We Have It All" by Pim Stones.
we're building up to something >:) get ready brothers