Smeech dragged one claw along the table, sending shivers down Margot's spine. The yordle snarled, "Sevika is late. She's got a lot to answer for too, backing out on the hunt for the Loose Cannon."
Margot swirled her cup of wine, frowning down into the light pink brew, "To be fair..."
Hazard, who had recently been the second in command to the late Finn, snarled, his augmented features glittering in the harsh chemtech lighting, "Don't even start with that old "barons don't swipe at barons" shit. Jinx isn't a baroness, she's a fucking walking disaster."
Renni and Choss nodded along with Hazard's words, and Margot raised her hands in surrender.
"Well fine then, so we, and by we I mean you lot, keep the bounty in place, fine, grand." Margot took a swig of her wine, the last of her private reserve, and tossed the cup behind her to be caught by one of her lackeys. "What do we do about the fact that no one is going to even bother making an attempt? Renata gave it a try, and if Jinx wasn't in a playful mood, she'd be missing a whole ass building."
Hazard glowered at her, and Smeech snarled, but Renni is the one who spoke up, "We'll simply have to raise the bounty. What was Sevika offering at the end, seven hundred?"
Choss nodded, mumbling, "Plus our three-fifty, so we'll need to offer a total of a thousand hexes for her head to bring the bounty back up."
Smeech growled, "Fine, there's five of us here, we can afford a couple hundred hexes to get the fucking trade lanes open again. I fucking know I'm losing more than that every fucking day Piltover has their briefs in a bunch."
Margot rapped her knuckles on the table, drawing the yordle's gaze, "Fine, dandy, great, let's all chip in and put out a big fat bounty. Second issue, who the fuck is hard enough to take Jinx down?"
Whatever awkward, ultimately unsatisfactory answer she would have gotten was never to arrive. With a thunderous crash that sent one of Renni's men sprawling on the ground, the walking disaster was upon them.
"Good fucking morning, glorious nation of Zaun!" Jinx shouted, a live grenade in either hand, "How we doin' today?"
Immediately, chemtech pistols leapt from concealed holsters, and black-market Enforcer rifles fell from shoulder slings into waiting hands. Fingers tensed on triggers, and Jinx's eyes twinkled with dark violet light at the number of gun barrels pointed her way.
"Stand down, stand the fuck down if you don't want to get turned into a fine mist," hissed Margot, and most, though not all, of the guns were lowered. None were returned to their holsters, however.
Jinx strolled into the room, her movements unhurried, her black and red jacket fastened tightly against the recirculated air of the chamber. "I'm sure you're all wondering where dear old Sevika is today. Or why granny Renata isn't here. And I-"
"Shouldn't be here either, how the fuck did you get in?" snarled Hazard, copper-colored augmentic fingers clutching his pistol tightly. The gun in his hand was gaudy to the extreme, more a display of wealth than a proper firearm, though Margot didn't doubt for an instant its ability to fire.
Jinx froze, her features twisted into a caricature of shock and dismay, "Oh jeez Replacement Finn, I didn't see ya there! Welcome to the big kids table, happy to have ya on board!"
"My name is Hazard, and there is no place for you here, Loose Cannon."
Knuckles tapped on the imported hardwood table, and several heads bobbed in agreement. Neon purple eyes flicked this way and that, and Jinx smiled all the wider.
"Oh...? You don't like how I earned my title of Chem-Baroness? Well, that's alright, can't say I like the system we've got in place either."
"What is this "we" shit you little lunatic?" snarled Smeech, his augmentic claws digging yet another set of furrows out of the table as his grip tightened. "I don't give a giant rat's ass if you did snuff Wrencher, you're not one of us!"
"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.
Thugs and barons scrambled for cover, for protection from the smoke, for a target to plug full of lead. Some went down in sprays of blood, others fell to the ground, coughing and gasping for air that wasn't quite so shiny, and many fired into the smoke with total abandon, all while Jinx's laughter bounced off the walls and snaked through their souls.
Slowly, the gunfire stopped, and the smoke was drawn outside by the great fan revolving at the top of the room. No small part of the meeting chamber was painted gold and teal, and no small number of the assorted punks and barons bore the same coloration.
Pulling herself up from where she'd taken cover on the floor, Margot reclaimed her bullet-riddled chair. "Did we get her?" she asked in a shaky voice, her words muffled by the rebreather mask she held in place with one hand.
"Naaah." Jinx drawled from where she sat at the head of the table, golden glitter hanging in her hair, neon teal paint streaking her body. "Gonna miss that coat though. Sorry pops."
Margot nearly screamed when the ragged outline of Silco blinked into existence standing next to Jinx, one ghostly hand gently patting her shoulder.
there there dearest, you can always order a new one
"You, you fucking freak!" screamed Smeech, and he leveled Hazard's pistol at her and pulled the trigger.
The pistol belched a fat lead bullet, aimed squarely at Jinx's heart, a fatal shot.
Margot felt her eyes go wide as a pane of brilliant sunlight caught the round just inches shy of Jinx's chest. The lead smashed flat, and clattered away, energy fully spent.
"Thanks Sunshine. Pops, if you would?"
my pleasure
The ghostly shape of a switchblade snapped into Silco's hand, and the phantom lunged for Smeech. Margot whipped her head away, and swallowed heavily as the yordle screamed in pain and fear.
Every chem-punk, lackey, or hanger-on was down. Some shook with electrical aftershocks, others cradled shattered bones or lay in puddles of brains and blood. And the remainder, nearly half of them really, had their throats slashed open or gaping holes punched where hearts were ment to be. Towering above them, one man, and two women stood, triumphant.
"Good catch Lux," said Ekko, wiping sweat from his brow as he tried to shake a glob of brains from his weighted lead pipe.
The blonde turned to the leader of the Firelights and shot him a sunny smile, spinning a thin metal rod between her fingers, "Why thank you Ekko, I was rather proud of that spellcraft myself!"
Zeri, Spark of the undercity, shook one hand, droplets of electrical energy dancing and flying through the air, "Jinx, don't we need that guy?"
Jinx cackled, shaking her head, "Nah, Smeech is a total dickweed." She snapped her fingers, and in a flash, Silco was standing by her side once more. "If someone would be so kind and to give him the coop de gracy? I'd do it, but I don't need like, more nightmares, yeah?"
Lux sighed, and strode over to the downed yordle, pulling a rune etched pistol from her waist as she walked, "Sunflower, it's pronounced coup de grâce."
"Pl- please no... mercy!"
The gunshot was far louder than Smeech's cries to be spared, and the silence that followed was deafening. Margot looked at her hands, and marveled at their stillness. It had been so long since the violence of the undercity had even been near her, and now her feet were threatening to stick to the floor with the blood of her lackeys and fellow baron.
Renni looked around, from the trembling Choss to the slackjawed Hazard, before inhaling deeply again, snorting another dose of chems. "So, ahem, Chem-Baroness Jinx, I suppose it's only fair that you join the table now that... um... uh..."
Jinx rolled one wrist, urging Renni on, but the befeathered chem-baroness was struck dumb by the sight of blood pouring down Hazard's face, trickling from his ears, and nose, and eyes. With one hand, she pointed to the stricken chem-baron, and Jinx tsk'd when she turned to look.
"Aww shit, he's deffintivly gonna haunt the fuck out of me," Jinx grumbled, before hopping up onto the table. Thrusting out one foot, she booted the copper augmented man backwards, and Margot flinched at the sound of Hazard's head cracking open on the tile floor.
"Okay, there we go. Now, you were saying, Remmy?"
"Uh," Renni mumbled, snorting another bolus of chem fluid. "I... I'm afraid I quite lost my line of thought."
Jinx nodded, smiling sympathetically, "Ah, that's fine, I know the feel. Well, if it comes back to ya, give me a shout, yeah? Yeah."
Spinning on one foot, blue braids twirling, Jinx motioned to Lux, Zeri, and Ekko, "Take a seat, I see plenty of room for some fresh blood."
Choss coughed into one hand, "You don't mean to make them...?"
"Course they're Chem-barons now! Heck, my Sunshine even killed one a moment ago, and that's how I got the title!" Jinx shook her head as she strode up and down the table, leaving bloody boot prints in her wake, "We really, REALLY gotta find a better way to elect new chem-barons, just killing each other is hella inefficient."
"Now, onto business," she cheered, leaping off to the table to stand on her purloined chair. "First order of business, I hereby elect myself as Chem-Empress of Zaun. All in favor?"
Margot raised her hand as fast as she could, joined by Jinx's three compatriots and the woman herself. Renni and Choss, looking around the table, raised their hands a moment later, in Renni's case not before shooting a glare at Margot.
"Fan-fucking-tastic, oh I'm so glad we can work together in lockstep, hehehe."
A moment of silence blanketed the table, and Ekko coughed into one fist, "Ahem, anything else, Chem-Empress?"
Jinx blinked, then flopped down in her chair, "Ahem this, a hem that, Sunshine, seriously, do I look like a tailor? Can I outlaw the word ahem?"
Lux shook her head, a smile on her face. Margot shuddered at that smile. There was genuine warmth, love in that pearly white grin. The fact that she was sitting in the chair of Smeech, whose body was resting at her feet, didn't seem to bother the blonde in the slightest.
It was, Margot thought, fucking horrifying.
"I don't think outlawing words is a good way to start your reign, Sunflower. And you did have at least one more thing on the docket, right?"
"Oh, yeah, um," Jinx started, patting her pants and then leaning across the table to snag the paint slicked remains of her coat, "I got it somewhere around here, shit, it better not have gone flying or I'll never find the fucker..."
Zeri rolled her eyes and turned to the three older Chem-barons. "Jinx is going to need you," she pointed to Choss, "to get a message to Piltover's Council. Ekko has a copy of the message. Send it exactly as written, capeesh?"
Choss raised one finger, a protest on his lips before he saw the way lightning literally arced between the two bundle of green hair that graced Zeri's head and electricity flashed in her eyes. "Right, exactly as written, right..."
"Ah, found it!" Jinx cheered, jumping right back out of her seat, and hopping onto the table for the second time in as many minutes, coming to a stop in front of Lux. Gingerly, she knelt down, and fished a ring out of one pocket. It was a hand-made thing, fragments of chem-colored glass held in place by thin wires of some pearly white metal. It was unique, chaotic, and beautiful.
With trembling hands and a blush that made her look like a tomato, Jinx stammered, "W-w-will you, um, Lux, will y-you be my, be my sunshine?"
Margot blinked, but all of a sudden Lux was on top of the Chem-Empress, lavishing the smaller woman with kisses, and Ekko was cursing as he dug a pair of silver gears out of his pocket to toss to Zeri.
"Okay, well aside from costing me two gears, I think that signals the end of this meeting," Ekko groused, kicking away from the table to start moving out of the room.
Zeri nodded with a giggle, tucking away the two gears, "Unless you want to die, I'd advise everyone get out before clothes start flying."
Margot grabbed her teal, blood, and gold stained bag from the floor, and hustled out of the meeting chamber, and started toward the elevator. "So..." she ventured, "Was there anything else actually on the docket? Aside from the message you're making liver-spots over here," she jerked one thumb at Choss who snorted with amusement, "send?"
"Oh yeah, at least one more big ticket item."
An awkward pause, made all the more awkward by a cry of passion from behind them all.
"You gonna share what that big ticket item is?" Renni asked.
Ekko and Zeri shared a look, then turned and faced the three other Chem-barons. "Nah," Zeri said, while Ekko chuckled, "because that would spoil the surprise."