Sentimentality hadn't really ever been her thing. But she was a girl of her own creation, therefore today was a day for nostalgia.
If you looked carefully at Piltover's skyline, you'd see her. A lean figure, long blue braids flying as she leapt over rooftops and into the sunset. Jinx dropped nimbly from the roof of some snotty rich guy's house, and climbed into the manhole in the street. it didn't really matter which one, she'd just never be able to get out of this boring city through the gates. The people in this city were too boring to have blue hair and a rocket launcher. They especially didn't carry around bottles of pink spray paint. Jinx was giving the city a short break from her games to revisit the city of her childhood, Zaun. Wrinkling her nose at the smell of the sewer, she skipped along.
She'd heard of work to be had in Zaun. Apparently, people there got paid to do what she did all day: terrorize people and wreak havoc upon them. And of course, she'd do it for free, just to piss the stupid police officer off, but a girl had to eat, and although she enjoyed stealing, she felt like going home for a bit. Just to see it, y'know, visit some friends maybe. Actually just the one friend, from childhood, but… that wasn't her only reason for going back. She'd gotten the message this morning. Indirectly, of course: there was absolutely no way that she could go up to some random Piltoverian shopkeeper and ask him for the latest news. Vi had made sure that Jinx's face was posted on every corner of every street. Every law-abiding citizen (basically every citizen) of Piltover would turn her in upon seeing her. That didn't mean she didn't still walk around. She'd just wear a trenchcoat and sunglasses. And a fedora to hide her hair. And a really, really big bag for her rockets. Then she'd fire them around the city, laughing at the terror on people's faces and they searched the shadows for her : the notorious "master criminal", as she skipped around giggling in their midst. It really was the funniest thing. Anyhow, the message. She'd been walking around, when she'd overheard a shopkeeper and an old lady chitchatting.
"Did you hear that there's someone in Zaun looking for Jinx?"
"I hadn't actually. Do tell!"
"Apparently he's got 'work' for her."
"What nonsense, she's a troublesome criminal. They probably just want to arrest her."
"Blah blah blah"
She hadn't actually heard the last part. She'd been too lost in thought. It must have been a message. She'd heard that people did that kind of thing. Instead of advertising in the conventional manner, they'd spread rumours, that would eventually reach the desired ears. She'd hoisted her launcher onto her shoulder, fired a few rockets for effect, and run away, laughing, before finding a relatively empty street where she could paint her caricatures of Caitlyn and Vi in peace.
She'd rushed back to the small home that she'd built for herself on the roof of an empty house. Gunpowder and rockets, and a few extra clothes as well as a mattress. She'd packed everything she owned, minus the mattress, and here she was.
She wandered through the sewers for hours, until she heard the loud noises of the docks from above her. She lifted the manhole cover and pulled herself out into the middle of a street. She got a few looks, but they didn't bother her. She glanced around, before getting up and skipping along the street, humming to herself. In her mind, her rocket launcher, Pow-Pow was talking to her.
"Jinx, where are we going? Do I get to shoot people? Oh pretty pretty please tell me that we get to shoot someone!"
Her other gun, Pow-Pow replied worriedly to the overly-excitable Fishbones: "We're with Jinx. Of course we're going to shoot people. I wish we'd just do the laundry and make good life choices for once though."
Jinx grinned, and reassured him "Don't be silly Fishbones. The only good life choices are the ones that involve fun. A trip without shooting is a trip without fun. And we're going to scare a whole bunch of people, so we need to shoot stuff." She giggled to herself at Pow-Pow's relieved sigh, and Fishbones' reluctant agreement. By this point, she was getting stares from more than a few people on the street for her exclamations that seemed to be addressed to no one. She glared at them, as though daring them to challenge her. She could do what she wanted. If someone disagreed, she'd shoot them. Who were they to tell her what she could and couldn't do? Maybe they wouldn't die, but it would definitely hurt, and they'd be scared. Fear was what she liked to instill, second only to chaos. It showed who was really brave, and who was a coward. Most people were cowards, she'd learned. It was sad, really, but she wasn't other people, so she didn't care. She strutted up to the nearest ferry owner, and winked at him.
"How much for a trip to Piltover?"
He looked at her, raising an eyebrow. He was probably weighing the pros and cons. He opened his mouth to answer, when a commanding voice from behind him yelled:
"Drop your weapons. You, sir, are under arrest for consulting with a wanted criminal. Piltover has been given legal jurisdiction over the docks area, in order to conduct a search for her." With the same pink hair as Jinx, but a strikingly different personality, Officer Vi and her law enforcement officers stood, pointing their weapons at both Jinx, and the ferry owner. Jinx rolled her eyes.
"Hey Fat Hands. You and your little robot officers can just moooove yourselves all the way back to boring old Piltover. Can't you see I'm in the middle of something? You aren't helping. Just be glad I'm giving your sorry little city a break. I thought it needed some time to recover from the fun it's been having with me around." She grinned, her red eyes glowing in the fading light. Vi glared at her with pure rage. She took insults to her city very seriously. She really needed to calm down. It was a joke, after all. Jinx figured she wasn't getting a ferry ride to Zaun. She'd hoped to avoid using her Super Mega Death Rocket, as she liked to call it, because it took a long time to reload. Ah well, some things can't be helped. Vi raised her standard issue law enforcement gun (luckily she wasn't in full battle garb and only had the one weapon on her), and as she did so the rest of her force mimicked her action, like the trained circus animals that they were. Psssht. Show. That's all they were.
She took a few steps backward, and just as Vi placed her finger on the trigger of her little gun, she flipped gracefully off of the edge of the docks laughing as she went. Guns fired, but no bullets hit her. Mid flip, she fired Pow-Pow, pressing the big red button that would fire her rocket.
"Hang on tiiiight!" She shrieked in glee as the rocket blasted off into the sky and over the sea that separated the docks of Zaun and Piltover. She stood on the rocket, wind whipping her face as she flew away from Vi and her officers. She crouched low, surfing through the air on her Super Mega Death rocket. The last thing that anyone on the docks heard from Jinx that day was a loud crash and the resounding echo of high-pitched giggle.
When Zaun's hazy horizon came into view, Jinx angled the rocket so that it would hit a small square in the docks. As the rocket approached the ground, she leapt nimbly off, landing roughly on a high roof about 100 metres from the square. Zaun's heavy, polluted air filled her lungs and she grinned as she grabbed the weathervane at the top of the house to steady herself before the ground shook, and the square was destroyed in a fiery explosion that consumed all the houses in a 90 metre radius, leaving a pile of burning rubble and chaos. She grinned. Pulling herself as high as she could on the roof, she stood tall in proclamation and screamed;
"NOW THAT'S MORE LIKE IT. PLEASE WELCOME, IN ZAUN FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY, ME! HIDE YOUR VALUABLES AND BRING OUT THE FLAMETHROWERS BECAUSE YOUR LITTLE CITY IS ABOUT TO GET JINXED!"
She grinned before climbing down the building and dropping off into a crowd of onlookers. She quickly disappeared in the throng of people. It was so nice for police not to be on her heels each time she made an appearance. It was so nice for blue hair not to be something to be stared at. She almost forgot why she'd even left Zaun in the first place.
Graves:
Malcolm Graves stumbled drunkenly through the dark alleyways of Zaun. He still had plenty of time until he had to show up for that job. In his drunken state, he had only one priority: to get the job first. Graves had been doing the job for years and he knew how these things worked: first come first serve. He chuckled to himself, and promptly walked into a wall. He turned around and vomited into a puddle. Shaking his head, he decided to head home for a rest before his job, whatever it might be. He had sources, he always knew when there was work to be had, and how serious the work was. This job had great potential for gold, and promised to be more exciting than the day-to-day criminal work that he did.
He headed back to the dingy hotel where he was staying (He didn't actually have a home, because he was always on the move). He collapsed into his bed and fell into a stupor. He lay there for hours, until panicked screaming out on the street awakened him. Dim Zaunian daylight streamed into his room, and he groaned, looking at his watch. He was going to be late, and he was hung-over. Squinting, he got up, grabbed his gun and satchel, and bolted out the door. The sight that met him on the street was not at all what he had expected. A young girl with long blue braids and a wild fire in her eyes was grinning and holding a rocket launcher. All around her, people ran screaming as she launched rocket after rocket. He noticed that she wasn't aiming for people, but rather intentionally causing chaos. That was not to say that she wasn't hitting people, but she wasn't looking at the people she hit. He raised an eyebrow. This girl was obviously new to Zaun, but her attire suggested differently. She saw him, her eyes immediately falling on his gun, and her grin became wider, a feat he had not thought possible. She walked towards him, hoisting the rocket launcher onto her shoulder. Hands on her hips she addressed him.
"Hey, you! Would you happen to know where I could find someone? I got a message from them, and travelled all the way here."
"Who are you looking for?" he replied, looking her up and down appraisingly.
"Well…" She paused uncertainly before continuing; "I know that he's a very powerful guy, probably someone who'd pay me for causing chaos or damage or something… I'm Jinx by the way." Graves considered what she'd said. The employer for whom she was searching sounded suspiciously like the one who he was going to meet at that very moment. Warwick was insane, but she seemed like his type. In fact, she sounded like the type for the job that he had been told about. Warwick seemed to be playing a strange game here. Graves figured that if there was gold to be had he didn't care how he got it.
"We'll talk and walk. I happen to be on the way to an employer fitting your description. He often leaves cryptic messages when he has a job for someone. His name's Warwick, and he's insane, but he's got gold. I go by Graves. You said you'd travelled far. Where'd you come from?"
"I'm from Zaun, but I haven't been back in maybe 10 years. I live in Piltover now. It's the most boring city you could imagine, but that's why I'm there: I make it more fun." She threw her head back and giggled, a sound that was almost pure insanity. Graves raised his eyebrows but said nothing. He knew whom he was dealing with now. The most wanted person in Piltover. Piltover's sheriff Caitlyn had even tried hiring Graves to catch her once. He hadn't responded though: Piltover was a law-abiding city, and if he caught their criminal, he'd be imprisoned as well. He could escape imprisonment easily enough, but the gold hadn't been enough for him to risk it. Now he laughed inwardly at the idea of a prison being able to hold an enigma such as this Jinx. They approached the alley out of which Warwick conducted the forefront of his business. Graves lifted the ornate knocker in the shape of a wolf's head, and knocked three times. The knocks echoed eerily, and they heard footsteps approaching the door. A young girl, no older than 13, and dressed in the bizarre garb often accredited to Warwick's taste, opened the door and silently gestured for them to enter. He watched as Jinx's reddish eyes widened in childlike wonder at the dark interior of the house. He wasn't surprised at her reaction: the black walls were lined with firearms and weapons of all shapes and sizes. Torches that flickered wildly, casting eerie shadows and making Jinx look more and more like something out of a nightmare, dimly lit the hallway. He'd never seen anyone quite like this girl. He'd been in many brothels, and underground gambling dens, but he'd never seen someone with her enthusiasm and wonder. He saw her gasp as she saw a rocket launcher that was so loaded down with extra functions that it would be nearly impossible to carry. She was like a kid, although he was sure she was at least 20 years old to his 30. He couldn't imagine what working with her would be like: she didn't seem like one to get a job done fast. Not his thing. Not at all.
Jinx:
Graves seemed like a quiet douche. She felt sure that he was silently laughing at her. She'd show him. He didn't seem like the type to have any fun on the job, and the type who thought he was superior. She'd seen the way he'd scorned a small street child whose, silvery eyes were huge in her thin, starving face. She'd seen how he'd spat on the shaking body of a Shimmer addict, who had been wailing. She'd watched the way he'd ground a small child's sweet into the gravel when it had fallen into his path. Jinx wasn't unkind per say: she enjoyed causing confusion and chaos, but she didn't actually focus on killing people. They just happened to be in her way. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy the panic resulting from pain, but her point wasn't to hurt people. Usually. Chaos was much more her thing, and she thought mental pain was much more potent than physical pain. She didn't take joy in suffering of the physical calibre, she took joy in the chaos and lack of order. She could tell that this Graves had no interest in chaos, and only in pain of the flesh. Sadistic bastard. Yes she caused pain, and she did enjoy some aspects of it, but she didn't enjoy it like he did. Ew. Yes, she'd been wondrous at the guns, but she'd seen that uncalled for grin flash over his face when he'd seen her looking. He'd been mocking her, and she resented him for it. Was she not allowed to enjoy life a bit?
A/N:
Hi guys, Jo here. This story was just an idea I had while writing my other story called Wasted. I thought a prequel about Jinx and Graves might be nice as it becomes sort of important in the next few chapters of the story. Of course this is also a stand alone story, you don't have to read one to understand the other. I know it's kind of fast paced and it jumps around a bit but that's probably because I wrote it on a whim and those generally aren't the best pieces of work... Anyway, if you liked this, please review... I write so much faster when I know people want to read... I'm open to suggestions either about my writing style, or the story itself, or the way I portrayed the characters (I really wanted to capture Jinx's personality in here, so tell me if you liked it/ thought it could be better). :)