The amount of useful information Jayce had at his disposal was minimal. Vi and Caitlyn had been reluctant to let him run off alone with no real plan in mind. Caitlyn in particular wasn't fond of his tendency to run into situations half-cocked and totally alone without a Plan B in case of emergency, let alone a Plan A. Vi's primary concern was that one of them would end up dead—and the only reason she really seemed concerned about Jinx's well-being in the first place was that she wanted to be able to gloat that Piltover had prevailed (and even better, that Jinx had failed). Whether or not Jayce had the time or the attitude to brag about the Piltovian victory remained to be seen.
Despite her reluctance to support his notoriously rash decision-making, Caitlyn had been helpful to make sure he at least had a direction to go. Being the fussy strategist she was, she had insisted that he stay behind and help them come up with yet another plan to trap the criminal at large. If Jinx was doing something strange now, it was likely she would be back to do something strange again and a stakeout would be most effective, as Caitlyn had rambled on. She had interjected her matronly disapproval of the inventor's actions, but had not otherwise tried to stop him.
Vi had clearly been bummed out that she wasn't allowed to come along with him, as if Jayce was the wrong person to hunt her down once and for all. Caitlyn had reminded her firmly of her duties right there within Piltover's city walls ("Aw, come on, cupcake! I never do anything fun!"), and that it was very likely that Jinx would return to rain some new hell down upon the city while Jayce was gone. Vi's spirits were easily brought up with just a little extra ego-stroking on Caitlyn's part ("You are the only law enforcement officer on hand with a chance of bringing her to justice!").
As it was, Vi's immediate knowledge of the finer details of the case file itself (beyond that the blue-haired bitch's face needed to be punched in) was less extensive than Caitlyn's, even though the information they had on Jinx's actual location was almost negligible. The direction Jinx's clownishly painted missiles usually came from was their primary lead, and the second most seemingly useful bit of information was the way she was dressed.
The missiles usually flew in from the southwest, over the inlet of water that separated the City of Progress from the polluted stain on Valoran known as Zaun. Even more, Jinx's devil-may-care attitude and immodest garb was entirely reminiscent of what was in Zaunite vogue—it certainly wasn't Piltovian, which was generally much more modest in attitude and charming in dress.
Jayce certainly wasn't Zaun's greatest fan, and the city-state wasn't too pleased with him either. Ultimately, his goal was to avoid going into (or even too close to) city proper, lest they reduce him to a remotely human-and-hammer-shaped black outline on the ground the second they caught sight of him (and he didn't doubt that this was a likely reaction from both the city-state of Zaun and Jinx herself). Viktor wielded a hell of a lot of power in Zaun due to his multitude of unethical inventions that the "scholars" there hailed as masterpieces.
Then again, Jayce usually reassured himself, those same scholars were the ones who let industry operate unchecked, weighing the atmosphere there down with toxic smog that was probably shaving years off the lifespan of anyone who spent more than a few hours in the city limits. He hadn't been there in a long time, but he was sure that their guard towers probably had pictures of his face plastered on the walls with warnings to eviscerate him on sight. Zaunites were generally unfriendly toward the people of Piltover, but Jayce was the only one who'd had the guts to stand up for the safety of his city (and the destruction of his first lab).
Even after being dubbed Piltover's Sentinel as a result of his charge on Viktor's laboratory and corruption, he was not officially affiliated with the police department. As far as he was concerned, the title had very little meaning. Jayce had no interest in being a part of the police department. It was too much work and too little freedom to take matters into his own hands, as he was wont to do (much to Caitlyn's chagrin and Vi's amusement). Although Vi was pretty flexible with Piltover's code of police ethics, she was pretty fond of the idea of having a plan. Jayce preferred to play things by ear—the only thing that was certain was the present. Plans could change, but the present could not. That was what made his rush on Zaun so successful—and why it bothered him so much that he had to be so close to the reprehensible city-state.
It wasn't comforting in the slightest that Jayce didn't know for sure whether or not Jinx actually lived in Zaun, but it seemed likely that she at least lived nearby. After all, Jayce knew of only two city-states in all of Valoran that would house such a high-caliber, relentless psychopath, and he was highly doubtful that, if she was from Noxus, someone as skinny and delicate-looking as Jinx would regularly pass through the Ironspike Mountains to launch attacks on Piltover.
Caitlyn made it very clear that he was to tread very carefully near Zaun, and to keep her updated as well as he could from wherever he was (and he had to remind her more than once that she was not his mother, although she liked to believe she had as much authority). Vi had requested in hushed tones so Caitlyn wouldn't hear that he haul Jinx's scrawny ass into custody if at all possible, just so she could have the sweet satisfaction of jailing her and "making that little bitch cry." She had made it clear that Jayce was allowed to act as an agent of the Piltover Police Department, although probably no one was going to be crying out for Jinx's basic human rights.
With what little knowledge he had of where he was going and why, Jayce set out on his journey. Going somewhere without knowing much about the where was just as difficult as he had expected, and it wasn't until he was only about an hour's walk outside Piltover's city gates that he realized that he was immensely less prepared than he had initially believed. He knew his way to Zaun just fine and was wandering there, but he didn't know where to turn off or even what to look for.
From what he knew of her, Jayce figured Jinx probably lived somewhere in a cardboard box or in a hole underground. He had only caught glimpses of her, a little blur of blue and black as she ran through the city, sometimes past his lab or the academy where he would occasionally do research. He knew what her face looked like for sure; he had seen it everywhere on posters in Piltover, situated right beneath the word "WANTED". That word alone seemed like a vast overstatement regarding Piltover's feelings toward the psychopath. Jayce was doubtful any city would want that thing and the mass destruction that clung to it, but he had been surprised by foreign capacities for appreciating madness before.
The walk was quiet, lonely, and time-consuming, three of Jayce's least favorite adjectives when he wasn't creating something incredible. He could put up with solitude if he needed to think, but being left to his thoughts wasn't so appealing right now. That left far too much time for his mind to linger on doubts and fears. He was a man that highly valued confidence and perseverance, but time spent alone without anything to think about but the road under his feet often caused his mind to give way to those negative thoughts. In his experience, too much thinking caused too little action. He didn't very easily give way to cowardice, but going into Zaun did seem plenty daunting.
If he remembered right, walking to Zaun at a brisk pace had taken him a little under a day, accounting for sleeping. But he had moving like a hurricane then, unfettered by the negative thoughts and anxiety that bothered him now. Now he was moving like a prisoner on a death march, and he wondered what the difference really was. He had a few ideas. Maybe it was because he didn't know exactly where he was going now, and that was dragging his confidence down like a cinderblock in water.
Then again... Then again, maybe it was the fact that he hadn't seen her do it. Jayce was a people person. He was an immensely empathetic person and always had been. While he was revered as one of the most intellectually gifted people in Piltover—and he certainly wasn't going to deny a claim so flattering—he liked to convert his thoughts into something tangible, something he could touch. That was why, in his younger years, he struggled so much with making blueprints for his creations. He didn't want to put his ideas on paper; he wanted to bring them to life right away, no instructions necessary.
Seeing Viktor wreck through his lab, destroying his belongings for selfish reasons that Jayce really couldn't wrap his mind around, was really all he needed to ignite the spark he needed to sit down and toil tirelessly for days on his precious Mercury Hammer. The flame had goaded him into rampaging straight into Zaun and hunting Viktor down and destroying the immensely the arcane crystal that had been stolen from him, nearly at the risk of his own life and Viktor's. He had seen what Viktor had done, and he hadn't been able to empathize.
The fact that he hadn't seen Jinx made it very hard for him to pin the same sense of blame and animosity on her. He hadn't seen her crash through his ceiling like the one-girl wrecking crew she was, destroying everything she couldn't get out of the entryway she had created and spray-painting her name on the walls, inexplicably proud of the vexation she would inevitably cause for no real reason. Envisioning it happening was easy, but it wasn't the same. The spark wasn't there. He wanted desperately to find her and get his creations back before she ruined them, but his feet were dragging. He wanted to hate her like he had hated Viktor. But he hadn't been there to see her wrong him.
Jayce slowed to a stop, leaning on the hammer for a moment so he could rub his eyes. He was tired of walking already, and he didn't know if hunting down the little blue-haired menace that had terrorized his city and mercilessly razed his laboratory was worth his life. He estimated he was probably a few hours under halfway there, considering he hadn't quite rounded the tip of the inlet of water that separated Piltover from Zaun. He could see the greyish-green cloud hanging overhead in the distance across the body of water. The longer he stared at it, the more desperately he did not want to go there.
He stood there for longer than he should have, thinking harder than he needed to. What would they say if he flipped around and marched right back to Piltover with the news that he was a spineless coward who couldn't face a girl that he easily had, what, eighty pounds and a foot of height on? Maybe finding her and seeing her was just what he needed. Seeing her laugh unrepentantly about the atrocities she had committed against Piltover sounded like just the kick in the head Jayce needed to pull himself together.
The sound of wheels on the uneven dirt road rumbling up behind him didn't even register until the vehicle was dangerously close to hitting him. He jerked out of the way just in time for the autonomously moving carriage to miss his foot by a few inches. It was motorized, not magic, judging from the heat coming off the side of it and the fumes swirling out of the exhaust pipe into the atmosphere. The carriage was a big purple thing that looked like a little girl's tacky music box with wheels attached.
After a moment, the dark-tinted window on the side of the carriage lowered. A girl maybe fifteen years of age stared back at him. She wore makeup that looked like it belonged on a woman in a gaudy cabaret or a sleazy Noxian alleyway, not a teenager in a cutesy violet carriage. The makeup contrasted with the youthful pigtails the girl wore in her fine, curly blonde hair. Jayce was so baffled that he couldn't think of anything to say right away. Fortunately, she spoke first.
"Are you ill?" Her voice was high-pitched but soft, as though she had trained her voice to be as feminine as possible. Jayce blinked at her a few times, desperately trying to make a connection between his brain and his voice. It was a wonder that his newly independent voice box didn't just make a groaning noise at the curious adolescent. Maybe he was ill.
"I'm fine. Thanks." An inappropriately normal answer for someone who had almost been run over, Jayce thought dryly. "I was just resting for a second. I'm on my way to Zaun, wasn't paying attention." Was he? He didn't think he had come to a decision once and for all, but he didn't plan on sharing his life story with this particularly odd stranger. She was probably thinking just the same thing.
The girl didn't answer right away. Once more, Jayce was almost wounded by the carriage when the door began to extend outward more quickly than he had been expecting, nudging him back and giving him only enough time to take a big step back to make room for the big purple door she was sitting behind to open. The door on the other side had opened as well, as evidenced by the fact that he could see through the carriage to the sun setting behind the mountains to the west.
He stared at her, dumbfounded, and she stared right back with a robotically empty expression on her face. It took a maddeningly long time for her to say anything. Despite the fact that he really didn't want to be alone again, he furrowed his brow and considered turning around and running away, probably screaming like a madman so she wouldn't follow him. He wished right then that he wasn't tethered to bothersome things like sanity and social awareness.
She raised her chin at him so she could look down her nose at him. There was a visible line on her jaw where the pasty white makeup ended and where her fair skin began. Maybe she was an actress, or a clown. Or an asylum patient. "My name is Kitty. I work in Zaun. I can take you there." Instantly the corner of Jayce's mouth tugged upward as he began to politely protest, but she cut him off before he was able to even speak. "I insist. It would be unkind of me to leave a gentleman here all by his lonesome."
It wasn't worth fighting with her. Besides, getting trapped in a carriage headed toward Zaun was really the only way to guarantee he would get there. He could just ask to be dropped off outside city proper, claiming his business was somewhere on the outskirts. Whether or not that would work on this automaton was a different story altogether.
He loaded his Mercury Hammer into the carriage before climbing in himself. As he had suspected, she was inside alone. She stared at him, powdery blue eyes boring into him as the doors closed behind him. The second the doors clicked shut, the carriage continued to rumble. Despite the dim of the inside of the carriage, Jayce could see that she was wearing a dress not unlike something a child's porcelain doll would wear, her politely folded hands covered in silken gloves. He stared out the window, trying to ignore the fact that there was a teenage girl sitting across from him, not blinking quite often enough to seem alive. He didn't want to look close enough at her chest to guess whether or not she was really breathing. She was like a flesh-covered version of the clockwork girl that lived in Piltover, with fewer jerky movements and more uncannily inhuman mannerisms.
They rode in silence for a long while. Even though Jayce felt awkward in the presence of this bizarre girl, he had to admit he was making much better time in the impressively fast carriage. And nearly any company was better than no company. "I like your hammer. It's very big and dangerous."
The statement took him by surprise. Big and dangerous? Jayce wondered if she was ill. Were those really her qualifiers for object appreciation? Nevertheless, he gave a courteous smile. "Thanks. I made it myself."
"What is your business in Zaun?" Kitty asked abruptly, as if she had forgotten that she had already made an attempt at conversation. An attempt he was responsive to, no less.
Jayce scratched absently at his jaw, trying to decide whether or not truthfulness would be beneficial to him right now. He supposed he could ask. "I'm looking for a girl."
"To marry? I know lots of girls, for very cheap."
He shook his head, trying to act like that was not the single strangest thing she could have possibly responded with. He was almost offended that she would even imply that he would need to pay for a woman, to marry or use otherwise, but had to remind himself that her marbles were practically rolling out of her ears. "No, it's a different kind of business. I'm not sure if she even lives in Zaun or nearby, but it's the only place I can think of to look for her."
"Who is the girl?"
Jayce shrugged, heaving a deep breath. "You'd know her if you saw her. Not very tall, she's got these really long blue braids, a really obnoxious laugh..."
In the first strictly human act the girl had performed since Jayce had met her, the girl gave an understand nod. "I have seen very little of this girl, but I know of her. She declined our recruitment requests and mailed a bomb that devastated our home." Well, we're definitely talking about the same person. "She lives in a strange little tower outside Zaun. I can take you there."
"No kidding," he answered incredulously. "I can pay you, if you—"
"No. No money, since this is not a normal service. I may ask a favor in return for my help." He wasn't sure if she was saying it was possible she would ask a favor, or if she was giving herself permission. Either way, Jayce didn't argue with her. This was the fastest way to get to Jinx, no doubt. Even better, he knew what Jinx's home looked like (there were only so many strange little towers outside Zaun, surely) and that she didn't live directly in the city. All it took was accepting a ride with a stranger. He couldn't wait to see the look Caitlyn's face when he got to inform her that he had benefited from something so sketchy.
He waited politely for her to tell him what the favor was. So long as it didn't involve anything that humiliating or otherwise physically or emotionally damaging, he figured it was doable. Maybe, with any luck, she would forget by the time they got there and he could consider it a favor on the house. That seemed unlikely, but maybe it was worth a shot.
Kitty spoke once more, announcing, "I think I will sleep now. It will take three hours to get to the city gates of Zaun. Your friend's home will be three hours and thirty minutes. You should sleep as well." Jayce gave a short nod, and she didn't speak again.
A/N: This chapter was long and dry and otherwise pretty dull. The next chapter or two probably won't be as long, but so long as I don't get too busy talking about what a little bitch Jayce is, Jinx should actually make an appearance in the next chapter. Like always, reviews are welcome (and I'm sorry that this chapter reads like a textbook on how not to be a grownass man).