Ekko lay on the girls arm for hours, gripping her hand tightly. The only condolences were the light breathing noises coming from her mouth. he stared of the neon blue strands that stuck out from her gown as he dazed off with an occasional tear sliding down his cheek.
At least she was alive.
Ahri sat in the back room on the couch watching the morning news. A story was already rolling about Jinx's situation and the rumor mill was flowing. She sighed and stared out the door into the patient's quarters.
Ahri was never good at showing compassion, at least not the real kind. She was only in this job as a scribe for Sona. The pay was good and the rent was free.
The front door jingled as Miss Fortune walked into the clinic. She pursed her lips as she looked at Ekko. He looked like a disaster, but she had expected it.
She walked into the back room and sat down next to Ahri as they watched the news. Images and videos of Jinx still played on the screen. Her lips cracked a smile as she watched a clip of her in Ekko's first fight and shook her head.
It was painfully obvious even back then too.
"Sona says she's in a coma," Ahri whispered as she brought one knee up to her chin. The smile quickly faded from Miss fortunes face.
"Is it bad?" she asked quietly.
"We don't know, Sona's hopeful though, she says she hit her head on both sides and the bruising's minimal," she looked over at Miss Fortune "we just don't know what kind of damage there will be when she wakes up."
"I see," Miss Fortune looked at the ground.
"She thinks it won't be extreme like in a lot of cases, but she could lose the ability to speak or walk, to write, we just don't know." Ahri continued.
"We should probably tell him," Miss Fortune sighed as she pointed a finger to the door. The fox lifted herself from the couch and walked into the bathroom to grab a bush. She signaled for Miss Fortune to follow her out to the patients room.
"Ekko get up," Ahri pushed on his shoulder. Ekko lifted his head and glared, which earned and eye roll from the vixen.
"Ekko we need to talk to you about her," Miss Fortune pointed at Jinx. Reluctantly Ekko stood up and sat in the chair Ahri had provided earlier. The fox smiled then walked behind him and grabbed the water. The glass was shoved into his hand as she took the brush to his hair. Spiking it back up to its normal state.
"She's not dead," Miss Fortune started, leaning against the bed. Ekko winced as Ahri hit a knot in his hair, but still refused to drink the water despite the nagging burning in his throat.
"Sona says she's in a coma and the bruising is minimal, but her brain needs time to heal," she looked him in the eyes to try and get the point across. But his only fell to the floor in shame. She got on her knees and placed a hand on his.
"Look this isn't your fault, how were you supposed to stop this," she gave his right knee a tight reassuring squeeze, "but you can save the people stuck in the rift, easily, I know you can. And Jinx would want you to," She continued. The people stuck there had a day left tops before they started to keel off from dehydration.
Ekko opened his mouth but his voice was gone from the night before. Miss Fortune covered he nose as his throw up breath washed over her face. She shoved the glass of water towards his mouth as Ahri finished up with his hair. It was gone in seconds.
"Now," Miss Fortune stood up and walked to the door, only opening it slightly to grab something just outside the door. She tossed the bag from the caves into his open lap.
"You have lives to save," she tilted her head to the door. Ekko glanced over at Jinx, not wanting to leave her side.
"We will watch her," Ahri assured him.
Ekko got up and gave another squeeze to Jinx's hand. He looked back at the two before returning to look at Jinx's face. Without any thought he leaned down and placed a soft kiss on her forehead before turning for the door.
"She's gunna be so pissed when I tell her you did that," Miss Fortune taunted.
"Shut up," Ekko glared as his face turned red again. His voice still has a little audible scratch in it.
Once outside he slung the pack over his shoulder and noticed the absent weight. The z-drive was missing from his back and he felt naked without it, but it was broken so there was no point in going to get it. He counted the days since the orb had gone missing. It had been at least five or six. People were going to die soon if he didn't help, and time was minimal.
He made a beeline for the blacksmith station in town. An odd thing to provide in a town but when you are dealing with a bunch of inventors it was necessary. It was located just outside the main street of buildings as to not contaminate the air. It took him less than five minutes to get to it.
He wiped another tear from his eyes as she walked inside and started emptying his ores into a melting pot. It was then placed into a furnace to being to crackle and pot as it turned to liquid. He took a seat on the stool next to a work bench and thought for a bit about how this was going to work.
Which he hoped it did. He didn't really have any sciencey mathematical stuff to go off of, just experience. Earlier he did plan on making a hard metal shell on the outside of the new orb but he didn't have time to make that anymore. He would have to wing it and hope nothing blew up.
His mind wandered to Jinx every so often as he continued to plan the rescue mission. But he quickly pushed them away. He got up and grabbed the land line off the wall that was normally only used for emergencies like a fire, but it would due for a regular phone call. He pulled out his own phone and found Vis contact that he had obtained when he joined the league.
It rang a few times before she answered with a grrogy hello.
"Yeah I need you to get a control panel like the ones for the games to the selection stage," he said.
"Okay?" Vi replied back, half because of what he was asking and the other because she last she saw him was sleeping in bed.
"Okay thanks," he hung up the phone. Piltover was only a fifteen minute boat ride from here. He was sure she would figure something out.
Ekko grabbed some tongs and poked the pot that sat in a ring of flames. The ores were melting at a nice pace and would probably only take an hour. He sat back down on the stool and looked at the sky, decided to stop fighting off the images of Jinx as they flood his mind.
A few hours passed and Ekko carefully picked up the molten metal with some tongs. He inspected it for any chunks before walking it over to a mold and began to pour. It glided seamlessly against the hard sand he had prepared, filling the circular orifice inside.
He let it set for another hour or two before digging it out with a pair of leather gloves and a smaller set of tongs. It warmed him right through the hard leather but he decided not to quench it since it would make it brittle and more likely to fail.
He used the ban saw to chop off its tail from the molding process and tossed it around in his hands and brought it over to a polishing station to buff out the rough texture.
His finished creation took a total of four hours but he was left with a light blue smooth sphere. He prayed to the gods that it would hold up long enough to get everyone out and safe. One box can only hold so much without a drain.
He made his way into town and walked directly to the selection stage. Vi was already sitting on the steps looking bored out of her mind. A control panel strait from the control room in Piltover sat next to her.
"So why do we need to do this here and not back in Piltover," she questioned as he shoved the heavy box to rest about three feet from the stairs.
"Because," he gave another shove to get it into position, "I'm not sure if this is going to work or not and I'd rather not kill anymore people."
Vi frowned and stood up, then crossed her arms. Ekko needs to be able to monitor if everyone got through okay, and blowing up the power plant in Piltover was much worse than blowing up this stage. He opened the back access panel and pulled some heavy gauge wires out.
"I need a soldering iron," he pointed to his apartment and Vi went to go play fetch. He pulled three red cables from the control panel's power source and strung them out to the center of the stage. Next he opened the floor to the stage and looked around before finding the power source for that as well. He set the orb down and lines the cables up accordingly to how he wanted to meld them.
VI returned with the necessary equipment and he hunted around under the stage for a power supply. After finding one he easily soldered the pieces onto the sphere then set it on the floor. Vi ran the alternate power supply for the control panel under the stage and into a power outlet and it whirred to life.
People started to gather outside, including Ahri and Miss fortune.
"So is this going work?" Ahri asked Ekko as the crowd became larger.
"I don't know but there's a good chance of it blowing up," Ekko sighed in frustration as he typed some coding on the keyboard. He wasn't in the mood for questions. His throat still felt like fire and his entire body felt like dog poop.
"Okay everyone back!" vi took notice and started to shoo the crowd a good forty to fifty feet away. Finally he pushed the red button and cut power onto the orb. It started to glow an intense blue as it floated into the air and accessed the rift. The computer now displayed all ten champions stuck in the virtual hell. He scanned his eyes across them for a test subject to try the first port back. Using the arrow keys he selected Teemo because of his small size and hit enter. The orb started to glow brighter as the first circle on red side started to glow. Seconds later the furry Satan appeared in and fell to the ground.
"W-water," he coughed dramatically. The crowd cheered as sona walked up to the platform and gathered him in her arms. Ekko could have sworn he heard that evil giggle as the satanic critter got to snuggle into Sona's chest.
With each champion he brought back the orb got brighter and lifted higher off the ground. Each person having the same exhausted reaction; Gang Plank even flat out fainted and had to be too carried off. By the time he reached the tenth champion the crowed was cheering him on. But the wires going to the orb had been strung to tight they threatened to rip themselves from the thing. He bit his lip as he stared at the orb that floated six feet off the ground menacingly and then stared at the crowd.
"Get everyone inside," he titled his head to Vi "including you."
"But Ekko what if something happens?" Vi fought back.
"Just do it!" he yelled back at her. Vi pursed her lips and started to disperse the crowd into the surrounding houses. The screen rested on the last champion, Blitzcrank. He chose him last because of his size and the fact that he was made entirely of metal. If this thing was going to blow he would be the only person able to survive it.
Ekko glanced around again to make sure everyone was inside. Then without hesitation he pressed the enter button again. The support circle on the blue side lit up as the steam golem appeared in the light. He looked around questioningly before shrugging his shoulders and making his way for the stairs.
Not having to eat food or drink water has its perks in this situation.
The robot made it a few steps before the orb started to buzz angrily. One by one the cables snapped from it and it fell to the floor after pulling the control box down on its side. It bounced up and down rapidly and fell under the stage through the open door.
"Hurry!" Ekko yelled as he waved for blitz to run. The steam golem went as fast a steam golem could and made it off the stairs before the buzzing got louder and high pitched. Ekko closed his eyes and turned his back to the stage to cover himself from the impeding explosion.
In an array of white smoke and blue energy the stage exploded. Shrapnel flew out in every direction as energy released up into the air. Ekko prepared for the worst, almost expecting to die. Then he was suddenly pulled to his side by a strong force and hit a solid wall.
After a few second the explosion was over. The orb lay in the rubble, a smoldering mess. Ekko slowly opened his eyes and blinked a few times, his heart racing. He felt a sharp pain in his bicep as he looked up at the golden robot that has saved him with a firm grip on his waist. A piece of shrapnel had landed deep within his arm and it started to bleed. The robot slowly let go of Ekko and gave a blank roboty stare.
"Uh, thanks," Ekko patted his metallic shell awkwardly, "first time I'm happey to have a blitz hook landed on me," he gave an awkward laugh. Blitz just stood in silence, steam pouring out of his exhaust ports.
People started to file outside and cheered. Ekko held his wounded arm and gave a goofy smile.
He had done it. He had saved everyone.
Now only if he could save Jinx.
The smile quickly faded to a frown as Ahri led him back to the clinic.
So here's the next one. Manly just a filler chapter, but you guys are gunna like the next one.
I've also been busy on fiction press, just started a story that was originally gunna be a fanfic but it wasn't fitting the characters personalities and just made no sense for them to act that way. If you want to check it out just go to my profile for the link. (WARNING: its rated M and has lots o dirty goodies in it, stay out childern.)
And as always, thank you for the reviews!