A/N: Sorry it's been a while since my last update, but I had to write this, and scrap parts of it a few times before I felt I got it right. Hope you all enjoy!
With Kog'Maw's last plan completely an utterly falling apart, he knows that he's on thin ice and needs to produce results with the next attack, or there will be dire consequences. Meanwhile, the Guardians have thrown everything to finding their last teammate and getting her onboard. The only question is can they find them before Kog'Maw attacks again?
Chapter 27 – Coming in With a Bang
As Janna surveyed the remaining three people, Janna couldn't tell which was one was their last teammate. All three were different but there had to be another clue. However, when Janna asked Lulu the previous day to see if anything new had come to her, Lulu just said no, and almost hovered off. Janna was sitting by a tree watching the rest of the school file in, while Zephyr, Dorcha, and Solas were keeping an eye from the roof. Janna didn't want to make a bet, but if she had to guess, it was probably the one they would least expect. Groaning, she just gave up and headed inside. It would be the end of the day before they knew for certain. Hopefully Kog'Maw would stay quiet for the day.
"I'm not even going to tempt fate. Just go inside and go to class." Janna muttered to herself. She then got up, dusted herself off, and headed inside.
On Runeterra's moon, Kog'Maw was miserable. His last plan had backfired, utterly backfired and now he had to make up for his mistake. He needed energy but also needed to locate Malzahar's tome, and that wasn't easy. Unlike the bag and boots, they had absolutely no idea where his tome could be. It wasn't catalogued with the rest of the artifacts and they just tossed it aside when they all corrupted Malzahar, not knowing fully what it was. It could literally be anywhere.
Kog'Maw was so depressed he couldn't even eat. The large pile of snacks on his table was still full, and he couldn't even pay attention.
"That bad worm?" Kog'Maw turned to see Rek'Sai standing there, with somewhat of a smile on her face. Kog'Maw didn't even give her lip about calling him a worm, and just put his head back down, or rather his whole body. "Wow it is that bad." Rek'Sai carefully walked into the room and looked at the table. "Still trying to identify the tome?" Kog'Maw just nodded as best he could. Rek'Sai grabbed a snack with her tail, then forced Kog'Maw's mouth open, fed him the snack, then held his mouth shut until he ate it. "Better?"
"A bit. I just have no idea where it is. We need energy and I'm thinking of just going for that until we can get more information. I can task someone to go looking, but it will still be hard work." Kog'Maw looked for some type of approval, and Rek'Sai nodded.
"If you can't find your target, then go with what you know. Pick out two minions. One to hunt for the tome, the other to get energy." Rek'Sai finished her sentence and walked out, knowing she had done something to at least try and get his mood. Up. While they all didn't like each other, they all tolerated each other, and they all needed everyone to work together because of how low their energy reserves were at the moment. Kog'Maw quickly looked at the map and decided that a major attack would be necessary but he wouldn't use any Zzs. Taking Rek'Sai's suggestion he made off through the palace looking for the two he knew he would need.
After looking through the maze he finally found one of them. Irins was sitting watching space, which was unusual for her. She turned when she heard Kog'Maw approaching. "Irinis, I require your assistance. You are good at finding lost things so I have a task for you."
"What would that be?" Irinis' voice betrayed her skepticism but she didn't get outright hostile. Yet.
"We need to locate Malzahar's lost tome on the planet below, and you are the best person to find it. We have no leads, so it will be up to you." Kog'Maw looked at her intently, and after a few seconds, Irinis relaxed.
"How much time to I have?" She asked after stood up and stretched.
"Honestly, just as quickly as possible. We need it and quickly." Kog'Maw finished and while he didn't turn to leave, he was tempted.
"Very well. I'll look for it and report back." Irinis quickly opened a portal and vanished.
"Well that was easier than expected, now where is Joen?" Kog'Maw quickly started looking around for the other minion he needed and found him in the training room. Joen was always training or sleeping. He looked like a tank but when he unleashed his attacks, they came in the form of energy pulses from his arms. Kog'Maw could see he was still hitting most of the targets.
"Doing well there?" Joen asked as Kog'Maw approached him.
"Mostly. I have need of you. We need energy and we need someone who can hold off the guardians for a longer period than lately." Kog'Maw barely had time to finish before Joen spoke again.
"Well then I guess let's get going. Do you have a specific plan or should we just go with the flow?" Joen finished off one last target and then turned to face Kog'Maw.
"I had nothing specific as I know you like to come up with your own plans." Kog'Maw did in fact have a plan but was also not 100% confident on it.
"Well then. Give me a day to scout the city and I'll report back." Joen ripped open a portal and vanished. Kog'Maw just stood stunned for a minute before coming back to his senses.
"Well that was easier than I thought it would be."
As the day dragged on it was hard to even get a read on the three remaining, and Janna was getting frustrated. Because the remaining three had very different schedules it was difficult to get close enough to be able to identify them properly. Just when the day was ending, Janna knew that only one of them had been ruled out. As the last bell rang, Janna went to her locker and was prepared to tell Lux that she had again failed, when she ran, literally, into one of them, knocking both of them over.
"Hey! Seriously watch it." Janna looked up to see who she ran into. She checked and saw that it was one of the two they didn't get to. Her hair was in two long bright blue pigtails and she looked equally annoyed and amused.
"Sorry was thinking about something else." Janna quickly said as she stood up and helped her up.
"Whatever." The girl quickly picked up her books, but Janna "accidently" grabbed one as an excuse to get a good read on her.
"Sorry again but I grabbed this." Janna held out the book and the girl turned around again. She smiled as she took the book and the briefest of contact with her skin told Janna everything, and she immediate knew this would be a problem. "Again sorry." Janna quickly hustled out while the girl was looking at her funny but then shrugged and moved on. After rounding a corner, Janna found herself able to breathe again as she had been holding it in. She could see Dorcha looking at her through a vent and Janna nodded.
Outside, Janna quickly scooped up Dorcha and Solas, while Zephyr hopped onto her shoulder. Janna quickly got another look at the girl and saw her pull two poros out of her back and set them on her shoulders as she walked off to somewhere. "Follow her. I'll tell the others. They aren't going to like this." Dorcha and Solas nodded and quickly hopped off. Janna and Zephyr made for the tower to meet up with the rest of the team, the while time, Janna tried to think about she was going to say.
Lux, Poppy, and Lulu waited for Janna, who was running later than usual. "Maybe she managed to find the fifth?" Poppy asked hopefully as the time ticked annoying along.
"Hopefully. I am getting a bad feeling that we will need the help." Both Lux and Poppy tuned to Lulu as she finished, and all three looked at each other. Lulu rarely was wrong, and either way, she was right. They had gotten lucky lately and it probably wouldn't last much longer. Just when they lapsed back into thought did Janna finally come in, and the look on her face wasn't good.
"No luck then?" Lux asked.
"Um…yes and no." Zephyr quietly slipped off Janna's shoulder as she spoke and Lux just sat back in her chair after Janna got that "it's complicated" look on her face. Poppy and Lulu also turned to face Janna as she sat down.
"Well this will be good." Poppy said as she crossed her arms.
"Yes we did find her, or rather I did after literally running into her, but that's where the good news ends." Janna reached into her bag and pulled out a yearbook from the previous year. "This is her. Don't worry about her name, everyone just calls her Jinx. She's a troublemaker, both intentionally and unintentionally. She just doesn't like a lot of rules, likes to blow stuff up, and is frequently in trouble." Janna looked up and the faces of her teammates were puzzled, annoyed, and curious.
"She does have a soft spot however. She cares for animals and when push comes to shove, she's usually reliable. She usually just needs a shove first in the right direction. One other issue that we might have is she doesn't have any friends, or at least any that I've ever been able to see." Janna just let her voice trail off
"Well every team needs a crazy one and maybe we can be her friends." Lulu said, and everyone else turned to her. She was just smiling and Poppy just shook her head.
"Crazy isn't something we need right now. But I guess we have little choice. Maybe I'll be surprised." Poppy was always the pessimist and Lux just put her head on the table.
"Regardless of our feelings, this is what we are stuck with. And for once, we can get a teammate before we are engaged in a battle. Just how should we approach it?" Lux picked her head up as she spoke and leaned back in her chair thinking. Looking around, Lux saw Janna and Lulu were thinking, while Poppy just seemed resigned to her opinions. "Poppy, remember what you thought about Lulu?" Lux didn't want to dredge up that topic, but it seemed to shake Poppy enough for her to sigh and nod.
"Sorry." Poppy just put her head down and also started to think.
"Does anyone know where she lives?" Janna asked after about 10 minutes. Everyone just shook their heads. "I'm thinking that might be the best way. I could have Dorcha and Solas report where she lives and we could do it tomorrow or later tonight. I have them following her now." Lux just nodded.
"That's probably the best plan. So tomorrow everyone?" There was a nod of consensus. "Ok then. That's the plan." The team got up and left while Lux and Janna set off to see where Jinx lived.
Following Zephyr, who seemed to be able to find those two anywhere, it led them into a richer area of town. Eventually they both managed to spot the two in a tree. Solas saw them approach and poke Dorcha, who hopped down to join the two. "She lives there and from what we can tell alone. There's a better view over here." Dorcha pointed and they all rounded a corner where they could get a good look inside. Jinx was sitting at a table in what looked like the kitchen, and had a laptop open in front of her and just seemed to be browsing randomly. What Lux saw in the back gave her a bit of pause. There was a shed with some flammable markings on it, and there were more than a few burn patches in the grass.
"Think she's a pyromaniac?" Lux asked Janna, only to have Jinx come out a second later. They both hid in the bush and watched. Jinx headed over to the shed and carefully pulled a few things out, including a table and some chemicals they couldn't read from where they were. For the next 20 minutes they watched her mix something then get a rocket from the shed. However, she paused and checked a pad of notes before opening the shell she put whatever she mixed in and after making a few adjustments, she resealed it and attached it to the rocket. "This can't be good." Lux and Janna already had their transformation tools ready but Jinx just placed the rocket in a concrete area of the yard and let the rocket fly. It exploded revealing a red firework. She seemed happy and headed back inside; after cleaning everything up first.
"Well that wasn't what I expected." Janna said as they watched her pack up the laptop and head upstairs. Lux turned to Dorcha.
"Keep an eye on her tonight and come back when she goes to bed. If she goes to bed." Lux added as an afterthought. Then turning to Janna, Lux saw her face. "What?"
"I swear I've seen that before." Janna said as Lux just looked between where they last saw Jinx and Janna.
"Probably since you see her every day." Lux said as she took to her feet.
"No I mean somewhere else. Maybe I'm just imagining it." Janna finished and she stood up and followed Lux. They both headed back home and after they finished homework, Lux answering a few texts from Poppy about Jinx and finally just before she was about to give up, Dorcha and Solas hopped into the room.
"About time, she finally went to sleep?" Lux kept her voice down since she was up way past when she wanted to be.
"Yes. However, it isn't all that bad. Since she had a few windows open we could hear what she was going on about. She plays the same games that you all do by the way, and rages appropriately. However, she lives alone there." Lux just looked at Dorcha curiously, a bit taken aback by the information.
"We hear her talking to her parents, who apparently are constantly on business, and judging by her reaction when she asked when they were coming home, it's been like this for a while. It is really a bit sad." Lux now was a bit torn and knew that even Poppy would break down at that. "She put those two poros she has on her bed before she turned in, but her expression wasn't the same happy peppy one she had earlier. My guess she uses her pyro obsession to escape from what is going on." Lux just sat back in her chair.
"Well this might explain her behavior then. Hopefully we can help with that." Lux finished and decided it was time for bed.
The night saw Kog'Maw and Joen sitting on top of one of the skyscrapers downtown. "You have a plan?" Kog'Maw asked looking a bit nervous.
"Not yet. I need one more day, but I'm close." Joen replied as he smiled.
"Good then. We can't delay much longer." Kog'Maw was about to go back to the moon when Irinis appeared. "Your report?" Kog'Maw asked turning away from where he was going to summon the portal.
"No luck today. I will need more time. I can barely find evidence of who took it. There is a lot to sort through. I'll report when I have more. I felt you were here so I figured I would say something." Kog'Maw looked at Irinis and sighed.
"Very well then. Keep me informed." Kog'Maw ripped open a portal and disappeared through it. Irinis and Joen disappeared shortly after.
The following morning saw Lux awaken with more energy than she thought she would have. Looking to see Dorcha and Solas still asleep, despite her alarm, she carefully got out of bed and after coming back from grabbing a bit of breakfast, they were still sleeping. "Ok sleepyheads get up." Lux poked them both awake. They both just yawned and looked at Lux with annoyance. "Sorry but you both have to go with Janna today remember?" They both sighed and nodded.
Lux changed and headed out the door to school, after putting the two in her pack since they didn't leave early enough to get to Janna's before she left. Lux waited for either Amy or Janna to show up and luckily Janna did first. Dorcha and Solas quickly hopped backpacks just before Amy rounded the corner.
"Oh sorry Lux I thought you were waiting for me?" Lux just smiled.
"No harm if Janna walks with us right?" Amy just smiled. The three walked to school talking about anything except the void and the recent attacks. In fact, it was probably the most normal conversation that Lux and Janna have had in a while. When they reached Grove, Janna split off and headed to the high school while Lux and Amy went inside. As Lux looked around, she saw Poppy and Lulu come in after and both nodded saying they were waiting until the end to put their plan into motion.
To say the school day dragged on would be an understatement. Lux and Poppy at times swore their phones were broken with how slowly time passed. Lulu was of course in her own world, but even Poppy caught her looking at her phone time and again. By the time lunch came around, it seemed like it should be dinner.
Janna had a bit easier of a day because she was keeping tabs on not only Jinx, but Dorcha, Solas, and Zephyr as well. Who were also keeping tabs on Jinx. As the morning moved on, they switched off keeping an eye on Jinx, since Janna couldn't except in the hallways. The amount of movement she did was annoying because she frequently would be either late to class, or in one case, ditch it all together. When lunch finally came, Janna saw Jinx leave the building and she decided to follow her rather than met the rest of the team.
As Jinx walked across the field behind the school, Janna tried to keep her distance as to avoid being noticed, but that would get hard very quickly. Fortunately, Janna didn't have to follow as Jinx took a seat under a tree and pulled her lunch, and her two pets from her bag. They were black and white like Dorcha and Solas, but they were much smaller. Jinx just sat and enjoyed herself in the shade, while Janna headed off to meet the team.
"So keeping an eye on her then?" Poppy asked as Janna finally joined them.
"Yeah, she is definitely unique. At least with her, given her attitude, if we have to get yanked out of class for a fight, she won't be missed. I'm still not sure about her, but she seemed to be relaxed now." Janna pointed over her shoulder at Jinx who was just relaxing under the tree. "I guess later today will be a tell." Janna pulled her lunch and started eating as she clearly didn't want to talk anymore.
"Just to clarify and state it again, we all head for the tower after school, and then to her place. We'll just have to survive the rest of the day." Lux's voice dropped as she finished, knowing that would be harder than she expected. Everyone just sort of hung their heads and sighed. They all just ate quietly after that while Poppy and Lux took turns keeping an eye on Jinx.
As the afternoon classes started, keeping an eye on Jinx became a nightmare for Dorcha, Solas, and Zephyr. Her classes went from one end of the building to the other and while she at least went to them, she clearly wasn't interested. When the final bell rang, she was almost the first one out as everyone headed for home. Janna watched her go, and after Dorcha and Solas nodded, she and Zephyr headed for the tower. It didn't take long for Janna to almost literally run into the rest of the team as she was in her own world.
"Janna? Janna!" Poppy's voice cut through Janna's mind like a knife and she turned to see the others standing there. Janna just shrugged and joined them. "Was the afternoon any better?" Janna just shook her head in reply and Poppy just pursed her lips in frustration. When they finally got to the tower, they found Vel'Koz waiting for them.
"I told him and I asked him to wait for us." Lux said as she dropped her bag and pulled out her locket.
"My suggestion is take it slowly as there could be any sort of reaction. I'll be waiting here for you return. Nasus is waiting for all of you in the dock. Good luck Guardians." Vel'Koz turned to the globe and a large sheet of paper next to him. Knowing that he would tell them when he was ready, Janna, Poppy, and Lulu all put their things down and pulled their pendants.
"Ready?" Lux looked between everyone, and they all nodded.
"Star Guardian Power Up!" Once they were transformed, they all grabbed the cloaks, Lux grabbing an extra one for Jinx, and they headed down to where Nasus was waiting with a new long car. Lux just looked at him with one eyebrow raised.
"Vel'Koz was getting tired of the van." Nasus replied as he got into the driver's seat while the team got in the back. Once they were all in, Nasus pulled out and after taking the briefest glance at Poppy's directions, began driving. In the back, the team pulled down their hoods for the drive.
"So what are we going to say?" Lulu asked as she looked between everyone else. Lux just had her head in her hands, Janna was looking out the window in thought, and Poppy was just looking grim, but that wasn't out of the ordinary.
"I'm not sure, we'll just take it one step at a time. We'll have to see. We've been winging it ever sense, so I think we should just go with that. I'm going to avoid the whole "save the world" argument." Lux let her voice trail off as she leaned back in the seat.
"I'd also just go with the truth and be blunt about it. I talked with a few people and they said she's exceedingly blunt but honest most of the time. She also hates betting around the bush." Janna turned from the window to look at the rest of the team. Poppy gave a brief smile as she heard that knowing that was a bit helpful.
"I hope you have resolved everything because we're here. I'll wait here for all of you." Nasus said as he lowered the divider.
"You sure this isn't a problem? Or you will get bored?" Lux poked her head up to the divider and saw a TV screen coming out from the dash.
"You think I'm going to be bored? I got my modifications in here too. Besides this is better than some of the paperwork. Don't worry about me. This way, if something doesn't get done, Vel can't blame me since he asked me to do this." Nasus gave a chuckle as the team laughed as well.
"Ok then, let's go everyone." The team pulled their hoods up as the left the long car. Since it was still a bit early, there was no one around, or at least no one they could see. Lux looked to see Dorcha and Solas in the tree, and they hopped down to join the team. Lux took one last deep breath and then they headed for the door. Lux knocked as they got up to it. Jinx was quick to answer but looked confused.
"Um…Harrowing is still months away so…" Jinx was clearly confused but didn't close the door. Lux lifted her head just enough for Jinx to catch the tiara and Jinx stood back. "Well this is special. Shiro, Kuro we have visitors." Janna, being the last in, closed the door behind her. The team pulled their hoods down. "So what can I do for all of you?" Jinx's voice didn't betray her feelings but it was clear that she was confused. She sat down at a table in the kitchen. Janna, Poppy, and Lulu started drawing all of the shades and blinds.
"Well you know the attacks lately?" Lux said as she took a seat opposite her. Jinx nodded.
"It's kind of all over the news. So it's hard to miss." Lux was a bit annoyed with the sarcasm in Jinx's voice but pushed past it.
"Well do you know what happened with the previous Guardians?" Lux looked up as Jinx did a good job of faking to remember.
"Didn't they all get destroyed in an explosion or something?" Janna just shook her head behind Jinx.
"Well yes and no. Because of the magical barriers around our planet, the powers never left, they stayed and settled us. And you." Lux pointed to Poppy, Lulu, and herself, before pointing to Jinx, who just sat there dumbfounded. Finally, just she started laughing.
"Please, there is no way I'm a Star Guardian. Don't you have to be all good, moral, and everything? Be all noble and that?" Jinx was clearly thinking this was a joke but she stopped laughing when Lux didn't reply. "Oh you are serious aren't you." Jinx's voice turned from hyper to curious, to eventually realization.
"Yes I am. We didn't ask for this, but we are stuck with it. We need our fifth teammate Jinx, and that's you. None of us were ready for this, but we've been dealing with it." Lux paused to let it sink in and Jinx just sat there, pondering. Eventually she just stood up and started pacing. Shiro and Kuro, her pets had joined them at this point. Jinx finally just turned to Lux.
"Why me?"
"We don't know. Clearly there is some larger plan at work, but we have no idea. We can transfer the powers to someone else, but not right now. We are all the defense this planet has." Lux let that sink in as Jinx sat back down on one of the chairs and began looking between the four of them.
"Uh…thinking hard, and annoying." Jinx just put her head in her hands. Lux was now more nervous than ever, and they knew that they couldn't force it, so they just had to wait it out and that wasn't easy. Finally, after what seemed like ages, Jinx picked her head up.
"Will I be able to blow stuff up?" Her voice was hopeful and excited. Lux just shook her head.
"No idea. Each of us didn't know what our powers would be before we transformed for the first time so I have no idea. I'm assuming that's a yes?" It was a question, and Jinx just nodded. Dorcha and Solas hopped up onto the table and conjured up the contract which landed in front of Jinx. Shiro and Kuro were looking at it with intent, and Jinx just briefly read it over before signing it.
"You aren't even going to read it?" Janna asked from the doorway.
"Yeah TL:DR. Most of this can probably be summed up as "don't do anything stupid."" Lux, who had actually read the contract, was now fighting back a bit of laughter. In essence, Jinx was right, but there was a lot that she wasn't getting.
"You do realize that we can hold you to this if necessary?" Dorcha said, still in a bit of disbelief.
"Yeah, whatever, let's just get on with it." Dorcha just sighed, defeated. She rolled up the contract and it transformed into Jinx's pendant. Lux was very curious when it materialized as it looked like two crossed guns.
"Sweet. Now how does this work?" Jinx took a moment to examine it before turning to Lux.
"Holding it and saying "Star Guardian Power Up"." Lux stood up and waited. Janna, Poppy, and Lulu were watching intently.
"Star Guardian Power Up!" This time all of them noticed something different. Something inside of them. It was power, raw power. Jinx was clearly the heavy hitter and while that was comforting, it was also a bit scary. None of them were convinced that she was stable.
When Jinx's transformation was done, she looked extremely different from the rest. The biggest change was her hair had gone from bright blue to fire red and she had two almost hair ties around the base of them near her head. Her outfit was also a change. Jinx had more of a halter top, exposing her stomach, with almost a cape coming out of bottom of it. A red bow decorated the center. Her gloves were fingerless and one was black while the other white, and they came up to her elbows. Instead of a skirt in her color, Jinx had dark red shorts with a black belt. Her boots were also different. While they came up to mid-thigh like Lux and Janna, they were white on the "shoe" part while the part that ran up her legs were black. Jinx only needed one look at herself to know it was something she liked.
"Well this is different, and awesome, but seriously the glitter" Jinx said as she brushed it off her. Meanwhile the rest of them just stood there and were confused as can be.
"Well I guess every team needs someone different." Poppy said as she leaned against the doorframe. Jinx just stuck her tongue out but smiled.
"Yeah, I guess. Now what about my weapons?" Lux turned to the table and saw Kuro on the table looking at what was clearly a minigun. "Uh…Kuro where's Shiro?" Kuro just hopped on top of the gun. Now everyone was confused. Jinx walked to the table and picked up the gun and promptly dropped it. "Wow! That was weird." Jinx waved her hand and suddenly Shiro was back, where the gun had been, and Kuro, who was still on the table now resembled a rocket launcher. "Sweet!" Jinx's voice had almost hunger in it.
"Before we blow up your house, how about we take this some place where we can control the damage?" Lux managed to grab Jinx's arm as she grabbed the rocket launcher. Jinx paused for a second then nodded. She closed her eyes for a second and Kuro reappeared but Shiro didn't transform.
"Here, take this." Janna gave over the extra cloak and Jinx carefully put it on, then grabbed a few things, including her bag, and after taking a last look, carefully closed the door behind her. As they got into the long car, Nasus turned.
"Well that was faster than expected." Nasus looked at Jinx, who had pulled her hood down, and Jinx showed no surprise. Clearly she had been to the library before, or this was the least weirdest thing about today. Once they were back at the Library, Jinx followed the rest into the tower, where Vel'Koz was waiting. Now Jinx was surprised.
"Wait, he's from the void, why is he helping us?" Jinx apparently had little control over what she said, but then Lux was just as surprised the first time.
"Because I chose to, well eventually. It's easy to make that decision when you've been abandoned and no one cares to come back for you. I'm guessing you've seen Nasus but never me?" Vel'Koz held out a tentacle and Jinx shook it. "Vel'Koz."
"Just call me Jinx. So about that collateral damage?" Lux just pointed to the ceiling.
"Come on." Lux hung up the cloak, followed by Jinx, and they headed up stairs.
"Well she's not a stabilizing element." Vel'Koz kept his speech confined to Janna, Poppy, and Lulu as he turned to them.
"Yeah, but I'm waiting to see what she does. I was reminded I've been wrong before." Lulu gave Poppy a quick hug as the latter finished, and Poppy returned the hug. "Let's just see."
"I'm coming up as well. This should be good." Nasus followed Lux and Jinx up the stairs while the rest of the team followed. It appeared Lux and Jinx were waiting for them as everyone crowded into the second floor. "Ready?" Nasus asked as he took position near the controls. Lux and Jinx nodded, as Shiro transformed into the minigun. Nasus pulled a lever and the system started.
Jinx either used guns, or her powers allowed her to be skilled as she was very controlled and accurate. When Nasus saw this, he pushed a button and a swarm came out and Jinx just opened up.
"Switch." Lux called and Jinx swapped to Kuro and was just as accurate. Poppy was impressed as there was finally someone else to do the damage apart from Lux. Once the sequence was finished, Jinx turned to Lux.
"Sweet! What's next." Jinx didn't have to wait long as a blue energy was in her left hand. Jinx just held her arm out and it shot out at one of the training dummies. "Cool. Let's try that again." Jinx took a better stance as it had almost knocked her over and then produced the beam again. "Zap! Oh man this is awesome. Can I get a moving target?" Jinx turned to Nasus, who pressed a button and Jinx walked onto the floor and after a second, a grenade materialized in her hand, which she threw in the dummy's path, and it multiplied to three and they clamped down on the dummy before exploding and releasing it.
"Well just your most powerful ability left. I'm guessing that you should probably aim for that." Lux pointed to a large dummy in the corner and Jinx nodded.
"Why?"
"Because there are damping spells around it to prevent whatever from going through the wall." Lux finished Jinx just stood there.
"Whatever." Jinx stood for a moment before Shiro transformed they both came together into one massive rocket launcher. "Oh this is cool. Let's see" Jinx paused for a second to aim. "Double Trouble!" Jinx launched a massive rocket and it detonated against the target, leaving glitter everywhere. Even Jinx was surprised at the power. "Wow, I'm guessing that isn't something we should be using every second?"
"No just when we need to. Come back, unless you want to practice a bit more?" Lux paused before heading back downstairs with rest. Jinx followed last, after Shiro and Kuro were back to themselves.
"I'm good." Jinx followed closely behind as they entered the bottom of the tower.
"We now you get to see the real us. Power down." Lux powered down and the rest of the team followed. Jinx waited a second before joining them. "Lux" she said as she held out her hand. Jinx shook it.
"Janna."
"Poppy."
"Lulu." Lulu of course had to give Jinx a hug, which made her a bit uncomfortable, but she let up after a second.
"Well I guess you all have some secret way to contact each other then?" After everything, Jinx was still enthusiastic. Which was both worrying and refreshing. How she would hold up in battle was the only remaining question.
"No just our phones. We don't need anything else." Jinx looked a bit put down, but still walked over and pulled her phone and they all added each other. "Great. Now hopefully we can get another day to practice before Kog'Maw attacks again. We'll all meet here after school tomorrow and we can hopefully come up with something." It was clear that Jinx wanted to say something but she but her lip, at least for now. "See you all tomorrow then."
As everyone left, Jinx stayed behind, and Lux hung back. "Something wrong?"
"It's just why me? I mean I can tell that I'm no you or anyone else." Jinx just paced but it was clearly bothering her.
"We don't know. All we know is this is what is the issue now, so either we deal with it, or we all lose." Lux kept her tone gentle but knew that Jinx didn't seem to have the ability to take anything seriously, unless pushed, but that would take time. "Just when we fight, watch the collateral damage." Lux tried to end it on an upbeat note, and Jinx perked up.
"No promises." Jinx laughed as she left and Lux followed her out. The evening passed in relative peace but Lux was still worried. She was looking outside at the moon when Dorcha hopped up next to her.
"Worried about Jinx?" Dorcha always seemed to have the ability to sense exactly what she was thinking.
"Yeah. She just seems to not take anything seriously and I'm worried about when we fight, she won't be able to reign it in and focus. I don't know, I wasn't expecting this." Lux turned and slumped down against the wall.
"Well then, we'll just have to teach other. I mean look at Lulu, she still spaces out from time to time. Poppy is just way too serious and often makes rash judgements and is quick to pick a fight. Janna is more like you, but even then you take things too seriously at times. Maybe a fresh, more lively experience is needed. Don't assume anything right now. Let's see how her fight fights goes, but I think we are all nervous." Lux turned and gave Dorcha a scratch on the head and smiled.
"I suppose you are right. I'm probably overthinking it." Lux smiled again and crawled into bed.
As Kog'Maw surveyed the city, Joen was beside him as he explained his plan. "Tomorrow I plan to use the fact people are trapped in offices to drain their energy. By planting collectors in the lobbies of various buildings, I will draw their energy tomorrow from the bottom up so even if people try and escape, they won't.
"Good job. Now be sure to be prepared for those pesky guardians. They will no doubt interfere." Kog'Maw turned and his voice carried with it a note of annoyance.
"I will be. They can't get them all, so I decided to go with acceptable losses." Joen seemed proud of himself and Kog'Maw nodded.
"Good. I met with Irinis already and she isn't any closer so we must move forward with this. I will be waiting." Kog'Maw ripped open a portal and disappeared. Joen looked over the city one more time, before going through the portal as well.
The following morning saw the team wake up and everything was still normal. That wasn't good as they had a few days since the last one and in-between attacks of this length, they were always bad. Lux looked at her phone and saw nothing about attacks so she headed downstairs to see a note from her mother saying she left early and Garen was gone as well. With her father out, Lux took her time getting ready.
No sooner was she out of the house, did the air feel cold. "Well crap." Lux barely had to reach for her phone before everyone but Jinx texted back saying they felt it as well. Jinx's text was more humorous.
'so whats with the chill running down my spine?'
'the void is attacking' Poppy beat Lux to the punch.
'oh so what do we do?' Lux got to it before Poppy this time.
'head to the tower' Lux put her phone back in her bag and sprinted off towards the tower. Arriving first, Lux waited for everyone else while studying the map with Vel'Koz. Janna was second, followed by Jinx, then Poppy, and finally Lulu.
"They are hitting multiple office towers downtown. Likely trying to get as much energy as possible. Whoever is doing this is spreading out over a wide area. You won't be able to stop them all, so you have to minimalize the damage." Vel'Koz said as Lux turned to the team.
"Ready?" Lux looked at each and they all nodded.
"Star Guardian Power Up!" Once they were ready, Lux looked at the map again. "Janna you head for Trim Tower, Poppy Ranis Place, Lulu Yak Tower, Jinx you are with me. Just for now." Lux added as she saw Jinx's face fall a bit. "Do you know what to shoot?" Jinx just smiled and shrugged in reply. "Let's go!"
"Just one second. Here, take these." Vel'Koz passed around what looked like large phones with straps so they could attach them to their arms. "It's something I've been working on for a while now and well I guess now is the best time to test them. They are able to link into our system here to track attacks and cold spikes. You can use them to mark buildings clear so you aren't rushing around blind." Vel'Koz handed the devices over and the team grabbed them. Once they all hand them strapped to their arms, the team sprinted out and into the fight, finally splitting up once they were downtown.
Lux and Jinx headed for Umia Tower and once there they saw Zzs moving orbs through a portal. Jinx didn't even to be told to shoot. Lux threw a singularity while Jinx opened up with Shiro and they both immediately shredded the Zzs. "Shoot the orbs!" Lux yelled and Jinx switched fire and shattered the ones remaining in the lobby. Lux sent out another singularity, but the Zzs didn't go for the portal, they instead headed right for Jinx.
"Ok then. Bring it on!" Jinx switched to Kuro and opened up with the rockets, destroying the Zzs in a few shots. Lux ran back to her position and smiled.
"Just watch the damage. Here." Lux pressed the screen on the device and the building turned green. "Once you are in the area, destroy the Zzs, yes that's what they are called," Jinx almost started laughing and even Lux had to admit now that she thought about it, it was a funny name. "So destroy the Zzs, force them to retreat through the portal, don't go through yourself, and shatter the orbs. Then mark the building green by touching it apparently, and wait for…oh." Lux turned to see police cars already coming up.
"Secure the lobby and check on everyone inside." The officers quickly ran inside while one stayed to make sure no one else entered. "Just wait for the police to arrive and while they know what to do, you need to make sure that no Zzs come back. OK?"
"So shoot the small purple things, destroy the orbs, then wait for the cops. Got it." Jinx checked the map and headed off.
"Watch the collateral damage as well." Lux yelled as Jinx sprinted away and she just waved her hand over her head as a reply. "Why do I have a feeling this will end badly?" Lux turned and headed off towards the next building.
Janna didn't need to wait long for her reinforcements as Debonair always seemed to find her first. She was barely at Trim tower for three minutes, destroying Zzs and orbs, before Debonair announced his arrival by blasting some Zzs that were sneaking up on her.
"How do you always find me first?" Janna asked as she threw a shield over Debonair as the Zzs turned to him.
"What can I say, purple is my favorite color." He yelled back as he destroyed more Zzs while Janna shattered the orbs remaining. The Zzs then fled through a portal before they could all be destroyed. Debonair moved to join Janna. "What's going on?"
"Wide scale attack. Distribute losses so we have to move fast. Luckily we have five now." Debonair looked a bit surprised as he retracted the helmet a bit.
"You find your fifth? Good." He turned to move to the next building as Janna waved the police over.
"Yeah but she's…not a stabilizing element." Janna said as she moved off as well after making the building green.
Poppy was almost having fun as she destroyed Zzs and orbs as she got in their faces to stop more orbs from going through the portal. While she wasn't able to stop the first wave, or second, the third group was devastated as she managed to use one sweeping hammer strike to shatter eight orbs at once. The Zzs then turned to flee.
"Oh no you don't, get back here." Poppy charged forward, destroying a few and used her hammer to take out more. She kept moving around and destroying Zzs and preventing more orbs from making it through. However, the Zzs weren't making it easy as one group swarmed over her while another tried to move more orbs through the portal. Poppy charged again and managed to get a lot of the Zzs, who then changed their tactics.
"Well this will be good." Poppy saw them charging right at her and she just dug her heals in, then charged, destroying Zz after Zz as she rushed through the lot of them and ending up in the lobby of the building, where she took her hammer, swung wide, and shattered all of the remaining orbs. "Here we GO!" Poppy yelled as she hit the collector and while it wasn't destroyed, it did end up with a rather large dent in its side and clearly no longer in working order.
Poppy turned to see the remaining Zzs fleeing through a portal and Poppy just smiled knowing she couldn't get them. Once the portal closed, Poppy checked the device on her arm, marked another building clear and proceeded towards another. As she was leaving she saw the police and paramedics moving in.
Yak tower was one of the oddest towers in downtown, both in design and where it was, but that was no deterrent to the Zzs as they were swarming out of the building carrying orbs.
"Well Pix, let's go." Lulu said to her companion and Pix just squeaked in reply. Lulu then skipped towards the horde, which clearly didn't see her coming. "Zippy!" Lulu sped herself up and charged into them, throwing both her glittlerlance and Pix providing a shield. The Zzs exploded with one or the other as Lulu moved gracefully through them. The Zzs attempted to jump her and either missed her completely, bounced off Pix's shield or were destroyed by it. Lulu was almost floating through the air as she almost danced around, throwing lances, and dodging around the Zzs who seemed to be desperate to lock her down. Eventually though, Lulu's luck ran out.
In a lucky strike, one of the Zzs managed to scratch her leg, and Lulu was knocked off her dance and she tumbled to the ground. Stunned briefly, Lulu managed to get to her feet and dodge out of the way as a small horde of Zzs attempted to tackle her to the ground. "Help Pix!" Lulu called and Pix jumped to her side and shielded her while Lulu threw out more lances and attempted to get back into her groove, but she couldn't. Another Zz managed to get a strike onto her arm and Lulu's face turned sour.
"Up we go!" Lulu cast the power and she tripped her size. Now the Zzs were running. "Zippy!" Lulu sped herself up, and then threw more lances and disintegrated huge swaths of Zzs and eventually managed to get to the building itself and just before she shrunk back to her normal size, she fired off a few lances into the building and shattered the orbs that the Zzs hadn't managed to get through yet. Immediately the Zzs responded and made a break for the portal. Lulu went off after them and managed to get a few more before the portal closed.
Lulu waved over the police, who were waiting behind a barricade and they quickly moved in to secure the area. Lulu started skipping away before she remembered to mark the building, and after checking the map headed off to the next building.
As Lux rounded the corner on the Obern Tower, she saw that she was almost too late. The orbs were being carried through the portal were clearly the last ones and the Zzs were already retreating. Lux, getting desperate, threw a singularity to try and get at least something, but the singularity only caught the tail end of the Zzs and one orb. The Zzs didn't even bother to turn around and in fact they just sped up and disappeared through the portal.
Lux just hung her head and knew that taking Jinx along instead of splitting up cost them one of the locations but given the number of locations that were under attack, it was probably going to happen. Given the fact that Janna had already cleared a second location, it was clear they were running out of targets. What worried her was the fact they hadn't seen Kog'Maw or whoever he had drafted to help him, or both. It was really starting to worry her.
Still though there was more to do, and Lux waved over the waiting responders, marked the map and headed towards Hub Tower, since it was the closest, and currently the only one that wasn't already being attended to. Also because Jinx was moving to it and Lux was worried that she'd be jumped by the minion.
Jinx rounded the corner on Hub Tower and saw the area littered with Zzs. "Ok Shiro let's get them." Shiro transformed into the minigun and she closed the distance before firing, remembering what Lux said. Once she was close enough to ensure she wouldn't miss, she opened fire. Instantly a massive amount of Zzs disintegrated. Kuro squeaked as Jinx was more careful than she would normally be in this situation, where she would normally go blasting everything in sight.
The Zzs turned and immediately tried to rush Jinx, but she just switched to Kuro and opened up with her rockets, which exploded with a shower of glitter. However, it wasn't enough for the horde as they continued charging. Jinx dodged off to the side and switched back to Shiro and blasted them from the side, hitting a lot of them from the side. Jinx had to move again as the horde turned, but as they were Jinx remembered she had to destroy the orbs, which were now exposed.
"Hey losers, forget something." Jinx dodged again, switched to Kuro, and fired a few rockets at the orbs, which shattered into thousands of pieces. The Zzs, now turned their full attention to Jinx, who kept moving and dodging but was starting to get overwhelmed. "Well this isn't going well" Jinx muttered as the horde turned again to follow her and just when it looked liked she was going to be overwhelmed, a large amount of Zzs suddenly exploded and Jinx turned to see Lux running towards her.
"Duck!" Jinx turned to see why. She dodged to the side and landed a bit harder than she would have liked, but the Zzs didn't managed to get a scratch in as Lux threw her baton and generated her barrier. Jinx got back on her feet and opened fire with Shiro and Kuro before she was back on the ground again as something collided with the barrier enough to cause it to reflect back. Jinx turned to see Lux was also on the ground and after quickly looking around she saw why. Something was standing near the portal which all of the Zzs were now fleeing through.
"Well it seems that the fifth guardian is a bit trigger happy. Also not very good at what she is supposed to be doing." Joen taunted Jinx, and it worked as Jinx leapt back to her feet and opened fire, only to have it reflected back, though Lux managed to shield the damage with her barrier again. Jinx was about to fire again when Lux put her hand on her shoulder and Jinx paused, turned, the hung her head a bit.
"Don't?"
"Don't." Lux said as she turned to face Joen. Immediately his blasters took her notice but what Joen didn't see is Lux calling for help. "So it seems we have found the mastermind. I'm going to be nice today and give you a chance to run before we all defeat you in what will be a very embarrassing fight." Lux was far from her usual script and was actively taunting. Jinx was barely controlling her laughter, but as she looked around she saw both Poppy and Lulu moving in, but keeping out of sight. Jinx took a step away from Lux, and switched back to Shiro.
"So there are only two of you. I still have you outnumbered." Joen had his arms crossed and was looking at Lux and Jinx with almost annoyance.
"2 against 1 is what I'd call outnumbered but sure you can have it your way. We are the Star Guardians after all. Sworn to defend the universe against all that would throw it into chaos. And that means you." Jinx was almost laughing again, but she saw that Poppy and Lulu were moving and she managed to put two and two together.
"Really? You have no help around so what are you going to do? I have minions all over the city and you don't." Joen looked satisfied with himself, but Jinx just smiled.
"Really? What about me?" Jinx yelled as she shot her Zap at him and that allowed Poppy and Lulu to both connect before he had a chance to move or even register they were there. Lulu sped Poppy up, and fired a glitterlance, while Poppy just charged into Joen and knocked him to the ground. Poppy then swung her hammer as Joen was getting back to his feet, knocking him down again. Joen yelled and turned to Poppy and fired. The problem was Janna and Debonair had appeared. Janna shielded Poppy while Lux shielded Debonair as he also swung his hammer into Joen, disrupting his aim and sending him into another fit of rage.
Wheeling around, Joen tried to hit Debonair with some of his firepower, only to get a rocket and lances to the face from Jinx, who had a shield provided by Pix. Poppy and Debonair kept the fight close using their hammers while Lux, Janna, Lulu, and Jinx stayed around the perimeter and kept up the long range pressure with shields and binds, shields and twisters, lances and shields, and bullets and rockets respectively. Lux kept looking at Jinx who was clearly having fun and worried about her self-control, and no sooner did she think it than did she see Jinx lose some control and almost hit Poppy with a burst. However, neither Jinx or Poppy said anything as they were more absorbed in the fight.
A second later, Jinx took a shot directly at Poppy and Lux started to panic, only to have Poppy move out of the way at the last second, resulting in the burst hitting Joen full in the face as he tried to get a shot off at them. Clearly Jinx was stilled in aiming and seemed to fall into the rhythm of the fight, and while she clearly did have some control issues, it might just be her. Lux just breathed a sigh of relief and kept the pressure up, eventually she managed to see an opportunity and managed to get a look to Poppy who nodded.
Poppy went in for a charge, and Joen got a few shots at her but Lux shielded the damage and then Poppy hit Joen in the legs knocking him to the ground. Debonair transformed his weapon and fired a few pulses while Janna knocked him into the air with a twister. Finally, Lux fired a binding and Joen, and then turned to Jinx.
"Let him have it!" Lux yelled at Jinx, and she just nodded. But before she could fire, Jinx had to roll out of the way as an acid bomb exploded where she had just been standing. They all turned to see Kog'Maw charging at them and Jinx threw her chompers out. Not knowing what they were Kog'Maw laughed as he walked through them, and immediately regretted it as they clamped down, then exploded in his face. Roaring in rage, he found himself under fire from Jinx and Lulu who had peeled out of the fight to deal with Kog'Maw who was clearly not expecting 5 Guardians, let alone one who just kept peppering him with bullets.
Lux kept up the focus on Joen, which was made easier by the fact that he was still very much disoriented by the number of things that just hit him a few moments before. Joen managed to shake himself back to some semblance of order however only to get hit with a singularity to the face, and a few energy pulses to boot. Joen turned and managed to get in a few shots at Poppy, who dodged a few, took a few on her armor, but one shot managed to get in between the plates and hit her leg. Poppy rolled to the side, and Janna managed to shield her from further harm.
Not to be put out of a fight however, Poppy got right back up, and even though it was clear that she was in pain, she still charged right at Joen, and charged up her hammer. Once she was close enough, she brought it down to the ground and sent Joen flying into the air, landing right on top of Kog'Maw. Jinx and Lulu, who had been battling Kog'Maw, just stopped and stood there for a second before Lux managed to run over and tap Jinx on the shoulder.
"Oh right!" Jinx combined Shiro and Kuro and put the entire launcher on her shoulder. "Better Together!" Jinx fired the rocket and it hit the two. Kog'Maw was sent flying backwards, and while Joen was sent flying, he didn't go nearly as far, landing about 1/3rd of the distance Kog'Maw was sent. Kog'Maw also was blasted into a building and was again disoriented. "Sweet!"
"You won't defeat me that easily!" Joen roared as he stood back up.
"Transmogulate!" Lulu yelled and Joen was turned into a lovely little animal, and hopped around, clearly in frustration. Jinx couldn't hold it in anymore and was on the ground laughing at the sight. When Joen transformed back, Jinx got back to her feet, but was still snickering.
"You have embarrassed me long enough guardians. Now you will feel my wrath!" Joen charged up his pulse cannons and fired, only to have everyone dodge out of the way, and the pulses go wild and off into the sky. Lux threw a binding, but Joen dodged out of the way of it and came charging right at her. Lux threw up a shield to protect herself but about 10 feet from her, he stopped and yelled. Jinx had managed to throw her chompers in his path, and they clearly hurt when they clamped down. Lux not wasting any time stood up and pulled her baton.
"Final Spark!" Lux threw her powers into the beam, and Joen disintegrated into a pile of dust. "Well now that he's done with, let's deal with the other one." Lux pointed to Kog'Maw who only seemed to be just getting back his senses. The team rushed over, but before any of them could do anything, Kog'Maw, clearly not wanting to fight a full powered team, opened a portal, and vanished through it. That however didn't stop Jinx from firing a bit as the portal closed. Lux just gave her an angry look, and Jinx just smiled and shrugged. Lux just shook her head and turned to see Caitlyn walking over. Jinx slid behind Janna as Caitlyn got close and Janna just looked curious.
"So it seems you've found everyone, I hope this means that future attacks will be resolved sooner?" Caitlyn was looking between the Guardians, as Debonair had already made his escape.
"Hopefully, but no promises. We'll do the best we can." Lux kept her voice neutral, but upbeat and Caitlyn smiled.
"Well then, just keep practicing together and get it right. I can't tell you how much it means to see a team of five. We'll start the cleanup." Caitlyn turned to see police and EMTs moving in and Lux nodded to the rest of the team, who all started running for the tower. Jinx followed, clearly still not fully aware of what was going on. Once back at the tower, the team powered down and Janna turned to Jinx.
"Problems with the police?" Janna asked.
"Well…let's just say I've blown up a few too many things in my backyard." Jinx just smiled as she took one of her pigtails and swung it around, clearly nervous.
"You do realize that when you are transformed, your identity is protected right? Or did we forget to mention that." It wasn't a question and Jinx just stuck her tongue out as a response. Lux, Poppy, and Lulu all just laughed.
"Ok settle down. We did good today but we still have a problem. We don't know how much energy they got away with." Lux sat down as she talked, clearly worried despite the laugh.
"I can give an estimate on that. They got away with enough to do serious damage. How much exactly, it is hard to say, but if they were to launch another attack against our barriers, it would collapse them completely. That said, you prevented even more damage because we still don't know who much energy they need to recover from the last attack. We know their energy reserves were dangerously low and that did recover a bit, but they are probably still a lot worse than they would like them to be." Vel'Koz finished and floated over to the table.
"Well we just have to keep going then. Hopefully we can track down the other artifacts before they can. Any progress?" Janna turned to Vel'Koz who just shook his head. "Well then, in the meantime, I suggest we practice a bit more often to get into the grove of things with 5 of us."
"Agreed. We'll meet here tomorrow after school." Jinx groaned, Lux just ignored it and continued. "Don't groan, we need to practice, and even you have to admit that despite you being a good shot, you were still missing a lot more than you would like." Janna, Poppy, Lulu, and Vel'Koz turned from Lux to Jinx and eventually Jinx nodded after what looked like she was in pain.
"Uh…thinking is still hard. Fine. See you all tomorrow then." Jinx grabbed her bag and headed out. Lux just shook her head and they all followed. As they left the library, Lux paused for a moment on the steps and looked up into the sky.
"Well she wasn't what we expected, but we finally have everyone. Now all we have to do is not kill each other and get along." Lux just sighed as she continued under her breath. "Well one problem at a time I guess." Running down the remaining steps, Lux caught up to the others and the four headed home. Jinx was already well out of sight, but it wouldn't take long for her to catch on. Or at least Lux hopped it wouldn't.
To say that Malzahar was in a bad mood was a massive understatement. Kog'Maw was cowering as Malzahar was pacing around and around in a rage that the guardians were now complete and his objective hadn't been accomplished.
"May I be so bold to remind the Great Prophet that I did get a lot of energy from the last attack and with…" but Kog'Maw couldn't speak anymore as Malzahar bound him with his mind for a few seconds before letting go.
"No you may not! The guardians are now complete and because of that they are infinitely more powerful. You had to stop this from happening and now that you haven't, we will all feel the results. The energy you collected will barely be enough for my plan! Now go, find more energy, find the tome, and do not return until you get both!" Kog'Maw sprinted out of the room as fast as he could.
Malzahar stayed in the throne room fuming. He was behind, and now there was even a bigger issue. Without more energy, his plans would be derailed. "If you can't trust someone to get it done right, then do it yourself." Malzahar floated out of the room and his power arced as he did so.
"This will not end well." Cho'Gath said as he watched Malzahar floated away. The previous times Malzahar had taken command of something, it hadn't ended well and he hoped that he could talk Malzahar down before he cost them more. They could not afford any mistakes right now.
