The most notorious criminal in Piltover history refuses to admit it but realizes that she probably should have stayed put for some more time. That realization hit her along with shivers when instead of hot, her body suddenly began feeling ice cold and sweaty. It was some time ago when the thought had crossed her mind and she chose to disregard it. It really isn't much different from how she usually feels, fuzzy vision, the steady hum in the back of her head, the world feeling generally off. Just magnified, no biggie. Besides, her hands don't shake too badly either so aiming won't be impossible.

Her whole body shudders suddenly, she blames it on the cold of this place, definitely not her body's fault. Nope! She takes a deep breath to still the scratching in her lungs, surprisingly, the smell is not bad, considering what place the terrorist finds herself in.

Piltover sewers are different from Zaunite ones, neat and- dare Jinx say it clean. They're like an underground road system, wide enough to actually fit in a car. Not that she tried that, or knows how to drive one for that matter. But it's important to remember in case she is forced to hide there, that it can't be done for too long. The sheriff figured out right off the bat that she moves mostly underground and on rooftops as a close second. Hence the intensified motor patrols safeguarding key points of sewerage and the military zeppelins in the sky. The insane girl encountered the actual military only once, back in Zaun. she must admit to admiring their methods, if something stands in their way they simply blow it up, making it very challenging to play with them but no less rewarding. It was one of the few times she knows to have nearly lost.

It was absolutely exhilarating.

She wonders what it would be like here in The City of Progress. But it won't happen unless she's outside Piltover as the army is apparently banned from entering the city proper- and going after an outpost is not even crazy. It's moronic, 200% assured suicide, in other words- no fun.

Still. A girl can dream, used to be Jinx had nothing but dreams.

Darkness reigning in the tunnels is only disturbed by the light given off by Zap, it's more than enough though as there is really nothing that the maniac can walk into. The pipes are attached to the tunnels walls, providing easy access in the event of a breakdown. They are also the source of constant noise, made by whatever it is that flows through them. Jinx is amazed that someone bothered to build such a system in the first place. There are even lights on the ceiling, turned off right now but come on! There must be some sort of central control for them as the blue haired girl never found a switch of any sort. In Zaun it is the tunnels themselves that serve as a sludge drain. With pipes often simply laid on the topside ground or even attached to outside buildings walls, serving only to get wastes underground. Zero fanciness like here. It's near impossible to get through the sewers because of the smell alone, the bluette puked her guts out when fleeing through them, but it wasn't the worst part, the air itself is poison there. Organic and otherwise.

Paradoxically, it's most likely the reason she is now alive, as her pursuers had neither the will nor much reason to chase her further after she made it to the sewers. She was already battered and poisoned, she couldn't possibly survive a trip through the toxic canals.

Not their finest decision but it's not like Jinx disapproves. While not her most favourite it sure was the most thrilling experience of her life, in both good and bad way at the same time.

She stops her leisure walk as she hears something in the distance, voices. The terrorist puts Zap back in his holster and grabs Pow-Pow, it's not yet the time to use Fishbones. Yes she could get rid of whatever it is she hears but where is the fun in that? Besides, she has only so much ammo on her and the party hasn't even started.

The fact that she doesn't want to stink for the rest of the night after blowing sewer pipes apart is another thing worthy of mention.

She crouches and turns head to her friend, they can barely see each other in the dim light cast by Zap from his tattered holster, she should probably make a new one, in the dark he is still very much visible despite being put away.

"Hey Fishbones, pigs or rats?" She whispers. Her bet is on smugglers, cops don't stick their noses in here too often lately.

"How late is it?" He asks in equally quiet voice. Jinx bites her lip in thought, they went underground sometime before midnight and have been making their way long enough to make her feet sore. The one for which she couldn't find a stocking especially, next one on her list, a clothing store!

"Around two I think." Maybe, she has issues measuring time, and it's even worse underground where an hour feels like three and three feel like half.

"Rats, too late for cops to patrol the sewers, they stick to the exits by now." The police used to make rounds at night but with a lot of resources redirected towards responding to her activities they had to give up, allowing other criminals easier access through the tunnels. By now the officers mostly stick to their little outposts, as the gangs got bolder and bolder in their attacks. As of yet, the psychopath didn't hear about any of those falling, and no wonder, even she can't get through. Blow it up, yeah sure but not get through. It makes for a long-ass detour to find ways around these.

"Rats it is then."

"You think we can pass them?" Stupid. Of course they can't! They won't trust her to simply walk by and for good reasons as it didn't end well for those that tried. The question here is of a different nature anyway.

"I think I don't wanna." She turns her unnervingly wide eyes forward, towards the source of ever closing clatter.

She suppresses a coming shiver.

It's been a long week, and this little trip the four of them are on, while fun is also a necessity. So it's only natural that Jinx feels more than a bit agitated and ready for action. Mentally anyway, she did get that thermometer Fishbones has been nagging her about and it stubbornly refuses to say anything lower than at least 39c. Now Jinx is in no way knowledgeable when it comes to sickness and treatment but she gathered enough to know that when that is the case, everything seems just more irritating, rougher, harder and heavier.

And clammy, though that's just the effect of intensified sweating and not something in her head.

Having some fun with a bunch of smugglers might be just the kind of thing she needs to unwind before the big hit tonight. To keep her mind... relatively clear. Clear of noise, clear of stray memories. While she cares little for both they foretell a coming headache and those she hates with passion. Being more or less incapable of relishing in her favourite activities left Jinx itching for mayhem. This? This will be a pleasant start of a wonderfully fruitful night.

"C'mon, lets see who they are." With that she stands up and tries (and fails) to remain silent while marching onwards, eventually she comes across a light, far far ahead, making her stop yet again as she ponders on her options. Well that sucks. They will see her long before she does and she has acquired a reputation of not being picky with her toys. If she's seen armed then they will shoot, if she tries to pass by them they will shot. Hm. The issue here is the light, it will blind her when Jinx steps into shooting range.

Heh, sucks to be the guy carrying it.

"Hey Zap, wanna boil this guy?" The bluette murmurs after turning her eyes toward the friend in question, who simply gives off a happy vibe as an answer. She grins. "You're the best, make it count."

She puts Fisbones horizontally on the ground, whips the energy pistol out, then lies flat on her stomach behind her rocket launcher, shivering slightly at the contact with the cold, wet concrete and puts Zap's barrel into the crook of rocket launcher's fin to stabilize the shot. Jinx rests her gaze on the ring indicating how powerful the shock is supposed to be and turns it to maximum. The power supply is self replenishing, made so by a miniature hextech engine that sucks the energy from surrounding magic. Supposedly. Jinx is no different than vast majority of both Zaun and Piltover population in that respect and can't feel nor see it as magicians do. But it works so there has to be some merit to it.

Using this kind of power still won't kill anyone with just one hit unless the shot hits an eye or open would but it will carry further. The minus of that is around half a minute taking the battery to recharge So she has only one try, good enough.

It's not like she has to hit the flashlight itself after all.

Jinx adjusts Pow-Pow on her side so that he doesn't bother her as she lines up the shot. Still too far away, she groans, not really caring if she alarms the other criminals. They will see the dim light from the accelerator anyway, that's when the game will start.

For now she waits, and listens as the voices come closer and she recognizes them as male. Two of them, so at least two people, though probably more than that simply busy with being silent.

"-to me that we should just get the goods and bail from the city, ain't gonna do us any good when we wind up dying cause of some crazy chick."

"You think they're talking 'bout us?" She whispers.

A silent but trademark squeaking of cart wheels can be heard over the conversation.

"Do you care?" Maybe.

"-while they're busy. Ratways weren't this clean for years, we got more money last month than whole last year, business' flowin'!

"Nah. Not really." They're nothing to her, caring is stupid anyway.

"-like seven gangs, jus' like that! Jus'... fuck man this is shit place to be right now." Jinx snorts as she thinks about the stuff flowing in the pipes around them. He's wrong though, there is no better place to be in right now, it marks the beginning of her game for tonight. And the ending of boredom that lasted for the whole week.

"Man the fuck up. You wanna waste your life getting' nothin' outta it be my guest. I'm gonna make the most of this." HAH! Sucks to be you then. "You can leave any time you want and any- you see this?"

The grin on Jinx's face takes a manic edge as the owner of said smile realises it's time for the show to start. She still can't see who nor how many hide behind the light but it doesn't matter. She stabilizes her quivering arm as much as she can and then pulls the trigger. Her eyes hurt from looking at the bright projectile but they follow it nonetheless, all the way to its destination, somewhere on the right side of the light.

The scream that follows the tell tale sound of the energy bolt hitting its target lasts not even a second as the man passes out along with the flashlight he is convulsively holding onto even as he falls to the ground. The silence doesn't last as it is interrupted by general racket of weapons being raised, aimed and shot.

Yeah, definitely more than two people. Jinx leaves Zap lying behind Fishbones so that he doesn't give up her position and rolls over to the wall, annoyed at herself for not taking Pow-Pow off too as he jabs all his edges into her skin.

The girl's side hits pipes after rolling twice and she presses herself into them as much as possible, still lying flat on the ground to evade the bullets whirling over her head and ricocheting in every direction. The rush it gives her, not knowing whether or not a stray bullet will hit her is exhilarating. The fire bursting from guns barrels entrances her.

But there are things to take care of if she is to win this little game of theirs. She can count three riffles and a gun firing. So four left. Not much of a challenge at all, with their 'lucky' aiming anyway. Dumb suckers, too much noise, not that Jinx doesn't appreciate some (a lot of) noise but she knows when and when not to cause it. They know their enemy is ahead, they knows she's not firing, they don't know if they hit or not, neither can they see her, but it works both ways. They're panicking, stupid, stupid thing to do, to feel.

Beautiful to see.

"Stop! Stop!" No! Don't stop! "Give me a fucking flare!" Oops.

That won't do. Then again, this too works both ways, or one if timed right. Just the right moment to stand, just the right moment to shoot and it is them who will be blinded, and more than that, in her sight. While she is hidden in the dark and by their own blinded eyes.

But she has to be fast and she can still be hit by a stray shot if someone manages to get a hang of himself and shoot in direction of gunfire, and that much they will see.

So she will be quick.

Eyes wide with excitement- and grin threatening to split her face she bolts upright and dashes forward to get into effective shooting range of her minigun, switching Pow-Pow to his firing mode while running. She feels light, as if she barely weights anything, her breath hitches as her entire world becomes restricted to the tunnel before her, and four gunners inside it.

The bluette slides to a stop just as a red light goes off, momentarily blinding the entire group of criminals, three men and a woman- who readied their weapons and kept them trained at the dark tunnel as they heard the thumping of Jinx's boots. The one with said flare in hand is nearly ready to throw it, halfway through the swing already.

Too slow. Way too slow.

A hailstorm of bullets pulverises his insides, leaving a good chunk of his chest a bloody mush as the man himself is sent stumbling back, fighting for breath that his brain has not yet registered will never come. His face, Jinx sees- is filled more with shock than anything else. Probably didn't feel a thing yet.

But no time to look, while two other figures glance at their still falling comrade, the third on the right squints her eyes as she tries to negate the effect of the flare that just began slipping from the hand of her leader. She's better than the other two, and so will die as the second. It takes Jinx only a speck of a moment to adjust her aim. she did not expect the cold tremor that is suddenly sent through her body, making her miss the entire burst. Her smile morphs into a sinister grimace.

But no time to be angry, the flare is now in mid-fall to the ground and other two criminals are now getting out of the shock after seeing their companion pulverized. Taking aim at Jinx while the third Rat shoots her gun where she just saw her.

But she is already elsewhere, with finger on the trigger and aim taken on the man who was supposed to be dying a second ago. But it's just one second, nothing she can't handle. The other two would already be dead though and this is something to take care of.

Pieces of brain splatter on walls and the two who are left standing as a stream of bullets rips holes in head of The Loose Cannon's assailant. Her comrades don't even seem to notice by now. Jinx is close enough to see terror their eyes, with constricted pupils and faces an image of blind panic. They know exactly who is it they deal with by now and fear, while not paralysing- is slowing their reactions.

The flare hits the ground along with the first still dying body, which just now realises what happened and lets itself know just how much pain it is in. The man wants to scream but all that comes out of his throat is gurgling and blood.

And what are they afraid of? Dying? Everyone dies sometime!

It's not like they have any chances of beating the maniac anyway, they are simply too slow, their every shot hit just short of its destined mark, always lacking this fraction of a second their brains need to catch up with the rest of the body.

Time that their opponent uses to its full extend, nearly closing the gap between them and throwing herself into slide while simultaneously trying to aim in the last two rats standing. One is caught in the wide barrage of fire coming from Pow-Pow, making him curl in half as a couple of bullets plow through his stomach. Not dead yet, but not a threat either.

The woman with her brain missing hits the pipes and the body bounces away in direction of the ground, her pistol still in tight grip.

Jinx let her weapon go, knowing she has to keep moving, and there is no time to stand up, instead she awkwardly crouches, not quite managing the smooth translation from her slide. But it doesn't matter anymore as she is close enough to throw herself at the last man. The barrel of his riffle is trained straight at her. The dead woman hits the ground and the guy who's guts are nothing but pulp falls to his knees, dropping the riffle and trying in vain to stop the bleeding. Not that it would matter any if he succeeded. The scrawny girl's mind barely registers that she's about to be shot.

It doesn't come.

Jinx rams into the other lawbreaker without really expecting to. The back of his head hits the cart behind him, the impact leaving the man stunned and sliding down to the ground while his assailant is send tumbling back, onto the one that tried to throw the flare.

Get up.

She scrambles to her feet and glances around in search of more entertainment whilst breathing heavily. Dead, dying, dying and screaming, out cold. She winces at the wailing coming from the last conscious member of this little group.

"Shut up." She snarls but the addressed man pays no attention, stubbornly making all these annoying sounds. "I said shut up!" But he doesn't.

It's like he's trying to rile her up. And well, he succeeds with flying colors as irked girl steps on another one of her victim's wrist to make it loosen it's death grip on the gun. Jinx does understand that the woman may not want to part with her weapon, she really does but it doesn't mean she has to be a prick about it. The maniac rips the gun out of dead hand and not sparing a second thought to it, finishes off the screaming man. She throws the weapon away and looks upon her handiwork again.

It's a mess.

The pools of blood just begin appearing beneath the bodies, for now soaking up in her victims' clothes, there are pieces of brain and bone splattered haphazardly all around, the picture makes for a sinister image, even more so with in red light cast by still burning flare. Jinx begins brushing herself off the dirt that gathered on her skin and clothes in the firefight, she blinks a couple of times after encountering quite a lot of blood mixed with sweat on her legs, probably from the dying guy she landed on afterwards.

Another shudder shots through her body.

"Bleh." Blood stains are a pain in the ass, she can't exactly drop her laundry off anywhere. She doesn't mind the smell so much but it's how sticky everything covered in gore gets that irritates her. Not much to do about it now, she wipes her bloody hands into already dirty shorts, managing to clean them a little.

"You okay there?!" Shouts Fishbones from the distance. Of course she is, he should stop asking stupid questions and insinuating things. As if she could be anything but okay.

"Yeah, I'm good!" She shouts back and puffs cheeks out, crouching beside the riffle which the last of the rats for some reason did not shoot. She picks it up and aims at said man's head. She hears a click over the flare's hiss. Huh, empty. That one second mishap would take her life if it wasn't for pure luck. She snorts and throws the weapon away as she loses interest in the man, then walks towards the cart, curious about its content. "Just checking something!"

"Okay, just be careful, we got your back here!" Oh yeah sure, whenever she trusted him to make good on this promise something always came from direction which he was supposed to guard. Jinx knows he can't really shoot anyone without her help for obvious reasons but come on! He never even warns her when something happens!

With curiosity painted on her face, she leans over the cart's edge only to huff in disappointment. Just drugs. They're nowhere near as fun as blowing stuff up and they leave her head a serious mess. The first time she tried she didn't think much of it, she was stuffed with crap of similar nature for as long as she could remember. Jinx was most excited as she had been told that their effect was exactly the opposite to what she was treated her whole life. Feel good her ass. And nobody cared that for once it wasn't her fault she blew up the gang's hideout, she got kicked out anyway. And the girl wouldn't mind too much, even counting in the terrible headache and other strange side effects if she only remembered what exactly happened. Cause all she ever brought out of it was seeing the ruins left behind and not how they happened to come into being.

It wasn't one time thing either.

Freaking unfair.

She pushes herself away from the wagon and walks back to her weapons, picking the flare for light and kicking the guy who carried flashlight in his side on her way.

So much better. Finding simple pleasures in life really is important.

"Sorry for dropping you like that." She murmurs quietly to Pow-Pow as she throws his strap back over her shoulder and after reaching the other two, she wordlessly puts Fishbones on her back and discards the nearly burnt out flare in favor of Zap's dim light once again.

"What's wrong?" Asks the rocket launcher. She wipes sweat from forehead, only dirtying it more with blood left on her hands.

"Nothing." Nothing much. She rolls her shoulders and with displeasure notices that her body begins to feel like somebody is heating it up. Again. It happens up to couple times an hour, this change from ice cold to radiator and back. And the stupid shivers stay anyway.

"You seem down, really, what happened?" Sweet idiot.

"Nothing, just- I get to start the party early and they have go to ruin it. Thought maybe they were dragging something useful but no! Just stupid dust." That and the memories.

They pass the massacre site, sparing a glance at the battered men, the pool of blood a lot bigger now and mixed with piss, (from what Jinx's nose tells her) it is staining her boots, connecting all the bodies in one big puddle. There is no more gurgling and it seems like the man Zap hit is turning a darker shade, Jinx can't tell what color, violet probably. Must have hit the ground in a bad way, or maybe it was the kick- and he's now suffocating thanks to his tongue refusing air its entrance. She turns away and keeps walking, disinterested in fate of broken toys.

Shortly afterwards they come to a stop when the tunnel splits.

"Ugh... remember where we are?" She forgot, too much excitement to remember such trivial things.

"Give me a moment. Erm. I think we've got two kilometres left till we're under the opera."

"Opera? Weren't we going to get the zoo?" Weren't they? She wanted to visit zoo on their way to the university since it's both a good choke point and she could make some real chaos releasing animals there.

"We were. But you said you want to break that mean lady who called you an uncouth rascal."

Oh yeah, that.

"Screw that, I wanna go to the zoo."

"...okay uhm... we are somwehere-"

"I remember now," Jinx cuts in "This tunnel right, then right, left, right, right, left, right and left, three kilometres. Ish. We gotta pick up the pace or we're gonna do squat tonight." With that they both fall silent and Jinx starts running.

The bar Vi and Jayce chose is a fairly popular place, or used to be. One couldn't tell by the amount of customers inside but compared to some other establishments this one is packed. What with current crime being a real threat. People prefer to stay home during night, because of Jinx as much as other rampaging criminals that follow in her wake.

Most of the time this would be an annoyance for both as they tend to split their ways halfway through the night, neither alone. Tonight though they decided to simply enjoy their lazy downtime as while feeling good enough, Vi knows that a night of clubbing is not a brightest idea after just leaving hospital. That wouldn't stop her from drinking that particular sorrow into oblivion but her friend insists that she really shouldn't just yet, she suspects that the real cause is different to the one he gave but complies anyway, she can do that once in a while.

Both of them dressed casually in their favorite leather jackets that they once picked for the other. Truth to be told Vi came out better in that deal as it is Jayce who has some actual sense of style.

She eyes the straw in her drink and snorts, drawing her companion's attention away from listening the pianist on scene.

"Just remembered a conversation I had with Karen the other day, you know, the one from administration wing." Jayce assumes he remembers, not right now but he might a moment from now. It's almost the same.

"Care to share?"

"Meh, just a daylight's burglary, funny thing is how we just brush it off as unimportant these days. Our guys caught the sucker but he was an idiot. Like, smeared his face with chalk and thought it would mask him or something."

"Tell me about unimportant, did I tell you about the insurance for my lab?" He has a strong suspicion that he did though can't exactly pinpoint why over the buzzing in his head.

"Twice tonight, hey, what do you say about going to casino?"

Gears no.

"And search for you for the rest of tomorrow? Ugh, today? And hangover? And the last time I lost all my... Nah I think I will pass."

"You know the saddest thing about that? I don't remember it and it must've been fucking hilarious." She pouts. "Nope, I only remember being chewed out by Cait for that crap, I still not even sure what I've done!"

"Maybe that's better, must have been pretty embarrassing."

"Yeah but I'd still like to know. It's like- like beating a dog, like an hour after it pissed on the carpet you know?" Jayce tries to follow that train of thought and decides that he doesn't in fact know.

"Uh..."

"Exactly! Hey, we should visit Ez, didn't he get back from Kalamanda like uh... yesterday?" Hm, he did actually, he was exploring the mines there, looking for possible dangers burried in the caverns. The boy really gets around, he's known all across Valoran and at such a young age, if he doesn't die on one of his adventures he'll be a storybook character by the age of fifty. The inventor glances at the clock hanging on wall.

"You know, I think we should." Maybe it's the alcohol talking but it seems like a funny thing to do, dropping by and interrupting his well earned rest at two-thirty AM. Or work, who knows. The kid keeps odd hours, often foregoing whole nights of sleep to study legends and maps at the university close to which he has his apartment. It's difficult to tell where his home is, at university or in his house. Or if he really has home at all. He only comes to the city when preparing for his next venture.

"Of course we do, come on." She abruptly stands up, grabs the holdall with her gauntlets and storms off towards entrance, leaving Jayce to pick up the tab, which he does without complaint. As always.

He's a gentleman after all.

Caitlyn yawns behind hand as she sorts through the shakedown reports coming from docks. Sleep in the afternoon she might but boredom can get anyone at any time. She doesn't have to pay much attention to her current task however as the operation is from the looks of it a full success. Her subordinates had found enough hard evidence and witnesses for the case to be basically ready for forwarding to prosecution.

Still, she has to at least glance over it just in case. It's her job to keep in touch with everything.

The whole op was not particularly difficult, due to general decline in weariness of Piltover Crime World ever since Jinx showed up, this fact coupled with said crime increased audacity led to quick and effective dispatching of it when The Force was given a breather in terrorist's activity. Even Sheriff herself is surprised at just how quick. Granted, the warrants were all ready to be used, cases prepared and waiting for forwarding, it's just that police lacked the manpower, with so many of its assets used to handling Jinx. Most of the operation was simply apprehending the criminals.

Hm.

She wonders how fast exactly would it go were Vi at her disposal.

Vi. She was to get out of the hospital today, or rather yesterday evening if she remembers correctly. She still has a week off and knowing her she is likely to be indulging that fact right this very moment. Possibly with Jayce. She thought once that they would end up as a couple, so at ease they seem around each other and so much they care for the other. That is before she learned of her enforcer's preferences, which at first made her quite uneasy but she got over it quickly. It is not her business what anyone chooses to make of their lives as long as it doesn't affect others. Her disapproval for certain aspects of her life aside, Vi is a good person, if rough around the edges, or simply said uncouth.

She smiles wryly at the thought of rags writing about an outrageous relationship between the Defender of Tomorrow and the Enforcer, were she normal in any case (not that she reads this kind of thing, but they've been on the prowl for information on her life for years now, Caitlyn supposes it gives her a sort of malignant relief when this happens to others).

Her eyes skim through another page and stop on the notification from initial interrogations about an illegal ammo stock being attacked and robbed two weeks ago, three bodies and four wounded if the data is correct. She puts it away for further investigation, already knowing the cause of said burglary. The traffickers affected are already arrested, she doubts they will learn anything useful on the perpetrator herself but she's not exactly given many options. It is by no means a pattern that there are survivors as Jinx kills seemingly depending on mood. Sometimes everyone, at times nobody.

She notices that she has been spinning the pen between fingers and puts it away, deciding to let her fingers and mind rest a little.

At least it is another trace to follow in the massive shakedown. Four wounded must have been treated somewhere, not in a legal clinic as they would have been interrogated and her subordinates notified. The likelihood of Jinx being involved would eventually put the case in her hands. As it is, there are possibly another four criminals to be caught and a doctor working for the criminal underground to be found. Now, whom to assign for this...

She is broken out of her reverie by a sudden knocking at her door. She begins speaking to allow entrance but stops as the door fly open and a little winded officer barges inside her office without even closing behind himself. Caitlyn straightens up in her seat, not at all filled with optimism as to whatever is happening if she is to judge on base of the way she is informed about it.

"What is it?" She asks sternly, the sheriff had long ago discovered that people in general will pull themselves together faster if met with authority and certainty. She is both. The man snaps a salute before responding.

"There's a bombing in the zoo. Some three minutes ago."

Jinx?

Who else? While rampant, no other criminal would dare to pull off a bombing, not without knowing what kind of response would it elicit. It figures actually, Vi got out of hospital yesterday, it was too much to hope for that the terrorist would take longer than her subordinate to recover.

It was not too much to hope for however, that the mad girl would not kick off with a bang.

The woman scowls and stands up.

"Go get comms centre in go, they are to send orders to half city patrols to close off streets and get sewers locked down, and fast this time. The other half are to be a look-out." She moves to the door and grabs her hat off the hatstand and riffle off the stand. "Get response group to the garage ASAP, briefing en route. Zeppelin's on its way yes?"

"Yes."

"Good, now move."

"I feel like I could get lost in here. I mean I've been here before but this is retarded." Concludes Vi as she follows Jayce, supposedly to library where they've been told Ezreal spends his night. They wouldn't have been let in either were it not for Futureboy, whose membership in PSID allows him free access to any facilities at any time. The pinkette's police badge could probably do the same but not with both of them faintly smelling of smoke and alcohol. He even has a place on a separate, guarded parking lot, bastard.

Heh, though she can park in restricted areas to make up for it.

"You can get used to it. I had navigation issues too once." Oh yeah? Smartass.

"And a university membership."

"And a couple years here yeah that's true." Ass. In a way. He sometimes brings up why won't she attend the university to further refine her skills and it's not that she can't, she just doesn't see the point. The enforcer is as good mechanic as any, testament to which lies in the bag hung over her shoulder. Jayce decided to leave his hammer in the car, unconcerned for its safety, maybe because he trusts the guard and a dozen security bots there. Maybe he just doesn't care enough.

"Why is it this complicated anyway? I mean Yordle Academy is rather straightforward." And it is, lecture halls, classes, offices and laboratories fitted into two massive buildings, but with simpler architecture and more diverse design where one would have to truly be hopeless to have issues finding his destination.

"It's old. I think it was a mansion once, like Noxian ones." Oh yeah that makes it so much more clear.

"You mean?"

"It's supposed to be hard to navigate for strangers." And it is, mostly because of its monotone and rounded design, Vi feels like she's going in circles even though door plates clearly say otherwise. "Ah, here we are." He suddenly stops and opens an inconspicuous looking door. The pinkette whistles. Not the first time it may be but the sight is no less impressive.

"Did you guys build another floor?"

It's enormous. Bookshelves upon bookshelves climbing at least thirty metres high, with wooden footbridges every three meters in between shelves so massive that they need to be bolted together and to walls simply not to fall apart. The chamber is rotund and the only space bare of books is a still quite spacious reading area in the middle from which spiral stairs lead to platforms above, built every second floor- that also function as reading areas so that people can actually fit inside and not waste time walking from the top to the ground floor. Windows do little to brighten this place even at day and its entirety is lit by white lamps placed above heads every couple steps.

"Yes actually, a month ago. Come on." He motions her inside while holding the door, after rolling eyes at his display, the enforcer complies though as she knows it's stronger than him. And she doesn't really mind either.

They walk through the alleys in silence, Jayce admiring the grandeur of the great hall, but one of many sections that Piltover University Library consists of. And this is only the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. Most of materials gathered, are stored in the magazine beneath their feet, at least thirce the amount of what can be seen here. Vi on the other hand is wondering which fences could possibly find interest in materials gathered here. Force of habit for her, appraising worth of whatever she happens to lay eyes upon. She is quite embarrassed to say that she can't really hazard a guess, oh there are people who would, there always are. It's just that she never heard of them as her thefts rarely involved anything else but technology and machinery.

In spite of late hours there are still people present, students mostly, sitting in the reading section and copying text required from books they've found. Helper bots are stationed in pairs near every entrance to alleys, ready to serve the needs at every hour of every day, each programmed with the library's layout, and nothing else really. While constructors struggle to introduce a multi-purpose bot- their efforts prove to bore no fruit as of yet. As those robots tend to misinterpret commands given to them as something else from another section of their 'brains'. Suffice to say that after initial trials there have been no legal tests of mixing battle bots with any other.

It's one of the things in which Zaun is leagues ahead of Piltover, basically leaving The City of Progress in dust, its greatest breakthrough in this field being a murderous Lady of Clockwork which nobody is capable of reproduction with its creator's demise.

Zaun on the other hand has Viktor. Mad or not, methods despicable or not his research into robotics has brought breakthroughs in the field as a near regular occurrence. And most of it comes as offshots from his obsession with improving the biological organisms. Mental state aside, he is a genius and not even Jayce says otherwise amidst many things he does say about the cyborg.

Vi wondered once, briefly- mind. What would happen if these two teamed up, with Pitoverian's expertise on theory and Zaunian's on machinery to bring their designs into life, with the unlimited power source that Jayce absolutely refuses to build again.

The conclusion she came to was that she is really glad that her friend was born in Piltover.

The duo comes to a stop under inner circle of a footbridge between the ground floor and first platform.

"You think he's still here?" Asks Vi. It's nearing third and she wouldn't be caught dead in such a place at this time. Even though she can see people still working here, she finds it hard to imagine Ezreal doing the same. She knows he does it out of necessity for his travels but still, his energy just seems out of place here.

"Well not here," he answers after glancing over tables and their occupants. "Lets check the upper-"

"Hey Ezreal! You here!?"

Jayce winces as eyes of everyone and even bots land on them, conveying respectively annoyance and question. It's a good thing that the librarian is not present at this hour, they wouldn't get thrown out quite yet but-

"Vi?!" Carries a voice from the very top. A moment later a blond head can be seen sticking over the railing, though its owner apparently can not see them. "What are you doing here?!"

Yeah well now they would be.

"Vi, could you-" the brunet starts but is cut off.

"Looking for you you idiot! Wait up, we're coming!"

"We?! Like who?!" Honestly, it's like these two never were in a library before.

"Me and Jayce! Just wait up!" She shouts back walks over to staircase and starts climbing, jumping three steps at a time.

The city idol smiles nervously as an answer to the accusatory glares directed at him for bringing his friend with him, not seeing a way to come out of this smoothly he just hems and follows the pinkette.

Flawless.

He catches up to her after passing the first platform.

"Could you please not do that?" He asks. She turns to him with raised eyebrows.

"Do what?" Really?

"Shout, it's a library, you know, a silent place." She laughs at that.

"And since when are you so quiet?" Vi thinks about how he almost acts when talking, like he is giving a performance, gesticulating and loud.

"I try to be here, got kicked out too many times." She snorts. Imagining her proud friend curling his tail underneath him and complying with some old lady's orders. Though it wouldn't really be surprising to see, he just can't say no if pressed hard enough and respects elders too much for his own good. In addition to being a bleeding heart.

She must admit though that some of the things he does are... touching, really. Like when he visits an old lady that he helped get groceries home a long time ago to simply keep her company. And he does that because he genuinely cares. It pulls on something inside of her that she can't really pinpoint.

"Okay, okay. Sorry, I'll be good." Her companion rolls eyes at her and the conspirational whisper she decided to use.

Before long they reach the top and find somewhat disheveled looking Ezreal flipping through maps he laid out on a big table he made out of couple smaller ones. Books of folklore and history scattered on and under their surface, beside a half empty tea bottle. Jayce tuts mockingly at the miniature chaos after shaking hands with the younger man.

"She'd kill you if she knew you know?" The inventor points out. And he might not even be exaggerating too much if he knows the librarian as well as he thinks he does.

"Why do you think I'm here at this-" the Explorer doesn't finish as he finds himself being crushed in Vi's bear hug, one that makes his ribs crackle. He coughs a couple times after being released and with a crooked smile turns to his pink headed tormentor. "Hi to you too wimp, grown some fat in the hospital huh?" He laughs even though being playfully punched in arm by the human shaped wrecking ball is not exactly pleasant. Something that only said woman seems not to realize and nobody ever reprimanded her for.

"Laugh it off, just you wait till we spar again and then we will talk about who's being a wimp." The boy winces as he massages his arm, recalling the last time she delivered on her promise, or threat. It's not easy to say when it comes to Vi and punching things.

"Can't wait, though it probably won't happen for some time yet, a few more days and I'm off again."

"Really? You just came back." Says Jayce, disappointment evident in his voice.

"Yeah I'm on a clock these days, got more contracts than I can even agree to take. Whatever, listen, help me pack this up and- no! Not you Vi, some of this is older than us three combined and I'm a dead man if She gets the wind I damaged this." The pink headed woman just waves hand at this blatant lack of faith in her capability to handle something delicate but doesn't argue. The inventor moves along with the explorer and begins methodically folding the maps and stacking books while Vi gently lays down her bag and sits down on a chair to watch their progress.

"So what is it this time? Still looking for Icathia?" He was the last time she asked, he also wanted to find these two men rumored to have found the ancient city, Kassadin and Malazar? Mazar? Whatever, she'd approach neither if the stories about them are even partially true.

"Always looking for it but no, not this time. It's Freljord, my uncle says he needs my help there. Something's going on in the north and I'm curious what exactly." He flashes his friends a crooked smile. "And besides, uncle found many artifacts just on the surface of his site, who knows what's beneath. Sore about the cold though, it's really far up north."

"Ugh, cold. You really know how to pick your holidays," butts in Jayce. "I was in Rakelstake once, charming place, people wear less clothing than we do here. Insane."

"Can't be that bad then, if Lyte can cope then so can I."

"That's cause of his wrinkled, fat ass, you gotta put some on before you go." Smirks Vi.

"You know, sometimes I don't know if you're trying to mock me or not, and what's this anyway?" The blond youth points at her duffel.

"My gauntlets, Jayce got me a bag for them." The older man turns his eyes away as the younger one directs his amused eyes at him.

"For real? She will never part with them now. You remember what happened when she had to leave them at home for a week? It's unhealthy."

"Don't remind me." Futureman murmurs.

"Hey! It wasn't that bad."

"You were like a pissed off wasp." Ezreal adds with a shit eating grin.

"I could've needed them."

"Uh huh, yeah right, I'm just waiting for names now." That stings the target of the boy's teasing.

"Not cool man." A little too close to a certain person to be so.

"Huh? What do you- oh, shit- sorry I didn't mean it like that."

An uncomfortable silence fall over them for a moment before Ezreal breaks it.

"So um... how is this mess with Jinx going?" It's not like it could possibly get more awkward.

"Closed? Whacha mean closed?" Asks the gore covered girl.

"Closed until six AM. Sorry miss." Answers the door. Clearly lacking survival instinct of any sort that would kick in in any other person at the sight of the loopsided grin spreading on Jinx's face

"Oh boy." Murmurs Fishbones.

The sudden sound of an alarm stills all the activity going on in the room. The trio freezes for a moment before Vi shots upright.

"First day! First fucking day and this shit already!" Alarmed voices can be hard below them, she drops beside her bag and pulls out the gauntlets.

"What is that?" Asks visibly startled Ezreal.

"Hell if I know, fire, bombing maybe. Jayce, you know the difference?" She can never recall which is which when it matters (Cait will drill her HARD if she ever catches on), but maybe he does.

"Three short bursts, it's a bomb one."

Fuck. Of all the times it could happen it's when they're basically without gear.

"I need to meet up with security force we deployed here." She puts the gauntlets on ground and slides hands into them, when they are firmly placed she hits the switch inside and they lock around her arms. "Med leave my ass, can't just let it go."

"What do we do?" Jayce voices the question hanging in the air. Vi bites her lip in thought and turns to the blonde.

"You got your sparkly thing with you?"

"The amulet, I always do."

"Then come with me, you're a better shot with that thing than most of The Force is with guns, we can use you, just... don't die on me or I'll get my ass kicked so bad I will never sit again."

"And me?" Jayce asks and she can't help but smile, despite the situation.

"You what? Where is your hammer again? In a safe place?"

'Just you try to tease me about my gauntlets again.'

"Get it and join up, got it."

The Piltover Enforcer stands up and rolls her shoulders.

"Come on! Lets kick some ass!"

She thinks on the situation as the fire from the cafeteria reflects in her eyes, it's disappearing, slowly but surely as firemen pour more and more water into the flames. Her hands unconsciously clench into fists only to loosen up every now and again.

This is wrong, just not fitting into the way Jinx does bombings. Arrival took Caitlyn some twenty minutes after receiving the emergency. And to her surprise- nothing happened in the meanwhile. There has been a bombing along with an electrocuted guard, and apparently 'somebody' let animals out of their cages. That is it. Fire is being contained right now and her people mostly assist handlers in getting animals back in their pits and cages.

It is closing to an hour and it seems like it's been a hit and run sort of operation. The unfortunate man that was this night shift guard was moved to a hospital and will be questioned later, though the sheriff has a good idea of what had happened already. It's confusing as her suspect is not known for being the stealthy type, there should be more damage, more fire. And more tracks to follow.

As it is, it looks that the bomber simply arrived, planted explosives and left, letting animals out without any pattern whatsoever while leaving the zoo. There is also a reported skirmish in the sewers over course of which an officer had been wounded but the attempt at crossing a crossroad had been thwarted. Unfortunately, the culprit was not seen, only weapons, an energy gun and a minigun.

It does not really take much effort to figure out who were they fighting.

But it leaves the woman wondering as to what was the purpose in this attack. Then again, for all she knows, reason is the last thing on the terrorist's mind.

Without any need for so many officers on site, she sent most of them into the tunnels and to patrol the streets for sightings of any suspicious activity, leaving just enough to secure the perimeter and gather whatever evidence left. Meaning simply documenting the damage done

Caitlyn herself already recreated the whole situation. The culprit arrives through the severs, to which an open hatch was left but a street across from zoo's entrance, the criminal must clearly have been unconcerned by the possibility of leaving traces behind. She will get a testimony of the zoo guard when he wakes up but it most likely was as simple as the terrorist knocking on door of his post after crossing the wall, as it was inside it where he was found unconscious and having trouble with breathing. She is not sure about how much time did the bomber spent before the explosions, but not much afterwards.

This is where her reasoning fails, Jinx always stuck around to admire her work and 'play' with her pursuers. That is not the case now, if it is her and Caitlyn is sure of that because honestly. Who else would arrive at a zoo in the middle of the night just to let animals out of their cages and blow a cafeteria up?

Well... animal activists might but they would also try to steal the animals away, which did not as a point of fact happen. Also, the encounter in the sewers later on leaves that option dead.

She sent more people to scour the tunnels but doesn't expect much, she did that before and while they managed to find the probable entrance point, they are scattered all across the city, making it impossible to deduce the area in which Jinx most often operates. And they never managed to catch up to her underground. There isn't much else to do though.

She is brought out of her musings by an officer whom arrival she nearly missed, lost in her thoughts.

"Sheriff, there's an emergency on the university grounds."

Another one?

"Do we have details?"

"A bomb alert went off somewhere on campus, nothing more for now."

A coincidence? Unlikely, besides- it changes nothing. And another attack this soon after first one might explain the rush that the culprit was in.

"Get all the shifts assigned for University protection up and running, I want them there now. Turn the response teams back and to campus, they are to make sure nobody gets out without my permission. They are not to go inside, understood? And move forces in the sewers to close off every tunnel around university." What they need is to trap the bomber inside and slowly, precisely tighten their grasp on her, without a way to escape.

"Yes sheriff." He snaps a salute and hurries off to pass on her orders.

She turns back to look at the fire before sighing and correcting the setting of her hat, suddenly feeling like it is too heavy.

Whoa, epic long chap, such proud, much wow.

I thought that I'd fit the confrontation between our heroes here but when I hit 9k word mark I knew I had to release this. So here! Enjoy.