THE MEETING

"Of all things that could have happened, I didn't think I would be missing Silco, right now..."

"My informants told me the enforcers are splitting apart. A separatist militia, calling themselves Ironhands. They're forming up to march here, the Council liking it or not."

"Is there even a Council to like it or not, now? That little shit... Look where she brought us."

"People are already starting to talk on the streets. Won't be long before it turns to panic. They're even calling today the 'Hi-Jinx', at some places."

"No, no, we're cutting this at the root, anyone speaking that has their tongue cut out! The last thing we're doing is giving them something that will recall that brat!"

The chamber at the tower where the Chem-Barons usually met for a sit-down, 'Cultivair' it was supposed to be called, was quite the bizarre match between a boardroom and a greenhouse, even though the plants apparently died off for some reason. Must have had something to do when Silco had last met all these yapping folks.

At least that's what Jinx figured out, as she spied from a corner of the glass ceiling at night-time.

For all the trouble, heeding the Silco in her head was worth it. At least this yapping was a lot more interesting than their daily ones. It's almost like if they needed her to get some fresh topic going on. Clearly the Chem-Barons didn't like her, but then she wasn't in for a popularity contest. And the enforcer split was almost like a thing before the Council literally blew it, it just needed a little push with all the bodies piling up. Or a Hextech-powered rocket, for that matter.

The name was weird though. 'Hi-Jinx'? Well, in the name's defense, she heard worse. She would've liked 'Get Jinxed Hollies', though...

The only one apparently absent was Sevika, though. Given she was, logically, the next in line to take over Silco's place, she should've been there, trying to put out the fire that fell upon her. Guess the Chem-Barons were now gunning for her, given Jinx practically represented Silco. Past tense.

Of course, this changed as the doors opened and Sevika entered the room to join all those yapping people.

"Tell us you have Jinx brought up here, especially tied up and gagged!", said one of the Chem-Barons, an older one with black feathery attire, rising from her chair. Renni.

Jinx made an effort to not laugh at that.

"You forgot who called this meeting?", Sevika asked, staring at them, dead serious. "We have a problem."

"No shit!", the augmented Yordle Chem-Baron, Smeech retorted. "And I wonder whom started all this, even before all this... this!"

"I know what Silco did, but I'm not here to talk about that.", Sevika replied. "On my part, Jinx doesn't represent Silco's fold anymore. My fold, at any rate, she's all on her own, now. The question is what about you?"

'Cutting herself loose from you...', the Silco within her spoke. 'Not a surprise, but not a bad start either...'

"A joint bounty, for starters?", the Chem-Baron on a flat hat and Piltovan clothes, Chross, asked.

'I'd settle for a sandwich.', the Claggor spoke. Jinx brushed him off to censor him.

"With the latest losses and little time, Chross?", the other female Chem-Baron, the blonde one with dark make up, Margot, asked. "We'd never be able to pay it off! And even if it were high enough, who'd be skilled or crazy enough to try hunting her?"

"Clearly you don't know sister and her cupcake...", Jinx whispered to herself.

"Maybe you should hunt her, Sevika.", Renni spoke, baring her teeth, sitting back down. "Quite a bridge-mender and a restitution for your dead boss' mad dreams!"

"These 'mad dreams' were as closer as we could ever get to be rid of the topsiders!", Sevika retorted. "More than any of-"

Suddenly, bangs were heard on the door, and it opened as a new figure appeared before them. A figure wearing a thick coat and an owl-ish mask.

Someone Jinx knew just too well, as her jaw was dropped.

'What the...', spoke the Claggor.

"Who'd tell...", Sevika started, a couple of seconds later, coldly. "The Council burns, war is on, and now the leader of the Firelights shows his... face... before the very heads of Zaun."

"Let's get on with it.", Ekko started, the owl mask's voice modulator doing it's work distorting his voice with a quasi-deep, flanged pitch. "I'm here to be sure we're all speaking the Lanes' language, much as I don't like the idea."

"Oh, we're speaking now?", Sevika asked, clearly itching for a fight, her metal hand and arm clenching. "This coming from someone whom, at every step, sent out his little rats to disrupt our business!"

A bang in the table was heard.

"You shouldn't have any right for a word, Sevika, not with all this catastrophe your boss unleashed!", Renni shouted out loud.

'Still more spine than we-know-who.', Mylo retorted, to the point Jinx had to mumble angrily for him to shut up.

"Let him talk.", Chross followed, eyes fixed at Ekko. "For this one to appear so blatantly, he means business."

Ekko took a moment before starting. "Yeah, we fought Silco, his Shimmer and all the bullshit he spread across the Lanes. And we don't regret that.", he said. "And now he's dead, good riddance. But now we got a war on our doorstep, and my people are in the crossfire, much as the rest of you. And it's got me here, having to talk to you. Because I've something you want, and you've something I want too."

"So you have Jinx?", Smeech asked, shrugging.

"I can hunt her, if you're curious. And interested.", Ekko answered.

Jinx' expression became one of a person dead inside, driven numb by the Little Man's apparent callous declaration.

"It's obvious you're all tied up.", Ekko continued, below. "You've all of the Lanes to worry about now, the enforcers, you're all dried up thanks to the blockades... And the one you want runs all free, doing whatever's what. The Firelights have a beef with Jinx. And we get her, you get to mend bridges with topside. Sounds like something you'd want, ain't it?"

Across that speech, Jinx's mouth opened, jaw slowly dropping. Her fights with Ekko, the 'Boy Savior' and his little, house fly annoying band of rapscallions were as common during her days with Silco as throwing bombs underneath her hideout. She could easily as dispatch them as with any other annoying fly, be it defending a dirigible's load of Shimmer or that confrontation when she met sister days ago. Ekko himself, out of most, was the barely most handful, but Jinx just wasn't fast enough that day. But she could still handle him in a fight.

She lost count of the amount of Firelights dead in her hands already, yet here he was, before the top yappers of Zaun, telling them he's going to be the one to bring her in. That he, somehow, would be the hero they needed. Boy Savior, Boy Hero.

And that always sparked up that unanswerable question in her head - How did those Firelights last that long, being that frigging stupid?

"And I suppose this is where you name your price?", Chross asked.

"Is it even a mystery?", Sevika asked, staring at Ekko dead-eyed. "I already say: forget it! You don't grasp a thing of how things actually work in Zaun, mister."

"It's either that, or good luck with Jinx wrecking whatever chance for peace you want with topside!", Ekko stood his ground. "Shimmer's a poison and it's been killing everyone since the day it first got on the Lanes and you know it. I won't accept anything less than a total shutdown!"

"You're setting it too steep.", Margot replied. "Poison or not, Shimmer is still a commodity. Silco's seen to it. You don't just shut a commodity off."

Ekko simply looked at each Chem-Baron and a defying Sevika before simply turning away towards the door.

"Eight-month suspension.", Renni said, rising from her chair again, hands clenched tight into fists, subtly shaking, making Ekko stop. "The best offer you'll have."

"What!?", Sevika asked, angry, turning around to the table of those lofty sitters.

Renni stared sternly at Sevika, as she turned to the other Barons. "He's got a point.", she said. "If we're to have a chance at a... settlement with the topsiders, we can't have Jinx running loose. And we've no one else capable or willing enough."

"Doubt Sevika will last that long with her business halted.", Margot spoke. "Four months."

"Six.", Smeech said. "After you bring her."

"I second six, too.", Chross said, bluntly. "Dead or alive, just get her."

Ekko did consider the offer, for a moment. "No getting in my way.", he said, then, glancing at Sevika.

"We don't.", Renni said, coldly, eyes also locked at Sevika. "Don't we, Sevika?"

Sevika took a while before saying her word, staring at the insolent Firelight and clearly clenching her mechanical fist to near breaking point. "Fine. Go and try and be a hero all you want...", she said, gnashing her teeth.

Jinx, far above, quietly shook her head slowly in disapproval, watching the scene.

Ekko simply turned around to leave the room, getting a grudging Sevika to bare her teeth. 'Jinx, I might hate you with all the guts in the world, but I might let it all fly if you handle this...', she thought, closing her eyes.

'The Boy Savior now pretends heroism.', the Silco in Jinx spoke. 'Quite the nerve and foolishness.'

'Ekko doesn't know when to stop...', commented the Claggor.

'And all over a certain someone...', said the Mylo.

'All the more reason to lay low, now.', spoke the Vander.

"Someone's... needing... a humility lesson.", Jinx said, coldly, getting on her feet to leave the chamber and back down into Zaun.