12

Chapter Thirty-One

"You're going out in that?" I questioned, as I secured my own armor.

Violetta stared back, skeptical. "Yeah? What's with the Enforcer getup?"

I paused, looking down at myself. "Um, I'm pretty sure Enforcers wear blue."

"Yeah, well, they're wrapped up like you are," she shot back, and I frowned, moving to a mirror to double check, and... no, Vi wasn't just being combative, as usual, this was a bit much.

Given time, I'd managed something far better than my 'spooky long coat of doooom!', and even managed to make it fit into local styles.

If you squinted.

Okay, layers are my friend, I decided, going to my thankfully self-filling wardrobe and looking for a coat that'd work, needing something darker and larger than my normal fit, the low-level mind-reading nature of the Sweet Home providing me a dark brown jacket in an unobtrusive manner, like I'd 'just happened' to come across it rather than having an AI handing it directly to me.

It was suggested that I purchase an AI Waifu specifically for that purpose in Basic, and while that was less... morally questionable than most purchases of 'Talent', given their artificial and intrinsically copyable nature, I both wanted to avoid doing so if possible, and, given the technologically backwards nature of Runeterra, they'd be confined to my home for the foreseeable future, so that wouldn't really be fair to them either.

Looking at myself... frankly, I'd prefer full plate, but my Spycraft 101 class had insisted that you had to work within the limits of the area, or else draw unwanted attention, so wearing too much armor would, ironically, guarantee you'd need it, and that it might not be enough, while subtler protections were far more effective.

Well, that or out-of-context crafted gear, so the locals didn't know you were ready for war, which is why you really needed to buy an armorsmith Waifu of either the magic or hypertech variety to outfit yourself and your entire team in invisible protections that could tank a charging rhino without you being more than mildly surprised.

It was a recurring theme of our training.

The black spidersilk I'd used before had formed the base of my armor, but that alone would've made me look like I was rich as fuck, because, well, in terms of material supplies, I was, but that didn't help me not get robbed when I went down to the Lanes, which is what I was trying to mitigate with armor in the first place. Instead, I'd taken normal clothing and lined it with the material, while working in additional inserts in between the layers, the additional armor made of metallic mesh that'd help take blunt blows that the silk alone would do nothing for.

I... may have gone a little overboard with them though.

Maybe it was because, despite, subjectively, being closer to a decade ago, it was only objectively about six months since I'd signed up with the Company, so I'd not minded the extra padding, being fat having been a much greater pull on my body, and my 'natural padding' had not been nearly as distributed as my current armor was either.

My pants worked, having learned from my first few attempts how to make a pair from the silk alone. I'd put the padding on those 'kinda-pajamas', and then used a larger local pair over that as cover, which made me look a little lumpy, but otherwise natural.

My top hadn't been nearly as easy, and, Vi was right, did look armored, until I tugged on the jacket, which didn't look good, but, considering where we were going, that would just help us blend in more. "Everything fitting fine for you, Violetta?" I called back, heading to the living room area where we were getting ready.

"It's... okay," the brawler called back. "And it's Vi."

"Not in The Lanes it's not," I replied walking in. "If we're down there, it's that or 'Letta. I start referring to you by name? Well, someone's gonna notice, even if you're disguised. And where's your mask?"

The now white-haired girl shook her head, dismissively stating, "I've lived there all my life. I don't need one. If anything, you do, Jayce. 'Sides, they make us look like Pilties."

Rolling my eyes, I grabbed hers off the table and tossed it her way, while grabbing my own and clipping it to my coat in case I was somewhere I 'needed' it. "Yeah, that's the point. Violet has gotten used to the air down there, but Violetta Vandottir grew up with the pure, clean, and icy mountain winds of Freljord. I made sure to design them to make them look different than the ones that the Enforcers use. They might not be as efficient, but they'll be easier to breathe in, and, as you said, we don't really need them."

"Are you sure I can't come?" Piper asked, sitting on the back of the couch beside us, wearing one of my earlier attempts at a shirt, flopping the too large sleeves around.

"Yes," I stated, trying not to pull on my Song. "From what Babette says, things are getting more dangerous in the Lanes, and you still look too much like you."

Violetta clicked her mask in place, looking my way and asking, "And I don't?"

She'd turned down my suggested hoodie, going for a black shirt-blue jacket combo that was somewhat reminiscent of what she would've worn after the timeskip, but instead of a plunging, ironically V-shaped neckline for the undershirt she'd gone for a thin turtleneck instead, which met the mask, and was made of a shimmering. . .

"Did you use the spidersilk for that shirt?" I questioned, lifting an eyebrow.

The other girl froze, them turned away. "You said we could use it," she stated mulishly.

"No, that's great!" I smiled, the brawler looking my way incredulously. "I didn't know you sewed," I added. "Um, you have any tips? Because I really don't know what I'm doing."

"I can tell," she shot back, smirking my way, amusement clear in her tone despite her covered face. "I guess, when we get back."

Powder grinned, "She also likes the way it feeeeeeeeels!"

From how her cheeks moved, the elder sister's smirk dropped away, replaced by a scowl, "Shut up!"

"It's all smooooth, and cooool, and niii-blah!" the blue-haired girl taunted, before catching a pillow to the face that sent her toppling over the back of the couch.

"It's a luxury good for a reason," I smiled, "And, while not worth its weight in gold, is the kind of thing that would make a statement of wealth if one of Piltover's Councilors wore an outfit made from it."

Vi frowned, looking back down to herself. "Really?"

"Eh," I hazarded, "The more normal equivalent would be sourced from Ionia, and most couldn't tell the difference, so it'd also send, like, three other messages in addition to 'I'm rich, bitches!' so they probably wouldn't wear something like that, but yeah. Don't worry, in Piltover it'll look understated wealth, which is good, and out of direct sunlight it'll be harder to identify down in Zaun, so it's fine."

The brawler, however, pressed the issue, "But you've got rolls of it."

I nodded. "And where are they?"

"In your workshop?" she questioned, not getting it, but, popping over the back of the couch, Piper clearly did, from how the girl giggled.

"And where is that?" I prompted.

"In your house?" Violetta replied, still confused.

Piper giggled again.

I nodded, "And where is that?"

"Um, here?" she said, giving her sister a glare as the small girl tried not burst out into laughter.

Nodding again, I tried once more, "And where is here?"

"It's... oh," the white-haired girl stated lamely, as Piper lost her fight with mirth.

"Yeah, honestly not the weirdest thing I have," I smiled, flipping open a box I'd brought out, and pushing it across the table to the girl. "Also, these are yours."

Vi looked down at it, then glanced back my way, and, at my nod, pulled out the combat gloves. They were a deep crimson, with large integrated tungsten knuckles, the weight of the dense metal offset by the girl's own borderline superhuman strength, given her size and musculature. Coloring the metal had taken a bit of alchemy, really transmutation, but I remembered enough from the lessons I'd failed, evidenced by the lack of a true alchemy lab in my Sweet Home, to do that much, even if the damn ritual took an hour to set up and was the alchemical equivalent of not even fingerpainting, but making a ring out of play-doh.

"Are these magic?" she questioned, hefting them, frowning at the gloves.

"Barely," I replied with a wave. "Just the paint job. Actually, good idea, gimme a sec," I instructed, popping over to the storeroom and grabbing the loot I'd left there. Walking back, not going to use them myself, but just curious, I strapped on the bracers, which grew to fit me. However, with senses that weren't physical, I could tell they did nothing. Slipping on the ring, however, I felt it mentally click into place, a thin invisible deflection field spreading out over me from the magical accessory.

It wouldn't be enough for real trouble, only the difference between wearing a shirt and padded armor, but it was on top of what I already wore, Weave magic being... oddly specific about that kind of thing. "Put these on, under your jacket," I told Vi as I re-entered the room, tossing her the bracers.

She caught them, then stared, "These are from. . ."

"That bitch of a banshee, yeah," I nodded. "Put them on and see if they work."

The brawler hesitated, then slid off her jacket, strapping on the oversized forearm guards, freezing when they remolded themselves to fit her perfectly, slowly glancing my way. "They... are? What's going on, Jayce?"

"Weave magic. It's user friendly, but it's also a bit reality breaking," I told her easily, glad they'd activated. "You know how some things are hard to cut, but a punch will still hit just as hard as if you didn't have anything on, while other things will take a punch, but a knife slips right through?" She nodded, the spidersilk shirt an example of the former. "Weave magic gives zero shits, it protects against both, or neither, to the exact same extent. That stuff is rated to be like leather armor and like a lamellar cuirass, er, a shirt with panels of bone, thin metal, or even stone sewn into it," I explained at her blank look, "at the same time."

Walking over to her, I lifted a hand, made a fist, and lightly punched her in the bicep, and her eyes widened as she could feel the magical armoring cushioning the 'bludgeoning damage', despite only having cloth in the way.

"I, you need it more," she deferred, clearly uncomfortable.

Shaking my head, I reassured her, "I'm too protected already, which means it won't activate its magic because the 'armor value' of what I'm already wearing is too high. Besides, I got the ring, and you need protection too."

"It's The Lanes, we'll be fine," Vi dismissed.

"If it's fine, then why should he have the arm-bands?" Piper questioned with mock-innocence.

The older sister frowned, "I don't know. In case he falls or something?" she shot back, but, from the younger sister's smug smile, she knew the excuse didn't work. Turning to me the brawler demanded, "Well, are we going or not?"

I made sure my outfit was secure, my knife hidden in its sheath under my sleeve, and a revolver secure behind my back. My 'spirit' 1911 wasn't the type of thing I should be caught with, but walking around with a small snubnose was something I could explain away, if needed.

"Don't pull those," Vi ordered, and I sent her a questioning look. She hesitated, then firmed her shoulders. "I don't know what it's like where you're from, but weapons, they change things." Lifting up a hand, she glanced at the bloody-looking metal across her knuckles. "Even this is pushing it, but blades... if you use them, you have to commit to using them."

Lifting an eyebrow, I calmly pointed out, "Given what I did to save you, I do not think my willingness to commit to such an action is in question."

Violetta frowned, shaking her head. "No, that's... Brawls can end okay. Yeah, you're hurtin', but everyone walks away. You show you're strong, show you're not to be messed with, and they'll leave you alone. You stick a knife in someone, it's on until one side is dead, and everyone's not coming out of that whole."

Considering her words, I slowly nodded. "I think I understand. Brawling in The Lanes is a... culture check, but also a threat display. However, if we go 'claws out', as it were, we fail the check, and now we're outsiders, dealing with the threat of disfigurement, or even death, with every clash."

"But I used bombs," Piper piped up. "How's that work?"

"They didn't work," Vi absently dismissed, then realized what she'd just said, and looked pained. "I mean-"

"I get it," the younger girl interrupted, glancing my way, as her sister had confirmed what I'd stated weeks ago. "I'm not mad, Vi. They didn't then." The tiny tinkerer's expression broke out in a toothy grin. "But they do now."

The brawler smiled fondly, "That they do, Powder."

I let the pair have their moment, before I lightly clapped my hands together, getting their attention, "And if we need supplies for an assault, we'll both be thankful to have them. For a search and maybe rescue mission, however, your sister's right, Piper, and I'll keep my weapons in their sheathes unless she says otherwise, or we're attacked with a lethal threat. That work for you, Vi?"

The white-haired girl looked at me in surprise, then let out a breath, relaxing a little. "Yeah. It does." She let out a low laugh, "It's gonna be weird to see it again after... after what feels like years. I know, we saw Babette, but this, this is different."

I nodded. "It will be. Just remember, you can't-"

"Let anyone know who I am. Except Little Man," Vi interrupted, repeating my warning.

"And if we can talk to Ekko without revealing you're still alive, all the better," I stressed. "Babette's made it clear that the walls down there can have ears."

"Trust me, I grew up there," the brawler shot back.

I gave her a serious look, "And everyone that grew up there is mindful of their words, not letting anything slip?"

The white-haired girl frowned at that. "Fine, I'll be careful."

All three of us made our way down to the gate room, and I opened the glowing portal, waving to Piper before I strode out into my room in the Brentworth estate, Vi following close after. While we caught some looks as we left, what we were wearing clearly out of fashion, especially the teen's mask, only a few we saw on our way out of the little cluster of streets we lived on understood we were about to go 'sumping it'. While a pair of older women looked scandalized, a younger man gave me a knowing nod, and Vi an assessing look, but he caught my subtle head shake and shrugged, heading off on his way.

Once in slightly less affluent areas, we were more ignored, the most attention we got from a few enforcers who started to give us suspicious looks, one starting to follow after us until he recognized the House Talis symbol on my coat, at which point he backed off, Violetta untensing as he did so.

The closer we got to Zaun, the less attention we gathered, until, crossing the west bridge, we were socially invisible, just two more in the crowd. Vi started to veer off the beaten path, and I caught her by the shoulder, the girl flinching away, but stopping herself before she struck me.

"What?" she hissed, twitchy, but clearly just as mad at herself over her reaction as she was at me.

Louder, conversationally, as a few had glanced in our direction, I told her, "The bathysphere is this way, 'Letta. As far as I'm aware, it's the only way down. We can't climb into the Undercity like we could your mountains up north."

The girl looked confused, then realized what I was really saying and reddened, muttering, "I knew that," loudly enough that a few onlookers laughed, which just caused her to redden more at having, almost instantly, outed herself as a native.

To switch attention off her, I started to talk about the bathysphere, its history, playing up the 'Pilty acting as tourist' angle, while reaffirming that, by having to tell her it, Vi wasn't supposed to know any of this already.

Thankfully, it didn't take too long for our transport to show up, and soon enough it carried us down into the depths of Zaun, letting out into the Lanes proper, the subterranean boulevard busy, with hot, musty air smacking us in the face as soon as we got out of the lift, like the breath of some enormous, sleeping, sick metallic beast. Vi moved to step forward, but hesitated, and followed me instead as I started to make my way towards the ruins of The Last Drop.

Looking around, the Lanes seemed, if anything, busier? There were more of those people with shell casings around their neck, or armed with long knives, a few moving to and fro, but most were just relaxing, watching the crowd, one catching my eye and giving me a measuring look, so I replied with a jaunty wave. The scarred woman, who looked oddly familiar, though I couldn't remember where I'd seen her before, rolled her eyes, and, just like that, I was socially invisible again, just another clue-less Pilty sumpin' it.

"Will you stop that," Vi hissed, and I shrugged, keeping an eye out to see if I'd marked myself as a robbery target, but, as we wandered down several streets, no one seemed to be following us. Slipping off the road when we were on, I took us off our original path, not wanting to have the teen see the destroyed wreckage of her former home. I'd been by it last week, and someone, possibly Silco, had started work on rebuilding it.

I hoped it was Silco, as it was always nice when your enemies set up public offices for you to bomb.

Wandering down the alley, I glanced both ways, then stopped, murmuring, "Okay, 'Letta. Where are we going from here?"

"Finally," the teen sighed, almost stomping past me, and I fell into step beside her, trying to get the 'aware but casual' air about me that Professor 47 had emphasized in Basic's Stealth training. It was a state where you kept situational awareness yourself without setting off others' situational awarenesses, and was universal enough that it didn't matter if you were a cook, a soldier, a janitor, or a doctor, no one would think anything was out of place.

From the confused look my partner in this endeavor shot me, I wasn't doing it very well.

Fuck it, just be normal, I internally sighed, putting on my mask instead. Now that I had Martial Talent I'd have better luck learning that social stealth, but, ironically, now was when I no longer had access to those experts to learn from.

Vi nodded at my choice of disguise, shaking her head at my previous attempts, and then led me down one alley after another, rapid fire, until, if it weren't for an odd little foreign feeling in the back of my head, I would've been hopelessly lost.

Guess Wild Talent works for concrete jungles as well, I mused. Then again, places like Blame! were available to travel to, for some ungodly reason, so that made an odd sort of sense.

Soon enough, we exited an alley just down the street from Benzo's shop. Babette had said Ekko had been spotted in the past few weeks, but only a couple times, and not here, though for all I knew there was a secret entrance the show never covered, but Vi knew of. The girl I was following hesitated, taking in the broken door, her gaze panning to a low window, just above the street, which still had traces of dried blood in the edges of the frame.

The street had been cleaned, possibly by what little rain dripped down from above, but, looking for it, there were other bits of evidence, scraps of viscera and such, visible here and there.

Seeing the teen beside me, she was frozen, just staring, and, gently, I laid my hand on her shoulder. Violetta still twitched, but didn't force my hand away this time. "You could not have stopped it," I murmured. "If Vander hadn't put you in that basement, Silco would've had you killed right then and there. And then he would've sent his people after the others, and they wouldn't've seen it coming."

The white-haired girl's chin shifted below her mask, and her voice, while muffled, was still full of torturous emotion. "If you'd gotten to us in time..."

I shook my head. "Would you have listened? And if I'd been there, when Silco came, the most I could've done was make a portal and shove as many as I could through it, and you've seen how hard it is to get people in them. As we currently are, let alone how I was when you first met me, we'd stand no chance against a Shimmer Berserker. Not yet."

Violetta brushed my hand off, though not violently, and looked up at me, eyes hard, but with a hint of something else. "Not yet?" she echoed.

I nodded. "Punch gods in the face, remember? It won't be easy, but it's possible."

The brawler thought about that, then sighed. "Guess we better up our training. Come on, I want to see if I can find anything."

I nodded, and, after another breath, Violetta made herself walk into the shop, as I followed behind, head on a swivel. While a couple people on the street saw us enter, they didn't seem to care.

Inside, the place had been very clearly ransacked, Vi's brows knitting in anger as she took it all in, running a gloved hand along the bare counter, finally heading to the back, and the stairs going down. The basement was similarly bare, the smell of spilled alcohol lingering in the air, with an undercurrent of piss and blood. However, my guide, after another moment of angry observation, quickly moved across the room, reaching to one of the dozens upon dozens of stones that made up the walls, pulling it out, and revealing an empty alcove.

"Was there supposed to be something in there?" I asked gently, as she stared at the cleaned out space, at a loss.

"It's Little Man's stash. If it's empty..." she trailed off.

"If it's empty, he's probably moved house and has hidden it somewhere he thinks is safer," I observed, and Vi nodded.

"We should leave a note, in case he comes back," the brawler stated, and I nodded, opening the Gate.

Leaning through, I spotted Piper, where she'd set up shop with a folding table, working on her homework. "Can I borrow that pen, and that pad?" I asked her.

"Sure!" the small girl chirped, jumping off her chair and running over to me. "Did ya find Ekko?"

"No, but he's cleaned out his stash, so we're leaving him a note," I explained.

Piper grinned, "That's a great idea, Jayce!"

"It's your sister's," I smiled, giving credit where it was due.

"Then I guess it's an okay idea," she said, reversing course. "Kind of obvious, really."

Patting the girl on the head, I told her, "Violetta has good ideas too. Now, I'll give these right back."

Taking the writing utensils, I leaned back into Runeterra fully, handing them to Vi, who scribbled out a quick note. "I'm telling him to go to Babette," she stated.

"Don't sign it," I warned, as she started to do that very thing, and she grimaced, scribbling out the V she'd made.

Tearing off the paper, Vi handed me the pad and pen back, which I returned to her sister as she folded up the message and replaced it in the hidey-hole, resealing it.

Closing the gate, I looked around the space. "Any ideas on where he could be?"

"A couple," the brawler stated, looking around, visibly disappointed. "It was stupid to think he'd be here, waiting for us, wasn't it?"

"It's where I thought he might be, 'Letta, or watching nearby, in which case he'll find the note," I offered, Vi glancing up at me in surprise, the girl still expecting me to be as antagonistic as she often was, and continuously taken aback when I wasn't.

Heading for the stairs, she tried to hide her reaction, as she often did, and called over her shoulder, "If he's not here, he'll be in, or near, the junkheap. It's his second home. Maybe third, after our place. Our old place. Also, I hate that stupid name."

"Normally you don't get to pick your nicknames, 'Letta," I teased her slightly, "Though if you come up with something that works, I'll use it. Nothing that ties to your old life, though. That's not witty, that's just stupid."

She paused, halfway out Benzo's shop. "But 'Violetta' is fine?"

I glanced to where the listening horn that Ekko previously used should be, but it was wrecked. Still, I whispered, "Close enough that you can play off answering to the 'wrong' name."

From her expression, even with it half-hidden, she hadn't made the connection before, and nodded, "Huh."

I waited for more, but that was it, as Vi lead me out. Once again we headed further and further away from the central boulevard of the Lanes, and I felt a bit of unease, as, despite how silly it was, I'd truly expected to find Ekko here, safe and whole. But then again, I'd expected to find the girl walking beside me a little beat up, instead of how she'd actually been. For Violet, I'd come as fast as I could, but I'd assumed that, since he was fine in the original timeline, he'd be fine without my intervention. Only now was I realizing how baseless that belief was, and I hoped we weren't too late.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Violetta and I headed down more alleys, though the further we went, the more on-edge I started to feel. The main roads seemed okay, if a little tense, the 'shell-casing-pendent and long-knife' gang generally present, but as we moved away from the main drag they got rarer and rarer, the streets darker and dingier, and everything just quieter.

Finally, moving down one alley, indistinguishable from the last dozen or so, a couple of men stepped in front of us, blocking our way. "Little lost, aren't ya, Topsiders?" the one on the left, the taller one with bright green hair, drawled.

Vi shot me a warning look, but I kept my hands by my sides, not going for my weapons, and letting her handle this.

"We're headed to the junkheap," the brawler said, using the local name for it, but that could be excused as hearing it from someone else. "We don't want any trouble," she said, though she casually closed her hands into fists, "but I'd not say no to a bit of a scrap."

More thugs came from the other end, two women and another man, the last one large, in that 'maybe obese' bear way, and was carrying a large club, with nails sticking out of it. Did that count as a deadly weapon? I thought, but, other than a glance, Vi was keeping her attention forward.

"Heh, you're funny," the green-haired leader sneered, casually walking closer, as the others also approached, though slower. "Not wantin' trouble, while sayin' you're here to steal what's ours? I think you should pay for what you take, Pilty. Maybe with... everything ya got? Yeah, that's how your type makes deals, right?"

Vi squared her stance, but kept her hands down, telling the mugger, "We're not here for the junk, we're looking for someone. Name's Ekko. Shorter, dark skin, white hair, good with tools."

"Haven't heard of him," the lead thug commented blandly, coming right up to Vi, but he turned away, looking to the other guy who'd slowly followed behind him. "Have you?"

Without waiting for a response, the green haired-thug whipped around, pulling a knife from somewhere and slashing for Vi's throat, but she was already moving, dodging out of the way, blade passing inches above her as she leaned back, her eyes widening in surprise, but her reflexes kept her safe.

Behind me, the three that'd been creeping closer started charging, the big guy in the lead, fast despite his size, or possibly because of it, hauling back his bat in an overwhelming strike as I casually called to my travel partner, "This counts?"

"Yes!" she yelled, taking a step back as her attacker tried again, pulling a second knife, but I trusted her to handle it, as my hand went back, under my coat, the hulking Zaunite closing fast.

By the time I could grab my gun, he was already swinging, but compared to the speed of my trainer's blows, this fat bastard practically mailed me a letter, allowing me to sidestep far enough that, even when the brute tried to correct mid-swipe, he still missed, the club smashing down through the space I was in, my revolver lifting to point directly at his eye as I pulled the trigger, a ringing crack going off as he dropped like a puppet with its strings cut, the side of his head erupting in gore as the bullet ricocheted inside his skull.

"Jiru!" one of the women gasped, pulling out a knife of her own and screaming, "I'll kill you!" as she charged.

Two shots took her down, one to the head, the other to the gut, and I moved to my last target, the first clipping her shoulder, the second missing entirely, and the final one in my chamber striking true, taking her in the neck as she tried to dodge. Turning back down the alley, flicking open the cylinder of my weapon and catching my brass. Dropping it in a pocket, I used one of my speed-loaders to slot in another six as I saw Vi had taken one thug down, but was letting the last one escape.

Snapping the gun shut, I sighted, glad of my time with the Kirammans, this kind of firing easier now as I aimed, breathed out, and smoothly pulled the trigger, the fleeing thug's head snapping forward as he fell to the ground, unmoving.

Waiting a beat, when it was clear no one else was coming, I opened my revolver again, removing the single piece of spent brass, and, reaching into a different pocket, this one containing a dozen loose rounds, I replaced it, returning my weapon to full readiness once more.

Sliding my snubnose back into its holster, I met Vi's gaze as she turned on me. "He was going!" she yelled, the accusation of 'You didn't need to do that!' clear.

"Yes, but where was he going?" I questioned blandly, though a bit forcefully, clamping down on the adrenaline of combat and over-correcting a little, to the point I sounded somewhat bored, as I squatted down next to the big man and started going through his pockets, in the tradition of adventurers everywhere. I didn't need any of their money, but Basic had drilled into me that thugs, especially stupid thugs, which were most thugs, could have all sorts of incriminating clues on their person. "To hide? To get reinforcements? To report back to Silco? To get a gun of his own to ambush us with later? As you said, Violetta, once fatal combat has been started, it doesn't stop until one side is dead."

The man had a coin purse, which I pocketed because leaving it would be suspicious, but little else. Turning to look at her, I noted the slash on her sleeve. "Undershirt held up, didn't it? Surprised you let him get that much off on you, given how shit these guys were."

"I..." Vi started to say, brows knitting together in a confused frown. "That shouldn't've happened."

"Everyone makes mistakes," I shrugged. "That's why we have armor." Moving to the first woman I'd killed, she had some random things in her pockets, but nothing that stood out to me, and, when I approached the second, she was still alive, gasping through the hole in her windpipe, clearly in shock, but not quite dead. Bending over as I approached and grabbing the knife she'd pulled, but never had the chance to use, off the ground, she saw me coming and tried to struggle to do... something, clearly terrified, but unable to do more than wiggle, her strength already drained out of her, along with a good deal of blood.

Well, then you shouldn't have tried to kill us, I couldn't help but think. "Tell me, do you work for Silco?" I questioned, and she weakly shook her head no. "Were you waiting for us, specifically?" got me the same answer. Nodding, I thrust the blade into her heart, ripping it out and killing her in seconds. Checking her pockets got me more little things, a couple keys, a folded piece of paper that was an old letter from someone else not related to us, but nothing that said this was a setup.

Standing, and walking over to the thug Vi had beat, bloody knife in hand, I idly commented to the girl who was looking warily at me, "A quick death is better than a slow one. Let's see if we can get any more information from this Darwin award winner," I informed her, squatting down as I sat him against the side of the alley, lightly slapping his face. "Come on, Wake up. You need to answer some questions."

I brought the thug around, and, while he was downright nasty, he was forthcoming about not working for Silco, or, as he put it, not having to 'justify anything to anyone else'. He'd robbed us because he was poor, and thought we were rich assholes that didn't deserve what we had, so and so forth, standard bandit justifications essentially. As we were wrapping up, though, he froze, and stared at me, whispering hoarsely, "Oh... oh shit it's you."

Exchanging a confused look with Vi, I asked, "And who am I?"

"You're, holy shit, you're, I'm sorry, okay! I'll do better! I promise, if you let me go, I'll do better!" he babbled.

I couldn't help but snort. "Sure you will," I replied, and the thug went for the knife he'd dropped, only for Vi to catch him with a punch that shoved him face down into the alley floor, where I buried the knife I still held in his neck, killing him near instantly.

After a quick check of his pockets, and the last one's, who'd died from the headshot before he hit the ground, I wiped my hands off on his shirt, stood, and asked, "So, which way to the Junkheap?"

Vi, however, just stood there, looking at the dead. "You were gonna kill him no matter what," she stated in disbelief, looking at the one I'd interrogated.

"You said it yourself, Violetta," I reminded her. "Once-

"I know what I said!" she snapped. "But... but this wasn't supposed to happen! I've gone down this alley so many times, and I never, this never..."

Folding my arms, I leaned against the alley wall. "That makes sense."

She glared at me, "None of this makes sense!"

"Of course you were fine," I reiterated, unruffled. "No one was going to touch his daughter."

"That's not..." the closest thing Zaun had to a princess started to argue, but cut herself off, deep in thought. She finally shook her head, "No, if it happened before, we would've seen it. With what you're leaving behind, yeah, sometimes we'd see someone that was... but not like this. Not this many. Not here."

I nodded, "Yeah, Vander was a good leader, and he kept things safe. But he's not here anymore, 'Letta. And this is what we get instead."

"If Powder hadn't..." she started to say, then grimaced.

"Or if you hadn't just ordered the scared girl to stay behind while everyone she loved was in danger. Or if Vander had talked to you about his old enemies, to warn you of them, knowing they were still out there. Or if you hadn't decided to rob me, because you wanted to be like your father. Or if Vander had killed Silco when he'd had the chance. Or if he'd gone after that man in the years since. Or, above all else, if Silco hadn't been an evil spiteful, amoral son of a bitch who'd kill innocent children just to get his way," I reprimanded Vi, lightly. "You can't deal with what ifs, because you can't change them. But it's easy to get wrapped up in them. Too easy. Trust me, I know."

Vi gave me an annoyed look, "You're nothing but action."

"Now? Yes. Because I have a goal. I know what I need to do. Keep you and your sister safe. Invent new things. Gain power. Help people. Change things for the better. And a reasonable expectation that I can do all those things, for once," I sighed, pushing off the wall. "I am defined by my goals, by my usefulness, or at least that's what my Company assessment says. But then? There? No. Action was... hard. Especially when every attempt, doing everything I thought I was supposed to, ended in failure. But I'm not living that life any longer. So, what're your goals, Violetta? And what can you do to work towards them today?"

She looked around at the cooling corpses strewn throughout the alley, and nodded to herself, turning to give me a hard look. "We can go find Ekko, and get him out of here."

I smiled, gesturing for her to continue down the alley with a slight bow. "Then lead on, Vi, and I'll do my best to help you accomplish your goal."

The white-haired girl shook her head, starting to walk once more, lightly punching my arm with the side of her fist as she passed me, commenting, "You're so over the top, Jayce."

"I'm a grand man, living a grand narrative," I couldn't help but comment wryly, following her, "I think I'm right at the top, without going over."

"Sure, keep thinking that. Now come on. Junk awaits."

​

"Well," I commented, "That's a lot of junk."

Piles of it stretched out, a landscape of trash, from where the city of Zaun seemed to peter off into rolling piles of refuse. And the smell was... oddly enough, not that bad. It reeked of rust and oil, but there wasn't the undercurrent of biological death and decay I'd expected.

"Welcome to the Junkheap. The Northside Heap, at least," Vi announced, looking around.

"As opposed to the Eastside Heap?" I questioned.

She glanced my way, a little scornfully, then to the east, as if that meant something. "No?"

I waited a moment. "And there isn't one because... ?" I prompted.

"Because there's just a wall. And then the ocean," she replied, as if it were obvious.

Sighing, I shook my head, and I walked past her, reminding the girl, "Not a native here, Violetta. I don't know these things. So are there other heaps?"

"Yeah," she said, coming up beside me. "Southside heap's grosser, and doesn't have the good stuff. If you're really hungry, you might find something fresh but we... we never had to go there. Topside dumps their stuff here, and you know how Pilties are."

"Why fix something when you can get a new one?" I guessed, getting a nod from her. "Sounds like a tinkerer's goldmine."

"It is," she said, a little fondly. "Pow-Piper would want to go all the time for parts. Hey, what was the problem with the stuff she made? Why didn't they ever work?"

Looking around for any movement, the place was still, except for drips of water coming from above, high over our heads the narrow strip of sky darkening to the reds of evening. "Too much other junk mixed in with the stuff that burned to make it go boom, and her containment sucked so most of the energy escaped through leaks before it hit the point of pressure that'd make it go boom at all. Bombs are an odd mix of sloppy and really specific, and she didn't understand how to do the latter. They're also stupid dangerous, so I've made sure she only makes or uses them when I can make sure she'll be safe until she's your age, at least."

"Good," Vi sighed, tone relieved, but with other elements mixed in. "That's... that's good."

We walked up and over the piles of miscellaneous junk as night slowly fell, the neon glow of Zaun like multicolored moonlight. Some things we passed were recognizable items, like power-generators, though the identifiable items were usually just stripped frames or stained furniture, and other things were just individual pieces, like cracked gyroscopes, twisted springs, and gears of every size, though half of them were broken in some way. The sheer material waste on display was staggering, and part of me wondered if there was some way to take advantage of it.

Landfills in my own world were a lot more ecologically minded, and, yeah, it was a bit more work, but by the end all you had were hills where there used to only be flat land, while everything that could be salvaged already was. Then again, I was viewing this through a modern, American, first world lens, when this might be more of a second, or third world scenario. That said...

"I expected more bugs," I commented, looking around. "Even without as much biologicals as I was worrying about, there should be some stuff for them to eat."

"There's bugs," Vi pointed out, tone suggesting I was being stupid. She reached over to flip over a chair we were walking by, a couple beetles scurrying out from underneath.

I shook my head, "No, I mean, for this level of filth, there should more. Should be..." I stopped, removed my mask, and took a deep breath, the atmosphere itself almost having a physical weight, a density unlike that of Piltover. "It's the air," I murmured, astonished.

"What about the air?" the brawler asked. "Yeah, it's different, but what does that have to do with bugs?"

Ignoring her, I moved and lifted a cushion, letting Wild Talent guide me as I bent down and lightly grabbed the single beetle that emerged, gently letting it run across my hand, flipping over the appendage as it stopped, looking at me, curious, twin antennae working in a way that almost seemed cute.

My purchased Talent fed me some information about the creature, about how to care for it, but that data-stream also told me about its higher than average chemical tolerance.

"Holy shit, we're breathing low level insecticide," I murmured, squatting down and letting the little guy scurry away safely. "Probably not on purpose, but the toxicity does the same thing. And if you all weren't hardier than normal because of the ambient mana in the air, you'd all be Morlocks instead of cockney dart frogs."

"I, what?" Vi questioned, confused.

Brushing my hands off on my pants, I stood. "Just understanding Zaun a bit more. Tell me, can people around here drink most Topsiders under the table?"

"Pfft, easily," the girl scoffed, with no small amount of pride, which confirmed a number of things.

"And the Academy hasn't done any research into this phenomenon, because good luck getting anything published that says Piltoverians aren't better than Zaunites in every way," I added, seeing the issues spread like spiderwebbing cracks across glass. "And... okay, yeah, some things make more sense now."

Because, while I didn't spend a lot of time around them, open-air butcher shops, if they weren't kept clean or the meat kept cool, and some of the ones we'd passed today were neither, should be swarming with flies, but there hadn't been a single one. And true poverty? It was gross in a way that most people in western civilizations didn't understand, some people living in the 1st​ world going years, if not decades, without seeing as much as a single maggot.

"Pilties," Vi spat, "Always thinkin' they're better than us."

"Agreed, but you're not even pretending to not be a native anymore," I remarked.

"Who's gonna hear us out her-" she started to say, before the sound of shifting trash, a small avalanche of it going off ahead of us, cut her off.

We shared a look, before we both took off, running, as Vi called, "Ekko? Is that you? It's okay!"

However, whoever it was didn't respond, staying ahead of us as we both struggled to catch up to them, the piles of junk like dunes, both of us having to stop several times when we started to close in on our target, unable to hear what I hoped was Ekko over the clatter of the junk we had sent rolling down, waiting only to hear the shifting rattle of him having taken off in a new direction, any speed advantage we had due to our age and longer legs negated by that necessity.

"Gotta say, Vi," I gasped, legs burning, "I'm glad you've been training me."

"Really?" she shot back, breathing hard herself, "Then I guess we should go harder tomorrow!"

I groaned, and she laughed, before the teen called out, "Dammnit Ekko, it's me, Violet!"

This time, a familiar voice responded, "Don't look much like Vi!"

"What? Oh! It's this stupid mask!" the brawler swore, fumbling to take it off, and tossing it in my direction. I caught it, as we followed Ekko's voice, cresting one hill, and sliding partway down a pile of very degraded scrap, the rust coming up in large enough amounts it was almost like sand, the light levels a lot lower, Zaun far behind us.

Looking around, it was a little odd, as the stuff near the city had been almost new, but the stuff around us now looked old, picked over a long, long time ago, and degrading to the point that it started to seem like a natural landscape, in a perverse sort of way. Something about where we were was pricking at my mind, Wild Talent giving me a subtle warning, but I wasn't sure what of.

"Little Man, it's me!" Vi called, and, on the other side of the miniature valley of rust, a small figure popped up, half-hiding, white hair stark against dark skin even in the dim light.

"V-Vi?" Ekko asked, confused and scared. "But, but you're dead! Everyone says you're gone! You and Powder, and, and everyone!"

The brawler shook her head. "Not dead, just hiding. Like you were. Sorta. I'm sorry we didn't come sooner, but, but things have been kind of crazy. You would not believe the things that've happened. But we're here to help!"

"We? Whose that with you?" the small boy questioned. "Looks like a Pilty." I took my mask off, and he backed up a little, clearly recognizing me as he sputtered, scared, "Y-you!"

Making no offensive moves, I nodded politely. "Hello, Ekko. I'm Jayce Talis. I believe we've met, though not officially. I'm sorry to hear about what happened to Benzo. He was always good at finding unusual equipment, even if you overcharged me. I also don't hold you responsible for what happened to my last apartment. That was Vi's fault, not yours."

The dark-skinned boy's eyes widened. "You-you knew?"

"I could afford the inflated prices, and they were worth it, even if you and Benzo didn't realize it," I replied, not quite lying. "And, when I was talking about needing people to help at the Academy, your name came up." Because I was the one who mentioned him, but, again, not technically lying.

"And, and the others? Are they with you? Powder, and Mylo, and Claggor?" he questioned, the hope in his voice heartbreaking.

"Powder is," Vi told him, and I was pretty sure we were far away from prying ears, so I let the revelation pass. "Mylo and Claggor, they, they didn't survive. Silco's goons... you saw the thing that killed Benzo." Ekko looked away, the emotional wound still fresh, and he didn't say anything in reply.

She took a few steps forward, and that feeling of danger increased, so I reached out an arm, and held her back.

"Wait," I murmured, looking around, not understanding the data my Talent was giving me, the danger fluctuating, but it was worse in front of us. I wish this thing came with an instruction manual, I couldn't help but think, but, as far as I could tell, there wasn't any life out this way, so why was it telling me to back away?

However, Violetta pushed my arm aside and strode forward. "Little Man, come with us! Living out here, it's not what Benzo would've wanted. And have you eaten at all?"

"A bit," the boy said, still looking down. "I... I thought everyone was dead, Vi. I thought I was alone."

"You're not," she promised, walking forward slowly, the rust-sand shifting under her feet. "We're here now, and we should've come sooner. I'm sorry we didn't. But we're here now, and that's what matters."

Nodding, Ekko sighed. "I, yeah, yeah oka-" Looking up at us, his eyes widened. "No, Vi, stay away!"

"No, Little Man, we came here to hel-" Violetta stated, striding forward with more confidence, and, beneath my feet, the pile of junk started to shift.

"No!" Ekko yelled, "It's-"

But the shifting didn't stop, growing, as, with a rumble, the pile we were standing on, as well, as the few around the low point the brawler was currently located, started to move, like a mud-slide, but all towards a single point.

Violetta.

"What?" she yelped, starting to lose her footing, the rust sand dropping away beneath her as she tried to scrabble backwards, more and more old junk falling towards her.

And I, in that moment, had a choice, as my Wild Talent was practically screaming at me to flee, the moving ground meaning it'd be impossible to open a Gate, but Vi was barely able to climb as fast as the ground she was standing on was falling away, all of the junk going somewhere, and I knew she wouldn't be able to make it.

Not alone.

I wanted to leave her, tell Powder that it was a tragic accident, use it to bind Ekko to me by his guilt, and rid myself of a thorn in my side in one fell swoop, every advantage the antagonist teen giving me easily replaceable, if not locally, then with a purchase or two.

But that's not what I did.

Because, as stupid as it was, that wasn't who I was, even if I knew it'd make things easier.

Instead I ran forward, summoning my hoverboard, leaping on that and tilting it down, crouching, holding onto it with one hand as I reached with the other to grab Vi's, the desperate girl, looking to me with wide eyes, catching my hand as I tried to pull up, but I was having to pull her out of the junk, now thigh deep for her, and the board strained, as she held onto me with both arms, like she was drowning, and I gave it all I had.

But, while the first bits to be sucked down were practically sand, the rest of the junk was intact, large metal pieces shifting, some even tumbling down, as the force of the avalanche grew stronger. Something big, the device unrecognizable, bounced up and slammed into the side of my board, forcing it into the scrap-slide, and dumping me into it as well.

I struggled, doing everything my Talent demanded except letting go of Vi, as I was pulled under, the last thing I saw Ekko, ash-pale, as he watched us disappear underneath the tide of refuse.

Chapter Thirty-Three

I struggled as the dark, rusted tide covered me, Vi's grip on my arm the only bit of stability as we were caught in the shifting river of junk and rust, my mind working furiously as I tried to figure what to do, looking for any hint or clue, hitting something back-first hard, having to hold onto the girl twice as tightly to not have her ripped away from me as the constant flow of refuse pressed on me for a moment, before I was pulled free and dumped downwards once more.

Bringing my free hand in tight across my body, to have to push through the least amount of material, I was able to grab onto Violetta and, as we shifted through the tumbling trash, slowly pull her in close, something in the back of my head going crazy, the foreign instincts of Wild Talent, the same one that'd warned me of this, now trying to figure out how to survive it.

The first suggestion it spat out was to let go of Vi, spread out my limbs slightly, and push off as anything hit me, but that wasn't going to happen, so it started to feed me other suggestions, as, once again, we hit a wall, or something, only it was her who impacted first, slammed forward into my chest as, reacting as fast as I could, I twisted to slam my shoulder into the mess of metal behind her, some of it giving way and trying to tear into my shirt, the spider-silk underlayer holding, instead of hitting the girl with the full force of my body instead.

More bits of junk slammed into my head, and, with a jerk, I shoved us both into the main 'stream', which was flowing to the side, and down, flashes of chemtech lights occasionally visible as we tumbled down inclines, fell down pits only for the shifting trash to break our fall enough to only leave us with bruises, slid down enormous brass pipes that almost shone in the faint light of our surroundings, and kept going down, down, down.

Only after what felt like an eternity, but was probably only a few minutes, did we have a time to recenter ourselves, skidding down a vast, shallow incline, carried mostly atop a stream of junk which had spread out dozens of feet in all directions, barely able to see from the glow of far-ahead chemlights, both of us partly buried, both of us struggling to try to free ourselves as Violetta, looking my way with wide eyes, swore guiltily, "Jayce, fuck! I fucked up!"

"We'll survive this," I promised, focusing on the task at hand to the exclusion of all else, grunting with effort, my leg caught on something large I could move, but that itself shifted back and force, pressing a rusty edge into my calf, but the black lining of my pants held. Peering into the gloom, I realized we were in a giant funnel, the trash heading towards a gaping hole in the center several hundred feet away, and I hoped I wasn't lying as I resummoned my phone to my hand, "Then we'll worry about what happened."

She gave me a searching look, pausing as she had almost fully pulled herself out, before nodding. "I, yeah, yeah we will."

I tried re-summoning the hoverboard, but the App rejected doing so, since it was still 'in-range', which would be nice if I knew where the hell that was. I dismissed it, and a bit of trash a dozen feet in front of us dropped slightly, the end of the funnel coming up faster than I was comfortable with as I resummoned the glowing green device, trying to get my leg free again, but what I was caught on was being pressed down by all the other trash around us, and I couldn't even get any leverage with the pressure of all the junk shoving everything together as we slid.

Okay, get her to safety, then focus on myself, I resolved, grabbing Vi with both hands, and, straining, wrenched her free of the last of the junk, the girl almost squawking in surprise as tossed her up onto the craft. "Lean forward to go faster, back to slow, forward and lift from the back to go down, reverse that to go up, lean left or right to go that way," I rattled off, watching the next drop coming. "Take it slow and you should find a way up and out, but it'll go only straight up for a little before it stalls, so spiraling where you ca-"

"Jayce, what about you!?" she interrupted, looking more concerned than, well, I'd ever seen.

"Spirit, remember? I can survive more than you can," I shot back with a confident grin I didn't feel, "And if something happens to you, Powder would be sad. Now, go, I'll try and figure something out."

She frowned, grabbing my arm and trying to pull me up, but I was well and truly stuck, the girl almost unbalancing her ticket out as she did so. Shaking my head, I stripped my arm of her grip, shoving the hoverboard away with a command to, "Go!"

Violetta grimaced, but then started to fly away, unsteadily, pulling up out of the downward path the hoverboard was set on to match my own, and I started to breathe a sigh of relief. However, my Science Talent gave me the instant ability to use any vehicle, and while I could fly it perfectly, the craft apparently wasn't that user friendly, as the girl, trying to lift herself higher, pushed too hard, flipping it upwards too fast, and dumped herself right back into the river of trash, a couple dozen feet behind me, the hoverboard flipping off into the distance.

"Well... fuck," I swore, as the girl sat up on the rusted metal, at least not knocked unconscious by the fall. If only I could open a portal, but to do so you needed a stable platform, either solid ground or a large enough vehicle, like a boat, that it gained enough metaphysical presence for the gate to anchor itself to it. A river of trash didn't count, and even if I opened it on the floor of the funnel itself, without me physically carrying her through, Vi couldn't enter, so even just throwing one off to the side and having her make a run for it was a no-go.

And then, we were out of time.

Preparing myself, I still grit my teeth as the thing trapping my leg tipped over first, revealed to be a bit of scaffolding that was partially intact, wrenching my leg up painfully, flipping me ass over teakettle, but tossing me across the hole in the process. Throwing a hand out, I was able to lesson my impact on the far side, but, trying to grab onto the lip, it was slick with grime, and I was dumped into the hole anyways, in free-fall along with the stream of trash, hearing Violetta, with a cry, thrown out above me to start her own descent.

Blackness enveloped us for several seconds, and I started to worry, the landing getting more and more deadly with every moment of acceleration, until suddenly the pipe opened up into an enormously tall, dome shaped room, a shiny black floor dimly reflecting the lights over a thousand feet below us, and I felt a thrill of hope.

It was an emergency use, and, like Aparture Lab's signature creation, momentum would be conserved, but opening a Gate parallel to the ground and passing through it would let us survive instead of slamming into the trash that would gather on the black metallic-looking floor.

Summoning my phone, I tried to open the gate, needing to do so before the mess of trash reached the bottom and messed up the targeting, only... it refused. 'Unsuitable location' my device read, which made no sense, the range on this thing was over a mile specifically for stuff like this, and it was a perfectly smooth metal floor so why-

The first bits of junk hit the floor, piercing it easily, sending ripples in every direction.

Oh. That's not metal, I numbly realized. That's oil.

Okay, okay, I can work with this! I thought, as hundreds of feet below me, more and more trash hit the blackness, completely wrecking any surface tension, which was a good thing, though the rain of trash above us would be an issue, but... okay!

Trying, just to see if I could, I dismissed my hoverboard and tried to resummon it, but, yeah, there was too much shit in the air around me for it to be reformed, which we'd been warned about in Basic, so instead I opened my limbs trying to slow myself down, succeeding somewhat as I was hit by faster trash from above.

It was going to be close, but calling back, "Vi! Pull your limbs in!" got her to do so, accelerating her, until we almost hit, the surface coming closer and closer, and we'd only get one fucking chance, but we could do this!

Slamming into the girl, I yelled, "Hold onto me!" as, pulling on Vi as she latched onto my arms, I twisted us both to the side out of the main stream of junk with a heaving roll, the lake of oil a mass of ripples.

"Jayce!?" Violetta called, on the edge of panic, but holding together as we spun wildly, but, our altered trajectory was exactly what I wanted.

With another twist, I cancelled out our spin beyond thankful of my time working in Zero-G with Viktor, commanding, "Close your eyes, breathe in, and hold! This is gonna suck!"

She did as I asked, and I did the same, making sure I'd make contact before for her, absorbing some of the force, feet-first, Wild Talent furiously feeding me instructions that I followed to the letter. Hitting, my tilt was such that, while I protected Vi, it knocked the wind out of me, Wild Defense allowing me to breathe in the acrid substance without issue, the force of the impact, combined with the slipperiness of the substances that now covered us, knocking her free as I opened my eyes, both of us separating slightly as we bled off our momentum.

Vi's eyes flew open as well, then she squinted as the substance clearly irritated her un-Defensed body, and she flailed, which was when I realized Violetta didn't know how to swim.

Twisting about, I started to make my way to her, the dark liquid muting everything around us, only inky blackness below our feet and the constant stream of impacts behind us a muted roar. Getting closer, Vi was still struggling, but the abyss below us bloomed into light, as a green orb lit up, then more, a lot more, hundreds of them in the depths. They were hard to make out, but, as something moved in the liquid below us, I realized we weren't alone, and whatever it was, we'd woken it up.

As I furiously swam, I was grateful for Wild Defense, but as a long tentacle, lined with toothy suckers, sinuously extended upwards, coming for the girl, I remembered that while I was protected, she wasn't.

Reaching out, relying on my Company-granted powers to translate my attempt to somehow tell it, or them, 'Wait, we're friendly!', I blurbled an odd sound, a guttural wail that carried oddly, and Vi looked at me confused, until the tendril tightened on her leg, and she looked down, at the leviathan below us, starting to scream before she clapped her hands over her mouth.

However, she wasn't pulled down, and I got the impression whatever had grabbed her was... waiting.

'Let us go, and I'll give you twice as much food as she weighs,' I tried to convey, my body moving on its own, gesturing as I let out a warbling cry, and the orbs, in a rippling pattern, blinked, the tentacle pulling a little, Vi crying out again, the bubbles escaping between clenched fingers, and I upped my offer to, 'Three times!' calling out to it once more.

Watching, holding my metaphoric breath, it blinked once more, before, with a sound that shook my bones, as whatever the fuck that thing was replied, my Talent translating that as, 'Deal.'

It let go of Vi, who was clearly panicking and, as I got to her, she latched onto me, hard, but I was able to position the smaller girl so I could still swim to the surface, making our way even further afield of the slowly petering out stream of garbage, dozens upon dozens of tendrils reaching out from below, sorting through the rubbish. Breaking the surface, she gasped raggedly, blinking furiously, as she repeated, "Oh god, oh god, oh god," over and over.

"I-" I tried to say, only to cough up oil, having forgotten that I'd been breathing the stuff. Resisting the urge to vomit, I turned away, focused, and breathed out the fluid, a sensation that they'd gotten us used to in the Wild Defense class, the one for people who were already going to purchase it. They'd used super-oxygenated liquid, as none of us actually had that ability at that point, but it was something that, while really fucking weird, was doable.

The hacking got the girls attention, who, right next to me, asked, terrified, "J-Jayce?"

With a last coughing heave, I cleared out my lungs, though, breathing, the taste was metallic and foul, the sensation... greasy. "It's okay, we're good," I reassured her, as I'd originally meant to. "Respirating oil sucks, but I can do it. Spirit, remember?" I quipped, with a wink, though, from her grime-covered expression, she didn't find it that funny.

Thankfully, my training with the girl meant that the exertion of keeping both our heads above 'water' was fairly easy, but, looking around, the enormous chamber was hard to make out, the last bits of junk falling down behind us. "Gimme a sec," I told her, shifting the girl's position, which she resisted at first, but slowly allowed me to, and I dunked my head back under the surface, to address the. . . trashtapus.

'Which way is the exit for us? I need to get your payment,' I told it, gurgling out the multi-pitched sound. A single tentacle reached towards us, and I stiffened, before it pointed off to the left, and back a bit. 'Thanks!' I expressed, letting the Talent handle it, surfacing again, taking a deep breath. "Okay, exit's this way," I told her, bringing the girl in a bit closer so I could start to swim.

Vi complied as I repositioned her, having her hold onto my chest instead of tightly onto my arms, the girl still breathing hard, even as her oil-stained expression screwed up with confusion. "I, you, what?"

"I asked for directions," I replied, swimming for two much harder than swimming for one. When we're done, I'm installing a fucking pool, I resolved, having assumed, because everyone I knew in my previous life could swim, as could all of my Class in Basic (with a required test in doing so), that everyone here could as well, which was just... dumb.

Where would they go swimming, Jayce? I chided myself. Hell, Caitlyn might not even know how, as, short of a pool, every natural body of water nearby was hilariously deadly to go into, as evidenced by the lake we were currently in.

"You... okay, yeah sure," she agreed, in shock, but alive to be in shock, so this was a win in my book. "Ask the monster for directions."

"Well, I promised I'd pay it in three times your weight in meat, so it's in its own interest to help us do so," I offered. "Speaking of which, how much do you weigh?"

She blinked, "You... right. Spirit. Sure. Whatever. I weigh, uh, I don't know?" Violetta told me, which was kind of expected.

"Don't worry about it, I'll overdeliver," I reassured her, legs feeling a bit tired, but the shore was inching ever closer. A silence stretched between us, a little awkward due to our proximity, the girl's face inches from my own, prompting me to state, "Also, when this is all over, I'm teaching you both how to swim."

"Uh, yeah. Swim. That'd be good," Vi nodded, glancing back and sometimes down, but the thick film of grime on the surface, made of flakes of rust, dust, and god knows what else, made it impossible to see the creature below our feet.

Getting close, my hand bounced off a partially submerged edge painfully, stubbing my fingers on the metal rim, but that let me lift Violetta up and sit her on it, before hauling myself up. "Come on, almost there," I promised her, seeing what was clearly a large doorway leading. . . somewhere. Chemtech tubes inside cast an ominous green light out into the large chamber, and Violetta nodded, struggling to her feet, still unsteady, and, when I offered her an arm, she took it, leaning on me, still recovering from her fall, and from almost drowning.

Getting to dry 'land', I opened the Gate, and the two of us transitioned from the thick, chemical laden air of wherever the fuck we were to the cooler, cleaner, and crisper air of my Home. Vi stumbled, and when I caught her, she shook her head, slowly lowering herself to the clean stone floor of the gateroom and shook, having the small breakdown that she'd been barely holding off.

Honestly, I didn't blame her, but my job wasn't done.

"J-Jayce, V-Vi? What happened?" asked Piper, who, yeah, was nearby working at a table. The girl wasn't in the path of the gate, like I'd asked her, so that was fine, but she was looking at us in horror.

Glancing down, and really taking in our appearances, we were both absolutely filthy, and the over-layer of our clothing, with the exception of our boots and Vi's gloves, were in tatters, the spider-silk underlayers thankfully completely intact if, stained well beyond any hope of salvaging. Looking at my hands, though, they were covered with dozens of small cuts that, with my adrenaline, I hadn't noticed. Summoning my phone, I turned on the camera, checking my face, and, yeah, while they were pasted over with dirt, I hadn't exactly gotten out of this unscratched. It was surprising because, comparatively, Vi had come through this entire thing a lot better.

Sighing, and thinking about it, that... made a certain degree of sense. I'd protected her, pulling her to me, but that meant I hadn't been able to protect myself. Well, good thing I'm immune to infection, I thought, dismissing the device, and turning my attention back to the blue-haired girl, who, right, was still staring. Maybe I wasn't as cool and calm as I thought, Mind Defense keeping me going, but that was all. "Found Ekko, but he didn't realize that we were us, or at least Vi was Vi, and we got caught in a... junk-slide. Did you know there was a whole bunch of stuff under the Lanes?"

"I... yeah?" the tween replied, still confused, looking between the Violetta and I.

Her sister, meanwhile, let out a ragged laugh. "Not like that, Powder. Oh god not like that!"

"Jayce?" the younger girl questioned, clearly worried.

With another sigh, I realized I was messing things up with the smaller girl. "We're fine, Piper. Things got a bit dicey, but we pulled through. Right, Violetta?"

The white-haired girl, who'd stopped shaking, nodded, muttering, "We did. Holy shit, we did," as she unsteadily tried to get up, and, when I offered her a hand, after a moment of hesitation, she grabbed it, letting me pull her to her feet.

"Okay, so, go take a shower, get some clean clothes, and then we'll look to your wounds," I directed her, and, while she grimaced, the brawler nodded, staggering off towards the stairs.

Looking to her sister, I requested, "Can you go after her, and make sure she's okay?"

"What about you?" Piper asked.

"I need to go pay a trashtapus," I smiled, enjoying the girl's incredulous look, but, as I waved her off, she left, leaving me alone.

"Fuuuuuuuuuck," I swore to myself. Re-summoning my phone, I checked and, no, my dimensional 'progress' meter was sitting at two percent. Until it hit twenty, I'd be limited to a single portal anchor, which meant that I was going to have to go back to the surface the hard way.

Heading up myself, I stopped by a bathroom, and just walked into the shower, letting the grime run off me in grey rivers, knowing I shouldn't be surprised. Dimensional travel was... complicated, and, once an Agent was on a world, yeah, it was split off of the mainline dimensional path, but the difference between it and the actual mainline was... slight. That meant, by leaving an anchor when you left, it was easy to return to it by going to that exact spot, the anchor still there even when the Gate was 'closed', but that was it until I peeled the course of events far enough away from the mainline reality's path, trying to go anywhere but that single continuous anchor meant there was a not-insignificant chance of missing my world and either ending up in the mainline one, an act which would split it off into a new instance but caused a ton of problems and gain a shit ton of attention, or I'd land in a pre-split world that was close but not quite the same, which had all of the problems of trying to enter the mainline, minus the attention, combined with AU problems and the very real possibility of ending up in another Agent's world, the protections against intrusion from foreign elements the Company put in place not working against the Company itself, by design.

So, I needed to butterfly the fuck out of things, and Stamping people was a good way to do that, as either their absence, via selling, or their differing actions going forward helped push things away. In a more 'focused' world, with a single protagonist, or a cohesive team, that fate followed, messing with them was often enough that universal identifiers were more malleable, and that made splitting off a dimension much easier. The larger the world, however, and the more 'stories' contained within, the harder it became to split off.

The average time to incite splitting in Azeroth, for example, was measured in decades if you didn't try a Thunder Run, and doing a Thunder Run in a place like Azeroth was just a very fancy suicide attempt. I'd known that, with as complex as Runeterra was, I was gonna be there for a fucking while, but, given my own self-appointed task, I was perfectly fine with that.

Though it was biting me in the ass now.

Once things ran clear-ish, I left the shower, well aware I was trailing water, but, hey, what's the point of a self-cleaning house if you don't give it something to self-clean every once in a while? Now that I wasn't going to rub likely disease-ridden grime on everything I touched, I made for the kitchen, heading into the walk-in freezer, and, yep, it read my mind, frozen, halved pre-butchered pigs just hanging there. Grabbing the first one I hefted it up onto my shoulder, pegging it about a hundred pounds, most of the fluids already drained.

Hefting the second, I had to laugh, once again glad for Vi's training. I really need to tell her this, I thought, as, while it was certainly heavy, the weight wasn't unmanageable, the fact that the frozen bits of meat were stiff helping greatly. Heading back down to the Gate room, the girls were still gone, so I went through the portal, pausing as the feeling of the atmosphere down there smacked me straight in the face. The air was hot, damp, reeked of chemicals and rust, and was just... heavy in a way that made it harder to breathe, thick with a feeling of... potentiality that was hard to put into words.

Is it ambient Mana levels? I wondered, something to look into later, but I already had enough on my plate. Regardless, I got to the edge of the oil-lake, and dropped one slab o' pig, trying to figure out how to get it to the creature without taking another dip into that... mess.

Listening to the whisper of my Talent I breathed deep and set off a trilling cry that echoed oddly through the space.

And then nothing happened.

"Um, what?" I asked the air, before, absolutely silently, the black, glass-like surface of the lake rippled, and a single glowing green eye, on a milky-white eye-stalk, poked above the blackness, turning around until it saw me.

I waved with one hand, hefting the meat with the other, and waited for it to head over, but the eye-stalk didn't move, and I had to control my reaction as, a couple dozen feet away, where the 'shore' dropped off vertically, a long, off-white toothy tentacle broke the surface, with barely a sound.

Okay, I thought, wanting to smile in a friendly manner only for my Talent to tell me under no circumstances was I to do that, so I kept my expression neutral instead. That thing's... bigger than I thought.

Regardless, as I held out the piece of pig, the trashtapus reached out, grabbing it, toothed mouths, which weren't suckers because I clearly saw tongues, latching deep as it hesitantly pulled it away, not dragging it under at first as the creature tasted the frozen meat, confused, before it found something it liked, a second tentacle shooting out much faster, and I barely dodged out of the way before it grabbed the half-pig on the ground next to me.

The eyeball wiggled, and, distantly, I heard a call that my Talent translated as 'More?'

Nodding, I let my power translate my 'Yeah, this is half. I'm gonna go grab the rest.', and another two tentacles shot up, curling and uncurling in, what my Talent said, was excitement.

Backing up, I didn't turn my back on it until I was through the Gate, swearing, "Holy shit that thing's fast. That's just not fair!"

Opening and closing hands that shook slightly, as, just... what, I jogged back up the stairs, reminding myself that, while I was hot shit when it came to thugs, or even Enforcers, my rating likely mid-Tier 3 now, Runeterra was a Tier 6 world for a reason, and that it took being Tier 5 before you even rated, with Tier 7 and higher bullshit running around in the dark corners of the world, and this place absolutely fucking counted.

Grabbing two more pork halves, I headed back down, really not wanting to go face that thing, which needed a better name than the cutesy sound 'trashtapus'. Something like 'Junken'? . . . No, that still sucked. 'Krakoil'? 'Levoilathan'?

Okay, naming things? Not my strong suit.

Regardless, bracing myself, I stepped out into... wherever this was, barely having time to toss the meat forward before the two tentacles, each bigger than I was by a significant amount, wrapped around their prizes and noisily dragged them under the surface, showing that they could've done the same thing to me so fast I'd barely have time to scream.

"Uh..." I said, the eye still staring at me, the creature likely feeding as it did so. 'Pleasure doing business' was fed into the beast-translation magic, which made me warble and shake my arms in the air, the... scary fucking oil beast extending two tentacles and replying with an answering wave, and faint answering warble of its own. Then the glowing green orb dropped back down, just leaving me in the enormous chamber, the faint sounds of steam, pistons, and machinery distantly audible, from all around but from the tunnel behind me loudest of all.

Carefully turning my back, checking that, yeah, that's fine, with my Talent, I closed the Gate and headed down the metal tunnel, under the soft multicolored glow of chemtech tubes that looked like glass, but, tapping one, felt like metal. The floor was dirty, and grimy, as I left footprints as I went, though, pausing to squat down, I saw a faded pair of paw-prints, like that of a rat, if it was the size of a corgi, going exactly one way.

Towards the oil lake.

"Well, that explains some of how you're fed," I muttered to myself, my Xeno-biology class in Basic going into detail on how magic, or 'exotic radiation', which was really the same thing, could often be passively absorbed by local wildlife, so you could get a whale-sized eel, but it wouldn't need to eat as much as an actual whale would, which also meant that they could group up in a density that would normally be impossible, given the ecology surrounding them, and really fuck up your day without Wild Defense, and, if they were trained, or sapient, that might not be enough.

Hell, Dragons were almost entirely low-level Thaumavores, in addition to their regular diets, absorbing it ambiently, as if one considered how elephants had to eat over three hundred pounds of food a day, the things that could snack on elephants would just be ridiculous.

Once out of sight, and with no other dangers around me, as far as I could tell, I re-opened the Gate and walked through, making my way up just Violetta and Piper were coming down. "Okay, oil lake monster thing was fed. Also, however big you thought it was, Vi, it's bigger, and however fast you think it is, it's faster."

"There was an oil lake monster?" the smaller girl asked, perking up. "Can I go see it?"

"No," both Vi and I said as one, then glanced at each other. "I just finished paying it for not eating your sister," I told the young girl, "and there's no 'safe' way to see it. I'm good with animals, which that thing counts as, but I don't want to put you in unnecessary danger."

Piper stared, blinking, before she nodded with an, "Okay!" that, for some reason, caused Vi to shoot me a confused look, but I had no idea what she was confused about, as it seemed a perfectly reasonably response.

"Follow me, Vi, let's look at your wounds," I instructed, both of them trailing after.

As we walked the older sister asked, "Just, 'okay'?"

"Well, yeah!" Piper replied. "Jayce wouldn't tell me no unless he had a good reason. And he had one, 'cause he was worried about me!"

"I worry about you, but it's never just 'Okay,'" Vi argued.

"Well, yeah," the younger sister repeated, though this time there was a bit of an edge to it. "But instead of 'here's the problem, and why you can't' it was always 'It's too dangerous'," she said, voice going 'gruff' to mock her sister, "and 'You're too young', and 'You're just not good enough', and then you go and do it without me!"

There was a moment of silence. "I, he just said it's too dangerous!" she tried to argue.

"Hey, Jayce!" Piper called, despite being only five feet behind me, and, when I glanced back, she asked with faux-sweetness, "Are you gonna go see the sump-monster again?"

"We're way below the Sump," I corrected, "But hell no. I didn't want to meet it the first time."

Smugly, the small girl announced, "See? That's not, 'stay behind while we all do this', this is 'I'm not gonna do this at all!' Totally different."

The white-haired sister just growled in frustration as we entered the med-bay, and I had her sit on the bed, grabbing the Company's broad-spectrum 'anti-disease' wound cream that handled most bacteria, viruses, and fungi up to a low-level of magic. Anything with a guiding intelligence it would only confer slight resistance to, and curse-based shit like mummy rot and lycanthropy it didn't do shit for, but it was still probably better than most of what I would have easy access to in Piltover.

It was the same thing I'd used on Vi... before, and professional healers would almost certainly have things that were better for the local bugs, but it was a good stopgap, and, honestly, with the magic in her system just from training herself up she'd probably be fine, but better safe than sorry.

Half an hour later, and having made her switch out her long-sleeved shirt and pants for a tank-top and shorts to do a complete check, I was satisfied that I'd gotten everything. I'd had the girl apply her own bruise cream, or had her sister do it for places she couldn't reach easily, like the small of her back, but her injuries were 'bad fight' bad, not 'almost died in an avalanche of rusted metal' bad.

What confused me, at first, was that, while the parts of her covered by the cut-resistant spider-silk undersuit were just bruised, her uncovered skin had suffered far less damage than was explainable even from me protecting her. It was only when I told her she could go change back, and saw her re-attaching her bracers of armor +2 that I had an idea.

"Hey, quick question," I said, "does this feel muted?"

"What?" she asked, as I lightly flicked her in the nose. She reared back, eyes crossing for a moment in a way that made Piper laugh, before she frowned and slowly admitted, "Uh, yeah. It did. Why?"

Smiling, I tapped her bracers. "Remember Weave magic is weird. That stuff gives you full body protection, which means you're also 'wearing' the equivalent of a leather full-face helmet, even over your eyes.

Grabbing the repositionable mirrors and swinging the assembly over to look myself over, tossing off my destroyed shirt, I grimaced as I tallied up the damage, my back a mottled mess of bruises, and, stretching, even my muscles were bruised as well. Guess I'm sleeping on my side tonight, I thought, popping a couple painkillers, and focusing on my Body Defense to let it through and start to work. I was still running off adrenaline, but the sprint was over, and I still had a marathon left to go.

That said, for what I remembered hitting me, I was... not as bad as it could be, likely due to the ring on my finger. While it wouldn't confer any kind of 'damage reduction', it would turn 'near hits' into 'near misses', and sometimes that made all the difference.

Working myself over took longer, my injuries more extensive, stripping down to my boxers as I categorized and treated my injuries, absently accepting help from Piper, until I was finally done. Sitting back with a sigh, I realized Violetta was still there, just staring at me.

"Can I help you?" I asked, when I met her gaze, and she didn't say anything, just sat there with a thoughtful expression.

"Is the ring that much weaker than these?" she finally questioned instead, tapping her bracers.

I shook my head, seeing where she was going. "No, it's half as good."

"But you have more than twice..." she trailed off. "That's right, like, math wise? If it's half as effective at stopping stuff, then there should be twice as much?"

Not hiding my smile at her trying to apply my lessons, I agreed, "Yeah, to reverse a multiplicative effect, you divide by it, but with fractions that means it's easier to just switch the numerator and denominator and multiply by that."

"Then, why are you so screwed up?" the brawler questioned, the girl having an eye for injuries, at least.

Meeting her gaze, I questioned in turn, "Think about how we fell."

Her brows knit, as she replayed it in her mind, glancing up at me. "But, why? I had more armor."

I couldn't help but laugh. "You had better coverage. But, honestly, you think I was thinking about that? I just wanted to make sure you were safe, Violetta."

"I don't need you to protect me!" the girl reflexively shot back.

"Vi!" Piper reprimanded, but I held up a hand.

"You probably didn't, at least for that bit, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to still try to make sure you aren't hurt," I told her. "Just how I am, and I'd do the same for Piper, or for Ekko."

The brawler frowned, but didn't have a response to that, and so I stood, "Now, I'm hungry as all get out, so I'm gonna go freshen up, and make some dinner. That sound good for you? I'm thinking something easy, like burgers."

"Burgers!" Piper cheered, throwing her small fists in the air, which caused her sister to just shake her head, as both girls left to go prep the ingredients for me to work my Faerie Feast magic on, as had become our custom.

Once they were gone, I let my smile drop, because, after that, was going to come a long journey.