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Arcane: Rule of Blood - Chapter 2
🕑 Added 2025-10-20 00:23:25 +0000 UTCUnsurprisingly, Ethan didn’t choose to turn himself in.
Even if his ID was accepted, he honestly knew very little about Piltover law enforcement, he couldn’t trust them to not be corrupt or, worse, lawful but hopelessly oppressive.
Sure, Caitlin was supposed to be the Sheriff, but that didn’t mean the rest of the force was like her, and her Arcane version was kinda brutal for a while there.
As for the others, yesterday’s riot/arrests seemed to have left a bad impression on Pyrrha, Taylor wasn’t about to trust an authority figure if her life depended on it and Maelle didn’t seem to care too much, deciding to follow them as they hurried to leave the house.
“Come on,” Jinx said, climbing out the window into an empty alleyway. “The enforcers have started using knockout gas lately and I hate the smell it leaves on my clothes.”
“Wonderful,” Maelle said. Taking the chance to steal one of the remaining kitchen knives, she climbed after Jinx.
Having been an ordinary guy before, he wasn’t as practiced as the rest of them at fleeing from the police, but his newfound fitness made things easier and, only a minute later, they were all running after Jinx.
Ethan felt the sun hitting his body, the heat seeming to drain his cheer and causing his skin to itch all over, the glare hurting his eyes and forcing him to frown.
Focusing on his breathing, he sensed something stirring in his body, a fragment of the power he felt while in the void, the itching became slightly worse but his steps grew lighter and even his senses sharpened, letting him easily hear as the gas canisters broke the windows on the vacated house and started to fill the air even from a block away.
Bursting into a main street, Jinx made a sharp turn and glanced up. “Yep, that’s a lot,” she snorted, then changed direction, increasing her speed straight towards another narrow alley, clipping a startled civilian in the way.
“Sorry,” Pyrrha yelled, slowing down just enough to grab the older woman, saving her from a fall, before shooting up after Jinx.
Looking towards the end of the street, Ethan noticed about 15 policemen starting to turn towards them, at least 10 of which held huge riot shields. One of the faster officers began to lift a rifle their way while yelling. “Halt!”
As the man put an eye to his scope a deluge of insects converged on him, climbing out from the sewers, leaving houses or dropping down from the buildings around, they filled the air in a cloud of buzzing wings, stuffing themselves into the weapon to clog the barrels and attempting to climb inside their riot gear.
Glancing back, Ethan saw Taylor huffing as she ran as fast as she could, despite her long legs, her merely human body was unable to keep up with the superhumans and she had started to fall behind a little.
Slowing down, he put himself between her and the policeman and continued to run by her side, ready to pick her up and accelerate if things got any worse.
Squeezing into the alley, he saw that Jinx was almost to the end of it, her speed only increasing, then she tried to stop, her boots sliding on the ground as she ducked under the metal shaft of a glaive that almost brained her.
With catlike agility, she twisted, throwing herself away from the bear of a man that appeared at the corner and raising her gun towards his head. Someone else was faster.
From the other side, a second heavy armored soldier flashed into view, his hand grabbing Jinx’s arm and causing her shot to fly high, he wore a thick iron helmet and carried another glaive.
“Impressive, I didn’t expect you to dodge,” the first man said, then turned towards the rest of them. “Perhaps your fight yesterday was not entirely luck.”
Despite not knowing a lot about the world of Runeterra, Ethan had loved watching Arcane, so he immediately recognized Rictus, Ambessa’s bodyguard, a man fast enough to block bullets with his glaive and strong enough to beat almost anyone in the show.
Jinx tried to kick the soldier but, with his heavy armor, her boot couldn’t do any damage. “Well crap.”
With a flex of his muscles, the soldier twisted her arm, forcing her to face them while putting his blade over her neck.
Resting the butt of his glaive into the ground, Rictus glanced at the rest of them, paying special attention to the two redheads. “Surrender and I swear I’ll not kill you.”
Pyrrha and Maelle traded glances, the later tightening her hold on her kitchen knife and taking a sideways stance.
From the corner, another six soldiers entered the alley, all of them wearing heavy armor and closed face helmets.
Finally, Ethan reached the rest of the group and stopped a step behind Pyrrha, he hated to hide behind the girls, and something inside him was driving him to attack the soldiers with abandon, but even if whatever brought him here had made him much stronger, he was man enough to recognize they were more skilled, at least for now.
Taylor, however, only slowed down a little, stepping right through the girls and towards Jinx.
The Noxian bodyguard frowned, a hand tightening around his glaive as he prepared to move.
“Come on,” Taylor said as she continued walking. “I can’t delay the ones with guns forever.”
With fluid movements, the soldier holding Jinx released her and stepped aside making way, behind him, every other soldier did the same, stepping closer to the wall as to give them more room to move.
Ethan swallowed hard, fuck, did she just… But... She shouldn’t have been able to use both insect and human control at the same time!
Unless… Pyrrha mentioned having been pierced by Cinder’s arrow and he remembered being in a hospital bed before coming here, but their wounds had clearly been healed when they arrived, did that mean Taylor’s power was fixed too?
More importantly, did it just fix Taylor’s brain or was Queen Administrator herself healed?
Jinx massaged her wrist, then she stared at the rigid soldier and tilted her head. “Neat,” for a moment, she started to lift her pistol towards his unprotected neck but, at Taylor’s glare, just holstered it and pulled a spray paint cannister from her purse. “You think he’ll be angrier if I draw on his armor or his face?”
Shaking his head, Ethan decided there would be time for thinking later, when they didn’t have to get the hell away from the cops. “Come on, let’s go.”
He had just taken a step in front of Pyrrha and was starting to jog when Maelle rushed in front of him, moving much faster than he thought any human could, that was when he noticed Rictus himself hadn’t stepped aside.
The small chain of runes wrapped all over Rictus’ glaive was glowing green, the Noxian bodyguard shook slightly then, with a groan, tightened his hold on the weapon and broke free, the runes seemed to release a small shock-wave of power before he swung the large polearm towards Taylor as hard as he could.
Pyrrha grunted by his side, one of her hands pointing towards Rictus, but whatever power repelled Taylor’s control seemed to also protect him from her semblance.
Maelle made it in time, parrying with her knife, the makeshift weapon bending completely but still managing to slightly divert the blow to the side, the heavy glaive smashing into the road by Taylor’s feet and sending broken pavement flying up with threatning speed.
With a grunt, Taylor moved, trying to avoid the fragments even as all seven remaining soldiers moved under her control, bringing their own glaives to strike at Rictus.
Adjusting his grip, Rictus twisted the blade of the weapon and swiped it sideways at Taylor once again, moving far too fast for the mostly ordinary girl to react.
To Ethan, things became a blur, everything happening at the same time, all of them moving.
Grasping at the feeling of power he could feel within, he threw himself towards the fighter, his speed matching Maelle’s while the paintress grabbed one of the soldier’s glaives, and Jinx tried to pull Taylor away but it was clear none of them would make it in time.
With a thunderous groan, a piece of metal pipe burst out of the ground and hit the Noxian with enough force to send him flying, forming a small dent in his armor and causing his back to hit the side of the building.
With a roar, Rictus swatted the pipe aside, but the distraction had been enough.
Ethan arrived, one hand gripping the shaft of the glaive for control while the other grabbed the soldier’s face, smashing the back of his unprotected head against the building with enough force to crack the bricks.
Rictus grunted but refused to release his weapon, twisting aside to deliver a powerful punch right into Ethan’s kidney with his free hand.
Filled with adrenaline, he barely felt the blow and smashed Rictus head against the wall again, then a third time before the man’s grip momentarily faltered and he could tear the weapon away from him.
Stepping back, he saw the Noxian recover and try to grab him, only to immediately freeze, his face going blank as Taylor regained control of his body and forced him away.
Ethan stared at the man for a second, then he relaxed, adrenaline draining away enough that he could feel pain again. With a scream he released the glaive and looked at his smoking hand, the runes on the shaft having been branded into his skin. “What the…”
To the side, Jinx kept her revolver pointed at Rictus’s head, eyes wide in a mixture of panic and fear as she held Taylor to her chest, having thrown herself away while dragging the weaker girl to avoid flying pieces of pavement or another strike.
Looking down at Taylor, she seemed to finally realize what she had done and get angry. “Alright, that’s enough, I already have one kid hanging around,” pushing Taylor away, she got up and blew a lock of hair out of her face.
“They’re over here!” Someone called from the entrance to the alley, causing them all to look at four guards pointing their rifles at them.
All of them pressed the triggers but their guns didn’t have the same protection as Rictus glaive, the bullets swirling down to bury themselves into the ground at a wave of Pyrrha’s hand. With another flick all four of them went flying back.
“Good job,” she said, giving him a pat on the shoulder before grabbing the discarded glaive and starting to walk away.
“Mine now,” Jinx said in a hush, stealing one of the soldier’s helmets and turning after Pyrrha.
“I only have a few feet of range,”Taylor said as she attempted to get up while favoring her left leg. “They’re gonna be free as soon as we get too far away.”
Grabbing the glaive from the helmet-less soldier, Maelle twirled it around and struck the unprotected part of Rictus leg with full force, Ethan heard the sickening ‘crack’ of his bones breaking as the man crumbled to the ground.
“That’s one way to do it,” he gave her a look but she just shrugged.
“What?” Maelle shrugged. “Hitting the head to try and knock them out is far more dangerous, hurry up.”
Pyrrha and Jinx quickly imitated her --the later doing so with a disturbing smile in her face-- but Ethan stared at Taylor’s right leg, it was barely touching the ground while she kept one hand on the wall for support, there was also a lot of blood starting to soak her pants and he could see a fragment of pavement stone still stuck in her flesh.
Catching him looking, Taylor lowered her foot, only a small narrowing of her eye betraying how much it hurt. “I can deal with it.”
She couldn’t, Ethan could see her muscles losing strength despite her willpower and, through his improved hearing, he could also sense the remaining guards preparing to rush the alley so he walked towards her.
“Sorry about this,” taking off his belt, he tied it just under her knee to stop the bleeding, then ignored her complains to pick her up.
Lifting her in a cradle hold, he made sure to support her wounded leg, keeping it closer to his chest so it wouldn’t move so much, Taylor gave him a glare, but was pragmatic enough to not complain, she felt surprisingly light in his arms, as in, he barely registered her weight.
Breaking one last leg, Pyrrha winced in sympathy, then adjusted her hold on the glaive and started running after Jinx, their speed only slowing a little bit even when Ethan was carrying someone else.
Yeah, he was definitely not a normal human anymore.
------------
Fear.
Fear stared down at the five humans running from the defeated fighters, her clawed hand relaxing as she decided she didn’t need to act, then she slowly brought it up to touch her lips, remembering the events of the night before.
Despite how many she had killed, she didn’t have much against humans, she didn’t exactly like them, but she didn’t hate them either.
In the back of her mind, Fear’s instincts as a beast were always telling her to kill them, a little voice that just wouldn’t be quiet unless there were no enemies around, but her lineage had made sure she was capable of overcoming that.
Tilting her head sideways, she continued observing the humans down on the street, from the civilians, to the policemen and even the soldiers, her own feelings were… apathetic, she didn’t really care about them one way or the other.
So, why was she here?
Fear knew she should be dead, she had spent years, sacrificed even her own body and core to awaken her mother and yet she wasn’t dead… just like four of the five humans she had spent the night with.
The experience had been surprisingly pleasant, a new sensation in her 20 years of existence, then again, she had been fighting a war since she was only a few months old and there was only so much time to explore between battles.
Watching the humans finally escape towards the weaker human hive, Fear jumped away from the building, moving faster than any non-knight should be able to see as she went towards the large building in the center, for the first time in her life she felt something hollow inside her chest.
No, this wasn’t the first time she felt like this, just the first time she noticed it after her mother was gone, Fear didn’t like it… was this why her mother was always so fixated on Anne?
Shaking her head, she spared one last glance towards where the five humans had gone, then shifted her entire focus on her new mission: returning to her Queen’s side.
Stepping atop the largest building in the human hive, she considered her options. Fear was almost sure she could kill every single human in those twin hives, she didn’t sense a knight around and, of those, very few were a match for her even when she didn’t have any gear.
So high and in the open, she felt a cold breeze hitting her body, the wind catching on her hair and lifting it all around her face, she ignored it as she continued to ponder her situation.
Her first thought was to start purging the location, making it safe for a new hive but that was just her instincts talking, Fear herself... didn’t quite feel like killing them, without the rest of the brood here, she didn’t need to and without a Queen, the biomass would all go to waste.
More importantly, she was a unit specialized in combat and she couldn’t sense a single other beast on the planet, which meant she’d need humans if she wanted to reach her Queen’s side.
Well, she also wasn’t a stealth unit to remain hidden, but at least she had a little experience with that during the wars, and non-knights could be incredibly obtuse when dealing with her, failing to even recognize her true nature most of the time.
Feeling the wind calming down, Fear crouched on the roof, deciding she’d observe the city’s leadership, learn if they had anyone capable of helping her and, if not, just leave to search somewhere else.
Even if the human hive didn’t have any knights in it, that didn’t mean others would be as lacking, and humans had the unfortunate tendency to both communicate and care about other hives, better to remain unknown.
And if her eyes drifted towards the direction of a certain group in the lower hive, well, she did enjoy last night.
----------------
Ethan
The small projectile hit Jinx in the midriff with enough force to send her to the floor with a grunt, a little girl squeezing her waist as hard as she could and burying her face against her chest.
“Alright, that’s enough,” she said with an annoyed huff, but Ethan could see the smile she was holding back.
It seems he was really dealing with Arcane’s timeline, or at least something very close to it since Isha was in the picture, that made things easier, he knew far more about that version of things than the previous lore.
Surprisingly, the little girl released Jinx and immediately proceeded to throw herself at Pyrrha, the redhead withstanding her attack much better, face baffled. “You’re the kid from yesterday?”
Isha just nodded and didn’t release her, causing Jinx to puff up her checks and frown at the sight.
With some relief, Taylor released the hold she had on Ethan’s neck and tapped his shoulder, trying to squeeze out of his arms but he ignored her and looked around to find a small bed, only them did he lower her into the mattress, taking care not to move her leg more.
“Let me see it,” Pyrrha said, kneeling in front of the girl.
Taylor extended her wounded leg, letting the huntress work and turned to Ethan and Maelle. “You two, explain.”
“I…” Ethan started, then glanced at Maelle and thought about their situation again. “I suppose it’s not impossible we’re in one of your family’s paintings, but I don’t think so.”
“Painting?” Pyrrha asked even as she cut the cloth and carefully pried it away from Taylor’s wound to reveal the blood covered leg.
Seeing it, Isha grimaced, but then quickly ran towards the sink to start boiling some water.
“Alicia’s family are painters,” Maelle explained. “When they create art with all their souls they can give it life. After I… Alicia died, I think one of them painted me in her image, although I don’t recognize the style.”
Ordinarily, such thing would be ridiculous, and Jinx certainly seemed to think so, considering the way she looked at Isha and swirled a finger over her temple, causing the girl to giggle.
The thing was, the four of them clearly remembered dying and, beside Ethan, the others lived in words where such powers were not unheard of, so the idea wasn’t as crazy as it sounded.
“I suppose we can still be paintings,” Ethan said, he certainly felt like he was real but, how would one know? “But I don’t think so, I know all of you.”
Taylor sucked in a breath as Pyrrha carefully pulled the shrapnel from her leg, revealing the white of the bones visible under all the blood, then she regained her focus, pushing her feelings into her swarm and looking at Ethan.
Crossing his arms, he started tapping a finger against his skin trying to think on how best to explain things. “Before I died, in my world there were stories, games, movies about all of you.
“You’re Taylor Hebert… I think, could never really remember your surname correctly, from a book series called Parahumans focused on you,” he looked towards each of the girls in turn and continued. “You’re Maelle or Alicia from a game focused on Expedition 33. You’re from a series focused on team Rwby and you’re from another series called Arcane, which came from a game focused on ‘champions’ from around Runeterra.
“When I… died, I remember being in darkness, in a void, then trying to pull myself away from it while getting glimpses of your worlds. I think I, or something else, pulled us all away from your worlds and into this one.”
“Prove it,” Taylor immediately demanded, even as her fingers dug into the mattress under her and the swarm around the building got more agitated.
“How? I mean, I could tell you about your story but, well, it’s been years since I read it and your career was pretty memorable, I doubt I remember anything that someone on PHO couldn’t know. Plus we’re not on Earth Bet, even if I told you something there’s no way to verify.”
“Don’t move,” Pyrrha chided Taylor as the girl tried to lean forward. Soaking the tip of a clean towel in the boiling water, she carefully cleaned the wound and grimaced. “We’re gonna need to see a doctor.”
“Yeah, you really don’t want to do that down here,” Jinx sighed. “We don’t really HAVE doctors, not anymore, the guys in charge of healing use shimmer for that, and not in little doses either, really addicting.”
“Couldn’t you awaken her aura?” Ethan asked. “Didn’t that give accelerated healing?”
Pyrrha gave him a quick glance, then turned to stare at Taylor for a few moments, seeming to consider the option, probably weighting the chances that Taylor would misuse the power.
“What exactly are we talking about?” Taylor asked with some suspicion.
“Aura is the power of your soul made manifest, everyone has it, even animals, the spark that gives us life, when awakened it can be a shield or a sword, help you heal and even express yourself better,” Pyrrha said, looking straight into Taylor’s eyes. “If I do it, I’ll be responsible for you, If you try to use it for crime I will stop you.”
“Good,” Taylor immediately said, then grew a little more hesitant. “Although I… don’t know if I trust myself with more power right now.”
“The wound is large, if I don’t awaken your aura I’ll need to sew it shut, and the bone is cracked, with good care it would take 1 or 2 months to heal but...”
Taylor sighed and turned away. “Do it.”
“Alright, close your eyes and concentrate.”
Taylor obeyed while Pyrrha herself briefly closed her eyes, then opened again, pressing a hand over Taylor’s chest, a white glow infusing her entire body as her voice seemed to take a deeper tone, almost echoing through the building.
“For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragons of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee.”
For five full seconds, Taylor’s own body glowed white with power, then she relaxed, the pain of her wound seeming to become easier to bear and the glow fading.
Ethan himself felt his soul stirring, it’s wasn’t his aura that was awakened but the mantra, as well as the power shown in the act, seemed to touch something inside him leaving no room to deny the impact of what had just happened. He felt to the very core of his being that he had witnessed something important.
The room grew quiet, the act seeming to affect everyone in some way and leave them all in thought.
“Crap,” Jinx broke the silence, her chin resting atop Isha’s head after she pulled the girl to her lap. “I was hoping you guys were just some crazy foreigners.”
“What about her,” Maelle said after she recovered. “She’s from here, if you know something about her we can verify it.”
“It’s complicated,” Ethan found a seat and ran a hand over his face. “I know her from a game whose focus wasn’t really it’s story, there was no main character but a collection of more than a hundred champions. Plus I’m pretty sure Piltover and Zaun’s backstories were changed at least 2 times.”
“Try it anyway.”
“Alright,” trying to gather his thoughts, Ethan looked at Jinx and considered what to say without breaking too much of her privacy. “Alright, the most likely version of the story we’re in is the one from a show called Arcane, in it Jinx was raised by a man called Vander. Did… did you shoot a rocket at Piltover’s councilors yet?”
“Yep, been a few months really.”
“Did you rescue Isha from prison?”
Picking up the girl, Jinx turned her around and looked at her face with a smirk. “You hear that, you’re going to prison, I’m so proud.”
“At the start of yesterday’s riot...” Pyrrha said. “I’m not certain but, now that I’m looking, I think I stopped her from jumping at that soldier we encountered earlier.”
Isha nodded, giving the huntress a bright smile.
“Well, in the show,” he paused, looking at Jinx and considering if he really wanted to say this, but she had the right to know. “Vander was alive, he...”
“What,” Jinx interrupted in a low stunned voice, them she jumped from her couch, dropping Isha to the floor and pointed a chem-tech gun straight at him. “Don’t fucking joke about that.”
Staring at the gun, Ethan felt that dark place inside him stirring, infusing his body with a small amount of strength, enough that he knew he could dodge the second she started to pull the trigger. Pyrrha stepped away from Taylor, body ready to intervene.
“It was Singed,” he continued. “Creating shimmer was never his goal, he wants to use the substance as a way to cure death. I think he took Vander’s body in order to further study the effects of shimmer but, when he noticed your father wasn’t entirely dead, he started experimenting.”
“Where is he!” Jinx screamed, eyes wide with confusion.
“I don’t know, Singed was supposed to be arrested with Isha, Vander isn’t in his right mind, more animal than man so, when Singed didn’t come back, he’d come to rescue him, but the story never revealed where exactly he was being kept.”
“If you’re lying about this…” Jinx growled, biting her lips in frustration as she started to pace from side to side, gun held lazily beside her head. “Where would he… would Sevika…”
Isha got up and immediately hugged Jinx leg, almost causing the woman to jump out of her skin, her gun immediately starting to aim lower until Maelle caught her wrist.
“Calm down, we’ll find him.”
With wild eyes, Jinx looked at the redhead, then down at Isha and took a few deep breaths before letting Mealle take the weapon off her hand. “Why?”
“Honestly? I need to know if he’s right,” Maelle motioned towards Ethan with her head. “I really don’t want this to be another painting.”
“I…” Jinx looked around, her eyes still wild but finally starting to calm down. “No, no… I’ll have to talk with Sevika, she’s the one most likely to know about Singed.”
“The streets are filled with Policemen,” Taylor said, adjusting the belt tied around her leg. “I can hear some people talking about it in my range, they’re everywhere looking for us, do you have her number?”
“What?”
“They don’t have phones here yet,” Ethan absentmindedly said, trying to think about other details that could prove his point. “There’s also the core of the Hexgates down here, I think nobody knows but it should be corrupted by a wild rune, we can check it later.”
“No! Vander is…”
“We’ll find him,” Maelle promised, guiding Jinx to the back of the building where there was another bed. “But you need to be calm, you can’t help him if you’re captured.”
Ethan watched the two walking away them, Maelle doing her best to calm Jinx down, she was surprisingly good at that.
“What exactly is shimmer?” Taylor asked.
“It’s a liquid, I’m not sure exactly what it’s made of, but in the show it can enhance a human body while damaging the mind, Singed is an inventor that turned it into a drug to help control Zaun.”
“And he’s experimenting with Jinx’s father and this shimmer?” Pyrrha asked.
“I don’t think I should tell you how it happened, that’s Jinx story, but yeah. Say, do you know if anyone at all was arrested yesterday?”
“I don’t think so, Maelle, Taylor and me repelled them easily the first time, I think they didn’t expect any resistance, then we got involved with the party and, when the police came back with reinforcements, you and Jinx were already there. I had drank too much by than so, we pursued them back into Piltover for a while.”
“Crap.”
“What?”
“Singed isn’t from Zaun, he doesn’t really care about the city and yet, in the show he was arrested with Isha,” Ethan uncrossed his arms and got a cup of water. “I think he wanted to be arrested and we ruined his plan, now I don’t know what he’s gonna do.”
“What could he gain by being arrested?” Taylor asked.
“Back then, Piltover frowned at his research while Zaun was both desperate and somewhat organized, it was easy to get founding by turning shimmer into a drug, now things are different, Zaun can’t pay him anymore but Piltover doesn’t need drugs.”
“You said Vander was going to rescue Singed,” Taylor seemed to immediately understand his point. “How strong is he?”
“Strong, enough to kill every guard in the prison without suffering any setbacks.”
“So, Singed is a bio-tinker and he wanted to showcase his creation... He was going to switch sides, providing enhanced soldiers in order to get more money wasn’t he?”
“I think that’s his goal,” Ethan nodded. “I’m just not sure if it was a convenient opportunity or he was growing desperate and in a hurry.”
“If he’s desperate, he’s gonna release Vander in the streets,” Taylor said. “It’s not perfect but, with the policeman all out in force it can be his next target.”
“Maybe, Singed is patient, but he could be running out of time.”
“Do you think I can defeat him?” Pyrrha asked. “This Vander, I mean.”
Could she? Probably, but it wasn’t a sure thing.
“I don’t know, he doesn’t have aura and will probably fight like a beowulf, but he’s also strong enough to rend metal, incredibly fast and capable of healing. I think you could kill him but I’m not sure about subduing.”
“Does Piltover have anyone on that level?” Taylor said, eyes down as she planned something.
“They have hextech which can be dangerous, but I don’t think so, even Ambessa wouldn’t be Pyrrha’s match without preparation.”
“And can you can beat back the police again? Without killing anyone?” Taylor asked Pyrrha.
“If they only have one or two hundred people and no hunters, then I could probably push them back alone, it’s just a question of how spread about they are, but I can’t face an army. Also, I’d really prefer not to fight law enforcement.”
“Honestly? I don’t think Piltover has any right to police Zaun,” Ethan said. “They’re only technically part of the same city, Zaun is in a terrible state and Piltover does absolutely nothing to help or even manage it, only sending enforcers when the problems spread to the upper city. In practice, Piltover is an invading city-state that’s just too strong to fight off.”
“That does change things,” Pyrrha mumbled.
“As for their numbers? I don’t think they even have that many people, not without more time to prepare,” Ethan shook his head, then turned back to Taylor. “What are you planning?”
Taylor looked towards Jinx for a few seconds, then out towards the city. “We don’t know where Singed is hiding Vander and, even if we did, if he’s anything like a tinker, it will be dangerous to attack him there.
“However, if we repel the police before Singed can move, we can prevent Vander from killing anyone and draw him to us. Who better to test his creation against than the one who beat Piltover’s entire police force?”
“And if we can’t beat them back fast enough?” Pyrrha asked.
“Even better,” Ethan said. “We just have to keep Jinx nearby and ready to interfere, even in his state, she can probably talk him down, or we can all subdue him together.”
--------
Three hours later, Ethan felt cold sweat running down his neck as Jinx attempted to glare a hole through the back of his neck.
“He’s not here.”
“He wasn’t supposed to be. The plan was always to act fast enough that Singed couldn’t release him.”
“Humph,” Jinx tapped her chem-tech gun again, then adjusted her posture in the rooftop and sighed laying down on the edge. “You’re sure Vi was trying to come back?”
“Yes, she regretted hitting you as soon as she turned the corner but Marcus caught her,” he said for the third time. “I’m not sure if he wanted to save Vi from Silco and thought there was nothing he could do for you or just wanted someone to blame for the explosion, probably a mixture of the two since she ended up in Stillwater prison until Caitlin freed her.”
“And she’s not with the enforcers anymore?”
“No, if I’m right she’s loosing fights in some arena after months of heavy drinking.”
“Ha, and I’m the crazy one.”
Ethan, Jinx and Taylor were monitoring the situation atop an abandoned building a few blocks away from the bridge while Pyrrha ran all over Zaun and smashed enforcers wherever she found them.
Maelle had stayed at Jinx hideout to take care of Isha and, while Ethan felt like he could probably fight small groups, he wasn’t bulletproof yet or had the right training, he was more likely to kill or permanently main someone than subdue them.
Seeing as they had time to spare, Jinx had taken to asking a lot of questions about what he knew and, after 3 hours, she was fully convinced he was telling the truth, or at least some of it, he just knew too many things about what happened, things she had never told anyone and doubted Vi would.
“They’re retreating,” Taylor said, she still couldn’t put any weight on her leg, but her aura had mostly closed the wound and she was using makeshift clutches to move around, using her bugs to monitor everything. “I saw the last team moving back towards the bridge in a hurry.”
“He’s not showing up,” Ethan said with sympathy. “Not now, Singed lost his chance.”
Getting up, Jinx glared down into Zaun’s streets, then wiped around, grabbed a piece of debris and threw it as hard as she could at another building. “SHIT!” Stomping on the parapet, she continued to rage. “Shit! Shit! Shit!”
Both Ethan and Taylor just let her vent for a little bit, despite the plan, she had really been hoping Vander would show up.
Squeezing her eyes, Jinx looked up and took a few deep breaths, doing her best to fully calm down before turning to look at him with a singular focus. “You!” Stomping towards him, she grabbed him by the shirt and started dragging him towards the entrance of the building, he let her. “This is your fault. Id be with Vander now if you hadn’t show up!’
“You’d also be dead in a few weeks,” Ethan protested.
“I don’t care!” she said, kicking the door away and dragging him further inside before turning him around.
Jinx attacked him, her mouth seeking his own with a fury, tongue darting inside before he could react, both hands holding his head as he finally registered what was happening and kissed her back.
Releasing his face, Jinx put both hands on his chest and pushed him against a wall while releasing a growl of frustration. “I’m so… aaaaaah! Why couldn’t he show up today?”
“He’ll come after us,” Ethan said as he held the girl’s waist. “Either that or we’ll find him, don’t worry.”
“So frustrating!” she huffed, then used her nails to tear his shirt, a heated look in her eyes. “You’re the one who gave me hope, you better take responsibility!”
“Here? Taylor is right outside.”
“She can wait her turn,” the blue haired woman said as she kissed him and continued to tear his clothes away.
Tightening his hold on her waist, Ethan took control, swinging the girl around to press her back against the wall while deepening the kiss, tongue exploring her mouth as he felt her muscles relax under his touch.
If she didn’t mind an audience, who was he to complain?
