hex |jinx [on hold]

prologue

Nova, aged fifteen, a few years in the future

Surveying the city she grew up in, stood a short girl with fiery red hair. Her identity was hidden under a hood and behind a dark mask but her bright blue eyes could be seen through the thin fabric. Darkness was all that surrounded her, the usual weather and atmosphere of Zaun, so it didn't scare her when a strange noise came from a few feet below her.

Looking down, Nova saw a running figure, giggling down the busy street. The scene made the girl roll her eyes and sigh, recognising who it was straight away and aware of the disaster that was soon to follow. Street vendors and pedestrians swerved out of the person's path as small pink and blue objects were being left behind.

"Damn you, Powder."

Jumping from one rooftop to another, Nova hid behind tall pillars to keep her presence unknown to the person she was following. It would become incredibly messy very quickly if the figure looked up and spotted her. The girl would rather keep herself to the shadows and silently take care of all the trouble that was about to emerge.

Explosions sounded behind the slim figure, now too thrilled to pull the hood that once hid her identity back up. Not that it was needed, as everyone recognised the person simply by the way they carry themselves around the streets.

Her blue hair flew behind her, longer than what Nova remembered from their last encounter a few months prior. Her giggles could still be heard from Nova's higher position and the red-haired girl couldn't help the small grin that reached her lips.

Nova missed that sound.

"I'll never understand you, kid." She heard a deep voice coming from her left side and almost tripped on the roof she was jumping to, startled out of her mind.

A taller figure started running by her side, a guy with a mask different to hers. While Nova's was plain black, his resembled an animal, one the girl had never seen but was deeply intrigued by the carving skills of whoever made it for him -and his group.

Their group, the be exact.

"You have to stop sneaking up on me, boss."

"And you have to stop fixing her mistakes."

Nova's eyes were fixated on Powder -or Jinx as she insisted on calling herself now. Even though the girl started acting like an unrecognisable lunatic after the incident, Nova would never forget the years they had spent together. Or the way the blue-haired girl had always made her feel special and loved.

She would always be her Powder, not even a thousand bombs could change that. And Nova wanted to remind her of it, to make sure Powder knew she was still there for her.

"Never." Nova sped up and reached an intersection between two streets, where she knew for sure Powder would run towards. "Follow me if you can."

Not sticking around to hear the scoff coming from the male, Nova made a sharp turn and slid down a tall flag pole just outside a rotting store. Her feet hit the ground and she sped forward, hiding in the shadows once more.

But she hadn't been quick enough, as the sound of footsteps halted by the entrance of the alley she had chosen to hide in.

"Oh shit." She whispered under her breath when she noticed what was about to happen.

Powder had seen her masked and hooded figure running past the street just a few feet from her and raised her gun, pointing it forward. Slowly stepping forward, the bluenette whistled a familiar tune and giggled.

"I know you're in there, whoever you are." The raspy voice reached Nova's ears and she couldn't help the slight shiver that ran up her arms.

She can be very scary when she puts her mind to it.

"Come out, little mouse." Hitting her gun against the wall multiple times, Powder stood right where the light ended and stared at the darkness beyond.

Nova could see her friend -and boss- waving his arms above his head as he stood tall on top of a building, trying to get her to leave. She knew he could see her due to his night vision goggles, an extra feature added to his mask, so the girl merely shrugged. She wasn't going anywhere.

Suddenly, instead of a gun pointed to her head, Nova found a monkey shaped bomb rolling forward towards her feet. Cursing under her breath, she wasn't quick enough and the pink smoke enveloped her entire body as she struggled to escape the dark alleyway. At least it wasn't a deadly bomb and just one of those slightly less harmful, filled with pink powder.

One of the bombs Nova had loved as a kid.

"Shit."

"Who are you?" And the gun finally came. The colourful weapon was pointed at her covered forehead, Powder's blue eyes shining under the moonlight.

Nova hadn't noticed that she had crawled all the way to a dead end and was now laying on her back -as by sheer luck, right under a spot where the shining light of the full moon left her figure completely exposed.

Her eyes locked with Powder's as she smiled sadly. After years of running after the girl, fixing the aftermath of her silly battles and temper tantrums, Powder had finally caught up to her. Nova's mind was running around in circles as the taller girl shamelessly sat on her lap, gun still steadily pointed at her forehead. Nova's heart and stomach were a mess, twisting with mixture of butterflies and utter fear.

Would Powder kill her before she could reveal herself?

"Wait a minute." Nova put her hands up to show that she didn't mean any trouble. Her voice was slightly altered due to a filter on her mask, so of course Powder didn't recognise her right away. That and they had both grown, not just physically. "I'm not here to hurt you."

"Sure, that's what everyone says." The gun pressed harder against Nova's face and she shuddered. In fear or something else, she couldn't explain. "I'm giving you five seconds to take that stupid mask off or else..."

The silence that followed was explicit enough for Nova to understand as the girl sighed and started pulling the hood off her head. The colour of her hair was enough to make Powder's eyes widen and the gun was slowly lifted off of her.

"You can't be-?" The bluenette started but didn't get to finish her sentence as a loud gasp left her lips.

Nova's mask was off her face in seconds, eyes darting around Powder's shocked features as if to decipher what she was feeling. As her hands remained raised as a precaution, the other girl still sat across her lap with her mouth hanging wide open, gun long forgotten.

"Nova?"

"Hi, Powder."

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here we gooooo!