Ghosts of Zaun

Chapter I - The Girl with Blue Hair

Jayce unlocked the door to his workshop with some difficulty, since the supplies he had bought were heavy and blocked part of his vision, only to hear steps down the hall, then children's hushed voices. "Someone there?" He called, but as expected no one answered. The scientist put the supplies down: "If you don't show up, I'm gonna call the enforcers." His voice was soft, as he was pretty sure these weren't adults. Maybe rebellious teens like he once was.

He turned around at the movement behind him, although whoever was there hid quite well. A dull noise was coming from the room where he was experimenting with his crystals. He froze: there were kids alone with unstable, untested material. His unstable, untested material. He ran toward the place as fast as he could, while pleading the invaders not to touch anything. His requests fell in deaf ears, and his ears got pretty deaf themselves: an explosion threw him and his precious work in the air. The wall that he hit was cold against his hot skin, rough and hard as expected, but curiously there was no pain.

Jayce got up and stumbled his way to the huge hole in the wall. In the street, the enforcers already chased the kids away, although the only thing that stuck to him was a blue haired girl, because in her pocket he could see an almost unoticeable, familiar gleam. Her thin, gangly legs soon vanished in the distance and he stood there, aghast, helpless. Heimmerdinger was going to have his hide.

By the time the authorities arrived to inspect the place, his whole body ached. He understood that the heat of the moment might have dulled the pain, but as adrenaline turned into despair, his limbs turned into heavy stone. A lifetime's work, ruined. And for what? A silly prank? No, those kids were ill-dressed and too weak to belong to Piltover. They were poor outsiders, he realized, which should've provoked some amount of empathy, but didn't, because he was furious. Sure, they needed the money, but at what cost? His work would help a ton more people than just them, now who knew what would happen to the stolen crystal? Crystals. He accounted for only half of them. Damn brats.

His fury was somewhat dimmed by Heimmerdinger's arrival. The tiny old man had a way to appear larger than any room and that made Jayce feel small and a little less smart everytime. His mentor furrowed his eyebrows and sighed: "what happened?"

(...)

Powder couldn't stop crying over the lost backpack with all their loot inside. She blew it, she always did. There was a part of her that just wanted to disappear so she'd be less of a nuisance. At the same time, she could never, ever leave Violet behind. Her big sister had been through everything alongside her and that was the least she could do. Help.

If only she did help.

Then Vanders slammed the door open, his stare fixed on Vi. The blood vanished from all the kids' faces. They were told to leave the room, all but her big sister and that made Powder nervous. What if she got grounded, or worse, hurt? Their guardian was a kind man, but he was heavy and knew how to hurt people. Of course, deep down she knew Vanders would never hit them no matter how mad he was, but after seeing so many fights and so much blood as she had, panic would rise and choke her until she couldn't think anymore. Claggor pulled her out of the room and closed the door behind him. Powder just couldn't stop shaking.

"Oh, grow up!" Mylo whined at her. "Vanders is just gonna talk her ear off, nothing more." She fought back tears, bit her lip, but said nothing.

Vi later took them to their hiding spot, where they'd have to lay low for a while. She said everything would be fine and Powder really, truly hoped so. There was even a shooting range there.

She shot her target despite the tears clouding her eyes. Shooting made her feel better about herself because she never missed. Vanders had given her a small gun, which she nicknamed Sister, because Vi always protected her and so did the weapon. He said that the best way to handle it was to never use it, but he taught her how to use it in case of an emergency. She also had her creations, although none of them had worked yet. Would she ever do something right?

Claggor left to run errands with their guardian while they stayed hidden. Mylo wouldn't leave her alone though, and she got too upset to remain there. He kept saying the enforcers were asking especifically about a blue-haired girl. Would they take her away? Would they hurt her? She couldn't stop the intrusive thoughts that nicked at her brain. Vi assured her it was not true, but she knew when her sister lied.
It must be the crystals, she thought.

She considered throwing them away, but they looked so fascinating! It was an energy source, if her guess was correct, and a powerful one that maybe was what would make her bombs work at last. If there was even a chance she could be helpful she had to take it. For Vi, for Vanders... for her deceased parents. She missed them so much. Her mom had the most beautiful laughter in the whole world and her father was so strong she felt like nothing could get to her when he was around. She was wrong, though, because his strength meant nothing against the enforcers. She saw his guts spilling all over the ground, the blood staining the rough surface and her memory at once.

The nightmares never let her forget. The world was a dangerous place and she felt weak and unless, which could be deadly where she lived. The night blurred away between tinkering and drawing until daytime.

(...)

Viktor stared in awe at the experiments Jayce created. If his people had this technology when he was young, so much hardship could've been avoided. Besides, he knew his time was short and if he passed without any real contribution to those that needed most, his life would've been a waste.

The young scientist confided in him that he saw a young blue-haired girl with a few of his crystals and Viktor agreed to search for her, since he knew the undercity well. He grew up there, after all, and he knew what the enforcers would do to the poor kid if she got caught by them. Not only that, but her life was in danger just for having a dangerous thing like that in her tiny hands.

He set off to find her, and he was sure of where to start.