Family Reunion

Indari raised an eyebrow at Samira's question. "Piltover...? Sam's never mentioned an interest in going there... always figured it'd be too restrictive for her." Nevertheless, she shrugged and turned, rolling her wheelchair over towards a shelf in the corner. "Well, I do have one job that I've been sitting on a while... wasn't really your type, but I've never been able to find anyone else up to the task. It's a bounty, dead or alive, for someone who gave the Medarda family a hell of a lot of trouble a couple years back." Indari scanned the shelf for a moment, before her eyes landed on the folder she was looking for, and she plucked it out before tossing it over to Samira, who expertly caught it. "Some scrawny girl named Jinx."

Samira paused at that, halfway through opening the folder, but while the pause didn't last long, Indari couldn't miss the corner of Samira's lip quirking up a bit. "Jinx, huh?" Samira said, amusement evident in her voice as her single eye scanned over the relatively scarce dossier. "Lot of damage, but... doesn't sound too tough. Why haven't the Enforcers taken care of her already?"

"Rumor has it she's got a sister on the ****, one who even after all she's done still has a soft spot for her." Indari sighed as she rolled back over to her desk, grabbing a flask to take a sip of too-warm Bilgewater rum, grimacing as she swallowed. "Most of 'em would just as soon kill her, but if the sister's as close with the sheriff as I've heard, apparently the standing order has been to take her in alive."

Samira huffed out a laugh, shaking her head as she continued scanning over the dossier. Only a few moments later, she shut it and tossed it down onto the desk. "I'll take the job."

Indari set her flask down on the desk and just stared at Samira for a moment, studying the face of the woman she'd trained and looked after for years. Finally, she took a breath, and spoke, "Alright. I'll arrange transport to leave tonight. One thing, though - do not, under any circumstances, make trouble for the Enforcers. Piltover's our biggest supplier of arms - Noxus quite literally cannot afford a diplomatic incident, not with everything else going on. Get in, get the target, and get out."

As always, to Indari's eternal annoyance, Samira just grinned a toothy grin, and chuckled, "Come on, Indari, you know me; when do I ever make trouble?" With that, she turned and strode back outside, Indari's eyes glued to her the whole way out. Her face was stone-cold, but inside her mind was racing.

"Something's wrong... she shows up off schedule, looking around like she's never been here before, and starts asking for a job in a place she should by all rights hate? And... her jewelry was off - just a bit, but... Samira's always taken pride in her appearance, she'll literally stop in the middle of a gunfight to fix an earring... And all this just a week after that experimental prototype goes missing, in Piltover, no less..."

Heart pounding, Indari wasted no time rolling over to the door to flip the lock, then pulling the blinds shut on the window, before going back to her desk and reaching down to the drawer near the bottom. Her fingers shook as she dialed the combination lock, until finally she pulled the drawer open to reveal a dark purple gemstone in a deep red velvet lining. Indari took a deep breath, and reached down to grasp the gemstone, lifting it up to eye-level and concentrating. Soon enough, the gemstone started to glow, a deep mystical purple energy emanating from within.

"Speak..." a voice echoed out in her head, vibrating against the backs of her eyeballs, and Indari briefly shuddered at the intrusive sensation, before steeling herself.

"I have information that I believe she'll want to hear - information about the Talis prototype."

Jinx had a huge grin on her borrowed face the whole way down to a nearby tavern. "This is the life... getting paid to just go wherever I want and shoot people? I'd be jealous of you, Samira... if I weren't already you!" Reaching the tavern, Jinx slammed open the door and confidently made her way over to the bar, pulling a gold coin from Samira's pocket. "Barkeep! Round of your strongest ale, for your strongest gal!"

Getting her drink (and a couple of eyerolls), Jinx settled onto a stool, eager to enjoy her new life until she had to set out later that night. And as the drinks kept coming, poor little Jinx unfortunately was utterly unaware of just how many eyes had been turned in her direction...

The next morning, Jinx was awakened by the sound of the sea beating against a hull and the sway of the waves beneath her. Sitting up, she cracked her neck and stretched out her shoulders, before concentrating, trying to piece together fragments of memories about the night before. "Ugh... right, I got drunk, and then... Indari sent a message that the boat was ready, so I went back to the docks, and... I guess I'm heading back to Piltover already." Bit by bit, she felt her senses come back to her, quickly registering that was luckily still in Samira's body. Opening her lone eye, Jinx looked up, and immediately had to shut it again - the bright sunlight not doing much to help her pounding hangover.

"Here," she suddenly heard someone say to her left, and squinted to see a silhouette holding out a pill and glass of water, which she immediately took and downed in one go. "Captain Indari said you'd probably need those after how much you drank last night."

Jinx kept her eyes shut a few moments longer, and surprisingly she found her headache start to fade faster than expected. "Huh... Noxian **** just hit different, I guess." Finally, she took a breath and looked up to thank the guy who'd given her what was apparently a miracle hangover cure, a tall young man with slicked back black hair and a brown fur-lined coat. "Thanks, kid," she said, and noticed a glint of pride show up in his eyes - clearly he looked up to Samira, so any praise did wonders for his ego. "How far out are we?"

"We left as soon as you boarded last night... and as soon as we were able to get you into a hammock instead of the deck..." he replied, nodding over to a spot near the boat's ramp - Jinx assumed she must've collapsed and fallen asleep there. "And we've been traveling through the night - it's just after noon now, so probably not long now. The Captain was able to get us one of those fancy Legion boats instead of just a commercial transport, so we've been making good time."

Nodding, Jinx patted him on the shoulder and made her way to the railing, glancing out ahead of them. Indeed, she could already see Piltover's tall cityscape peeking over the horizon - and the next step of her totally preplanned **** strategy along with it. She hadn't exactly expected to come back to Piltover so soon, but when she got a taste of Samira's skills she realized she just couldn't resist the chance to thoroughly embarrass Vi and Caitlyn in a way she'd never been able to before. She quickly checked herself over, making sure that Samira's weapons were A. still on her, and B. locked and loaded. Finally, she checked one of the pouches at her hip, and to her relief the costume gun was still in there. "Just in case I find myself needing to make a grand exit..."

Jinx sighed, for once finding herself thinking a bit more long-term. She'd always known people wanted her gone, but the knowledge that Noxus had an active bounty on her - dead or alive, no less - was still a bit unsettling. "And now I've gone and accepted that bounty - even if I swap into someone else, Samira will probably still try and finish it, and right now I know probably better than anyone how far she'll go to get a job done... Way to go, Jinx." Shaking her head, Jinx leaned against a nearby crate and crossed her arms. "Whatever... that's a later problem. For now, let's worry about how I'm gonna handle Piltover's Finest."

Vi sighed as she sank into the chair opposite Caitlyn, watching as the intrepid Sheriff read over another in her never ending pile of reports. "I don't know, Cait, I just... I can't shake this feeling that something's wrong. Ever since that day on the rooftop, I just feel like I've been in a fog... and with Jinx just disappearing after that, I just..." She trailed off, clenching her bandaged fists in frustration.

Caitlyn glanced up on her, her lips curling into a gentle smile. "Vi, you know I don't blame you for losing her on the rooftops - it is Jinx, after all. And while I agree it's suspicious that she's not made any noise since then, I for one welcome the rare moment of peace." Setting the report down, she stood up and walked around her desk, pulling Vi up into a warm embrace. "And as for you... I'm just glad you're feeling better since yesterday. You know I love you, and nothing will change that, but on occasion you can get rather difficult to live with."

Vi snorted, leaning her face into the crook of Caitlyn's neck. "I know, and I'm sorry again... I guess I was just feeling down on myself or something, and I took it out on you. Tell you what, later tonight why don't-"

A sudden knock at the door interrupted the two, and they quickly stopped hugging, long since experts at hiding their relationship. "Sheriff!" a voice said from the other side. "We just got a report of shots fired down near the warehouses, and witnesses reported colorful graffiti and the sound of 'maniacal laughter'."

Vi and Caitlyn looked at each other, a sense of dread sweeping over them both. "Guess she's back," Vi said, rolling her shoulders in preparation for a fight.

"Indeed," Caitlyn replied, walking over to retrieve her prized rifle from the mount behind her desk. "Now let's go and deal with her."

Jinx smirked as she stood high atop a warehouse, looking down at the panicked crowds gathering below her. The boat wasn't able to dock in the port, being a military transport, so Jinx had had to enter the city on foot from the north, but that did give her the benefit of avoiding any sort of official docking procedure. Luckily, most of her secret stashes around the city had remained undiscovered since she'd been gone, so it had been no trouble setting up a 'classic Jinx crime scene' at an old abandoned warehouse. A couple cans of spray paint, some walkie-talkies with pre-recorded laugh tracks, and a few stray gunshots through a window, and soon enough she'd heard the sirens calling for the Enforcers, just as expected.

She had quickly taken up position on an opposite warehouse, and sure enough it wasn't long before she could make out two distinct figures approaching below her - one with massive gauntlets on her hands, and the other with a tall hat and long rifle. "Like lambs to the laughter..." she said with a smile, drawing one of Samira's guns with a twirl. The depth perception of only having one good eye had taken some getting used to, but thanks to Samira's mind she was fairly confident she'd be able to match Caitlyn's shooting, and Samira's natural agility should make dealing with Vi's slow and heavy fighting a breeze.

As the Enforcers surrounded the warehouse, Jinx watched as Vi and Caitlyn made their way to the front door... a front door that was soon blown off its hinges by a single punch. After the dust cleared (and no hail of bullets came shooting out), the pair slowly made their way inside, and Jinx took the opportunity to leap back over to that rooftop, intentionally landing with a loud *thud* on the metal tiling. She soon heard shouts and loud footsteps from within, and smirked, turning towards the ladder on the opposite side to await her opponents.

Only seconds later, she watched as Vi's gauntlet reached up over the side, followed soon enough by the rest of the pink-haired Enforcer, ready for a fight. Vi's eyes quickly scanned over the rooftop, narrowing as they landed on the only other person up there - a tall, dark-skinned woman wielding a pair of guns, and obviously ready for a fight.

"You're not Jinx," she said, sounding more annoyed than anything. Behind her, Caitlyn clambered up onto the rooftop as well, rifle slung over her back as her sharp eyes made a second pass of the warehouse roof.

"Sorry to disappoint," Jinx said, slipping into the mask of Samira's personality. "Came here looking for her myself, actually... You know how it is with people like her - eventually someone's willing to pay a pretty penny to have her gone."

She can immediately tell that gets a rise out of Vi. The thought of anyone - a random bounty hunter, no less - killing her little sister would have sent the old Vi into a frenzy. And though Vi's matured a bit since then, and her feelings about Jinx have become much more complicated, it's still obvious that she wants to punch her clean off this rooftop.

"I'm not sure who you think you are," Caitlyn says, clearly trying to defuse the situation even as she draws her rifle. "But this is an Enforcer matter - please move along."

"Mmm... if you insist," Jinx says, dramatically sighing and turning as if to leave. "Though, you should probably know... I've never left a job unfinished, and her bounty pays quite a bit - alive, or dead." She hears an angry grunt from behind her, and grins at the familiar sound of Hextech gauntlets charging up... "In fact, I wonder how my living room might look with her head on my wall?"

That does it, as she hears Vi immediately launch herself across the rooftop at her, Caitlyn's shout going unheard over the sound of her gauntlets shooting forth, and Jinx smirks as sinks into Samira's mind, combining her knowledge of Vi's fighting style with Samira's combat experience. "Three... two... one." She jumps, deftly backflipping over Vi's attempt to punch her, and fires a single shot behind her back into the gauntlet's inner workings, instantly severing the power connection. Vi shouts as the gauntlet suddenly becomes dead weight, but she wastes no time unlatching it and letting it fall to the rooftop, spinning around to try and catch the bounty hunter with her other hand. Jinx lands on her feet, and is about to draw her sword to parry the other gauntlet when a clicking sound behind her draws her attention - and she instead neatly flips out of the way, dodging both Vi's furious punch and Caitlyn's warning shot.

"Hah, is this all that Piltover's Finest has to offer?" she taunts, drawing her sword and twirling it around herself. "I've seen babies fight better!" Her eye darts between the two of them - Vi catching her breath and taking up her traditional boxer stance, while Caitlyn reloads her rifle and takes aim. Immediately, Samira's mind conjures up a crazy idea - and if Jinx were anyone else, she might not have tried it. "Fortunately for us... I'm just as crazy." So she waits, and watches...

Caitlyn makes the first move, as expected - she fires a single shot aimed directly at Samira's gun, to try and knock it out of her hand. Time seems to move in slow motion as Jinx lets Samira's mind guide her actions, swinging her sword towards the bullet... and parrying it - directly towards Vi's other gauntlet. Vi grunts as the impact knocks her off balance, and Caitlyn turns to look at her in alarm, not yet registering what had just happened - which Jinx takes advantage of to whirl her pistol towards her and fire. The shot goes straight down the barrel of Caitlyn's rifle, utterly shredding its inner workings and causing Caitlyn to drop it as it nearly explodes in her hands. Finally, before Vi can regain her footing, Jinx turns the gun to her and fires another shot into the gauntlet, jamming its gears and causing the emergency release to engage - dropping the heavy machine right onto Vi's foot.

"Ah..." Jinx sighs with a smile, twirling her gun and sword before returning them to their holsters. "This was fun, girls, but I'm afraid I'm here on business, so if you'll excuse me..." With both Enforcers powerless to stop her, she turns and jumps back across to another roof, and another, soon dropping down to the streets out of sight.

"Agh..." Vi grunts, barely managing to get the gauntlet off of her foot, and wincing from the pain. "Who... who the hell was that?"

"I'm not sure..." Caitlyn replies, kneeling down next to Vi to help her stand up. "Whoever she is, though... I'm surprised to say that I'm actually worried for Jinx."

"Hah! Three shots and a dream!" Jinx laughs, pumping her fist. "Oh that went so much better than I ever thought it could... Samira, baby, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful partnership!" As she makes her way down into Zaun, humming a tune while planning ahead for their next encounter, she finds herself actually somewhat enjoying the way people are looking at her - it's not the typical "oh shit it's Jinx" looks she usually gets, but instead more like "I wonder who that is, she seems dangerous... and cool."

As she descended into the undercity, though, Jinx started becoming aware of another type of stare on her, from a sixth sense both she and Samira had developed over years of watching their own backs - the stare of somebody who wants to cause trouble. She quickly turned down an alleyway she knew to be mostly abandoned, walking fast towards an old disused factory. Sure enough, she could hear light footsteps following her a few paces behind, and her hand came to rest on the hilt of her pistol, ready to draw at a moment's notice.

She turned another corner, and broke into a quick jog for a few seconds to get some distance, then turned and drew her gun and sword. She waited... and waited... until-

"Impressive," she suddenly heard behind her, and swiftly turned to swing her sword at the person - though her strike was blocked by a small dagger, she did get a good look at their face... and it was someone neither she nor Samira recognized. A tall, lanky man, with a pale face, dark bags under his glowing purple eyes, and the usual rags of a trench dweller... wait, glowing purple eyes?

"You really showed those two Enforcers what for, didn't you?" the man said, a wide grin plastered on his face, before he pushed away her sword and lunged to stab with his dagger. Jinx was faster, though, quickly putting two shots into his chest and knocking him onto his back. To her alarm, though, the man didn't seem unhappy, instead continuing to smile. "Ahhh... you really have adapted to those weapons, haven't you?" he said, still managing to sound smug even as he gasped for breath.

"Shut up, you sorry bastard" Jinx said, raising her gun once more and putting a third shot right through his forehead. Before she could turn to walk away, though, something impossible happened - the man, even with a bullet in his head, laughed.

"And you've even taken on her personality, too... you've really mastered how to use that gun, haven't you, Jinx?" he said, and in her horror Jinx could swear she heard another, more feminine voice overlaid on top of his own. She quickly fired another couple of shots through his head, until the purple glow of his eyes finally started to flicker. "Heh... be seeing you..." he grunted, before his eyes faded back to a pale green and he finally collapsed, well and truly dead. And Jinx, who'd just watched a man speak with multiple bullets through his head, could do nothing but stand there staring at the dead body, mind racing... until she turned and broke into a sprint.

The door to Jinx's hideout slammed open as the Loose Cannon returned home for the first time in over a week. "Shit," she swore, tossing Samira's weapons on a nearby chair and starting to pull off her light armor. "Shit shit shit..." "Who the fuck was that? How did he know who I am?!" A million thoughts raced through her head as she stripped down Samira's body, until finally she stood fully nude in the middle of her lair. Pulling the costume gun from Samira's pocket, she turned the knob and fired at herself, feeling the Noxian bounty hunter's skin loosen up around her, and wasted no time yanking it off of her, freeing her own pale form from Samira's flesh.

She raced over to a corner and picked up some of her own clothing, quickly dressing herself, before turning back to see Samira's discarded skin lying on the ground in front of her. "Ugh... if I restore her, she'll just try coming after me, but I can't just leave her here - I don't know if they were tracking her or me, but if it's her, and that guy was somehow able to find her, then someone else could probably do it again, and then I'd have to find another hideout..." She paced back and forth for a few minutes, weighing the options in her head, before finally a rough plan started to form in her mind. "She can't come after me if I hide in someone else's body again... someone safe, that they'd never expect 'Jinx the Loose Cannon' to try and impersonate - the only question is... who?"