17 Trouble

The ground shook, smoke filled with blue electricity erupted from the windows of the second room. The gang were blown off their feet from the explosion's shockwave, but none of them was hurt, just a little light-headed.

Even Violet, who was the closest to the explosion, was fine as she quickly came rushing out the door with the loot bag strapped to her back.

In the next second, the balcony floor before them started to crack soon after, blue electricity emitting from the ground as it began to crumble. "Hold on!" Violet shouted.

Seeing this, Art hurriedly got back on his feet and leaned against the balcony railing. "Watch out!" he quickly shouted, and a few seconds later, the large debris fell to the streets.

In this situation, he could have easily stopped the debris from falling with magic, but his mind was faster and thought of another solution before the debris could fall. Thanks to his warning, or maybe it was because of the loud noise from the explosion from earlier, the people in the street were able to move out of the way in time.

If some people weren't able to move in time, he was ready to save them at the last second if need be. He was not worried about his abilities being discovered. He could quietly cast his magic and didn't need to shout before using his abilities as though he was an anime character.

Art got off the balcony railing seeing the people in the street were safe, and turned to the others. The gang were already on their feet while Violet was also looking down in the street. It seemed despite her hate for topsiders, she was still worried that people might have gotten hurt.

"We should get out of here," Art spoke up and as if right on cue, a honking sound came from the megaphones perched above the buildings.

"Shit," Violet cursed. "We'll have to go on foot. Follow me."

With that said, the gang climbed back on the rooftops before Violet led them to an empty alleyway and made a run for it. They could have chosen to stay on the rooftops, but it was dangerous and slower as a means of escape.

Men and women in blue, black and gold uniforms, the enforcers, were hot on the gang's tails as they ran as fast as they could through the streets of Piltover, making their way towards the south.

Enforcers threw capture nets at them, but they all missed due to using the crowd to their advantage, either that or the enforcers lacked training. Art didn't even need to interfere with his magic. It was ridiculous how these guys were able to become enforcers.

The gang narrowly crossed the bridge of progress and entered south of Piltover. Violet led the gang to the narrow alleyways, and after a series of twists and turns, they were able to lose the enforcers for a little.

"We'll have to go down here again," said Violet, ripping the trash grate and tossing it to the side.

"Seriously?" Art asked, covering his nose to block out the disgusting smell.

Mylo looked down, also hesitant. "Vi, I just got this shirt--" he said, but before he could continue, Violet kicked him from the back and in he went.

The rest of the gang soon followed before only Violet and Art left. "Come on, Art," she said. "We don't have all day."

"But--"

"Well, unless you want to go to Still Water, we better go now," Violet interrupted as the enforcers got closer.

Art sighed before coating his entire body with a very thin magic membrane, acting like invisible armour. Although this would protect him from getting dirty, he was still hesitant to go down. It was like picking up wet dog shit with glove-saks as you could feel the hot and warm sensation in your palms.

"Over here!"

The Enforcers were getting closed. Art couldn't hesitate any longer and jumped in. He closed his eyes as he slid down in a tube similar to a water slide in a water park and landed in a garbage heap to cushion his fall.

"Kyaa!"

Kyaa? He opened his eyes and saw that he had Japanese Kabedon Powder against the floor instead of the wall. "Sorry," he apologised as he got off her and stood up. "Anyway, that was fun. We should do that again," he said sarcastically.

"Yeah, thought last time was the last time we would do this," Mylo complained.

"Well, this time's the last time," Violet answered, holding the loot bag to her chest.

It was then Claggor spoke up. "Guys, what was that? What the hell happened back there?" he asked before everyone besides Art turned their heads over to Powder.

"I don't know, I didn't do anything," Powder defended herself, raising her hands.

I mean, you did kind of set off a magical explosion by dropping one of the crystals, Art thought before saying. "It's alright. Everybody mistakes."

"Art, you know this isn't her first time messing up likes this, right?. She could fill a whole damn library with the things she didn't do," Mylo replied, glaring at Powder.

"Bro, stop being an asshole. We got the loot and got out of there in one piece didn't we?" Art was a little bit irritated. "It doesn't matter if she did anything wrong or not--"

"Art's right, we just emptied out a Piltover penthouse right under the enforcer's noses," Violet interrupted. "So, if you're done beating yourselves up, let's go home."

The sun was setting, casting a yellowish-red hue in the sky by the time the gang were nearing home. The streets leading to the Undercity was desolate and undeveloped. Broken windows were patched with wooden planks, and all of the shops were either closed for the day or broken in by thieves.

Art and Powder were walking next to each other, a little far back from the group. "Thanks," she spoke up quietly.

"For what?" Art slightly tilted his head in confusion.

"For defending me," Powder clarified.

"Oh, no problem," said Art with a smile. "But you know you shouldn't have lied about what happened back there."

"Lie? I wasn't lying," Powder pouted.

"Was there anyone else in the room beside you?" Art asked

Powder shook her head.

"Well then, who else could've caused that explosion?" Art asked again.

Powder wanted to refute his words but was unable to. He was right. Other than her, there was no one else in the room, and she felt guilty because of the trouble she had created. "I guess Mylo was right. I am a Jinx," she then took out the crystals from her back pocket and continued on to say. "I think this was what caused the explosion. You should hold onto these."

"Don't be stupid," Art comforted, shamelessly taking the crystal off her hands. "As I said, everybody makes mistakes. You just have to learn from them and not repeat them again. And Powder, you shouldn't worry about what others think of you. Be more confident in yourself. You are different in your own way, and I like it that way."

He truly believed what he had said. Everybody here was different in their own way. She might not be the best fighter out of them, but she was very smart. Making bombs and giving them names like Mouser was one of the reasons that made her special.

"I, uh, I… thanks," Powder cutely nodded and stayed silent as various thoughts came to mind. Why is he so nice to me? Maybe he really does like me?! But he hasn't said anything to me ever since this talk with Vander. Should I just ask him?

"Hey, Art..."

Just as Powder was about to speak, she was interrupted by a blonde-haired teenager sitting at the side of the street. It was a familiar face for everyone, especially for Art, who had fought against him and won.

"Nice haul," Deckard said, rolling a coin between his fingers.

"You could say that," Mylo replied proudly.

"I heard there some action across the river," Deckard said playfully. "Someone, uh, someone really kicked the nest, huh?"

"It's none of your business," Art cracked his knuckles. "Well, unless you want another beating."

Deckard flinched a little, but confident they had more people, he stepped up and pulled out a knife from his pocket, waving it around like some third rate villain. He felt threatened and wanted to intimidate the gang with the knife. "You're tracking this mess of yours through my streets--" he said as his goons started encircling the gang.

"Your streets?" Violet scoffed. "What makes you think--"

"Listen, we don't want any trouble, okay?"

Goon A: "Hear that, Deckard? They don't want any trouble."

"You know, in my experience, trouble finds you," Deckard said intimidatingly, pointing his knife towards the gang. "There's no reason this has to get ugly. How about you share a little taste of your treasure there, and we'll call it even?"

His intimidation had worked. Besides Art and Violet, the rest of the gang did not dare to speak up. "You think that knife is enough to scare me? I've watched Detroit Urban Surv... ouch," said Art.

Violet lightly chopped Art on the back of the head. She then walked forward and stopped right in front of Deckard. "Just a taste?" she asked.

"Just a..."

Deckard was cut off by Violet slamming the bag across his face and making him drop his knife. She then threw the bag to Powder and turned to Art. "Grab the knife!" she shouted.

Mylo and Claggor rushed towards Goon A, B, C and D, giving Art the opportunity to dash forward and grab the knife. He threw the knife up in one of the nearby buildings before backing up against the wall with Powder.

They watched the fight in front of them unfold. Art took a glance at Powder to see how she was doing, and seeing panic in her eyes, he put a hand on her shoulder to remind her she wasn't alone.

Soon a man was thrown Infront of us by Claggor. He looked up and saw we had the bag and smiled. "What are you smiling for?" Art said before kicking the man in the face as hard as possible, knocking him out cold.

"I think we better go and help out the others. Do you have Mouser on you?" he asked as he wanted to give Powder a little bit of a morale boost.

Powder nodded before taking out Mouser and shakily filling him with nails. She whispered something to Mouser before giving it to Art. "Just twist the top, and it should work."

"Got it," Art took Mouser from Powder's hand, twisted the top to activate the timer for the bomb and got into a baseball throwing stance. He injected a little bit of magic into his right arm, but only a little, lest he accidentally kills someone.

He threw Mouser at a world record-breaking fast pitch and hit Deckard on the head with Mouser. "That's two down," he said with a smile as Mouser exploded into pink dust.

Powder giggled happily, although her bomb had failed to explode. "Art, you were supposed to throw it in front of them."

"Oh well," Art shrugged his shoulders. "It kinda worked."

"Yeah, but…" replied Powder but didn't finish…

…The fight ended faster after Deckard and Goon C were knocked out. Violet joined Mylo and Claggor as they easily overpowered the last two people still fighting.

The gang walked away, leaving behind five, bruised and unconscious dudes on the floor. They then descended the rest of the way down to the Lanes via elevator, smiles on their faces as they were excitedly chatting among themselves after finally completing a 'real' job for once.

"I can't believe we finally pulled off a job!" Mylo exclaimed.

"Yeah," Claggor nodded.

"Your welcome," Art said jokingly.

Walking into the pub, he saw Vander was with a client and seeing the expression on his face when he looked at them, he decided to slip away. If Deckard had heard about what happened, I'm sure Vander would have gotten the news by now. No way I'm staying just to get lectured.

Art coughed nervously and said, "Anyway, it's getting late. I better go," he ran away before anyone in the gang could reply.