"True Geniuses"
{Featuring: Heimerdinger, ‘Assistant’, Jinx, Ekko, Jack {briefly}}
Preparation for Progress Day can be a busy time for many scientists and inventors who plan on attending the event. It is a time where such people of those fields present new ideas of various technologies to help better the city. This is especially the case for a certain yordle inventor and his assistant in the courtyard of Piltover’s University. It was late evening on the day before the Progress Day event, and the pair were looking over the area that contained their product.
“It IS impressive, if I do say so myself” Said the blonde yordle. This was Professor Heimerdinger, a well known inventor of Piltover. Over centuries old, he had seen the City of Progress come to life and the many wars happening in and out of the area.
“Sure is professor, but what does it do?”
The small yordle looked to his apprentice in slight shock at what he had just said, as if the younger man should’ve had a clue on what the device was.
“Do?? The Hextech Core generates more energy than a Quadranium Power Cell. The applications are limitless. Would you like to sneak a peek?”
Even with the goggles on his face, it did not hide the excitement behind the young man's eyes; nor did the rising grin.
“Boy, would I?!!”
It seemed as if the excitement was also building in the professor, as he did his best to contain it while talking more to his apprentice.
“Tomorrow, all of Piltover will catch a glimpse…...of the future!!”
In one swift motion, Heimerdinger pulled the red cover off the podium. However, what was revealed confused both the young man and the professor. It was a gray rotating grenade that had a small white painted face and jagged teeth. The ‘head’ portion kept spinning while repeating a recorded phrase over and over:
“Hahaha, got you! Hahaha, got you!”
“Oh, oh dear” Heimerdinger exclaimed in increasing worry. Not only was his greatest invention for the event stolen, but someone left their own mechanical device as a way to make fun. After a few more rotations, the small contraption stopped its rotation before springing up its head and sticking a tongue out.
Heimerdinger spoke out his thoughts: “Oh no! Who would do this?”
The yordle would get his answer, as a high-pitched maniacal laugh echoed in the courtyard. When the two Piltovians turned around, they spotted the culprit high on the rooftops of the university:
Jinx. The Loose Cannon of Zaun
In her left hand, she was holding a giant weapon looking similar to Fishbones. Her right hand, the one she was currently using to point at the pair while in her laughing fit, was grasped onto a golden tube that had a glowing blue crystal in its center.
“Don’t you worry professor, I'll get it back.” The Piltovian man said to the yordle, as he started to give chase to the blue haired criminal.
“Do be careful!!” Heimerdinger called out to his younger colleague.
Seeing as she was now being pursued, Jinx took the opportunity to head off with the new device. Leaping down from a higher tower, The zaunite was skipping over various roofs, before she threw her weapon over a high section and vaulted over herself. While Jinx and her weapon had landed, her eyes were practically glued to the HexCore.
“You’re so pretty!”
Then, at that same moment, an idea popped in her head. This caused her to look at her newest weapon with curiosity and, of course, malicious intent.
“What if I transfer the energy to…”
After a series of wrenching, taping, and overall irritation, Jinx had modified her newest weapon with the core.
“Thank you Jinx for making me.”
“Oh no problem Mr. Sparkles. Now let’s start this party…”
The blue haired girl scanned various buildings to act as a target for testing the weapon. It wasn’t until one white tower, which wasn’t terribly far from where she was, stood out to her the most.
“...Perfect…”
Taking aim, Jinx started to charge up the weapon before eventually pulling the trigger. However, instead of firing a projectile towards the tower, the weapon had propelled itself out of Jinx’s hands and started flying above the various rooftops. The blue-haired outlaw only groaned in annoyance as she could do nothing but watch her hard worked weapon zip past like a balloon losing air.
The machine whizzed around in the air before flying by the assistant, who was in the middle of climbing up a ladder. However, seeing how the device would have eventually stopped, the young man could see how evidently pointless his ascent would be.
“...aww man…”
Due to the way it was constructed, the weapon started sputtering before rapidly decreasing in altitude. It whooshed and whizzed through various lower parts of the city, before entering a different area: Zaun. After a little while, ‘Sparkles’ landed in the Northside Heap, deep in a lower area of Zaun. The sound of the crash caught the attention of a certain white-mohawk man.
Upon investigating the site, Ekko quickly came across the Hextech Core. He could practically feel and hear the energy radiating from the device. Marveling at such technology, he thought for a moment before addressing his makeshift workbench.
“What if I redirect this? I might get more thrust to…”
This soon led to his own montage of attaching the Core to his one wheeled hoverboard. After some various tinkering, including methods involving wrenching screws in and welding other pieces together, Ekko brought out his ‘upgraded’ ride.
“Here goes nothing.”
Setting the skateboard down, Ekko hopped onto it. Immediately, it spurred to life and took off down the boardwalk at a decent speed. The ebony man was more than pleased with the results, chuckling as he continued to ride the machine down the path.
“Alright! Let’s see what this thing can do!”
Hitting a certain button with his right foot, it accelerated the machine’s speed significantly. Ekko had so much joy with his ride, he didn’t realize the end of the pier was rapidly approaching. Before he knew it, the rocketed skateboard hopped off the pier, skipped on the surface of the waiter, and accelerated up into the sky. Unfortunately for Ekko, he had no way of hanging on to the machine and fell back down to the water. Laying on a very shallow surface, he looked up to his creation weaving its way back up to the surface.
“Cool…”
However, this was at the same time Professor Heimerdinger’s Assistant was making his way to reach the lower levels of Zaun. As he was climbing down, the rocket flew past him, heading back up towards Piltover. This startled the young man at first, but after realizing what happened, he merely sighs and heads back to the surface.
It was now late at night, back in the University Courtyard. Defeated, the assistant walked up to the professor. The older yordle was leaning against his podium, observing Jinx’s contraption from earlier.
“I'm sorry Professor Heimerdinger, I guess I couldn't get it.”
Heimerdinger had a visibly saddened look while playing with the “tongue” of the contraption.
“It’s alright my young apprentice. But this is a most unanticipated outcome…”
A distant whirring sound caught his attention. As Heimerdinger looked up, he saw the rocketed skateboard flip around in the air before heading straight towards them. In a panic, he ran to the side as the out-of-control machine came crashing right where the yordle was just standing. Upon impact, bits and pieces of what used to be the ‘skateboard’ came off, leaving mostly the standing plate and thrusters intact with the Hextech Core.
Both Heimerdinger and his assistant looked over the contraption, taking notes on what was all there.
“What a clever design.” Heimerdinger stated. “Now, what if we adjusted the electromagnetic coils…”
His assistant seemed to understand where the professor was going with this. “It could generate enough energy to…”
~:~:~
It was now the next morning, and Progress Day was in full swing. Currently, Professor Heimerdinger was on stage in front of a decent sized crowd that had gathered for his showing.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, Behold!”
Suddenly, the assistant came flying up from behind the stage. He was on the hoverboard, but the device had gone through quite the improvement. Other than being fitted out in the iconic Piltover colors of blue and gold, it had a larger surface area to compensate for the power cell underneath and the 4 thrusters. The young man was doing all he could to stay on and have somewhat of control, given that there weren't exactly instructions on how to fly such a craft.
“The Power of Invention!”
Unfortunately, the device seemed to best the rider. Without warning, the assistant and the hoverboard shot out into the air, gaining altitude.
That whole presentation did not go unnoticed by other ‘viewers’, let alone another wanted man from the Undercity. Using a pair of binoculars, on a nearby rooftop, was the Toxic Wraith of Zaun himself: Jack. The man was no stranger to Progress Day. Hell, he takes some inspiration from other peoples designs and incorporates them with his own method. While Jack also knew that various people had taken inspiration from him, intentional or not, he wasn’t all that fond of it. To the young psychotic individual, the idea just strayed so close to proper plagiarism. So, like any other inventor, if there was one thing he hated when it came to making ‘unique’ creations, it was definitely the mindset that others stole the idea.
And low and behold, to his eyes, that very invention looked eerily similar to his own glider.
“Thieves” He muttered bitterly to himself. Putting the binoculars away, he turned and hurried to his glider. Starting up with a wicked growl itself, Jack took to the air in pursuit of the potential ‘copycat’.
“Hey!! Flying is MY schtick!”
Activating a contraption on his own flying machine, Jack's glider started shooting blindly in the direction of the Piltovian. Seeing as how the crazed Zaunite wasn’t caring about his tactics, the young assistant tried his best to maneuver out of the way from the bullets. As if he was already scared of flying an almost uncontrollable machine, the idea of another person on a type of hovercraft actively trying to kill him did not help in the slightest.
“You weaponize that hovercraft, I'm gonna sue!” Jack called out to the young man. “....and then just blow it all up anyway!”