Ekko was the one she sat on when he annoyed her. The one she wrestled with and argued with. It was nice not to feel like the youngest, just stuck tagging along. The playing field was even when they battled.

And someone was hurting him. 

Powder found an older boy and his friend, the friend had large droopy ears and a sad droopy nose. The guy holding Ekko’s arm behind his back was not very tall but he was dense and moved slowly. Powder watched Droopy look through Ekko’s bag.

“There’s nothing good here, Dekker, let him go.”

“No. Keep looking, he has something, I know he does.”

“No,” Powder said, coming out from her vantage point, hearing Vi scream in her ear no. no. don’t do that. just stay hidden. i’ll take care of it. “He doesn’t have anything, Benzo doesn’t give him anything good to carry, he’s really stupid.”

“Shut up, Powder,” Ekko said, “What are you doing? Go away.”

But his arm was being twisted at such a weird angle. And Vi also told her, we don’t leave people behind, powder, okay? you never leave someone behind.

Powder’s heart began to pound when Dekker told Droopy to get her. Just to put her somewhere where she wouldn’t be a problem. Check her bag too. But Droopy was less enthusiastic about intimidating children. Power wasn’t a child anymore, though. She was twelve. And twelve meant she was old enough. For what? Hard to tell, it was just… old enough. The two boys weren’t much older, fourteen… maybe fifteen? 

“Look, we won’t hurt your friend-”

“You’re already hurting my friend,” Powder snapped, “And Vander is going to kill you. If my sister doesn’t… and she will.”

Power did begin to panic here, just a little bit. Because Vander wasn’t coming, Vi wasn’t coming, and she could only bluff for so long. The boys both stiffened at Vander’s name but that wasn’t the same thing as stopping. Now Dekker was holding Ekko down but he was also looking at her. So she caught Ekko’s disapproving eyes. Tried to think. 

“I could scream,” Powder said, “That will bring them both here really fast. Do you want me to do that? You could lose a couple teeth for the low, low price of some copper wire and broken Piltover garbage?”

“Don’t scream,” Ekko managed to say and Powder shot him a look but he sounded weird, “He’s going to kill them. They don’t understand. You know how Vander is.”

Powder skirted the wall, trying to come a little closer to Ekko without startling the two boys, now watching her uncertainly, “He has these metal gauntlets, and he just sort of… picks them up,” she bent her knees and did a tiny movement that somehow conveyed slipping her hands into something and it being very heavy when she lifted them, “like they weight nothing. And they don’t. For him. But teeth-” she tapped her front tooth, “Cheekbones… jaws… they tend to be a little more delicate. Mandibles, in particular… ” it was a new word and she said it like she liked it, her next two steps to Ekko almost had a swagger, “I don’t think copper is meant for wiring jaws shut, but if that’s all you got, then that’s all you got, you know?”

“Shut her up,” said Dekker, his fear making him angry.

“Run,” Ekko said, his fear making him brave.

“Don’t fight and we won’t hurt you-” Droopy said, his fear making him hesitate. 

“Watch your jaw,” Powder said, her fear making her incredibly, incredibly stupid. She swung her backpack, filled as it was monkeys and mice and chomping things, wrenches and bolts and yes, wires. She swung it with all the force of a twelve year old girl who was incredibly frightened. And then she grabbed her pliers from her pocket, the ones with Ekko’s name circled even though they should have her own name, and she dove for Ekko. 

Powder had done two things that Vi wouldn’t like. One, she joined a fight she couldn’t finish and two, she blocked her own exit. You could do one and be okay, you couldn’t do both. But Ekko was there and Dekker was watching her, his hands were lighter on him , and Ekko could be slippery. She could be quick. As soon as Ekko could run, they would run.