The Good Life: Making Her Worse (ch. 132) (Patreon)

Asami had gone on and on about the consequences for using the serum. How it was for emergencies only. Then the plan they’d made to put Law in the dirt and kick over his little empire went to shit before they even did anything -- Law had gotten his dirty little hands on the Dias blueprints, and they couldn't risk him jumping ship before they put him down like the rabid dog he was. 

But, the truth of it was, Rumi always intended to use the serum. Consequences be damned. It hadn’t mattered to her a lick what they were, so long as it gave her the edge necessary to take down Law and his merry band of psychopaths, that was enough for her. Whatever the consequences would be, she'd take them on the chin. If she lived, then she lived. If she died, then she died.

Now, Rumi sailed through the air, looking at the shattered teeth of what was once a proud and prosperous city. Now it was just a warzone. People fought and died in the streets, struggling building by building, room by room. Even with a glance as she fell from the building she threw herself off of, it was obvious that Noxus was winning. They knew the Pilties were feeling the heat, and for all their resistance, they buckled under the pressure. 

It wasn't a question of who had more mages or suicide soldiers ODing on Shimmer. Or who had better tech or strategies. It was just a numbers game. 

“There you are!” Rumi smiled broadly, an unquenchable itch in her veins, spotting her prey. A big purple moron tearing through an Enforcer retreat in a very literal sense. He picked up a man, crunching bones effortlessly in his grip before a savage yank tore him in two with a spray of blood and gore. She landed lightly on a building, one of the few left standing around the Hex-Gate. The last defensive line the Enforcers were pulling back to in the face of a near-unstoppable push by Noxus. 

They might hold out for a day. Maybe two. 

But that was no concern of hers. 

The fragile brick of the building shattered from the force of her jump. There was a thrill of electricity coursing through her veins. Not for the destruction she left in her wake as she shot across city blocks like a missile, it was something far more fundamental than that. For her entire life, she had to be so very aware of everything around her. Her world was built for Quirks, but few could match the raw strength she had in her legs. Even when she fought her hardest, there was always some part of her in the back of her mind that reminded her to dial back her strength. To be careful. 

The serum Asami gave her silenced that voice for good, leaving nothing but pure exhilaration when she crossed the distance and spun sharply in the air to deliver a kick to the big purple guy's chest hard enough to shatter bone and send him flying back down the street. 

Laughter spilled from her lips, bubbling up from her chest and she just couldn’t keep it down. It was liberating in a way she hadn't dreamed of. 

“That can't be it!” Rumi shouted down the street. “You can't be dead already!" 

The rubble where the purple brick shit house landed shifted before her opponent emerged. His chest, which should be filled with nothing but perforated organs and bone shards, was already healed as if nothing had hit him. “Mundo not dead!” 

“Good,” Rumi shouted with genuine joy, paying no mind to the Noxian soldiers or the Enforcers. There was a twinge of old instincts -- Law gave her the opportunity to be a hero again. After locking her up like some animal. The cold-hearted bastard didn't do anything without ulterior motives, so he didn't win any points there for the ‘opportunity.’ Still, it would be an outright lie to say she agreed to fight for the sake of being a hero. 

She was here because there was a fight to be had.

Smiling so fiercely her face hurt, she threw herself at Mundo with all of her strength. Her smile only grew when he was able to react in time to throw up a sloppy block, only for her kick to tear through flesh and bone like a blade. Flesh rippled around the stump, faint pink steam alongside it before the arm regrew in a fraction of a second. 

Rumi flipped in the air, dodging a counter punch that Mundo started to throw alongside the block, and slammed her heel down upon his collarbone hard enough that she cleaved him down to the hip. Pinkish purple blood sprayed out, splashing over her face. 

And she laughed. 

“You're perfect!” Rumi hissed, giggles bubbling up. He was someone she could hit as hard as she wanted. No thoughts of restraint. No fussing over if he would survive or not. None of it mattered beyond satisfying the itch in her blood that ran so hot. 

“Thank you!” Mundo replied with a big dumb dopey smile on his face, not even noticing he had been split down the middle and lunging for her. He wasn't as fast as she was. Wasn't as strong either. But he could take a beating, and that's exactly what she delivered to him. 

The battle raged all around her, though a lot slower without Mundo to clear the way for the Noxian soldiers. Who was winning and who was losing was lost to her on the ground level. Even if it wasn't, Rumi wasn't sure if she had it in her to care. 

Not when she was too busy kicking Mundo down the street like a ball, basking in the sensation of getting to hit someone without any concern for their wellbeing. Without that little dreadful whisper in her ear that she needed to be careful. Mundo recovered, his bones reforming, the flesh mending and by the time she reached him half a block behind Noxian lines, he was lunging for her. 

He was trying to get a feel for her timing and movements. Not very well, but with a body like his, he got as many chances as he wanted. That much was confirmed when she went low to deliver a rising kick to the bottom of his jaw, shattering it and his skull, sending teeth and brain matter flying out. Mundo wavered, and for the briefest of seconds, disappointment rose in the back of her throat, only for Mundo to throw a sloppy uncoordinated punch at her, despite missing half of his brain. And his face. 

Rumi met the fist with one of her own. She wasn't a big puncher by nature, but she could still throw one deadly jab, something Mundo learned as his fist folded around hers like a pretzel. 

There wasn't any warning. Not really. Rumi didn't hear anything, she didn't smell anything, and she sure didn't catch a glimpse of anything from the corner of her eyes given her face was drenched in blood. Yet, all the same, Rumi's head snapped to the side just in time to bite down on the curved blade meant to behead her. 

Katarina's eyes widened at the blocked swing, and them further when cold steel shattered under her teeth. 

Rumi countered with a kick to the stomach, sending her across the street, and she nearly dismissed her altogether. The only reason she didn't was that Katarina landed on her feet after smashing into a brick wall. “How?” Katarina demanded, a hand clutching her gut. 

“Instinct,” Rumi answered, feeling light as a feather. Mundo was her promised kicking bag, but he didn't have that edge. He couldn't give her what she really wanted. 

A fight. A fight to push her to her limits and beyond. A fight where she would win or die. Where she would have to use every ounce of strength, use every trick and skill, and still dig deeper to survive, much less win. 

She didn't think Katarina could give her that fight. She had the instinct, maybe, but if a little kick like that had her on her knees, then she didn't have the raw strength Rumi was looking for. 

“But…” Rumi continued out loud, her red eyes gleaming. “If you butt in on my fight, then you only have yourself to blame, right? Right?!” 

Rumi hated Law, but she hated him for very different reasons than Asami did. Asami hated him out of guilt -- for enabling him in any way to push her own agenda, and for allowing Law to misuse the Dias. Turning a tool intended to bring them all to their home universes into a tool of conquest. 

Rumi hated him because every time that idiot ran his mouth about what she really wanted and who she really was… his words resonated with her. They touched a raw nerve. He was giving her an answer to a question she had asked herself since she was a snot nosed punk hustling money in underground quirk fight rings. 

Was she a hero because she wanted to help people? 

Or was it just a means to legally fight and use her Quirk? 

It pissed her off to hell and back that Law was actually right. Asami had talked her ears off about heightened aggression and blah, blah, blah. But the truth is -- it was just amping up everything that was already there. 

She. Just. Wanted. To. Fucking. Fight. 

…

Vander used to tell Vi that there were some fights that weren't worth fighting and some that were, and part of growing up was learning the difference between them. Vi hadn't really understood what he was trying to get at back then. She was a teenager, one filled with enough energy that Vi’d felt like she had it in her to fight the whole world and win. Young arrogance caused by ignorance. 

Vi was a little older now. Maybe a little wiser. And now, she just wasn't sure the fight she was in was worth fighting. 

She didn't mean the war. Honestly, since Noxus pulled out of the Promenade, Vi couldn't really give a fuck about the war. That could be a Topsider problem. Maybe the Undercity could finally grow into itself without their boot on their necks. 

Vi didn't mean a physical fight either. That would have been easier to deal with. If it were just fists and brawn, spit and blood, she could fight. She could fight all day. Fighting itself -- that had never scared her. Never bothered her. Violence was just another language in the Undercity. One Vi spoke fluently. 

What Vi meant was an emotional battle. A will to resist. To dig in, fortify, and, no matter how tempting it became, to just grit her teeth and soldier on. 

Growing up in a bar, Vi hadn't realized it at the time, but she saw plenty of people choosing not to fight a battle that they really should. Anger took energy most people couldn't spare, so they dragged their feet to the local waterhole and drowned their sorrows. Or they went to any corner in the Undercity to find salvation in a syringe full of the drugs that plagued streets back then, before Shimmer pushed them all out.

Vi hadn't understood it. Not really. She didn't understand how anyone could be so weak that they could destroy themselves chasing a high. How anyone could look at themselves in the mirror and still choose to just give up. She understood a bit more now. More than she wanted to, honestly. Only her poison wasn't booze or Shimmer, though she would admit a fondness for the former. The drug that was destroying her life had a name. 

Tifa Lockhart. 

Vi was drowning in pleasure, feeling Tifa's lips leaving a trail of kisses down her neck, her hands roaming her body before delivering a sharp slap to her ass. Vi was no blushing virgin, but Tifa made her feel like one when she pushed Vi onto the bed. Her blood felt hot in her veins, on the verge of overheating, and she could feel how wet she was as Vi crawled back until her back hit the headboard. 

Tifa was gorgeous in a way that Vi could scarcely believe. Even days after they met, Vi was still half convinced that she was some Noxian psy-op to seduce her into giving over military secrets she didn't have. A good thing too, because when Tifa crawled forward with a naughty little smirk on her face, her hands gliding over her thighs to her pussy that ached to be touched before she leaned in to drag her tongue over her weeping slit and throbbing clit -- Vi would have told Tifa anything if she asked right then.

“Gah- fuck! Fuuu…!” Vi's breath hitched, her hands curling at the bedsheets, her hips rising to Tifa's mouth. The woman was sex on legs, and she knew what she was doing. There was a smile in her gaze when her tongue swirled around Vi's clit like a master, heat pooling in her stomach that Vi knew would come gushing out in seconds. 

It was a fire that had cold water thrown over it when the door of her apartment was thrown open, and the other poison in her life barreled on in. 

“Oh, would you two give it a rest already!” Jinx exclaimed, rolling her eyes with an exaggeration that almost felt familiar. Like the Powder she used to know instead of the twisted parody that was Jinx. “We gotta go! Noxus is launching a whole invasion, butt-munchers. Sheesh!” 

“Sorry,” Tifa muttered, pulling back, and Vi let out a groan of frustration. “I got ahead of myself.” 

“I know you did, sugar tits,” Jinx said, crossing the room with three quick strides and closing behind Tifa to sink her hands into her soft breasts. “But Jessie is already fighting the good fight. I just came back to pull you sluts out of bed.” She clicked her tongue, playing with Tifa's nipples like they were toys. 

Vi looked away sharply, a volatile toxic mess of emotions simmering in her chest. She couldn't tell where her jealousy began, and her rage ended. Swallowing it down, Vi stood up and grabbed a shirt, “What's the point? Piltover or Noxus -- we secured our side of the river. The bridges are ours. Let them fight it out who gets to own that ruin.” 

“Because,” Jinx said, but Vi barely heard her. Tifa swallowed down a moan, but Vi still heard it. “Law says Zaun needs to rise to the occasion! We save the Topsiders and we save the day! Then we sing songs, hold hands, and have a massive orgy.” 

Vi paused getting dressed, glancing at Jinx, even though she almost immediately regretted it when she saw the bliss in Tifa's face when Jinx was edging her close to an orgasm just by playing with her nipples. “That last bit didn't sound rhetorical.” 

Her sister was well and truly broken. A kind of broken there wasn't a way to make better. If Vi was smarter, then she would have walked away when Jinx kissed her for the first time. Instead, she… 

She couldn't just abandon her sister. Not again. Not when she could see the terrible damage it had already done to Jinx. But she didn't have it in her to fight Jinx's madness. Not when Vi knew it was a battle lost long before she escaped Stillwater. Leaving Vi… stuck. 

Tifa came with a small shudder, her arousal trailing down her inner thigh in a slow drop. All the while Jinx laughed at the observation, “If you wanna find out, then you'll have to follow me~!” With that, she spanked Tifa on the ass before skipping back to the door. “I'll be in my laboratory! Be there in five, or I'll leave you behind!” 

Vi sighed when the door slammed shut behind her, leaving her and Tifa alone. All hot and bothered. 

“After,” Tifa whispered, stepping in close and giving Vi a quick kiss that made her feel all gooey and soft. She kinda hated it but she loved it a lot more. 

“I'll hold you to it,” Vi replied, looking forward to this whole invasion being over and done with. Then she could just spend her days getting drunk enough she didn't have to think or getting her brains fucked out of her so hard she couldn't even if she wanted to. 

Sharing a quick smile, they got dressed quickly before making their way out of their place. The full face masks were a necessity these days -- the Cloud was held at bay by the Gray, but it wasn't perfect. Sometimes the wind stirred them both up, letting the Cloud fall a bit further. The only way they had to combat it was to pump all the Gray to the upper levels. 

Mad as it was, the Sump probably had cleaner air than the rest of the Undercity these days. 

They walked through a gray haze, just barely able to see a dozen feet in front of them. Still, that was enough. 

“Get in there!” An Enforcer shouted, waving a beatstick at a bunch of strung-out Shimmer addicts. Part of High Councilor Caitlyn's initiative to clean up the Undercity! By volunteering all the dregs of society, pumping them up with Shimmer, and then just throwing them at the enemy as suicide soldiers. 

It felt like it was something tailor-made to piss her off. But Vi just looked away from the sight of the addicts being herded into a cart three times too small for the number of people in it. For a moment, Vi felt lesser for it. But she swallowed that feeling down and buried it alongside all the others. 

Jinx’s lab was a madhouse in a very literal sense. Her flesh crawled every time Vi saw it, and unbidden, her gaze drifted over to the… dolls that were arranged in a casual display. A sight Vi must have seen a thousand times before -- Mylo with his feet up on a table while Claggor was seated on the other side of the couch. 

Her stomach churned at the sight, and Vi had to rip her gaze away from the macabre display. A monument to Jinx’s madness. When Vi saw it the first time… when she saw Jinx treating those dolls as if they were the real Mylo and Claggor… That had probably been when it settled in that there was no helping Jinx. There was no saving her. The most she could do was be along for the ride until Jinx delivered them both to an early grave. 

“Vi?” Jinx called out, standing on the contraption that sat in the heart of the deep cavern Jinx built her lab inside of. Vi wasn’t entirely sure what it was, only that it was loosely secured in place with cables suspended over a pitch-black abyss. 

“What are we doing?” Vi asked, rolling her shoulders and swallowing the bile that tried to climb up her throat. If Jinx suspected something was wrong, she didn’t show it in favor of offering a broad smile. 

“We’re riding to battle! In style!” Jinx declared, pulling a lever. For long second, Vi thought it was a bust. But then she felt the air stir sharply, along with the sound of- Vi glanced over the bridge to realize there were propellers haphazardly slapped onto… 

“An airship?” Vi realized with something resembling a laugh as she stepped onboard. 

“Of my own design!” Jinx confirmed with a cackle. Then she blinked, “But I suppose that wouldn’t reassure you, would it? Don’t worry, Vivi! My inventions don’t explode anymore. Unless I want them to! Usually!” 

It was almost enough to feel normal. Or something resembling it. Vi rolled her shoulders, her armored sleeves a familiar weight these days. She grabbed a laser minigun, letting out an appreciative whistle as the balloon overhead inflated. She’d rather be in bed with Tifa and getting her brains fucked out. However, throwing herself into the thick of a fight wasn’t a bad alternative. 

The cables broke off the airship by design once it had enough lift to escape the deep cavern it was hidden inside. Jinx didn’t know the first thing about stealth, but she could admit her sister knew how to make an entrance by blaring music as loud as the speakers could make it while they flew towards the battlefield. 

It was a real mess. There was fighting everywhere in Piltover beneath them, but it was at its fiercest just outside of the Hex-Gate. Law’s last remaining airship floated in the air, serving as the last line of defense. One that was faltering by the looks of things because she saw smoke rising up from the ship even as it continued to fire down on the Noxus soldiers below. 

Their arrival was greeted with a hail of arrows, bullets, and bolts of glowing red and green, making Vi’s stomach clench a bit as she realized Noxus had gotten their hands on laser and plasma guns. They cut through the air, either racing by her or slamming into the ship itself. Vi repaid the favor, sending down dozens of laser beams from the minigun- honestly, she wasn’t a fan. She liked the feeling of recoil when shooting a big gun. 

Still, it got the job done, sending the Noxus soldiers scurrying for cover. At least most of them. 

“What is that?” Vi blurted, adjusting her aim when she saw a big furry wolf-looking guy running up the side of a building before sprinting across it. At first, she just thought he was a hairy guy, but while her eyes followed him, Vi realized that he was actually a wolf man. Some kind of werewolf vastaya? Something like that. 

More than that, Vi realized he was aiming for them. Building up speed and getting an angle to-

“Oh no, you don’t,” Vi said, adjusting her aim to fire down at him. Dodging the lasers were impossible, but the wolfman didn’t even try. He just howled with anger, each laser scouring his flesh and singeing his fur. It didn’t slow him down either. Reaching the edge of a rooftop, the wolfman threw himself into the air with shocking strength, lunging for the airship. Vi fired at him, scoring a half dozen shots into his chest before she was forced to duck under his lunging claw that just about too her head off. 

Rolling to her feet, she stood across from the werewolf with a grin on her face. 

“Bad move, big guy,” Vi said, leveling her minigun at him, even as he towered over her by a good couple of feet. There was a frenzied madness in his eyes. She didn’t know what he was. Who he was. 

Vi just knew she was going to kill him.