Chapter Text
“So, where did you say you found this guy?”, the buff, rugged looking man asked the show owner, Benzo as Viktor stood there trying to not look intimidated. Though having to lean on a cane certainly didn’t ooze confidence from him. He gulped as he watched the man inspect him with his eyes. After a while of staring at him, the man spoke again. “So, what is he good at? I doubt with a leg like that he can go *gather* scrap and such”, the man was looking at the owner who shrugged and looked from the man back to him.
“From what I’ve seen, he’s pretty good at crafting. Wherever he was hiding the past years, he seems to have learned a lot. Even Ekko’s genius can’t match his.”, the shop owner said as he chuckled a bit.
“Nuh-uh! My inventions are amazing! There is no way I’d lose to some newbie”, a kid said as he popped up from the back room with oversized gloves on his hands. Viktor held back a smile as he remembered when he first worked with singed. He was probably around this boy’s age.
“Oh, come now, Ekko~ Didn’t you always say you wish there was someone who could help you with your inventions. How about you give him a chance?”, Benzo offered, chuckling a bit towards the kid who crossed his arms over his chest.
“Fine, he has one invention to make to convince me we can keep him. Come with me, new guy. The lab, slash, storage, slash, workshop is over here”, the boy said as he disappeared behind the door. Viktor looked towards the door confused before looking towards the two older men who just nodded and motioned towards the door with their heads. With a deep breath, Viktor headed there, entering the room after the boy.
The backroom wasn’t big. But it had a long desk with some scrap, screws and other things lying around. The white haired boy brought a small crate of various more scrap and placed it on the desk before looking at Viktor and motioning him to it all.
“Amaze me. Show me if you’re so good that you’re better than me”, Ekko said before dropping into d armchair that was placed there, probably for Ekko to rest or nap while working, seeing how comfortable he made himself in it.
Viktor slowly approached the table, picking up a few scraps in his hand, looking over some other items as well. Slowly, all nervousness and anxiety left him as his mind booted up into inventor mode. He did not have any blueprints here, so he was going to have to go off of memory and creativity alone, but if his years with Singed taught him anything, it was that he had plenty of both of those.
His mind completely shut off all other sounds as all his focus was on the clinking of metal and connecting what he could, drilling holes where needed and attaching scrap to scrap in various ways possible. After around 2 hours of tinkering, he stepped away from the table as he turned towards Ekko. “It’s done”, he said simply.
The boy, jumped off of his chair as he approached him to see just what he made. There on the table laid a metal… ball? “Is that all?”, Ekko asked, almost in disbelief as he turned to look at Viktor who had a small smirk. The young inventor reached for the ball and turned the top and bottom half of it in different directions before setting it down on the table again.
The invention’s top part began spinning before it spread and flew off from the table, flying upwards a bit before the spin of it’s blades on top didn’t slow down and Viktor carefully caught it as it started falling back down.
“It’s not perfect, but it’s a toy I made to play with Rio… A friend of mine”, Viktor spoke reminiscing of the past when Rio and him were able to play actively, the doctor sometimes joining them as well. His family. He was snapped back to reality as Ekko slammed the door open, jumping out and almost scaring Benzo.
“We’re keeping him. And I wanna introduce him to Powder, and Vi and others. They are gonna love him!”, Ekko said excitedly before clearing his throat, “I-I mean, he is not better than me, I could make such a trick too, i-if I was his age. So just wait, when I turn 18 I will be a much better inventor than him!”
Viktor couldn’t hold back from chuckling at that. If only he could’ve had the confidence of this kid. “It’s a deal. And to make sure of that, we could even aim to get you into Piltover’s finest academy”, Viktor said, getting out of the room before slapping a hand over his mouth as he was welcomed again by the sight of two strong men at the counter. Damn, he hated his fear of people and shyness.
“Hm? You think our Zaunite kids could get there? Then how come you aren’t on your way there?”, the owner asked, intrigued now that the newbie was actually talking.
“I-I… There is no way for people like me up there. I am just a Zaunite cripple. Best I could do is help out here, maybe teach someone younger and fitter to go up there and show them that Zaun is not a b-bunch of nobodies”, Viktor said as he looked down, biting his lip as he felt that he said too much. Living so long only having to talk to one person wasn’t helpful in curing anxiety.
“Hey now! You shouldn’t talk that way about yourself, young man. See, if you can make great inventions even down here, from scrap metal, without proper funding and whatnot, you’re better than a Piltovian with books and all their studies tenfold. You just have to have confidence. Like Ekko here.” the buffer one said as he patted the kid’s head, who in turn chuckled happily, standing proud.
Viktor could only nod his head. Unsure what to say and too shy to even say anything. “Listen, we’re gonna help you get some of that confidence up. Tomorrow evening, you three should come over, and we’ll have one big family dinner. So you can meet the rest of the rascals. The name’s Vander, by the way. Be free to stop by ‘The Last Drop’ if you ever need me or some help in our grand Undercity.”
“Viktor, no need to be so nervous, they’re gonna love you”, Ekko said as he took his new older brother towards the bar. Ekko had kept him holed up in the workshop the whole day as they made stuff together. Ekko got him to make another one of the flying ball toys because he wanted to show Powder.
“I don’t know about that, Ekko. I mean…”
“Stop.”, Ekko cut him off as he gave him a soft glare, “We are gonna start working on your confidence starting now. You are forbidden from saying anything bad about yourself.”
“Ekko that’s not how it works”
“You’re gonna be a toughie.”, Ekko said with a sigh as they reached the bar with the closed sign on. Viktor was about to ask Ekko to go back, but then a pink haired girl bust through the door.
“Aye! Is this him? The new guy?”, she asked as she inspected him top to bottom, “Hmm, doesn’t look like a good scavenger”
“That’s ‘cause he won’t be one. He’s an inventor. He makes stuff! Come, I’ll show you!”, Ekko said as he pulled Viktor in past the girl. He led him to the table where three other kids seemed to be sitting. The white haired boy went straight to the blue haired smallest girl and sat next to her. He pulled out the two balls and gave one to the girl to show off.
“Ah Viktor, glad you could make it, though I’m guessing Ekko just dragged you along”, Vander greeted from the kitchen as he carried the food over to the table. Viktor laughed awkwardly at that.
“He said I-I had to come or else he will show me what Vi taught him”, Viktor said as he tried to relax a bit, but there was just so many new faces around him. He was very, very unused to so much company. The pink haired girl slipped into an open seat, leaning on her hand while resting her elbow on the table as she watched Viktor sit down carefully.
“Well, Viktor, The name’s Vi, and that’s Mylo, Claggor, and the girl’s Powder. You don’t look familiar to me, where’ve you been your whole life?”, Vi asked straight to the point. Viktor knew it was very suspicious for someone his age to just appear like that in Zaun, usually meaning he was a Piltovian recently exiled down there. He gulped softly as he looked down at his hands.
“I…”, he could feel everyone’s eyes on him, “I spent my days with Doctor Singed. As his assistant. I didn’t go out that often and in the end, doctor told me that I am wasting my potential staying down there with him and that I should use it to help the people of Zaun instead”. As he finished talking, he raised his head a bit to see the reactions. The kids were confused, obviously not knowing who Singed is, but Vander was nodding his head softly.
“A’ight. There you go Vi, he just lived in the lowest of Zaun. Plus, with his leg in such a condition, you wouldn’t have seen him jumping from building to building”, Vander said, placing the food down as the kids poured it in their plates before even waiting for Vander to tell them to do so. Viktor waited for everyone to take food before doing it himself.
“Can you, uhm, can you help me with my inventions too? I want to make working contraptions, but they keep failing”, the girl called Powder spoke as she shyly looked at him. Viktor couldn’t help but smile softly and nod.
“Of course. I will be at Benzo’s, so you can drop by, and we can work on them together.” he didn’t even finish his words as he saw the girl’s eyes light up happily. He didn’t miss the small smile that grew on Vi’s lips either at seeing the other girl happy.
“So, we can call you ‘teacher’?”, Ekko asked, and Viktor’s smile grew a bit more.
“How about ‘professor’”, Viktor offered, and Ekko and Powder both nodded their little heads, trying out the word a few times while giggling.
“Professor or not, you all should eat now before the food grows cold. And later you can show him to the basement and your things if you want to”, Vander said as he moved around the table and placed a hand on Viktor’s shoulder. “As for you,”, Viktor felt his blood run cold, “we really have to work on your confidence, my boy. Else, Zaun will eat you alive”. Viktor relaxed a bit as Vander finished speaking but nodded a bit. He knew more than anyone that, being as he is, he won’t get that far out here.
"So, you see. If you make this lever here, react to this gear turning, once you throw the bomb, it'll trigger the hatch, opening it. But, if we attached this gear to another, making both rotate together and move this down here, opening it won't just make stuff fall out, but it'll shoot out. Depending on what's inside, it can even explode.", Viktor showed the two eager kids, using a thin metal stick to point at gears inside the mechanism. It was their second 'lesson' where Powder joined them, so Viktor can help her make her machinations better. The kids were watching in awe as Viktor demonstrated both just opening, and firing a small ball up. He made sure he didn't fire it too strong, as he didn't want to destroy anything in the workshop.
"So that's what I did wrong. Thanks, professor", the small girl said before wrapping her arms around his waist, a small blush coloring her cheeks. Ekko seemed to pout a bit at the sight, before there was a bell ring from the door.
"I'll go get it", Ekko said, his voice noticeably angrier than usual, Viktor noted. The boy left the room, going to the desk to greet the new customer. Viktor heard the voice of a man, roughly his age, but with a… proper accent. Maybe even a bit posh. Must be a Piltovian he concluded. He showed Powder to be silent as they sneaked up to the door, peering out to see how the new customer looked like.
In the middle of the shop there stood a tall, seemingly buff man. He wore a black button-up shirt, a red tie and a white vest, matching his white pants. It looked like a uniform of some kind. His hair was properly slicked back, a clean-shaven face. He was a rather attractive man, not that Viktor would or could come out and say something.
Seeing the smirk on Ekko’s face as the trade was going on, Viktor could easily tell that the kid was ripping the guy off. As the guy left, Ekko strolled back to the back room with a smirk.
“Guys from above are so stupid sometimes”, he said with a chuckle.
“How much?”
“300%. With your inventions for sale as well, the shop is earning so much more. But even better than that”, Ekko made a pause to build up tension around it, “I have the man’s address uptown. We can send the gang to take the stuff back, easy profit for nothing”. Viktor chuckled at that. The poor man had no idea what he just did to himself. Not only money, but his valuables will be gone too. And knowing the gang’s track record, they will be in and back to Zaun in less than an hour.
“Ooh, maybe this time I’ll get to go with them! I can bring my upgraded gadgets to help us out! And professor’s stuff as well”, Powder exclaimed excited. She always wanted to go to Piltover for a job like that, but she was always too young and not ready. Well, now she was ready.
“Just take care, Powder. I’ll also give you a list of things that could be useful for us here, so you can keep an eye out for those, alright?”, Viktor asked to have the girl nodding happily. He reached out and patted her on the head a bit. Seeing Ekko pouting as well, he reached over and patted him as well, getting a soft blush from the boy as well. A smile grew on his face as he moved his hands from the kids’ heads before pulling them in for a hug. Both of them gasped, surprised, before hugging him back.
“Professor?”, they asked almost in unison, confused.
“You are both amazing, don’t forget that. I will make sure all of your dreams are fulfilled one day”, Viktor said with a smile. When he was just leaving Singed, he never expected to be accepted in Zaun so easily and openly, but with these kids, with Vi, Mylo and Claggor as well, Vander and Benzo… He felt like he found what he had always been looking for.
A big family. Younger siblings he can play with and invent stuff.
And he had Singed to thank for it. If his dad didn’t send him out to find his place in Zaun, he would still be working down there and trying to find a cure for Rio with him. He wondered how Rio was, but his mind snapped back to the here and now as he pulled back from the group hug with a huge smile on his face.