Chapter Text
Jongup's muscles ache.
They always ache but now, now it was a deep enough pain to make him stop.
Police Officer Moon Jongup was in the gym of the Piltover Police Station, sweat beading over his bared arms as the punching bag sways in front of him. He leans on the heavy equipment as his biceps twitch with muscle cramps, trying to catch his breath to breathe through the sharp spasms.
"Hey! I've been looking everywhere for you." Captain Jung Hoseok says as he enters the room, his uniform shoes clicking against the linoleum floor. Jongup swallows and turns to look at his colleague, the room very literally brightening with his presence. Hoseok was a Light Mage, a normal person touched by natural magicks until they absorbed the element into themselves and could use it on command. Jongup wasn't a mage, but he was enhanced by other means and the nickel sized silver nerve ports dotting up and down his arms and over his back were a testament to those, very not natural, very human enhancements. Jongup nods briefly before pushing himself to stand up right again, biting down on his tongue as another ache pinged over his shoulder. "I wanted to congratulate you, Deputy."
Hoseok smiles brightly and Jongup lifts his hand to mockingly shield his eyes from the brightness of Hoseok's smile, returning it with one of his own.
"Thank you. It hasn't really sunk in yet though." Jongup says, patting the punching bag before wandering over to the wall and pulling a towel down from the shelves. He patted his face before draping the towel over his head. Jongup was promoted to Deputy directly under the Sheriff yesterday, and it was his first day in his new position. He realizes he still thinks of himself as a Captain. "How's Yoongi? Or Controller Min now?"
Hoseok laughs and leans against the wall, the blue of his Captain uniform almost matching the dark blue of the concrete walls. "Control Commissioner Min actually, he was so excited for his new position, this morning he spoke before his first coffee of the day. He set the table on fire when he did but-" Hoseok shrugs like it's not a big deal. Jongup has to guess it isn't, not with a half-dragon for a husband.
Jongup's enhanced, human created abilities were powered by attack damage, or AD for the technical abbreviation. Hoseok's naturally gained magicks were powered by ability power, or AP. Strength was measured in this way, AD or AP levels easily measured with the right hextech equipment. But for hybrids like Yoongi, half dragon, they had a power that was all their own and difficult to measure in any sense. Yoongi was a very powerful being, he was the Deputy of Piltover's Finest for over six years, ever since the Sheriff was appointed to the position by the Mayor. But as all things, Yoongi grew tired of the position and lobbied for the less stressful position of Control. Jongup was chosen by the Sheriff to take his place.
"I can hear you, you know." Yoongi's voice rang from the small speaker set into the wall nearest Hoseok, and the Captain covers the speaker with his hand.
"No you can't shh." Hoseok says brightly, and Jongup snorts a laugh into his towel as he sits down on a bench.
"You're a moron." Yoongi grumbles and its slightly muffled by Hoseok's hand.
"I love you too." Hoseok clicks back, removing his hand to kiss the speaker.
"Don't kiss that you don't know what's been on it- anyway I have actual news if you're interested in doing your job for once." Yoongi says, his tone of voice changing slightly. Jongup looks up in curiosity, his eyes finding the small video lens above the speaker. "The Sheriff just called all available officers to ready, there's a situation unfolding on the East End Docks. Captain Jung is to gather the rest of his team because Support Captain Park Jimin has been incapacitated and needs backup in the Markets on the North End, closer to Centuryview."
Hoseok nods, and Jongup can see his demeanor change from his friend Hoseok to Captain Jung.
"Understood. I'm on my way to the armory." Hoseok shoots Jongup one more smile before turning and leaving the gym, leaving Jongup sitting on the bench by himself.
"And that other thing you asked about Deputy, I have some news on that." Yoongi continues, Jongup straightening his back in attention. "Your new position allows access to files you're previously not privy to and in them I found something. I sent it all to your tablet to look over when you have time."
"Thank you Control." Jongup says as he stands up, pulling his shirt over his head and dropping it on the bench beside him.
"No problem kid. Sheriff wants everyone together in a half an hour, they're bringing out the big guns for this."
"I'll be ready in fifteen, with the biggest guns." Jongup adds, lifting his arm to flex it at the camera where he knows Yoongi is watching.
"Gross."
A click and Jongup knows Yoongi disconnected, the deputy's laugh echoing through the empty gym.
Jongup showers and gets dressed quickly after that, shrugging a jacket over his shoulders and forgoing putting a shirt on. He grabs his gym bag, throwing it over his shoulder and calling the high speed elevator. Normally, Jongup would be going to the tenth floor armory, but his weapons were too badly damaged after the last time he was on call and they had to be given to the Techmaturgial department for repair. Jongup would have repaired them himself but the lead of the Techma Department himself said he had plans for Jongup's arms. So instead of the armory, he called for the forty fifth floor instead.
As soon as he steps off the elevator into the rush and hustle of the one of the most advanced departments in the Piltover Police Force, a screech from across the room grabs his attention.
"Jonguppie!" Doctor Kim Taehyung shouts, getting up on his chair and waving his arms at the deputy. Jongup half smiles and breaks into a jog to get across the testing floor, dodging sparks and machinery from experimental hextech. Taehyung plops down in his chair again when Jongup steps up beside his table, waving dramatically at the gauntlets assembled on the surface. "I fixed it."
"All by himself and he didn't have any help at all." Yoo Youngjae adds dryly, adjusting his glasses as he sits on the other side of the table. Jongup nods in acknowledgement at the Detective, who blinks back at him.
"So, I reconstructed the right gauntlet as best as I could- you really destroyed them Jonguppie." Taehyung says, blowing past any icy look from Youngjae, and he pats his hands on the forearm of the giant mechanized hands. "How's the right tricep nerve port?"
Jongup slips one arm out of his jacket and lifts his arm, one of the small silver ports a little red around the edges. "It's healing well for having been ripped out two days ago."
Youngjae coughs, ducking his head down and Jongup raises his gaze to the Detective just in time to see a light dusting of pink over the tops of his cheekbones. But Youngjae lifts his head again and it's gone. "He wanted to install a siren... And a megaphone in the right hand."
Taehyung sighs and looks wistfully down at the weapons. "Yeah, but all we had time for was the blast shield."
The Doctor flips the connecting mechanism that plugs into the nerve ports on Jongup's spine over, tapping the new feature. It's a crystal blue light, deactivated and dark right now. Jongup raises his eyebrows in question. "Blast shield?"
"It should protect the softer parts of you when you're punching through walls." Youngjae explained, a beeping coming from the Detective's right sleeve distracting him. Jongup watches as Youngjae pulls up the sleeve of his uniform jacket, a complicated piece of hextech strapped to his forearm.
"Not that any part of you is soft, eh Guppie?" Taehyung adds, patting the Deputy's bared chest and smiling. Jongup chuckles in response, ducking his head bashfully. Taehyung looks over when the beeping on Youngjae's hextech doesn't stop, pushing his glasses back up. "What are you doing?"
Youngjae huffs as he taps a small glass dome on his hextech, the beeping getting more insistent. "I don't think the Z Drive is responding to your new addition. I told you I didn't need a damn siren on my stabilizer."
Taehyung climbs up onto the table, crawling over Jongup's gauntlets as he kneels over Youngjae to get a closer look. Youngjae is a Time Mage, an accident a few years ago leaving him unable to function without a Z Drive mechanism to anchor him to the present time. Over the years he's fiddled with the hextech enough to weaponize it and become a part of the Sheriff's taskforce, along with Jongup and three other officers. Taehyung lifts Youngjae's arm and the small Detective almost falls out of his chair as the Doctor twists a knob violently, and a small piece of tech pops out of the Z Drive and the beeping stops. "There, you big baby."
"Can I get help getting these on? Youngjae and I need to report in." Jongup says as he grabs onto one of the fingers on his left gauntlet and pulls the hextech closer to him. His gauntlets are his own design, five times bigger than his arms and ten times stronger. The nerve ports implanted in his muscles give him fast reaction time and reflexes, the armor making him able to take more damage and yeah, he really likes punching through walls. Jongup drops his jacket to the floor and slides his left arm into the correct gauntlet, wincing slightly as the hextech hissed to life and connected male ends into his female nerve ports. Taehyung hops off the table and picks up the back piece, gently placing it over Jongup's shoulders around his back and connecting it to the left gauntlet. Youngjae pushes the right gauntlet over and turns it, so Jongup just has to bend and slip his other arm inside.
"I need the armor from the table over there, bring it." Taehyung orders one of the many assistants bustling around the floor as he connects the right gauntlet to the back piece and holds it while the machinery slowly comes to life. "So we received a shipment of a new armor, it's Randiun Steel from Demacia. It's a lot heavier than what you're used to with the Deadman's Plate you use."
Jongup stands up as his fingers flex one by one, stretching his arms out to the sides as he got used to the weight of the heavy metal arms. "I don't want any Demacian garbage armor." Jongup grumbles. Taehyung knocks the Randiun Steel plate out of the assistants hands as they bring it up to him, the metal ringing through the whole hanger sized floor.
"Fine get the Deadman's Plate again, even though it's weaker." Taehyung amends, and the rest of Jongup's armor is quickly strapped to him. Youngjae gets off of his chair and goes behind Jongup to open the deputy's gym bag, pulling out the rest of his uniform once Jongup is fully armored. The Detective stands in front of Jongup and pins the new Deputy badge to the cloth covered plate, the green metal sigil of the Piltover Police Department gleaming in the bright light of the room.
"Are you ready Deputy Moon?" Youngjae asks, carefully inserting a receiver into Jongup's ear. Jongup smiles and Youngjae pulls goggles onto the deputy's head. Jongup suddenly gets an image of dating Youngjae, but it's gone as quickly as it came, a gummy smile and soft caring eyes flashing in his mind instead.
"Yeah, but I might fuck it up." Jongup says, smiling anyway. Youngjae pats Jongup's massive mechanical shoulder.
"It'll be okay. Probably." Youngjae says, trying to sound reassuring but sounding more sarcastic than anything. Taehyung is at Jongup's right side, tapping at the welded metal plate.
"Should be alright." Taehyung says with a nod.
The earpiece crackles to life in Jongup's ear and Yoongi's voice comes through, Youngjae tilting his head as it's broadcast to him as well.
"The Sheriff has a cruiser getting ready for you on the launch pad out of the Techma Department. It'll be ready to fly in a few minutes." Yoongi's voice drawls in his ear, and Jongup voices a confirmation. Youngjae turns and heads to the other side of the massive room, where massive blast doors were opening to reveal a launch pad hanging over the side, an open air cruiser being prepared by more scurrying assistants in white coats. Taehyung is already gone, the small Head of Department rushing off to check on another experiment or project or whatever mad scientists get up to when they have unlimited government funding. Jongup follows after Youngjae, kicking his gym bag under the table before going.
Jongup feels his data tablet vibrate with new information, and the deputy turns his gauntlet over to view it on the small screen on his wrist instead of trying to pull out his tablet.
When he reads it, he stops, his heart dropping down into his stomach.
"Deputy come on! We're leaving." Youngjae yells as he hops into the driver's seat of the cruiser. Jongup stares a bit longer at the personal file displayed on his screen, the face of a long lost friend staring up at him. Jongup hoped that with all the resources available to him, he would be able to find him after all these years but the file Yoongi sent him only made it worse. It was a closed file, a status stamp over the personal information glaringly red and final.
Choi Junhong, deceased.
Jongup drops his arm to his side and runs to the cruiser, grabbing onto the side and hauling himself into the back seat. He crouches down as Youngjae lifts them off, the sprawling City-State of Piltover rushing by them in massive buildings and other hover cars, but Jongup doesn't feel as alive as he used to upon seeing it all.
