Marvel: Playing Iron Man, Falling In and Out of Love with Jinx

"The Bandle City Museum—home to countless relics of the past!"

Standing proudly beneath a sign carved from sacred Ionia spiritwood, Heimerdinger beamed as he addressed Duke, Jayce, and Viktor. His voice carried the pride of generations. This museum was the culmination of countless Yordle expeditions, proof of their curiosity, their courage, and their legacy.

"Whatever it is, let's just hurry up and get inside,"

Duke muttered, his complexion pale and his gaze unfocused. His vision flickered constantly between two realities: the physical world and the spiritual one. One moment, Heimerdinger looked as usual. The next, he'd become a floating sphere with comical little mustaches dangling from its surface.

Seeing Duke's condition, Heimerdinger nearly jumped in fright. Just moments ago, this same young man had easily pinned Ziggs to the ground. Now, he looked as if he'd been awake for seven days straight and then forced to run a ten-kilometer marathon. His eyes were glazed, his steps wobbly.

"It looks like your magical affinity is reaching the verge of awakening," Heimerdinger said. "Hang in there just a little longer, Duke."

He motioned them inside. The moment Duke crossed the threshold into the museum, he doubled over and vomited, the surge of magical energy inside hit him like a tidal wave.

"Duke, are you alright?" Viktor rushed to support him. As someone who'd also grown up in Zaun, Viktor felt a natural kinship. Jayce, standing nearby, looked on with concern.

"I'm... fine, hurk!!"

Duke tried to compose himself but retched again. He forced a tight smile through the nausea. "Sorry, Professor Heimerdinger. I didn't mean to defile the place."

"No worries," Heimerdinger replied, hands behind his back, entirely unbothered. "This might become a fun story one day."

He'd seen worse, many Yordles born with innate magical potential responded even more dramatically to powerful mana fields.

"Let's move on, shall we?"

"Gentlemen, allow me to present our first exhibit, an ancient relic from the lost mages of Icathia."

Heimerdinger stood before a glass case containing a fractured stopwatch. The entire device was shattered into pieces, the hands floating slightly above the broken dial, severed, yet still strangely connected.

"This was unearthed by a few brilliant young Yordles during a dig in what was once Icathian territory. The mages of ancient Icathia were obsessed with manipulating time. We don't know how far they got, but this permanently fractured stopwatch speaks volumes."

Jayce leaned in, studying the relic. The shattered face of the watch exposed its inner gears, torn and displaced. The hands hovered as if frozen in time, locked one centimeter above the dial by some invisible force.

"Magic... can really do this?" he muttered.

Jayce and Viktor were both awestruck. Duke, meanwhile, leaned against a statue of a beast-headed warrior from Shurima to keep from collapsing. He looked at the sculpture, dazed, and asked with a crooked grin, "Ever heard of Nasus?"

"I've heard he was a scholar... and his brother has quite the temper, hurk!!"

Duke grabbed a nearby metal urn and threw up again. Heimerdinger turned to look and muttered, "That urn was once used by an Ascended to bathe before their ritual... It's thousands of years old."

"Shurima isn't fully extinct," Duke babbled, his mind hazy. "Their last emperor isn't quite dead. There are still Ascended out there. I'll get you a few to use as chamber pots, just wait!"

"His awakening is clearly affecting his mind..." Heimerdinger groaned, rubbing his face. "I might be regretting bringing him here."

"Will he be okay, Professor?" Jayce asked. Duke was now crouched on the floor, hugging the urn and giggling like a fool. Jayce felt a pang of worry, such a promising scientist, on the verge of losing himself.

"He'll be fine," Heimerdinger said. "It's just the surge of mana. His talent is beginning to manifest. Don't worry, Jayce."

"But you see now, don't you? This is what it looks like when a mage awakens. Do you still think controlling magic is safe?"

"I..." Jayce touched the band on his wrist, remembering the awe of witnessing magic for the first time, the joy of their successful experiment, floating with Viktor high above the lab.

His eyes firmed with resolve. "I still stand by my belief, Professor."

"If it can be used, it can be controlled."

Heimerdinger sighed. "There's just no changing your mind, is there?"

He turned and motioned for them to follow.

"Let's continue. I hope the next exhibit doesn't scare you off."

A little while later, Heimerdinger stopped in front of a shattered set of armor, gazing at his reflection in the glass with lingering dread.

"I found this armor during my youth, in Noxus. It's been tainted by black magic. Even now, its aura refuses to fade."

Viktor and Jayce exchanged glances, then stepped closer. The full-body armor bore deep gashes, especially across the chest, as if it had been raked open by a beast. The rest was scratched and worn.

Dark, violent energy swirled across the metal like black serpents, slithering endlessly around the armor's surface.

"Lemme see, lemme see..." Duke forced himself between them, his mind nearly detached from reality. Grinning foolishly, he slapped his hand on the glass and pressed his face against it, staring at the dark magic within.

"It's so... so... so..."

His eyes widened as he traced the magic's swirling patterns. In that moment, he saw countless anguished souls crying out in torment.

From within the cursed aura, a hulking figure in dark iron armor emerged. Its massive spiked hammer dragged behind it, wailing spirits bound to it in chains, their cries piercing the air.

Thud.

Thud-thud.

Thud-thud-thud.

Each step echoed in Duke's chest like a death knell. Then a pair of cold, merciless eyes locked onto him, eyes that seemed to peer across time and space itself.

The monstrous hammer rose.

Duke felt his soul being torn from his body by invisible, iron hands.

"I..."

"...see you."

Thump. Thump. Thump!

Duke's heart pounded like a war drum. His whole body trembled. His eyes stretched wide, and his mind felt pulled to the brink, like a taut wire ready to snap.

"Duke?"

Heimerdinger noticed something was wrong. "Duke! Are you okay?"

"He's really not looking good, Professor!"

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!"

Duke screamed toward the ceiling as his eyes burst with brilliant blue light. Mana exploded from within him like a starburst, washing over the room in all directions.

The blue wave surged through the museum, every relic it touched shimmered and... breathed, as if drawing the mana into themselves.

Duke rose into the air, glowing from his eyes, nose, mouth, his entire being radiating arcane light.

SCREEECH!

A sharp screech echoed. Heimerdinger looked toward the source, inside the glass case, the cursed armor had moved. What should have been lifeless steel now stirred with intent. Its arm raised, palm pressing against the glass, claws dragging slowly down.

"What's going on, Professor Heimerdinger?!"

Jayce watched in horror as withered roots sprouted new shoots, ancient masks blinked and whispered incomprehensible phrases, beast-headed statues lifted weapons and scanned the room.

An Ionian sculpture yawned. Noxian armors lifted their weapons. Demacian swords began to hum.

"It's like... the whole museum has come alive!"

Viktor swallowed hard and gripped his cane. Heimerdinger spun around wildly. "By the mechanical ancestors! It's Duke! His magic awakened everything, he's given life to the dead!"

"How is that even possible?" Jayce grabbed a sword to defend himself, but the blade buzzed with energy.

"Ready for a glorious battle?"

"Ah!" Jayce dropped the sword in shock. Viktor struggled to reason it all away.

"These artifacts were made of metal, stone, wood... How can they have life?!"

"I told you, it's magic!"

Heimerdinger shouted as the awakened relics began to approach.

"Magic defies all logic! Duke's power is extraordinary, he probably didn't even mean for this to happen!"

"Breathing life into dead objects... this is a miracle!"

"Miracle or not, it's out of control!"

"I've always said, magic is dangerous. Unpredictable!"

"Do you believe me now?!"

While Heimerdinger shouted, Duke stopped screaming and instead instinctively inhaled.

SHHHHHHHHHH!!

Every awakened relic glowed blue, and the glow began to siphon into Duke's mouth and nose. With each pulse of light drawn from them, the relics returned to lifeless silence.

The cursed armor broke through its case, reaching toward Heimerdinger, but before it could grab him, its light vanished and it collapsed, lifeless once more.

Thud!

Duke plummeted to the ground, unconscious.

"Finally... it's over,"

Heimerdinger slumped to the floor, wiping cold sweat from his brow.

"What the heck happened here?!"

A young Yordle girl stood at the entrance, riding atop a flying magical tome. A fluffy blue cat with glowing eyes perched at her side. Her face twisted in anger as she took in the wreckage.

"I can explain, !" Heimerdinger tried.

"I don't want to hear it!!"

With a slap to her tome, colorful magical light burst forth to a chorus of musical chimes, crashing over the group like a tidal wave.

"This whole mess proves one thing, gentlemen..."

As the magic wave approached, Heimerdinger straightened his coat and looked to Jayce and Viktor.

"Magic is very, very dangerous."

"...But a woman's wrath is even worse!!"

WHOOOOSH!

The wave of magic swallowed them whole.