Welcome to Runeterra

Piltover, the city of progress, once a part of the whole, now divided into two. The Undercity or as the residents of said place like to call it, Zaun and the Topside. Where men and women are borne luckier and richer.

The twin cities maybe divided, but they share the same ruling body. At least, on paper. Seven council members ruled Piltover and the Undercity. In reality, the undercity was ruled by a man and half a dozen chem-barons.

But we are not here to talk about the council or Piltover. We're here to talk about the Undercity named Zaun by the brothers and sisters whose blood, sweat and tears soaked in the very bedrock of the place.

Zaun... is not a nice place. The food is bad, the air is barely breathable in the lower levels, only a few places are actually safe and the people are indifferent or they are out to get you. It's not a friendly place as you can imagine.

Doubley for those from topside. Even more so for a poor soul now getting chucked into the world for no other reason than because some people are not satisfied that Arcane ended in two seasons. Or at least not happy that 60 minutes of Jinx and Ekko bonding was cut off from the final cut.

But anyway, the poor soul is now here and locked into his new destination. A pair of revolutionary people. Man and Woman, husband and wife. One of whom is now giving birth to our protagonist.

The woman, named Inna was in labor for the past few hours. Her pale hair's a mess and her face and lips are pale with exhaustion. Paler than anyone of her tone of skin has any right to be.

Such things are common in a world where modern medicine and methods are not invented yet. Woman from the past struggled in childbirth. The death rate is too high. Espacially if the labor last too long. Women died from a combination of Pain, Exhaustion and bloodloss.

But she was determined to make through this alive and healthy. She did not dare to leave her poor husband and child alone to bear the burden of this unforgiving city. Her husband, who is currently on her bedside. One of his arm in a hasitly made sling after she broke it during a particularly violent contraction.

She swored to herself to make it up to him later before another wave of contraction made it's way through her. But she could feel it. This is it.

"Push Girl! It's coming out. Just one more. C'mon. PUSH!" screamed a Yordle.

Not just any Yordle. She was Madame Babette. Basically the oldest hooker in Zaun. And a friend of the family. Beside her is her bodyguard/co-worker, a heavily muscled women, dressed in the same vein as the Yordle.

Inna screamed at the Yordle in response her womb finally finished pushing out the baby. Babette quickly cut the cord with the boiled siccors, clean the baby, smack it's bottem with experience born out of helping the younger hookers with their pregnancies. That or her centuries long life had her picking things along the way but most definitely the former.

Inna's husband, Wyeth, finally gathered his wits to help out. Understandable, the poor man just watched his wife shit out a baby, Babette bemusedly thought.

"Here, be careful of his neck-Oh I almost forgot! It's a BOY!" She yelled the last part in half faked/half serious enthusiasm before the little guy screamed at the top of his lungs. Understandable with the Chemical filled air and his sensitive newborn skin.

"And a loud one at that." She thought outloud as she handed the baby over. Wyeth looked over his son. Indeed the baby was loud but he could have sworn that it was echoing thorough the whole district.

But he looked over his son to commit this moment to memory. This is his son's first declaration to this world. His son. His legacy. He looked up to his life. 'No. Our legacy'

His child took after him in looks, his dark skin, his dark eyes, the only hint he could see of his wife in his son is the hair. They are already thick in volume. Curly tuff of hair, white in color, covered his son's head.

"*hah Don't...*hah* hog *hah*... him to yourself, Wyeth. " His wife's voice broke him out of the trance. He looked up again to see her stretching out her arms in a silent demand.

He wordlessly walked over and passed their son over to his mother. As he looked over the mother-son duo, he saw Babette and her obscenely muscled associate leaving the room. Giving the family privacy.

"...He's perfect. Thank you, my love, for bringing him into this world." Wyeth told the love of his life as the baby cried again.

"Maybe he's hungry." Inna told her husband as she took out one of her breast to feed their child. His cries quietening as soon as he got some food in his stomach.

"What do you want to name him? I know we talked about this before but Felicia was right. It's hard to think that a single choice will be with him forever and I'm afraid it'll be the wrong choice." Inna admitted as she looked at the feeding baby. Deep in her own thoughts.

"...how about Ekko?" Her husband hesitantly said as she looked up to his face. A hesitant smile on him. And she couldn't help but chuckle.

"Is this because of how loud he cried before?" She asked amusedly. Giving her husband a half lidded stare.

"..."

"..."

"...Maybe.." Wyeth admitted, a little guilty as that was what he decided the name on. But at that time he was thinking something cool like; His son declaration of arrival on this godforsaken city was so loud, it echoes through the whole world. Or something along those lines and he told her as such.

Inna chuckled again as she shook her head in exasperation. "Men."

"Hey C'mon, it's a good name! A Great name even!" He tried to persuade her as she kept laughing. He tried not to whine. He really did but his wife didn't think zo.

"Fine, fine you big baby. Echo it is." She relented. Taking a liking to the name.

"No it's Ekko." Wyeth corrected.

"Isn't that what I just said?" Inna asked confusedly.

"No you said Echo. It's Ekko. E-K-K-O" Wyeth explained as she looked at him deadpan before sighing fondly.

"You and your wise ass." He chuckled while bashfully rubbing the back of his head.

"Fine. Ekko it is." The family of three fell into comfortable silence. With only the baby's feeding as the ambience noise.

"Where's Benzo? I thought he would be here by now?" Inna asked her husband.

"He's running a little late, but he mentioned taking a stop at Vander's before coming here. Maybe he got held up." He replied before the door to the room opened.

"Heya, love birds." It was Babette and her bodyguard.

They both greeted her and gestured her to a seat.

"So this is the little guy then? You decided on a name yet?" Babette asked as she look over both the baby and the mother.

"Yeah, we've decided to name him Ekko." Inna replied as Babette's eyebrow rose in question.

"Cause his loud ass crying? I think the Council meeting got interrupted with how loud he is." They all share a chuckle but Inna throw her husband a look that made him wince.

Babette looked at the three of them before standing up on her tiny legs.

"Welp! Time for me to skadaddle. Works to do. Clients to satisfy and mouths to feed."

"Wait! How much do we owe you?" Wyeth called out before she could leave.

"On, the house dearie. We don't charge friends. Besides, save your money for the little bugger. You gonna need it." Babette replied over her shoulder as she waved back.

When she open the door Benzo was there, hamd already primed to knock. Babette exchanged some pleasantries before leaving with her bodyguard.

"Hey guys, so what did I miss? And is this the little man of the hour?"

If Wyeth and Inna eyes were a little moist when he sat down, he didn't mention it as the couple happily introduce their son to the man.

________________________________________

(???'s Pov)

'This is bad. This is bad. This is bad. This is bad. This is very, very bad. Fuck!! How am I supposed to save Season 2 if I'm reborn as Ekko? Bitch forget saving it, I wouldn't be able to get back if I got stuck in the Alternate Universe like the original Ekko.' Thought our protagonist as he suck on what he assumed is Ekko's-his-mother's breasts.

As his thought got more and more chaotic, he feed on his mother breasts harder and harder in anxiety, causing her to change sides.

'Bruh, When I said I liked building things, I meant legos. Not fucking time machines. The fucking guy at the afterlife botched it.' He cursed the afterlife guy as he drink more milk. But before he could curse anymore, suddenly see everything much clearer.

He could barely see anything and only hear muffled voices when he first gained consciousness. The only reason he realised he's Ekko is because whom he assume to be his new father saying it multiple times.

But as soon as he could see clear, there was a pop up.

Heyyyyyyyyy my guy. So how's life? Good? Cool. Cool. Just wanna say that I only realize that you were talking about lego building after I sent you here. In hindsight, I should have known after you talked about building robots, rockets and spaceships. But in my defense... I've got none. Soooo before you got your hopes up, this is not a system. Nor a Gamer platform. But don't worry. I've got just the thing for you. This is the last and final time I'm gonna ever contact you again but I'll be watching. We all will be.

The pop up ends as he feels something bloom inside him. Metaphorically of course. A mote of power and with it the knowlege of how to use it. It's something he saw on those Worm Cyoa fanfics.

Power control, albeit a lot more limited. He could currently feel five. And he tried to remember what he could about the ability. All he remember is that 1 mote equals a parahuman rating of two and for each rating the requirements doubled.

'So For the rating of 1 is 1 mote, for 2 is 2, for 3 is 4, for 4 is 8 and to get to the max which is 12? 13? I'mma need... over 4000 motes. And if I get 5 everyday then... ah crap, I'm going to have to wait for over 2 years before I could have anything groundbreaking.' Ekko thought in despair as he drink his mother dry. But he will soon realize that all his dreams of absolute power is not going to be realized as soon as he thought.

He's gonna have to wait for a good while before realizing that dream. Welcome to Runeterra, Ekko. Welcome, child of Zaun