If one were extremely sensitive to the emotional auras of others, walking past the headquarters of Piltover's finest would give them a migraine from the contrast of cool, calm annoyance and near-psychotic rage radiating from it. Inside, that person would find the two people that almost every criminal in Piltover feared; Vi and Caitlyn, Enforcer and Sheriff respectively. Given the magical nature of many in Runeterra, such a sensitivity would not be unheard of.
"We HAD her. If I'd just gone ahead and dashed!" Vi growled once more, berating herself. Piltover's worst criminal in its storied history, the girl who had been given the name "Jinx", had just challenged Vi again. This time, she had issued a challenge to a brawl in Piltover's business district. When the pair of officers had arrived, Jinx immediately began shooting wildly at the two, laughing like a maniac as always. Vi, who had seemingly dodged every bullet, had tried valiantly to subdue the girl who had proclaimed herself Vi's rival, but in the end for some reason she could not bring herself to directly punch Jinx. Why…? Vi thought. A cloud of dust formed in the air as she stomped a foot down in frustraion.
"Calm down, I'm trying to finish our report, cupcake," Caitlyn said, looking up from the police report she was filling out for her records. "Besides, the only damage she did was superficial, nothing that a few days work from a couple masons won't fix," She added. Vi frowned but nodded.
Caitlyn just didn't quite understand. Jinx was Vi's archenemy. Vi was the long arm of the law, literally, and Jinx was the one criminal that Vi just couldn't seem to squash with her massive hextech gauntlets. Not for lack of opportunity; even as Vi sat down, she recounted the multiple times that she had fought Jinx, had the opportunity to land a massive blow right to the pale-skinned face of her rival and knock her to the ground like so many other lawbreakers. But every time, something inside of her, some instinct had made her hesitate, giving Jinx the opportunity to run off yelling her signature "You'll never catch me!" potentially punctuated with one of her many nicknames for the duo, such as "fathands", "hat lady" and "dorky duo".
"Caitlyn, it's not the crime I'm concerned with. You know that. But every time I have the chance… every time I could just clock her right in that cheeky damned grin… I just can't. Every. Damn. Time. I want to do it… but something tells me not to. I don't understand it!" Vi said, raising her voice in frustration. Caitlyn got up from her chair to put a hand around her charge's shoulders. Vi thought about shaking it off, but decided not to reject the comforting gesture.
"Hey. We did great today. We stopped crime, just as we're charged to do as Piltover's police force. We'll get her. And maybe we'll get her without having to resort to excessive violence," Caitlyn said with a small smile. Vi bowed her head for a second, took in a calming breath and nodded, returning the smile with a halfhearted one of her own. It was not a sincere smile, but rather a placating one. Caitlyn didn't need to know that her attempts to console the girl had failed; she had too much work ahead of her to worry about such things.
"I'm going to take a walk, clear my head a bit," Vi said, heading for the doors. As she opened the door, she heard Caitlyn's voice float out behind her.
"Not taking your gloves?" She asked. Vi scowled in annoyance as her eyes went to her gauntlets hanging on the wall.
"How many times do I gotta tell you? They're gauntlets, not gloves. And no, I won't be out long," She replied before closing the door. Caitlyn grinned; her partner was so particular about her gauntlets… She rolled her eyes and continued writing on her report. She sighed as she reached the dreaded part: damage done. Always a pain in the arse when it comes to Jinx… she thought as she put pen to paper.
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"G-A-U-N-T-L-E-T-S. How is that so hard to remember? I swear she does it on purpose…" Vi muttered, flexing the tiny hands that looked so out of place to those whose typical view of Vi was the scoundrel-turned-cop pounding someone with her mighty gauntlets. She wandered from the business district, taking a moment to stop by the scene of her last battle with Jinx and shaking her head before heading into the rural area.
Her head was a tornado of thoughts and emotions, which resulted in a storm of words and frustration that Vi spoke to herself as she walked. "What is the matter with me lately… It's one fucking criminal. One girl. Why does she keep getting to me so much? Others have insulted me during crimes. It doesn't affect me like this. Why…" Vi sighed. She couldn't reach a reasonable conclusion. Caitlyn was the one good at solving mysteries, not her. If Piltover's finest was a man, Caitlyn was the brain and she was the body.
Not to say Vi wasn't intelligent in her own right. She was extremely talented with hex technology, able to create weapons out of nearly anything lying around. As a matter of fact, the gauntlets that hung on her wall were vastly modified, improved upon arms from the old mining robot she'd come across the day she met Caitlyn. At the time, she was a criminal that had been a part of a job gone wrong in a mining facility. But being a criminal wasn't a choice for her; she'd grown up on the streets and the gang she'd been folded into was her only "family." When given the chance to show heroism and good will, Vi's true colors shone as she chose to convert the old piece of machinery into weapons powerful enough to save the trapped miners with.
Vi smiled as she remembered those days and began walking around the badlands of the town. She knew every alley, every shortcut and every filthy rat hole in the town, and occasionally she liked to walk down some of the alleys and remember her roots. As such, she took a right turn into a small alleyway that most people didn't even know about; save for those that belonged to the gang Vi had once called friends.
"Long time no see, Pink," Vi whirled around at the sound of a familiar voice to see an old "friend" in her former gang leader. "Pink" had been Vi's code name, so to speak, given to her due to her uniquely natural hair color. "The ol' group just ain't the same without you, y'know. Then again, these days you'd be more likely to try and get us all locked up, wouldn't you?"
"Sammy… it has been a while. I haven't even seen the Alley Rats active for some time. I didn't know you still existed, to be honest. And since you haven't really been committing crimes, what reason would I have to lock you up?" Vi wondered. Sam gave a derisive snort and shook her head. For some reason, Vi's usual toughness was gone and she actually felt depressed to see her former friend looking at her like that.
"You didn't seem to have any problems throwing Arahmala in the slammer for petty theft. Then again, you don't even bother to keep in touch with the people that practically raised you in your teenage years, so why would you know that he was with us?" Sammy spat. Vi raised her hands in a sign of peace. This was not the kind of reunion Vi wanted to have, she knew that much. She closed her eyes and sighed.
"Sammy, I'm on the other side of the law now. You know that. I help Piltover be a better place rather than helping myself," She replied. She knew when Sammy was truly angry. And Sammy was truly angry. Vi began to slowly back away, but barely moved before being bludgeoned from behind. From the ground, she saw a huge shadow and a massive hand come down, grabbing her by the throat and yanking her to her feet. Vi felt the cold, sick feeling of blood running down her neck and moaned.
"You betrayed us, Pink. You sided with them pen pushers. Wish it didn't have to be this way," her attacker said before slamming her fist into Vi's face. Vi picked herself up on all fours and put her hand to her lips. It came away bloody. She gave a weak laugh and shook her head. This was a fight she would not win, that much she knew. You're not taking your gloves? Caitlyn's voice rang like a grim slap of irony in her head.
"Nice to see you too, Helga. Sammy still got you under her- UHN!" The law enforcer didn't get to finish her sentence as a mace struck her in the back, drawing blood and once again flooring her. She recognized another member, Ramone, as the one responsible for the blow and realized that she was trapped. More attacks followed, Sammy standing to the side and smiling sadly as Vi was beaten to a pulp. She began to feel lightheaded from blood loss, but a flame inside her that had driven her from childhood to this moment stoked her survival instincts.
Vi finally rolled out of the way of Ramone's mace after the fourth hit, drawing resiliency from some unknown part inside of her. Her back was shredded, at least two ribs were broken and her nose was bleeding, but by God if she was going down she'd go down fighting. She balled her fists and swung, but Helga grasped Vi's small fist in her own enormous hand and threw Vi to the ground. Vi heard the sound of several fingers severing like a snapped pencil and cried out as she fell.
As she looked up at Ramone's mace above her head, she closed her eyes and accepted her fate. She'd finally made her big mistake. She'd always had the idea that she was living on a borrowed chance, one lent to her by Piltover's sherrif, and her time had finally ran out.
The sound of electricity drew every eye in the alley save Vi's, but the unmistakable sounds of raw hextech energy flying through the air caught the beaten girl's attention. The unmistakable sound she'd heard so many times when she was working on her gauntlets rang clear in her ears like a beacon of light. Her eyes flew open, blurry from the tears of pain and puffed from the black eyes blooming. She saw a flash of what looked like lightning, heard a scream, heard an explosion and finally caught an eye-full of teal before all went black.