Summoner's Rift
December 2, 18 CLE (Common League Era)
Rumble frantically piloted his mech, Tristy through the southwestern jungle. Quickly glancing into the rearview mirrors, he ducked into a clump of bush near the massive ancient golem that was pounding its chest, demanding a challenger.
"Power down the steam," he muttered, "Cover over the harpoons, and switch off the pilot light on the Flamespitter…"
A moment later, the shadow ninja Zed walked through the jungle where Rumble had just been. Without the lights and whistles of Tristy active, the ninja paid the large hunk of hexsteel crouched in the brush no mind, even as he hunted for Rumble so he could finish slicing and dicing Tristy and then her blue-furred driver.
As Zed turned his back to the brush, Rumble hammered on five buttons in the cockpit. Tristy's systems revved up to full power again, and Rumble slammed the sticks forwards, pulling the trigger on the right joystick as he did. Flames roared from the end of Tristy's right arm, engulfing the shadow ninja in flames. The summoning magic briefly redirected the flames around Zed, protecting him, before the superheated mix of kerosene and nitrous oxide overwhelmed the summoner's power, lighting the ninja aflame. He screamed and thrashed briefly before collapsing to the ground, dead.
Rumble roared his triumph as he climbed down the front of Tristy. He winced a little as he landed on his ground, his left knee still giving him pain after all these years. But it was nothing compared to the bounty bag he collected from the ninja's corpse. Four hundred gold.
All of which would do him no good if he was killed by the enemy Kha'Zix or Maokai on the way out of the jungle. He would just have to call for a recall from his summoner, and hope that nobody decided to give chase.
Can you get me back to base? Rumble asked his summoner.
I can try, a nervous Yordle voice spoke in his mind, but Ahri just spotted someone heading your way from mid lane, and Maokai's bound to be in the area.
Just do it, okay?
Blue circles surrounded Tristy as the yordle summoner channeled his spell. Rumble climbed back up the stepladder on Tristy's front until he was high enough to hop into his seat. He powered down Tristy's systems once more as the summoning spell continued, hoping to evade detection in the brush.
But as the blue light grew brighter, Rumble spotted a figure approaching in the rearview mirror. It was an unrecognizable silouette that Rumble instantly decided was Kha'zix, since it had several limbs in the wrong place for a human and claws that he was fairly sure Maokai didn't have.
I see the Void thing behind me. Cancel the spell. I have an idea.
But Rumble, my summoning magic won't protect you from many more attacks. You should return to base before you're killed-
Sometimes I have to do everything myself… Rumble muttered as he powered Tristy back up. Then, he eased the joysticks forwards, walking directly in front of Kha'Zix while facing away from him. Playing dumb tricked a lot of humans, but he didn't know if it would be good enough for the Void creature. That was alright. He was a risk taker, and lacked the fear of death given how close he had come after the fight, and the surgeries, and the-Focus. Have to time this perfectly or-
Kha'zix snarled and leaped at Tristy from behind, claws bared and swung above his head. And still Rumble kept walking away, watching Kha'Zix's feeble wings bring him directly above Tristy before he plummeted downwards onto Rumble's cockpit. At the last second, Rumble reached above and slammed the cockpit cover shut, while slamming the foot pedals to give an extra burst of speed to Tristy. Instead of landing in the cockpit with Rumble, the Voidling landed on the back of Tristy, and reached out a claw to pull itself over the mech's shoulders.
Rumble slammed his blue fist onto the red button in the center of the dashboard.
The three rockets on Tristy's back fired, slamming into Kha'zix's belly and carrying him hundreds of feet into the air before finally detonating with a massive "BOOM"!
That was...impressive.
He never saw it coming. Rumble grinned at his summoner's praise. Now get me out of here.
On it.
Rumble sat and waited as the blue circles once again formed around Tristy. He considered opening the cockpit cover to cool down, since Tristy always ran dangerously hot at the best of times, but decided against it. Wouldn't do to have one of Maokai's killer saplings land in the cockpit and blow him to high hell.
Then Rumble realized he had more to worry about then Maokai.
Hey, did you magically collect the gold?
What?
There's none falling. You'd think the bounty bag would have burst open when I took care of him with the Equalizer.
Then that must mean he-Kha'six's furious face appeared meters away from Tristy, wings extended in a glide-didn't go down!
The Voidling smashed into Tristy at full speed, sending the mech crashing to the ground with the praying mantis sitting atop its chest. Groaning from the impact, and out of reach of the controls, Rumble yelled, "Tristy, fire Electro Harpoons!" Instead of burying itself in Void flesh, the harpoon was snagged from the air by Kha'zix, who promptly slammed it into the cockpit cover, shattering the glass.
Before he could be ripped from his mechanized shell like a Brackern from its gems, Rumble pulled two handles at the top of the cockpit. His whole seat ejected from Tristy, launching him several yards until the seat smashed back first into a tree, automatically unbuckling the seatbelt as it went.
Rumble stood, drawing his wrench from his mechanic's belt. He could never last long in Tristy-less combat, but maybe I could last long enough for Ahri or ShyvanaGGHHHH
A cluster of spikes sliced into the protective barrier of the summoning magic, then through his jacket, and then deep into his flesh. Rumble coughed and fell to his knees, blood spattering the ground in front of him, before Kha'zix leaped upon him once more, tearing out his throat.
Rumble's eyes popped open back in the northeastern fountain. He was once again seated inside Tristy, with all of the various broken parts from the last fight reloaded. But just as he pushed the joysticks forwards again, his summoner spoke in his head.
Rumble, we're gonna surrender this game.
What the hell? I'm destroying these guys, Rumble thought, closing his eyes. Just give me five minutes and-
It's only a practice match, and we got all the practice we wanted. Besides, someone from the Department of War wants to see you.
Tell them I'm not around. Technically, you wouldn't be lying.
"They want to see you now. "
Well, I don't want to see them ever.
"Rumble? RUMBLE!"
Rumble's eyes popped open; he had been in the summoning room at the Institute of War, still thinking his thoughts to his summoner as if he was on the fields. "I don't want to talk to them," he said as he hopped out of Tristy, who would be summoned back to his workshop separately.
Rumble's summoner, a feisty yordle named Kernel, fell into step beside him in the hallway. "They have money."
"I have money, Kernel! You know what the Institute of War pays for matches?"
"They have more money. And they want to see you."
"I don't want to see them."
Two yordles in suits and sunglasses stepped from a room on the right side of the hallway. "Mr. Rumble, the War Department would like to see you."
"Tell them to use binoculars." Rumble brushed off the two guards and strode into the mess hall. On the far side, near the stairs, stood a counter where a League healer handed out specialty medicine to champions, so long as they had a prescription. Rumble groaned as he saw the line of three lightly clothed female champions, the first of which was arguing with the healer on duty. "Damn, my knee hurts right now…"
"If you want to get some of that potion, I'll wait with you," Kernel offered.
"No, I'll manage." The pair climbed the stairs to Rumble's workshop, which was on the far northeastern side of the building on the third floor. The fourth floor was reserved for summoners, the third for places for champions to practice their trades, the second for the mess hall, practice arena, and champion dorms, the first for visitors and guests, and everything below that filled with dungeons where the League kept some of its more...unpleasant...champions.
"So, why are you following me back to the workshop that I don't let anybody else in?"
"Because, you see, the thing is-"
"I have the floor in front of my laboratory rigged with countermeasures. The door is revolving and admits only me, and blows up anybody who isn't me or somebody I buzz in. And I'm not buzzing you in."
"Rumble, here's a thing about that-" Kernal said as Rumble reached a blank wall and stopped. "Rumble, you're staring at a stone wall. RUMBLE?"
Rumble gripped Kernal's head, then bashed it against the second brick down from the fourth lantern. A retinal scanner extended from the wall; Rumble glared into it, then placed his hand on the wall mounting of the fifth lantern and pushed down. The wall slid back, revealing a revolving door that lead to Rumble's laboratory. "Home, sweet home," he muttered as he walked in.
Immediately, two yordles, a red-furred male in a Megling uniform and a albino female in a government robe turned around in swivel chairs they had no doubt grabbed from Rumble's office in the far left corner.
"We'd like to see you," they said in unison.
"How the hell did you get in here?"
"We held a picture of your face in front of the retinal scanner, then pulled down on the fifth lantern," the female said.
Rumble sighed; he KNEW he should have gone with the DNA scanners. "What do you want?"
"The Department of War has a proposition for you, Rumble," the Megling general said. "We've seen what you can do with parts from a junkyard. Imagine what you could do with War Department funding." The albino female handed Rumble a briefcase. It was surprisingly heavy in Rumble's hands.
Rumble walked to his worktable and opened the briefcase. It was filled to the brim with gold coins.
"What's the catch?" Rumble asked, not turning back towards the pair of War Department officials.
"What do you mean?" the female asked.
"There's always a catch. Especially with these," he said, waving a gold coin in the air. "What do you think you're buying with all this money? The League pays enough-I don't need or want any more."
"That's your payment for not throwing us out the door," said the female.
"You can get out now."
"Hear us out, Rumble," the general said. "We'd like to give you a grant to make a whole new mech. We'll pay for whatever materials you need, the testing, whatever. You could even hire an assistant with all the gold we're offering you, so you don't have to worry about maintenance on the current model while you work on the new one."
"We're also not going to limit you in terms of specs. The only limitation is that whatever you make for yourself has to still be able to function on the Fields of Justice. After that, you can do whatever you want with it." The woman twirled a coin in between her fingers. "Rumble, you're the best engineering mind on Runeterra. We want to give you the resources you need to truly shine, with real parts instead of junk."
Rumble frowned. These two were good. "What's the catch? There's always a catch."
"Once you're done, we'd like to have copies of your design so that we can begin manufacturing it for the Meglings. Unfortunately, due to matters of national security, I can't tell you more."
Why not? Rumble thought. "Okay, I'm in. When do you want it done?"
"Oh, take your time," the general said. "We'll need a few months to create a Megling armored division anyways-we can train them without the mechs."
"Fine," Rumble grunted, turning back to his table and the briefcase of gold coins that laid on top. "Now get out of my workshop. Make sure you don't set off the land mines on your way out."
A/N: Hey, guys. I heard about NaNoWriMo and decided to write a fic for it, and this was what I ended up on. I don't have much faith that I'll make 50,000 words by the end of the month, but we'll see how things go!
I plan to update this story every other day if I can, but some updates will be slowed down depending on how much work I have. In the meantime, keep checking back for new updates!