Chapter 1
Caitlyn could barely resist the urge to gag as she looked down upon the horribly mangled body before her. She lifted her head and glanced around at the scene. She stood in an alleyway near the outskirts of Piltover, an admittedly shadier part of the city, but relatively crime free...until recently. Continuing her sweep of the area, she paused briefly at the Sentry Bots holding back the continually growing crowd of onlookers, several of them looking on with either interest or curiosity. Caitlyn grimaced slightly, thinking they should be thankful to miss such a grisly scene.
"DAMMIT!"
She was jarred suddenly from her thoughts by a loud crack. The ground beneath her shook violently, causing her to use the butt of her rifle to steady herself. She turned back towards the scene to see Vi, one of her massive gauntlets sunk into a newly formed crater in the cobblestone street. She yanked it back forcefully, tearing up the ground even further, her features twisted into an expression of rage and disgust.
"That's the fifth one in two weeks...Who the hell is this guy?!"
Caitlyn took a few steps toward her partner and placed a firm hand on her shoulder. "We will catch them, Vi."
Vi shrugged off Caitlyn's hand violently and turned toward the shocked detective, the fury in her voice causing it to rise in volume with every word. "When, huh? When are we supposed to catch this freak? How many more people have to get torn up like this before we finally catch a damn break?!" Vi opened her mouth, but closed it quickly, biting her lip in the process hard enough to draw blood. She closed her eyes and took a shuddering breath. She turned away from Caitlyn and looked back down at the mangled remains. Her tone was still sharp, but she had managed to calm herself a bit. "Yeah...I know. We'll get em'. And the second we do, I'm gonna pound his face into the ground."
Caitlyn was silent for a while. She knew that statement was her partner's version of an apology, but even then, she couldn't blame Vi for her outburst. The same fury and frustration burned in her as well.
The trouble started two weeks previously, when a couple of Piltie citizens went missing. At first, it seemed like a simple missing persons case, nothing the elite Piltover Patrol couldn't handle. But the case quickly took a turn for the worse when they found their missing people; murdered in a gruesome fashion. Each body was torn apart and carelessly strewn all over the area. While the bodies were located in difficult-to-reach places, the killer didn't seem to care if they were found. An investigation was launched immediately, Caitlyn taking on the role of head detective. Several days past, but every lead the sheriff found turned out to be a dead end. On the fourth day of the investigation, another body was found, torn to pieces like the others. The people were killed. Caitlyn was officially dealing with a serial killer. Despite the police's efforts to keep the investigation quiet, the media eventually began circulating the story. Panic began to grip the populace as the public wondered who was behind the heinous crimes. The immediate suspect in the public eye was the infamous criminal Jinx. But the pink-haired youngster made an incredibly unusual appearance at the Piltover Public Academy denying any involvement with the murders...and then promptly set the building on fire. Caitlyn had dismissed Jinx from the very beginning, as the victim's deaths seemed to be the only desired outcome from the attacks and they were done in secret. Jinx was known to kill, but usually when people ended up as collateral damage to her chaos, and she relished a public spectacle. This was the doing of some malevolent force, whose only purpose was to end the lives of its victims. Two weeks had passed since the first body was found, and Caitlyn had gotten nowhere.
Caitlyn shook her head slowly as the weight of the past week bore down on her. She and Vi had barely eaten or slept in their pursuit of this maniac. To make matters even worse, the public was beginning to turn on them, losing confidence that the police force could protect them anymore. Petty crime in the city had gone up, robberies and vandalism were nightly occurrences. Vi had taken it upon herself to stamp out any of these small crimes while on patrol. Caitlyn suspected, after seeing the severely beaten criminals brought in, that Vi used them to relieve stress. Gods knew both of them had an unending supply of it. Caitlyn glanced up as a Sentry Bot approached her. "Yes?"
"The citizens have been sent home and curfew has been enforced. All other units have received the same data. Shall we initiate patrol protocol delta?"Caitlyn nodded. "Please do. And have an extra unit patrol the next quadrant over. There is a significant chance the killer could be searching for his next victim there." The Sentry Bot was quiet for a moment as it relayed the orders it was given to the other Sentry Bots throughout the city. "Acknowledged, Sheriff Caitlyn." The Sentry Bot turned and walked away to resume its duties. Caitlyn watched it go, her gaze remaining on the mouth of the alley even after the Sentry Bot had disappeared from view. There was a sinking feeling in her stomach that had been growing over the past few days. She tried her best to ignore it, but now, in this most desperate hour of need, she felt like she had no choice. She was once again roughly jarred from her thoughts by a rough shove. She glanced around to see Vi giving her an annoyed look. "Yo, you hear me, Cupcake? I said what's our next move?" Caitlyn pursed her lips. She knew Vi would hate what she was about to say, but she knew they had no other choice. "...We're going to see the Gentleman."
Vi's eyes went wide with shock, then narrowed in anger and shook her head violently. "No. No DAMN way we're going to talk to that psycho." Vi made a cutting gesture with a gauntlet in front of her, as if she could physically beat down the very idea. "I don't care how bad you think this is, we can't-"
Caitlyn felt the exhaustion, anger, and desperation finally overwhelm her. She surged forward, jamming a finger into Vi's chestplate hard enough to cause Vi to take a step back. "Can't what, Vi?! We are out of options! There are five of OUR citizens lying in pieces because we have NOTHING! I am going to stop this monster by any means necessary, and I do not care if you disagree! I will do what I need to do to keep my citizens safe, no matter what! Do you understand me?!"
All of the energy seemed to leave Caitlyn after that outburst. She stumbled backward until she hit the alley wall, her signature hat sliding off her head and hitting the ground with a dull thud. She was quiet for a moment, her eyes fixed on her fallen hat. "...I can't let this go on anymore, Vi. I have to stop this." Vi's gauntlet entered Caitlyn's field of vision and picked up her hat. Vi dusted it off and held it out to her partner, her expression grim. "Let's go talk to a psychopath." Caitlyn reached out and took her hat, placing it back on her head wordlessly. The pair of them left the alleyway, a forensic team taking their place to transport the remains and clean up the crime scene. Overhead, thunder rumbled and lightning split the sky, threatening the storm that was still to come.