Chapter One: The City of Crime
Location: An Apartment in Western Piltover
"It seems that a new dark age has begun as crime rates have skyrocketed over the past few weeks. Explosions and fires tearing families apart as men and women are burned alive and buried within the rubble of their own homes – *click*",
"God damn, I thought the Rune Wars were over for fuck sake," I said as a turned off the television, tired and frustrated. This had been going on for two weeks straight, and my eyes and nose had begun growing numb to the bright fires and smell of burning buildings each night.
Deciding to turn in for the night, I dragged myself lazily through my apartment until I reached the bedroom and let myself fall into bed as if my strength had decided to take a day off.
I closed my eyes, expecting to hear the usual cackling of a young girl, followed by the sounds of explosions and police sirens, but for some reason, the familiar sounds never came.
Not thinking anything of it, I turned on my side to go to sleep, but something about the silence was rather unsettling. I waited an hour, nothing. Two, still nothing. Three…
Nothing.
I slowly pushed myself up into a sitting position, wrapping my arms around my knees. I forced myself out of bed and dragged my feet to my bedroom window. Pulling back the curtain, I saw nothing but the night sky, filled with smoke from the previous night's fires and explosions.
She must be taking the night off, I thought, and fell back in to bed, making a lazy attempt to throw the sheets over myself, giving up after about 30 seconds, and closing my eyes to go to sleep.
In the midst of a deep sleep, images were flowing through my mind. At one point, though incredibly blurry, I saw what looked to be a figure in a black hood. His hand was outstretched with his palm facing me. I began to feel myself growing weaker and weaker, but for some reason, the image wouldn't disappear like the rest. It was as if the figure was draining my life force.
My legs began to lose feeling, and I suddenly felt as if I was on my back, on a cold surface. The blurry figure was leaning down over me, and it appeared to be speaking to me.
"Your experience here must not be made known," The hooded figure said, leaving me on my back, so weak that I could barely turn my head to watch it slowly disappear.
I couldn't move, and my vision, as blurry as it was, began to fade even more. I heard the faint sounds of explosions and police sirens. They were getting louder and louder, and suddenly…my eyes shot open.
Panicking, I frantically moved my fingers and arms. Realizing that it was just a dream, I brought my hand to my forehead before realizing that I was laying in a pool of my own sweat.
Lovely, I thought as I pulled myself out of bed before coming to my senses and acknowledging what was going on outside.
I squinted as I stared at the clock that was sitting across from my bed as my sleepy vision cleared up.
"It's 9 in the morning. Doesn't she usually pull this crap at night?" I said to myself as I carefully pulled back the curtain to see what was going on outside.
It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the sun before I realized that the bright light wasn't the sun. Fires and large explosions were going off near the center of downtown Piltover, where the City Treasury stood. This was odd, because this young terrorist never went near the treasury until now.
I decided, against my better judgment, to see what was going on, so I threw on a pair of comfortable pants, fastened my boots, and grabbed a long jacket as I rushed out the door.
The weather was like you'd expect during the middle of a city bombing; the air was dusty, dry, and reeked of gunpowder and explosives. If you looked up at the clouds, all you would see was smoke and darkness, as if sunlight didn't even exist anymore, and the constant fires made it feel like a warm Spring day, even in the middle of Autumn.
As I emerged from my building, I peered around my street, and not even the tiniest sign of life could be found. It was as if my neighborhood became a ghost town overnight.
However, as I walked further down the street, I could see why. Buildings were stripped of their supports and most of the street had collapsed in on itself. The smoke was making it harder and harder to breathe as I continued walking down the street. So much so that my sense of curiosity was overwhelmed by the fact that I couldn't breathe anymore. I decided to wave it off as another of that twisted girl's terrorist attacks and continue with my investigation of the downtown attacks.
I walked back towards my apartment and took the back roads to get downtown, thinking that they wouldn't be as devastated as the main streets…
But I was very, very wrong.
It was as if the main streets of Piltover were merely caught in the aftershock of the devastation that was laid out before me. Most of what used to be quaint, low-middle class neighborhoods was almost unrecognizable. Buildings and homes seemed to have just been consumed by flame, with nothing left but blackened ground and the occasional burnt corpse.
I began to wonder why she left my apartment alone after razing everything around it to the ground. As I made my way closer to the action, I began to see that my home was the only home left standing in all of Western Piltover.
After walking for about two hours, I began to see the new-age architecture that marked the entrance to downtown Piltover. Decorative silver and gold trim lined the extremely tall, high-tech buildings, and as I entered the downtown streets, I began to see flashing blue and red lights that indicated that Sheriff Caitlyn was on the scene.
As I began walking towards what I believed was the crime scene, I began hearing a strange noise…
It was singing. Not just any singing, but psychotic, deranged singing. It was very faint at first, but as I moved closer to the police lights and explosions, its volume increased.
I figured it was best to let the Caitlyn handle the situation and decided to head back home, but for some reason, my body wouldn't let me turn around. Something was pulling me closer to the brightness of the fireworks and explosions. It was that song. It echoed through my mind, and I began to uncontrollably sing along with it, as if I had listened to it all my life.
"Wanna join me? Come and play! But I might shoot you in your face! Bombs and bullets will do the trick, what we need here is a little bit of panic!"
By now I was almost at the center of downtown Piltover, and I began to feel nauseous and dizzy. The volume of the music now rivaled a Pentakill concert.
"Do you ever wanna catch me? Right now I'm feeling ignored, so can you try a little harder? I'm really getting bored!"
I was now walking past the police barricade that had been set up. My vision began fading and all I could hear was the music. I felt the hands of law enforcement officers desperately trying to pull me away from the scene, but I couldn't stop moving forward.
"Come on! Shoot faster! Just a little bit of energy! I wanna try something fun now; I guess some people call it anarchy! Let's blow this city to ashes and see what pow-pow thinks! It's such pathetic neatness…but not for long 'cause you'll get JINXED!"
I felt as if I was going to throw up, and my vision was replaced with a burning white light. Just as my vision completely left me, I suddenly spotted a pair of massive gauntlets reaching towards me as if they were about to shove me back, and suddenly I was tackled by a pink-haired woman wearing a metallic suit.
"What the hell do 'ya think you're doin'?!" She shouted, as my vision suddenly came back to me. Just then, I turned around and wretched onto the street.
"Get your ass up and move it before I kick it!" the woman shouted.
I got up and ran as best I could with how dizzy I was as I felt a giant metal hand almost rip my shoulder out of its socket before I was dragged across the pavement. An explosion threw the strange woman and I forward, making me land on my stomach and vomit again. My ears rang for a minute before I was able to come to my senses and weakly lift myself up.
"Dear God, what the hell did you eat today?" the pink-haired girl yelled at me as she picked me up and ran into a nearby building. The explosions rained down around us, making my ears ring again. She threw me against a wall, pressing herself up against me to make sure we wouldn't be seen as she continued looking behind her to find an opportunity to escape. I took this as an opportunity to get a good look at my rescuer.
She wore a pair of goggles like a headband through her somehow soft pink hair and, despite her rugged behavior and tattoo of the letters "V-I" under her left eye, had rather gentle facial features. Had she not been wearing those massive Hextech gauntlets, I'm sure her hands, though probably dry and callused, would have looked rather delicate as well. On her back was a device that resembled a metal backpack, and she wore heavy body armor, yet somehow, I could still feel her womanly features pressed up against my body. She reeked of sweat and blood, but judging by the slight rust on her gauntlets, it didn't seem like it was her blood. For some reason, the smell was intoxicating, and having her body pressed up against mine just felt…right. Without thinking, I placed my hands on her waist.
She spun her head back around immediately, blushing and biting her lower lip, before shaking her head and coming to her senses.
"Alright big fella', watch where 'ya put those hands before my knee ends up in a painful spot", she said.
Quickly lifting my hands, I opened my mouth to speak, but my brain couldn't formulate words at this point. After the explosions quieted down a little bit, the woman lifted herself off of me and sat down with her back against the wall beside me.
"How about a nice 'Thanks for saving my ass'? Or 'Thanks for not throwing me off the side of downtown Piltover for wandering into a crime scene unauthorized'?"
I opened my mouth to speak again, but the results were the same.
"Guess you're still in shock, huh? The name's Vi," she said, pointing to the tattoo under her left eye. "I'll get 'ya out of here, but 'ya need to do exactly as I say. Got it?"
I nodded my head, forgetting how dizzy I was until I did so, and I just about puked again. I suddenly heard a woman shout through Vi's radio,
"Officer Vi, come in! Have you found the civilian yet?"
"Got him, but the target came between me and the barricade. I'll be a little longer than expected."
"Thank God you're okay. Just remember, your main priority is to get him to safety. Whatever you do, do not engage the target without ensuring that the civilian is not in any form of danger! I repeat, get out of there! DO NOT engage! "
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, Sheriff Cupcake", Vi said sarcastically.
Vi looked outside the building, determining whether or not it was safe to go.
"Coast is clear, ready?" she asked?
I nodded, forgetting what happened last time, and puking all over the floor.
"God, you remind me of when I fought Kog'Maw back at the League, 'ya disgusting freak."
For some reason, the word League stuck in my head for a few seconds. It sounded so familiar, yet I had no idea what she was talking about. I finally was able to formulate words again and asked, "League? League of what?"
"You don't know what the League of Legends is?" Vi scouted the area a second time, "Never mind, I don't have enough time to explain. We need to move now!"
Vi grabbed my arm in her massive gauntlet hands and ran at a speed so high that she almost ripped my shoulder out of its socket…again.
BOOM! POW! CRASH!
Two explosions landed in front of us, launching both of us backwards as a building fell, with some debris landing on Vi's legs. Vi struggled, trying to escape, but she was trapped.
"Damn! VI!" I shouted.
I tried to lift the debris off of her legs, but it was much too heavy for me. Just then, I heard footsteps behind me as a young girl strolled in behind us. She looked to be about my age. She was wearing a leather belt filled with bullets around her ribs, with two triangular pieces of fabric covering what little chest she had. She wore the same belt around her waist, with pink shorts that extended to the middle of her thighs. On her right leg was a pink stocking with a fishnet pattern, and she sported black leather boots with pink trim. Her hair was electric blue, wound up into two very long braids, which extended from her head to her boots, and her skin was milky grey. Her eyes were bright pink; almost hypnotizing, and she had such a huge smile that it hurt my jaw just looking at it. Over her left shoulder was a rocket launcher, sporting a shark-head design at the end of its barrel, and appeared to be spray-painted dark blue, and on her back was a bright pink mini-gun outfitted in what seemed to be cat ears.
As menacing as I knew she was, I found myself mesmerized by her hypnotizing eyes, and I just couldn't look away.
"What are you doing?! RUN!" Vi screamed, but I couldn't run. The strange girl's wild eyes left me entranced. I was not afraid. I was infatuated.
"Seriously! Screaming helps…not at all." The girl exclaimed.
Her rocket launcher let out a POW as she unloaded a round straight at my chest.
End of Chapter One.