Author's Note:
Thank you for your interest in reading this story! As quickly as the Champions were introduced, they must be removed. Writing (and reading) these types of stories are both engaging and heartbreaking if the character you liked the most is eliminated from the story. Fortunately for me, this hasn't happened yet. But moving forward, keep in mind that (besides Teemo), characters will have to die. If you cannot accept the possibility of your favourite character dying, please don't read further, and do not feel upset about not being able to finish the story. For those brave enough to continue, I commend you.
As always, I appreciate the reviews and the private messages some of you have sent me. Please continue to do so! Especially if you like or extremely dislike something that happened in the story, feedback is always necessary to improve on a story. While I won't reveal who the killer is, nor will I change the story's outcome based on people's thoughts, I do appreciate hearing who your favourite Champions in this story are as well as your thoughts on who the killer actually is. This helps me notice good and bad characterization, which is ever so important to me. So without further ado, here's chapter two for you. I hope you enjoy!
LeBlanc
The Greenhouse was full of these marvelous plants from around Runeterra. Among the reds, oranges and greens of the plant life, my eye caught two delightful black roses that had grown around each other in a twisting formation. They were beautiful. I should think about taking one when nobody's looking; they won't notice a measly flower's disappearance. After looking at the roses for quite some time, I focused back on why we had been summoned (quite suddenly might I tell you). As it turns out, some fool had gotten their head stuck in one of the massive venus fly traps on the far side of the Greenhouse. From the looks of the body, I could guess it was Elise's. Eight limbs jetted out from different spots in the venus fly trap's mouth, all of them black and rubbery, like a spider's. It was a pretty ugly scene, with her outfit probably contributing the most to the ugly factor. That woman didn't have any fashion sense, so I guess that serves her right. Satisfied with Elise's death, I crept to the back of the group (towards the side with the black roses) and listened to the voice on the loudspeakers.
"The killer has struck again. Unfortunately, Elise was the victim this time. It seems as though Elise "fell" into the Venus fly trap's vicinity. There is reason to believe that the killer caused this and fed her to the plant. Champions, please search the scene for any clues that may help us solve the case. We will check back in 5 minutes while we take care of things here." The loudspeakers buzzed softly before clicking silent.
"Fellow Champions." A loud, noble voice rose up from the quiet chatter of the other Champions. I recognized the voice as Nasus' and listened carefully. "It is with great sadness that we lose another fellow Champion. I ask that you only praise Elise and her death. All good things must come to an end, and death is simply the circle of life. Elise's death should be overshadowed by her accomplishments and her positive contributions to the League. Finally, remind yourself that you could have been in her place, and only when you have successfully thought about being in her place will you be able to appreciate your own life. Thank you Champions. That is all I had to say."
A few of the remaining Champions clapped or said "amen". Personally, I thought it was a great speech, but maybe a little unnecessary. There was a bit too much verbal flashiness, not enough razzle dazzle in his actions. Nevertheless, Champions appreciated the speech and continued to look for clues at the scene of the crime, trying their best to respect the dead body. I searched near the back of the Venus fly trap, being careful not to touch the protruding spider limbs. I searched for a good two minutes before wanting to give up. I really didn't care that she had died, and I doubted there was going to be any sort of clue here. Suddenly, my heel tapped something spherical. I bent down and spotted a red sphere. It kind of looked like a spider eye. Could it have been Elise's? I nudged the Chain Warden who was lingering near me and pointed to the eye. "A clue perhaps?"
Thresh's head tilted to one side. "Yess...Perrhaps..." He picked it up and spun it through his fingers. "Everyoneee... Is thiss a cluee?" His voice hung in the air, as if he was calling out to certain people.
Lux waltzed over and inspected the object. I rolled my eyes as she made "hmm" sounds, pretending to think. Why did I say pretending? Because she can't think. She's not very smart and many League Champions dislike her. After a few seconds, the ditz spoke up. "I'm pretty sure this is a spider eye. Elise is a spider right? So this is probably her eye." She blinked twice before glancing back at the eye. "Ew!" She tossed the eye back on the ground.
"Eye!? Food?" Kha'Zix's head perked up. "MINEMINEMINEMINEMINEMINE!" The purple bug leapt towards the eye with great speed. I threw out my golden chain to slow him down, but before it could snap him to the floor, Jayce grabbed the bug's claw and held Kha'Zix close to his own body, blocking him from getting to the eye.
"Relax, buddy." Jayce said, his voice soothing and persuasive. "We'll get you food soon. That's a clue though. You can't be eating that, alright?" The bug looked confused. His killer instincts wanted that eye for food, but Jayce had simply talked him out of it. That Jayce. He's an impressive charmer. While I'll admit that he is fairly good-looking, and he has a certain je ne sais quoi that makes many people like him or love him, he didn't have that effect on me. He knows not to try to charm me. That's my job after all. I lure you in, do some hocus pocus, and whoops, there goes your wallet! A pretty boy's not going to charm this trickster, I can tell you that.
Once the rest of the area had been searched, the voice on the loudspeaker (this time Kayle's) instructed us to leave the vicinity so they could extract the dead spider and preserve the eye. I slowly sashayed into the lounge, noticing Lulu and Nasus chatting about Elise. Instinctively I slowed my pulse and began to go invisible. I crept up behind the red velvet chair that Nasus was sitting in and eavesdropped on their conversation.
"Who do you think it could be?" Lulu asked, with the curiosity of a 5-year-old.
"I'm worried that it might be Cassiopeia or that LeBlanc woman." Me? That ignorant son of a- I clamped a hand over my mouth before I began to yell at him. Let's hear his thought process. I sat on my staff, floating in the air.
"Those two seem to be a little tricky, and it's hard to keep tabs on them. They can both get in and out of areas without anyone surviving long enough to report anything on them. One of them could be here listening to our conversation." How ironic.
"You never know. It might be that Kha'Zix fellow. He's purple, and I like that." She paused to have a giggle break. "But he scares me. He's always hungry. And Lulu isn't a tasty treat, I can tell you that! Hmph!"
"Do not worry Lulu. I will make sure that he does not eat you. You have my word." You have my word, blah blah. Oh please Nasus. Stop acting so high and mighty! Nobody cares. It took all my energy not to pop out and slap him in his snout. Knowing that I needed a break to calm down, I floated out of the lounge, towards the bedrooms.
Jayce
"Ha!" I threw out my left fist towards my opponent, narrowly missing their cheek.
"Hyah!" My opponent clipped my shoulder, and I tottered backwards, steadying myself at the last second.
"Alright, Vi. I think that's enough for today." I tossed my boxing gloves onto the gym floor and gave Vi a fist bump. She threw her blue boxing gloves onto the floor as well and hulked off to who knows where. When we both found out that we got the letter, we figured that, since we were going to be spending some time in the same location with each other, we'd practice our boxing. Yeah, I know that boxing isn't the most gentlemanly of sports, but Vi is Vi. She loves fighting and using her fists. We would constantly have little practice spars at this underground gym at the corner of Nashor Road and Peacemaker Place. Sure she acts like she doesn't like me on the Fields of Justice, but in actuality, she's just trying to toughen me up. She understands that I'm a ladies' man, but her idea is this: I'm from Piltover, so is she. I like Caitlyn, she spends a lot of time working with Caitlyn. Caitlyn and Vi act very tough, I tend to act gentlemanly. Therefore, if you're still followin' me here, she thinks that I should be a little tougher just in case I succeed with Caitlyn. I respected that about Vi. She taunts me and jabs me in order for me to develop as a person, and possibly develop a relationship with Caitlyn. Once I had placed my boxing gloves into one of the shelving units on the side of the makeshift boxing ring, I went straight to the bedrooms to take a shower and change. While walking through the halls of the Mansion, I noticed all the cameras and loudspeaker outputs that had been slightly hidden. I knew they were watching us and trying to keep contact with us, but I didn't realize just how many of each there were. "They're just for our safety" I thought, opening the door to my room. My theory quickly changed as I noticed that there were two cameras in my bedroom and bathroom. Why were those needed? Surely they didn't suspect me as the killer? And were those things on while I was doing my business? Paranoid, I tried my best to cover myself as I took a shower. As I was about to get out, I flung soap at the camera positioned above the sink, a little of it getting stuck on the lens.
"Jayce. Stop that!"
What? Startled, I slipped in the tub and fell. Did the voice on the loudspeaker see what had just happened? "Sorry!" I called out, unsure of who I was speaking to and whether or not they could even hear my reply. I lifted myself out of the tub and quickly wrapped a towel around my waist. Changing as fast as I could, I tried not to make vision contact with the camera in the bedroom. Almost as soon as I was done changing, I felt the temperature rise in the room. I felt that feeling before. "LeBlanc. Don't stay invisible. I know you're in here."
Silence. Finally, a figure formed in front of my door, floating casually on a staff. "My my, I'm impressed. How did you know it was little ol' moi creeping around?"
"Temperature rises in the room. Were you there the whole time?"
"I only came in when you put your shirt on. Relax. You seem somewhat tense." The witch delicately hopped off her staff and sat on my bed. "Why did the voice tell you to stop?"
"So everyone heard that." She nodded her head. "Well, if I tell you, will you just go out and tell someone else?"
"Of course not dearie, I'm not that type of person am I?"
"Do you really want me to answer that?"
"No... I suppose not. Well, I can offer you the Black Rose honor if that means anything. You can trust me, I promise." Her voice sounded cunning and sneaky, but that was normal for her. I chewed my lip, wondering if I should tell her my suspicions.
Against my better judgment, I told her. "I flicked soap at a camera in my bathroom."
At this, the jewel on her staff began to animate and spin slowly on her staff. "Cameras in the bathroom?"
"They're everywhere. I was starting to think that maybe they weren't installed just for our safety."
She put a finger to her lips. At first, I didn't understand what she was doing, but suddenly my head pulsed. "You don't think they're spying on us, to learn where we are at all times, do you?"
I nodded, unsure of how to respond with a mental "yes".
She pondered this for a few moments. "I see." After a few more seconds, another mental message was delivered. "I guess I'm not going to tell anyone after all. This is... Interesting. I will leave you for now. I'm sure that our little chat will look suspicious if it lasts longer. So I will bid you au revoir!" She turned and strutted towards the door, and when she took one step out, turned and said: "That's a good look for you by the way. Very fashionably rugged." She winked and stepped out of view. That woman never ceases to confuse me. Unsure of my next action, I left my room in search of a group of Champions, keeping note of the different cameras around the Mansion.
Jayce
When I arrived at the lounge, both Cassiopeia and Fiora were having a heated discussion about whether snakes or a red stripe in your hair was more fierce of a hairstyle. When they noticed me, Cassiopeia's eyebrows raised while Fiora smirked. "Something wrong ladies?"
"No actually." The snake woman hissed. "Impresssssive. I didn't know you wore sssomething like thissss."
"I'm not all suits and lab outfits y'know..." I rubbed my head sheepishly.
"J'adore!" Fiora said, looking me up and down. "I like zis informal look of yours Jayce. Why do you not do this on the Fields of Justice?"
"Garen's the only one that's allowed to be rugged now. League's orders. I gotta be all classy or tech-y, not that I'm not ok with that." My look that they were referring to was just my ordinary non-spectacular Jayce outfit. I was wearing a simple brown tank top that had a spot of dried oil on the front left side of it, and some dark blue jeans, held up by my belt with the J buckle on the front. It wasn't anything spectacular, but I guess the other Champions didn't know I had a non-fancy wardrobe too? "Thanks for the compliments though. Appreciate it." For a few minutes, I worried that Lux may pop up at any second and cling to me and my "new look", but she never showed up.
"Very interesting events today, no?" Fiora tried to bring me into their conversation with a fresh topic. I winked at her in thanks.
"Yessss... I didn't expect Elissseee to have gotten killed so fassst..." An expression of concern was plastered on Cassiopeia's visage. "Oh well... That'ssss one lessss sussspect..." Her sentence trailed off into silence.
It was interesting how calm people were. For being in a Mansion with a serial killer who isn't afraid to strike, many of these Champions were so calm. Didn't they fear for their lives? Unfortunately, I didn't get to worry about this for too long, because the loudspeakers fired up again.
"Champions. This is Morgana. Kayle couldn't contact you herself, so I'm delivering this message. Our team has found a message in Elise's hand, which was deep inside the venus fly trap. It is, in fact, from the killer. It reads:
It's time for a little rhyme.
The poor spider had no time.
She had no life left on her meter,
So I had to feed her-
To the plant who likes to eat.
Kayle, don't you admit defeat!
I know you're trying to solve the case,
But please hurry, you're in a race!
I will kill the others one by one.
Until there's no one left; Oh won't that be fun!
They will all die at your hands.
Their hourglasses are ticking, losing their sands!
I'd best hurry up if I were you.
How many more can you afford to lose?
One? Maybe two?
Champions, please beware. Kayle is distraught and has locked herself away. We can't get to her. In the meantime, try to stay in groups, or at least pairs. We will get back to you as soon as we can, which probably won't be until Kayle comes out of her concentration chamber. We're sorry, but please hang in there. This case will be solved soon enough. I promise."
LeBlanc, the Queen of Deception and Trickery
Vi, the "Bad Cop"
Darius, the Blood-fueled Killer
(DEAD) Elise, the Eight-Legged Enigma (DEAD)
Lulu, the Whimsical Woodland Witch
Jayce, the Gentlemanly Stud
Fiora, the French Femme Fatale
Lux(anna), the Bubbly Ball of Light
Kha'Zix, the Predatory Praying Mantis... Thing...
Cassiopeia, the Serpentine Sorceress
Thresh, the Spooky Soul-Stealer
Nasus, the Noble Canine Warrior
