A new battle begins and a new adversary comes to challenge the Guardian Team. Meanwhile they continue the search for their other two Guardians, knowing the battle may be won, but the war is not over. As much as they wish it would be.
Chapter 11 - New Day, New Enemy
In the week since the last battle with Kha'Zix and Malzahar, there had been little activity. While Lux, Janna, and Poppy knew their battle wasn't over, the lull was starting to drive them a bit crazy. Knowing that the Burrower was their next enemy, they prepared themselves, but even Vel'Koz couldn't determine when or where she would strike. Clearly she was being careful and watching the movements of the city.
On the Moon, Malzahar was becoming impatient with Rek'Sai and her lack of action. Summoning the Burrower to his throne room he demanded answers.
"Oh Prophet, my plan is almost ready. I said I would need time and you granted me the time I needed. My nest is complete." Rek'Sai said as she kept from making eye contact with Malzahar.
"Very well then. What is your first target?" Malzahar asked.
"While Kha'Zix attempted to gather energy at large, it was not only very open and public, but it always attracted the attention of those pesky guardians. I plan to strike at single targets, gathering a large amount of energy from one person and those immediate vicinity. It may be slower, but it will be much more controlled." Rek'Sai said as she laid out her plan.
"It also leaves more room for things to go wrong. Part of what made Kha'Zix successful is even if he failed, he usually managed to get something. Your plans are all or nothing." Malzahar pointed out.
"Indeed, but that isn't the only thing." Rek'Sai pulled a seeker from her back. "This is what will allow me to succeed. Once the person gets to their peak energy, the seeker will grow into a monster and distract the guardians while I harvest. While I will consume some energy in the process, I should get away clean."
"That is still a dangerous plan." Cho'Gath said as he walked in.
"No one asked you Cho'Gath. And Kog'Maw it isn't for eating." Rek'Sai said as she turned to each of them in turn.
"But I'm hungry." Kog'Maw said.
"You are always hungry. Evolve and learn." Rek'Sai retorted. The thing that called itself Kog'Maw sulked off. "That thing is too young to be given this level of responsibility."
"Deny it all you want Rek'Sai, he did come up with the idea to return here." Rek'Sai wanted to counter but she knew eventually Malzahar would outwit her. Bowing, she grabbed her seaker and after ripping open a portal, returned to her nest outside the city proper. She carefully made it to hide from those guardians in an area they shouldn't check. A natural cave system that had been closed off for instability.
"Now to seek the city and find my first prey." Rek'Sai burrowed beneath the ground and using void magic, moved just underneath the surface and into the city. The magic allowed her to pass through objects with ease, but she knew she still had to be careful. One wrong move and she would end up stuck in the planet. She refocused and pressed onward.
"Move." Lux rolled out of the way as Poppy brought her hammer down, barely missing her by inches. Janna responded with a shield and a slow on Poppy while Lux threw a binding to root her in place. Poppy dodged it with relative ease and sung again. Nasus was watching the team practice while giving out advice. Or at least that had been the plan until he realized that having someone tell them when to stop would be a better use of his time.
"Ok enough." Poppy who had her hammer in the air to attack again, brought it down to rest, and then sat on it while Lux collapsed to the ground. Janna just floated over to a chair and rested.
"Why am I always the one running and dodging?" Lux asked, as she breathed heavily.
"Because you keep getting yourself into that situation crazy. You need to move around more and not just dodge at the last second." Poppy said looking at her.
"I know, it's just hard to remember. I thought I was moving around enough but guess not." Lux said as she hung her head.
"Well the threat of a hammer will do that to you. Now how about we have something to eat before we go home. I'm famished." Poppy powered down and headed downstairs.
"Is she right?" Lux asked, turning to Janna.
"To a degree. You are moving, but you need to keep on the move more than you are doing." Lux just rolled her eyes but they were probably both right to some degree. Nasus followed Poppy while Janna and Lux powered down. They took one last look around the training room, which was already beginning to magically repair itself before heading down themselves.
On the first floor, Poppy had already pulled the thing out of the over she put in there earlier. Now it smelled absolutely delightful. With the attacks down, they were able to pull off the "I'll be at so and so's house for the day" and their parents wouldn't check. Poppy carefully pulled the top off pan and what was inside looked like something that exploded. "Don't judge it by how it looks, trust me, it's good."
Lux, Janna, and Nasus carefully looked at each other before grabbing a plate and taking some. Poppy was proven right as it was extremely good. Before they all knew it, they were on their 3rd plates while Poppy was on her 4th. Dorcha, Solas, and Zephyr also seemed to be enjoying it as they all quickly ate their fill. As they all finished, the door opened and Vel'Koz came floating in.
"Bad news everyone. Oh I'm guessing I should give you all a few minutes." He said quickly as he looked around and at the now completely empty dish on the counter. Vel'Koz floated back out while the group slowly came back to their senses after a good meal. After about 10 minutes Vel'Koz floated back in.
"We good?" He asked?
"We good. What's up?" Lux said, suppressing a burp.
"Rek"Sai is always cunning, but she is carefully using void magic to hunt around the city. I'm unsure what she is looking for but it is only a matter of time until she finds it. Normally I would suggest interfering with her, but since we have no idea what she is doing, best to just let her look. She could be hunting or recon. Either way, we wouldn't stop her for long. It's also best that she doesn't find out we can track her when she does this." Vel'Koz said, with a bit of annoyance in her voice.
"So basically go home as if nothing is going on unless you call?" Janna asked.
"Basically. The less you expose yourselves the better." They all nodded while grabbing their bags. Lux carefully picked up Dorcha and Solas and placed them in her bag. They were still half out of it from the meal. Zephyr was picked up by Janna, and Vel'Koz just looked at Nasus, who had actually fallen asleep. The three Guardians giggled and carefully made their way out. Not wanting to expose themselves, they split up quickly and made their way home via separate routes.
For their parent's part, they took the three at their word and considering they were home early enough on a school night, they weren't scolded.
During the night, Rek'Sai continued to hunt, but it almost seemed in vain. She found many potential targets, but couldn't find just one. Almost at the point of giving up on her first day, she finally felt something and tore off after it. Finally reaching the place, she unburrowed herself to look into the house. Inside was a single occupant. Rek'Sai reburrowed herself, and shot her seeker at him. The seeker attached and carefully hid itself on his neck.
'Now my plan begins. Hope you enjoy your boosted energy level tomorrow. Now where do you work? An amusement park? Seriously? Well, beggars can't be choosers. Well not now at least.' Rek'Sai tore off back to her next to wait for the seeker to incubate during the day time.
The following morning greeted Lux, Janna, and Poppy with a clouded but unrainy day. Perfect day for a fight if it arose. But all three knew that was probably going to happen. Sensing a shift during the night, all three grabbed their bags and made sure they were packed in case a fight did break out. Lux was trying to focus and determine where the energy was coming from, but had no luck so she turned to Dorcha and Solas.
"I need you two to go looking around and find where that energy is coming from. Clearly we have a new enemy and she is being different. Can you do that?" They both nodded in reply and quickly hopped out the window to investigate. Lux grabbed her bag and headed out.
"Hey Lux, can you slow down?" Turning, Lux smiled as she saw Amy running to her.
"Sorry had my mind on a few things. We still good to go to the mall later?" Lux asked.
"Sure. My parents have relaxed a bit since the attacks have stopped, but I'm worried that they are only a pause." Amy said, her voice carrying her worry along with it.
'If you only knew how right you were.' Lux thought to herself.
"Hopefully not. Let's hope they are done for good. Now get your mind off that and let's talk about where are going to go." They spent the rest of the walk to school talking about their trip later.
Poppy was barely managing to stay awake in class as she again over did it when it came to staying up late. But she knew how to get away with it and no one else in class honestly cared enough to report her. She was just waiting on the update so she knew when and where to start her job. In the meantime, she tried to not fall asleep too much.
"Janna will you pay attention." Janna was shook out of her stupor of looking out the window by her teacher walking by while they were supposed to be working on an in class assignment. Janna just moved her arm to show she was done, and her teacher nodded and moved on. Janna resumed looking out the window, knowing that sooner or later she would be in yet another fight.
Dorcha and Solas meanwhile were searching the city for the mysterious energy, but so far they had come up empty. Eventually giving up when they saw a large amount of police shooting in the opposite direction. Nodding to each other, as much as they could, they took off after them. But the search was in vain as the police were just responding to reports of a bank robbery. Sighing, they both quickly gave up for the day and decided to hope home and get some lunch.
Vel'Koz for his part was also attempting to locate Rek'Sai, but had so far failed in his task so far. She had always been elusive but never this elusive. Clearly some new tricks but Vel'Koz knew that her plan would eventually come to light so he just had to wait out. Something no one was good at doing. Giving up for the day, he returned to his studies. On his table was a map and he was carefully making notes on it.
The day seemed to drag on for some reason for the three Guardians as they attempted to wait for the next fight, but also to try and focus on their school studies for the time being. Eventually however the day came to an end and the three went their separate ways for the day. Lux with Amy to the mall, Janna to the Library to study, and Poppy went home to work with her father on a new project.
During the night is when Rek'Sai moved her plan forward. The seeker had a day to grow, and tomorrow would be the day when everything went up. Laughing at her plan, she was on her back in her nest while the seeker waited for the opportune moment to strike.
The following morning was a normal one, but for the three Guardians, it was anything but. They all noticed the change in the energy from the night. Rek'Sai was definitely making her move, and it would be today. Given it was still a school day, that would make getting out difficult, but not impossible. One of the downsides of being a Guardian all three of them learned quickly was that when void energy became abundant, it was chilling to them more so than anyone else.
Lux grabbed her blankets and held them a little closer. Despite the fact it was a rather pleasant day temperature wise, she was still cold. Dorcha woke up and noticed.
"Cold?" Dorcha asked, looking at Lux.
"Freezing almost. Whatever that thing is doing she's going to make her move today. We need to you go out and start looking. Find the source of that energy. Perhaps with all of it around it won't be difficult. There are certain things about this that just annoy me." Lux said, still clutching the blankets. Dorcha just nodded, prodded Solas awake, and they quickly dashed off to eat before moving around the city.
Lux finally pulled herself out of her bed and after grabbing a hoodie, she headed downstairs. That got some attention at the breakfast table which she managed to explain away, but her parents were still eyeing her. She knew that if she called out, there would be trouble. So she had to come up with something else. Luckily there might be a way. But for now, Lux put that at the back of her mind and focused on getting to school.
Janna likewise felt cold when she woke, knowing what that meant. Turning to Zephyr, she just nodded and he went off hopping out her window. Janna likewise grabbed a sweater and headed to school. She knew all of the right ways she could easily leave and get back without too much commotion but she was worried for Lux and Poppy as that wouldn't be as easy.
Poppy didn't wake to being so cold, but that was in part because her father was working in his forge and the whole house was warm, but like the others, she felt the cold of the void. Knowing she had to come up with an excuse to get out of class, she decided that her father's passion for his work might be his way out. Poppy headed into the forge room and began assisting her father, but much to her annoyance, he insisted she go to school after he took a quick look at the clock. Poppy reminded herself to take it down, again, and left.
Lux and Poppy slipped notes to each other as they passed in the hallway as they headed to their classes. Each were worried about the same thing and they asked the same question. Lux put her brain to work but couldn't come up with a solution without their parents getting notified. Maybe an idea would come to her during the day but she wasn't hopeful as the school had cracked down a lot since the attacks began. Lux just put her head onto her desk and buried herself in her thoughts.
In the city, seeing a poro wasn't too uncommon so Dorcha and Solas just made their way around the city looking for the source of the energy. Unlike yesterday, it wasn't hard to find it this time. Eventually they found themselves at the amusement park just outside the city. When the two reached there, they noticed Zephyr already looking around for the source. Solas jumped after him while Dorcha stayed perched in the tree.
"You go get the Guardians, I'll look for the source. You can move faster than us." Solas said as he moved further.
"Very well. Be careful, it seems to be focused around one individual." Zephyr said as he took off towards the schools while Solas began his search. Solas thought he would be searching for a while but it only took him a few minutes to get a few clues. Apparently a manager was going on the warpath and correcting every little thing. Solas decided to hunt for the manager, and instantly was rewarded with him rounding a corner. Diving out of sight quickly, the void energy feeding off him was incredible. Solas kept track of the guy while waiting for the Guardians to arrive.
Which was going to be a problem. Zephyr hoped Lux had a plan because he knew Janna could get away easily, but getting Poppy and Lux out was going to be an issue. Knowing it was close to Lunch, he might get lucky.
Lux racked her brain but it didn't want to work for some reason as she kept coming up with bad plans, and then worse ones on top of those. Admitting defeat for the moment, she turned to the clock and was thankful it was almost lunch. The bell that rang just a few minutes later was a welcome relief. Lux left with Amy and some of her classmates to have lunch and shaking her head to Poppy as they passed again. Poppy was a bit put out but given all of the options, theirs was limited.
Reaching Janna first, Zephyr communicated to her and Janna immediately set a plan into action. Faking a text from her parents, she managed to get herself out of class and she sprinted with Zephyr towards the other school. Seeing both Lux and Poppy sitting apart, she knew that Lux hadn't come up with a plan so Janna formed one of her own.
"Zephyr, I'm going to give you a few minutes." Janna said, talking while trying to run.
"To do what?" Zephyr asked.
Janna ducked further back into the trees she was hiding in and pulled out her pendant. Zephyr turned only to see Janna transforming.
"Star Guardian Power Up." Zephyr turned his usual invisible as soon as Janna transformed, but was still confused. "Zephyr, head into the school and yank every single fire alarm. That way, they will be out for the rest of the day and we can get the two out."
Lux noticed a slight light in the corner of her eye, and then something floating towards the school. Making sure that her classmates were too engrossed in their conversation to see where she was looking, Lux turned her eyes to the grove of trees on the outskirts of the school and saw Janna there, fully transformed. Lux knew that she had a plan and decided to just play along with it. Returning to her lunch, she saw that she had been picking at an empty box for about a good 5 minutes and quickly put it back in her bag.
A few seconds later, the fire alarm went off and the sprinklers went crazy. Zephyr made his way throughout the whole school pulling every alarm. Because, even with the water, he was invisible, it was impossible to know exactly what happened. Just minutes later the fire department arrived and after looking around, they found that every alarm had been pulled. Knowing it would take the whole day to reset the system, Headmistress Fiora just dismissed the whole school while vowing to find a culprit. Lux and Poppy hearing that, sprinted to the grove of trees while the rest of the students talked about what they were going to do with their day off.
"Star Guardian Power Up." Lux and Poppy quickly joined Janna as Zephyr filled them fall in.
"The culprit is at the amusement park. Hurry. Solas has been keeping an eye on him, but with the levels of void energy, it won't be long." Janna said quickly.
"Right." The three took off towards the park, but as they arrived they noticed something odd. People were flooding out of the park, and on a weekday, where there was no one there, that wasn't a good sign. Lux looked around for an entry point and noticed Dorcha in a tree. Jumping over the fence, they met up.
"It's one of the managers. He's apparently gone on a nitpicking spree, and his energy has been boosted. Quickly he was at the back of the part when I last had eyes on him, but given the panic, it shouldn't be hard to find." Dorcha told the Guardians.
"Come on." Lux said and everyone followed her through the park. Somehow, despite all the panic, they managed to move through the crowd relatively easily. People just seemed to part around them. While they carefully made their way to the back of the park. Upon reaching the back of the park, they found more than a dozen individuals on the ground while there was some type of scorpion like creature gathering orbs.
"Hold it right there." Lux shouted as the three of them came into clear view. Rek'Sai turned and smiled a bit as she saw her new prey.
"Ah guardians welcome. Welcome to my stage, and welcome to your demise. You may have defeated Kha'Zix, but you will not defeat me. But before we fight, see how you do against my friend. Luan come here." The three Guardians turned and saw the infected manager, walking towards them. He was almost like a zombie but as he got close, he suddenly straightened up and froze.
All three Guardians tightened their grips on their weapons, because a second later he collapsed and what was Luan came forward. To say he was ugly was an understatement. More like an train wreck between what looked like safety harnesses for the park's coasters, a normal human body, but with wings for arms. Lux just took a brief glance at her other Guardians before they realized that Rek'Sai had already passed the orbs through a portal. Knowing their mission to stop energy recovery was over, they moved to stopping before they could start again.
Luan made the first move in launching what looked like fathers at them from his wings, but it turned out to be paperwork once it hit. Very sharp paperwork as it left marks on Poppy's armor as one piece scathed her. "Injured on the job? That's another 50 forms" he roared sending more their way. Lux threw a barrier around the entire squad and they dodged out of the way of more. Luan took to the sky as the three Guardians split up. Poppy charged after Rek'Sai, while Lux and Janna went after Luan.
Rek'Sai was clearly caught a bit unprepared to see the three split up and was almost pinned into a building when Poppy charged her. The resulting hammer blow on the ground didn't miss as Rek'Sai tried to dodge another attack but was caught in the depression and then it exploded in her face. Poppy threw her buckler as Rek'Sai charged and shielded herself from most of the damage but took a few scratches across her back which were absorbed by her armor.
Poppy, undaunted, came at Rek'Sai again, and this time she hit her mark knocking the creature back into a building and briefly stunning Rek'Sai. Recovering, the void creature threw out more scratches as she spun in a circle, this time connecting but Poppy absorbed some of the damage, but her armor still took a few hits. Rek'Sai then burrowed underground and Poppy carefully positioned herself to receive the next blow.
Lux and Janna meanwhile had dodged behind another building. "You know, I've always hated paperwork." Janna just briefly rolled her eyes at Lux before they had to dodge more flying papers. Lux threw another barrier before Luan landed before them and pointed his wings at them both.
"Leaving so soon? But you haven't filled out your time cards. Here's a pen." With that, what looked like ink shot from the tips of his wings at them. It connected with Lux who spun behind a building to try and clear it out of her eyes. Janna meanwhile used her experience to keep getting hit with the ink, or whatever it was. Behind the building, Lux managed to find a hose and after some reaching managed to get the ink off of her face at least.
"I really hope this doesn't persist once I power down, now where is that thing." She ran out from behind the building and after just a few seconds, threw a binding to ensnare Luan and threw a couple of bolts from her baton for good measure. Zephyr flew to him, slowing him, and Janna spun up a tornado. Despite the collateral damage, it was quite effective at knocking Luan around and then to the ground.
Lux threw a singularity at him to keep him there, while Janna threw a shield over Lux while she focused. Luan didn't seem to know what was coming so instead charged at Lux, who just finished focusing her powers. "Final Spark." Luan was then nothing more than a pile of dust on the ground. "Now back to the new ugly thing."
Lux and Janna emerged into the area where they last saw Poppy fighting Rek'Sai and at the edge of the large area, they came to an abrupt stop. Poppy was on one knee in the center while Lux looked and didn't see Rek'Sai. Janna looked around but couldn't see anything. Then they both felt it. Soemthing was moving underground and that is what Poppy was listening for. But they also felt it getting stronger. "Get out of there" she yelled. Lux and Janna dived, but they were too late.
Rek'Sai roared up from beneath the ground and knocked both Lux and Janna into the air. She took a few swings with her claws at them, and both of them were not only coming down hard, but injured as well. Poppy was already charging in, and once Rek'Sai landed back on the ground and spun to Lux, Poppy charged. Lux threw a binding to make sure that Rek'Sai wouldn't go anywhere, and Poppy sent the burrower into yet another building. Janna positioned herself in front as Rek'Sai charged again but Janna channeled her powers and summoned the monsoon.
The winds knocked Rek'Sai into the building for a second time, but this time it actually sent the burrower into it. Then it collapsed on her. Roaring in rage, and pain, she charged again only to see Poppy spinning her hammer above her head. Knowing she made a mistake, Rek'Sai tried to change direction, but a singularity and binding from Lux, and Zephyr from Janna slowed her turn and then locked her in place. "See you over there." Poppy brought the hammer down sending Rek'Sai flying into a field near the parking lot.
The Guardians quickly followed to see Rek'Sai getting up from her flight. Now clearly in pain, she roared again and turned to the park, only to see the three of them standing there.
"It's over. Surrender now." Lux said.
"Really? Do you really think I would do that?" Rek'Sai said, looking between the three.
"Yes. We are the Star Guardians after all. Sworn to defend the universe against all those who would throw it into chaos. And that means you."
"You know, Kha'Zix kept saying you do that and yet it doesn't work." Rek'Sai moved to dodge the expected attack, only to get Zephyr dragging her down, and then Poppy's buckler and hammer to her face. Roaring again, Poppy moved around for yet another attack while Janna threw a shield and Lux a singularity. Now in a lot of trouble, Rek'Sai roared and burrowed again.
Lux, Janna, and Poppy formed back to back while they felt around for Rek'Sai. On a overlooking tree, Dorcha and Solas kept a close eye on the fight. Just when it seemed Rek'Sai would come up, all three Guardians moved and dodged her unburrowing. Rek'Sai expecting to catch at least one of them only swung at empty air. Knowing she was beaten, on her decent ripped open a portal and fled.
"Well that does it. She probably didn't use the full range of her abilities, but clearly we have a new advisory. Now, let's get back to the tower." Lux said. Janna and Poppy nodded and just a few seconds later as they started to take off, Nasus drove up. The three of them quickly grabbed the cloaks he threw out to them, and after they clambered in, he took off.
"Power down." Once they were clear, the tinted windows of the van helped to conceal not only Nasus, but the Guardians themselves. Nasus made easy work of the traffic, and before they knew it, they were at the Library. Finding their bags in the back, they all grabbed them as they left. Nasus followed them into the tower where Vel'Koz was waiting. Noticing them enter, he quickly rolled up a square sheet of what looked like parchment or very thick paper.
"It is good you all managed to survive that. I had thought Rek'Sai would need more time to prepare, but clearly she isn't worried so much about her nest as I thought she would. Or she set it up faster than she previously has. She could have also made it smaller than normal, but it is all worth exploring. But before I continue to speculate, let's talk about that." Vel'Koz floated over to the globe.
"Rek'Sai uses seekers to attach to people from the planet the void is invading. Once they are attached, they enhance the person's energy until they are big enough to grow in an instant to a large size. When they do that, they drain all of the energy around them. It is a much smaller radius, but it is extremely powerful. She could theoretically do more with this method than Kha'Zix ever did." All three Guardians just looked at each other with looks of apprehension and worry.
"The advantage we have is that the seekers need time to grow. They boost the energy of those individuals for at least one day so that their actions will seem to be either passionate or overbearing. Obviously we saw the latter with this individual today but we could easily see the other. There is something that does bother me however…Rek'Sai rarely lets a defeat go unanswered."
"Perhaps she knows she was outclassed and is planning her next attack?" Janna asked, but she already knew the answer.
"Unlikely." Just as Vel'Koz finished, a large groundquake shook the tower. Turning on the TV, it was obvious what was going on. Rek'Sai didn't like defeat so readily.
"Let's go." Lux said.
"Star Guardian Power Up." The three charged out of the tower and were quickly at the center of town where Rek'Sai was with a large monster. Looking around, Poppy charged after the monster while Lux and Janna dealt with Rek'Sai. The Burrower, caught off guard by their sudden appearance, suffered through a binding, singularity, and multiple bolts from Lux's baton before she managed to burrow underground. Lux and Janna carefully stood their ground before dodging out of the way when she came back up, only to again swipe at air. Lux threw yet another binding, while a large thud told her that Poppy was having fun.
Indeed she was. Poppy slammed the monster into a building before hitting it hard with her hammer. It roared in pain, but something was wrong with it. It seemed weak and slow to react. Almost as if was either tired or did not have the ability to react quickly. Poppy found dodging its next attack easy and again swung her hammer, connecting hard. The monster roared again, and Poppy seeing an opportunity quickly looked over at Lux, who nodded. Poppy charged again, pinning the monster before raising her hammer above her head. Using her powers, she spun it and once she knew it was ready, which was also when the monster was coming around, she brought it down on the ground with full force. The monster soared through the air towards Lux and Janna, who dodged out of the way at the last second, leaving the monster to fall on Rek'Sai, who collapsed under its weight, clearly not able to burrow back underground.
Lux threw a binding, trapping them both, and focused her powers. Janna threw a barrier on her for good measure as Lux focused. Finally throwing her baton "Final Spark." Lux threw her beam and it hit square on the two of them. Rek'Sai roared in pain as the beam caused her so much pain. She got up but as soon as she charged, a pulse of energy hit her full in the side.
Lux turned to see Debonair for the first time. "You really have to stop losing my invitations." He said as he moved in. Rek'Sai, now heavily outnumbered, decided that flight was better than fight. Before any of them could move, Rek'Sai ripped open a portal and vanished through it.
"Just enough it seems." Lux said turning to Debonair. "Be careful with this one. She uses seekers to hunt her prey and…" but Debonair held up his hand.
"I know. Let's just say that we'll have to be careful." He said.
"Agreed." Debonair took off while the Guardians just stared at him. Meanwhile the police were starting to descend on the site and they all thought a hasty exit was the best option. As they reached the parameter, they found a small grove of trees and powered down after jumping into one. Pretending to be three school girls who had the day off because of a stupid fire alarm, which earned a few scratches for Zephyr, which he was more than happy to take while circling them all, they all climbed down again and headed for the center of the park they were on the outskirts of.
The three pretended to take notice of the large amount of police that was swarming towards the center of town. They all stopped to watch before they headed back to the tower. There, a note from Vel'Koz asked them to wait until he got back as he had been asked by the police to come and see the results of their fight. They all waited about 30 minutes before he came back.
"My apologies Guardians. They had more than a few questions. Now to business. I cannot explain why Rek'Sai attacked again so quickly. Possibly to judge your reaction times is my best bet. As to her actions, they were rash, so I doubt Malzahar will be impressed. Anyway, I hope you all can get some sleep and prepare for the next target as I'm sure it will not be far away."
"So here we go again?" Poppy asked.
"Here we go again." Vel'Koz replied. All four of them looked at each other before nodding and they all headed home. Vel'Koz went to a cabinet and pulled out the roll of parchment he hid earlier. Looking at it carefully, he made a few more notes on it before he saw Nasus walk in. "We should have everything we need. All that needs to be done now, is to start construction."
"I will see to it. Hopefully we focus everything we need in time." Nasus said.
"Oh with this, I'm not worried about time. This has to be done right." Vel'Koz said.
"I understand. What about the other thing?" Nasus asked.
"I'm looking into that myself. Do not worry. I'm sure they are both fine." Vel'Koz replied.
"I worry at times. They have been quiet as of late." Nasus said with a bit foreboding in his voice.
"I know, but they also said they would probably be out of contact for a while since they were chasing that lead down." Vel'Koz said. He also couldn't keep the worry about his void, but he mixed it with confidence.
"I guess you are right. I worry for nothing then." Nasus said, getting up.
"Worrying isn't a sign of weakness. It is a strength. And as soon as I have something, I will let you know. Oh." Vel'Koz turned to the device on his tentacle. "They are reporting in."
Vel'Koz and Nasus made their way to his office. Once inside, Vel'Koz plugged a few things into the computer and the screen came into focus. "Gentlemen, how goes the hunt?"
"Well actually. We weren't able to work with a lot of the information but we were able to eliminate many false leads. Currently we have only one real lead." Ezreal said.
"One lead of many. It won't be easy to track it down but then, nothing ever is. Brother how are you?" Renekton asked.
"Fine, take care of each other will you." Nasus replied.
"Oh don't worry. This one won't be harmed by anyone. Much." Ezreal rolled his eyes and placed his head into his arms as Renekton, Nasus, and Vel'Koz laughed. "We haven't had much luck with again the real leads, but knowing which are real and which are fake now helps us."
"Indeed it does. Now if we could only get some new ones. But I'm sure they will come in time." Ezreal said, his head still in his hands.
"Just keep it up." Nasus said.
"We know." And the screen went dark. Nasus walked around and took a seat as he was visibly relieved.
"Well there's something. At least we can continue to press forward." Vel'Koz said.
"Indeed. Now I'm sure we can both find something else to do." And they both left.
Meanwhile on Runeterra's moon, Rek'Sai was not in the best situation for relief. She was at the foot of Malzahar's throne and he wasn't happy. "Rek'Sai, I thought you were more intelligent than that. Let a lost fight go and get away with your spoils. You collected a lot of energy and then turned around and lost much of it in an act that was beneath you."
"I know Prophet. It was foolish and I allowed my pride to interfere with my judgment but I could not let a defeat like that go unanswered."
"You can and you shall. It is better to live to fight another day, then lose energy needlessly, which you did. I'm not happy with your first excursion, especially since in his first, Kha'Zix may have been caught off guard, but at least he learned over time to not let an defeat spook him. You need to learn that lesson quickly. Now be gone."
"Yes Prophet." Rek'Sai walked out of the chamber and into the general palace. She was furious with herself for letting that get away, but she also knew that energy was low right now and that even Malzahar made mistakes. She could not afford to make another one on that scale. She opened a portal and returned to her nest.
Meanwhile, in her room, Lux took a look outside before turning in and knew that sooner or later, there would be a time where she probably wouldn't be able to hide what she was. Looking back at her door, she knew that their magic would only hide their identities for so long. But maybe that time was far away, or closer than she thought. Either way, she kenw that time was running out before Malzahar wouldn't be collecting energy, instead he would be using it to bring his full force against them.
"Well maybe we can survive long enough to find the others."
"I hope so. We need all the help we can get. We will look but there isn't anything that sticks out right now. Maybe a different kind of threat needs to be present for them to show." Dorcha said.
"Or something else. We need to be patient." Solas continued.
"Problem. Being patient isn't going to be easy."
"No it won't." Lux moved to her bed, and settled down for some well deserved sleep.