The nights in Piltover were not as quiet as someone would think, filled with alcohol and occasional fights. Though, the latter had become a common phenomenon in the pubs of the downtown. A sport someone can call it, with drunk and desperate people making bets on each side before they'd be dragged in the fight themselves.
A pathetic state both the upercity and the lowercity city citizens had fallen to.
Gabriel Tucker was one of them. Not any different than those pathetic fools who had been unsuccessful in their careers or/and their love lives, drowning their surrow in alcohol and expressing their aggressive personalities in frequent fights for any sort of reasons.
That night wasn't any different for him.
He found himself in a pub of the downtown, the name of which is not of importance. Covered in blood in a complete drunken state, he grinned at his opponent, who wasn't in any better condition.
"Are you finally giving up, lad?" he mocked him "Or do you need me to throw a few more punches at ya, in case my point hasn't been proven?"
His opponent was obviously beaten up, with a black eye and a swollen lip but he wasn't giving up yet "Why won't you call the cops, perhaps they are not too busy conspiracing against the Mayor to protect you"
"I don't need anyone's protection" Gabriel greeted his teeth "Not like you, upercity motherfucker, always hiding behind the most powerful ones because you can't succeed"
"Let me laugh" the other man sneered "That coming by someone whose wife is cheating on him, it doesn't seem you have much of success either"
Gabriel let out an outraged scream before he launched himself at the man once again. People around them started cheering.
"Break his nose, Gab!"
"Show him who's the real man 'round here!"
"C'mon pal, I need to win this bet!"
By the looks of it, Gabriel wasn't afraid of overdoing it. Nobody mocked him and his beliefs. Seeing that he was taking it too far, some people dragged him away from his opponent who was bleeding out.
"Where's your Mayor at now, bitch?" he yelled "Where's the protection he promises? Pathetic fool! Keep sucking his dick for a position in the Town Hall, that's all you're worth! When you'll realize your just a pawn of his games to take complete control over the city, it's going to be too late buddy!"
The other man who was shoved away by his friends wiped away some blood off his lip before he repsonded "Same goes for you dude, when the sherrif will overthrow the Mayor and take over power cause that's all this bitch cares about..."
Gabriel escaped the grip of his companions and lauched himself again at him, but this time he didn't get enough time to react since he was lifted in the air by two metallic gauntlets double his size.
"Enough is enough" a female voice scolded him "I think this poor guy over here had enough for one night, don't you think?"
Gabriel pouted like a little child "Not so poor, considering his pockets are full with money"
The police officer chuckled at his sense of humor "Listen up, we're going to make a deal. Since I'm in no mood of getting into the trouble of arresting both of you, why don't you drop it here so everyone can return peacefully at their homes without the extra trouble?"
"Sounds good to me" the upercity man mumbled as he stumbled back on his feet and walked out of the pub, accompanied by his friends. Only then did Vi put Gabriel back to the ground.
"Call yourself lucky that I'm feeling generous tonight" she told him "But next time I discover you're creating trouble, I won't hesitate to throw you into a nice cell to spend the night into"
"Aye, ma'am" Gabriel saluted. Vi shook her head, laughing at the man's theatrics, caused by the huge amounts of alcohol he had consumed that night. But now it was her call to leave. She had spent too much time on this case and she needed to finally return home. But first, she needed to do something else. She approached the bar and called the bartender to have a talk with him.
"Call a cub for this idiot and send him home to his wife" she said, motioning at Gabriel with her thumb "My treat" she added, placing a few gold coins on the wooden bar. The bartender nodded as he grabbed the money and Vi returned to her bike that was waiting outside.
"Cupcake, I'm home!"
Vi had this habit of announcing her presence once she returned home. Especially when she was late, like tonight.
She got rid off her boots and removed her gauntlets off her hands before she walked further inside the apartment that had been her home for a few months now. Despite her best tries to persuade Caitlyn that she'd be fine by living alone, the sherrif didn't get any of this, claiming that there wasn't a safer place than her apartment. It was a fairly good reason for Vi to stay.
Caitlyn raised her eyes when Vi walked inside the kitchen, a smile playing on her lips. The enforcer walked up to her to peck them before she threw herself to a chair next to her.
"You've been keeping yourself busy" Vi commented
"As always"
The pinkette chuckled.
"What took you so long?"
"Had to deal with some alcoholics in downtown. Had I not intrefere, I believe the upercity would be mourning over a loss"
"I see. Should I ask what they were fighting about?"
"It's pointless since you already know the answer to that"
And she'd been damned if she didn't. Piltover was at the edge of a civil war. Two different sides arguing constantly with one another, both sides mixed with upercity and lowercity citizens, despite how most of the Mayor's supporters belonged in the upper social life and were the ones to claim that the sherrif was trying to overtake control. On the other side there were Caitlyn's supporters who believed that Mayor Kumar was trying to block the police's tried to protect by proclaiming Caitlyn a traitor. Everything had started months ago when first the Mayor claimed that the sherrif of Piltover had questioned his authority. Her father's warning had somehow come true; her reputation crumbled to the ground, especially among the upercity class. Caitlyn though was one strong woman with poweful allies all over the city. It wasn't so easy to get rid of her, especially with Vi at her side. As the brunette had predicted in the past, the enforcer had great influence among the lower classes and had prevented them from indulging in the Mayor's lies. Which was the main reason why she hadn't been removed from the position of the sherrif yet, though her authority had been significantly reduced, making her life a living hell. The investigations had been delayed a lot and at the current time they had zero leads and they couldn't do a single thing about it. Time passed and the possibilities of finding her father alive lessened.
It's not easy to bring down a stubborn woman like Caitlyn though. She hadn't stopped a minute searching, no matter what her father had told her all these months ago. She'd never give up. The whole case had turned very personal. Because it wasn't the first time C messed around with her family.
"Anything new?" Vi questioned, not waiting an affirmative answer.
"Actually, I think we got ourselves a lead" Caitlyn said "Mysterious activity has been reported on a storage on the north. Perhaps we could give it a try?"
"Sure" Vi stretched her arms "First thing we're going to do tomorrow morning"
"Problem here is, the storage belongs to one of the Mayor's counselors. I doubt we can get permission to investigate" Caitlyn frowned.
"He doesn't need to know" Vi retorted "What?" she said upon seeing Caitlyn's glare "Cupcake, that man is propagandising against you and all you care about is the legal process?"
"Investigating without authority will not render us any better than he is"
Vi sighed in frustration "A'light, fine. Do as you wish"
"On the other hand, I'm the law. So, not really that illegal after all"
Vi gave her a toothy grin "I think you've spent too much time around me"
"And I'm glad I did" Caitlyn smirked before leaning to kiss her.
"Are you sure this is the right address?"
"Absolutely"
Vi had every right to doubt that. The so called storage seemed to have been abandoned for years. There were no trails of recent activity.
"Shall we have a look?" Caitlyn suggested.
Vi nodded "Let's be careful though. There's something odd in this place that I don't like"
"I must agree. Let's go"
Checking first if they were being watched, they approached the front door which they found locked but that was no problem for Vi. Sometimes, you gotta make a door, was one of her favorite quotes. And so she did. Using her gauntlets, she made a new door for them by cracking the side wall.
When they entered the building, the nasty smell of closure hit them, making them wrinkle their noses in disgust. The place hadn't had its air refreshed for ages, it seemed. But it wasn't completely empty.
"Let's check out what those boxes contain" Caitlyn told her "I'll check these, you those of there. And be careful" she added.
"You too" Vi whispered before she headed towards the left side of the storage.
Carefully, she opened a few of the wooden boxes but all of them were empty. She looked around for anything that indicated recent activity but found nothing. She hoped Caitlyn had better luck than herself.
After hopelessly looking around for a while, she decided that there wasn't anything to be found and she turned to find Caitlyn, hoping the sherrif had actually discovered something instead of wandering around like she did.
She was utterly surprised when she found the brunette on her phone. That was something she would do.
"I just received a message from Viktor" Caitlyn informed her before Vi could ask "They found the antidote"
"Really? It was about bloody time!" Vi exclaimed "Best news we had in months"
"True... Did you find anything interesting?"
"Nothing. You?"
"Same. It seems like it hasn't been used in a while now"
"Then what was all this «mysterious activity» shit?"
"I have no idea. We should get going to meet up with Viktor and see what we will do afterwards..."
"And abandon our lovely company? You're no fun Hat Lady"
The high pitched voice sent creeps under Vi's spine, who instinctively hid Caitlyn behind her back. After that conflict between the sherrif and the Loose Canon, Vi didn't allowed Cait to be alone with her in a distance of ten miles. She had kept her away every single time they had met afterwards. And they had met a lot of times. As if the entire situation in Piltover didn't affect Jinx and her games at all.
Thus, there she stood above their heads on the hovering metal corridor, specially designed for supervision. She wore this mischievous grin of hers, ready to cause some trouble.
"Jinx" Vi hissed "Can you for once get the fuck out our way?"
"Let me think... How about no?" she giggled "I was bored so Fishbones told me «Why don't you go and find Fat Hands and have some fun»?"
"Fishbones' definition of «fun» is completely twisted" Vi mocked.
"Now now Fat Hands, you got Fishbones pissed off" Jinx cried out
"You piss me off all the fucking time and I never made such a big fuss about it"
Jinx wasn't listening to her. Instead, she chose to open fire at them. Caitlyn and Vi were quick to hide behind a couple of boxes.
"Look what you made me do, Fat Hands" Jinx spoke with Fishbones' supposed voice in the distance.
"She's got the worst timing ever" Vi growled.
"Tell me more about it" Caitlyn sighed "Alright, here's the plan. I'm going to get a position to snipe her..."
"No no no, you didn't understand Cupcake. You'll stay right here while I deal with this pathetic excuse of a human being" Vi interrupted.
"Are you serious now?" Caitlyn hissed "You can't treat me like a child, Vi! I can't allow you to fight alone"
"And I can't allow you to get killed because of this physcho" Vi argued back. This wasn't the time for this "Caitlyn please, last time I made the same mistake you almost died"
"I can take care of myself Vi"
"I know, I know but listen to me, I-"
"Vi stop this madness" Caitlyn spoke over her. "We can't handle this like that. The previous times I let you do your thing but now I'm not going to let you risk your life again for me"
"But..."
"No but's"
"You stubborn bitch-"
"Are we playing hide and see? Woo-hoo, I love hide and seek!" Jinx exclaimed "And I love winning! So, I'm going to find you both!"
"Fine" Vi cringed her teeth "But we're going to talk about this later" she added before she ran off to fight Jinx while Caitlyn ran towards the opposite direction to find a good place for her to snipe.
"Oh, here you are!" Jinx exclaimed once Vi emerged in front her "But I don't think this is how you're supposed to play the game, Fat Hands"
Vi wasn't even listening to her anymore. She focused on smashing Jinx's skull with her gauntlets. But Jinx was faster and she dodged with ease.
"Stay still for one moment, rat!" Vi hissed dangerously
"Like hell I will!" Jinx giggled.
Just then, a bullet flied just past her left ear and lodged to the opposite wall.
"Almost there Cait!" Vi shouted.
"Your girlfriend is out of practice. What have you done to her Fat Hands?" Jinx mocked when she jumped out of Vi's ratio. She pulled Zap and then fired at Vi. Thankfully for the enforcer, her Blast Shield absorbed much of the damage.
Vi launched herself again at Jinx but to no avail. The terrorist was too fast for her.
"Where's Ekko, by the way?" Vi asked "Why didn't you send him to another of your errands? This dog seems to serve you right"
Jinx smirked "That would be no fun!"
Before she had the chance to finish, another bullet flied, barely missing. Jinx had to bend to avoid it, giving Vi the chance she needed. With a Denting Blow, Jinx was sent flying in the air.
"Got you" Vi hissed. Caitlyn emerged from her hiding place, a couple of boxes a few meters on Vi's right.
"Jinx, you're under arrest" she spoke "Get rid off your weapons and hands where I can see them!"
Jinx stood back on her feet, shaking and clenching her arm but always grinning "Aren't you bored of this monotonous quote Hat Lady? Y'know it never works on me"
And as if confirming her words, an explosion occured on the other side of the storage, sending wooden pieces of fire all over the place.
"What the fuck?!" Vi exclaimed, looking at the fire that had occurred due to the explosion, then back at Jinx "Are you out of your bloody mind?!"
"That wasn't me, I swear" Jinx said "And to answer your question, yes I am!" she added, laughing hysterically.
"Watch out!" Caitlyn called over to Vi who moved at the very last moment before the boxes to her left exploded, setting the remaining pieces on fire.
"Are you alright?" Caitlyn kneeled next to her, her voice filled with concern.
"Yeah, I'm good" Vi repsonded as she got back on her feet "I swear if I catch her in my hands..."
"Let's leave that for another time"
Caitlyn was right. The building was set on fire and a thick smoke embraced everything, reducing visibility. The fire had expanded very quickly up to the roof, pieces of which were falling all around the place.
"Let's get out of here" Caitlyn suggested "And quickly"
They ran off towards the exit but it wasn't as easy to go through the storage anymore, as debris had blocked most of the pathway. If they didn't hurry up, they'd be trapped. There was no way to approach the walls either since the fire blocked the way too. Their only way out was their way in.
"We're almost there!" Vi shouted in excitement.
But fate plays a very dangerous game.
All of a sudden, the flaming roof started collapsing and they had to run like they hadn't run before, for the shake of their lives. But due to the power of gravity, this wasn't enough. Flaming pieces of the roof fell almost on their heads. They wouldn't make it. Not both of them anyways.
Vi had to take a quick decision.
She closed her eyes for one second yet it felt like an eternity. There was no time for hesitation. The roof was about to collapse again.
All of a sudden she grabbed Caitlyn and before the brunette had the time to understand what was going on, she gave her a boost, throwing her a few meters away.
A few meters away from the upcoming death. Vi knew her Blast Shield had some limitations. It could handle the debris but not the fire brought with it.
Caitlyn rolled over the floor, still shocked of Vi's sudden reaction. She was now facing Vi with the most shook expression ever painted on her face.
"Vi, what the fuck are you doing...? VI!"
She screamed her name when a mountain of debris and flames landed on top of her enforcer, a fog of smoke emerging, making her cough. Now, she realized why she had done this crazy move.
"Vi... No..." she whispered, a few tears moistening her cheeks. She couldn't realize it. She couldn't accept it.
But she had to get up or else Vi's sacrifice would go in vain. With all her remaining strength, she pushed herself up and ran the few meters that remained between this living hell and the outside world.
Once she set foot on the open air, she collapsed to the ground, shaking violently.
"Vi! Vi!" she cried, a hand on her mouth trying to shuffle her sobs. The pain was unbearable.
Why the world was so cruel? Why all this suffering upon her shoulders? What were her sins for which she was paying right now? Why did Vi had to sacrifice her life of hers? She didn't deserve it, not in the slightest.
"My love..." Caitlyn whispered before she let the darkness consume her. She didn't want to feel anymore.