A/P/N: I do apologize for the long time between this update and the previous one. I have been going through some personal issues and had to take a break from a lot to sort myself out. I should be posting regular updates every week or every other week for a while. Thanks again for following and reading.
With yet another defeat, Rek'Sai is starting to rethink her strategy, and knowing what they did about Star Guardians, she turns one of their weaknesses against them.
Chapter 14 – Something's in Short Supply
Janna dodged out of the way again as Poppy moved in to pin the monster down again, but to say she was missing was a bit of an understatement. Rek'Sai kept attacking so much lately, that between keeping up with schoolwork and all of the attacks, the three Guardians barely had enough time to sleep. Poppy at least managed to hit the monster this time, pinning it against a wall while Lux threw a binding to keep it pinned.
"Final Spark." Lux threw what was left of her focus into her powers and dusted their fourth enemy in as many days. Every day was a challenge lately, but while the first two enemies were rather powerful, the one from yesterday and the one today were weaker in comparison. It almost seems like Rek'Sai was trying to either tire them out, or keep them distracted. Or both. But that was too much thinking for the moment as all three Guardians slumped down against a wall to catch their breath.
"Well. Hopefully we can rest tomorrow." Poppy finally said after a few minutes.
"What is the likelihood of that?" Janna almost snapped back. "Sorry, too tired." She quickly caught herself.
"No problem. Let's head back and maybe find a cure for this." The three got up and sprinted off, or rather fast walked. Rek'Sai carefully watched them leave and knew that her plan was starting to fall apart. The first two battles were both drawn out and lasted for some time, but yesterday's and today's were barely anything on the radar. Rek'Sai knew that she was keeping them from getting sleep, but it was only a matter of time before even a 3 year old could take down one of her seekers. She needed at least another two days to grow her monster to the point where it might defeat the guardians, but if she even allowed them one day of rest, then it would be a massive problem. If she were to spawn a monster tomorrow, she would have to risk hunting in the daylight. A risk worth taking.
As Lux, Janna, and Poppy powered down in the comfort of the tower, and all three collapsed into chairs as they fought sleep. Dorcha and Solas were looking at the three and the two knew that the Guardians couldn't keep this up for much longer. It wasn't long before Vel'Koz joined them. All present looked at him and Vel'Koz just hovered closer to the ground.
"I wish I could help you but there isn't much I can do right now. I can't manipulate time and I wish I could. I would suggest you all go home and try and get some sleep. I have an idea for one of your problems. If you let me know what homework you all have, I could find a way to get it done."
"Problem. Or well not really. None of us have any left. We agreed to hammer it out so we could hopefully get some sleep tonight. But given the fact we are so on edge, we couldn't get sleep if we wanted. With school tomorrow, I'm sure one of us will be getting in trouble for falling asleep in class." Lux said, while she was clearly struggling to keep her head up.
"I understand that part. I can help with that bit. Give me a minute." Vel'Koz floated back out and raced to his lab. Inside was something he made for this type of occasion. It wouldn't help them sleep better, but it would remove the nerves they were all suffering from so they could relax. Returning to the room, he saw them all asleep. "Let me know when they are awake" he said to Dorcha and Solas who just nodded in reply. Vel'Koz floated back out and resumed his rounds of the Library and Museum.
Rek'Sai was smiling as she walked around her nest making it more comfortable. Her pan was working to some degree. She could tell the Guardians were getting tired and tomorrow they would be in for a shock. She had carefully let the seeker she was going to deploy tomorrow grow larger than normal since she needed a big distraction to completely tire out the guardians before the following day where she would unleash her carefully selected and nurtured seeker. She laughed a bit at her own plan before curling up in part of the nest and getting some sleep herself.
Poppy was jolted out of the dream she was having by a tap on the shoulder from Janna, who had also woken Lux up as she was stretching in the background. Poppy got down and also did a few stretches before Vel'Koz floated back into the room. "I know you are all on edge, but I think these will help you all to relax. They won't improve your sleep, but they will allow you to fall asleep. Just make sure you are ready. I manufactured them using some Void Energy, so they will leave you cold so be prepared."
"If they are made from Void Energy, won't we be detected?"
"The risk is almost non-existent. They will be able to sense the energy, but not where it is or where it is coming from."
The three Guardians looked at each other, but after Janna shrugged, they all grabbed the pills that Vel'Koz offered. They all needed to relax, and if this helped, then so be it. Side effects, and all. Vel'Koz smiled in his weird way as he knew he could have at least tried to help. Getting home, all three Guardians mentioned they were tired and headed up to bed, but not without eating dinner first. While all three were a bit nervous about using the pills, a good night's sleep was worth a trade off of their apprehension. All three took the pills, and it was almost like ice was flowing through their bodies, but it did calm them down and after they all put their minds about tomorrow away, they settled down to sleep.
During the night, Rek'Sai felt something was different. There was some void energy that she didn't sense before. She couldn't pin it down, but it appears that some people were experimenting with Void Energy. The thought of it made her sick, but she couldn't space the time to hunt it down as she checked on her two seekers. Noting they were almost ready made her smile, but with so much of the night left, looking for the source of the void energy tempted her, but with it being so localized, Rek'Sai knew she would have be almost right on top of it to identify it clearly. Even nearby wouldn't be enough, so she left back for her nest to wait out until the next attack.
The following morning saw Lux, Janna, and Poppy waking from a rather refreshing night's sleep. They weren't completely caught up, but it was several steps in the right direction. School would probably take care of the rest. At least in the fact that they would be able to not use as much energy because it was going to be a boring day. Lux would be watching a movie that she's seen so many times that the report they were supposed to do while watching it, she had already finished. Poppy would be working on an assignment due the following week that she had mostly finished. Janna would have her normal classes, but since her work was done, she would sleep in study hall.
School for all three passed by slowly as they kept looking out the window for Dorcha, Solas, and/or Zephyr who were keeping eye on the city and waiting for Rek'Sai to attack. But the day passed without incident. As they were leaving school, Lux walked with Amy to her mother's shop to do their weekly crafting event in the park. Poppy headed to meet her father at a local metal shop to get some more for the project he was working on. Janna headed with Jayce and Garen to the mall to just enjoy the time.
As the evening rush hour picked up and people flooded everywhere, Rek'Sai was carefully watching her seeker. The person it attached to was making life for the workers under her. She was one of the supervisors that coordinated the trains coming in and out of the station. Rek'Sai knew it was a calculated risk attacking the same place twice, but she knew that Kha'Zix made off with a lot of energy from his previous attack so she figured she might get lucky. As the evening rush hour approached, Rek'Sai moved into position to activate her seeker.
As the school day was over, Lux, Janna, and Poppy were at the tower waiting for Rek'Sai's next attack. The fact nothing happened during the day, was a warning sign that she was ready for something heavy. Lux was doing some new homework they had been assigned at the bar, while Poppy was upstairs training a bit, and Janna was trying to relax so she was stroking Zephyr and Dorcha while Solas sat on her shoulder. The map of the city was incredibly quiet, but they knew it was only a matter of time.
"This is really annoying, I just wish she would do something already." Janna finally burst out. Lux picked her head up from her work.
"They say a watched pot never boils." Lux said with a smile on her face. Janna just glared back. "That said, I'm unsure what is worse, the wait or the battle."
"The wait" Poppy said as she came back down, still transformed. She rested her hammer against the wall, and jumped up on a chair at the table to join Janna. "It's always worse. Why do you think whenever you are going somewhere it takes longer compared to when you are going home."
"Good point. I just wish something would happen. It's been a boring day."
"I'll take a boring day right now." They all turned to each other as Lux finished, and they all burst out laughing. As they calmed down, they all felt something. A presence. Lux quickly grabbed her locket, while Janna pulled her pendant from her neck.
"Star Guardian Power Up." In a flash, both of them were transformed and Poppy joined them as she retrieved her hammer. Each of them reached out to feel where it was coming from.
"The Station!" They burst out and practically teleported out of the tower as they sprinted for the building for the second time. By the time they got there, it was apparent that the seeker was there, but hadn't come out yet. The cold emanating from the building however was impossible to ignore. Janna and Poppy turned to Lux who thought for a moment and then nodded.
"Ok here's what we are going to do. Let's spoil Rek'Sai's day for once. Poppy, you and Janna head into the station and see if you can get a better idea where the seeker is. I'm find one of the police officers and get them to start evacuating." Janna and Poppy nodded and, knowing that concealing themselves would be missing the point entirely, they hopped down from the building they were standing on and bolted for the front entrance. Lux followed quickly behind, and began looking for a police officer. It didn't take long as three of them were bolting for the doors that Janna and Poppy just sprinted through. Lux moved up to them.
"There is going to be an attack here. Very soon. Start evacuating." She said.
"You certain?" One of the officers asked.
Lux just gave him a sigh and rolled her eyes. "Yes I'm certain. Notice how it's rather cold here despite the fact it's a warm day?" They all nodded. "Clear sign of void energy. We can sense it better than you. Now please start evacuating."
One of the officers grabbed his radio. "9540 to dispatch. Probable attack at the train station downtown. Require officers to assist in evacuation."
"Roger 9540, what is the source of the information?"
"Oh I'm staring and talking to an increasingly irritated Guardian." He said now rolling his eyes.
Lux was just thinking 'what goes around comes around'.
"Roger 9540. Start evacuation. All available units on route. Lux nodded but as she turned to the doors, she felt the seeker awaken.
"Um you might want to put a rush on that. Got to go." Lux bolted into the station with the officers following close behind. One of them quickly tripped the alarm and they all began directing passengers out of the station. Lux sprinted for where she felt the energy, but didn't go too far before it found her. A loud bang caused Lux to turn and then to a tumble roll out of the way of a flying door. Out of it came a monster, and Poppy.
While Lux was trying to convince the Police to get the evacuation started, Poppy and Janna storming into the station and then down the stairs was enough to get people to start moving towards the exits at a rather rapid pace. Poppy kept watch while Janna sensed where the energy was coming from. She focused and after a few seconds identified it. "Let's go." She said and started moving towards a staff only door. "Would you mind?" Janna asked to a security guard who was nearby. Poppy was only all to happy to beat it down, but, at least for now, Janna thought avoiding needless property destruction was best. The guard opened the door and the two sprinted through.
Finding the source of the energy wasn't hard as the raised voices was all they needed. "She really likes people who obsess doesn't she?" Poppy said as they sprinted for the source of the commotion.
"Well it's easy. Just feed them a bit and they go nuts." Janna replied as they rounded a corner and approached a control room of some sorts. The guard outside was ever to happy to let them in as she was clearly scared about something. Or intimidated by them, but the issue at hand was more pressing so they didn't want to figure it out. They both moved inside to find a man standing over the other people in the room. Enraged, he was just screaming.
"All of you are worthless. You can't do your jobs correctly and do what I say. So how about I just drain your energy as you won't need it." And with that, the seeker arose, and pulled energy from the room around it. The orbs that were in the room were carefully hidden and it managed to collect a lot of energy. "Excellent now to my…"
"Hold it right there!" The monster turned and his face went from happy to angry at the drop of a hat. Behind him were two guardians and he flew into a rage. But in that rage, it forgot to aim and instead of hitting Poppy or Janna, it flew through the still open door and into the hallway. Poppy was quick to give chase while Janna destroyed the orbs that it already collected. Once that was done, Janna quickly turned around to join Poppy, only to find her charging and throwing the monster back into the main hall where she almost flattened Lux with how she charged out of the door.
Rek'Sai was about to join the monster when she saw the guardians, and snarled. She knew that it was a risk doing this plan, but she didn't expect this fast of a response. Rek'Sai figured she might be able to get away with the orbs the monster collected in the beginning, only to find those shattered. 'Great I lose a seeker and get nothing out of this. Malzahar will not be happy. ' Rek'Sai left the station quickly before she saw the results of the fight. She knew it wouldn't be good.
The monster for its part was trying to fight off three thoroughly annoyed and angry Guardians, who were unrelenting in their attacks. Lux kept throwing singularities and bindings, Poppy keeping close and getting hits with her hammer, and Janna using Zephyr and her abilities to keep the monster from landing a clear hit. After a few minutes of chaos, it roared and sprinted for the open air at the end of the station. The three quickly gave chase and emerged into a rail yard. Now the monster did have an advantage. It could hide and possibly throw things at them, or whatever powers it has access to.
Lux directed Poppy in front for two reasons. First, she could take a hit and shake it off, and second, because she and Janna could barrier any attack. They moved carefully through the yard keeping an ear out for anything out of the ordinary. More than a few times they all had to stop as something caused them to turn. They were all careful however to not start throwing abilities randomly as that is what the monster wanted.
Suddenly a flash caught Poppy's eye and after a brief second, isn't tackling the monster, but rather her teammates as a large metal object flew past them all and landed squarely in a train car behind them. The three of them got to their feet to take a look at what flew at them, and it was a train axle. They all looked at each other before they were diving again as another large metal object came flying at them. At least from the throw they were able to determine where the monster was and charged after it.
When they rounded another train car, they were all diving again to avoid yet another object. At least they found the monster and Poppy not wanting to wait another second, got up, raised her hammer, and charged after the monster. Lux threw a barrier around her, while Janna sent Zephyr to slow it down. Poppy brought her hammer down with such force that it knocked aside a pile of rail ties and sent the monster flying onto a nearby roof.
The Guardians quickly jumped up to the roof and dodged around smaller projectiles that flew in their direction. Finally managing to land a binding, Lux was about to focus, when she lost her balance and had to tumble roll to regain her balance, landing a few feet from the edge of the roof. The monster seeing this charged after Lux, but was not only slowed by Zephyr again, but Janna sent a twister its way, knocking it up into the air. When it came slamming back down on the roof. Poppy immediately charged it into a wall, where Lux sent a binding to make sure it stayed there.
Lux focused her powers again, and threw her baton in the air. "Final Spark." The beam of light turned the monster to dust and Lux dropped back onto the roof, then collapsed against the outside of a structure on it. "Dusted. Now hopefully that is it."
"Probably not." Poppy's comment saw Lux put her head in her hands for a few minutes before lifting it up again. She knew that Poppy was probably right, but they all couldn't take much more of this. They were already exhausted, and it was only a matter of time before Rek'Sai did something to exhaust them completely. None of them were caught on up sleep and it would be a while before they were. While they were doing a bit better, they would all be probably using Vel'Koz's pills again to get at least some sleep.
"At least tomorrow is the weekend." Lux finally said as she rested her head against het building behind her.
"Yeah but that doesn't mean we can relax." Janna reminded her but no sooner than were the words out of her mouth did she regret saying them. Lux just shot her a look and shook her head. Inside, Lux knew that Janna was right, but for now, she knew that it was the wrong thing to say. And that still wouldn't have stopped her from getting mad.
"Look, I think we could all use the rest of the day apart. We are good together, but I think we all getting on each other nerves. Let's just go home, rest, and be ready for tomorrow." Poppy said sensing the air between everyone. Lux and Janna turned to her and just nodded. They all knew friends had fights, but right now, having a stupid one over lack of sleep wasn't going to be helping any of them.
They all got up and jumped down off the roof and headed for a grove of trees near the Library that they would power down in. Once they were done with that, they all looked at each other, nodded, and headed home to rest for the following day, which would no doubt be worse.
Lux wanted to hang out with Amy, but with her exhaustion taking over, thought it best to go home to get some dinner, then sleep until morning. Janna dodged a few calls during her walk home, and after eating dinner, retired for the evening. Poppy likewise followed something similar. Finishing a quick assignment, she had dinner with her family, then also went to bed. At least it was easy to explain their exhaustion to their families, but that didn't make losing an entire evening easy.
During the night, Rek'Sai set out to inspect her seeker for tomorrow. As she approached it, she took great satisfaction that it was ready and waiting. After waiting this week, she knew it would be easy to defeat those pesky guardians and anyone else that showed up to help them. Rek'Sai was about to leave when she again noticed the same void energy from the previous night. Since she had time this evening, she set out to find the source, knowing that would be an extremely difficult task.
She spent the entire night searching, but given the power level of the points, Rek'Sai knew that unless she was right on top of it, literally, she wouldn't find it. Just a general area, and even that wasn't good enough. Cursing that someone was playing around with their previous energy, she knew that with dawn rapidly approaching, she needed to get at least some rest herself before chaos started. Retreating to her nest, she made herself comfortable and drifted off.
The dawn brought with it the hope of a new day, and three still extremely tired Guardians. While they were all doing better, the argument from the previous day still hung over their heads. Lux and Janna, knowing that the other liked to sleep late on the weekends, didn't call each other for fear that they would wake the other, but vowed to go to the library. Poppy for her part didn't have the restful night sleep she was hoping for, but still caught up a bit on her sleep. After eating breakfast, she said she was going to study with friends and made for the library.
Lux for her part was slow to get out of bed, and it took Dorcha jumping onto her stomach to get her finally out of bed, while Solas somehow managed to push her feet off as well. Lux smiled at the two. "You know I really do appreciate you two. Crazy as you two are."
"We know. Just trying to help." Dorcha said as she hopped back onto the bed. Lux smiled again, and headed down to breakfast.
Zephyr was likewise having a problem getting Janna up so resorted to constantly pacing back and forth on her bed until it annoyed her enough. That didn't take long as Janna eventually rolled her eyes and after a playful shove, got up. Zephyr just hopped into her arms as Janna went downstairs for breakfast.
A bit later, Poppy was the first to arrive at the tower where she pulled out something to read while waiting for the others. About a half hour later, Lux and Janna showed up, who turned to each other upon entering from different entrances.
"Sorry about yesterday. I guess we are all just tired." Janna started.
"Yeah. We are. Hopefully today we can either sleep, or defeat whatever RekSai throws at us so we can sleep tomorrow." They hugged each other and Poppy breathed a sigh of relief. Now that was out of the way, they all turned to each other. A map of the city showed nothing out of the ordinary, but that wasn't going to last. The void energy that had been obscured by all of the other attacks lately was now more present than ever. They knew it was only a matter of time.
"So I'm guessing we are all still tired so we can either take turns watching and sleeping, or…" Poppy started to say.
"I can help with that" Nasus said as he entered with some new equipment. "I finally managed to get this thing to work properly. It's a police scanner so we might get some advance tip off. I can monitor all of this with those two" pointing to Dorcha and Solas, as Zephyr was already asleep" and let you know if something happens." Not arguing, the three headed up to their rooms, while Janna paused for a brief minute to grab the seemingly lazy cat. In reality, Zephyr wasn't sleeping, but knew he could get Janna to carry him if he faked it.
The next few hours passed in relative easy as Lux, Janna, and Poppy all woke up of their own accord, and after they all headed down one by one, their worst fears weren't confirmed. Nothing happened and it was clear that Nasus was becoming a bit frustrated. "Well I guess she's going to wait for something. But what I don't know. So you all might want to get lunch." That was all it took for Lux, Janna, and Poppy to sprint out the door, followed by Solas and Zephyr, who were never ones to pass up a meal. Dorcha stayed behind to help Nasus, who quickly got her something to eat.
After a brief discussion, they all headed for that new burger place that opened up to enjoy hopefully a full meal. The central location downtown was easy to relocate if an attack happened, and the fact that the place was packed would give them some privacy. Ordering took a while, but once they started looking for a seat, Janna elbowed Lux in the side and pointed to a corner, where Garen and Jayce. Garen looked up and waved them over. Not resisting an invitation to a table in this place, they all quickly made their way over.
"Taking a break from studying?" He asked as the three sat down.
"Yes. It's really annoying, but the library is actually a nice place to do it." Lux responded.
"I'm sure. Now be glad that Draven has already left along with his friends."
"Why do you hang out with him if he's that annoying?" Janna asked, slightly annoyed.
"Because his brother is actually not that bad and knows people." Jayce said as he took another sip from his drink. "I know Darius has that reputation, but he could be a lot worse." That got looks from all of them.
"Um Jayce, dude, Darius can be a bit" Garen said
"Abrasive?" Came a voice from behind Garen. Turning, he saw Darius right there. "I know. Moving around a lot doesn't help with that. Also having an obnoxious little brother doesn't do anyone favors. Now did you see my, ah there it is." Darius bent down and grabbed something off the floor. "My phone. Well carry on." And with that he turned and left. That left the five of them staring.
"Not what I expected." Poppy said finally breaking the silence.
"Nope. I guess there are other things. Anyway here comes your food." Lux turned to see that lunch had indeed arrived. While they all ate quickly, they still took their time to make sure that if they needed to jump up and leave, they could without getting sick. After a bit, Garen and Jayce left, leaving the Guardians to themselves. They spent the rest of the meal in relative quiet as they were just expecting to leap up at any moment. However, they were able to finish and they headed back to the library.
"I don't know what's worse. The battle or the wait?" Janna said as they walked.
"Didn't we already have this conversation?" Poppy said as they rounded a corner onto a street which dead ended into the Library. As they rounded the corner however, something caught their attention, there were police cars everywhere and a lot of police around a specific area. Lux nodded and they moved towards the source of the commotion.
"What do you mean they are all invalid? I have worked for years on this beat and been ticking for years. You have no right to invalidate these tickets. Every single one is correctly done."
"That may be, but you have done this for years, and you have always given some leniency. You have been extremely hard lately and it is concerning. And then today you have written a few at the moment they expired. What happened?"
"This isn't good." Lux said as they moved back a bit so they could sprint for some enclosed space to transform. As they moved back a bit however, they were hit with a wave of cold. "That's even worse. At least we found it."
"Yeah but there are a lot of people around. We need to find way to separate them." Poppy said, surveying the crowd.
"I don't think that will be easy as you think. We have to work on this carefully." Janna replied as she looked around.
"Split up and move to surround this situation. Be ready to transform if necessary." Lux said as she started moving herself.
"Right." Poppy and Janna. Zephyr jumped onto Janna's shoulder, ready to go, while Solas maneuvered around and into a tree to get an overhead view. Once they were all positioned, they all listened carefully for anything that would set it off. However, as they waited, another massive wave of cold was approaching and they knew Rek'Sai, which meant their time was up.
All three Guardians broke for isolated spots as many people started backing away from the scene. The number of police that were now actively telling people to back up at this point was also helping. In the shadows, Lux grabbed her locket, Janna and Poppy their pendants. "Star Guardian Power Up!" All three quickly jumped to rooftops as the scene finally spiraled out of control.
"Well if none of you will let me do my job, then I can't let you do yours either." Cables suddenly shot out of the officer's arms and encircled several civilians and police officers. "Your energy will be used for the Void!" With that the officer cackled as their energy was drained. The remaining officers quickly surrounded their "colleague" as she lashed out again, catching several more officers while the rest dodged out of the way. This was the moment Rek'Sai burst from the ground, but didn't find herself making it very far as Lux hit her instantly with a binding, and several bolts from her baton. Grunting in pain, Rek'Sai turned to the seeker.
"Unia, I could use a hand." And with that, the seeker showed its true monster form, leaving its host. It stood next to Rek'Sai as the Guardians surrounded them. It was hideous to even look at. One arm looked like a bundle of cables, while the other looked more normal, but ended in what looked like that ticketing device that officers carried for parking enforcement. The monster's body was thin like her host, and colored similar to the police. The actual officers by the way were quickly getting people out of the way of the impending fight and dragging away the already unconscious civilians and fellow officers, with some help.
"Well, you just can't help but cause trouble can you?" Poppy challenged Unia and Rek'Sai.
"No little one. I can't." Rek'Sai responded, lashing out at Poppy with her tail, only to be rewarded with pain as Poppy expertly brought her hammer down on the fast moving tail and for a second, pinned Rek'Sai to the pavement. "Well, it seems that all of my stunts haven't worn you all out. Very well then, Unia attack. I will deal with the fool just arriving."
Lux looked up to see Debonair running onto the scene, and seemingly anticipating what Rek'Sai would do, transformed his weapon into a hammer and let the void burrower have it. Janna quickly moved off to join Debonair while Poppy and Lux stayed behind to deal with Unia.
"2 against one isn't much of a fair fight. Let's fix that." Unia lashed out at Poppy but as she was about to connect, changed targets and shot after Lux. While Lux had thrown her baton to create a barrier around Poppy to prepare for the blow, Poppy missed her hammer strike and quickly tried to rectify it by charging at Unia, as Lux braced for the blow, Unia quickly found that the barrier also extended to Lux. Bringing her arms down on the barrier, she rebounded and moved to strike again, but Lux had her baton back in her hand and Unia's attack once again fell on the barrier. As she rebounded from another attack, Poppy made sure that this time she didn't escape. Charging forward, Poppy pinned Unia against a wall.
Lux attempted to throw a binding, but Unia recovered faster than expected and she missed. Not missing a beat, Lux threw a singularity at her, which she detonated and threw some more bolts. Poppy wasn't far behind Unia and kept either trying to hit her with her hammer, or pin her against another object, but Poppy kept having to dodge out of the way of either the cables flying from one arm, or the tickets being shot from the other.
"Would you just hold still?"
"Why don't you? I mean you are the one who has to keep dodging. My attacks. By the way, you're jaywalking. That's a ticket." Poppy tumble rolled out of the way as more tickets flew at her, embedding in the wall behind where she just rolled away from. Poppy turned and after a few seconds the wall dissolved.
"Great. Acid." Poppy said as she picked herself up and charged again.
"You do know attacking a police officer is punishable by law. So you are under arrest." The cables shot out and formed handcuffs. One landed on Poppy's arm, and she was dragged back to a light pole which the other attached to. Poppy frantically started working to free herself while Lux moved into protect her teammate and give her the time to do so. "So just you and me now. That seems fair."
"It would be fair, if you actually knew what you were doing." Lux threw another binding to keep Unia from going after Poppy and keep the attention on her. And it seemed to be working. Unia kept going after Lux and she expertly dodged around her attacks and even a few more handcuff plays.
Poppy meanwhile as trying to break the chain links, but wasn't having much luck. Growing frustrated, she pulled and even brought her hammer down on the cuffs, but nothing seemed to work. She was almost out of options, when a rouge shot from Debonair's weapon hit near her. Poppy quickly pulled the chain to its maximum length and turned to Debonair and Janna, who were still fighting with Rek'Sai.
"Hey Debonair! A shot here please." Poppy yelled indicating the chain. Janna threw a twister at Rek'Sai to keep her busy for a few seconds while Lux threw a binding at Unia to keep her from interfering. Debonair took careful aim, threw out his gate, and then a pulse. The pulse shattered the chain and it spread to the cuffs, which also shattered. "Let's remember that. Now where was I?" Poppy charged after Unia and Lux was more than happy to throw the barrier as Poppy rammed her into a wall and then hit her with a massive hammer strike.
As Lux and Poppy took off after Unia, Janna moved to help Debonair as he sent Rek'Sai into a building with his hammer. Moving quickly, he transforms his weapon and throws out another pulse at Rek'Sai as she got up and charged again. Debonair braced for the blow but found Rek'Sai's claws bounced off a barrier. He turned to see Janna floating behind him as Rek'Sai rebounded and held her claws in pain. Recovering quickly, Rek'Sai charged again and was met with Zephyr holding her back, a Twister from Janna, and then Debonair's hammer to her face.
"Had enough?" Janna asked as Rek'Sai picked herself up from the ground again.
"You wish." Rek'Sai responded, and she dived underground. Debonair and Janna immediately took positions just a little bit apart from each other. Far enough away that Rek'Sai couldn't hit them both if she emerged, but close enough to support each other. Each carefully felt around for Rek'Sai but both were quickly surprised when a pulse of void energy flew at them. Both of them dodged out of the way and after they both landed, Rek'Sai unburrowed just under where Janna had landed, managing to get in a few strikes before Janna got her barrier up. Janna then rolled out of the way, nursing her wounds while Debonair sent more pulses at Rek'Sai to get her off Janna while she recovered.
Rek'Sai, taking the bait, left Janna and charged at Debonair, only to be met again with a hammer to the face for the third time this fight. Knowing she couldn't fall for that again, Rek'Sai moved around Debonair, who was trying to keep himself between Rek'Sai and Janna, who was still recovering from the strikes Rek'Sai got in. Debonair took a quick look back, and saw the wounds were more serious than he though, as Janna had yet to get back to her feet. Rek'Sai, seeing the brief look, charged, and got a few hits in on Debonair before getting a fourth hammer in the face. Rek'Sai flew for bit in the air, landing on the ground while Debonair rushed to Janna's side.
"You ok?" He asked as he knelt down beside Janna.
"No. That did a lot." Janna pulled her hand from her leg, which was not only heavily scratched, but also bleeding a bit. Janna was keeping pressure on the wound, but Debonair knew she wouldn't be getting up on that anytime soon.
"I'll keep Rek'Sai off of you."
"She'll find a way. All she needs to do is burrow, and I'm history. No. I have an idea. Lure her in." Janna said with a smile forming.
"What?" That was just about the only thing that seemed like a valid response to that.
"Lure her in. Trust me. You do don't you?" Janna asked. Debonair only nodded and as he stood back up, he noticed the Guardian's grip on her staff tighten. Debonair smiled as well, seeing the plan. He stood back up and noticed Rek'Sai was just getting to her numerous feet.
"Zephyr, I'm going to need your help for this." Janna turned to the nearly invisible cat.
"I got your back." He said in reply, waiting to pounce. Janna turned to watch and wait for just the right moment. Rek'Sai, enraged, charged straight at Debonair, who swung his hammer and "missed". Rek'Sai surprised, charged straight at Janna. Rek'Sai then onticed herself slowing down, and just as she approached Janna, she suddenly used all of her strength in her other leg, pushed herself off the ground and into the air. Summoning her powers, she conjured her monsoon which again threw Rek'Sai through the air and she slammed hard into the ground.
As Janna landed back on her feet, the wounds on her leg, while they didn't heal completely, were enough to where she could resume the fight. Grabbing her staff tightly in her hands, she summoned a twister which just sent Rek'Sai into the air and again slamming hard into the ground again.
"Property damage is a crime. Here's some more tickets for your behavior. Lux and Poppy dived out of the way of yet more "tickets" from Unia's arm cannon thing. Then they dodged again while cables flew from her other arm trying to entangle them. Poppy managed to dodge them both, but Lux wasn't so lucky. One of the smaller cables managed to wrap around her ankle, tripping Lux and sending her slamming into the ground. Hard. "Got one. Now you are under arrest."
Lux tried to fight the cable free, but a few more sprouted from it, entangling her legs. Poppy quickly tried to intervene, but more tickets force her yet again to dodge. The cables worked their way to Lux's torso, where she was eventually lifted up in the air. With her arms bound to her side, Lux couldn't do anything as she was pulled inches from Unia's face.
"It seems I finally have one of you. Now to end your pitiful existence." Unia brought the cannon to Lux's face.
"You destroy me, another will rise." Lux said through gritted teeth as she still attempted to get free.
"True. But as we have seen. That won't be for a while. And long after we have completed our plan." Unia charged her cannon but quickly turned it on Poppy who was charging again. "Little one can't you see I'm conducting police business? No. Didn't think so. So here's some more." Unia let the charge blast from her cannon and while Poppy dodged out of the way, it wasn't in the way she wanted. Rolling further from Lux than she wanted to, Poppy knew her options were running out.
"If I'm that much of a bother to you, just come at me. Clearly you can't handle two at once." Poppy taunted. It worked. Unia again focused her cannon on Poppy who despite taking a few of them, managed to dodge most of the attacks, as the ones that did land, just dissolved almost harmlessly against her armor.
Lux meanwhile was trying anything to get free and it wasn't working. The cables wrapped around tightly and with her arms bound, she couldn't even help Poppy and Lux knew she couldn't keep it up forever. Wiggling again, the cables bound tighter and it was becoming hard for Lux to breathe. Then, Unia shot a series of tickets at Poppy forcing her around several cars and out of range finally. Turning back to Lux, Unia pulled her cannon again just inches from her face.
"Now where were we?" Unia charged the cannon, and Lux just looked straight back into her eyes. Knowing this would probably be it, Lux just accepted it. Then out of the corner of her eye, Lux caught a glint of something. Unia noticed it as well and turned. It was then a shot rang out and Lux suddenly found herself falling to the ground. Managing to land on her feet, Lux quickly threw off the cables and turned to see the shooter. Caitlyn was on a rooftop quite a distance away and once again her accuracy with her rifle was well earned. Hitting the cables right where they would sheer off, Lux just nodded.
Turning back to Unia, who was still screaming in pain, Lux threw out a binding and rooted her in place. Drawing her strength, Lux forced her powers and threw her baton in the air. "Final Spark." Throwing her powers through her laser, she turned Unia finally into dust. Landing back on the ground, Lux turned to Poppy who had finally managed to get close enough.
"Nice shot. You ok?" Poppy asked, her voice betraying her concern.
"Let's worry about the other thing right now." Lux reminded her and charged off towards Janna, Debonair, and Rek'Sai, with Poppy in close pursuit.
Lux's beam had gotten Rek'Sai's attention just long enough to allow Debonair to hit her with his hammer again. At least time he hit her torso and not her face. Rek'Sai was sent against a nearby building, and Poppy, charging into her, and Lux throwing a binding made sure that she stayed there.
Recovering, Rek'Sai looked around and noticed she was now outnumbered heavily and severely outgunned. Once the binding wore off, she knew that it was probably her only chance.
"You have won this battle Guardians, but now we will win the war." Ripping open a portal, she fled through it. Finally able to breathe a sigh of relief, they all turned to each other.
"Until next time ladies." Debonair said, quickly hurrying off. The three Guardians turned to each other and with a brief nod, set off to a secluded location. Once they were all clear they all powered down, and Janna immediately winced as she put pressure on her injured leg. Lux quickly moved to help her friend, but Janna just waved it off.
"I'm not sure how I'm going to explain this, but I'll figure something out." Zephyr had looked concerned as he looked at his companion while Solas hopped over and seeing the marks on Janna' leg, was also visibly concerned.
"Whether you want help walking or not, we need to get that looked at and you know it." Zephyr said as the rest nodded. Janna opened her mouth to protest, but couldn't as the pain was a bit more than she was expecting. Nodding in defeat, she accepted help as they made their way back to the street. As if by magic, a van pulled up with Nasus in the driver's seat.
"Need a lift?" He asked.
"Definitely. Janna needs to get her leg looked at." Poppy said.
"Don't worry about that. I can look at back in the tower." Janna said as the three climbed in. Zephyr and Solas hopped into the front seat. Nasus carefully made his way around the roadblocks that the police had set up to keep people away from the fight and wasn't asked many questions as they moved through the city. It was only as they did so that the thought of how long that battle had lasted occurred to the Guardians.
"Nasus, how long were we fighting?" Janna asked as she looked out the tinted windows.
"Almost an hour from start to finish. Caitlyn was almost ready to send the Special Task Force in until you were caught in that monster's cables." He said pointing to Lux in the rearview mirror. Lux felt another ping of guilt and fear at that. "Caitlyn then called them back and climbed the roof to where she could get a shot. And well you know the rest. Here we go."
The drive itself seemed to take no time, but given the fact an hour had gone by since the attack started, all three quickly looked at their phones to see if there were any messages from their families. And sure enough there were. Janna quickly texted her mother back saying she was ok, while Lux and Poppy followed suit. Once the van was parked in the garage, Lux helped Janna out of the van and they made their way to the tower.
"Over here. Sit." Nasus said indicating a chair while he quickly got down a first aid kit from one of the cabinets. Lux helped Janna into the chair, putting Janna's injured leg on another while Poppy moved to the side. Nasus came back and quickly opened it. "Now this will sting a bit, but it will heal most of what remains. Ready?"
"Yes." Janna took a deep breath as Nasus put the dropper he pulled out of the kit next to her leg. Once the liquid inside was on her skin, it burned, and it took everything Janna had to stop from screaming, but she held it as the burning sensation quickly went away. Opening her eyes, Janna looked at her leg, which for the most part was healed. Only discoloration on her skin was left from Rek'Sai's claws. Janna put her leg back on the ground and after testing it under her weight, smiled.
"Thanks. What is that stuff?" Janna asked as walked around despite her muscles screaming at her.
"A special salve Vel'Koz developed for this type of situation. Were you wounds more serious, it would be less effective, but it can do a lot more than expect. Just take it easy for the next day or so." Nasus said, putting everything away.
"I think I will be spending tomorrow sleeping to be honest." Janna replied as she sat back down.
"Understandable. If you have nothing else I think Vel'Koz wanted a few words." The three of them shook their heads and Nasus put the kit back and left. The silence that followed his departure was think as none of them wanted to say anything. After a few minutes Vel'Koz entered and noticing the tension around hovered over to the table before speaking.
"All of you should be proud of what you did today. That was no easy fight and yet you all handled it like experts. You all did the best you could. Now I doubt Rek'Sai will attack again so soon so I think you can have tomorrow off. Or at least I hope so. Good job all of you."
Janna and Poppy just nodded and after grabbing Zephyr, they both headed out. Lux however stayed at the table. Vel'Koz who was just about to leave himself turned back around at the door and floated back to the table. "Something on your mind Miss Crownguard?" The use of her last name jolted Lux out of her stupor. Turning to Vel'Koz, she just sat back in her chair and formulated her thoughts before speaking. Vel'Koz just waited for the question or statement to come.
"Vel, what happens to a Guardian when she is defeated?" Vel'Koz was taking aback by two things. The usage of a shortened name, which no one really did with him, second, the nature of the question.
"I'm sorry Lux but I don't know. After that last battle we didn't find the bodies or anything that was left of the previous team. Now Janna has an obvious reason for not finding anything, but the rest…I have no idea." Vel'Koz kept his voice neutral, but he was concerned.
"Thank you. I guess I'll just have to find a way to figure it out." Lux said. Her voice clearly trying to hide something.
"If you need to talk, I'm here." Vel'Koz assured her.
"I know." Lux grabbed her bag and headed for home. She was looking forward to the sleep she would be getting the next day.
Meanwhile in her nest, Rek'Sai was fuming. She was so close to winning, but was also defeated. Fuming she just paced around her nest and continued to second guess her plans. She literally wounded one of the Guardians and her minion had another so close to her end. Her fuming led her to ignore the rather large presence in her nest.
"I do like what you have done with the place, but it could be larger." Cho'Gath finally said after he watched Rek'Sai pace for about 5 minutes. Rek'Sai stoppe din her tracks and turned to face him.
"Well I wasn't expecting visitors. If I had, especially one as large as yourself. What do you want?"
"I am here from Malzahar who liked your previous attack." Rek'Sai, caught off guard, just stood there. Cho'Gath, seeing the confusion, continued. "You came close to eliminating two of the Guardians and getting energy. You made more progress than Kha'Zix did with this one attack. Now you can't rest on that. You did good work, and now you are expected to perform better. Good luck." Cho'Gath disappeared through a portal, laughing as he did so.
Rek'Sai threw a boulder where he was in more frustration. She knew that it was a risk to use an attack like that, but she also knew that she could do better. Rek'Sai hunkered down and began planning her next attack.
At home, Lux had settled down into bed, while Dorcha and Solas watched her. With what she just went through they knew the next few days would be challenging. For her part, Lux settled into an uneasy sleep.