With the failure of her plan, it seems that Rek'Sai is more than ready to just go to the extreme. With downtown evacuated after the Star Guardian's warning the previous day, she will find nothing. The Guardians are worried that will cause more problems. As in the form of mass destruction. Will the Guardians be able to save downtown before it is destroyed?
Chapter 17 - The Veil is Thinned
Lux, Janna, Poppy, and Debonair charged into downtown looking for Rek'Sai and the Zz that Yaila warned them about. They didn't have to look for long. They came upon the Zz and Rek'Sai hunting relentlessly for something to get energy from. With the failure of her previous plan, and the fact that she barely had enough energy to cover the previous two attacks stemming from it, Rek'Sai needed a lot of energy to even break even. As she moved through downtown however, she found that it was empty. The police had done their job.
Finally rounding a cover, the two groups spotted each other. Rek'Sai, knowing she wasn't in any condition to fight, knew that she would have to use the Zz to distract while she hunted. But getting away would be the problem. Many of the devices that she had previously set did have energy in them and while it wasn't enough, she did have to get them. "Get them." Rek'Sai ran off while the Zz charged at the group. They all managed to easily dodge it, but with surprising agility, it turned and changed again. Lux threw a binding and it managed to stop it for a few seconds.
"We need someone to follow her."
"Someone who can aim and shoot." Everyone turned to Lux.
"Why me?" She asked puzzled by their stance.
"Because you can keep up. None of us can. Don't worry, we'll be fine." Lux smiled as the Zz charged again. "Go!" Janna yelled as they all dove out of the way again. Lux broke from the group while the rest of them were determined to keep the collateral damage to a minimum.
Lux charged off after Rek'Sai and after losing her for a few minutes, she caught the burrower pushing an orb through a void portal. Looking around, Lux saw another orb attached to a collection device and after looking briefly at Rek'Sai, she threw a few bolts at it, shattering the fragile orb. Rek'Sai looked up and roared in anger. Dropping to the street, Lux readied herself for another fight. Rek'Sai was severely wounded and she knew that a fight wouldn't last long.
"You can't stop me from getting them all guardian. I will get a lot of them. Good luck." Rek'Sai attempted to run off but Lux hit her with binding and took off. Rek'Sai was right about one thing, she would get a lot of them. She knew where they were all positioned, while Lux didn't. Rounding a corner, she saw another and shattered it. Lux kept searching and while rounding a corner trying to get a better angle on another, ran right into Caitlyn, knocking the police chief to the ground.
"A simple hello would do." She said, as Lux attempted to get back to her feet. Caitlyn held out her hand, which Lux took. "Now what is going on. Downtown is evacuated so apart from the giant thing running around, what else is that creature after?"
Lux pointed to the building. "See that?" Caitlyn nodded. "That's an energy collection device. There are an unknown number around. You don't need to damage them, just shatter the orbs on top. They are extremely fragile. We need to shatter as many as possible." Lux said as she caught her breath. Lux tried to move to get an angle, but Caitlyn just got down on one knee, pulled her rifle, aimed, and fired. The orb shattered into tiny pieces.
"Well I know how I can help with that. Get in." Caitlyn got in the seat of the cruiser while Lux hopped in the back. Vi was at the wheel.
"So what's the word chief?" VI asked but Caitlyn just held up her hand.
"This is the Chief. All sharpshooter teams are to enter downtown. You will be sent a picture of your targets. They are scattered throughout downtown and in unknown locations. All you have to do is shatter the orbs. Try to leave the machines undamaged if possible. If you encounter the large scorpion like creature, get away. All teams move." Caitlyn put the radio down. "Drive. I'll let you know when to stop. You keep an eye out for that creature." Lux nodded and stood up in the sun roof while Caitlyn hug out the passenger window. Vi drove in a standard search pattern as they looked for more. After just a few seconds, they found another. Vi slammed on the brakes, while Caitlyn first took a picture of the device, then pulled her rifle and ended another collector.
Caitlyn got back in an pulled the radio again. "All teams, check your phones. Again aim for the orbs. Get in a cruiser with a pursuit driver and get moving. Search pattern Delta. Dispatch coordinate and issue grids to teams." Lux ducked her head back in to see the computer light up. Within a few seconds, 15 dots showed up. 13 in red, one in blue, and one in green. Then a city map appeared and another second later, a grid lit up in green. Lux figured that the blue dot was the rest of the team while the red dots represented the rest of the teams. "Good let's go."
Vi hit the gas and Lux and Caitlyn started hanging out again. Vi drove like she was crazy, but she was fully in control. "Her two favorite things. Punching things..."
"And let me guess driving?" Lux responded as Caitlyn sniped another orb. It was to her credit as marksman that she didn't miss, even with how Vi was driving. Occasionally a black dot appeared, Lux didn't need to guess that was Rek'Sai sightings. X's also started appearing as they showed the location of destroyed orbs. Lux kept a careful eye out for Rek'Sai as it was probably only a matter of time until they encountered her. A few circles appeared as the legend updated when they found machines with orbs missing. Another symbol, this time a slashed showed ones that were discovered but unable to be hit.
Vi kept driving around and the number of X's on the map were starting to be staggering. "Just how many machines did she plant?" Vi asked as they rounded another corner and Caitlyn took another shot, while Lux threw a singularity, both hitting and shattering more. Lux found another, and threw a few bolts at it, shattering another.
"Got it." Lux smiled to herself as keeping a straight face while keeping her balance was a challenge.
"Good job kid. Don't get cocky." Caitlyn yelled over the wind as they rounded another corner. "So what was the plan?"
"Our guess was that they would get us before we transformed, and pin us down while Rek'Sai attacked downtown to get a massive energy boost. Allison Harper is innocent. It was all the seeker."
Caitlyn took a second to answer while Vi just nodded. "That was actually a good plan. Too bad you saw right through it. Another." Caitlyn took another shot and hit another orb. Vi kept going along the street and they found another one which Caitlyn took out. As they rounded yet another corner, Rek'Sai was seen trying to get a hold of another orb. Vi slammed on the brakes and Lux jumped throwing a binding and singularity ahead of them. The binding froze Rek'Sai before she could open a portal. Lux exploded the singularity, not only getting the orb, but hitting Rek'Sai in the face.
Roaring in anger, Rek'Sai turned to try and hit Lux, but seeing Caitlyn lining up, she dodged out of the way and quickly got out of sight. Vi tapped a few keys and a black dot showed up where Rek'Sai just was. Lux climbed back into the cruiser and Vi took off again. "Nice shooting kid." Caitlyn said and Lux just smiled as a result.
Rounding another corner, they neared the end of their grid and Caitlyn spotted one more orb. Vi brought the car to a stop and Caitlyn lined up and took it out. Vi cleared the sector and it turned blue. "Dispatch to team 1, move into sector 4 and use search pattern echo."
"Roger dispatch. Hold on." Vi hit the gas and the cruiser's wheels spun and they took off again. Caitlyn spotted another, but after a few streets of nothing they ran across the team assigned to the grid. Most of the grids were blue at this point. Only grid 15 was still red. Which also happened to be the gird with the rest of Lux's team. "Looks like there is only one left. I think we should check it out." Caitlyn and Lux grabbed onto something as Vi hit the gas again and sped off to the sector.
As they were traveling, a black dot appeared near the blue one and Lux knew that Rek'Sai had returned to the fight. Lux tapped Vi on the shoulder and pointed to the blue dot. Vi just nodded and they rounded another corner. As they drove up to the fight, it was clear that Rek'Sai was on the losing end of it. Already heavily wounded from the previous fight, she was having a hard time keeping up with Debonair who was keeping her pinned and away from the fight while Janna and Poppy were clearly having their issues with the giant Zz.
"This is my stop." Lux said and Vi slammed on the breaks again and Lux managed to jump from the vehicle and rolled as she landed. It was to her credit that she managed to roll onto her feet and started running. She charged into the fight and just as the creature charged at Poppy again. Lux threw a barrier to keep her safe as Janna had moved out of the way and missed deploying her barrier. While Lux's didn't stop all of the damage, Poppy was at least able to walk away, abet with a few bruises. Janna turned on the ground to see Lux charging towards them with Caitlyn setting up in the background. Clearly she wasn't going to sit out this fight.
As Lux sprinted off, Janna, Poppy, and Debonair turned to face their problem. The Zz was huge and clearly spoiling for a fight. "Ok then. Ideas anyone?" Poppy asked.
"Yeah. Everyone keep on the move and keep hitting it." Janna said as she threw a twister to keep the Zz from trampling them. They spread out, keeping the Zz from focusing any one of them for longer than a few seconds. "Transform back to ranged. It will be your job and mine to keep our friend safe as she gets close." Poppy moved back while the Zz recovered from being throw into the air.
Debonair looked a little puzzled, but Janna threw a bolt from her staff as the Zz charged again and they all dived out of the way again. "Since when can you do that?" He asked as they got to their feet.
"I've always been able to, but my real strength is controlling the fight. Plus they usually do most of the damage." Janna replied as she set up to keep both Debonair and Poppy in her sights. Poppy didn't waste much time and charged into the fight keeping well aware of where everyone was. They couldn't afford a mistake. Hitting the Zz with a few hits before backing off. It turned to counter attack, but Debonair hit it with an energy blast that caused it to turn again.
As it started charging toward Debonair, Janna threw another twister that caused the Zz to once again fly into the air. Once it landed, Debonair, transformed his weapon again and hit the Zz back with a swift stroke. The Zz turned to Janna who just gracefully moved out of the way as it approached. The Zz, unable to stop, ran smack into a wall which clearly did some damage.
As it crawled to its feet again, the team turned around to combat it fully as it seemed to not want to run into another wall. Poppy again moved in and Debonair kept his position on the parameter while Janna was careful to keep both of them in her sights. Poppy kept doing her job of landing a few hammer blows in and once the Zz turned to her to counter attack, Debonair threw an energy pulse while Janna shielded Poppy from damage and Janna also threw a twister to make sure it didn't land a blow.
They kept this pattern up for a while until Janna felt something moving underneath them. "Move!" Janna yelled as she dived out of the way. Poppy knocked the Zz off its feet as Debonair threw an energy pulse. Rek'Sai erupted from the ground under Janna clearly trying to surprise her but only hit air as Janna turned around and threw a twister to keep Rek'Sai immobilized while the team repositioned and assessed their situation.
"Ok who wants to deal with the ugly one?" Poppy asked.
"Which one is the ugly one?" Debonair asked and they all laughed for a second. "I'll deal with her. You two deal with that thing." Debonair pointed at the Zz to make his point.
"Agreed." Janna said and she moved off with Poppy and Debonair moved between them and Rek'Sai. Rek'Sai recovered from everything and she turned to try and get at the Guardians, but found her way blocked.
"So you challenge me fool?" Rek'Sai got to her feet, but winced in the process. Debonair didn't miss that.
"I would say that I'm not a fool. You are weakened and I'm still fresh. Mostly. I think this will be one lopsided fight." He responded, transforming his weapon in the process. That got Rek'Sai mad and she charged, which is exactly what Debonair wanted. Rek'Sai dived at him, only to be met with Debonair's hammer in her face. Rek'Sai was knocked back and she was slow to get up. Debonair took advantage of the opportunity to throw an energy pulse her way. Rek'Sai roared in pain and was again slow to get up to her feet. Turning to her Zz, she saw that maybe it would see some success.
Success was an ambiguous word. The Zz was keeping Janna and Poppy busy, but it wasn't having a lot of effect. Poppy kept diving around but Janna kept shielding her and Poppy just kept diving around, getting in solid hits. The Zz was large and mobile, but it still wasn't fast enough to get ahold of Poppy. Janna was also throwing twisters at several instances. Rek'Sai however saw an opportunity but she would only have one shot.
Roaring she sprung to her feet and dived into the ground, avoiding another energy pulse from Debonair in the process. "Look out!" He yelled and Janna turned only to see a seeker heading her way. Janna dived out of the way and missed throwing a barrier. Poppy realized only too late what had happened. She was already going into her attack and knew that she would come out of this hurt. Poppy swung her hammer and waited for the blow to fall, but when it came it was light. Turning, she saw Lux charging towards them and recovering her baton, which she had apparently threw to keep her safe. Janna was picking herself back up as Debonair knocked Rek'Sai back in response to what she did.
"Nice to see you. Get anything?" Janna asked as she pulled herself back to her feet.
"A few, she got most of them." Lux responded pointing to Caitlyn who how seemed to be more interested in setting up a parameter as more police showed up. Lux threw a binding and a few bolts at the Zz to keep it distracted while Poppy charged again. Janna moved off to help Debonair.
Rek'Sai seeing her plan had failed, and as injured as she was, ripped open a portal to the moon, and disappeared. Debonair fired a pulse but it only hit thin air as Rek'Sai vanished. Janna and Debonair moved back to join Lux and Poppy, who were just ripping through the Zz, Debonair transformed his weapon and charged in after Poppy. Lux threw a barrier around both of them as Janna threw a twister to keep the Zz pinned while Poppy and Debonair knocked it back and into a building. Lux focused her powers and leaped into the air.
"Final Spark!" She threw her powers into her beam. The Zz and turned to dust. Lux touched back down and turned to the rest of the team. Debonair was using his hammer to prop himself up, and was breathing heavily. Poppy had her hammer on the ground and was sitting on it catching her breath. Janna was likewise using her staff for support. Lux was standing up, mostly because she wasn't dodging around as much as the others.
Caitlyn came over to the team as the rest of the police started packing up. "Well you four have done a lot more than could ever have been asked of you. Hopefully we can have a few days of peace. I've called Vel'Koz here to try and get something from those remains. I'm assuming you four don't want to stay?" It wasn't a statement but rather a question. Lux looked between the four and while Janna and Poppy nodded, Debonair just hitched up his weapon and shook his head.
"I guess we'll stay then. I'm not going to hold him to the same standard." Lux nodded to Debonair, who rushed off. Lux and the others took shelter under a tree while they waited for Vel'Koz to show up. Even with the heavy police presence, it still took a while. After almost an hour, Vel'Koz finally showed up with Nasus and while Nasus stood near the truck, Vel'Koz floated over to the ruins of the battle. He took a look around and he floated over to the Guardians. Lux and the rest of the team took to their feet as he approached.
"Well I guess we all owe you all a debt. I'll look around for a bit to figure out what is going on. If you wouldn't mind waiting until I'm done I would appreciate it?"
'On a side note, this might allow a few things to be easier.' He said to the three privately.
"Sure. We'll wait around." Lux went back to sitting on the rock she was, while Janna and Poppy sat down against the tree nearby. Vel'Koz spent the better part of an hour looking over the remains of the battle, and then traveling to see the remains of the void collectors. After an hour, Vel'Koz and Nasus loaded up the van with some of the remains and Vel'Koz came back to the team.
"If you three could come with me, hopefully we can get to the bottom of this. If you want. I'm sure you are tired but…" Vel'Koz let his speech trail off but the three took to their feet.
"Sure." Janna said while Lux and Poppy just nodded. They hopped into the backseat of the truck and they headed off to the museum. The ride itself was quiet, as Lux and Janna kept an eye out for more trouble from the cab, Poppy rode in the back with her hammer ready in case something else decided to try an interfere with their travel. While Vel'Koz was safely hidden, none of them were taking a chance that he would be discovered or be interecepted before they can get into his secured lab.
Rek'Sai for her part was watching, but only saw Nasus and the Guardians, well two of them anyway. She knew she was in no shape to fight another long battle, or a short battle for that matter. The tech she lost would only help those Guardians be better against them, and detect their energy harvesting tech faster. Rek'Sai knew she overcommitted and she would be paying for it. Malzahar wouldn't be happy with her and she dreaded going back, but also knew she had no choice. Rek'Sai opened a final portal to the moon and dove through it knowing her fate.
Once they were back at the Library, Lux, Janna, and Poppy spread out and secured the area while Vel'Koz and Nasus started unloading the truck and moving the captured equipment and remains down to the lab. Once they were secured, the Guardians powered down and Vel'Koz started to work. Lux, Janna, Poppy, and Nasus attempted to help, but Vel'Koz just waved them all away and floated around the lab with a purpose. For the next hour, the four of them played a board game while Vel'Koz worked. All of them felt guilty for not doing anything, but with how he was moving, it was rather difficult.
Finally after about an hour and a half, Vel'Koz finally floated over to them. "I need you three to transform again. There is something that I can't analyze and trace its origin."
"Ok. Sure." Lux said standing.
"I don't like where this is going." Janna said also standing up. Poppy didn't say anything but kept a stoic face as she hopped to her feet.
"Ready. Star Guardian Power Up!" The three transformed again and Vel'Koz directed them to a device.
"Lux, please cast a binding, Janna a twister, and Poppy throw your buckler." They all just looked at each other, and even Vel'Koz looked worried.
"Ok then." All three did as they asked while Vel'Koz watched several monitors. "Well?" Lux asked, with a sense of dread on her face. Vel'Koz just sighed, or as best he could, but turned and was smiling, again as best he could.
"It isn't what I feared, but it is still interesting. I originally thought that these new creatures were developed from the magics of the Star Guardians, but that was incorrect. They were developed as a direct result of conflict against them. They are more resistant to your abilities, but as they get bigger, they lose those resistances."
"So overwhelm us? Smart actually." Poppy said as she sat on her hammer. "If they can overwhelm us, they it would be easier for them to take us down."
"Exactly. But my theory is that these creatures, while able to be bred in large numbers, they aren't able to breed more, as they probably used a lot during Malzahar's attack a month ago or so. My guess is they need more energy to breed more. However, we may have a solution. Debonair's weapon. It uses a combination of magic and technology and I think I might be able to tap into that to make your weapons and abilities better. Now, we just need a way to contact him. But there is other things."
Vel'Koz lead them over to the destroyed collectors. "Now I believe I've told this to Lux and Janna, but they have improved their collection technology since I've been with them. However, this is something new and disturbing. See this device," Vel'Koz pointed to a circular device near the orb, "this is something that can track your energy. Even when you are not transformed. They have been trying to track your three, but if they managed to get grid far enough…"
"They might be able to track us at home." Janna said, as she sat down shaking her head. Lux just put a hand on her hip and took a difference stance.
"Well I guess we'll just have to keep vigilant. They will probably do this a lot more to try and track us all down. But we can also coordinate with the police now that they know what to look for."
"Is there anything else they could use to track it?" Poppy said jumping up and moving to look closer at the collector.
"Yes actually. The trackers emit a small energy signature that reacts when you are nearby. They have to be passive, or they would be noticed instantly so all they would have to do is track your movements and they could draw a map. However, the signature, while small, is still easily detectable. I'm working on a tracker for it right now and it should be ready in a few days. However, that isn't the worse news."
"Why can't anything be easy?" Lux said, now sitting down as well. Vel'Koz paused for a moment before continuing.
"Because then it wouldn't be a war. Which is what this is." All three Guardians just hung their heads at that. They all knew it, but none of them wanted to admit it until now. "The bad thing about these new collectors, is that they can work in a passive mode, collecting excess energy from the environment around them."
"Great. More problems." Janna said, dropping her staff in the process, but catching it before it hit the floor.
"True, but now we have something that we didn't before. We know their tactics, their strategy, their weaknesses, and finally, their plan. We also have the police backing us up when we need it, if we can rely on them, I really don't want to, but it's there. We can also find other allies which means," Lux turned to Dorcha and Solas, " you two need to find our other two teammates, and quickly." They both just nodded in reply.
"In the meantime, we have to work with the police and keep an eye out ourselves for these devices. We also need to make sure that we can't be tracked and located. So we need to keep vigilant." Janna and Poppy just nodded.
"Well I'll do my best to keep you safe for now. However, there isn't much I can do. At least we can made it reasonable for you to come here transformed now. None of you can do anything more right now, so head home. I'm sure your parents are worried about you. But considering the library was locked down until about 10 minutes ago, and considering you were evacuated from school, it was probably a good idea that you came here."
Lux, Janna, and Poppy just nodded, powered down and they all headed home. When they all got home, their parents were able to readily accept their stories considering the chaos that engulfed the city and everything. They all settled down after a very long day where they spent a lot of it fighting.
"Hey sis, everything alright?" Garen poked his head into Lux's room as she sat at her computer just browsing the internet. Lux just turned and nodded.
"I'm fine. Just a lot of stuff happening at once. I'm just a bit overwhelmed and I'm sure you are too. I just wish there was more we could do to try and help, but apparently that isn't happening. We try and do something, but if we try, we could end up severely injured or worse." Lux leaned back into her chair with her head down.
"Yeah I guess. I know dad isn't sleeping well lately. No one is. Jayce and his family moved here to get away from craziness, and find more."
Lux picked her head up. "Jayce? He seems to be fine."
"Yeah you don't see him at school. He's constantly falling asleep and seems out of it a lot. And he's always disappearing without reason sometimes." Garen said as he leaned against her doorframe.
"Maybe it's just instinct. I mean you said he came from a rough area."
"True. Anyway hope you can get a good night sleep." Garen ducked out, and closed the door behind him. Lux didn't give Garen's words a second thought and just crawled into bed and fell asleep.
The following morning was relatively relaxed and a nice day. Schools across the city were canceled to give students a long weekend. Lux, Janna, and Poppy just slept in until almost midday to try and catch up on sleep they had lost. All three struggled to get out of bed because none of them want to move. Especially on a nice day, which was perfectly suited to remain in bed and do nothing. Not even their families were complaining given everything that had happened the previous day. The city itself seemed to be taking a collective breath after the chaos and no one was complaining.
When Lux finally dragged herself out of bed after midday and after having a brief lunch at home, headed to the library. After making her way through the library to the tower, she found it empty. Knowing that Janna and Poppy probably wouldn't be coming, Lux just headed to Vel'Koz's lab instead and found him floating over his work. "Anything I can help with?" She asked as she entered. Vel'Koz turned and shook his body.
"Not really. I've almost finished the tracker, but there is something that I can do with it and may have been the void's ultimate purpose with this." Lux sat down as a look of concern crossed her face. "As you know, you can all feel each other and that is how Dorcha and Solas found you all. The new guardians are here and we might be able to locate them using this technology." Vel'Koz was very excited but only a look of almost terror from Lux made him calm down.
"I know what you are thinking, but here's a question for you. If your enemy drops something in your lap that can help you, should you just ignore it and not use it?" Lux dropped her head and when she brought it back up, she was smiling.
"I guess I can't argue with that logic, but you can reprogram them so they transmit to us right and not them?" Lux asked.
"Well that's the thing, they need to be accessed manually so I'm working on a portable solution that could transmit to a secure device, but perhaps we should keep that feature. Especially if we are the only ones who know where they are. What do you think?" Vel'Koz tossed another question at the Guardian Leader.
"I would agree. Manually is probably better as it would be easy for anyone to get to them otherwise. Maybe we can find our new Guardians faster this way. But that is if they are in the city. They may not be." Lux said as she stood up.
"True enough. Anyway I'll be coordinating with the police department for the bad parts of this but at least we have a way of tracking these things. What I'm worried about is how many there are." Vel'Koz said as Lux opened the door to leave.
"I'm worried about where, not how many." She said as she left. Lux proceeded to downtown which was bussing again after the chaos of the previous day. Lux decided to just waste the day walking around and enjoying herself and just not pay attention for once.
Janna, once she finally dragged herself out of bed, decided to head down to the arcade and just waste her day. Once she got her bag together, she decided to instead just walk around the mall. Looking through the many shops that she would normally enjoy, she couldn't help thinking in the back of her mind that something bad was going to happen, but eventually she decided to just push it from her mind. Eventually seeing Garen and Jayce, she spent the rest of the day dodging them.
Poppy for her part spent the day with her father in his workshop. Somehow hammering things was rather enjoyable to her and so was spending time with her dad. Most of the day for them was spent in front of a hot forge working on one of his commissions. More than once she was tempted to drag out her hammer to help, but realized that it would probably destroy it. While working with her father, she saw a few things that he did, that she might be able to use while combating the monsters they kept facing.
While Lux was downtown, she also noticed the police taking down more collectors using devices, which apparently Vel'Koz had finished. Several small crowds formed whenever one was identified. Lux took an interest in two of them but then decided to just keep walking. It was only after she noticed Vel'Koz at one of the take downs did she actually come over again. Vel'Koz took note of her but stayed where he was.
'It is worse than I thought. They are everywhere but many of them weren't activated. I was also able to find a way to detect them directly. I've also managed to install a few of our detectors while I've been around.' He said in private thought while Lux remembered how to do this.
'Right. Well I guess it's better than not knowing. What's the count up to?' She asked in reply.
'Right now, about 30, most of them were the ones that were shot out yesterday but there were also several that were missed and appeared empty. The amount of energy that was siphoned is unknown.' Vel'Koz said as he kept an eye on one that still had a full orb.
'Well at least we stopped this one.' Lux turned to go, when something caught her eye. She turned her head, then dived out of the way behind a tree. Kha'Zix and Rek'Sai burst out and launched an attack against the team taking down the device. Lux tied to find a secluded spot to transform, but she couldn't in the renewed chaos. Instead she turned to face Vel'Koz and Nasus, who were facing Kha'Zix and Rek'Sai.
"So we finally find you. Here of all places, and helping them no less. You have betrayed all of us. Your past, your home, and your kin." Rek'Sai spat.
"Really? I have found a new home, where people accept me for who and what I am. None of you really accepted me. You all thought I was useless because I was only interested in learning new things about the universe around us." Vel'Koz replied. Lux noticed his tentacles tensing. Lux noticed people were now watching the exchange and finally managed to dive out of the way and into a nearby alley that had no security cameras and no one there.
"Exactly. Our goal is to bring the portal back and bring more of us here. This universe will be ours." Kha'Zix said as he flexed his wings.
"Did you forget why we were banished in the first place, or need I remind you?" Vel'Koz said as he kept switching between them.
"You always took great pleasure in reminding us, so how about we skip that and I just take you two out. Then we will find the guardians, destroy them, and then no one will stop us." Rek'Sai said as she tensed her body ready to leap.
"Over my dead body." Vel'Koz said, as Nasus grabbed his staff, the crowd ran for cover, and the police in the area formed a parameter.
"That can be arranged." Kha'Zix snarled as he leaped, but quickly found himself and Rek'Sai frozen in place. Then a shimmering light burst in their face, and they were quickly hit with several bots. Kha'Zix roared in rage as he turned to see Lux jumping into the battle and landing perfectly in front of Vel'Koz and Nasus.
"Try it. I dare you." Lux said as she stood up and her hand tightened on her baton. Kha'Zix and Rek'Sai knew that they were probably now in trouble as Lux was powerful on her own, but the other two guardians were probably on their way. Turning to each other, they just nodded, and charged.
Lux threw another binding, catching Kha'Zix while Vel'Koz threw one of his powers, knocking the bug up. He then threw energy from his tentacles. Rek'Sai meanwhile charged right at Nasus, who just knocked her back with his staff, before bringing it down on her head. Both voidlings roared and charged again, only to be knocked up by a gust of wind. Lux turned to see Janna rushing towards the battle from the flank and after gripping her staff, threw another twister at the two.
Rek'Sai turned to attack Janna, only to be slowed down by Zephyr and Nasus who moved to join the Guardian. Lux and Vel'Koz dueled with Kha'Zix who kept jumping around and throwing his spikes everywhere, hitting more than a few storefronts. Luckily the police managed to take cover behind their cars and avoided injury. Lux during the heat of the fight, while dodging another series of spikes from Kha'Zix, saw Caitlyn and Vi setting up on the parameter.
As Kha'Zix tried again to leap to Vel'Koz, Lux threw a singularity while Vel'Koz was able to dodge out of the way. The singularity exploded in Kha'Zix's face and he turned to Lux. Lux threw a binding to keep him at bay but missed. She threw her barrier to protect herself and dropped to her knees, but just as Kha'Zix was about to connect, he suddenly was flying in the other direction. Lux turned to see Poppy swing her hammer and connecting with the giant bug.
Rek'Sai for her part, wasn't doing much better. After dodging around Nasus and Janna, she tried to get in a hit, but whenever she went for either Janna or Nasus, Nasus would hit her with her hammer, and Janna would shield and throw another twister. Or she would throw Zephyr to slow her down. Rek'Sai finally managed to get an opening and she flew past Nasus to strike directly at Janna. Just as she was about to strike, Rek'Sai was thrown back into Nasus, who brought his staff down on her head, then she was hit back again, and right into Kha'Zix who was likewise hit by Poppy. The two collided with a hard thud.
Once Kha'Zix and Rek'Sai managed to get to their feet, it was not the 4v2 fight, now it was a 8v2. Lux, Janna, Poppy, Debonair, Vel'Koz, Nasus, Caitlyn, and Vi were surrounding them.
"Ok you two. Enough is enough. You two are going to be stopping all of this mess. Even you two can't overpower all of us." Lux tightened her hand on her baton as she spoke. Kha'Zix and Rek'Sai just turned to each other, then launched right at Vel'Koz, who just dodged out of the way. The rest reacted by trying to stop the two from getting away, but none of them succeeded as they ripped open a portal and fled.
"Well, at least the damage was limited to property. Mostly." Caitlyn said, but added as she turned to Lux who just shot her a glare. "I'll continue working to try and remove these things as I don't think they will be back for a while."
"I don't think so either. However, I do need to talk to you." Lux responded and turned to Debonair, who just looked confused. "Your weapon, it clearly is effective against the void. If at all possible, could you allow Vel'Koz to take a few scans of it? It might help out everyone else." Lux said, almost with a bit of desperation in her voice. Debonair looked from his weapon to Lux to Vel'Koz for a few minutes. Finally he smiled.
"If it means we all can be more effective, sure." Debonair followed Vel'Koz back to his lab with Nasus while Lux, Janna, and Poppy assisted in cleaning up the mess that was created. While it was clear that their help wasn't needed, they stayed anyway until Caitlyn basically said leave and that they would handle it. They headed to the Lab where they found Debonair leaving and Vel'Koz running over all of the scans he took. As the team entered, after making sure Debonair was out of the building, and that he didn't leave anything just in case, the three of them powered down.
"So learn anything?" Janna asked as she took a seat at the table. Poppy was clearly more interested in pacing while Lux joined Janna at the table.
"Yes actually. His tech is based on work that was being done during the first war. If he did this himself, then he's a genius, but my suspicion is that he finished the work of another. Either way, it won't help the three of you much, but it will help the police and others like them. I can also use the tech to make an armor that will help the police resist the attacks better, which I'm sure they will be grateful for. However, your magic will adapt to these new void things. I took another look at your magic and compared it to the magic recorded during the first war, and there are some changes. Look here." Vel'Koz brought up his research on a monitor.
"Here on the left is the magic during the first war, the one where Janna and the rest of her team fought." Janna just lowered her head and looked away, clearly there were still some bad memories there. "And this is your magic today. Since Janna was here during both wars, I was able to compare her magics directly and you see the difference." Lux and Poppy looked carefully and there were differences.
"What do you think caused it?" Poppy asked climbing onto a chair to get a better look. Even Janna came over despite her clear reservations.
"My guess would be that the Guardian powers didn't get recycled into the main Guardian network. As you know, when Star Guardians pass on their powers, one way or the other," all three shuddered when the word "other" was mentioned, "they are passed to someone new. However, because of the magic barriers around this world, they didn't. Instead, they settled back into our world, and were eventually reborn in Lux and Poppy here. Along with the other two we haven't found yet."
"So because they stayed here, they changed, evolved, mutated or something along those lines because of the magic here?" Janna asked as she now was taking a closer look at the screen.
"That would be my guess." Vel'Koz answered. He turned to another screen. "My guess is that your powers will be constantly changing and evolving, especially after we find the two missing Guardians and build your full team. I suspect that is why you are being so effective and why Malzahar is having issues. This latest setback will cause him to attack soon I think, and it won't be a pretty one. He will aim to gather enough energy to do either serious damage, or bring down the barriers entirely."
"How bad are they now?" Lux asked, trying to hide a note of panic in her voice.
"They aren't whole again, but they aren't as damaged as they could have been had we not done that ritual. We will need another one before too long to try and keep them up until we can finish my other plan." Vel'Koz quickly turned to leave, but Janna blocked the door.
"What other plan?" She asked. Vel'Koz just sunk to the floor.
"I know you three want to know, but for now I can't tell you. I don't want to get your hopes up if I can't do it. So please honor this…" he said trying to find a way past Janna, but to no avail.
"Vel'Koz, just tell us. A plan is a plan, and how often does plan A work?" Poppy said, putting her hand on one of his tentacles. Vel'Koz turned his main eye to the yordle and smiled. So to speak.
"Very well. Using the adaptations in the magic learned from you three, along with more tricks, we might be able to build newer and better versions of the barriers, ones that Malzahar can't break down, or at least not as easily. There is a problem however." He paused as the three looked at him. "We would have to take down the current barriers in order to do it. So we have to give him a target he can't resist. I'm working to try and give him that target, but again I don't know if we can pull it off."
"Well that's still something to try and go for. If there is anything we can do to help, let us know." Janna said as she stepped aside. Vel'Koz floated out of his lab with a bit more hope than before. The tragedy that he saw in the making wasn't so. All three of them understood the challenges and all three were willing to wait. He went back to his office to send a message.
"Well the two of you failed at your jobs. You were supposed to acquire energy and you failed at the amount previously requested. However, you both did accomplish something, you have found out what happened to our soon to be late friend. Vel'Koz has betrayed us and it explains a lot about what's been happening. Where is he on the planet?" Malzahar was float pacing in the throne room.
"He's at a massive library complex that is shielded against us. Attacking it would be foolish and a waste of time. He didn't use the facilities defenses before, but he has them up now." Kha'Zix reponsded, while holding one of his bladed arms.
"Well they will probably have many of our collectors within a week. Everyone get to as many as possible and drain them. We will need all of the energy we can get." Malzahar turned to the rest of his command team.
"Sir. We have already done that and found that many of them were full. We have more energy that we expected. More than enough for another assault. We just need to prepare for it." Cho'Gath responded clearly pleased with himself. Even Kog'Maw, who is usually trying to find something to eat was beaming with pride.
"Very well Cho'Gath. You acted without me, but anticipated what needed to be done. I applaud that. Meanwhile, help these two heal up. Rek'Sai you are going back and you need to have a plan."
"I already do my Prophet." Rek'Sai said, before wincing at the pain that was inflicted earlier. Both she and Kha'Zix limped off to the healing vats while Malzahar turned to the planet diagram and looked at the damaged Magic Barriers and began plotting their destruction.
As the day ended, Lux found herself looking up at the moon, imaging what Malzahar was planning.
"Cheer up there Lux. You three did more than you thought you could today. Everyone is proud of you." Dorcha said as she hopped up next to her.
"I know, but still this isn't over yet, and only seems to be getting worse. I know this is what I signed up for, but every now and then, I feel like it's too much." Lux buried her head in her arms and a single tear escaped her eye.
"Don't worry about it. Every Guardian goes through this at some point. Usually multiple times. It isn't easy but there is an advantage." Solas said as he joined his partner and Lux. Lux just picked her head up with a confused look on her face. "You look great doing it."
That did it. Lux fell back on her bed laughing while Dorcha fell off the windowsill and onto the floor laughing as well. Solas chucked at his own joke.
"Well it is fashionable." Lux said after finally managing to calm down. "So to another day then, and hopefully more teammates soon." Lux said as she crawled into bed. Dorcha and Solas settled down next to her for hopefully a few days of quiet.