A/N: While the Guardians did stop Rek'Sai's scheme, she got away with more than the Guardians realized, and now she has orders. Provide a distraction for Malzahar to channel the energy they have collected and launch yet another assault against the barriers protecting Runeterra. Will the Guardians sense the trap, or will they be too distracted to notice until it is too late?
Chapter 20 – Screen Time
A few days off. That is all the Guardians wanted. Unfortunately, Rek'Sai would give them no rest beyond one. Just two days after the last major conflict, Rek'Sai had provided yet another small attack in a park with just herself and a small seeker, drained some energy, and left the seeker to be destroyed.
"She's up to something." Janna said as the team reentered the tower after the small incident.
"That is obvious, but what?" Poppy said as she moved to grab some water.
"Distract us?" Lux asked as she sat down and put her head in her hands trying to think.
"I don't think so. I think is trying to get small amounts of energy because they are so close, that one large attack would risk exposure and us stopping them too soon, but small hit and run things like this would wear us down, and give them the energy they need. My guess is that they have enough, but want to build a reserve." Janna said after a minute of thinking. Lux and Poppy just shrugged, but it was apparent that Rek'Sai wouldn't be letting up. Despite the wounds she has suffered through, there seemed to be no slowing her down like before. Janna was likely right, but still, they couldn't let up. They all knew another attack against the barriers wasn't if, it was when, and stopping them for as long as possible was the key.
"Well we are just going to have to keep an eye out and be prepared. If they get enough energy to attack, even a small one, it could be bad. We barely stopped the attack against the last one, I doubt we be as successful this time." Lux said matter of factly.
"Well you three are going to have to be prepared to run on less sleep than normal, or take turns, because it seems like this isn't going to stop. One attack here and there will be enough to throw the city into a panic." Solas said as he hopped onto the counter.
"The city is already on edge, small things like this will probably set it off." Dorcha said in agreement.
"I don't think so." Zephyr chimed in, which caused everyone to turn to him. Usually he just stayed quiet so when he did say something, it caused everyone to turn. "I think if anything they will push people to be more aware of their surroundings and get out of the way. I know the attack was sudden but I also think there is something else going on here. We just have to be aware." Everyone just nodded in reply. Zephyr jumped onto Janna's shoulders and everyone left together.
When Lux got home, she set her bag down in her room and carefully sat down at her computer and began searching as she usually did. Even in the images that were captured of her, Janna, and Poppy, she had to remind herself it was her. There were of course the usual smattering of articles both against and for their actions, but many of them she was surprised to show strength. "Well the cat was right." Lux muttered to herself.
"What was that dear?" Lux turned in a shot of panic to see her mother standing at her door, looking a bit confused.
"Sorry just a game. Well someone's avatar actually." Lux replied, knowing the talk would confuse her.
"Ok then" and she walked away. Lux relaxed back in her chair and turned to see Dorcha and Solas just sleeping on her bed. Lux just smiled and leaned back in her chair, ready to just doze off, but remembered that she still had homework. Groaning, she pulled her other bag and pulled out her book and began reading.
Janna upon getting home, Zephyr immediately jumped into his tower and curled up and sent to sleep. "Lazy cat." Janna said. Zephyr responded with a swipe of his paw and just went back to sleep. Janna headed up to her room, logged into her computer and was both browsing the net and did her own homework. She browsed her usual articles and found the usual stuff and just dismissed it.
When Poppy got home, her schedule was simple, take a nap. She spent most of the afternoon sleeping and only got up for dinner.
As the night approached, all of them realized that trying to implement a system with the three of them wouldn't work and coordinated with Vel'Koz, who didn't need sleep, Nasus, Dorcha, Solas, and Zephyr to keep watch. Lux slept with her locket under her pillow while Janna and Poppy put their pendant necklaces on before going to sleep, in case they needed to be alerted in the middle of the night.
During the night, Rek'Sai however had no interest in attacking, like the Guardians, she spent the night sleeping and preparing for the next day. She knew she had to keep the guardians on their toes but not get them suspicious. There would be a fine line she would have to walk, but that line was always moving, and it would be hard to keep that aligned. Sooner or later they could catch on, if they hadn't already. Once they do catch on, there would be nothing to do but keep them distracted long enough. Malzahar would need another 3 days, and that would be hard.
As the morning came, Lux turned on the news and saw nothing. Well nothing apart from the ordinary morning things. She breathed a sigh of relief and after getting ready for school, she headed downstairs where she found Garen at the table. "Mom and dad are already gone. Want a ride today?" Lux turned to give Garen a look. "Ok then. Just trying to be nice."
"Why?" Lux asked, now extremely curious. "Oh wait dad said didn't he?"
"Mom actually, but she resigned herself to the fact that you would probably walk anyway." Garen replied shrugging in the process. Lux rolled her eyes, but given everything lately, it was probably better to humor her mother than not.
"I guess. Humor mom right?" Garen just smiled in reply. Lux took that as a yes.
"A lot of parents right now are driving their kids, or walking with them. These recent attacks have everyone on edge and everyone is just being more cautious. Or at least that is what dad said." Garen put his head back down, clearly in relief. Lux just sighed and sat down to eat before they left. Once they were both ready, Garen drove Lux to school and after making sure that she was inside, he drove off. No doubt a response to their mother's request. Lux just rolled her eyes and after talking with her classmates, it seemed everyone was on edge, but cautioned.
"Ok class, please take your seats." Ms. Teller said as she walked in. She was clearly on edge, but it seemed that only Lux noticed the actual tension in the room. Probably because she was actually looking for it. "As many of you know, there have been an upswing in attacks lately and the school is becoming more concerned for not only your safety, but ours as well. Therefore, they have decided to cancel, and please don't kill the messenger here, outdoor recess and lunch. You can eat in any place in the school, but you can't be outside. Yes, that means the roof too." Ms. Teller looked straight at Lux as she spoke. Lux just smiled in reply.
As the day wore on, Lux found herself increasingly looking at her phone and out the window expecting another attack, but clearly one wasn't coming. As she checked in with Poppy at lunch, she headed over to her friends and they all immediately launched into a massive discussion about the events of the previous day. Lux mostly just listened and responded when she was asked a direct question, but no one seemed to notice she was only half listening.
Just as she figured the day would go without an incident, suddenly the teachers rushed into the main room where most of the students were eating and they were followed by other students. "All students are hereby ordered to remain in this room until further notice." Headmistress Fiora said as she entered and subsequently locked the doors behind her. Everyone looked scared, and Poppy stared across the room at Lux, who looked more annoyed and concerned than anything. Poppy grabbed her phone only to see a text from Janna who said she was in lockdown, and she said they were too.
Lux could only look at her phone with her friends as Rek'Sai launched a quick attack against a park, but as soon as it started it was over. The attack was over in 5 minutes, and not even the police had time to respond. Lux watched the aftermath of the attack while her friends were obviously terrified, but Lux only felt anger. She sensed that this wasn't random, but planned. A distraction, but for what? Lux turned off the video and pulled up her message and texted Janna and Poppy.
'She's trying to distract us but from what?' Lux sent as she looked over at Poppy. Poppy just stared back.
'I agree but is she trying to build up a reserve or distract us?' Janna sent back.
'I'm guessing both.' Poppy replied. 'I mean she has never done something like this before and these are fast attacks. I mean we couldn't even have gotten there before something happened.'
'True. Hopefully the news will be kind on that.' Janna said, Lux just rolled her eyes.
'Don't hold your breath.' Lux sent back, and only to look over at Poppy holding her breath, and laughing. Lux just rolled her eyes, sat back against the wall and sighed. It was clear that they would have issues with the news going against this, but hopefully they will weather it ok. What also became obvious to the instructors is that students wouldn't be focused for the rest of the day, but they still tried to teach, but after a few hours many of them just gave up and threw work on the board and just sat at their desks.
After school let out, the three agreed to just go home first and then deal with any consequences. However, contrary to what Lux thought, the news took it easy on the lack of a Guardian response. Most of the news she watched seemed to side on the fact the attack was started and over in less than 10 minutes, not even giving the police a chance to respond. Leaning back in the chair she was sitting in, Lux breathed a sigh of relief. She knew that the media's reaction to a lack of response wouldn't last long, nor would people's patience, but hopefully it would last long enough.
Janna had mostly turned the news off, seeing the good responses, but also because the homework she had piled up was beginning to get to her. Janna carefully picked over the pile and got a lot of the time consuming ones out of the way but before she knew it, her mother was knocking on the door.
"Janna, dinner time" she said.
"Coming." Janna put her headset down and followed her mother downstairs.
Poppy took her frustrations out on a new piece her father was working on, and while she didn't do damage to it, eventually she just had to calm down, so she figured she would just head to the tower and practice hitting some objects until she got the frustration out of her system. Once she was there, only Vel'Koz was in the tower, carefully hovering over the globe.
"Where are the others?" He asked as Poppy entered.
"I'm guessing doing homework. I just need to vent some frustration. I was hoping to just beat up on the dummies upstairs." Poppy said her hand already going to her necklace.
"They are good for that purpose, but do you have a moment first?" Vel'Koz asked, clearly seeing that Poppy just wanted to hit a few things. Poppy instead moved to the table where she took a seat.
"Sure what's up?"
"Well, I know that you are all frustrated with what happened today, or at least I would be." Poppy just nodded in reply. "However that doesn't stop the pressing issue that I have. I need any theories that you have about what these spree attacks." Vel'Koz said as he started pacing. Well hover pacing.
Poppy paused for a moment to gather her thoughts. "Well we think that she is trying to distract us from something. The two things we were able to come up with were that either she is trying to distract us while Malzahar plans an attack against the barriers. The other theory is that they do not have enough, or barely enough energy to assault the barriers and these are meant to get as much as possible, as fast as possible. Given the fact we'd be looking out for another scheme, it is probably better this way."
"Both valid theories, and it is probably a mix of both. However, there is one sticking point. We do not know how much energy Rek'Sai got away with in the last attack and we probably won't. I won't keep you any longer. Thank you." Vel'Koz floated out of the tower and towards his office while Poppy just started taking her frustrations out on the training dummies.
While he was floating through the library and museum, Vel'Koz could sense the tension in the places and the fact people seemed to come there looking for an escape. Vel'Koz kept up the cherry nature he always tried to project hoping it would rub off on others, but it seemed that it wouldn't. Instead of buying into the negativity all around him, he instead decided to focus on the positive and hopefully someone would leave in a better mood than in which they came.
Once in his office however, he finally did relent to the fact that Rek'Sai was probably distracting them. Given the next day was a half day at the schools, and Janna was out completely, hopefully there would be enough to stop another attack. Or at least he hoped.
As the evening turned to night, the team decided that sleeping off their anxiety would be better than just going around being frustrated all night. As they slept however, Rek'Sai was already in the works to plan another attack, but like the previous night, she knew that attacking during the night would present a lot of logistical issues at the moment so she decided to wait until morning.
As the team woke up, they sensed another attack was imminent. The void energy wasn't concentrated, but it was enough to where being late to school would be an acceptable consequence. The three of them met at a spot roughly in the middle of their residences and they went over a plan.
"Well considering my parents just decided to let me have a three-day weekend, I'm not worried." Poppy said.
"Not mine. I'm either in class, or I'm in trouble." Lux replied, shaking her head in the process.
"Then get going, we can handle ourselves. I hope" Janna said. Lux nodded and took off towards school.
"Well I think we should split up just in case." Janna said. Poppy just nodded in reply. As they separated to walk different areas of the city, both knew that this would be challenging. Or so they thought. Just as Lux was walking up the steps to school, not being late but close enough, she was overcome with a chill and knew that Rek'Sai was attacking. With Headmistress Fiora right next to her, Lux knew that she would have to sit this one out.
Janna and Poppy however, were already on top of it. Poppy just happened to be closer and she found a secluded spot to transform.
"Star Guardian Power Up!"
Once done, she quickly charged into one of the parks near the city center as Rek'Sai started her attack. Clearly not expecting a quick response, she didn't even notice Poppy until she was flying through the air from the impact of Poppy's hammer. Snarling, she turned to face the Guardian, only to be put out as Poppy has already destroyed the seeker.
"Sorry, nothing for you today. Now either leave, or I will make you." Poppy said, getting ready for anything Rek'Sai did. Rek'Sai didn't respond, but instead tore open a portal, and vanished through it. Poppy just stood there looking confused but nevertheless stopped the attack. Janna arrived just a few seconds later to find a bit of chaos, but people were already settling down. Janna just walked over to the remains of the seeker and after looking at it quickly, she knew that there was nothing more to be learned.
"I think we should leave before anything else happens." Janna said and Poppy nodded in reply. They took off towards the tower and decided to wait until Lux was finally out of class. As they arrived, they just turned on the news for some background noise, and set about working on their homework.
Lux meanwhile was just annoyed, but relieved as the cold she felt as she entered vanished quickly and she knew that Poppy and Janna had dealt with the attack quickly. With the weekend approaching they knew that it would be easier to patrol and intercept any attack by Rek'Sai, but that meant that whatever she was working on or trying to do would succeed. As she settled in for an annoying half day, Lux just turned it all over in her head and finally just gave up until she was out.
Once the students were dismissed, Lux headed immediately for the tower to see the results of the morning. Arriving, she found Janna and Poppy just working on their homework. They pulled off their headsets as they heard Lux enter. "So how did it go?" Lux asked.
"Rek'Sai wasn't interested in fighting. I knocked her into the sky, destroyed the seeker, and before I could do anything else, she ran. I'm not sure how much she got before I got there. I'm guessing not much." Poppy said as she leaned back in her chair.
"I didn't even get to see the fight before it was over. I literally got there to see Rek'Sai disappear. I examined the remains of the seeker, and it looked like to be something that would be thrown away. Again, giving more evidence to our theory of she's distracting us." Lux just paced back and forth for a while as everyone just sank in thought. It was still silent when Vel'Koz hovered about 30 minutes later.
"Tired or thinking?" He asked as he noticed the three of them just sitting around. That jostled all three out of their stupors.
"Yeah. Just trying to ponder what Rek'Sai might be trying, or trying to distract us from." Janna said as she stood up and stretched a bit.
"I'm guessing another barrier assault. We know it's coming just when not if. However, the issue that remains is that we currently have nothing in which to stop it with. We still don't have a full team," Vel'Koz turned to Dorcha, Solas, and Zephyr as he spoke, who quickly left, "and Rek'Sai seems to be targeting things at random, rather than trying to get as much energy as possible."
"We thought about that, but we also concluded that they might want to build a reserve of energy before another barrier assault. They might not need much, but these will be enough." Lux said as she got up again and stared pacing.
"Also a possibility. We need to be ready. I doubt the next attack will be small." Vel'Koz said as he left. The Guardians just looked at each other and nodded, before leaving to go home.
The rest of the day passed in peace as Rek'Sai prepared to coordinate her attack with Malzahar's barrier assault. It was simply a matter of timing and Rek'Sai was using her resources to distract the guardians but also to plan something they couldn't recover from, or at least she hoped. Her seeker was already in position, and given the news cycle, it was time to unleash it.
In a small corner of town, the seeker received its orders and unleashed its online assault. Possessing a semi-well known author, who had a following in the city, started posting articles about how the guardians were instead bad and how the void warriors were instead the saviors they were looking for. While Rek'Sai knew that there might not be much draw form it, there hopefully would be enough to distract the guardians until the following night.
As Lux was eating dinner, Garen's phone kept going off and after the 6th time, clearly their mother was annoyed. "Garen, honey. I understand the girls are probably falling all over you, but can you please tell them to not text during dinner?"
"It's not texts mom. It's news reports." Garen picked up his phone and then handed to Lux, who took it out of a bit of shock. Lux just read the headlines and rolled her eyes, while inside, she was panicking. The news reports told of how the Guardians were instead bad news and the void was the good one.
"Well someone has a sense of humor." Lux said, handing Garen his phone back. He handed it to their father, who took it and shook his head. Both of them turned to their father who seemed to share his daughter's opinion.
"Sure the ones who we know fight to protect us are the bad guys. What a load of…" but one look from his wife told him to not finish that sentence. The rest of the meal passed in relative silence until Lux's phone began doing the same thing. Except this time it was from Janna, Poppy, Vel'Koz, Nasus, and Amy. One look from her mother told Lux to put the phone away for the time being.
Once dinner was over, Lux tore up to her room and immediately logged into her computer. She began browsing the articles while texting Janna and Poppy back, but she only seemed to find many people disagreeing with them. Even politicians were weighing in and said the stories are a load of junk. However, there was a following that seemed to agree with the author, or authors, she couldn't tell. Hopefully it wouldn't go further, but when Janna texted back to come to the tower, Lux couldn't resist. She grabbed her bag and headed out.
Along the way, Lux texted back and forth with Amy about how the articles were stupid, bad, and no one seemed to want to believe them. Lux's panic disappeared a bit while she was texting as Amy seemed to have a good grasp on online gossip and the mood of school. Not to mention she communicated with just about everyone in their class on a daily basis. Arriving at the tower, Lux found Janna hard at work on the computer while Poppy just held her head in her hands.
"OK, what'd I miss?" Lux asked as she walked in.
"Janna says the articles are making people sleepy and how the following that initially took up the banner of this person, we have confirmed it is one person by the way, are now in the hospital with the same symptoms of energy drain. They will be fine in a few days, but they also had a lot of energy drained. It seems Rek'Sai has learned to drain people through the internet, which shouldn't surprise me as much as it originally did now that I think about it." Poppy said, seeming to take the explanation away from Vel'Koz who had just hovered in. Vel'Koz, for his part, just shrugged, and pointed at Poppy in agreement.
"So what are we doing about it?" Lux asked looking around since there seemed to be nothing she could do to help.
"Well Janna is trying to trace the person who posted the articles, but she is getting nowhere fast." Janna chose that moment to slam her fist into the table she was at, seemingly in confirmation. "And she's getting frustrated. I will work overnight with a few people I know to try and track this person down, but I'm also afraid to move Janna from the computer." Vel'Koz said. Poppy, seeming to take that as a challenge, stretched her arms, cracked her knuckles, and in one swift movement, pulled Janna's chair away from the table. That finally seemed to knock Janna out of her trance.
"What? Oh! Sorry. Got wrapped up. Lux when did you get here?" Janna said, clearly trying to recover.
"About 3 minutes ago. We might need you later, but for now, I suggest you take a step back and relax. Before you break the table." Lux laughed a bit as Janna threw the nearest available thing, in this case, Zephyr, at her. The cat instead of trying to "attack" Lux, just folded his body and Lux caught him.
"Lazy cat." Janna said, but Zephyr seemed more interested in the scratching he was getting from Lux at the moment. "Hey I thought I'm supposed to be your companion!" Janna's voice said frustrated, but her face told a different story, and with one long meow, Janna just couldn't hold it in anymore. She broke down laughing and sank back into the chair. Poppy and Vel'Koz started laughing, while Lux giggled while still holding Zephyr. Once everyone calmed down, he hopped down and Janna turned back to the computer.
"They are tricky, but I think I can get to them. However, I will need time. So I wrote a program to do it for me. I'll have it run overnight on the computers here and in the morning, I hope to come in and find it close or done. Either way, we will have an answer in the morning." Janna said as she got up from her computer after transferring the program to the tower's computer network. "It can't be traced back here if that is what you are all worried about. If anything, it will trace back to the library, which would seem legit as Vel'Koz would no doubt be investigating it anyway."
"Indeed I would have. I'm still going to make a few calls however." Vel'Koz said as he floated out. "I would suggest the three of you go home and get some sleep. Tomorrow seems like it will be a busy day." He suggested as he popped back into the tower's ground floor room. The team just looked around at each other and nodded. They all knew tomorrow was going to be a busy day.
The following morning saw Janna up before anyone and was even at the library before it opened. As she was about to enter, Janna caught herself and remembered that she needed to use one of the secret entrances or risk getting caught by staff and possibly causing a scene. Making her way around to one of the doors, she quietly entered and once she was in the tower, checked the status of her program. While it hadn't narrowed down exactly where the person was, it was close. Remembering that Vel'Koz also did some work on it, Janna was already at the door before she again reminded herself about the library not being open yet. She made her way to the entrance near his office, she checked the corridor before entering.
Vel'Koz, was as usual floating near the window and watching the city. He turned when he heard the door open. "Ah Janna, any progress?"
"Yes actually. But it's not an exact lock." Janna pulled her laptop from her bag and showed Vel'Koz the results. He then turned to his own computer.
"Well we may have gotten lucky. My contacts were also not able to pin it down exactly, but they did manage to narrow as well. Let's compare the maps." Vel'Koz began typing quickly, much more quickly than Janna could have thought possible with only two tentacles. He pulled the map from Janna's program and overlaid on his one, and they formed a very tight zone. "Well that is much better and that area is searchable." Vel'Koz was about to continue when they heard footsteps in the hall. Janna quickly dived out of sight, but she didn't need to.
"If you wanted to try that, might I suggest next time to be not so…noisy." Nasus said as he entered. Janna had managed to trip over a lamp and it made a very distinct sound as it hit the floor. She just smiled and shrugged. "Anyway, you wanted to be notified if the bad news went anywhere, well it did." Nasus turned on the morning news.
"The stories published overnight seem to paint the Guardians in a whole different light, and while the collateral damage is known, many didn't suspect it was this bad." Nasus flipped channels, and they all had similar stories. Janna was a first visibly crestfallen, but then her head snapped up and she went over to Vel'Koz's computer. Nasus followed while Vel'Koz kept flipping between the morning stations.
"There I knew it." Janna said, and pointed to the images in the story and images that were already online. Many of them were from either the First Void War, or even older. Some were just outright pulled from other media. "They are fakes!"
Nasus just smiled and nodded. "I have a few contacts and they should correct this quickly. The damage has been noticed, but mostly contained and it is usually cleaned up quickly. Well, mostly. That downtown incident is still being picked up."
"Good, now let's hope they change their tunes in a few minutes." Vel'Koz said, floating over as Nasus sent his media contacts the emails. They all waited around and sure enough, not more than 20 minutes later, the news had rapidly changed their tone, blasting the articles and repeatedly apologizing for their mistakes. Janna just sat in a chair with a smug look on her face.
After listening to the rapid apologies, Janna went back to the web and saw the original author, under multiple screen names try and tear the news down, but they got called out on it. However, Janna noticed the comment stream, which usually is constant, suddenly die off. Quickly grabbing her computer, Janna rushed back to the tower. Nasus followed her while Vel'Koz stayed behind.
Once Nasus arrived at the tower however, he found Janna transformed and sitting, well floating, at her laptop deep in concentration. "Something up?"
"Well yes. You know how social media is, especially on calling someone out right?" Janna asked not looking up.
"Very. Why?" Nasus was now curious as he walked over to look over the Guardian's shoulder.
"Well look at the comment stream, it suddenly died, and is slow to a crawl. I'm thinking that the people commenting are having their energy drawn and well you see the results." Janna was talking so quickly that Nasus barely had time to process what was happening before the phone rang.
"Nasus, I think we have a problem. More people are being affected by the seeker." Vel'Koz said. Nasus had to remember for a moment on how he could thought speak through the phone, but remembered.
"Yeah that is something Janna noticed as well. I think she is already on it." Nasus replied noticing Janna on her phone already.
"Oh pick up already sleepy head." Janna said only to have it be picked up a second later.
"What's going on?" Lux's voice on the other end was not only annoyed but still half asleep.
"We have problems. Get her as fast as you can." Janna replied but that wasn't the end of the conversation.
"Janna? What's with your voice?" Lux asked, sounding a bit more awake.
"I'm already dressed." Janna said.
"I'm on my way." Lux now sounded fully awake and hung up just as fast.
"One down." Janna phoned Poppy who answered in much the same way.
"What's up girl?" Poppy said. She didn't sound as sleepy as Lux, but still annoyed at being woken up this early on a weekend.
"We have problems get here as fast as you can. I'm already dressed for the occasion." Janna said, and just like Lux, Poppy suddenly was wide awake.
"Adrenaline does wonders for a wakeup call doesn't it." Poppy said before handing up.
"Indeed it does." Janna said putting down her phone. Not more than 2 minutes later, Lux is appearing through the door, and Poppy followed close behind. While both weren't transformed, it was obvious how the magic protection of the Star Guardians was working.
"So what's going on?" Lux asked as she pulled her locket while Poppy pulled her pendant.
"Star Guardian Power Up!" Janna waited until Lux and Poppy were firmly back on the ground before continuing.
"We have a very rough location for the hacker or whatever we are going to call them, as all of the negative stories are from one person. We also destroyed the articles and their credibility. However, there is those hardcore believers who will believe anything put out by someone. The other thing is that the comment stream. Look at it." Janna pointed to the screen where she was mirroring her laptop. Lux and Poppy looked closely and while Poppy seemed clueless, Lux noticed it.
"The comments aren't coming steadily, and the trolls defending this person aren't even responding after a period." Lux mentioned after a few seconds. Poppy looked again, and then planted her head on her hammer as a clear indication that she missed the obvious. "I'm guessing energy drain?"
"That's my guess. I'm going to stay here and try and keep them distracted, along with getting you a better location. You two are going to have to search the area and find out where the seeker is." Janna immediately turned back to her computer. Lux and Poppy stood there for a second, before realizing that having her call the shots with what she knew, was probably for the best. The two tore out of the tower and headed for the area. Janna kept typing and kept narrowing the zone little by little but it was slow going.
Once they reached the edge of the zone, Lux and Poppy immediately started noticing the familiar cold. "Ok, look around and keep your eyes open. Whatever this place is, it will likely have some form of security system. More than the normal." Lux quickly added as Poppy opened her mouth to comment about the load of security systems in the area. It was also apparent that someone contacted the police as they started arriving in force and began clearing buildings. Lux just sighed and they started their search. Every 5 minutes or so, they would get an update from Janna narrowing the area.
"Ok this feels like a battle royale video game right now." Poppy said as they moved again. Janna, or someone was apparently keeping the police updated on the locations as they kept moving. Eventually Janna managed to narrow it down to a handful of buildings and she messaged that she is heading to join them as they couldn't narrow it down any further. Lux decided to wait but it wouldn't be quiet. Lux saw the police forming a perimeter and evacuating surrounding buildings, and when she saw who was walking towards them, it wasn't going to be easy.
"So, these 4 then?" Vi asked as she stopped next to the two Guardians.
"That's the best we can get." Lux said, trying to avoid giving Vi an invitation to go in.
"Ok then. We'll keep the perimeter just try to keep damage to a minimum. My boss has made it clear that I'm not to interfere." Vi said with a more than annoyed tone in her voice but she knew better than to disobey Caitlyn unless the situation changed rapidly. Vi walked back to her officers and Lux noticed her father in the crowd of them. Resisting the urge to keep staring Lux turned to see Poppy conversing with Debonair.
"So decided to show up for this one?" Lux asked as she walked over.
"I got hit last time. I don't have the same protection that you girls do." He said as he used his hammer for support while they waited for Janna, who showed up just a few minutes later.
"We ready?" She asked.
"Yes. Ok move building by building and clear them of civilians and once we find the right one, then we have to go quietly. That seeker will be waiting for us." Lux said as she started the team towards one of the buildings. Their senses immediately told them it was the wrong building, but they knew that they still had to clear it just in case. Moving through the building carefully, the four of them carefully moved civilians out and to the police who had moved in to cover them. After the first was clear, they moved the second and repeated the process.
Once the second was clear, they were making the decision about which to clear next, when a shot rang out and the pavement nearby the team had a small dent in it. "Get down!" Lux said. The police quickly retreated and Lux turned to see Vi on the radio calling for reinforcements. A second shot rang out and Vi dived behind her cruiser as it impacted the metal next to her. Janna quickly moved to the cruiser to check on the police there and her barrier absorbed a third shot as she also took cover behind the cruiser.
"Well this changes things. I wasn't sure your powers could stop bullets." Vi said as another shot rang out, impacting the cruiser again. Janna just shrugged. "Here take this. We will try and determine where the shots are coming from, but the shooter is already given up a lot of information." Vi handed over a police radio and took a brief look up, but had to get back down quickly as another shot rang out. "All units report in." Vi barked into the radio clearly trying to keep tabs on the rapidly escalating situation.
Janna prepared to make a run back to the rest of the team, but another impact on the cruiser told her to remain put for the moment. Vi was visibly frustrated but after sticking her head out again briefly, she saw what she needed. "It's the left one. Well when looking at the remaining two." Janna peaked her head out and just before she ducked back down she caught sight of a glint, most likely from a scope.
"I see it. We need to clear the other building. We can get our team to that building. Just keep your heads down. We don't need any casualties today." Janna said as she stuck her head out on the other side of the cruiser and signaled to Lux. For her part, Lux to the message, and knew the next part would be annoying. Turning to the ground between them and the building, Lux noticed more than a few barriers. Lux quickly ducked behind cover as another shot rang out, but it was followed by shattering glass a few seconds later. Lux tuned to see police counter snipers set up. Vi was clearly trying to cover them, and while Lux appreciated the effort, she saw Janna now annoyed.
"Go." Vi said to Janna, and she threw a barrier around herself, and moved to rejoin the rest of the team. Once Janna was with the rest of the team, Vi came over the radio. "You 4 ok?"
"Yes. The counter snipers were unnecessary." Lux said as she poked her head out again.
"Procedure. Whoever this is, they are a bad shot and aren't trying to move stealthily." Vi said as she pulled a pair of binoculars from her cruiser and began redirecting the fire.
"Ok here we go. Keep together, and use cover to get to the building. Move only after you hear shots." Lux said, keeping her hand on the radio so the police also knew what was happening. Lux briefly released the button, "this situation is getting weirder by the second." Lux poked her head out one more time, and after checking, she took off and the rest of the team followed behind her. Dodging from cover to cover to be safe, they eventually made it to the building in question. Lux made a motion at the door, and Poppy was all too happy to oblige.
The team went through the front door only to immediately duck behind cover as void spikes flew right at them. Lux threw a barrier around the team to be safe, but they were entering a shooting gallery. "Well, I guess we'll just have to be careful."
"Not necessarily. Give me a second, and let me examine it." Janna carefully made her way over to the device, throwing up a barrier to absorb more void spikes in the process, and carefully crouched down behind it. "I knew it. Just stay there." Janna said, and she vanished. Lux looked at the other two and every now and then they heard a trap trigger. Lux was now nervous, but just as she was about to go looking, Janna reappeared. "Can someone help me get to the basement. One of you two. The other go with Lux to the top floor." Poppy immediately put her hand up. "As you climb, be careful, the traps are automated and you will have to dodge a lot of them. They have the system controlled from the basement, or at least the main hub for it. I can disable it from there. Go!"
Lux and Debonair immediately set off towards the stairs. As they set off further up the building, it was clear that the seeker was preparing for this as they were dodging traps every few feet. The building itself was clearly a renovated office space as they were moving through cubicles, and offices most of the way up.
On the third floor, they were walking through an almost literal minefield of traps. Debonair was shooting them as he could, while Lux shielded them both from ones he missed. "Oh look, you keep moving. Give up yet?" Lux recognized the familiar taunts from the seeker from their last encounter.
"Does it look like it?" She responded, but almost immediately was dodging out of the way of more spikes. As they finally made their way to the fourth floor, they found it almost empty except for large series of computer banks on the far wall.
"Well it seems like you survived the gauntlet, now can you survive the fire." The Seeker was clearly still possessing the individual, who despite usual stereotypes, was a rather fit young man. "Dodge this." He pressed a button on a device on his arm, and Lux managed to slam Debonair out of the way as more spikes flew at them. Lux however didn't get off completely free as she took one in the leg. Wincing as it hit, she still managed to get back on her feet.
"It's going to take more than that to get rid of us." Lux said defiantly as she gripped her baton tighter. "Take them out, I'll keep you protected." Deboniar started shooting at the various things all over the walls and ceiling. He took cover behind some of the pillars around the building as he moved, while Lux shielded him from the rest. The seeker just laughed until it pressed a button and nothing happened. "Lost control of something?" Lux taunted.
"Impossible." The seeker summoned void energy and blew the two of them back and checked the now completely offline system. "You will pay for this." The seeker final roared out of its host and charged right at Lux and Debonair. However, it was soon flying back as Poppy knocked it into a wall. Janna was there a few seconds later and Zephyr did his thing and latched onto the seeker to slow it down. Poppy and Debonair roared up their hammers, swung, and both connected, sending the seeker flying into the opposite wall.
"Well that got it." Debonair said, only to have the seeker get up almost unscathed. "Or not…"
"It will take more than that to take me down." The seeker charged again, prompting a binding from Lux while Poppy ran alongside and got in a few nice hammer blows. However, nothing seemed to be working.
"Find the crystal." Lux said as she dodged yet another attack, and Poppy immediately knocked the seeker into yet another wall while Janna took off towards the roof. "Ok now play distraction time. Keep moving, keep hitting it, and don't get caught." For the next five minutes, the seeker and the team were dodging around until Poppy knocked the seeker into the wall, and it finally roared in pain.
Getting up slowly, it took a peak outside and roared again. Lux threw another binding while Debonair threw an accelerated bolt from his weapon. Janna rejoined the fight and immediately had to dodge out of the way of an attack, but she sent the seeker flying into a wall with her monsoon. The seeker once again got up and charged, only to be met with Debonair's hammer to its face, or what it could make out as a face. Lux fired a few bolts for good measure while She also threw a singularity to slow it down.
Poppy charged again pinning the creature to the wall, while Lux jumped into the air. "Final Spark!" Lux threw her powers in the beam, and while it didn't outright destroy the seeker, it wasn't getting back up.
"You're defeated. Admit it!" Lux's voice did betray her exhaustion a bit, but the seeker only laughed.
"It matters not. I accomplished my goal." It then turned to dust. The team looked puzzled until they all looked out the window, and while Debonair didn't see anything, he saw the Guardians turning in panic and running to the roof. Once they were there, in the evening sun, the lights in the sky brought a whole new panic to the Guardians.
"It was all a distraction for this. She got more than we thought." Poppy said as she just looked up.
"Indeed. This isn't good. Look at their intensity. This won't be good." Janna shook her head as she spoke. Lux just remained silent, her head hung in failure.
"Can someone let me in on what's going on?" Debonair was enjoying the light show, but knew that it was probably bad.
"You didn't know from last time. But those lights, are Malzahar assault the magical barriers around this world with void energy to damage them. Given their intensity, this won't be good." Lux told him her head still looking down.
"Well I guess this won't be good. I should get going then. If you need help with one of those circles again, I'm sure you will find a way to get ahold of me." Debonair said as he moved to the stairs.
"I will be in a few days. It will be a new spot, but I'm sure you can find it." Janna told him. Debonair nodded and left. He was gone for just a few minutes when Vi and Caitlyn walked onto the roof.
"I'm guessing the light show isn't something good?" Vi said, stating the obvious. Caitlyn just rolled her eyes and Lux finally picked her head up.
"You know the barriers that defend this world?" Lux asked. Vi nodded, but as she did so, her face fell.
"Oh...not good." Was all she managed to say.
"We'll meet with Vel'Koz to try and get another repair but now they are beyond being repaired fully. We will have to take them down and renew them. Excuse us." Lux said as she moved to the stairs. Janna and Poppy followed. Caitlyn moved forward to offer the team a ride, but Vi put her hand on Caitlyn's shoulder and shook her head. Caitlyn nodded in reply.
When they finally managed to get to the tower, the attack had stopped, but the damage was done as evidenced when they saw the damage on the globe. It was bad. Very bad. "He got more energy than we thought. The barriers will have to be replaced. I'm trying to move up the time table, but we need to have every single piece in place before we move, or else it won't be good." Vel'Koz said as the team entered.
"Regardless of that, you three did everything you could today. Don't sell yourselves short on that account. Without a full team, you can't defend the barriers anyway." Nasus said, trying to keep their spirts up, but the three of them just sank into chairs defeated.
"We know, but that still doesn't stop the fact we let Rek'Sai get away with an enormous amount of energy. We should have done more." Lux just put her head on the table in defeat. Again.
"You did all you could." Vel'Koz floated over and put one of his tentacles on Lux's shoulder. She pulled her head up and smiled briefly, but nodded. "We'll just have to be ready in three days. That is when the circle will be."
"Ok then. We will be ready. In the meantime, let's just get some sleep." The three powered down and headed home. The team watched the news over the next few hours and noticed that they mostly called it just a random occurrence, but it seemed that they knew more than they were letting on. Frustrated beyond what she could take, Lux just locked herself in her bedroom for the remainder of the evening. Janna worked on homework where she could see the large TV just keeping it as background noise. Poppy followed Janna's example.
As the team went to bed that evening, Lux took one last look outside her windows. "Was it this bad last time?" Lux asked. Dorcha and Solas just looked at each other. After a few seconds, Dorcha hopped up onto the windowsill where Lux was sitting.
"Worse really. Last time, we didn't have time and the void was everywhere. Most of those memories are still fuzzy, but I do remember multiple times the team being heavily wounded in fights and general chaos being everywhere. Also the team was not native to this world save for Janna who was brought in at the last minute. Between the first war and the second brief conflict, Janna grew into a leader and she took over. The second conflict is what really did it. It was brief but effective. I just wonder why we can't remember. This time around, we have the time for missteps and time is on our side. Don't worry about it so much."
"Yeah." Solas jumped up to also perk up their leader. "There is nothing you are doing wrong. Are you doing the best you can?" Lux just nodded in reply. "Then you are doing everything you can. Hopefully we can pin down this new Guardian soon, but until then, it will just have to be you three. With some help. Now get some sleep or you will regret it." Lux just smiled and finally got into bed. Dorcha and Solas waited a bit before going to sleep as well as they looked at the moon and wondering what Malzahar had cooked up next.
On the moon, Malzahar surveyed the damage and was very pleased with what happened. The energy they had burned was substantial, but it did more damage than they thought it would. The barriers were now beyond repairing until after the conflict. Malzahar knew that they could attempt another repair but this time they would be ready. Or at least as ready as they could be.
"Rek'Sai, you need to be ready to respond when they attempt another repair. Our last attack didn't so as much damage as this one which means they will need more time to repair. Be ready with your attack to disrupt that." Malzahar said and Rek'Sai just nodded in reply.
Malzahar turned and looked out the window at Runeterra and smiled. "Soon you will be mine and then the First Star will pay for its arrogance." Malzahar laughed as he headed to his room.