"I don't understand why Caitlyn assigned me with this team," Corki grumbled. "What use am I in a cave?'
Ezreal was bent over in the grass, looking with microscopic care for something.
"Relax, Corki," he said. "If the Sentinel can fit in these tunnels, you definitely can."
Orianna cocked her head.
"By my calculations, at your average cruising altitude, you should have two point six three feet leeway," she told him. Corki threw up his arms.
"A whole two feet," he proclaimed.
"Two point six three," Orianna corrected. Corki facepalmed.
"Now, where is- ah, here we are," Ezreal said, finding a small iron ring buried in the grass and pulling on it. A large trapdoor opened up, leading down into unfathomable depths. Ezreal flicked on the lamp on his miner's hat, sending a powerful beam down. The floor of the tunnel lay about six feet down.
Corki dropped right in, his helicopter keeping him afloat. Ezreal jumped in, whooping on the way down and tucking into a roll at the bottom.
Orianna pointed into the hole.
"Protect." The Ball flew down and activated a shield which Orianna stepped on and sank slowly down to the tunnel floor. She hopped down and the Ball resumed its position by her side.
Ezreal reached up and pulled the trapdoor back into place. The tunnel was plunged into darkness.
"Hyah!" A blinding flash of light emanated from the darkness, hitting all three of them and wrapping around them, binding them in place. A light flared into existence on the tip of Lux's baton as she walked towards them.
"Lux?" Ezreal said, surprised. "What in Runeterra are you doing down here?"
"I could ask you three the same question," she responded, looking at them with a critical eye.
"I asked first," Ezreal replied instantly.
Corki sighed.
"These two will be at it all day," he muttered to Orianna.
"Pulse," she replied. Corki blinked.
"What?" She hadn't been talking to him. The Ball emitted a pulse of electricity, zapping Lux and dispelling her bindings.
"Ravage." The Ball flew towards Lux, sparking viciously. Lux threw up a shield for herself and fired a bolt of hard light at the Ball, knocking it off course.
Ezreal and Corki dashed around Lux, disappearing into the tunnel.
"Bye Lux, nice seeing you!" Ezreal shouted.
Lux and Orianna faced each other, the Ball hovering at Orianna's side and light shining brightly from Lux's baton.
"I don't want to have to fight you, Orianna," Lux said warningly.
"I do not look upon a battle with you with favour either."
"What are you guys doing down here?"
"Investigating the attack," Orianna said matter of factly.
"Oh, it's just that?" Lux said, sounding sorry. "I'm sorry then. It's dangerous down here, though- all the little beasties the League usually spends in matches are down here right now. In fact, I think the dragon is-"
She whipped around and threw her baton down the length of the tunnel. It caught Ezreal and Corki, shielding them as fire lit up the tunnel. Lux sprinted down the tunnel, catching her baton as it came back to her, and fired a large ball of light that stuck to the maw of the dragon. Ezreal and Corki scrambled back as Lux detonated her light orb and fired a snare, rooting the dragon in place while she twirled her baton and hit it with hard light missiles.
"DEMACIA!" She shouted, the word thundering down the passageway as she fired an intense laser beam that vaporised the dragon. She fell to a knee, panting and catching her breath, then stood up and looked behind her.
Ezreal was sitting in the dirt, halfway up, staring at her with his jaw hanging open.
Lux knew she had to think fast and do something cool.
She saluted in Demacian fashion. Inwardly, she cursed. Why had she done that? Old training habits, blast it. That was about the most un-cool thing she could have done.
Ezreal didn't seem to care. He was still staring at her, a new measure of respect in his eyes. Orianna caught up with them.
"Ezreal, are you alright?" She asked, looking as concerned as a clockwork lady could. "Your temperature and heart rate are elevated, and you're experiencing a rush of hormones commonly attributed to-"
"I'm fine!" Ezreal yelped, scrambling to his feet. "Fine! Nothing to worry about! Let's get a move on, then?"
He darted down the corridor, his face red. Lux stifled a laugh at him, and turned to Orianna.
"What were you about to say?" she asked innocently. Orianna looked at her, gears clicking.
"I am sorry. You are not allowed access to that information." Corki laughed, a short bark that sounded mocking rather than gleeful.
"Well said, gearhead," he told her. "Well said."
"My name is not gearhead. I am Orianna Reveck, daughter of-"
"I know, I know, it was a joke."
"If that was what you consider a joke, I am glad not to have the capacity for humor."
Lux laughed at their bickering, twirling her baton and running ahead to where Ezreal was, now moving at a much slower pace.
"Oh, hey, umh… Hey," Ezreal said lamely, his normal confidence not yet returned.
"Hello," Lux said cheerfully. "So, investigation, huh?"
Ezreal brightened immediately.
"Yep! Three of us checking the tunnels, the geniuses checking the hextech, and Piltover's Finest themselves hitting the streets," Ezreal said proudly.
"It's good to know Piltover is doing something," Lux said. "The League is still in committee over whether there should be an investigation or not."
Ezreal snorted.
"Typical." They continued on in silence for a minute. The sounds of Corki and Orianna, still arguing, echoed down towards them.
"So, umm… Listen," Ez began. "Those were some pretty sweet moves back there, what with lasering the dragon in the face and all that…"
Lux turned her head so Ezreal wouldn't see her smiling.
"It was more of the upper chest, really…"
"Details," Ez said, dismissing it with a wave of his hand. "Anyways… Would you like to… um… accompany me on an expedition sometime?"
Lux's inner mind shrieked with joy. Play it cool, play it cool.
"That sounds like fun," she answered calmly. Alright, good job.
"Excellent," Ez said with a grin. Lux smiled back at him, her hair seeming to radiate light.
"What have we here?" Said a gruff, strong voice. Massive hands closed around the scruff of Lux and Ezreal's necks. "My own flesh-and-blood sister, accompanying this unauthorized hooligan in a restricted area?"
"Hooligan!?" Ezreal exclaimed. "I'll have you know my discoveries are showcased in every major museum in Runeterra, you cro-magnon-"
"Garen!" Lux complained. "Put me down."
Garen chuckled and released her, still holding Ezreal, who was still vividly recounting all his intellectual exploits and insulting Garen's education. The big man ignored him.
"-raised in a barn, you great oaf-"
"Still, this is a serious breach," Garen said gravely. "You know we're the only ones who are supposed to be down here. We have to report them."
"-I'm an honorary PhD, you stinking plebian-"
"No we don't," Lux countered. "We could always say that we needed help clearing the tunnels."
Garen scratched his chin with his free hand.
"I don't know if they'd buy that with both of us down here. Besides, that would be bending the truth. Demacians don't lie."
"-if you said you'd ever even been through primary school you'd be lying-"
Garen shook Ezreal vigorously, a look of mild annoyance on his face.
"I'm trying to have a conversation with my sister. Quiet down." He refocused on Lux. "This is highly irregular."
"They're down here looking for clues," Lux argued. "On orders from Caitlyn."
"Caitlyn is rather just," Garen conceded. "It would be wrong of us to defy justice."
"So we should help them!"
"It would also be wrong of us to disobey our orders. But... We were told to report suspicious activity. I haven't seen any. Have you?"
"Not a thing," Lux responded, catching on. "In fact, I can't think of a single thing worth mentioning."
Garen dropped Ezreal and stood with his arms crossed. The explorer dusted himself off indignantly.
"I'm so focused on guarding this corridor right now," Garen said loudly, "I might not even notice if someone were to slip right past me."
Nothing happened.
"Slip right past me," Garen repeated. Ezreal looked at him with a blank expression.
Lux shoved Ezreal and he caught on, running off into the gloom with his teammates.
Garen shook his head.
"Why do you like him so much?" He complained to his sister.
"I do not!" She protested.
"Do to," he teased. "You like like him."
She punched his massive shoulder.
"Go get stepped on by a dragon," she muttered. Garen chuckled, a deep, hearty sound, and drew his sword.
"Well, back to work, sister dear," he said, lopping the head of of a wolf that suddenly jumped at him.
"Right." She stuck a raptor with a ball of light and detonated it, throwing her baton and shielding Garen.
A ways down the tunnel, the sounds of fighting drifted back. Ezreal paused to listen to it, picturing Lux in the midst of combat.
"Ezreal, are you drooling?" Corki asked. Ezreal shook his head and marched on.
"No!"
Corki chuckled.
"Ezreal and Lux, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-"
"-i-n-g," a voice answered from the shadows behind. Orianna immediately produced a series of intricate, sharpened keys and held them like throwing knives.
"First comes love..." The voice was getting closer.
"Then comes marriage..." A foot, clad in a strange shoe with a bell on it.
"Then comes a baby in a baby carriage!" Shaco finished, emerging into the light, his daggers dripping with fresh blood.
"Demon Jester," Ezreal snarled. "What do you want?"
"Amusement," was his answer. He continued to approach, impassive behind his gruesome mask. "I came down here to hunt the monsters. But to them, aren't we the monsters? Up there, in the sun and 'civilization', they tell me not to kill people. They told me I was a monster. But deep inside... We're all monsters."
Shaco laughed maniacally, raising his daggers, then stumbled as three keys found themselves embedded in his chest.
"Clockwork people," Shaco muttered, pulling them out of his chest with sickening noises. "You're just gears and sparks, with no taste for the finer things in life, like the blue-haired one."
"Jinx!" Ezreal exclaimed.
"Yes, Jinx," Shaco reflected. "Like her, we do. You, on the other hand... Your clock is winding down, Orianna."
"This is not going to be safe," Orianna politely said to her teammates. "I will handle this one. Take what we have found to Caitlyn."
Shaco advanced menacingly. Orianna faced him, her frame shifting subtly.
"Biology isn't that didn't from clockwork, Demon Jester. I know how they tick. I know how to make the ticking stop."
"Tick, tock, tick, tock, the mouse ran up the clock," Shaco started chanting.
"Ravage," she said, and the Ball attacked. Orianna threw one, two, three keys, treating them like knives.
Shaco was barely managing to fend off the Ball and Orianna's own blades. He disappeared in a flash of smoke.
"Protect," Orianna said, and felt Shaco's knife bounce off the back of her shield. She turned, throwing a key and impaling Shaco's knee. Shaco dropped a box at his feet and threw his dagger, poison dripping from the blade. Orianna caught it and snapped it cleanly in two.
"No body to poison," Orianna said calmly. "But you made the Ball angry. Pulse."
Shaco was knocked off his feet by the Ball. His jack-in-the-box popped open, making a loud noise and appearing very scary.
"No fear either. Throw." The Ball flew at Shaco, emitting a large magical pulse that threw Shaco over her head. Orianna threw a key, embedding itself directly between his eyes as he soared through the air. The Demon Jester hit the ground dead.
Orianna bowed graciously and walked away in search of her friends.
"I'm telling you, there's nothing here," Heimer insisted. "If any traces remained, it would be in the third subsystem."
"Who would attack via the third subsystem?" Jayce exclaimed. "That's ludicrous."
Ziggs sat in a corner, tossing a small bomb up and down. Heimer and Jayce had been at it for ten minutes and showed no sign of stopping.
"Exactly! Nobody would check the third subsystem!"
"Because there's nothing there!"
Ziggs walked over to the main console and pulled off the cover.
"Or maybe they just blew it up," he said. The interior of the main control was a smoking mess. The two inventors ignoring him, Ziggs reached into the panel, pushing his tiny arm in as far as it could go.
Something sharp grabbed onto his arm, and Ziggs yelped. He pulled his arm out and looked at the thing on the end.
"Is that one of Jinx's flame chompers?" Heimer asked, finally taking notice.
"I think so," Ziggs answered through gritted teeth. "It definitely hurts like one."
Heimer walked over to his fellow Yordle and began to tinker with the small device.
"Don't those explode?" Jayce asked.
Heimer and Ziggs looked at him. There was a moment of silence.
"Shit creek without a paddle," Ziggs muttered. Then it exploded and he was unconscious, lying against a wall bleeding.
"What are we looking for, exactly?" Braum's question drifted across to Caitlyn as she studied a piece of ground closely with her lenses.
"Clues." Her answer was terse and cool.
"And what would these clues be?" He continued.
Caitlyn sighed and stood up.
"I don't know. There aren't any. Vi's alone on our only real lead and I'm wasting time out here in this dump because some little girl said Jinx might talk to Vi but not me, but in all honesty Jinx probably will attack her anyways, and now she has no backup fighting the second most dangerous criminal in Runeterra and it's been years and I still haven't managed to even get a clue on the first most dangerous and what am I doing here, Vi needs me!"
Braum stayed silent through Caitlyn's rant. At the end of it she was breathing heavily with a dangerous look, her trigger finger twitching and a vein pulsing in her forehead.
"So we're going to find Vi?" Braum asked carefully.
Caitlyn sat down, closing her eyes and managing her breathing.
"I don't know. Give me time to think." Braum backed off. He'd never seen the sheriff like this, and it worried him greatly. He made a mental note to talk to Vi when this was all over-maybe the Enforcer would be able to help.
A cold wind passed over them. Caitlyn shivered a tiny bit, then adjusted and ignored it. Braum looked up, suspicious.
"An unseasonable cold..." He muttered.
A cry rent the air and Anivia swept over them, ice trailing in her wake. She was much larger than normal and a figure with a bow rode on her back. There was a roar, and Sejuani's boar leaped over the roof above them. Ashe fired her ult, missing Sejuani but heading straight towards Caitlyn and Braum. Braum picked up his shield and slammed it down, its enchantment flaring and completely absorbing Ashe's arrow.
"I'm having cold flashes," Braum quipped. A pillar of ice erupted in front of them and Trundle leaped on to it, jumping to the roof on the other side.
"Is the entire Freljord out tonight?" Caitlyn asked, forgetting herself for a moment. Braum shrugged.
"I would have been included if-" his eyes widened. "Of course! How could I forget!"
"What?" Caitlyn was on her feet now.
"It's hockey night!" Braum exclaimed.
"But Ashe was shooting at Sejuani," Caitlyn pointed out. "What kind of hockey was that?"
"Just a little bit of pre-game harassment," Braum said cheerily. "You should come, Caitlyn. Take a little break and watch the ice fly!"
Caitlyn snorted.
"Ridiculous. I have to find Vi." Braum tapped his chin thoughtfully.
"We're headed the same way, then. Plus, Vi looks like the type who wouldn't miss hockey." Caitlyn had to agree on that point.
"Fine," she conceded. "But don't expect me to enjoy it."
Freljord hockey was an old tradition that stretched back to the founding days of the League. All the Freljord champions came together, formed into teams, and played the most exciting, brutal game of hockey anybody had ever seen. The people loved it, and the vast majority of champions turned out to see it.
Caitlyn hated it. She'd attended one year, primarily because Vi talked her in to it, but also because she was hunting a suspect who was an enthusiast of the 'sport'. The day ended with Caitlyn arresting the man while Vi cheered for the bloody sport.
On the way, Caitlyn stopped at one of Piltover's stash drops and changed equipment. A long time ago, Caitlyn and Vi had established certain places all across the League city where they kept alternate and replacement equipment. It was going to be a cold night- Anivia would make sure of that. Caitlyn grabbed her parka and cloak and changed out her rifle for an Arctic variant. She carefully stowed away her hat and took a set of goggles. Heimer promised her the goggles would have the same effect as the lenses on her hat; this would be Caitlyn's first time using them. Either way, they were both warmer than her hat and less conspicuous.
She emerged on to the street and drew up her hood. It had already begun to snow, and Caitlyn gathered her cloak around her. It was lined with wolf fur- the same wolves in the jungle within the League. She'd hunted for three days to produce this cloak. She'd gone with Nidalee and Rengar, skilled hunters both, who worked together so fluidly that Caitlyn didn't know anyone else with that level of synergy.
Excepting Vi and herself, of course.
The thought of Vi refocused Caitlyn, and she moved through the crowd, unnoticed by anyone. They were used to looking for a big hat. Remove the hat, remove the sheriff. Or so they thought.
She wasn't often without her hat and she felt almost naked without it. She slipped on her goggles, securing them in place.
Heimer had told her the goggles worked much the same as her hat lenses, only with easier controls. She scanned the crowd, spotting a large figure some ways away. She squinted and the goggles zoomed in, showing the figure, who turned out to be a bear, in astonishing clarity.
A simple widening of the eye and they unfocused, returning to normal sight.
The arena for the Freljord event was a large, open space down near the docks. Anivia was hard at work blasting the ground, freezing it solid, while a bunch of minions carved out lines and erected the nets.
Something in Caitlyn's parka buzzed and she withdrew a small device that looked like a pocketwatch, holding it up to her ear and speaking softly into it.
"Vi. Go." She hid how relieved she was at Vi contacting her with a terse tone.
"I got Jinx," came her familiar voice. "Subject subdued and awaiting interrogation."
"Is that hat lady?!" Jinx's voice penetrated through the background. "Hit me again, fat hands! Let her hear it!"
"Excuse me for one moment," Vi said, tension underlying her voice. Caitlyn heard the sound of Vi's gauntlets charging and a loud thump. "I've got her locked down, follow my tracker."
"Roger." Caitlyn closed the device and stowed it away.
She caught Jinx. Something surged inside Caitlyn, replacing her usual zen-like calm with something... Else. It probably wasn't good, but Cait didn't care. Energy surged through her veins.
She found the warehouse swiftly, the roar of the crowd audible from a half mile away. She found the door open by a sliver and walked in.
The warehouse was a wreck of mechanics and crates. On the near wall, Jinx was hanging by her wrists, watching Caitlyn malevolently. Cait heard a snore and looked to the centre of the space, where she saw Vi asleep on a couch.
She walked quietly over to her partner, watching as her chest rise and fell with her breath. The faint Roman numeral VI was permanently etched under her left eye, a constant reminder that Vi had started as a common criminal. Her hair spilled down over her right cheek, a unique shade of pink not seen anywhere else.
There was a certain peace about Vi while she was asleep. Caitlyn had noticed it before- on long stakeouts, or business trips, Vi slept soundly and peacefully, while Caitlyn habitually had trouble getting to sleep and was fitful in hers.
"Be quiet," came a whispering voice from behind, and Caitlyn spun around with her finger on the trigger and her sights square on Jinx's head. Jinx didn't seem to notice. "Don't wake Vi. She needs her beauty sleep."
Jinx sounded strangely... There wasn't a word for it. She wasn't mocking, sarcastic, or vicious. In fact, there were no negative emotions at all in Jinx's voice, and Caitlyn knew she wasn't capable of positive ones.
"Go on," Jinx said softly. "Shoot me. You caught me, fair and square. I know you've got a bullet with my name on it. Shoot me."
The sound of Caitlyn's heart beating was deafening in her ears. Blood roared as it circulated, and Caitlyn felt every bit of her being tingle.
Her finger tightened on the trigger ever so gently.
Do it.
You can end this right now.
Vi yawned and turned over in her sleep. Reality came crashing back, and Caitlyn snorted. She worked the bolt on her sniper, ejecting the shell that was loaded.
"In your dreams, Jinx." Jinx sank back, defeated for the moment.
Caitlyn sat, deciding to give Vi an hour before waking her up. She considered studying her case files, then remembered they were back at her room.
She mediated against a wall, closing her eyes and retreating deep inside herself.
"Break his legs!" Ezreal yelled, watching the Freljord hockey match. Orianna sat next to him, watching the proceedings with interest.
"I thought the expression was 'break a leg'," Orianna said. "And that it doesn't involve the actual breaking of legs."
"Normally, yeah," Ezreal answered. "But I really want them to break Trundle's legs."
"Are you rooting for the other team?" She asked, still slightly confused.
"No. I just really hate that troll." Ezreal sat down.
On the field, the match was turning rough. Trundle was carrying the puck when Anivia summoned a wall of ice in front of him, turning the puck over to Braum, who shouldered through the wall of ice and over Trundle. Ezreal breathed a sigh of disappointment as Trundle got back up, legs unbroken.
Olaf roared and crashed into Braum, sending the puck flying over to Udyr, who assumed the phoenix stance and charged. Anivia flew overhead, sending a spear of ice from the tip of one wing that exploded near Udyr. She followed it up with a large icicle, knocking Udyr aside and sending the puck sliding across the ice.
A frozen hand pushed it along and Lissandra was running it towards the net- but Nunu had other plans, and fired his stun at her, only to touch the puck and be instantly whalloped by Trundle's club, who in turn froze solid as Ashe fired her ultimate.
Gragas joined the fray and the ice sparkled in the light of Champions using their abilities. It was a spectacular sight.
Tryndamere bellowed, flashing red and hitting the puck. It shattered.
"Oops," he said, looking around for something else to use. He spotted Teemo in the front row of the crowd and grabbed him, squeezing him down (magic must have been involved somewhere) into the shape of a puck and tossing him in the air for Anivia to freeze solid.
The crowd cheered.
"Vi." The Enforcer snapped awake at the sound of her partner's voice, jerking up.
"Oh, hey, cupcake," Vi said, relaxing as she saw there was no emergency.
"I told you not to call me that," Caitlyn muttered. Vi grinned.
"Have I ever listened to you?" Caitlyn conceded the point and they turned to face Jinx.
The loose cannon hung where she was fastened, staring at them with a manic gleam. She was oddly calm- something Cait attributed to her being caught like a rat in a trap.
"Whatcha gonna do now?" Jinx sneered. "Interrogate me? Beat me up some more? Vi can tell you how well that worked the first time."
Caitlyn looked at Vi, who rubbed her neck with a gauntlet shyly.
"There may have been some rough handling in the capture process," She admitted.
"Yeah, rough's the word, fat-hands," Jinx taunted, and switched back to Caitlyn. "So how are you gonna make me talk, hat lady?"
Caitlyn's blood began to boil.
"Vi," she said, and Vi stood at her side. "Please fetch me some more restraints."
Vi returned presently with more bent scrap metal. Caitlyn had her completely restrain Jinx, only leaving enough range of movement to breathe and talk.
"Whatcha gonna do?" Jinx asked again. If anything, she looked even more excited.
"Nothing," Caitlyn said, and walked away.
She meant it. She had Vi fetch her some tea and sat on Jinx's couch, sitting still sipping her tea and reviewing case files.
"This isn't working, stupid!" Jinx taunted. Caitlyn sipped her tea and turned a page.
This lasted for hours, with Jinx doing everything she could to get a rise out of Caitlyn and failing. Vi had excused herself and was patrolling outside so as to deny Jinx that avenue of attack- Jinx might as well have been taunting a stone wall.
Finally, Jinx was on her last legs.
"Don't you want to know what I'm up to?" She asked desperately. Caitlyn turned a page.
"Don't you want to know who C is?" Caitlyn was out of her seat instantly, rifle trained on Jinx. She had an entirely different look about her now.
"Tell me or I'll shoot you right now." Jinx grinned.
"If I'm dead, I can't tell you anything." Caitlyn's teeth ground. "And I know you've been chasing C for years. What's it feel like, to have caught every criminal except one? To have failed and failed and failed?"
Caitlyn was a statue, unfathomable.
"And now you have information on C right in front of your you, and you can't get it out of me-" Caitlyn jabbed two fingers into a spot near Jinx's kidney. The air exploded out of her lungs with a cry of pain.
Vi kicked open the door, charging into the room, thinking something had gone wrong. She saw Jinx still restrained.
"I heard a noise," she said.
Caitlyn reached out and pinched a nerve in Jinx's neck. She began to spasm and scream, real pain in her expression.
"Stop!" Vi yelled, and Caitlyn released Jinx's neck. Jinx gasped for breath. Vi grabbed Caitlyn by the arm and brought her aside.
"What the hell are you doing?" She asked quietly. Caitlyn was trembling and her fists were clenched.
"She knows," Caitlyn whispered, her voice tense.
"She's lying." Vi was all for beating the crap out of Jinx, but this wasn't Caitlyn's style and that worried her.
"What if she isn't?" Caitlyn yelled, exploding in anger. "What if she knows!?"
Vi was quiet for a minute.
"Do you remember," she started to ask, very softly, "Our first patrol together?"
"Of course," Caitlyn said, still fuming.
"How we found that informant?"
"What of it?"
"Do you remember what you told me when I wanted to beat it out of him?" Caitlyn stayed silent, knowing full well. "You told me that if we stoop down to their level, we're no better than they are."
Caitlyn sighed and cooled off, her fists slowly unclenching.
"Glad that crisis is over," Jinx put out mockingly. "It's been fun, but I got places to be!"
"What?" Vi and Caitlyn said together, on guard. Jinx took a deep breath and whistled. It echoed around the space, rebounding and eventually fading.
"Okay?" Vi said suspiciously just before the large rhinoceros charged through the wall next to Jinx. The entire wall shuddered and groaned, and Jinx slipped free of her restraints as the wall started to collapse. She did a flip, grabbing her guns from a table and leaped up to the rhino, landing on its back.
She took out a remote and pushed a button. There was a thrum of power, and hidden speakers started playing.
"Oh God," Caitlyn muttered. "It's her song."
"Get Jinxed, ladies," Jinx whooped, and deployed her minigun.
Come on now, shoot faster
Just a little bit of energy yeah
Jinx let loose a hail of bullets and the two dived for cover. She laughed, singing along with her own song.
I wanna try something fun right now,
I guess some people call it anarchy!
She turned the rhinoceros around and charged out, smashing through a building.
Caitlyn looked at Vi.
"Go." Vi took off like a shot, throwing herself at the wall and punching clean through it. She charged her gauntlets to max power and followed the path of the rampaging rhino. Jinx was firing rockets, causing more destruction and setting fires. She was laughing and cheering, in full rampage mode. Vi hurtled a destroyed wall, slamming through another one and cursing the speed of Jinx's rhino.
Caitlyn found her way to a rooftop, taking out her sniper rifle. She calibrated it to perfection, then laid her spare bullets out, one by one, on a handkerchief behind her. She lined up on Jinx's arm and pulled the trigger.
The rhino bucked and the shot missed. Caitlyn loaded another bullet, one of only three spares.
Vi was right behind the rhino now. It was huge- bigger than a lot of the houses it was smashing through, for sure. How had Jinx hidden it in the city?
Vi charged a gauntlet and slammed the ground, launching herself in the air. She landed on the back end of the rhino, fighting to keep her balance.
"Isn't this fun, fat-hands!?" Jinx yelled, noticing her. She deployed pow-pow and fired at Vi, who blocked the bullets with her gauntlets as another shot rang out, missing Jinx's head by inches. Another quickly followed, actually passing through the space between Jinx's ear and her hair. Jinx was unfazed and kept shooting at Vi.
Caitlyn picked up her last bullet-the named bullet. She loaded it and took aim.
"Need a lift?" Said a voice behind her, and Corki emerged. Caitlyn stood up and jumped, grabbing hold of the bottom of his gyrocopter.
Vi lunged at Jinx but was stunned by an electric charge. She saw Caitlyn drop from Corki's copter ahead of them onto and abandoned bell tower and pop up with her sniper and a small laser emerging from it. Vi did a backflip off of the rhino as Jinx turned.
Caitlyn squeezed the trigger and the shot rang true, passing through Jinx's foot and hitting the rhino in the head. It's skull was too thick to kill it, but the rhino fell, sliding forward and demolishing the bell tower. Caitlyn desperately leapt off, watching as the ground got closer.
So this is how it ends.
She closed her eyes and fell.
She heard a yell and felt large hands catch her. She opened her eyes to see Vi, holding her in her gauntlets.
"Caught you," Vi said with a grin. Their eyes locked for a brief moment.
The bell tower crashed into the ground, snapping them out of it. Caitlyn dropped to her feet, slinging her now-useless rifle. Jinx was lying on the ground not too far away, curled up. Caitlyn and Vi approached her, Caitlyn taking out handcuffs.
Jinx suddenly turned and revealed Fishbones, the business end pointed towards them.
"Bye-bye!" Jinx said, blasting off on her rocket. In the air, she curled around to stand on her rocket, surfing on it. She rapidly dwindled into the night.
The snow had stopped falling and the moon was high in the night sky. The crowd from the hockey game would be dispersing, and the aftermath of Jinx would begin.
Caitlyn stretched her back, looking around.
"We've got a lot of work to do," she said. "It's gonna be a long night."
The reconstruction process took the rest of the night to complete. In any other town, a disaster of this scale would have been staggering- in Piltover, it had been- but here, the entirety of the League's resources came into play. The combined power of the League's mages and the sheer brawn of others was able to completely restore the damages done.
Jinx stood on the roof of the League main building, watching it happen from a distance away.
"Why did you do that?" A voice from the shadows asked.
"It was fun," Jinx said brightly. "Besides, look at all of them, now they have something to do. They should thank me."
"There was a death. The family is crying for justice."
"Happens," Jinx dismissed.
"The League will act."
"No they won't," Jinx answered. "I'm a popular person and Zaun wouldn't stand for it."
"Zaun only tolerates you," the voice argued. "And then, only because you piss off Piltover so much."
"And because I'm good."
"Marginally." The voice sounded amused. "Regardless, watch yourself in the future, lest you endanger all of us."
"Don't be silly," Jinx scoffed as she walked toward the edge of the roof. "Nobody knows you exist."
Jinx fell backwards off the roof. There was the sound of a rocket firing, and Jinx was gone.
The sun rose and the shadows parted, revealing nothing.
Here's chapter two, about a week after chapter one! I'm making good time. Anyways, my beta readers inform me that this chapter definitely isn't as good as the first one. This chapter and the next chapter are development chapters- that is, chapters whose events will come into importance later in the story. Leave me reviews about what you liked and didn't like- I read each and every one of your reviews, regardless of whether I reply to them or not.
Enjoy!
-Pikdude