Chapter 18 "Yordles and Visions Part-2"
Kai'sa and Akshan stood firm at the entrance of the city, Sehla watched from a widow in the closest house to them, accompanied by Tai, Tena, and Otto. Everyone else from their parties were doing the same but scattered in different houses around the town entrance. "I have to admit, this is not really my style," Akshan said as the raiding party closed in on their position. "What is your style then?" Kai'sa asked cavalierly. "Sneaking into a place and shooting my way out is more what I usually do," Akshan replied. "Well, just imagine this is that," Kai'sa replied with a giggle.
"Any guess on what kind of weaponry they might have?" Kai'sa asked. "Well, judging by the heavy percentage of metal body part augments, and the fact that I see some guns, probably a mixture of Zuanite and Noxians. Most likely a prison break gang if I had to guess," Akshan replied. "Lovely…" Kai'sa sighed before snapping her helmet shut and charing her gunblades. "Can you see fine through all that," Akshan asked as she was inhaling a deep breath through her mask, readying herself for a fight. "The colors are all different, but yes I can see. I can see heat also, though the hot sand out here does make that part difficult, but beats getting shot in the face." Kai'sa replied. "Don't worry, no one dies when Akshan is around," he charismatically said with a wink.
"Um well… we might need some folks to die soon," Kai'sa replied seriously. She then heard a rumbling approach fast from behind her, "Okay… Everyone is ready!" Taliyah said as she slid over to them on a rock. "Taliyah, go back to the others!" Kai'sa exclaimed. "What, no I'm going to stay and help here," Taliyah replied, ignoring Kai'sa's serious tone. "This is too dangerous, they have guns, and probably a hundred men," Kai'sa explained. "Don't be stupid Kai, We've come this far and I'm not gonna let you fight this without my help," Taliyah replied. "But you hav…" Kai'sa started to respond until Taliyah cut her off with a firm hand gesture. "It's final Kai'sa, I'm staying here, you have no say in it… don't worry, I'll take care of the guns." Taliyah said firmly.
"Sigh… I'll…watch your back…" Kai'sa said through her mask as she watch the bandits stop their horses as they pulled up to the town. "And I'll watch yours," Taliyah replied. "Aww, you too are cute working together," Akshan humored. "Uhg, Shut up and focus please," Kai'sa growled while Taliyah let out a small giggle at Akshan's teasing. They watched as their figures hopped off their mounts and started walking towards them, about thirty others stayed on their mounts and another sixty heavy footmen watched as the three figures walked forward for negotiations. "Hello fellow travelers, what brings you all out here? Must need a lot of water riding on Demacian horses, I'm afraid you won't find that much water here, but I know another town that might." Akshan said diplomatically.
"We're not here for the town's water," a young chap with a mechanical arm said. "We have a business proposal to offer your furry friends," a older man standing beside him said with a menacing tone. The elderly man had a cross made of metal with a lot of gears and contraptions and runic symbols on it that he leaned on like a cane, he fiddled with its gears constantly and as he did, his left mechanical eye changed colors and shape as it studied them all. "We will not allow you to take a single Yurdle for your black market thieves!" Taliyah exclaimed, contrasting Akshan's diplomatic approach. "Hahaha, We don't desire petty things like black market trade, The Glorious Evolution has it's sights on greater plans." The old man explained. "The Glorious Evolution?" Taliyah questioned quietly so only her friends could hear.
"Crazy techno-cultists from Zuan," Akshan replied. "That sounds great…" Kai'sa joked. "If you're greater plans involve hurting people then you will have to take them elsewhere," Kai'sa exclaimed. "Yes! What…She said!" Akshan added, getting him a stink eye from Taliyah. "Who do think you are bug…" The young lad started to yell before a massive figure who stood behind him and the old man stepped forward and raised his hand demanding they step aside. The figure was a massive eleven foot tall robust humanoid robot that had a glass dome in place of a head, inside the dome was the mischievous creature that controlled the imposing contraption. "Is that a kitty cat?" Akshan spit out bluntly. Taliyah started busting out with laughter at the sight of the plushy white cat that was these people's leader.
The creature stood silent and watched with a serious frown as Taliyah had a good laugh until she started to accidentally make the groud shake, which got her to sober up and get control of herself. "You done?" The Cat bluntly said as it stared at them with a judgmental gaze. "OH GREAT WEAVER IT TALKS… AHAHAHA" Taliyah exclaimed as she lost control and started laughing again, enough that even Kai'sa let out a giggle. The Akshah started laughing, his laugh growing in hysteria to a point where it sounded more and more contrived. At a certain point Akshan's laugh became so annoying that the others stopped laughing and just started staring at him, "What! Isn't this a strategy?" Akshan asked as he wondered why they stopped laughing. "Um no I just thought a talking cat in a robot was funny," Taliyah giggled. "Well now I look like a Idiot!" Akshan exclaimed.
"Because You Are A Idiot! THE LOT OF YOU!" The cat exclaimed. "I do not wish to harm anyone here, but the secrets I seek the Yurdles guard closely, so if hostages are required to get them, then so be it!" The cat explained. "Is it the secret of catnip?" Taliyah teased. "Shall we kill them master?" The old man asked. "Not yet, I am Professor Von Yip and I will not let these fools lower me to their simple minded level," Von Yip replied. "I Thought I heard of a famous person by that name, didn't think he was a cat," Akshan said. "I'M NOT A CAT YOU IMBECILE!" Von Yip exclaimed. "He needs to look in the mirror," Taliyah joked quietly to Kai'sa whispering into her ear. "My current appearance is the result of a… scientific accident," Von Yip explained. "How does one accidentally turn themselves into a cat," Akshan asked.
"That doesn't matter, what does matter is that I will do whatever it takes to reverse my accident, and become myself again. And in return for their help, I will share the secrets of bandle magic with the saints of The Glorious Evolution so that they can advance humanity to its true destiny," Von Yip explained. "What makes you think the yordles even have what you're looking for?" Kai'sa asked. "For as far back as written history it is known that the Yordles are experts in transmutational magics. I believe I stumbled into some Yordle runes and that caused my accident. I will come to understand these secrets one way or another and humanity will be better for it, Imagine… the possibilities." Von Yip explained.
"That's all good and well, but I'm afraid you didn't hear her, We're not letting you hurt anyone here," Kai'sa replied. "You of all people should know there can be no progress without pain," The old man said. "If you know who I am, then you should know I'll have no problem killing you first," Kai'sa threatened. "You mistake us for some marauding Noxians or mindless voidlings Hunter, it will be a mistake you will regret." Von Yip replied before turning his back to them to talk with his own group. "Shall we drive them out with the artillery?" Taliyah asked. "I guess we can see what the Yordles can do first," Kai'sa replied. Right away, Taliyah ripped up a small stone and flung it back toward the town, hitting the town's bell firmly giving the yordles the signal.
"Let's give 'em hell boys!" Trissana yelled as she signaled everyone to fire all the small guns, trebuchets, and fireworks they had. A wall of projectiles flew from the town hurtling towards the invaders, the old man fiddled with some gears on his staff until he had the combination of runes he desired, he then planted the staff into the ground as it shot up a beam of blue energy that fanned out into a doom that shielded them completely from the missiles as all the projectiles failed to penetrate the barrier. "Shit, I was hoping they'd be soften up a bit before I had to go in," Kai'sa complained. "Welp, guess it's up to us then, to do the softening," Akshan replied. "Yeah, don't chicken out please," Taliyah said. "Ohhoho, Akshan never chickens out… Tactical retreat…Maybe, but no chickening." Akshan replied.
"Be careful out there," Kai'sa said while giving a nod to Taliyah. "You do the same," Taliyah replied. Immediately after that Kai'sa dashed forward making a crack sound through the air as she blinked to right above Von Yip and his two assistants, she then dropped down on top of them trying to stab them with her energized weapons. Kai'sa gun blade plunged into the dirt as Von Yip deflected her attack with his massive robotic arm, then young punk that stood next to him fired a plasma blast from his prosthetic that struck Kai'sa in the back sending a annoying amount of pain through her body which only served to piss her off as she righted herself and stood back up to face them. "You look you could be of particular scientific research value as well, Voidhunter," The old man said as he charged up his staff to electrocute her. "It's gonna take a lot more than that to stop me," Kai'sa snarled through her mask as her shoulder pods chattered with excitement.
Meanwhile a bunch of the yordles had taken up position on a wall around the town that Taliyah had quickly raised while Tristana, Lulu and a handful of other yordles ran into the battle in front of the wall. Taliyah stood back and knelt down as she felt the earth, she tried to close her mind from sounds of the battle, the occasional battlecry from Kai'sa she found hard to ignore. The best she could she closed her mind and felt all the machinery of the Zuanites that grinded its way over the desert ground, finally she focused on what she wanted to, the larger artillery contraptions that were being dragged into range of the town. Taliyah then gracefully started to dance, her tassels flowing around her peaceful. Her movements seemed so elegant but the look on her face was one of pain and her hands trembled as she tried to maintain focus.
Akshan fired shots rapidly as a group of five marauders charged him, seeing his shots weren't dropping them with their heavy armor he then fired his grappling hook into a boulder that was right beside them and leaped into the air swinging around them while peppering them with a flurry of bullets. Akshan then landed with style as the five scoundrels dropped behind him, "wooo, what the," Aksan said as the ground started shaking so much that it was hard for anyone to stand. Kai'sa who was locked in a fight with Von Yip's two assistants fell to her knees as her opponents did the same as well. Kai'sa then saw the ground rip up in twisted woven patterns of earth in several spots throughout the battlefield, as the ground twisted and crushed all the Zuanites heavy equipment. Taking advantage of the young punk being distracted by the sight of what Taliyah was doing, Kai'sa fired a powerful double cannon blast from her shoulder pods that sent the man flying to the edge of the fight.
"Yeah! LET'S GET EM!" Tristana yelled as they all seemed to be winning handily. Taliyah then slid forward to the front line as she started weaving volley after volley of stones at the enemies. Kai'sa sent a entire load of Icathian rain down upon the old man with the staff as he used all his strength to hold up a forcefield to block the salvo, with the shield weakened, Kai'sa then forced her hand through the shield and grabbed the staff from him, "NOO!" He exclaimed right before she snapped it in two over her knee. "Later Dude!" Tristana said right before she fired one shot that sent the old man also flying to the edge of the battlefield, Kai'sa then looked at Tristana as she thought that was excessive, though Tristana could read her face as her helmet was still closed, so Tristana simply gave her a nod and went back to firing at people.
Kai'sa took a look around and examined the battle, they definitely had the momentum on their side, but they were still heavily outnumbered, if the enemies got their act together and stopped being confused in the fight, she wasn't so sure they could beat them then. "I'm going after the head!" Kai'sa exclaimed, not sure if any of her friends could hear her. Spotting Von Yip out in the crowd giving orders, Kai'sa dashed towards him startling his men that stood guard around him as they surrounded him. "Step back everyone, I'll deal with this one," Von Yip said with his mischievous high pitch voice. "That's a big mistake you made," Kai'sa sneered as he readied into a fighting stance.
With a growl Kai'sa then launched a salvo of Icathian rain all targeting him as he put his massive robotic arms over the glass housing that protected his tiny fluffy feline body. The blast kicked up enough dirt so that neither of them could see well, though it didn't seem to do much damage. A steel bola shot out of the dust from a mechanism in Von Yip's machine, Kai'sa's reflexes snapped into action quickly as she blasted the bola into bits with plasma from her hand, then she noticed a shadow move through the dust and then saw Von Yip about to land on top of her. Her Second skin briefly flashed invisibly on then off, just long enough for her to dodge his attack and reposition.
She then energized her legs with some Void energy allowing her to leap high into the sky above the dust, "HIYYYA!" She yelled as she dropped her right heel into Von Yip's mech's shoulder, denting it heavily with her massive dropkick."Hehehe… all that for a scratch, give up already, what happens here doesn't concern you," Von Yip chuckled as he watch Kai'sa hold her own leg, clearly hurting herself a bit trying to kick him. "I've been fighting for years now…uhg… you think, a little bit of pain is gonna stop me… well I wouldn't hold your breath on me quitting anytime soon," Kai'sa replied to Von Yip, though she was talking to herself as much as anyone.
"Line em up Lulu!" Tristana commanded as she enjoyed the little rampage she was doing with her cannon on rapid-fire as bodies went flying everywhere. "Look out… TRANSFABULATE!" Lulu yelled as a thug got behind them and tried to crush Tristana, fortunately she turned him into a squirrel in time. "Later Chuck!" Tristana teased right before kicking the squirrel out of the battlefield like a ball. "AWW, MY BEST LIFE HAHAHA!" Tristana laughed as she got back to enjoying the carnage. "Comin through!" Akshan yelled as he ran past them running from a few thugs as he peppered them with blasts from his absolver. Akshan then shot his grappling hook into the ground between the legs of one of the thugs then struck the guy's knee with his boomerang causing him to fall down upon the grapple giving it weight to allow Akshan to swing around them while continuously shooting them.
"Huh…That's new.." Tristana said as a bubble of energy that had small wires wrapped around it rolled towards them. "I'll protect you!" Lulu said as she put a shield over Tristana. They stood their ground confident in their shield, but as the bubble hit their shield, both the bubble and the shield popped, allowing the fine mesh of wires to wrap around them both. "AWW CRAP…" Tristana complained as the two of them laid on the ground hamstrung, "can you get us out of this?" Tristana asked. "It's runic iron! I can't do anything!" Lulu replied, as she started to panic. "Hold on, I can almost reach Boomer," Tristana said as she tried to grab her cannon. "Haha no you don't!" A gruff woman said as she picked them up and threw them into a mechanism that resembled a giant vacuum cleaner. "Woah woaah woah!" They yelled until they landed in a glass cage with runic iron mesh keeping them prisoner.
"This will make a nice souvenir for my boy back in Zuan!" The woman said as she picked up Tristana's weapon. Taliyah noticed them and immediately started targeting her volleys at the contraption to break them free, "YOU GOT THIS ROCK LADY!" Tristana yelled as rocks bounced off their cage, some of them leaving dents and small cracks. A guy with a metal shield as big as himself then stood in front of the captive yordles, blocking the rocks like they were nothing as they hit with less and less force every second as Taliyah tired from exhaustion. "Akshan, Help them!" Taliyah yelled as she hit him with a pebble to get his attention while he was fighting. "On It!" He replied as he leaped at the guy with the massive shield, he kicked off of his shield hard enough to make the man lose his balance and fall back onto his butt.
"Haha!" Akshan yelled with joy as he saw an opening now and leaped at the cage holding Tristana and Lulu while holding his boomerang to smash the glass. "Yoink!" The Young punk said as he fired a hook from his hand which grabbed Akshan mid air and pulled him over to him and then electrocuted him till he was passed out cold. "Akshan!" Taliyah yelled with a feeling of guilt that she told him to go in. "Come on you old cat!" Kai'sa spat as she took her helmet off to spit some blood into the dirt as caught her breath for a second. "You fought well, unfortunately you are out of your class," Von Yip said. "LET'S GO EVERYONE, We have what we came for," Von Yip said to all his henchmen.
"What should we do with this one," the woman asked as she plopped Akshan down in front of him. "Leave him be," Von Yip replied. "Let the yordles go, and I'll let you live… this is your last warning…" Kai'sa spoke up as she stood to her feet with look on her face that was as if she was saying " I'm so done with this shit,". "Do you want me to knock you out like your friend? Or maybe I'll bring you in for studying if you insist," Von Yip replied. Kai'sa then snapped her mask on and blasted a powerful void missle from her pods into the dirt in front of Von Yip blinding his vision, she then dashed right in front of him and went for the glass bowl where he was with her energized gunblade. With a super fast reaction time, Von Yip blocked her right arm's swing with his left robotic hand, shattering her weapon from the force she hit his hand with. He then grabbed her upper right arm firmly with his right hand and twisted it behind her.
"GHAAHmmm!" Kai'sa squirmed as she felt her arm snap but desperately tried to maintain some level of control of her pain as he picked her up by her broken arm and then kicked her in the stomach hard enough to send her tumbling a few times. "KAISA!" Taliyah yelled as she sprinted over towards her, "no…please…stay back," Kai'sa said as she could feel she was losing control of her second-skin in this moment of pain, tough her voice was too weak for Taliyah to hear. "Get her," Von Yip said to the young punk as Taliyah ran up to Kai'sa and helped her to her feet. "Tali you have to go," Kai'sa said her voice distorted but even through the distortion of her suit Taliyah could hear the fear in Kaisa's voice. "I'm staying here, it's going to be okay," Taliyah reassured the best she could as she cradled Kai'sa's head. "No, please, I don't feel like myself," Kaisa begged Taliyah to leave as she felt another consciousness populating her mind which made her mind feel hazy.
"You're going to be okay, I'm here, you're going to be okay," Taliyah repeated over and over again as she felt Kaisa's breathing become more and more sporadic. "You're coming with us," the young punk said as he grabbed Kai'sa's broken arm with his one human arm, getting both Taliyah and Kai'sa's attention. "GET OFF US!" Kai'sa snapped with a growl that sounded deeper and less human than ever before as a cluster of tentacles shot out of her arm and pierced the man's flesh, within three seconds all the life was drained from him and he fell dead, looking like a dried shriveled up mummy.
Everyone gasped and an eerie silence fell over the battlefield. Taliyah jumped back and quivered from the sight as she tried to hold back her body's gag reflex from the sight, get off, us… Taliyah thought as she released Kai'sa wasn't talking about her and Kaisa when she said "us". Taliyah then took off running back to the town, both to get the others to come help them, but also because she couldn't bear to watch the carnage unfolding behind her as she heard the screams of the Zuanites as Kai'sa unleashed her full fury at them.
"The Empress's mission awaits," Kaisa heard as she saw the purple eyed prophet standing everywhere around her inplace of all the men that used to be around her. "I'm no one's slave!" Kaisa yelled as she cut down aberrations one after another, her arm now fully healed and feeling healthy from all the energy she absorbed. "You've been a slave for a long time, child… our Empress offers you freedom," the Prophet said. "Ahhg!" Kaisa yelled as she continued to destroy aberrations by the dozens. "Freedom from life is no freedom, it's death, AND I WANT TO LIVE!" Kaisa screamed as unleashed a massive ichathian rain at all the aberrations of the Prophet. "The forces at work are beyond you child, they wait for you in the place you've seen," the Prophet said as Kaisa caught her breath, "enjoy your "Life"" the Prophet teased as all his aberrations started fading away and in place of them all slowly Kaisa saw bodies appear all around her as she noticed the tentacles wrapping her retread back into her body.
Von Yip smashed the cage that was holding Tristana and Lulu and poured them out onto the dirt, they were unconscious from a sleeping gas that was in the cage. He then signaled his men to retreat without having to say a word as no one wanted to challenge them after what Kai'sa had just done. The woman with Tristana's cannon tossed it into the dirt next to them as they all turned their backs to the town and walked away. Kaisa stood paralyzed, removing her mask as she saw the dozens and dozens of corpses that laid in front of her, all dried up like dates left in the sun for weeks. "Reinforcements are on the way! What, they don't wanna fight anymore?" A small blue yordle said riding a mech that looked like it was made out of garbage, as he saw all the Zaunites running away.
Taliyah tried to do everything she could to hold tears back as she and Kaisa locked eyes from across the field, Kai'sa's face was covered in sorrow, her left eye glowed violet purple and her suit seemed to crawl with life more than usual. "Please don't…" Taliyah whispered, knowing it was too much to ask for with how she knew Kaisa had to feel. Kai'sa then whispered something to herself as she turned around and teleported into the distance out of all of their sights. Taliyah felt her heart sink as she dropped to her knees from the pain in her chest from Kaisa doing what she didn't want her to do, though she know it was too much for Kaisa not to run with what she had just done, "I'm sorry two," Taliyah replied knowing it was what Kaisa had whispered.
Hello everyone. I know this chapter is a little shorter than usual but I just felt like this is the proper place to end it before the next chapter.