Chapter Two: Losing Control
Location: Downtown Piltover
It felt as if it happened in slow motion.
In an instant, Vi launched herself forward from underneath the debris, fist first, propelled by a jet stream from the back of her gauntlet, punching straight through the oncoming missile, causing an explosion and landing a massive punch to the strange girl's stomach.
The incredible force from the punch sent the girl flying straight back through a nearby building, and knocked me on to my back.
As the dust dissipated, it revealed the strange girl lying on her back, moaning and cradling her stomach.
Wow, it's amazing that she even survived a punch like that, how is she still conscious? I thought.
Vi turned around to face me. I expected her to pick me up by my collar and yell in my face, but instead, she calmly asked, "Are you okay?"
Here was this rugged, muscular woman who seemed to have a problem with just about everything I do, calmly asking me if I'm the one who's okay, after I made a mistake that could have cost us both our lives. I was speechless.
Suddenly, I heard I ZAP from a distance, and Vi arched her back as she flew forward, landing right on top of me. Sparks flew in every direction out of her armor, burning my skin as I could do nothing but painfully watch her suffer. The only thing she had the strength to do was to hold herself up on her hands and knees.
"Geez, Fat-Hands. You pack more of a punch than I thought!"
"Y-You b-b-bitch!" Vi exclaimed while fighting off the electricity flowing through her body.
Suddenly, images of the black-hooded figure from my previous dream started flowing through my head again.
The young girl readied her zapping pistol for a second shot.
"Th-Th-That's a Z-Z-Z-Zaun Military-G-G-Grade Z-Z-Z-Zapping Pistol. W-W-Where did y-y-y-you g-get th-th-that?"
I saw the hooded figure and I side by side, both of us casting some sort of spell on a target. The target was having symptoms similar to what was happening to Vi. The spell seemed to dissipate the symptoms, and the target began to move freely. My vision phased back to reality.
"None of your business Fat-Hands! Now stay STILL! I'm trying to shoot you!"
Without any knowledge of whether it would work or not, I decided to try to cast what I saw in my vision. However, Vi was too close for me, so I had no room to cast the spell. Without thinking, I forced my hands upward…right into her chest. Attempting to cast the spell on her, I closed my eyes, fearing Vi's reaction. After a slight delay, she stopped shaking and twitching. I let go of her and slowly opened my eyes, expecting to see Vi's furious face, staring daggers back at me, but instead, I saw her blushing, unable to look me in the eye, biting down hard on her lower lip.
"Uh…um…" I managed to squeak out, my voice cracking a little bit.
The strange girl looked shocked. This was the first time since I met her where I didn't see a grin on her face. After a moment, she began smiling again.
"How touching. Pun TOTALLY intended!" the girl said, laughing.
Furiously, Vi charged her gauntlet a second time, and let loose another earthshattering punch towards the girl, but she was ready for it this time, and swiftly dodged it, tossing down two grenades that resembled an animal's head.
The grenades began chomping wildly, and before either of us could react, they exploded beneath our feet. My ears rang and my leg muscles grew stiff, planting my feet on the ground. I looked over at Vi, who was experiencing the same symptoms.
When the ringing in my ears faded, I heard a voice shouting,
"Be right back! No one die screaming without me!"
I looked up to see the girl sprinting around the corner, in the direction of the treasury. I soon began to regain movement and began chasing after the girl, with Vi in pursuit behind me as well. She began shouting into her radio.
"Caitlyn come in! We are in pursuit of the target! She is headed towards the Piltover Treasury from the west side!"
"What do you mean 'pursuit'? Is the civilian safe?"
"Uh…no. He's actually running ahead of me."
"God DAMN IT Vi! Can't you just follow orders for once?!"
"Things got out of hand and she managed to find us first! It was out of my control! I can't do anything about it now, so just bring a few bloody squad cars to the treasury and we can try to block her off!"
"Ugh…ten-four. We'll be there in a few. At least try to protect the civilian until we arrive!"
"Got it. Over and out."
Explosions started to light up the black, smoke-filled sky again. I began to sprint towards the treasury as fast as I could, although I had no idea what I would do when I arrived there.
I heard a short POW behind me, but it didn't sound like a bomb or missile explosion. I looked up and saw Vi with a jet propelled fist land about twenty feet in front of me with an earthshaking slam as her fist hit the ground, cracking the asphalt beneath us. She began sprinting at an incredible speed, one with which I could never even hope to keep up with.
By the time I arrived at the treasury, Vi was standing over a pile of rubble. The gold vault was still in tact, fortunately. About four squad cars and twelve officers surrounded the pile of steel frames and burnt, melting steel plates. With all the damage that was done, the girl must have decided to leave the safe on purpose for whatever reason.
I found Vi and Caitlyn looking up at a message written with lights in a gaping hole in the Piltover Skyline. It read, You'll never catch me, Fat-Hands.
This would have been the first time I'd ever seen Caitlyn in person. She looked beautiful. She wasn't wearing her signature purple top hat that people always associate her with, however. She wore a short, purple dress with brown stripes traveling from top to bottom, and leather belts around her ribs underneath her breasts, around her shoulders, waist, and thighs. On her feet was a pair of knee-high brown leather boots with gold buckles, and over her shoulder was a custom-made techmaturgical Piltovian rifle, passed down to her by her father, the head of state, who was also a pioneering hextech researcher. Caitlyn's rifle fired four different kinds of shots; a normal shot, a bladed spread-shot, an expanding 90 caliber net, and finally, a massive exploding shot which traces its target from a distance of 3000 feet, providing its path is unobstructed. This explosive round causes massive recoil, and has seriously injured Caitlyn before, which is why she only keeps about 5 shells of it with her at all times.
Panting and out of breath, I made my way over to where Caitlyn and Vi were standing. They seemed to be arguing.
"If you had just listened to me instead of taking orders with a grain of salt like you always do, we would have had a chance to not only save the civilian, but capture our target as well!
"She engaged me! What was I supposed to do? Run away?! You know I can't back off from a fight! That's not who I am, Caitlyn!"
"You need to let some of that hot air out of your head and start doing your job right! Need I remind you that you're part of the force because I allowed it?! If it weren't for me, your ass would be rotting in jail right about now!"
Noticing the tears streaming down Vi's face, Caitlyn let out a sigh, trying to calm herself down. She lowered her voice and spoke to Vi in a more relaxed tone.
"Listen. I'm well aware of how hard your childhood was, but the fact still remains that Jinx escaped because you disobeyed orders and entered the crime scene to rescue the civilian without backup."
Jinx. That was the name of the girl. Jinx. The name sounded so familiar to me. Yet I knew nothing about this mysterious girl or where she came from, but that name…for some reason was burned into my brain…
Jinx.
"If you can't learn to follow orders from a superior, then she will completely destroy Piltover. Please Vi, for the sake of the people, quit placing yourself on a pedestal and think before you act."
Having believed she said enough, Caitlyn placed her hand on Vi's shoulder and walked off, leaving her behind.
"This'll be one hell of an afternoon of paperwork…let's get going Jayce." Caitlyn said to the man behind her as she returned to her squad car.
With a sigh of depression, Vi unbuckled her massive hextech gauntlets, letting them drop to the floor with a loud BAM, and proceeded to remove the rest of her body armor, revealing a skin-tight, navy blue body suit.
I carefully approached her, noticing that her gauntlets were off, thinking to myself, I was right, her hands are very delicate. I spoke softly to her as she massaged her wrists.
"Listen. I know I don't know much about your childhood or your relationship with Caitlyn, but I just want to tell you that, even though Caitlyn is right, that doesn't change what you tried to do for me."
Vi looked up at me with bloodshot eyes, her battle-hardened face soaked from her tears.
"You went in knowing full well that you might not make it back alive, just to rescue me, an innocent civilian who happened to wander in here by mistake. All I did was make it harder and harder for you to get back to safety, and you still stuck with me all the way through, and that was the most admirable act I've ever seen. From the bottom of my heart, Vi…thank you. I will never forget you."
A noticed a small smile creep on to her tear-stained face, which made me smile too. As I turned to walk back home, Vi stepped toward me and put her hand on my shoulder, and before I had a chance to turn around myself, she spun me around and pressed her muscular, yet gentle body against my own.
She looked up at me with a smile on her face, and yet, even with her reddened, bloodshot eyes, and her tear-covered face, I had never seen her more beautiful than right now, in this moment.
We both began slowly leaning in, and as our faces inched closer, I could feel both our hearts begin to beat faster and faster, our bodies pressing against each other more and more…until our lips locked.
In that instant, it was as if time had stood still, our bodies hot with passion, and the space between them so small that even the thinnest strand of hair was unable to pass through us.
Unable to keep our hands off of each other, I placed my right hand on her perfectly shaped waist while locking my left hand with her right hand.
As if she was craving to press herself even closer to me, she took a step toward me with her left leg, brushing her inner thigh up against my right leg, as if to wrap herself around me.
The passion seemed to radiate off of us as our lips synchronized, pushing and pulling at each other's tongues until suddenly…it ended.
It was her who pulled away first. Even though the kiss ended, our bodies were still tangled up with each other, as if the world would suddenly come to an end if we were to let each other go.
Vi laughed and joked, "I guess Vi does stand for 'vice'. I don't even know your name yet 'ya jerk."
"My…name? Uh…I don't…I don't have one…"
"What? How can you not have a name? Everyone has a name!"
"If I was given a name, I don't remember it…"
Suddenly the image of the black-hooded figure entered my mind again. It said something to me, though I couldn't make out most of it. It said, "….born…rift…"
I suddenly passed out in Vi's arms and collapsed. When I came to, I was at home, in my bed, with a letter sitting on my bed-side table that read:
"I'm sorry, but I can't stay to help you recover,
Because I need to get back to work. Unfortunately
Working for Caitlyn is a full time job, but I'll check
Back on you tomorrow to make sure you're doing
Okay.
Love,
Vi
P.S. You told me how to get to your house in your sleep,
I don't know if this is your real house, but I didn't want
To leave you out in the open with an out of control criminal
Running around out there. Try to get a restful sleep so you
Don't get sick the next time we meet up.
I looked at the clock across from my bed. 7PM, I thought, what a day.
My head suddenly felt as if it were about to split open, so I clutched my forehead in pain.
God damn it, I thought, I need water, now.
I slowly and painfully moved to the sink to pour myself a glass of water, when I realized the chair in front of my television was occupied.
"Oh, hey Vi. You're pretty early, I didn't think you were showing up until tomorrow."
I began pouring the water into the glass and said, "Other than this splitting headache I have, I'm doing fine. You got the right house by the way."
I downed the glass of water and turned around…but it wasn't Vi in that chair.
"I'm trying to care…I just…can't," the person said.
I dropped the glass on to the floor, shattering it, "Who's there?!" I shouted. It was too dark to see properly.
"Jinx. Stands for Jinx," said Jinx, grinning from ear to ear.
End of Chapter Two.