VI & CAITLYN
Vi roamed a bit from one point to the other as she waited for the newly appointed acting Sheriff to arrive, a bit angry at that. It wasn't enough of her having to drag on their very first run, days before, at the Lanes, clearly inexperienced with the 'scenic route' that Vi relished running after years in Stilwater - the Cupcake was a Piltie, after all - and now she had decided, of her own will, to take the more risky route.
The risky route that just landed in an upper catwalk section, overlooking the Lanes, and opened it's doors after a slow descent as Caitlyn and a couple walked out, both in different directions, with Caitlyn, in subtle civilian clothing according to her partner-given 'alias', heading to the new 'deputy' Enforcer, already sporting her 'office material' in clear sight.
"You've any idea the amount of eyes there are in these things, just itching to tell Sevika we're headed to her door?", Vi nodded to the elevator. "For real, you lost your mind?"
"I thought 'too risky' was more your style.", Caitlyn replied, glancing at Vi's gauntlets. "Besides, I've had a decade's worth of thrills to go down 'your way', all over again."
Vi couldn't help but let out a snicker at that. "Of course.", she said. "Can't have our sweet new Sheriff get hurt on her first day, right?"
"Well, who's lost it, now?", Caitlyn censored, angry. "Go ahead, let everyone know who we are and what we're gonna do! You talk of the elevator, but you're walking with those on, Sevika's henchmen will see us approaching from a block's distance!"
"Let'em.", Vi replied, casually, glancing at her gauntlets as well. "These are for everyone else."
"What, like a message?", Caitlyn asked, in irony. "Please, just move along, never mind the big metal hands or whom they're being used on?"
"That's actually better than I thought...", Vi mused, to which Caitlyn rolled her eyes. "Look, just keep it cool. Long as we get in, get the info, and get out, all in a glance, we'll be fine."
"Better run like you're hoping so.", Caitlyn commented. "Just remember what Councillor Medarda said."
"Beatdowns only.", Vi recalled. "I'm surprised she's at least let something."
"Better get to it, then.", Caitlyn said. "Not bright overstaying here, just us on our own."
Vi nodded, moving casually past Caitlyn. "On me, Matilda.", she said.
The duo walked past the catwalks, observing a bit of the life at the street below. The movement was slightly lighter than usual, giving further credence to some previous hearsay topside Vi heard, which Sevika did hunker down by the Last Drop bar and nightclub the night the Council exploded. That, and another one which related to some fight in Zaun's streets amongst some Chem-Thugs, arguably of Silco's outfit - now Sevika's - and gangs of Chem-Punks, which gunfire and even reports that Jinx herself was present.
That alone was more than enough reason to warrant a return to that place that once felt like home for Vi, until that day and that cannery. By then, plus all the years in prison, that home suddenly didn't feel like home, but a perverted facsimile of one, which only brought her painful memories.
By then, as with everything from the past decade, Vi could only soldier on. And punch through.
As the lady couple descended the stairs, they noticed someone amidst the passing population, shouting at the top of their lungs. Apparently someone bald and shriveled, only in brown-ish overalls and too pale, apparently preaching on some religious figure, in a quite vivid way.
"His arrival will cleave these lands, far more than the excavations performed by the leechers the Barons are!", the man shouted. "And as he ascends to such a wicked-ridden world, all shall-"
His head was hit by a can, thrown by a nearby group that clearly expressed their opinion on his preaching, taking a snicker at what they did, amongst some groans of 'shut up!'.
"Enough years in prison, you almost forget what city life is like...", Vi commented.
"One of those Dreadnought preachers, uttering about his divine figure.", Caitlyn replied. "What the Dredge will do to people..."
"The what?", Vi asked.
"Dredge. A mine opened up about five years ago.", Caitlyn answered. "The Chem-Barons turned it into a penal colony of their own. If the tales are true, it makes Stilwater a vacation resort-"
"Hey, you!", a voice called from behind both Vi and Caitlyn, turning to witness a man in his forties in simple clothing, scruffy face and messed hair, walking to them and pointing to Vi. "Yeah, you, you're the girl of the big, fat metal hands, aren't you?"
Vi subtly looked at Caitlyn, clearly a trouble they didn't need, right now, and then back at the pointing man, looking with a mixed look between an angry man, a man pleased to see her here, and someone apparently in a long overdue pain. "Might look like...", Vi answered, showing some measure of control, though in a subtle warning tone.
"Oh, not might look like...", the man replied, in an almost too satisfied tone. "Pink hair, tattooed face, the big hands, it's definitely you.", he then started raising his tone, opening his arms in an ironic smile. "Guess that's her! She's the one, apparently!"
Vi, baring her teeth in anger, walked some steps forward before Caitlyn grabbed her shoulder, a direct warning to not start any trouble. "Yeah, guess you found me.", she hissed, pissed. "What is it, huh? Gold, a favor?"
Caitlyn started noticing some more people locking eyes on her, dreading what's started going on. She then noticed a couple whispering to each other. Another calling someone down the street, as they also started staring at the brewing scene.
"Trying to guess what I want, huh?", the man started, amused. "That's so, you'll have a lot of people around here to have to guess what they want. Been quite some time away from home, wasn't it... Vi, is that it?"
Vi's blood froze, though she made an effort to not show it, though her muscles slightly twitched.
"Oh, we heard your name.", the man continued. "As some interesting things as well. Your sister Jinx's quite famous around here, did you know that?"
Vi's metal gauntlet started to clench. "And what do you know?", she asked, in a threatening tone.
Caitlyn started noticing, her heart racing further, the amount of people starting to gather in a circle, suddenly all circulation stopping on that street, like a clot in a vein.
"Oh, how you used to run with her, of course.", the man continued, a sign of anger starting to brew. "How you always got into trouble... How you trained her. And your sister did use her skills quite well, didn't she!? Like on my daughter, for an instance!"
Vi's eyes drifted briefly away from the man, noticing the crowd forming consistently, eyes as unfriendly as they looked. She didn't have to move her head or her eyes to sense her partner was as too uneasy as well. "Whatever it was she did, with your daughter-", Vi started, trying to choose the words carefully.
"Whatever it was!?", he shouted, angrily. "You dare call shooting her head at the dinner table 'whatever it was'!?"
"She did it under Silco.", Vi attempted to elaborate.
"Of course she did, and he's gone!", the man continued, as if it were nothing. "But she isn't, yet! And she didn't learn those things on her own, did she!?"
"I didn't-", Vi attempted replying before the man suddenly punched her gut. The sudden strike nearly threw her off balance and brought her self-control to near the breaking point.
"Eleven years old!", the man started, in pain and anguish. "The most innocent face this place could've ever granted me, and the thing I most see on my sleep now is her pretty face, with a hole on the middle!"
"Hey, that's enough now!", Caitlyn warned, in an attempted polite tone, stepping right besides Vi. "Let's all settle it, calmly."
"Oh, of course, that too!", the man started, pointing at Caitlyn. "The Piltie you're always walking with, now. Even living topside!"
Caitlyn noticed the crowd mumbling to each other, nodding to each other, faces getting hardened all about.
Vi herself stared at the man, trying to control her breath. "For your sake...", she growled. "You'd better shut up..."
The man chuckled, shaking his head. "You know, I don't get it...", he started. "You're born here, but you're with the butchers! You've working with them, and even let your kid sis loose as a killing machine on the rest of us? What is it about here you hate so much!?"
"Enough!", Caitlyn warned. "Stop it, right now, or I'll bring you in!"
The man simply stared at both girls for a while, before letting his breath out. "Fuck it...", he murmured as he charged at them, letting out a shiv he was carrying with him.
Vi was fast, this time, and grabbed the man's arm, sporting the Atlas gauntlet, which started putting on the pressure at the man's arm, making him start to scream in pain, enough to drop the shiv, but Vi still kept going, .
"I warned you, didn't I!?", she shouted, before she curled the other gauntlet into a fist, punching the man as she released his arm, sending him flying to a group of people in the back, hitting them.
Vi took a breather, closing her eyes, as did the gauntlets as they vented off. At least, if anything, she needed a bit of that relief.
"So it looks like it is true!"
Vi opened her eyes on instinct, caught off-guard, again, staring at the crowd, all staring with her with increasingly hostile faces.
"All of it!", a woman shouted, pointing a finger at her. "Jinx is really your sister!"
"And you teached her, didn't you!?", another one, a one-eyed man in his thirties, shouted. "She did learn quite well, didn't she!?", he pointed at his scarred eye.
"My home got torched!", another man vented his anger off. "Along with my wife's hair!"
"What of the bar I used to work at!?", another man amongst the crowd asked. "Twelve years of history, all gone to those monster grenades! To then become a den of Shim junkies, later!"
"Our entire neighborhood shot up by her!", the first woman shouted. "My father can barely walk now, hasn't even the strength to hold to the crutches!"
"My kid got caught in her explosions too!", an older, mature man, protested. "He can barely eat, now, and both his friends are now dead!"
"She took MY sister bare naked and shot her in the middle of the street!", another woman roared. "Your sister! Shot mine!"
Vi's heart raced, as the Fissurefolk, all faces now in animal anger, roared the charges done by the once innocent girl, callously left behind amidst fires and rain, by one's grief, left out of control. All shouting at Vi, feeling what was but a glimpse of what she apparently delivered her sibling. The feeling of those words Vi spouted following the debacle of Vander's rescue attempt now felt more palpable than ever, now feeling herself at the receiving end.
'Why did you leave me?'
And Vi didn't know how to react to it. That's what made her nervous. She now knew what Jayce was talking about, up there.
'Because you're a jinx! You hear me!? Mylo was right about you!'
"YOU DID THIS!", the first woman roared. "YOU DID THIS TO ALL OF US!"
"YOU WITH THEM, NOW!", another one in the crowd roared. "TRAITOR!"
"You're fucking dead!", another voice shouted, as Vi saw a man amidst a crowd point a sidearm.
It all happened in a matter of seconds.
The man pointing the gun at Vi and she noticing it at the near last instant, noticing the raging killer intent.
A gunshot fire.
The muzzle flying besides Vi's right face and flying straight to the man.
The muzzle hitting the man's shoulder, making him pull backwards and fall to the ground, amidst the crowd, caught off-guard.
Everyone in the crowd turned to see the collapsed man to the ground, a hole on his shoulder, blood coming out of it. The sidearm still on his hand.
Vi, instead turned to where the muzzle came from. It didn't take her much effort to identify the still smoking gun. As did everyone else.
Caitlyn. The Cupcake. The acting sheriff. With her rifle on two hands, breathing heavily. It was clear her instincts spoke first.
Vi knew Caitlyn was an excellent shot.
And now, everyone knew.
It only took a roar and one starting to charge for everyone else to follow.
Vi was faster though, and pulled to Caitlyn's side, engaging the one little edge she had with those gauntlets, the very one which saved her life at the Last Drop. For many in Zaun didn't know that the Hextech gemstones powering the gauntlets did more than just power it's anti-gravitational field that allowed such big, heavy metal hands to be held aloft like a plume.
The spheres themselves had some tricks of their own.
But now many on that crowd knew, as the blue energy bubble surged, shielding Vi and Caitlyn from the crowd above, which paused from a moment when witnessing the sudden appearance of the shield, but then still advanced regardless. It was clear to the crowd the 'sister' and the Piltie couldn't move while that shield was still up, so it made sense for them so surround it.
If there was any sense to a lynching mob wanting to let out all the pains Jinx caused on every Zaunite or their relative, that is.
While Vi kept her cool and concentration to keep the shield up, Caitlyn couldn't help but notice the savage nature of her aggressors It was something frightening to behold, especially for a Piltovan, too used to civilization, despite that, for all accounts to science, humans were still an animal species, and the raging Trenchers clearly were attestation to that evidence. It seemed clear to her there was more to them than just the pains they felt, it seemed like the years of all the misery, exploration and lack of care that Piltover gave them are finally erupting, regardless if there'd ever be a manic girl and a rocket launcher to fire at the Council or not.
Caitlyn did want to do or say something about that, but she knew much from her situation at the moment - the crowd wouldn't want to listen. To say they were threatening a Sheriff would only fuel the fires. And more shots wouldn't do much, even more now that hers sparked the masses into the 'kill or be killed' stance.
Vi saw the crowd was all too focused on the shield, and knew this was her chance. She forced the gauntlets to break the shield, which it burst away with a bit more repulsing strength then it did when she faced Sevika. But then, she only had one gauntlet at that fight, the other put out of commission by Silco's lieutenant's blade. Now she had both of them, as intact as if they were brand new, except for the paint in the gauntlets which reminded Vi of her... sister.
And thus, the shield bursting away did send the crowd, around a circle, flying away and backwards in a small direction, many of them hitting those behind them, all collapsing to the ground, having lost their balance.
Vi saw the crowd was down. She saw the window was open and wouldn't waste it.
"MOVE!", she roared, grabbing Caitlyn and yanking her forward, the acting Sheriff taking the message and starting to run with her, across the street, where she wasted no time, as many started to get up and start the chase, to get a nearby automobile and use it to block the alley entrance she came through, cutting off her pursuers.
It wouldn't stop the mob from circling around though, which was why Vi and Caitlyn had to run, especially to another elevator - the one behind them was already blocked off by the crowd and they couldn't afford being surrounded again. Reaching another elevator would give them the chance to go upwards and push through to the bridge, back to Piltover and the enforcers guarding it.
It was at that time which Vi wished she really had one of those flying boards her friend Ekko and his Firelights used, that definitely would've avoided all this. They would've even be able to fly towards the Last Drop, avoiding most troubles.
But then, neither she nor Caitlyn ever asked to loan any from him, since they last saw each other at the bridge exchange debacle.
The Sheriff and the enforcer came off the alley right as those from the chasing mob came around the block's corner, immediately spotting them, pointing fingers at the duo and shouting whom they were. It became more and more complicated as they crossed the street into the next alley, as people whom noticed starting ditching whatever it was they were doing and joining the chase, and even a nearby gang of Chem-Punks laying by heard the roar and noticed the lady couple running towards them to engage. Vi immediately noticed them attempting to block the way and immediately punched her way through them, as it was already past the point of no return to mediate things, the advancing mob, like a swarm, moving after them being quite the incentive.
As they reached the end of that second alley, Vi and Caitlyn came across another gang of Chem-Punks whom got in the way, one of them whom had a gun and was also pointing at them. Caitlyn's instincts, now in full awareness, kicked in as she fired the round to wound the gunner at his shoulder, making him drop his sidearm, all the while Vi piled through. She also waited for Caitlyn to pass before she got a nearby dumpster and flipped and punched it towards the pursuing mob, knocking them back momentarily.
Vi and Caitlyn then came across the next street, where they started running past the pedestrians that didn't recognize them yet.
"Where to!?", Caitlyn asked, panting from all the running.
"Next alley, Jericho's place isn't far!", Vi answered.
"The fish food vendor?", Caitlyn asked.
"Best place to-", Vi started.
"IT'S HER! THE SISTER!", someone roared from behind, as people once standing at the street started going after them as well, with the rest of the crowd, forcing Caitlyn to fire her rifle upwards, in an attempt to scare off anyone caught unaware and the chaos to hold back any pursuers. The shot and it's noise did perform it's work, sending indeed a number scrambling amidst the street, back to their homes and businesses for their lives, but others attempted joining the pursuit, to the point of attempting to cut off the escape of the girl with two big fat hands and her cupcake.
Amongst them was a male, an apparent gang member, with a prosthetic mechanical arm almost similar to Sevika, with the exception it had a smaller blade, but instead of moving in to attempt a kill, he slinged his arm forward where the blade was launched, revealing a chain linking the blade's pommel to the arm and the blade flew at an almost bullet-like speed towards the girl pair's direction.
The blade hit Caitlyn in the right shoulder, making her cry in some pain, as Vi, whom saw it, advanced with a fury rarely seen in a woman and grabbed the ganger's arm, punching him once in the face, yanking the chain to pull the blade off Caitlyn whom shouted again, and then grabbed the mechanical arm to bash the ganger on the ground before tossing him to the mob, unleashing a feral roar.
"MOVE IT!", Vi screamed, heading leftside to an alley as Caitlyn followed her, and Vi took a nearby pair of dumpsters, putting them one atop the other to barricade the passage, as they ran off along the alley to a pair of doors as the way ahead led to the next street.
Vi approached one of the doors, heart beating fast and ventilating, as she took off one of the gauntlets and used her human hand to knock on the door, rather banging instead. There was no apparent answer at first.
"Jericho!", Vi cried out, looking to her left, to where she and Caitlyn came from, as Caitlyn rested a hand on her wound left by the ganger, also taking a breath. The breathing room wouldn't last long, though, and they both knew it. "Jericho, open the door! Jericho!"
Vi looked to the left again, and then the right, to the other street, before she heard the noise of the peephole open up.
Vi's eyes locked the peephole, though she could barely see Jericho within them. "Jericho, please, we need to crash in for a few hours.", she said. "Until the coast is clear, let us in, please."
However, nothing happened.
"Jericho, open the door!", Vi pleaded. "It's mem Vi, the girl you love serving, open the door, please! Please, Jericho!"
The peephole shut, but nothing came after. A loud noise was heard from where Vi barricaded the dumpsters.
"Vi!", Caitlyn called, yet Vi waited, in vain apparently. The young girl banged the door again.
"Jericho!", Vi shouted, banging at the door non-stop. "Jericho, please, don't do this! JERICHO!"
"Vi, we gotta go, NOW!", Caitlyn roared at Vi, as more loud noises were heard. The barricade, if it didn't collapse already, was about to.
Vi only roared in anguish in frustration, tears almost falling out of her, she couldn't believe even the most friendly of all wouldn't do anything for her. Vi immediately wore the gauntlet she took off and then headed the way off with Caitlyn following her, rifle in hand, fighting the pain of her wound. As they went off the alley, they could see some groups already running towards them, so both girls headed into yet another alley, but not before Vi immediately headed to a nearby automobile, grabbed it and barricaded the alley they entered as well, all the while Caitlyn shot a Chem-Punk whom was present and tried advancing and tried fighting off the other two before Vi could grab Caitlyn and yank her to behind the enforcer, as Vi single punched both remaining Chem-punks, sending them flying away.
As they exited the alley, they noticed an elevator, but also that, apart from that street being totally deserted, they weren't alone.
There were enforcers on the scene. Up to seven or eight, but they definitely weren't the usual enforcer.
They sported weapons of a definite irregular caliber for a patrolman, including machine guns and shotguns, and all wore some makeshift body armor as their uniforms seemed vandalized on purpose, with crimson, blood-ish red painted all over.
Vi and Caitlyn didn't have to ask whom those people were, they met them on the precinct long before they either used that uniform or wielded those guns, obviously 'confiscated'. And now those people were looking at the arrived, fatigued couple.
"Well, so that's what the muzzle was all about...", the greeting voice, a female Ironhand, walked from the center of the group, smiling.
"Colleen.", Caitlyn replied, trying to control her breath. "Not a good time."
Colleen noticed the Kiramman youngling's wound on her shoulder, apparently fresh. "For you, but for me...", she mused. "Took long enough for you to get a real taste of enforcement. Too long, really. Always wondered what color you mommy girls bleeded..."
That comment heated up Caitlyn's bloodstream. "Say that again!", she said, attempting to advance before Vi barred her.
"Hey!", Vi shouted to stop Caitlyn, glancing at her and at the Ironhands for a brief moment. Even one as weary, tired and hotheaded as Vi could see some sense to not face a group of well armed people, despite her skills and gauntlets. Especially with such a pressing matter closing in on them at any second.
The act only made Colleen let out a chuckle. "Such a richy bitch that the Trencher girl has to hold your leash...", Colleen said. "Understandable, though... Pity you're still with the wrong side."
"Just let us go, okay?", Vi said, glancing at the elevator.
Colleen shrugged, especially as she, the Ironhands around her and Vi and Caitlyn could hear the approaching sounds of a mob, smiling. "You can try, fissure rat...", she commented, coldly, as the Ironhands reasserted their grip on their weapons, as if expecting the eventual trouble.
"You know how much heat you'll get from opening up on enforcers?", Caitlyn asked, angry. "Let alone the Sheriff?"
Colleen paused, before she started laughing. "Sheriff, you?", she asked. "As if rank means anything, now... Go-go-Talis really went political, didn't he? Or was it Couch-illor Medarda?"
"We don't want this...", Vi warned, grinding her teeth, tightening her grip on the gauntlets as Caitlyn cocked her rifle. The sounds of the mob were growing higher.
"Oh, don't worry, you already have your own plate.", Colleen mocked. "I didn't say we'd fight you."
Colleen then suddenly took her shotgun and fired at the elevator's line, the shell's shots damaging the track a bit, but cutting the line "I said, 'you can try'.", she said, letting out a wicked smile as Vi and Caitlyn's jaws dropped at the nerve of such an act. "Gents!", she called, as the Ironhands went and followed her, exchanging glances of defiance and disrespect to Caitlyn as they left the couple to their devices.
A temper rose in Vi to charge Colleen and her group, but Caitlyn grabbed her shoulder to stop her. "Vi, don't!", the Sheriff urged. "Look at what's coming, can't be worth it!"
Vi glanced at Caitlyn for a moment, having to groan in both agreement and frustration. She saw the mob's initial folk come across a nearby road and head towards them, the original plan was already in shambles thanks to everyone somehow unearthing the connection between Vi and Jinx, just as Jayce foretold. To not mention it also was against Medarda's orders to not engage the Ironhands, especially in plain sight of the Lanes' population, but she didn't care for that one.
"We're gonna have to climb the rope!", Vi said, as she took the gauntlets off while Caitlyn holstered her rifle back, Vi tossed a gauntlet to the Sheriff, heading to climb the top of the elevator to grab the torn cable and start the climbing process,, with Caitlyn right behind her. The rope climb would be one to not be as forgotten made more difficult by each of them holding a gauntlet, which both demanded extra effort from their bodies and more time to climb. All the while, the mob after Vi and Caitlyn managed to surround the elevator, with some trying to chase them by the rope, while others fueled the fire by shouting to either get them or uttering expletives related to being with enforcers, betraying the fissurefolk or, the relationship with Jinx, and a few prepared their illegal sidearms to fire, in hopes wounding them and bringing them down.
Meanwhile, another part went across another street to attempt to cut the pair of girl enforcers off, only to come face to face with Colleen's group, heavily armed and that now lined up, weapons in hand and predatory looks on their faces. That mob segment stuttered for a moment before attempting to advance, hoping strength in numbers would suffice.
"Time to take a new census, gentlemen!", Colleen exclaimed in satisfaction as she opened fire with the shotgun at the crowd, and the rest followed, letting out with their illicit weaponry on the folk whom came to know what the Ironhands were capable of just too late. Shotgun shells and machine gun muzzle fire flew towards the crowd indiscriminately, hitting whatever they could of the masses, many grievously wounded or already dead, with the wounded getting executed by one of the Ironhands.
The mob's charge turned into a scattering one, turning away to run for their lives. And still the Ironhands didn't pause their fire, letting out their ammunition into anything moving ahead of them. An Ironhand let out a grenade amidst the group, which exploded, catching a few on the run. The Ironhands simply kept on their way, marching on, shooting on sight, even causing destruction as the grenadier threw another grenade, this time indoor to a nearby commerce.
On their climb, Vi and Caitlyn heard all the fire caused by the deserting enforcers, stopping their climb and briefly witnessing in horror the indiscriminate brutality the supposed police force of both Topside and Undercity delivered, and they couldn't do anything, there and then, to stop it. All this violence to what Vi and Caitlyn understood were grieving people whom didn't deserve that. One that only confirmed Vi's worst fears, as the Ironhands' deeds only served to further escalate the conflict, making the wounds since the historical violent failed rebellion at the bridge, almost two decades ago, grow deeper.
Exactly as Vander warned, back then.
That sight delivered her to back in those days, much before that fateful night at the cannery. But then the enforcers under Grayson, and then Marcus, didn't tear into the people of Zaun like the Ironhands were doing.
But then gunshots and muzzles hitting the elevator shaft, almost hitting both Vi and Caitlyn, as the remaining mob that wasn't intercepted by Colleen's butcher line fired sidearms and illicit weapons at the shaft.
"GO! MOVE IT!", Caitlyn roared this time, as Vi and Caitlyn continued, though several muzzles from the gunfire below ricocheted at everywhere they hit at the shaft. Vi never imagined anything like this, especially ending up like this, hence the factor that gave her strength to keep pulling, with Caitlyn following, both hearts racing, adrenaline on their veins unlike any day they had.
Suddenly, a stray bullet happened to hit Vi at her right thigh, getting her by surprise and making her yelp in pain as she nearly lost balance and let loose of the cable.
"VI!", Caitlyn cried, getting Vi's attention as the pink-haired roared in pain, turning it into the motivator and energy to continue climbing the cable, as the shot muzzles couldn't hit either and were below them, the masses below shooting to no avail.
Eventually, Caitlyn and Vi could reach a door whose buildings could be clearly seen as of a Piltovan design. Vi tired, her right arm weary from all the climbing, had some trouble wearing the gauntlet, which she then used to punch the elevator doors to push it out, before Vi could jump out of the shaft, into Southern Piltover, the dusk sky above them, where she took a breath of life unlike any, as if a soul had just escaped the underworld. Or rather two, as Caitlyn also jumped out after she climbed to the height Vi was and joined her 'partner' besides her, pairs of eyes locking at each other as Vi suddenly started to break in a sob, tears falling down her eyes.
Caitlyn, with the strength she still had left, headed to her partner, whom was collapsed in a cry.
"They...", Vi started, her voice nearly croaking, shaking her head as she was unable to find words. "They..."
Caitlyn couldn't tell if Vi referred to either the mob that chased the pair, or the Ironhands and the massacre they carried out, or the people whom pointed fingers at her.
And now she couldn't care less.
They were there, right there and right now. The Sheriff and the enforcer, and the enforcer did take them out alive of there, at the cost of her body and now apparently her soul.
It was only proper that the Sheriff took that to appreciation and repay.
"I know...", Caitlyn whispered, softly, as she wrapped her right arm around her, her hand touching her pink hair. "I know..."
A minute later, Caitlyn helped pick Vi back up on her feet as both started heading along the streets to the Bridge of Progress.
To Piltover. To safety and healing.
To home.
Far before the Annecy revelation that Vi indeed became an outcast of her own birth home... Only no relapse into ethanol involved.
And yes, definitely Gangs of New York was one of the inspirations for this chaos. Warwick's theme also comes to mind with the lynching mob chasing our beloved pair.
And don't give me those looks, please, we all knew we'd get to that point. Best to rip the bandage off ASAP, even more given one of Season 2's themes is indeed 'Rubicon'.