CAITLYN
The minutes, the following hour passed by like eternities all over again, she sitting on the floor, her back to the wall in that now deserted evidence lockup, glancing at the recently made rift, literal and figuratively, the one she trusted the most had done all over again.
All over again, she left.
All over again, she did something unthinkable.
All over again, causing such a chaos.
And all at the worst possible time.
All over again the supposed day had risen only for the day would turn into *such* a nightmare.
Just like that night. That night that broke her hall of mirrors, the crystal palace her life was and the she yearned so much to leave.
She now could only wonder... was *that* what her mother was protecting her from, all this time? To assign her to guard tents, desk jobs, pulling strings to make sure she'd be as far from the heat as possible? Not from the violence of the kind Jinx had recently introduced her... but to the heartbreaks and letdowns?
The feeling that, despite her once friendships with Jayce, Viktor and even Vi... she was ultimately alone?
Her mind could barely think anything at the moment. No one had returned to the lockup except Gilhil, whom simply asked if she was going to 'pull it together' and to make it quick. Clearly everyone else was now hot on their heels looking for Vi or moving up to clear up after her.
All those warnings for nothing...
All that running, jumping on rooftops, for nothing.
All for nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.
The door then opened, but Caitlyn didn't bother to turn her head, let alone her eyes. Her ears did identify the visitor, though, by the subtle sound of metal clicking the floor, which walked towards and then stopped near the downed enforcer.
But there was no dialogue. Not a word. Just the silence.
Suddenly, something had dropped on it's 'feet' at the floor and collapsed down into it.
A rifle. Her rifle, with the heraldry of House Kiramman at the magazine. Something that made Caitlyn look at it for a moment.
"Perhaps I need not ask where she is.", Camille said, a second later. "Perhaps we both know where she went and why she did all this..."
"Do we, now?", Caitlyn asked, a couple of seconds later, the hurt on her voice making it clear. Still, she knew that that hag was right, much as she wanted to deny it.
Nothing would *ever* make Vi do something as brazen and foolish.
Nothing but one thing.
But Caitlyn was still in denial and she knew it.
"Speak for thyself, Miss Kiramman.", Camille said. "And despite the past inconveniences, you would still have too little utility within a cell, especially now..."
"You really expect to goad me in chasing her, Ferros, despite all *you've* done?", Caitlyn asked, shaking her head slowly.
"I've little need.", Camille shrugged, a second later. "You would soon enough, either way. And not for me, or her, or the Enforcers or even Piltover. For yourself. It's in your blood, just as much as it is in your... quarry.", she noticed Caitlyn finally staring at the rather towering figure of the Steel Shadow. "In fact, you might just be as *possessive* as she is, regarding our common Trencher."
"You're choosing your words dangerously poorly...", Caitlyn stated, in a threatening tone.
"Am I?", Camille asked. "Or are these rather the right words you resist to assimilate?", she then saw the enforcer lower her head. "You are not the first to be cursed with naivety, cursed with a... sense of misplacement. To the point you'd go such lengths for something, or rather someone, deny it all you wish. Because *she* became your world."
Silence filled the room for a couple of seconds.
"She had the gall and the will to cross.", Camille continued. "I don't even dare ask if you would do the same. You've already answered yourself, it's boiling within you. The only doubt here is if you would do so with others behind you, watching your back... or hot on your trail."
Caitlyn then stared back at Camille.
"Your choice is upon you.", Camille said. "And if it is any worth, some experience for you - Pride is the worst of decision makers."
The Gray Lady then turned around to leave the room, and Caitlyn alone again as that one then fixed her eyes at the rifle.
Almost a copy of that one she bartered for a potion, to heal Vi when she needed the most. Now a painful memento.
A reminder of how it was, how it all started.
Her body was shaking to it, and not to a biological condition or fear. It was something else, and Caitlyn knew it quite well. Especially due to the reasoning why that happened.
Why all that happened, and why it'd still all happen.
And Camille, as despicable as she was, was still right.
Caitlyn already had answered herself.
VI
It took her only ten minutes to find an entry and descend to down below, at her once home. At first she was surprised most of the largest buildings of the Undercity had made past the earthquake, in direct contrast to the topside, ravaged by the disaster. Clearly the experiences with other earthquakes, caused by opening new mining sites with explosives, made the builders ensure the buildings could shrug the effects off.
That did little to stir up hopes for her over the rest of the hour, as she was now wandering the nearly empty streets, now riddled with broken windows, busted open doors and blood spread out, signs of clear bodies dragged across a street that not days ago she ran from the teeming population, now absent, along with Caitlyn for their lives.
A sign that did remind her of that fateful night, when she tried to turn herself in and blood was spilled before her eyes. That harrowed her years ago and it looked like it was making a full comeback, all over again. Except now it was clearly across the whole city, everyone was now being targeted. Not just Vander, that night.
Now it fell to the brawler to find her sister, even more now that she had to break laws, break vehicles, break out of the Central Precinct and especially break Caitlyn's heart for it. Vi knew better however, she still remembered that talk in that cell, which recalled the aftermath of the party. Caitlyn would want to go along and wouldn't hold herself this time, even more now with everything at this state. Or she'd hold Vi in hopes of getting the information to maybe Jayce, that they'd be able to move in with back up.
Vi knew neither would end up well. More likely they'd be forming up, upstairs, to go after her right now, but at least it'd take the while she needed to get to Jinx and get her out of sight and circulation in any way, even more if they already found out what really happened, according to that guard. Unlikely, true, given it was just the guard screaming, but still...
Vi wasn't pretty much a detective like Caitlyn was, much like when she tried finding her sister, when she returned years ago. But the one thing she knew, aside from throwing punches, was knowing exactly *which* people to go after, and right now she was trying to find some more of the so-called fanatics for a talk. Any of them would have to know where the so-called 'Urgot' was, and possibly find Jinx from there.
Of course, it wasn't easy, as the area where Vi landed was empty and trying to ask directions was pointless, as some innocent people she indeed found hiding told her to hide as well. Others told something else was also out there, killing so much the fanatics as other people, and Vi could very well guess what it was.
As she entered a street, Vi finally took notice of an armed group walking at the middle of the road, mostly wearing overalls and nothing else, and about as thinner than any of Silco's henchmen she faced before. Only one or two had firearms of sorts, per say, but nothing she had faced before. Plus she had the gauntlets now to ease up her work.
The eventual fight was a matter of minutes, as Vi charged in hard and fast, shrugging off the shots of the gunmen with her shielding and putting those out of business first before she then handled the rest. They had a fighting spirit if anything, but too little technique and relied clearly on their melee weapons and numbers rather than having confidence on a fist-to-fist brawl. Nothing she'd didn't ever see from any of Silco's former henchmen, except arguably Sevika.
As they were rapidly dispatched, including one with a hand smashed and another thrown to the wall with such a violence with formed a crack, Vi took the last one left, still breathing and awakened. She pushed him to the wall and held him there with the left gauntlet as as she raised the right one.
"Alright, buster.", Vi started, as subtle as a rolling stone boulder. "Jinx. Where is she?"
"Whom?", the last ganger asked.
Vi immediately punched the wall too close to the ganger's head, which distracted him for Vi to quickly kneel his diaphragm and push him back to the wall again.
"Don't bullshit me!", Vi raised her tone. "You're one of Urgot's henchmen, aren't you?"
"Henchmen?", the ganger asked. "We're no booticks of the mighty-"
"That doesn't look like the right answer!", Vi backslapped the 'henchman' that sorely felt the impact of an iron glove ten times the size of a normal hand.
"We all follow the Dreadnought, this makes us no servants of him!", the henchman replied, in pain.
"Doesn't look like it on *my* book.", Vi glanced at the henchman. "And I know she's working for him and you know what she looks like. Now spill it!"
"You mean the releaser.", the follower answered. "She did only this, and then she departed."
"Departed?", Vi asked.
"She's with us no more.", the follower answered, only for Vi's right gauntlet to press him harder against the wall.
"I thought I told you to not bullshit me!", Vi exclaimed.
"She left us after the tremors, even the Mighty One would wonder where.", the follower spoke amongst the pain. "It's clear she appears when it suits her, much as our-"
A small punch, apparently a light one, was enough to knock the follower unconscious as Vi released him, taking breaths from all that.
"Shit... shit!", she cursed repeatedly. It was like nothing came out of it, yet she couldn't tell if that one was full of crap.
Powder surely wasn't one to do that, she usually stuck close to those she worked with, she did that with Silco. Perhaps she knew something was off and bolting off was the wise choice, especially after the earthquake, or she grew wise to not stick to anyone. Neither of those were good.
Or maybe this Urgot would know where she went, if she ever told him, but it wasn't like he'd go anywhere, and Vi knew her timetable was too tight to try pummeling through every last one of his servants...
Her mind went to working, trying to think on something as she walked from a point to another. As in, where would Jinx go, if things were that dicey, and she'd be able to wait until it all blew over. Or what she'd do as a substitute to avoid blowing things up or shooting...
"Where would you go, where would you go...", she ruminated. "No, not the bar, doubt that Sevika'd be keeping you..."
But Vi's mind couldn't just come up with anything, and that frustrated her.
And that made her roar and kick away a nearby trash can that hit a nearby sign, which fell off to the ground, and bounced off to the street. Vi approached to take a closer look at what exactly she damaged, knowing she might have to make up for that outburst later.
It kind of belonged to a tatoo parlor named 'INNOCENCE' with a butterfly atop it. Almost similar to the ones Jinx used to explode all of Marcus' blockade, almost taking her and Caitlyn along, too. As Vi looked away for a second, she then looked back, something having dawned in her, from that memento.
An idea.
"Explosion.", she whispered to herself, as she then set to running off across the street, trying to formulate how to do that.
She knew it had to be an area with no people, obviously. But also the explosion had to be big and loud, enough for even *her* to notice and be drawn by it. She had no trouble finding a runout building, an abandoned tenement, and then set to finding something to cause a real blast. She eventually found a deserted automobile, with maybe enough Chemtech to cause an ignition, and dragged it back with the gauntlets pushing it like a wheelcart to the building, but wouldn't still be enough, not for what Vi intended.
As she kept looking around, she went into a cleaning products stall just broken into and started looking around the place, especially for products that could the flammable, which weren't taken by any looters. After she grabbed a nearby trash can and emptied it, she got about everything that was there, including kerosene oil, alcohol, lighter fluids...
"What a first day, Violet...", Vi said to herself, venting off. "Furry man gets you off bars, cleans your slate, and the *very first day* you knock some beat guys out. Then you break in and break out of your *supposed* workplace. Then a chase across the streets topside and an outta-your-mind river crossing. And now you're gonna blow something up, all before lunch hour! You've any plans for tonight yet?"
As Vi returned with the filled up, hazardous trash can to the abandoned building, she then set to finding something else to add to the explosion, passing close to the cleaning products stall again. She noticed some sort of drums close to some corpses of what looked like henchmen, by the entrance to some place. As she approached them, she noticed some sick purple color coming from some of them.
"Shimmer.", she concluded. No doubt they died protecting the cargo no one would pick up soon. But Vi did consider for a second if it'd be worth taking it or not, and so decided that she's take them to the building. If anything, they might add or not to the boom and also be rid of something as vile off the streets.
"Screw it, for once you'll be useful.", she said, carrying one of the drums to the site. "Shit, you already are, when you're burning..."
As Vi had to take at least three turns back and forth to carry the drums, she then put them at the building, before she then reached for the trashcan and picked up a vial of kerosene oil and opened it, starting to make a trail around and over the Shimmer drums and the trashcan and even the automobile. She then also picked a flask of alcohol and opened it up too, making a trail that extended to outside the building in an arguably safe distance for her to light it up and then run to cover.
With most things set, she hoped, as she wasn't as a prodigy to that as her sister was, Vi then released one of the gauntlets and went to pick up the sidearm she got from one of the dead Shimmer henchmen. It was a simple pointing and shooting at the trail. Vi did so with her right arm, pulling the trigger several times before flames rapidly arose and picked up growing across the trail. Vi threw the sidearm away and wore up the gauntlet she dropped, backing away, as the front of the abandoned building started to lighten up.
It didn't take long before a large orange and neon purple fireball suddenly erupted and rapidly grew up at the building starting to reach to the sky and even in front, almost extending to the side buildings, letting out a loud explosion that definitely all of the Lanes and what's left of southside's topside would definitely hear.
So big the flames even went right towards Vi too quickly.
"SHIT!", she roared triggering the gauntlet's shielding a bit too late as the shielding took the brunt of the flames and shockwave, but some went past it before it formed and flew Vi backwards as she hit a nearby wall and collapsed to the floor.
Nearby, as she was just screwing up Silco's right arm, Jinx was caught off-guard by the sudden flash and thunderous noise and rumble that shook the alleyway, that she readily jumped to her feet dropping the mannequin down and holstering Pow-Pow to aim, the rotary cannon's barrels spinning, eager to fire.
But nothing came up her way as she then heard the familiar sounds of a structural collapse.
Which meant someone had the time of their life with that blast.
"What the heck...", Jinx asked.
'What do you think?', the Mylo asked. 'Your stomach of course!'
"Shut up!", Jinx retorted.
'Who did that?', the Cleggor asked.
'It's not your business.', the Vander interjected, prompting Jinx to brush him off, as she stared at the end of the alley, without even moving.
'It wasn't clearly just an everyday explosion.', the Silco said. 'And there's the furry enthusiast you took in.'
"What?", Jinx asked, shaking her head. "No, no, he said he'd stay! He told me!"
'He told you, but why he'd obey you?', the Mylo asked, as Jinx groaned. 'Why would anyone, you're a jinx!'
"Shut up!", Jinx shouted again, as she groaned and picked up the Silco mannequin wrapping it's left arm around her shoulder in preparation to walk.
"Ziggy, Zigger, you better not be!", she started walking, a bit tense.
At the office in the Last Drop, Chross had already long departed, but the story remained with Sevika and she was indeed considering her next move concerning it, and indeed the best one was still to stick to the original plan and hunker down.
Allying with the other Chem-barons now, even if for emergency's sake, was too risky for her position, and they'd likely sell her out to either Urgot or the topsiders down the line. An advance was out of the question too, as she didn't need Urgot focused on her, it was better he focused on the bigger fish out there, especially if the Enforcers moved in.
Now THAT would buy her time for the next move.
As she received in the henchmen back, one with the reports some more did manage to survive and return, she was suddenly cut by the subtle flash, the deafening sound slightly muffled by the window and the rumble, which also had her get up from the chair and head to the window, except there was no sign of devastation - any new one, that was - this time.
"What the hell?", one of the henchman asked.
"What do you think!?", another one asked, angry. "It's her again!"
"That shortly after the quake?", Sevika asked, turning around, knowing Jinx would be chased the moment folks found out she did it... "For all her unhinged state, she also knows well to sit it out and let it all settle down..."
"What then, a copycat outta a sudden, boss?", the second henchman asked. "Who'd be *that* stupid to want and emulate her?"
"How nice you volunteered to find out.", Sevika answered, in sarcasm.
At the hideout, Ziggs was now slightly at home with the ambience around him, including some of the schematics lying around, especially an apparent mechanical insect, just too pretty to be of her own design.
More likely she just took it to try and build it herself, for something pretty for once...
Other than that, he was quite impressed at the mechanical level of one of the 'Chompers' he removed the cover, in it's both chemical components and wiring system, clearly gifted for a young girl her age, almost as if she had been doing it since childhood.. In fact, a lot of the things *did* seem childish, including that rocket launcher, shaped like a sea monster...
Suddenly he heard a loud sound, almost thunder like and a soft rumble of the cave that Ziggs could sense. He tried looking up, but the fissure ceiling was too shut to see any skies above.
Unless, of course, that couldn't have been rain, but instead...
"Did she just blow up something?", he asked himself, before he then shook his head. "No, she wouldn't, not without me present..."
Doubt gripped Ziggs for a moment, before he then made his choice.
"I better check it out...", Ziggs mumbled, stepping off the workbench's stool. "At least make sure she's alright. And anyone else, if that *was* a boom..."
She was past halfway the Bridge, an entire contingent of enforcers around her moving past and pushing away the attempting bystanders, when she and everyone else heard the loud blasting noise and the eventual fiery orange and even purple-ish plume that flew up afterwards, extending all the way up to the blue skies lording Piltover.
Triggered by the instinct, Caitlyn didn't think twice in pushing past the enforcers and running forward.
She wouldn't stop for anyone, not even Camille, whom simply watched her run forward, with a smirk forming up.
Her mind was now focused on one thing alone.
The same feeling she had on that fateful night.
Except that, this time, she would not hesitate.
Miss even less.