Piltover, here we come!
Ruination: Return Chapter III
Shadow Behind the Gilding Part II
The first thing Gwen sees is light: brilliant cascading light that almost blinds her until her eyes finally adjust, and she can't help but gasp in awe at the sight before her.
A gilded city of wide streets, sleek roofed buildings gleaming with patterns of copper and bronze, and dashed here and there, artifice the like of which she had never seen before.
And above it all, piercing stories into the cotton-touched blue sky, is a tower topped by a slowly shifting bronze globe, lines of deep blue light pulsing across it.
Turning, she sees the city spreading out below her, glinting canals weaving, down and down and down, amongst numerous metallic plateaus, the faintest gleam of green and pink light in the deep shadows drawing her attention.
"Wow." she breathes, lost in the moment, so taken with the majesty of the metropolis around her that she fails to acknowledge a glaring missing facet.
"Where are we?" Riven asks, "This isn't the Sentinel Base."
Ezreal steps through the portal behind them and looks around, befuddled, "I…why are we in Bluewind Court?"
"You're the Wayfinder," Olaf notes, looking about the gilded brown-stones with a disgruntled expression, "Is all of this city so…"
"Pompous?" Riven asks, looking around furtively for any sign of danger.
"Ugly." Olaf amends with a grimace.
"I'm not sure…why we are here, but I know the Sentinel B-" Ezreal begins looking down at the Wayfinder in confusion, only for Vayne to cut him off.
"Where is the Mist?" Vayne asks, stepping up beside Gwen, her eyes narrowing, hunting through the city's crevices before them for any sign of the invasive curse.
Gwen blinks in surprise, and the others turn to Ezreal, who is looking about with a confused and nervous expression.
"The Worldstone showed that the Mist was here, yet the city appears untouched," Riven notes.
"Perhaps the Bronzelings paid off the Mist." Olaf sneers, "Coin is your favored manner of problem-solving, yes?"
"It's quiet." Ezreal notes, darting up to the railing and looking down across the tiers beneath them.
"Which is not normal?" Gwen asks.
"Not at all." Ezreal returns, brow furrowing, "None of this…something is wrong, no Mist…there should be people in the streets. This city can't sit still to save its damn life. Yet…"
He glances down the road they are on, the others mimicking him. The only sound that caught their ears was the faint clang of metal, the puff of steam, and the wind.
"Nothing…but if the steam gauges are still pumping, someone is keeping an eye…trade is utterly scuttled with the Ruination, but there would still be local airships and…" Ezreal rambles.
"Once more, you are glossing over the main issue…where is the Mist?" Vayne interrupts, her keen eyes seeking signs of its intrusion, "Even in Targon, and as noted in the Serpent Isles, it was visible if held back."
"Yet I can not even see it on the horizon. Why?" she finishes, pointing towards the far horizon in both directions.
"There…" Riven begins, closing her eyes and lifting her hand, "There is something in the air?"
"Perfume, grease, acrid steam?" Olaf asks, taking a deep disgruntled breath in.
"Not the scent, a feeling…." Riven mutters, concentrating a brief rush of air flitting about her fingers, "Something…is keeping the Mist at bay."
A gentle breeze whips through all of their hair, and Gwen feels a faint tug, her eyes turning and spotting a woman dressed in white moving about the nearby pavilion.
"There is someone!" she notes, darting towards them.
"Gwen, don't-" Ezreal begins, chasing after her, the others not far behind.
She looks about the pavilion, seeing a bronze and heavily polished stone fountain, spitting water in all directions.
Yet, as she looks around, she can't spot what drew her attention in the first place.
"What is it?" Vayne demands.
"I thought-I had thought there was someone over here," she states, looking about in confusion.
"What did they look like?" Ezreal asks.
"A woman in white. I didn't get a very good look." Gwen returns, spinning about to see if she can spot her again.
"There is…something here," Riven mutters, and Vayne nods, both appearing to pick up on some form of presence, "Like a whisper on the wind."
Olaf grunts and draws one of his axes, "Then it should make itself known."
There is a fluttering sound, and Vayne whirls the quickest, wrist-crossbow coming up in a flash.
And staring down the tip of her arrow is a haggard blue bird, missing a few feathers.
Olaf chuckles and holsters his ax.
"Oh, hello, little one." Gwen states, as the bird twitters away, turning its head to take in all of them, "Are you hurt?"
"Stay back. It could be…a trick of some kind," Vayne warns as Gwen goes to step towards it.
"Truly a fearsome beast Viego has sent against us then." Olaf snarks, Vayne shooting him a scathing look.
"Demons take many forms, as you know." Vayne reminds, "Ravens, serpents, cats, our list of enemies has not gotten shorter in the Ruined King's time away."
Olaf nods in acknowledgment, "Then shoot it and be done."
Gwen swats his arm as she walks around Vayne, "Do not!
"I doubt it is a demon, Shauna," Riven remarks, ignoring the bristling expression the other woman sends her way at the mention of her first name, looking to Ezreal, "Are these birds common here?"
"It's probably just someone's pet that escaped," Ezreal mutters.
"If that is the case, then maybe the little one can lead us to someone who knows what has actually happened here," Gwen remarks, leaning down and allowing the tiniest bit of Hallowed Mist to pour from her fingers and into the bluebird.
The bird's eyes gleam with renewed energy, letting out a trill of joy before spiraling into the sky and disappearing amongst the rooftops.
"Or not," Vayne mutters, "Ezreal, where are we going?"
"Well…that all depends on where Isolde's item might be, Gwen?" he asks.
She nods, still kneeling, and closes her eyes, reaching out as she had learned from Senna.
There a spark in the darkness reaching out to her, and it was moving at an expedient pace.
"She is below us." Gwen states, looking up at them, "And something has her."
"The Undercity…" Ezreal mutters, looking up at the massive tower in the distance.
"We're in the Bluewind…and the Hexgate is North, so…closest Conveyor is south of us, through the Academy Grounds, which is where we should have teleported to; by the way, the Sentinel base is on the Campus." Ezreal notes, "Should we swing by to see if we can figure out what is happening around here?"
"Yes, but quickly. If the fetter is mobile, that likely means someone has beat us here," Vayne notes.
Gwen wrings her hands together nervously, "Yes, quickly!"
"Let us hope whomever it is. They give us a fight, unlike the cowardly flight that has stayed abreast of us the past months." Olaf growls.
"After you, Ezreal," Riven remarks.
"Right, stick close! The Academy isn't far," he states, tearing off into the winding alleyways, his compatriots a step behind.
Yet, unnoticed by even Vayne's keen senses, a silent observer had watched their entrance and confusion.
Which meant his mechanism had worked.
No one entered the city without his allowance.
None would leave.
He'd make doubly sure of that.
"Damn!" Ryze shouts, dodging another hail of gunfire, as once more, his attempts to teleport out of the city are scattered by some flare of oppositional magic.
"Trying to run out on me again?" his young companion snarks, bleeding from several scratches and clutching his shoulder where one of their attacker's bullets had struck home.
"Cleary not." Ryze snaps back, blue fire igniting his fist and sending the snarling ball of energy racing back toward their attacker, "And as I have stated before, I can ferry many people with me!"
"Yeah, yeah, we just need to get to the door, and we're home free," he remarks, pointing down an alleyway to their left.
"I have just met you, but I feel part of the reason I am in this mess is your fault." Ryze blusters.
"I tried to get info to people that could help us. You were the one who stole the glowing parasol." the young man snarks.
The hail of bullets halts, and the pair peek from cover.
Their attacker stood, pale form seeping the Black Mist like a waterfall, and from it, other specters moved and formed.
One thin, raggedy, whispering snide comments into their attacker's ear.
Another, wide goggles covering his eyes, a thick pipe clutched in spectral hands.
Two looming shadows, one a man and the other a young woman, appear and fade into the Mist repeatedly.
And another, resting a hand on her shoulder, one gleaming orange eye burning from with the black and greens of the mist.
The girl clutched a rotating gun in her hands, and as she looked around for them, she laid it down gently and unslung the large piscean-shaped cannon from her back.
"Ekko…I know you're there, just come out, I promise…I promise I'll stop. We can be a family again. You can see Benzo again! He promised. He promised to fix it all."
Ekko grimaces, drawing a small disk from his back, and looks up to Ryze, "When I throw this, you run."
Ryze looks down at the young man, seeing a stony determination in his eyes, "I am not letting you-"
"I'll be right behind you, old man." Ekko snaps, cutting him off.
"I'd love to have my Uncle back, Powder," Ekko calls out, "But…."
He twists the knob on the disk and darts out, chucking it directly at her.
"His time came up a long time ago." Ekko spits bitterly.
Powder is struck by the object, a snarl of fury on her face, the trigger of her cannon pressing down, and then she freezes, trapped in time.
"Go!" Ekko roars, and the pair are off, racing toward a narrow alleyway, and behind them, there is an explosion and a feral scream of grief and rage.
"Keep moving," Ekko states.
"I do not need your continued encouragement." Ryze remarks.
"Ekko!" Powder screams, and Ryze turns, spotting the crazed girl at the end of the alleyway, rocket launcher poised to take them both out.
He pushes Ekko behind him and casts a hand out, snaring his explosive mid-air.
"The door!" Ekko cries, pointing towards a vault door gleaming with radiant light.
Ryze tosses him the parasol as he catches another rocket, and another, concentrating on keeping them frozen in place but knowing that they will erupt in moments.
"Keep that safe!" Ryze demands.
Ekko races for the door, and Ryze turns to see a fourth rocket racing towards the other and prepares for what is undoubtedly about to be a massive amount of pain.
To think he had fought would-be gods, only to die to a crazed girl with a gun.
Then he feels himself be suddenly tugged backward, and the alleyway erupts in a cascade of devastation before him.
He hits soft ground and watches the door slam shut behind him, the mad screams of Powder ringing in his ears.
Standing above him are several…teenagers and a massive bronze automaton, which gives him a happy wave.
"Good catch Blitz," Ekko states, helping Ryze to his feet, the latter looking around in baffled confusion as a great tree emerges from the fertile ground in the middle of Zaun. A dome of golden light rested above its highest branches, emanating from a curiously hybridized bit of tech at the base. It showed a fusion of Piltoven, Sentinel, and an oddly sleek Zaunite design.
"Whose this?" a girl asks, with vibrant green hair, dressed in an oversized jacket and brown pants in the Zaunite fashion.
"Someone who needed me to rescue his ass." Ekko smirks, handing over the parasol, "Guessing you want this back?"
"Yes." Ryze remarks, snatching the parasol away and looking around. His confusion deepens as he looks around and sees only…children.
"You're…kids," he mutters.
"Well, not all of us," Ekko notes, nodding up the tree.
Standing on a platform, two figures look down at him, one a Yordle, dressed in the colors of the Academy, their golden fur expanding into a full-blown mane atop their head, and a tall masked woman with grey running through her black hair, she was dressed in a white suit. Her one arm was a sleek, white-and-pink, almost organic-looking chem tech prosthetic.
"Ryze?" the Yordle remarks in surprise, recognition gleaming in his wide blue eyes.
"Hello, Professor." Ryze acknowledges, with a nod of his head, "Been a while."
"Centuries even," Heimerdinger notes, "What are you doing here?"
"That is a long story." Ryze remarks.
"Well, I'm sure we have time to hear it," the woman notes.
"And you are?" Ryze asks, noticing some of the kids bristling at her presence.
"Renata Glasc, perhaps the oddest bedfellow of this bunch until your arrival." the woman notes, her voice filled with barely withheld disdain.
"But speaking of arrivals," she notes, tossing a glinting sigil down to Ekko, "A little birdy told me you got your wish."
Ryze looks over as Ekko unfurls his hand, the symbol of the Sentinels resting in his palm.
"They came?!" he asks, a look of excitement crossing his face, "They're going to help us."
"Seems like you're little stunt got their attention." Glasc notes, "But I wouldn't get your hopes up."
"What few eyes I have left across the city, it seems they're heading for the Academy," Heimerdinger notes, swallowing heavily.
Ekko blanches slightly, but that quickly fades as he looks around at the assembled group, "Right, looks like we're going topside, Firelights!"
"Not until you get that shoulder looked at, young man." Heimerdinger admonishes, disappearing into the tree, Glasc chuckling as she follows.
Ryze looks around, seeing nervousness passing throughout the group, and turns to Ekko, "What is in the Academy?"
Ekko shares a glance with the automaton, "It's a long story, but maybe I'll tell you if you tell us why you nearly got your head shot off for a parasol?"
Ryze sighs and sits down, "If I say no, what happens?"
"Nothing," Ekko shrugs, "But we did just save your life."
Ryze grimaces. He was weak, most of his magic drained, the wounds from Viego's blade taking much of his remaining arcana to soothe and attempt to heal. He hated feeling weak, feeling powerless. Yet, here he was, not even a quarter of the man he could be, being snarked at by a random Zuanite teenager, who seemed to think risking his life for strangers was the thing to do.
"Fine." Ryze snaps, "If it stops you from running off before getting patched up."
And so ends chapter 3.
Lot of cameos, some easily recognizable, others not so much. Can you spot them all?
Next Time, the Gilding Gets Pulled back. For in a city of steel and steam, where best would the Mist Lurk? Attempted to fuse Canon Piltover/Zaun with Arcane P/Z, hope it works well enough.
As always, comments, questions, and critiques are appreciated. This has been VerBeeker, signing off!